Opportunity.

It’s one of a handful of words which on its own can inspire hope and the sense that we might be one step closer to reaching those personal goals we set out for ourselves.

Opportunities also serve as the driving force that pushes organizations into pursuing new territory, in the hopes of discovering potential new markets for their products/services to boost stagnant or declining revenue shares.

It’s no doubt the reason why we find it so hard to say “No” to new opportunities because of the inherent belief that any opportunity which crosses our path is an open door leading us one step closer to our objectives.

Although we spend so much time talking about seeking opportunities, we rarely consider the importance or value of the quality of the opportunities we’re offered. That’s why most of us approach opportunities from the vantage point of “if we don’t accept it or if we pass this up, what will we lose?”

Perhaps a better question we should ask ourselves when such opportunities arise is Click here to continue reading »”Do You Have A Healthy Relationship With Opportunity?”

Recently, I read a wonderful post by fellow leadership blogger Gwyn Teatro where she wrote about what Jazz can teach leaders about the value of improvisation in their organizations. Being a big fan of this musical genre (one of my daughters’ drawings found on my site is of the blue cat mascot from our city’s famous Jazz festival), her piece really resonated with me and it also got me thinking about some of the other lessons that Jazz offers to the field of leadership.

Granted, for some Jazz can sound like a mass of contradictions, especially in those sections where the various musicians play their own variations/motifs. And yet, if we focus less on the separate elements and instead listen to the piece as a whole, there’s a definite connectedness that can be heard despite these individual expressions.

I think this is where the Jazz analogy plays well in terms of today’s business world. For the last few decades, we’ve been used to the classical orchestra model of leadership – with a single conductor at the helm directing all the players to create and repeat the same message over and over. However, what many businesses are beginning to discover now is that it’s no longer feasible or desirable to maintain such rigidity of structure; that what’s needed instead is a greater fluidity and movement where the message can change and ebb and flow.

With this in mind, here are three lessons Jazz offers on how to keep your leadership in step with today’s ever-changing world: Click here to continue reading »”3 Steps To Help Get Your Leadership Groove On”

Over the last two months, my oldest daughter and I have been visiting some of the nearby high schools during their open house events. Although she won’t be going to high school next September, my wife and I felt it would be helpful for her to get a better understanding of what high school is like, in preparation for that inevitable transition. I’ve had many parents caution me about how dramatically things will change when our kids start going to high school; of how they’ll no longer be those carefree little kids we fondly remember from those early years of being a parent.

As I’ve never given this much thought, I was curious about how I’d react to seeing my daughter walking around those hallways and classrooms, knowing that she’d be doing that again in just a few years as a student at this school. Despite all the warnings from other parents, I didn’t feel apprehension or wariness as we toured the various high schools in our area.  Instead, I found Click here to continue reading »”Helping Others Embrace Change”