The Thoughtful Leaders™ Blog
Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 31, 2011
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Japanese proverb
When we guide our clients through personal and professional future planning, we share this quote over and over again. As many of us contemplate the future, we often either dream of our castles in the sky and yet do nothing to get there, or we keep moving and doing what’s in front of us without a thought about where we really want to go and what/who we really want to be. We forget to act in ways that will lead us to our ultimate goal or to even allow ourselves the time and space to figure out what our ultimate goal is.
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Posted by Lisa Kohn on October 27, 2011
 I’m not sure where I first heard these two sentences combined. I do know that I repeat them, over and over, to my clients. Many of us grew up to Yoda’s (from Star Wars), “There is no try, only do.” We thought the little “guy” was cute, enjoyed his coaching Luke Skywalker, and maybe, every now and then, thought about not trying but instead just hunkering down and doing something. But taking things the next step by adding the second sentence, “There is no do, only be,” makes this concept even more real, and more pertinent to leadership.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 24, 2011
“All glory comes from daring to begin.” Eugene F. Ware
Sometimes starting is simply the hardest part. There’s a project you need to tackle, an article (or book) you want to write, a number of phone calls you need to make, a relationship you want to build…but all you can do is sit at your desk, not starting. The task seems too daunting and a million other urgent issues or immediate tasks at hand seem to appear, as if out of nowhere. So you never begin, and you therefore never finish.
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Posted by Robyn McLeod on October 20, 2011
 In teaching the elements of high-performing teams, we use a model called GRPI (developed by Noel Tichy and Ram Charam among others) that has as its base – interpersonal relationships. It tells us that no matter how technically skilled a team is and how clear its purpose and goals are, without a foundation of great working relationships the team will not perform at its maximum ability.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 18, 2011
 This time of year often signals the beginning of the end-of-year flurry of activities. On both personal and professional fronts, there are many things we “have to do” as we wrap-up 2011 and prepare for 2012. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a quick way to get more focused – more thoughtful and intentional – as you looked towards the coming year?
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 17, 2011
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is to say ‘I don’t want to.’” Lao Tzu
Time Management seems to be a current theme for most of my coaching sessions. So many of my clients are focused on finding more time, or managing their time better. So often I hear, “I really want to do that, but I just don’t have time for it.”
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Posted by Lisa Kohn on October 13, 2011
 Many years ago I taught an MBA presentation skills class and I included a section on audience analysis. I shared that it was important to determine how the intended audience of any presentation felt about the topic…and the tension in the room was always palpable. I began to call “feel” the “F word” – as if it was something that couldn’t be discussed in a business setting.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 10, 2011
“How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things, but how well we are understood.” Andrew Grove
How often do you have absolute surety that you’ve clearly, specifically stated what it was you needed to share. That you’ve posed simple questions, offered explicit directions, clarified unambiguous expectations, and communicated everything that you needed to. And that any misunderstanding is therefore completely and totally the fault of the people who simply didn’t hear what you so carefully said.
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Posted by Robyn McLeod on October 6, 2011
 Recently I read a great article by Paul Tough in the New York Times Magazine entitled, “The Character Test.” The lead-in to the article posed the question: “What if the Secret to Success is Failure?” This question really grabbed me as we often teach the value of “failure” in our leadership programs. How valuable are the lessons and insights that come from failing? As they say in the MasterCard commercials: Priceless!
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 3, 2011
“Clear your mind of ‘can’t.’” Samuel Johnson
I hear it from my children. I hear it from my clients. I hear it from my family members and friends. I hear it from myself. “I can’t do that.” “It will never work.”
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