Mark Mullaly
Insight, advice and inspiration for making strategic action stick
I don’t generally write about myself, but I’m making an exception to that here. I’ve been away for awhile, dealing with a number of challenges on the personal front. Now, as we start a new year, I’m taking an opportunity to review and reflect on the year that has passed, and explore what is ahead in 2018.
Thanks for your patience.
Most of us like plans, and we like to plan. We like to know what’s coming, and where we are trying to go. And then life throws you a curveball, and you have to respond. A guide to navigating life when crisis strikes.
Feedback is an essential part of the work cycle. It’s also something that all of us struggle to receive constructively. Once we’ve put our heart and soul into our work, we are often highly resistant to changing it. An alternative perspective is required.
We try to understand situations, analyze problems and offer solutions. We believe that they solutions will be understood on their own merits. That the general insights we offer will be translated into personal implications that people are prepared to embrace and run with. And we would be wrong. A meditation on the importance of two words.
Schedules are a source of tyranny. They often force us to produce, even when we don’t want to. Leadership and success isn’t always about endurance and sheer bloody-mindedness, though. Listen to the cues along the way.
Risk is an interesting topic. We think we are supposed to manage it. But all too often, risk manages us. A better question to ask is, “How well are we positioned to cope with what could happen?” Why coping is more than just getting by.
