How Skillful Questioning Can Help You Improve
Knowing the difference between skillful questioning and corrosive questioning is a key ingredient to finding success.
How Mindful Listening Impacts Work Culture
In today’s busy workplace, one of the biggest challenges is to truly listen. When we cultivate the skill of mindful listening, we can become more effective at our job while also improving relationships with colleagues, partners, and clients.
Set the Direction of Your Business with this Simple Activity
Every organization needs to strategically plan to be successful. I know this from the academic work I have completed, and I also know this from the practical experience I’ve had working in the school system, with other community organizations, and co-managing my consulting firm. This is step one of the strategy.
How Adding Humour into New Ventures Changes Perspective
Bring humour and playfulness into your professional and personal life. Witness how your day changes with this change in perspective.
Get Clarity with ‘Fresh Eyes’
It is our natural instinct to overlook something that is deeply familiar. We automatically tend to dull our everyday experiences. So how can we develop a freshness when going through everyday life? How can we see things with fresh eyes and actively engage in our experiences?
On the Road Again: Getting and Keeping the Right People on the Bus
To make a good company great (or even a mediocre company better), you must hire the right people. This is the highest priority. If you don’t get this right, little else matters.
But I have often wondered, how do you get the right people on the bus? And once you get them there, how do you keep them?
How to Find a Grant
Those of you who are new to the non-profit world or don’t have a lot of experience with grant writing may wonder where to find suitable grants. You aren’t alone. Here are a few tips.
It is Never the Idea. It is Always the Execution.
Many successful people consider themselves to be ideas people. But those who are most successful are the people who know how to build the processes to get things done. They may have an idea, but they also know how to accomplish it. The reason why so many businesses or programs fail is because passion needs structure to survive. The idea without the plan won’t usually end in success.
One Process to Better Serve Your Community
I recently had a virtual meeting with a new client. He was interested in starting a non-profit. He had deep passion and concern. He wanted to serve his community. I suggested that a needs assessment would be a great place to start.
Start with ‘Why’ When Grant Writing
Organizations often find an available grant and cater programming and services to meet grant requirements. However, to be more successful, it is better to start ‘why’. Identify a need in the community that your organization can fill.
Take Time to Make Waves
The Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai is famously known for his woodblock print called “The Great Wave.” He drew many variations throughout his career, but it wasn’t until he was in his early 70s, that this masterpiece was created.
The Wisdom of the Fruit Tree
The average fruit tree does not bear fruit for at least 4-5 years. That means that it will take at least five years of pruning, tending, sunshine, and water before we reap the rewards of planting it. Like growing a fruit tree, learning a new skill is not much different.
The Lifechanging Effect of Mise en Place
Mise en place refers to the setup or organization required in a professional kitchen. It also refers to preparing and setting a state of mind, not just the process of preparing ingredients. To be efficient and purposeful, a chef must prepare both their physical and mental space. While this term originated from the world of cooking, the concept can also used in other worlds of work and in life.
How to Frame a Situation to Guarantee Successful Outcomes
Have you ever wondered how you are convinced of something? Or how to convince someone to do something? It actually isn’t that hard.
Forget Your Mission Statement and Do This Instead
For decades mission statements have been perceived as the bedrock of any organization – setting the purpose, vision, and goals of a company. Except they don’t.
Instead of falling trap to the same old, try this instead.
When Goal Setting Hinders Success and How to Prevent It
It seems that almost every business, educational and self-help book tells us that goal setting is the way to success. Goals aren’t the issue though. It is the way we approach goals that is the challenge.
4 Common Grant Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
As a grant writer and a grant application evaluator for a few local charities, I am often asked, what are the common mistakes that grant writers make? Avoiding these four common grant writing mistakes are key to increasing your grant success rate.
The Backside of the Spiral
I always imagined the path to success as linear. However, success is more like a spiral, moving forward and backward toward success.
Why We Need to Disconnect to Reconnect
We get so busy with our day-to-day routines and rituals. We forget to unwind. And it is in this unwinding that our best ideas arise.
Build Your Organization’s Culture with Three Simple Activities
Have you ever been in a business meeting listening to the discussion and wonder, why can’t people be more honest and transparent, able to admit when they’re wrong, need help, or missed their target?
Understanding what vulnerability looks like in the workplace and then working through these simple activities are bound to build trust in any organization.