Vision statements are words that have been coiffed and manicured to perfection. They’re usually uninspiring and dead on a wall. By contrast, great visions are big ideas that are alive and messy. They’re engaging and visceral.
President Obama walked out of his final press conference yesterday and into the Roosevelt Room to do his final media interview as President. He sat down with Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor, four of his former advisors and speechwriters who now run Pod Save America, currently one of the top podcasts…
Risk taking is about creating new things, understanding what you’re made of, and feeling confident and alive. You lose these when you play it safe for too long, in essence losing the “life” in life. So you need to take risks. But even when you know that you need to take risks, fear can still…
Sometimes the most powerful business advice is the simplest. Businesspeople give a lot of excuses for not spending enough time with customers. Being too busy is the most common one I hear. Whenever an executive tells me that she’d love to spend more time with her customers, but she’s too busy, I ask to see…
Originally published March 1, 2016 on Harvard Business Review by Doug Sundheim Used well, strategy meetings provide clarity and momentum. They align a team around key decisions and create positive energy. Used poorly, strategy meetings irritate people. They waste time and energy, or worse, strengthen entrenched points of view creating frustration and resignation. In my work…
There’s magic in youth. Unaware of the tensions, trade-offs, and struggles of adulthood, we’re lighter. We laugh more easily. We play more freely. We dream bigger. Then “real life” steps in. The first disappointment. The first failure. The first break up. We start to realize that life is pretty tough. These letdowns happen again and…
If we listen to the chatter in our heads long enough we hear signals. Steady beacons in a sea of whimsical, transient ideas. I should do this. I should build this. I should try this. They keep pulsing, simultaneously inspiring us and pissing us off because we’re not pursuing them. We get good at excusing…
When I was 24 years old, I fell into a position as the business development director at a small New York advertising agency. I had met the agency owner, Bill Markel, two weeks earlier at an advertising award show. I happened to be attending the event with a friend for the free food and drinks.…
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