These strange times have prompted me to revisit stories and experiences that inspire me. (See below to share your stories of resilience and inspiration.)
People's stories feed my soul. They needn't be extraordinary, but Osman's story surely is. Osman (not his real name) was my client nearly twenty nearly years ago, when I managed a project at a major hardware manufacturing site in the southern United States. The facility was being closed and Osman, just 27 at the time, was being laid off from his engineering job. Shortly after our first meeting, Osman told me his childhood hero was a priest, though Osman himself was not Catholic. In the coming weeks, I would learn Osman's story and the role his childhood hero played in it.
None of us knows exactly how life and business will change following this crisis and none of us is immune from worry. Even if we're fortunate enough to be financially secure, we see our families, friends, neighbors and clients struggle. Day after day the news prompts us to wring our hands, but handwringing only exacerbates the problem. Here are five things you can do to not only weather this storm, but emerge stronger than ever. It starts with you:
Antoinette Greene Smith was my Grandma Tony. At about the age of 85, she told me, "When you stop learning, it's all over." It was her mantra throughout her life and I like to think it's mine, but sometimes I forget. Are you still learning? Daily? Following are some ways, from obvious to not-so-obvious, to make learning a daily practice:
It's a great time to re-visit your leadership and make needed changes or improvements. Your firm's success - and yours - is dependent on you doing the following five things well, whether you lead your firm, business unit or team.
Employee satisfaction leads to increased retention and profitability. Do you think employee happiness is "soft?" Are you too busy working on the success of your business to worry about whether your employees are happy? Or do you think your employees' happiness isn't up to you, it's up to them? Employee happiness or satisfaction, not to be confused with complacency, is critical to your business success...
Coaching Leadership (not to be confused with Executive Coaching) is one of the two most effective styles of leadership. Coaching isn't a style to be used to the exclusion of others, but a set of tools to be used in conjunction with other management techniques.
![]() Last week I returned from Pepperdine Law School in Malibu California and I'm still "higher than a kite." The blue skies and sunshine over the Malibu Hills and the Pacific Ocean were stunning. More importantly, I had the privilege of being the co-director and one of four instructors for an outstanding leadership program for practicing attorneys. One of my colleagues, Sukhsimran Singh, used a kite analogy during his instruction, perfectly describing my lingering elation. |