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”

Employee engagement is certainly a hot-button issue these days, and with good reason. With businesses struggling to gain a stronger foothold on an increasingly global market, companies are starting to look beyond their current practises in order to find that magic bullet which will give them a competitive edge.

However, some leaders still resist the idea that we need to foster a sense of engagement in the workforce as a possible means of gaining traction in their market, mainly because they don’t see this as something businesses need to focus on. After all, shouldn’t we expect employees to do the job we’re paying them to do? On the surface, it certainly sounds like a fair and reasonable statement. So why, then, do we need to concern ourselves with engaging our employees? Well, it all comes down to whether we want a group of subordinates as opposed to a team of partners.

It’s a common reality of the business world for companies to Click here to continue reading »”Why Employers Need To Engage With A Purpose”

(photo courtesy of NASA)

Earlier this month, NASA released this breath-taking image seen above which reveals 12 billion years of cosmic history. What makes it visually stunning is the fact that those bright spots are not stars, but thousands of galaxies in various stages of growth and development (click here to see a HD version of this picture, courtesy of NASA).

For those of you who might not be familiar with astronomy, it might sound weird that this one photograph could show 12 billion years of our universe’s history. That is, until we figure in just how big the universe is. To understand this better, let’s first consider the fact that light travels at a constant speed of 300,000 km/sec – it can’t speed up or conversely, slow down. As such, the bigger the distance between a light source – like a star or galaxy – and Earth, the longer it will take the light from that source to reach our planet.

In the case of this photograph, the light from the galaxies that we see in the foreground actually left that galaxy about 1 billion years ago, while those reddish glows fading into the background represents light that was emitted by distant galaxies almost 12 billion years ago and which only now has reached our part of the universe.

With its references to time spans in the billions of years and distances that go from millions of kilometers out to infinity, astronomy can certainly challenge Click here to continue reading »”Finding Some Perspective in The Cosmos”

With the holiday celebrations now at an end, many of us are returning to our usual daily grind – refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to dive into the tasks at hand.  On the heels of celebrating the start of both a new year and decade, most of us have also been making plans or resolutions for what we’d like to accomplish over the next 365 days, and possibly beyond.

It’s only natural that we’d be motivated right now to create these lists of goals, as the start of a new year often inspires that feeling of a new start; of turning to a fresh page that’s filled with the promise of new opportunities and possibilities for our future.  Indeed, this sentiment is quite beneficial as it encourages us to take time for some personal self-reflection, of creating these aspirations of what we’d like to change in ourselves or what areas we’d like to further grow in.  The only point we need to remember though, is to include in this exercise the process of reviewing the events of the previous year, of taking note of what we endured, learned and gained from those past experiences so that we have a solid foundation on which to build upon as we move forward.

Of course, in developing these lists of goals, we should also consider Click here to continue reading »”How to Make Your Resolutions Have A Bigger Impact”

As the end of another year slowly approaches, there is once again that discernible feeling of eager anticipation for what the upcoming year will bring. In many ways, this is quite natural and expected since, like a present wrapped in shiny paper, the new year entices us with the promise of better times and exciting possibilities. With everyone around us spreading good wishes for a prosperous new year, it’s hard not to feel buoyant that this change in the annual calendar won’t also help mark the transition to a new and bright chapter in our lives.

But while it’s natural to look forward to the possibilities a new year can bring, it’s also important that we not lose sight of the lessons learned over the course of the previous one. Whether it’s failures or accomplishments, both experiences are valuable tools that we shouldn’t overlook as we move forward into a new year.

So, how can we make each successive year better than the one before? As is the case in most aspects of life, it comes down to what questions we choose to ask ourselves. In this case, instead of simply asking Click here to continue reading »”Looking Ahead by Looking Back”