by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Quotes and Aphorisms
We are at that very point in time when a 400-year-old age is dying and another is struggling to be born–a shifting of culture, science, society, and institutions enormously greater than the world has ever experienced. Ahead, the possibility of the regeneration of individuality, liberty, community, and ethics such as the world has never known, and a harmony with nature, with one another, and with the divine intelligence such as the world has never dreamed.
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Through the years, I have greatly feared and sought to keep at bay the four beasts that (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Recommended Books, Stress Management
Breathing Space:
Living and Working at a Comfortable Pace
in a Sped-Up Society by Jeff Davidson
“Our contribution to the progress of the world must, therefore, consist in setting our own house in order.”
—Mahatma Gandhi
I use a lot of books in the executive training I offer, some of them well-known bestsellers like Flow [Click here to see Tony’s review.], but there is only one book that I advise my clients to read: Breathing Space. Jeff Davidson has filled each page of Breathing Space with insight, practicality, and specific advice. To get your hands back on the controls of your modern life, no book is better.
Life in today’s world is busy, full, and rife with distractions. Satisfaction can easily slip away without special efforts to create an environment and habits that support our own goals and priorities. Fail to do so and your life will–as Jeff Davidson amply demonstrates–be thoroughly colonized by advertisers, entertainers, and co-workers. It has often been said, and is even more true today, that if you are not (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Recommended Books
The bottom line is that being accountable to ourselves is not enough. We clearly need others, preferably outside of our organization, to hold us accountable and to help us accelerate our learning. We need others to help us fight the continual battles against our own human nature and our tendency to do what we want to do, rather than what we need to do. We need others to (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals
In 2008, I spoke with two groups of business leaders that I coach on the topic, “What should we be doing now to weather the down economy?” Seven ideas received broad support:
- Stay in touch with your center and manage your outlook.
- Get busy with personal, executive-to-executive selling.
- Cash is king. Watch it closely.
- Conserve cash: make sure every dollar out is going to come back–soon–in sales or profits.
- Cut your marginal players now
- Hire slowly or leave openings unfilled.
Plenty of talent is (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Leadership Development
A study found remarkably high rates of dyslexia among entrepreneurs, as compared with corporate managers and the general population. What I found particularly interesting was the list of traits dyslexics develop that have them become entrepreneurs more often, have multiple companies, and an above average number of employees.
The dyslexic entrepreneurs reported as good or excellent at: (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners
While driving home from a client’s office, I felt some strange symptoms. The kind of symptoms that could mean nothing or could be signs of impending death. The kind of symptoms you would feel foolish wasting the hospital’s time with or could burden your family permanently. What to do?
Luckily, I have a great relationship with a first-rate internist and his office was near the next highway exit. I didn’t go there directly, of course. I telephoned my wife to let her talk me out of being concerned. Instead, she met me at the doctor’s office.
My doctor immediately (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Salespeople, How to Set Goals
Why plan? So much changes, so many things are unforeseen. The world is unpredictable and out of our control. The people we depend upon are fallible and have free will. There is no telling what they will do, how they will react to us.
Any airliner spends most of each trip off course and pointed in the wrong direction. Wind, weather, and traffic are constantly diverting the vessel from the perfect path. Rather than being discouraged by the impossibility of staying on course, the pilot and the instruments are continually working to compensate for these random and unforeseeable influences. After a trip of “unplanned” but expected diversions, airliners almost always arrive at their intended destinations. What would be the result if the pilot did not declare where and when he would land? How would he react to the distractions and diversions? Would you buy a ticket on that plane? Rather, could that pilot enroll you in his project?
You have many choices each day–even if they don’t seem like choices–and a consistent target will give you a ready reference for making those choices. Your plan is useful not because it is a description of what will happen, but because it provides a reference point to evaluate and respond to the inevitable circumstances that differ from the plan.
Planning is not Predicting.
The value of a plan is not as a guarantee that things will happen exactly as you expected, but that when the unexpected does -inevitably- occur, you can notice and respond to the deviation.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Leadership Development, Quotes and Aphorisms
An organization is a community of discourse.
Leadership is about influencing the nature of the discourse.
—Robert Kegan
Harvard University
See also, on this blog, step-by-step conversation instructions with video here:
The Conversation Contract.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Recommended Books, Team Manager Skills
My mother, my wife, my sister, and Oprah recommended Ellen Foster to me. Ellen Foster is a very young, very mistreated Southern girl who tells her story in simple, compelling language. She takes us energetically into her world and lets us see adult behavior through her worldly but never cynical eyes. Her saga is funny, clever, and heart-rending. But most of all, it is a true human experience.
I read Ellen Foster in between reading (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners
It is extraordinary to think you can be excellent at something without a coach. The notion that Roger Federer would not have several coaches is ridiculous.
One of the best things that happened to me was to get a coach.
–Richard Baker
Former CEO
Alliance Boots
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