“Ambition is funny thing. You can completely screw yourself with it, if you’re not careful.”
Simon Le Bon
“It’s because I like to win”.
So said the smart, ambitious CEO to me during a private session. He was replying to something I’d said… something along the lines of:
“Why do you need to win every conversation?”
“Who doesn’t like to win?”, I also said, “But the way you’re behaving, you’re setting yourself up to lose in the long term.”
Why?
Because this CEO wasn’t letting any of his lieutenants ‘win’ when it came to conversations or opinions. As a result, he had created an echo chamber without realising it, where people only agreed with whatever opinion he had because they were afraid of antagonising their leader.
I’ve started taking a slight interest in gardening recently and I am finding it surprisingly therapeutic and ‘grounding’. (words I never thought I would ever write or say…)
It was triggered by a problem that had emerged when myself and TLJ* had put down new grass in an area of our garden. Surprisingly for Ireland, there has been very little rain over the last month (that issue has been solved as of today as it’s pouring outside!) and that, combined with a lot of sun in this area of the garden meant that the grass was dying.
So we took to regularly watering this area and the grass is recovering, bringing with it a lovely green sheen and vibrancy.
If you’re a fan of sport you will have heard all about the saga of the ‘Super League’ but even if you’re not, you most likely will have heard about it as it made headlines globally for all of last week.
In essence, 12 of the biggest soccer teams in Europe made it public that they were creating a new league that they would control, could never be relegated from and would depart the premier competition in Europe, The Champions League.
Within 2 days of that announcement it was dead in the water.
Why?
Fear never brings out the best in people.
If you imagine a continuum, where at one end is fear and the other is safety.
It’s worth watching where you are on that, and also where the people around you are.
A little fear in’t the worst thing, but if it’s at the far end of the continuum it will impair performance and results.
When fear has a hold on you, it’s impossible to live in alignment with your authentic self – to bring out your best.
“Dear Life, When I said “Can this day get any worse?”
It was a rhetorical question not a challenge!”
I think most people have experienced a version of that quote above.
I remember a big turning point in my life was when I realised the power of language. Not just in it’s impact on others but more so on my performance in any field.
I’m not referring just to the spoken word but to the power of the language of my thinking, because behind every action is a thought.
There’s always a positive to be found in difficult circumstances.
One of the positives I’ve observed from the pandemic, is seeing people try new things because they felt that had no choice.
And I include myself in that observation.
Necessity is indeed the mother of invention after all and there’s nothing like a global crisis to force experimentation…:)
“Hope is not a strategy.”
This is a phrase you hear often in the business world and I don’t agree with it completely.
If strategy was everything people think it’s cracked up to be less organisations would fail. There’s no doubt it’s important but so too is hope – or at least feeling hopeful.
In my experience, feeling hopeful is vital to progress.
“However ordinary each of us may seem, we are all in some way
special, and can do things that are extraordinary
