WAITING FOR . . . ?

"How much of human life is lost in waiting."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet/essayist/lecturer

Waiting, itself, is not a bad thing, in fact it often turns bad into good.

It's doing so not thinking about why you are waiting that often leads you where you'd not like to be.

I THINK I SHOULD LISTEN

"When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself."

Plato

4th century BC Greek philosopher

I wonder.

What happens if the mind isn't listening to what it has to say?

Ahh, but no doubt Plato took that into account when he said, "When the mind is thinking . . ."

A closed mind doesn't think.

EVERYTHING THAT IS DOESN'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE

"Happy is he who learns to bear what he cannot change."

Friedrich Schiller 

18th century German dramatist/poet/historian

True, but the larger problem is not attempting to recognize what can be changed and working to see that it is.

The Serenity Prayer got it right.

WHO WILL CHANGE YOU?

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."

Karl Marx

19th century German philosopher/political economist

Marx's philosophy may have been taken off track by others, or never been on track in the first place. 

But he was right to advocate attempting to guide rather than be subjected to inevitable change.

Who will guide your change?

Your Replacement Is Here To See You

"To the old, the new is usually bad news."

Eric Hoffer

20th century American philosopher

But as a manager (old) part of your job is to find employees (new) who could potentially do your job.

What do you think of that?

Sooner Or Later They Will Be Heard

"A populace never rebels from passion for attack, but from impatience of suffering."

Edmund Burke

18th century British political writer

If your staff has grievances, hear them.

I Hope There's More

"Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper."

Francis Bacon

Late 16th/early 17th century British statesman

Much success begins with hope, and, when that's all there is, much failure as well.

Einstein Was Right

"All motion is relative, maybe it is you who have moved away by standing still."

Unknown

Like standing on the platform as the train pulls away, you're either progressing or regressing, and doing nothing is the same as doing the latter.

Fear As An Option

"The best safety lies in fear."

William Shakespeare

16th century British playwright/poet

To a point and rarely if ever in business.

Companies simply do not have the option to standstill out of fear of what may happen.

If they are not willing to proactively take risk and change, change will come to them, often in ways they will not like.

Sooner Is (Much) Better

"Don't wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it."

Unknown

Another exhortation to be proactive.

And staying with the "ship" analogy, I would add be looking for it before you see it.

You know, early birds, worms and the like.

Proactive Change

"Most human beings have an infinite capacity for taking things for granted."

Aldous Huxley
20th century British author

And suppose they do, is that a problem?

I believe so if it keeps one from proactively changing (notice the definition of change begins with "To cause".)

Management Anticipation

"Health is not simply the absence of sickness."

Hannah Green
Author

Applied to business, a company with few if any obvious problems is not necessarily in good shape. I know of many whose management complacently accepts the status quo with no apparent understanding of what lay ahead.

The best managers get paid more for seeing what others cannot.

How's your company when it comes to anticipation?

Management: Proactive or Reactive?

"Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself."

Zen

I can be as pastoral as the next guy and my years of yoga have helped me see the value of quiet, passive reflection. I also admire those who remain calm during turbulent times, particularly business managers who do so.

But being calm is not the same as sitting quietly and under certain circumstances, if we want the "grass to grow" we'd better do something to see that it does.

What about you?

Sitting quietly, doing nothing waiting for the "grass" to grow this "spring" or . . . ?