Why your Top Performers are not performing or worse … leaving

8 Strategies to help rock stars shine again

Concert star walking out onto platform

Have you ever seen someone who was once a “rock star”, who now is fallen from grace and glory? Or are you perhaps that person? Taking a long term view, it would seem to me that careers go through times of ebb and flow. There are times when a person is performing at rockstar level, […]

Everything you want is on the other side of fear.

Jack Canfield

In Leadership, the ends do not always justify the means. If you kill your team to achieve a short-term outcome, people will remember and associate you with pain.

Mark Botros

What all Great Projects Have in Common

The 3 Most Important Aspects of Every Well-Run Project

Checklist

In my 25 year career, I have led and been a part more projects than I can honestly count in just about every shape, size, scope, and dollar amount. The largest project I ever led personally was a 4 billion dollar project that spanned 2.5 years. I’ve also seen great, well-led projects and poorly-led, rope-a-dope […]

What To Do When Our Mobile Devices Lose Power or Service

7 No-Tech Strategies to Overcome the Death Angel of Boredom When It Comes Near

Man sitting alone in the Wilderness

In a previous post, Why we Need a Holiday From Our Screens, I talk about what we gain when we consciously turn our screens off, including a number of alternatives to spending time on our screens. But what happens when the unthinkable happens – when our mobile device has no service or battery life, and […]

The people we love the most are the people we are the kindest to.

Mark's Wife

Why We Need to Give Our Best to Those We Love

A proven routine and mantra to transition from work to home

Man Holding Baby

My wife has a mantra that she has instituted in our home, “the people we love the most are the people we are the kindest to.” I love this statement because it always reminds me where I need to prioritize my time, and even more importantly, my energy. The Problem We typically give the best […]

28 Healthy, Fun, and Motivating Ways to Reward Yourself

How You Know a Reward is a Good Reward

Bowl of Strawberries

I’m a huge fan of productivity, but I’m an even bigger fan of giving yourself rewards when you’ve really earned them like overcoming procrastination and taking action on something you’ve been putting off. What follows is a list of ideas to reward yourself in a healthy, fun, and sustainable way. Admittedly, these are small rewards […]

Why The Stories We Tell Ourselves Matter So Much

2 Kids, 1 Swim Meet, and the Insight of an 11-Year Old Boy That Will Impact Me Forever

Kid Swimming in Pool

One of my daughters is a competitive swimmer, and I was volunteering as a timer at one of her divisional swim meets. While standing in the lane getting more and more wet with every passing heat (i.e. a group of swimmers who are lining to compete for their race), I saw hundreds of kids line […]

How to Develop Thick Skin

Rough Hands Working Clay

One of my observations of our current society is that we have lost the sense of thick skin that I feel we used to have. There is such a heightened sense of political correctness and hypersensitivity, that we have created “safe spaces” and have new labels like “micro-aggression” to insulate us from what someone would […]