When We Get Older

When we get older we confuse boredom with hunger. We’re bored, so we eat.

In our youth, it’s reversed – we confuse hunger with boredom.

In the first, we drift so far away from our best, we can’t recall the last time we were great.

In the latter, we are so hungry to do something great, but lack confidence and skill. So we get bored being ordinary and blending in, quit, and take our place in the line labeled mediocre.

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Out The Back

Yesterday’s post was freakishly coincidental, a random person overheard me telling a fellow Professional Speaker I was going to quickly look for the bathroom, before the big speech.

Just a casual comment to my friend. And from out of nowhere, a voice says, “Out the back, make a left”.

Wow! Turns out, it was the CEO. He was tuned in to what his customer needed (a bathroom).

The really cool thing? A keynote speaker (me) recognized the CEO in front of hundreds of his employees. Funny how life pays you back when you do the right thing, without expectation.

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Not Yet, Not Ever

Recently, a Florida CEO made a (profound) statement, “We have yet to find the best way to do anything”.

Continuous improvement, six sigma, whatever you call it – the road to excellence has no finish line.

A leader’s job isn’t to maintain, it’s to make things better. So that when she leaves, people will say, wow, she sure pushed the boundaries and helped our organization become a household name, just like she envisioned.

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Can I Just Say One Thing?

Bet these two encountered some tough questions…

How many times have you been in a group meeting and you wanted to raise your hand and ask, “Can I just say one thing?”?

These jeff noel blogs can be as interactive as you want. Or not. It’s up to you.

I ain’t gonna beg for comments (because with 5 daily blogs, there’s plenty), but let me put myself out there, and say, if you:

  • Have a question, ask
  • Have a comment, write it
  • Want privacy, email jeff.noel@me.com

Unless I’m somewhere without a signal, I’ll respond in 24 hours*.

The tougher the question, the better. Tough questions often require tough answers. Okay?

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* exceptions to every rule, albeit rare

Lazy Man’s Leadership

The picture will make sense after you read this…

Funny how old corporate buzz words still float around, pretending to be useful.

Remember “empowered”?

What a ration of garbage. Empowered means you’re too busy (lazy & uncommitted) to focus on training and developing me.

Dude, can you imagine Parents “empowering” their kids? No! Parents have to invest blood, sweat and tears into making their children shine.

And by the way, it ain’t easy. Your kids can smell you if you’re a fake.

So can your direct reports.

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