As with most kids on summer break, my girls have been spending part of their days taking swimming lessons to help advance their skills in this particular sport. While attending one of their lessons, I noticed something that was reminiscent of what many companies go through when managing the growth of their organization.

For one of their lessons, my daughter’s swim teacher asked the students in her class to swim the length of the pool and then toss a ball into the basketball net. One by one, the kids took their turn swimming across the pool and attempting to varying degrees of success in getting the ball into the net.

When it was my daughter’s turn, she swam toward the basketball net and stopped to one side to take her shot. On her first try, she bounced the ball off the rim of the net. In her next shot, she tried to throw the ball with more force, which ended up sending the ball past the net and over to the other side. Although she tried and missed another two times to get that ball into the net, she never once showed any sign of wavering in trying to succeed, even though she was clearly having no luck with this exercise.

After her class, I applauded her for being so determined to get that ball in the net, but I also had a question for her – why didn’t she just swim to the front of the net where she could have had an easier time shooting the ball? As soon as I asked her this, she gave me this sheepish smile, now realizing how she had made the task harder for herself simply because of where she chose to take the shot.

Watching her single-minded focus in performing this task reminded me of how many organizations and their leaders can also Click here to continue reading »”Learning From Your Mistakes – 4 Steps To Turn Failure Into Success”

Have you ever found yourself questioning whether the time had come to leave your current job and look for work elsewhere? It’s a common predicament most of us have encountered at one point or another in our careers, of coming across that fork in the road where we have to decide whether to stay the course or go down that less familiar, more uncertain path.

It’s a question that my friend Mark is currently dealing with, a situation I discussed in my previous piece “The Challenge We Face In Moving On”. Although Mark loves the work he’s doing, he’s having to deal with an upper management that has become more and more critical, if not downright dismissive, about his team’s contributions to their organization. What’s more, he’s also facing the reality of upcoming changes his company is planning to implement which will dramatically alter the focus of the business.

While he has considered the option of starting to look for work elsewhere, he obviously doesn’t want to jeopardize his ability to meet his financial obligations – mortgage payments, paying for his kids’ extracurricular activities, etc – not to mention the fact that it’s a tough market these days to be out looking for a job.

In talking with Mark about his situation, I asked him the following four questions to help him better understand his current situation and gain a firmer foothold to figure out whether it’s really time to move on. Click here to continue reading »”4 Questions To Help You Figure Out If It’s Time To Move On”

Photo courtesy of jm3

A few days ago, I had an interesting talk with my friend Mark who is currently wondering if the changing atmosphere in his workplace is a sign that it’s time for him to leave the company. As we delved into some of the reasons why he was still interested in staying with the organization, it reminded me of a similar situation I dealt with a few months ago and in particular, how our attachment to our past contributions or efforts can impact our desire or willingness to seek new opportunities.

For myself, the issue arose when I began to take stock of my participation in one of the many project teams I was involved with. Following certain decisions that changed the direction the team was headed toward, I realized that not only would there be less for me to contribute to the project, but the personal goals that were the reason why I joined the team four years ago were no longer attainable. On paper, it looked to be an open-and-shut case as to what I should do next. And yet, as my friend Mark is experiencing right now, life is rarely that simple.

In my case, while I knew there was not much of a benefit for both the team and myself in maintaining the relationship, I also knew that I had invested four years of my time, effort and resources into the project. As such, if I were to walk away, I would basically be giving all of that up without having attained the goals I had set out to reach as a member of that team. While dealing with any kind of change in our lives can be a challenge, it’s even more daunting when Click here to continue reading »”The Challenge We Face In Moving On”

Passion.

It’s something that you hear a lot about these days as one of the keys to success, if not personal fulfilment. Many articles have been written lately on how to harness or foster that passion, including my own piece on how our passions spring forth from our inner strengths. Where we run into problems, though, is when we create this expectation that passion can sustain our drive over the long run. To illustrate what I mean by this, let me share with you how I view my role in parenting.

When I talk to others about my life as a parent, it’s clear that this is a role I love doing. And yet, I doubt anyone would say that this is something that I’m passionate about. As I’m sure other parents can relate to, there are days where I would love to have a moment’s peace; a break from trying to figure out who did what to who and why. But even in those moments, I still enjoy being a parent because I love it.

And while it’s easy to assume that this love of parenting is merely an extension of my love for my children, the truth is the reason why I love this role – a job that for many of us will be the hardest one we take on in our lives – is because of the sense of purpose it gives to my life. That’s why even in those moments where being a parent presents those personal challenges, my drive to succeed in being a good parent never wavers because I value the purpose it brings to my life.

And that’s what we need to understand about our business and the work we do; that if we think the key to being happy with our jobs, with our work is Click here to continue reading »”How to Transform Passion into Purpose”

Like most people, I’ve been enjoying watching the latest edition of the Winter Olympics (hard not to when it’s your own country that’s serving as the host nation). While it’s certainly fun to watch the competition among the world’s best athletes, there’s also some interesting insights to be gleaned about human drives; insights which can be applied to both leadership and business practices. One such example came from watching the snowboard cross qualification runs at Cypress Mountain in Whistler, BC.

As with other skiing events, the goal in the snowboard cross qualification is to get through the course as fast as you can, navigating through the various jumps and turns that stand between the snowboarder and the finish line. Unfortunately for some skiers, this would prove to be easier said than done as they’d find themselves crashing down after some of those jumps and with it, dashing any hopes they might have had to move to the finals.

Some of these athletes dealt with this outcome by taking off their snowboard and walking off the course, seeing how they now had no chance of reaching their target. But other skiers in this same situation chose instead to Click here to continue reading »”Why Leaders Need to Finish the Race”