Aim to delight your customers and colleagues, not take them off-guard — It’s wonderful to ‘outperform’ for your customers and bring them delightful innovation beyond their expectations. However, you should aim for ‘no surprises’ with your customers. Set expectations appropriately at all times, deliver completely to those expectations, and be proactive in your communications to give clients plenty of head’s-up when something…

“Keep your mind open, but not so open that your brains fall out” — An excellent article in The Atlantic has been circulating recently: Changing Your Mind Can Make You Less Anxious. It’s all about being open to information and open to changing your mind in the face of information. …

As you think about performance, focus on the habits you need to get you where you want to go — We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. — Vincent van Gogh We all want to be better at things that matter to us, whether that’s getting into shape…

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast — In business, as in many things in life, we want and need both to do things correctly and move fast. To do these seemingly opposing things requires an appropriate balance between thoughtful analysis and decisive action. Analysis is critical. There is a saying in the US Navy SEALs: “Slow is…

Anything is possible, if you make it happen — “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, the optimist sees an opportunity in every difficulty.” — L. P. Jacks Many people I know who call themselves “realists” are actually pessimists, to my mind, and naturally focus on all the reasons why you can’t do something, claiming that they are simply…

Perfect your actions, and the outcome will take care of itself — Years ago, while watching my son practice tennis, I had a thought. Now, I’ll admit that even though I did play on the Varsity team in high school :D, I am very far from being an expert tennis player. However, it seemed to me that my son was often overly…