Amazing Mondays

If Santa is good to you this year he will provide a little bit of discomfort in your life. Why discomfort you might ask? There are a couple of reasons. Let me explain. First, discomfort is an indicator that we are growing or that we need to grow. We can’t get better or improve our circumstances in comfort. In fact we must step out of our comfort zone if we ever hope to do more, stretch ourselves, and become better. There is no growth in comfort. Discomfort stimulates our personal growth. Second, discomfort will help us believe in [...]

Have you ever felt like you were stuck? Like you just weren’t making the progress you hoped to make and that you felt you should be making? That happened to me over the last couple of weeks. You see, I’ve been trying to complete a book project and just felt it wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t sure how to improve it or make it better. I felt stuck! However, luckily, by the end of last week I was feeling much better and made some significant progress. Thinking about this experience I thought it might be helpful to share [...]

"You are never too important to be kind." I recently read this on a sign somewhere and felt it was very applicable to us as leaders. It’s easy to get caught up in all that is going on. With important decisions to make, deadlines to meet, issues to address, meetings to attend—things are just busy and stressful! Because of all this, it can be hard to remember to be kind. However kindness is a key ingredient to creating a healthy organization. At thecultureguide.com we often refer to this kindness as charity. We all are touched and attracted [...]

It’s the week of Halloween so it only seems fitting to talk about fear. But let’s not talk about the fun fear we experience during this time of year that gets our hearts pumping and our adrenaline flowing. What I want to focus on is the more common and often times debilitating negative fear. So let me ask you, have you ever been afraid? We all have fear at some point in time so none of us are alone in this. The problem is fear limits our perspective on life and keeps us from doing what we ought [...]

Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Yeah me too. It never happened for me though. At least not in the way I thought it would…. Maybe you are like me. Let me try and explain. At times when I talk to leaders about their careers many express or even lament the fact that they aren’t in a more service-oriented occupation. A doctor, firefighter, civil or military officer, humanitarian, or clergy member seems to them to be occupations where they could truly serve the greater good and actually contribute and help humanity. These are often the professions [...]

Culture is the number one way to improve performance within any organization. Many leaders I talk to believe they can’t do much to change the culture of their organization because they are only a department head, supervisor, or only lead a small team within a larger organization. I’m here to tell you that’s not true. If lead people, than you can have a dramatic impact on culture. Let me share a personal story with you. Shortly after graduating from college I found myself leading a department within a hospital in the Washington DC area. Though I always wanted to work [...]