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CS Lewis once wrote: “How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been; how gloriously different are the saints.” That really stuck with me.  And prompted me to consider all of the leaders in my life, including myself as a leader within, and to take inventory on how many were tyrants and how many saints. Think about your inventory of leaders for a moment.  What makes them a tyrant or a saint for you?  And who came to mind first: a tyrant or a saint? The impact leaders make, whether great or terrible, changes our lives daily.  With…

I live in Florida – home of the door-to-door sales professional.  On any given day, the probability of a knock (I am doorbell-less) followed by a variety of tricks to get me to open the door to sell me most things I already have, is just about 100%. My fave is to sell me solar technology when I have it already, clearly installed. It’s on the roof for God’s sake! Chris Pratt, the quintessential everyman Hollywood superhero recently mentioned in an interview that he was a door-to-door salesperson.  “I was selling coupons for things like oil changes or trips to…

“Wow, you got an ‘A’ on that test!” “What a game! You scored an amazing goal!” “That’s your best performance; everyone stood up and clapped for you!” Now what? I come to this subject via a recently – and much appreciated – shared podcast that talked about many rich things, among them the gap, i.e. the missed opportunity, between being strictly results oriented and acknowledging the means and practices that it took  to achieve those results. This is not to say that I’m not results oriented, and that it’s OK to give out participation medals like Halloween candy and everyone…

It’s been a month since we crossed over into 2023.  Are you still saying Happy New Year? I am. How long did it take you to declare it just another year, and with that, maybe even not a happy one? Nine days in, a Monday, I already had to strain to hear it from anyone.  Launching a Happy New Year at a stranger, or even just someone in the neighborhood, resulted in anything from nonchalance and disinterest to surprise and a smile.  Already a cliche, on to Valentine’s Day everyone! What is going on here? Why are we giving up…

“Hey Joe – I see you’re based in Florida. Heard a lot of people are moving from California to Florida. You’ve probably seen that happen first hand the past couple of years, right? Wanted to know if you’re interested in how I can create 15 branded social posts for Soul Patch Hippo: Success Coaching? I’ll create the posts from scratch, so they match your branding vision.”   And throw the flag! What got me to open it was that my email box only showed the first sentence and it sounded like someone who knew me.  Though I didn’t recognize the name,…

Individual  [ in-duh-vij-oo-uhl ] – a single human being, as distinguished from a group. Contributor [kuhn-trib-yuh-ter] – a person who contributes money, assistance, etc. Let’s put them together shall we?  A single human being, who contributes money, assistance, etc…, feels under appreciated don’t you think? I originally began writing on this subject with the sales professional in mind and then thought, that’s too exclusive.  You see, all individual contributors, regardless of SIC, deliver the goods for organizations daily. There is lots and lots of attention paid to leaders these days.  When I hang out with my peers, we all, generally speaking,…

Issac Asimov, in his sci-fi classic I, Robot said; “You just can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.”  Well, Issac, I dug the book, and on this part I will disagree.  Are we ready to give up being human beings already?   Richard Branson once said “We are human beings, not human doings.”  And yet, there’s a trend right now to automate pieces and parts of one of the most compelling and personal approaches to improving a human’s performance and condition: coaching. It may be well intentioned based on recent surveys; it certainly is getting a lot…

Meet Ian.There have been many famous ones.  The most famous Ian of course is Ian Fleming.  This according to several websites, not just my adoring fanship for all things 007.  Many are actors like Ian McShane and Ian McKellen.  And there are the musicians like Ian Anderson and an obscure college fave of mine: Ian Dury. This Ian, the one that inspired this blog, is Ian the Hurricane.  A wicked and destructive force of nature that swept through my state recently, taking with it 102 lives (so far) and racking up a current cost range of $65 – 100 billion…

When I was a kid, there were constant, ubiquitous public service announcements (or PSAs) that admonished kids for playing with matches because of all the forest fires we could and would start given to our proclivities as, well, kids.  It ignored the part about first being in a forest which for most of us was only when we went camping with the family which, in most cases, was not in a forest. And what if there is a forest? And we can’t see if for all the trees in there??!! I digress. Back to Smokey. His message was one of…