Dan.Ryan

John Wooden-if you are a basketball fan, this name speaks volumes.  For those of us over the age of 50 (for me almost 60) Coach Wooden is synonymous with success with class.  I often talk with others now about how many leaders seek success without class or without integrity, but short-term success without integrity is like sugar, the short term impact may help you get through a quick issue, but the long term impact of sugar is fleeting.

I have been blessed to work with people in career transition for several decades.  This first started in a very unstructured manner when I became the vice president of human resources for the YMCA of Middle Tennessee in 1996.  People started reaching out to ask for career advice and this informal role has grown now to be a key part of my paying profession as well as a key volunteer avocation I have through the Career Transition Support Group at Brentwood United Methodist Church in Brentwood, TN.

Some of us are detail oriented while others are more focused on the big picture.  Both are important, but there are times when being more detail oriented can be a major differentiator.  I had a personal experience yesterday that brought this home to me.

We have the opportunity to talk with many people about issues they deal with in their work and professional lives.  While doing so, we learn a great deal about what seems to be working well and what does not work so well.  This type of discussion often leads to identifying some type of gap either in their professional work, or in the organization they are part of.

Today is a big day for our firm in many respects.  We will spend time together as a group talking about where we are, where we have been, and where we want to go.  Doing this is valuable and it also provides time for all of us to reacquaint ourselves with one another, especially for our team members who don't live close by.

Silence is something we don't hear much about in today's busy, energetic world.  We are surrounded by hustle, bustle, noise and activity in almost everything we do.  We have smart phones, tablets, computers, and a variety of other devices that invade and prevent silence from enveloping us.  There is a value to silence and I'll try to share a few examples in this post.  As Allison Krauss once sang, "you say it best, when you say nothing at all."

We live in a world of distraction.  Some would say that we have access to more information than ever before, and they would be correct.  I would add that we also have to deal with more distraction and "noise" than ever before.  How does one keep their focus and not get distracted down the dead-end trails of distraction?  On some days I find myself heading down one rabbit trail after another because by nature I have a wide variety of interests.

If I asked 10 people to finish the sentence below, I bet many of them would answer in the manner shown in parenthesis:

“When the going gets tough, (the tough get going)”