Musings at Altitude

In tough times, many business leaders hunker down in their offices, straining to think of that magical thing to do that fixes all their problems or restlessly working to identify alternatives to the current path and plan.  This bunker mentality never works, but it certainly seems to be the preferred strategy for many overwhelmed business leaders. Here are […]

In my 27 years of learning (still have at least 27 years more of learning to do) through both direct and indirect experiences in business life, I’ve come to the conclusion that “you got to be kidding me” is an ineffective response to irrational business decisions.  Instead, a better response is, “why did you take […]

How do you defeat bureaucracy? Be relentless. How do you get that one thing done that everyone in the world says will never be done? Be relentless. How do you do what’s right for the organization when it seems like everyone in the organization is against you? Be relentless. How do you achieve that next […]

(1) For long walks with someone I love (2) For smiles that come at Avs games (3) For talks with the kids (4) For hugs and butterfly kisses which still occur (5) For wisdom from my Dad (6) For encouragement from friends (7) For accountability for things said and things committed to (8) For passion […]

“I’ll do that” may be the most used lie ever. We say it when someone needs us to call someone, and then it slips our mind and we never call. We say it when one of our bosses asks us to do something, and we quickly forget about it assuming that if it’s important they’ll […]

I’m in a lull right now, a brief respite from the intensity of business operations.  I’m still busy in a very different way, but the insanity is a bit muted and the wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night stress has departed for the moment. So I’ve decided to focus on me as the work-in-progress that I am, and I’m going to […]

I’ve had the great fortune of scheduling several relatively large meetings over the last few months, and regardless of how far in advance I send a “save the date”, within seconds (it seems) someone has responded with, “Do you have an agenda yet?”  I always smile, because the agenda is the last thing that comes […]

Sunday’s are always special…always have been…hopefully always will be!  At church today, our pastor joined the praise team on a guitar, and everyone in the congregation seemed to be looking at each other while saying, “I didn’t know he played the guitar!”  As we sang the songs, I kept looking at our pastor and watching […]

Would you stay in an organization if you felt any or all of the following: you couldn’t make a difference you couldn’t get anything accomplished you couldn’t get anyone to smile you couldn’t positively affect change you couldn’t feel good about going to work in any two consecutive days you couldn’t say something good about […]

In football, the “red zone” is that area between your opponent’s 20 yard line and the end zone.  The statisticians track the red zone performance, and great teams will typically score at a significantly high pace if they move into the red zone.  The best teams score touchdowns and don’t settle for field goals. In business, the […]