Whenever you feel a loss of power and effectiveness in your life – a.k.a. stuck – there’s a good chance it’s because you’re not being honest with yourself. Meaning there’s a good chance you’re not acknowledging your true feelings – your fears, struggles, confusion, hopes & dreams. Now you’re probably not doing it for a lot of good reasons. That sort of honesty can be uncomfortable…
January 30, 2012
All Great Ideas Start Half-Baked
You’ve got wonderful thoughts in your head – big thoughts, passionate thoughts, thoughts that make you come alive when you think about them. We all do. These are our lifeblood – where we find meaning and purpose. One of the challenges we all face is bringing these thoughts to the light of day. Letting them leave the womb of our mind to face a world that can demand clarity that we don’t yet have. This threat of exposure can give us pause.
January 9, 2012
Follow What’s True…For You
Your personal truth. It’s a feeling. Before you can even put it into words, it’s there. It’s a knowing about who you need to be – and what you need to be doing. Sometimes it’s unclear. And when it is, the great chewing complacency of the world will try to rip it from your grasp. It will offer you mediocrity in return. Don’t take it. Trust the feeling – however faint. It will grow stronger. It will get clearer.
January 3, 2012
Beware of Talk Parading as Action
It’s subtle and pervasive in many corporate cultures. Talk substituting for action. I’ve often found a frequent offender to be the manager who’s gung-ho about a new management book. He likes the concepts. He talks about them often. He gets others to read the book. They like them too. The book’s jargon makes its way into their everyday language…
November 14, 2011
It’s a Fine Line Between Crazy and Brilliant
By definition, if you want to create something extraordinary you’ve got to leave the majority. You’ve got to break free from commonly accepted ideas and practices and go out on a limb. The catch, of course, is that you risk your sanity in the process. It’s never easy to be a non-conformist, dissenter, or rebel. You end up walking the fine line between crazy and brilliant.
September 26, 2011
“I Could Use a Hug”
Last week I facilitated a planning offsite for the senior leaders of a financial services firm. They’re a sharp group known for taking smart risks and have been very successful at it over the last 20 years. Never ones to hold back, the conversation became very intense at one point. Two executives angrily argued back and forth on an issue for 10 minutes. The temperature in the room felt like it had tripled in that time. We needed to break the tension.
About Doug Sundheim
Doug Sundheim is a leadership consultant and executive coach in New York City. He works with leaders of Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial firms to help them maximize organizational effectiveness and produce mission-critical results.
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February 6, 2012
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