How do you define success? Do you (or your boss) look only at the numbers and other recognized metrics or do you go a step further and evaluate the harder-to-define areas? Numbers and other business metrics are important, but they measure mostly the present, i.e., short-term results. What does long-term success look like? How can you evaluate yourself in terms of long-term success? Do you care? If your answer to the third question is “no” then you probably won’t be interested in the rest of this post, but if it is “yes” read on. Whether …read more

I’d never heard of Gerald W. Johnson when I came across this excellent quote, “The closed mind, if closed long enough, can be opened by nothing short of dynamite.”
It was so perfectly aimed, so true and so applicable that I went looking for what else he said.
There’s not a lot, but you’ll love what I did find. Johnson’s comments seem especially pithy and apropos for our world today.

Consider this, “No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility.” These days, the higher you go the harder it is to find anyone …read more

In a comment on my September 11 post Kate Lavender said, “I have always believed that quote “we are not made, or unmade, by the things that happen to us but by our reactions to them” – I had lost sight of that of late and your story brings the importance of personal choices being who we are back full force.”
I’m grateful to Kate; it’s good to know my point was made with at least one person.
This is as true for companies as it is for individuals and especially true in the current economic environment.
We can use this economic debacle …read more

The silly blow-up over President Obama’s back-to-school speech drove home once again how I am that won’t be around when the current crop of kids take the reins of political, social and business so-called leadership roles.
I am continually amazed and revolted as I watch so-called conservatives of all stripes work to be sure their children are exposed to nothing that conflicts with whatever ideology they are steeping them in.
I say ‘conservatives’ because so-called liberals seem more flexible within their stands. (Please note that I said ‘flexible, not changeable.)
What exactly was in this speech, that some kids weren’t allowed to hear? …read more

What’s going on? This post is a call for your thoughts.
I simply don’t understand what today’s parents are thinking—assuming they are thinking at all.
18 years ago Wanda Holloway tried to hire a hit man to improve her 13 year old daughter’s chances of making the cheer-leading squad.
More recently Lori Drew helped her teenage daughter fake a MySpace page that drove another teen to suicide.
Parents launch efforts to destroy teachers who don’t hand out ‘As’; they scream at referees and umpires when they disagree with a call; they threaten coaches who don’t allow their kids to play enough.
On one hand they …read more

Wally Bock, citing an article in Forbes, talks about the value of storytelling to get your point across. And it’s true. I frequently use stories to help clients understand a concept more easily or wrap their heads around something that’s very new to them.
Yes, storytelling is an extremely powerful tool, but I see two problems inherent in these discussions.
The first is that the political, religious and business leaders used to illustrate storytelling’s influence are always positive examples and, obviously, plenty of those on the dark side have used it too.
Secondly, there is rarely any information on how listeners can shield …read more

I have only one item for you today, but it’s a real goody.
Meet Robert L. Joss, Business School Dean at Stanford University.
On his first day he saw his position as Dean was in the bottom position of the unofficial org chart and a legend underneath that said, “And everything runs downhill.”
Over nearly an hour, Joss discusses Leadership Is Responsibility, Not Power.
It’s well worth your time. And if you want great take-away quotes, click here.

Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: nono farahshila on flickr

By Wes Ball. Wes is a strategic innovation consultant and author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success (Westlyn Publishing, 2008) and writes for Leadership turn every Tuesday. See all his posts here. Wes can be reached at www.ballgroup.com.
Is there really a lending problem?  I know several people who doubt it.
One is a local car dealer.  He was almost dazed as he related a story to me about selling a used car to a woman who had a bankruptcy five years ago.  He sold her a nice car for $27,000.  …read more

The so-called leaders who, over decades, got us into our current economic mess did so because of their MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™); MAP that kept telling them that they were so brilliant that they knew best.
But as a wise man said, you can learn from everyone.
When I was growing up I had an aunt with whom I didn’t see eye to eye, to say the least. Yet, it was because of this aunt that I learned something that became a cornerstone of my MAP.
My aunt had a glass topped dressing table and, like many women of that era, she would …read more