Michael Nichols | Leadership Made Simple

Leadership Made Simple

Articles

The ONE Reason Everyone Should Create a SIMPLE Business Plan

When YOU think of business planning, what comes to mind? Scary? Boring? Valuable? Too much trouble? Worthless? Priceless?

There are literally hundreds of business plan guides, software programs, and websites, and thousands of business planning consultants. Many business planning approaches have one similar flaw – they’re far too complicated – even for business leaders.

Many of them would take us days, weeks, months, even years to complete. And then they’d sit on a remote shelf in a corner office somewhere collecting dust never again to see the light of day.

That’s NOT the kind of business plan I’m talking about. The best ideas – the best businesses – begin as SIMPLE ideas that are pursued with fanatic clarity.

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3 Reasons Many Have Already Given Up On Goals for the New Year

A new course toward your degree. A new job or a new diet. That book you were reading. Your workout. New Year’s resolutions. A business plan. Your life plan. A relationship. Attending church. Getting out of debt. Quitting smoking.

You were doing great – then you weren’t. What happened?! 

What causes us to give up on our goals? Why do we so readily abandon our dreams? How can we just walk away?

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Rough is What Shapes

Why is life so difficult? Why can’t our work be simpler? And why the need for so much drama?

I hate pain. I despise discomfort. So when I’m going through a rough time, I often look for the quickest exit from the discomfort. Maybe you do too.

In these challenging moments, I begin asking – How can I solve this problem? How can I repair the hurt? How can we minimize the damage. And, How can I do it fast?!

What painful experience are you navigating today? Have you been hurt deeply by a friend, family member, or colleague? Do you work with a poor leader? Does your dysfunctional organization seem beyond repair?

Why does it seem that we’re caught up in a never-ending saga of painful experiences?

I’ve learned that there’s one reason. Here it is…

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Tough Times – 5 Things to Remember

Tough times are inevitable. Something is going to happen to you that you didn’t want to happen – you didn’t expect to happen. What are you going to do about it?

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. And in my first visit to a presidential library, I was reminded of the difficult moments, days, weeks, and months following the September 11, 2001 attacks on our country.

In one of the exhibits, I watched a short video in which the former president said:

I never wanted to be a wartime president.

And there are going to be things that happen to you that you didn’t want – or expect to happen to you. 

Let’s face it – Life is going to deal you a hand that you don’t want to play. And the fundamental question is – how are you going to play it?

That’s just the way life is.

Like you (and our 43rd president), I have been confronted by some incredibly difficult circumstances. Yes – there were times when the pain was the byproduct of my own poor choices. But many times, it was not.

And rather than wasting precious time and enormous amounts of energy regretting my path, asking why or what if – I have chosen to focus on these 5 things when I’m faced with tough times…

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