Tag: Business

5:15 am. And not inspired.

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Wednesday mornings are reserved for my selections of fellow bloggers’ inspiring posts of the week.  Not today. I’ve been traveling.  By air.  And I have some short stories to tell.  Sarah’s blog post title nails the theme of this post: Holy Sh*t! Airplane Manners People.  Here are the top 9 situations that I encountered in the past month:

  1. Female passenger carries on an oversize bag.  She is “caught” at the gate and asked to check bag.  She then holds up the check-in line and commences to yank stuff out of her bag in order for it to fit in the sizing container.  She is red faced and berating the check-in attendant. (Human? Animal? or Android?)
  2. Passenger is boarding.  Coffee in one hand.  Carry-on luggage in other.  Another bag over shoulder.  He dumps the entire cup of coffee on seat (not his seat) – – and keeps walking to the back of the plane to find his seat.  Makes no attempt to clean it up or advise flight attendant. (Yo Mamma share with you the old proverb? Do unto others…)
  3. Man clipping his fingernails at 35000 feet. (There are no words…) Continue reading “5:15 am. And not inspired.” →

Work: Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

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funny-gif-dog-leash-walk

Make sure they understand the “Why” or…you may realize same outcome. 🙂

Simon Sinek: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And if you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe…But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result. It’s always a result. By “why,” I mean: What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It’s obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations — regardless of their size, regardless of their industry — all think, act and communicate from the inside out…I always say that, you know, if you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money, but if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”

Simon Sinek, 39, is the author of the best seller: Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.  He popularized the concept of the Golden Circle (‘Why’ first. Then ‘How’. Then ‘What’.)

241px-Golden_circle - Simon Sinek

Image Source: Themetapicture.com; Quote Source – Ted.com.  Wiki for bio and Golden Circle Chart.

Monday Morning Wake-Up Call: One time only.

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bird, photography,bald eagle, eagle,,black and white

Image Source for Juvenile Bald Eagle: Thank you (again) Fairy-Wren

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Sleep. China. Leisure. Marx. Judging.

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senior woman in black and white

Potpourri of articles that have lingered with me…and have fired up the thinking gene:

1) Extend our conscious life span by 150%.  The End of Sleep. (Aeon Magazine)
(DK: I need to get some of this “medicine.” Or, maybe not.)

2) Not Doing Better Than Our Parents. And Loving It. (The Umlaut.com)
(DK: Just what my kids need to read.  I can hear it already.  “See Dad. You have it all backwards.”)

3) Choking on China.  The Superpower That is Poisoning the World. (Foreign Affairs)
(DK: I’m not Mr. Green.  But, this.  This is frightening.)

4) A Man of His Times (Karl Marx). (NY Times)
(DK: Hard left. Hard Right. We’re all human. )
“He is an intensely loving father, playing energetically with his children and later grandchildren, but also suffering what would now be diagnosed as a two-year depression following the death of his 8-year-old son Edgar.”)

5) Change Your Thoughts About People For a Better Life. (Steve Aitchison)
(DK: I set a modest goal after reading this post.  No judging for 1 day.  Outcome: Fail. I’m workin’ it. First step in recovery is recognizing…you know the line…I’m on step 2.)

6) The Happiest People Pursue the Most Difficult Problems. (Rosabeth Moss Kanter @ HBR Blog Network)
(DK: “It is hard to feel alone, or to whine about small things, when faced with really big matters..” YES.  Period.)

Image Source: GagaBoss Studio

Connecting those threads

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Picaso - Cory Smith

New leadership books pour over the dam each day claiming to share a secret sauce.  A cow rhythmically chewing and regurgitating its cud. But far less effective.  It largely comes down to these eight lines from James Autry.  Period.

Listen.
In every office
you hear the threads
of love and joy and fear and guilt,
the cries for celebration and reassurance,
and somehow you know that connecting those threads
is what you are supposed to do
and business takes care of itself.

~ James A. Autry

Source: 800CEORead – Bring Your Emotional Self to Work.  The words above were written by James A. Autry and are included in Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership (p.32).  And all of this reminds me of the John Maxwell quote:  “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Image Credit: Cory Smith – Ix.com