Seth Godin, who posts thoughts on marketing, value, and originality on his blog every day, published the book Purple Cow back in 2003. Online marketing hadn’t yet peaked then but web marketers were already challenging conventional advice about how businesses should map out and manage their public-facing communication, influence and impact, and reputation. Purple Cow […]
Wisdom requires action
At the Justice Conference in Chicago last month, local minister Rev. Harvey Carey provoked peals of laughter from attendees when he talked about people going from conference to conference, writing great ideas in their notebooks, going home mountain-top high, and then never applying those insights to their lives or work. I laughed too, in the […]
Ending Well
Life is as much endings as it is beginnings and maintenance. But I never got taught how to close things down, and entrepreneurs don’t easily tell the stories of the business ideas that failed or the companies that folded. We talk about startups, not shutdowns. We teach whole courses about how to get new jobs, […]
Leadership means accepting authority
Look at the relationship between the English words authority and author. It’s almost as if this language conspired to remind us that authority is about intrinsic power to write one’s way into new realities, interpretations, and ways of being. What I didn’t know until recently is that there’s also an etymological relationship between author and authentic. To be authentic means to be real and […]
Doesn’t Matter Who You Are: Write.
Today Forbes shared 8 recommendations for business writing, including avoiding unnecessary jargon and writing “as though you’re talking to the person face-to-face.” Simplicity, directness, and a suitable tone are very important aspects of writing, but not just in the commercial world. Poor writing is also a plague on the non-profit / social good sector. Improving […]
Uncertainty and Poor Planning
Don’t miss this post from Harvard Business Review’s Roger Martin on why the world around you doesn’t have to be static for you to plan properly. Strategy and the Uncertainty Excuse Productive adaptation requires a strategic mindset and constant awareness about the fit between what you’re offering and what your environment calls for. If the […]
