Maybe it happens in every industry. I don’t know because I have not served as a CEO and senior executive in every industry. Of course, neither has anyone else. However, I have served as a hospital and healthcare system CEO and senior executive for the past 40 years. Throughout this rather long and successful career, …
“We need to be as strategic with ourselves as we are with our careers and our businesses. We need to pace ourselves, nurture ourselves, and give ourselves fuel to explore, thrive, and perform.” This critical, life-long truth comes from chapter 8 of the book titled Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less by Greg McKeown. The author provides …
Pablo Picasso once wrote, “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” In chapter 5 of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown addresses the critical need to escape, and the many advantages of purposefully scheduling time wherein you are unavailable for anything, other than to think. Do you openly coach, mentor, lead, and expect …
“If you believe being overly busy and overextended is evidence of productivity, then you probably believe that creating space to explore, think, and reflect should be kept to a minimum.” So writes Greg McKeown in his excellent book titled Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less. Many leaders would not admit it, but their actions speak far …
In chapter 4 of his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less, Greg McKeown discusses the critical issue of continuous ‘trade-offs’ in our personal, professional and organizational lives. To make his point McKeown summarizes the hugely successful story of Southwest Airlines and how its leadership, led by Herb Kelleher for many years, has produced amazing financial results, …
Life is all about choices. The same is true regarding leadership. Leadership is all about choices. The short-term, long-term, and ultimate fate of every leader—that includes you—is determined by his or her choices. Highly successful leaders make wise, proactive choices. We are in a study of the excellent book titled Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less, written by Greg …
In chapter three of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, author Greg McKeown poses an important and interesting question: “We have been taught from a young age that hard work is key to producing results, and many of us have been amply rewarded for our productivity and our ability to muscle through every task or challenge …
Have you every wondered about certain individuals or organizations who have achieved huge success, only to lose it and fade into obscurity within a number of years? What happened to them? Was it bad luck or unfortunate timing? Was their initial success a fluke? Did they suddenly just lose their edge? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer …
In his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown writes: “Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order …
In our day of massive information overload—24/7 everything, everywhere, all the time—it becomes increasingly difficult for leaders and all team members to focus on the truly vital and what is most important. In chapter one of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, author Greg McKeown tells the story of an executive facing this very situation. But …
Continuing our study of Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, this week we look at a crucial and liberating leadership question. How many leaders and organizations teach, coach, and explicitly empower ALL of their team members to ask and act on the following question? “Is this the most important thing I should be doing with …
We see it among less successful leaders in every industry and in every walk of life. Millions of leaders, and literally billions of people spend their entire lives, and their entire career ‘majoring in minor activities.’ I have been a formal and informal leader in the healthcare industry, and in business in general, for over forty years. As a hospital …
I am currently studying—note that I did not say that I am simply reading—an excellent book titled Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. The author is Greg McKeown. Regardless of your level of leadership and personal and professional success, you can learn and benefit from this book! From day to day, in fact more often than that, …
Jon Gordon, a successful leadership author, thought leader, and speaker, recently visited West Point Military Academy to speak and to interact with cadets, coaches, and the military brass. Following his visit, Jon wrote an article titled 9 Leadership Lessons from my Visit to West Point. He explains that although he was there to teach, he ended …
I It was my honor recently to serve as facilitator for a day of important discussion among a group of 10 hospital and health system CEOs. Over the years, these CEOs have developed significant trust. They clearly understand the immense and enduring power of partnership, alignment, and working together for the greater success of all. …
I learn a lot by watching the people around me. I have long been a people-watcher, and I’ve discovered that not only do I learn something about each person I watch, but I also learn something about the people around them. And often, I even learn something about myself. Today as I walked laps around …
In his book The Little Book Of Talent: 52 Tips For Improving Your Skills, Daniel Coyle discusses ‘hard, high-precision skills’ versus ‘soft, high-flexibility skills.’ According to Coyle, hard, high-precision skills “have one path to an ideal result; skills that you could imagine being performed by a reliable robot.” Soft, high-flexibility skills “have many paths to a good …
Tip number six in Daniel Coyle’s book, The Little Book of Talent, is “Choose Spartan Over Luxurious.” Coyle correctly explains that we love comfort—state-of-the-art practice facilities, oak-paneled corner offices, expensive fluffy towels, and all kinds of other luxurious creature comforts and statements of status. Coyle asserts that “luxury is a motivational narcotic: It signals our unconscious minds to give …
As a leader, your job, your responsibility, your priority is not to manage nor accept the status quo. Your job, your responsibility, your priority is to personally exemplify continuous improvement and to create and maintain a culture that encourages and supports continuous improvement. That means a culture that encourages, accepts, supports and learns from mistakes. In the chapter …
A couple of years out of high school, I had a job that I absolutely hated. The environment was everything a personal, professional, and organizational development and growth environment should not be! I did not stay long, but long enough to never, ever forget the terrible, degrading, negative-driven environment in which I worked. Even though I absolutely …