Jim Stroud, thoughtful and prolific management issues contributor at Managing Leadership, gave out a call for Business Life Lessons learned. Dave Prouhet, who blogs at Business Advice Daily, listed several lessons he has learned in his career as a manager and consultant. He has asked several others, including Jim, to contribute their own thoughts in this area, and then to invite some others in. Dave and Aaron Potts will follow the contributions and then consolidate them as a single post.
I'm not usually a list kind of guy-- and the title might lead one to expect thoughts on marketing, capital, or organization development. But business is part of life, not the other way around. So here are things that have emerged as important learnings for me over the past 30 years of organizational and consulting life:
Ten Life Lessons From Business and Consulting
1. You can be in charge, but you're never in control.
2. If you have a Powerpoint slide with a graph whose curve always points upward, you're lying. Delete it.
3. If you look at people through your own eyes, you'll judge them for who you think they are. If you look at them through God's eyes, you'll see them for who they can become.
4. You can't be good at who you are until you stop trying to be all the things you are not.
5. Charge what you are worth. If you don't, you'll begin to resent your employer or client, even though you decided to take the assignment.
6. You can't control circumstances. You can control your response to them. Those who learn to respond thoughtfully and peacefully are the ones who are accorded trust and power.
7. Overt displays of position power show weakness. Genuine humility shows power.
8. All groups aren't "teams". Often they are just collections of people who work really, really well together. Leave them alone.
9. No one can know how to be an effective leader until they've toiled as a dedicated follower.
10. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge applied with discernment.
What Are Your Business Life Lessons?
Do you have life lessons from business that you would like to add? By all means, click on the comment box and contribute what you've learned. I'll pass them along to Jim, Dave, and Aaron.
And, I invite you to subscribe using whatever method is convenient for you in the left sidebar. That way, you'll always know what the conversation is about and can join in as you please.
Photo Source: wikipedia.org
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