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mindset Resources

Leadership Thought #417 – Monday Mornings Shouldn’t Bum You Out

I know quite a few people who actually start feeling depressed on Sunday night because work is the next day. Sadly, for many of them, this has been a feeling that has existed for years. I honestly cannot comprehend this state of mind at this point in my life. Sure when I was fresh out of college and new to my professional work life I didn’t always get thrilled about Monday mornings, but as I have progressed in my career and thinking, that is a long distant memory. If what you are doing makes you that unhappy either change how you think about it or choose to do something else. Life is too short for habitual Sunday night misery.

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Leadership Thought #414 – An Important Life Lesson – What Next?

I am in the process of reading Gordon Livingston’s great new book, The Thing you Think You Cannot Do, and as usual he delivers many useful tidbits of helpful information and a wise perspective. In one chapter, he talks about the importance of asking the question, “What next?” While his clinical therapy patients may often be dealing with much more significant challenges than my clients, as human beings we all have things that hold us back and inhibit our positive momentum. It’s easy to get mired in the past or caught up with the urgency of managing now. Many of us are far too quick to embrace the role of victim and tell our sad stories to anyone who will listen. We end up creating negative energy which hinders our ability to move on and create a positive future. I’m not saying we don’t have to make peace with what has happened, but the best way to get out of hole is not to keep digging deeper but to climb out.

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Leadership Thought #381 – You Can’t Save Every Client

One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn in my line of work is that you can’t save everyone. Despite your good intentions and best efforts, sometimes the formula will not work. In some cases, you might have to accept the fact that you are not the right fit for a given engagement or client relationship. In other instances, there is always a reason why someone is struggling and until they fully come to grips with this fact and take ownership of their behavior, there is only so much you can do.

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    Favorite Articles

  • From start-up to centaur: Leadership lessons on scaling

    This playbook for founder CEOs on scaling from start-up to standout and beyond borrows lessons from the global B2B software-as-a-service industry. Scaling is no easy feat. Even companies that develop successful products have a greater than 80 percent chance of failure.1 Fast-growth companies face constant growing pains, especially at critical inflection points, and investors attribute 65 percent […]

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  • Why strategists should embrace imperfection

    In a world of rapid change, looking for certainty can obscure opportunity. Taking smaller yet bold steps provides a more sure-footed path through uncertainty. Conventional approaches to strategy have had to adapt in recent years, with rapid technological change and buffeting from external forces. In this episode of Inside the Strategy Room, the authors of the new book, The Imperfectionists: […]

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  • 5 Ways Leaders Accidentally Stress Out Their Employees

    Decades of scientific research show that stress and anxiety are prevalent problems at work, contributing to deficits in employee morale, well-being, and productivity. While anxiety is caused by a range of factors, including issues unrelated to people’s jobs, one common and pervasive cause is something specific to the workplace: incompetent leadership. Managers and leaders have a direct effect on their employees’ stress […]

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    Helpful Websites

  • ITR Fed Watch

    Each week, ITR Economics CEO and Chief Economist Brian Beaulieu provides an update on the Federal Reserve Board’s latest actions. Our use of factual rather than emotional inputs is key to our data-driven approach to economic forecasting. Our vigilant watch for Federal Reserve decisions is part of this approach. Catch up on ITR Economics’ latest analysis of […]

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  • Therapist Aid

    Therapist Aid provides expertly designed, research-informed tools and education for mental health professionals and their clients.

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  • Wordtune

    Wordtune was built by AI21 Labs, founded in 2018 by AI luminaries. Our goal is to revolutionize the way we read and write. We design advanced AI tools and language models that understand the context and semantics of written text. These models are what set Wordtune apart as the first AI-based writing companion, moving far beyond […]

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    Video Favorites

  • Virtuous Leadership Part 2: The Four Basic Virtues – Alex Havard

    Alex Havard explains the concept of “virtuous leadership.” In Part 2, he begins to describe the four basic virtues: prudence, courage, self-control, and justice.

  • The Importance of Character in Leadership | Jordan Peterson

    Here is a brief excerpt from a Jordan Peterson lecture on the importance of personal character in becoming a good (noble) leader and the weakness in a society formed when there are not enough examples of admirable leadership qualities.  He uses a few biblical examples.

  • Five Tips for Better One-on-One Meetings

    One-on-one meetings are among the best opportunities for relationship-building that we’re afforded at work. But when run badly, they can feel like an unproductive use of people’s time. Mistake No. 1: viewing these check-ins as another task list item to check off. With planning and forethought, you can take your one-on-one meetings to the next […]

    Reading Excerpts

  • A Sense of Urgency – John Kotter

    A Sense of Urgency – Book Excerpt (Click on this link for the Word document)   Chapter 1 – It All Starts With A Sense of Urgency …Go check, then you find people running, and they are stressed out. But this man (leader), and almost everyone else around him, is mistaking the enormous amount of […]

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  • The Truth About Leadership by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

    The Truth About Leadership – Book Excerpts   The Truth About Leadership By James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner Book Excerpts   Introduction – The Ten Truths The first truth is that you make a difference. It is the most fundamental truth of all. Before you can lead, you have to believe that you […]

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  • High Performance: Lessons From The Best on Becoming Your Best

    Please click on link to download a copy of this summary   SECTION 1 – HIGH-PERFORMANCE MINDSET  Lesson 1: Take Responsibility He (Albert Badura) speculated that when people don’t believe they have what it takes to complete a task successfully, they would see little point in making an initial effort. When these people did attempt […]

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