Life is a great teacher even when I am not a great student. Although I don’t drink much, I am striving to be like a fine wine – to get better with age. Like you, life has taught me much. So I have highlighted 14 of my life lessons here: My best education started after…
With a clear vision of what we can become, no challenge is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries. I learned the power of vision from my seven-year-old daughter a few years ago. She loved to play catch with Dad. The object we threw -- a tennis ball, football, one of…
As I anticipate cooking on my outdoor grill for a traditional Labor Day barbeque, I also ponder why Labor Day is, well, Labor Day. I love living during a time when any answer is just a Google and a click away. Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United…
As I reflected on the life of our family dog, Sparky, I was struck by his gold standard of reliability. Before Sparky went to doggy heaven, he greeted me at home every time I walked in the door for 14 years. To put that into perspective, that’s 20,000+ times without fail! The same greeting, the same…
We all have values that are important to us, but they don’t mean much unless we convert them to action. It’s easy to talk about values, but much harder to consistently live them out. As Aesop said in his Fables, “When all is said and done, more is said than done.” Two keys to personal reliability…
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5c4UVAMFOnw Leadership is an inside job. It starts inside with your personal leadership traits, such as integrity, trust, competence, and authenticity – all of which are aspects of personal reliability. You cannot expect your team to be reliable (or any other trait for that matter) if you are not being reliable. Since reliability, like leadership,…
When the great American poet, the late Maya Angelou, reflected on her life and learnings, she said, “I’ve learned that… No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. You can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three…
In an age when much more is being written than spoken, appreciation for the tone of the written word is being lost. For example, a typical cryptic text or email relies on emojis to communicate a serious, sarcastic, or playful tone. Even the craftiest emoji user loses subtle intended meaning. When you are speaking, the…
On March 4, 1914, my late father, Peter Colantuono was born and would soon become part of the Greatest Generation. Over 100 years later, I sit in my ergonomic office chair gazing out my window at a beautiful tree line. It’s a welcome mental break from considering a particular client’s challenge and polishing up a…
Most of us are so technologically connected that we couldn’t disconnect even if we tried. Many of us fear having to stare down that dark tunnel of technology withdrawal. What we are talking about, however, is connecting human-to-human versus being connected via technology. We live in a high-tech world, but building healthy relationships is still…
