The Ride for the Breath of Life is a charity motorcycle ride that I have been contributing to for more than a decade. It’s a cause I feel connected to, and a community that I’ve been delighted to become a member of. Above all, it’s an effort that makes a difference. To all that supported me this year, thank you for doing so. You are helping to change lives in the process.
Where To From Here?
Where we have been is in the past. We can explore it, but we can’t change it. Where we are is shaped by how we perceive current circumstances, and how we make sense of who we are and what flexibility and opportunity we have to shape our own destiny. Where we are going is a product of what we care about and value. And all of that depends on how we interpret our internal dialogue, and how we shape the messages that matter most.
How I Got To Here
Think about where you are. What you know. What you can do. And how you can do that. What was your journey? Was it planned? Was it an accident? Was it somewhere in between those two points? We start off life thinking that the most important question we have to answer is what we want to do when we grow up. Eventually, if we are doing it right, we figure out that the answer isn’t as clear, as coherent or even as relevant as we might actually hope.
Don’t Be That Consultant
Whether consultants or employees, we all have clients that we serve. We advise, advocate, support and sell. How we do that depends on our attitude and our orientation. It is shaped by how we show up in our work, and how we engage with those around us. We have a choice in that. And we forget that at our peril.
Pick Up The Damn Phone
Email is without question our most popular—and most misused—means of communicating in the workplace. While success depends upon interacting well with the broad, complicated and all-too-intricate tapestry of humanity, we like to pretend that writing and text is as short-cut to doing so efficiently. Whereas every time we get it wrong and course correct (and that’s usually pretty often) we discover we’ve actually taken the long-and-by-no-means scenic route.
There Are No Rules To Politics
We like rules. Rules make life easier. Knowing that there is a right and wrong answer means that we can figure out how to be successful under all circumstances. The only problem is that life doesn’t actually work that way, particularly when engaging in politics and managing in the face of complexity and uncertainty. That’s not to say that there aren’t strategies that can help, but those strategies inherently require adaptation, a willingness to be flexible, and acceptance that the only right answer in any given situation is, “It depends.”