Tag Archives: moving forward

Posted on

What A Swan Taught Me About Leadership

On a warmer February afternoon, Pamela and I walked through our neighborhood. We walked over a creek, which is a hotbed of activity during the summer. In the winter months, there’s not much going on.

However, on this day, we saw two ducks and two swans. The two ducks and one swan were swimming along fine. They were having a great time in the water.

But then there was the second swan…

A swan on water. There is ice surrounding the swan.

He’s in the middle of an ice patch. All around him is a crunchy layer of ice. What we saw happen next surprised me.

The swan didn’t take flight. He pushed himself forward, again and again, into the ice. He was breaking through the ice so he could get to the portion of the creek that was free of ice.  Read more...

Posted on

What To Do When You Fail To Meet Expectations

It’s going to happen. One day you’re going to let someone down.

This letdown may be your coworkers, your boss, your spouse, your parents, or some other important person in your life. The truth of the matter is you’re going to disappoint them at some point.

We all do it. We might as well be open and honest about this truth. Once we’re honest with ourselves, we can create a plan of action for what we can do when we fail to meet expectations.

Whenever we let someone down, there’s the pang of guilt. We know we didn’t uphold our end of the bargain. The ball was dropped. We were a disappointment.

We’ll often scramble to create an excuse as to why we failed to meet the expectations someone had for us. We’ll throw out excuses. We’ll blame others. We’ll clam up.  Read more...