
Reflections on Twenty Years as an Independent Consultant
2024 marks a milestone year for Evergreen Leadership. Twenty years ago, I left the corporation I’d worked for the past
2024 marks a milestone year for Evergreen Leadership. Twenty years ago, I left the corporation I’d worked for the past
Let’s start with why knowing these three things is so important. These are three things that: Separate good leaders from
True confession. I’ve been in the workplace for a very long time. Forty-two years to be exact. In that span,
I’ve spent these last ten days mostly in solitude in what I dub our “little house on the prairie.” My
True confession. I’d not heard the term “sacrifice syndrome” until a few weeks ago. Yet when I did, it put
Here are six ways leaders inspire commitment. Which best describes your style? Gandhi. Martin Luther King. The Buddha. Malala. Gretta
There are some of us who are a bit more restless than most. Who are searching for something new and
The idea of pivoting comes from lean startup – starting with a business idea and testing it in the real world with real customers (potential customers at this point) very early and very often. You test and explore and learn as an early step with a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) or just enough to get started. The hard reality is that more ideas fail due to not finding a market than due to poor execution. Build it too fully without testing it with the market and you are likely to miss the mark. You tend to overbuild. You might miss some brilliant insight from a customer that makes a real difference in your product or service; one that you would have never stumbled upon in the inner sanctums of your garage or home office. In lean lingo – one learns quickly, fails fast and avoids the tendency to over-engineer or perfect things before the customer (and their wallet) has their say.
As you test and learn and fail, you “pivot” or make changes and tweaks that make your product or service or business model better. You don’t lose sight of your goal; you just recognize that the path to get there might look like this:
So today I share with you a real life story of pivots and of persistence. And it is my story.
Thanks to all who voted! Turns out that the top blog post of 2014 was a tie between The Power of Words, and Do Emotions Have a Place at Work?. I’ll be contacting the randomly selected winners of a signed copy of my book by email shortly – so watch your inbox! I’ve also included (in this post on my blog) the comments some voters left on the survey. They were very thoughtful and I appreciated them.
If you are in the Lafayette, Indiana, area, I invite you to join Evergreen Leadership and Tippy Connect on Thursday, January 29th at 5:00 PM at MatchBOX Coworking Studio located at 17 S. 6th St., Lafayette, to hear me speak on 10 Must Have Skills for Today’s Leaders. The event is free of charge and open to all.
Note: While at the event, Tippy Connect members will also learn about an upcoming opportunity to participate in an Evergreen Leadership Development Circle that will be offered to them at an amazing price point.
Two gifts for you this holiday season:
GIFT NUMBER ONE – A big discount on big ideas!
GIFT NUMBER TWO – A fun and a powerful idea!
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