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Yes! Your Job Can Be Creative
Leadership November 1, 2022/Leadership I heard a quote recently that really resonated with me. “Creativity starts with an empty calendar and ends with a full one.” With all the demands of work and life, it’s very easy to fill up every waking minute with focused and productive activities. I have also noticed over the…
Read More >>Quiet Quitting Shouldn’t Be Controversial
Leadership October 20, 2022/Leadership Media has been filled with stories about “quiet quitting”. These stories often have a tone of indignation: what is wrong with workers today? If you aren’t familiar, quiet quitting refers to workers who stop making any extra effort. I believe employers who think this is outrageous are misunderstanding something…
Read More >>Predictions, Demographics… and Money
Investment October 7, 2022/Investment Many people find demographics boring – just another kind of statistics. I’m not going to bore you with math or charts, but let’s talk about how powerful demographics can be. Demographics are all about the big trends in a society. If you pay attention to the direction of change,…
Read More >>Getting To The Point
Investment September 29, 2022/Investment To paraphrase Mark Twain, sorry for writing such a long letter, I would have written a shorter one, but I didn’t have the time. Don’t worry, this piece isn’t actually long. I have a point and I’ll get right to it. These days, business communications are often rambling and…
Read More >>Case Study: Lease Renewal… Win-Win
Investment September 21, 2022/Investment Fear of vacancy runs deep for many commercial property owners. A looming lease termination date means uncertainty, and often difficult negotiations. Many commercial real estate property owners will sell in the few years before a lease terminates… And often, their risk aversion is Alliance’s opportunity. Some of our…
Read More >>Compound Interest… Compound Habits
Leadership September 15, 2022/Leadership What’s the secret to your success? You hear questions like this all the time these days… at networking events, podcast interviews, fairy tale memoirs. I don’t intend to sound dismissive, I find myself asking this kind of question sometimes also. Underneath this question is a terrific intention to learn…
Read More >>Avoiding Decision Fatigue
Leadership September 9, 2022/Leadership Business leaders have earned their stripes. We’ve honed our business judgment through years of experience and wins. But exercising good judgment day-to-day requires more. It requires mental sharpness and vitality. Coming to each decision, and moment, with openness and a fresh mind. For me, and many others, personal habits…
Read More >>Overcoming My Self-Limiting Beliefs
Leadership August 31, 2022/Leadership For years, I built Alliance incrementally. Deal by deal. Of course, that’s the only way to do it… but at some point it became its own kind of comfort zone. I was “successful”, but also playing it small. While I was chasing the next win, I wasn’t then seeing…
Read More >>Are You Owning It?
Leadership August 25, 2022/Leadership I’m always looking to grow as a person. Sometimes life throws you challenges to overcome… and other times an idea emerges in your head telling you exactly what you ought to do. One day, not too long ago, it finally occurred to me that it was time to invest…
Read More >>Will Energy Disruptions Impact You?
Investment August 19, 2022/Investment Energy is getting more expensive and more complicated. So much of what fuels our economy is cheap, reliable energy… and that has recently become more expensive and in much of the world, less reliable. Right now, the situation is most disruptive in Europe, where an overreliance on Russian natural…
Read More >>Not More Time… But More Attention
Leadership August 12, 2022/Leadership “Attention is the cash value of your time” – Sam Harris I love this line. I believe it carries a lot of insight into how we can all be more effective in our lives. There is a fundamental importance of being very intentional with our attention, not just our…
Read More >>Investing in Yourself… For the Business
Leadership August 4, 2022/Leadership These last few years, I have been extremely focused on taking Alliance to the next level. It’s been quite a journey, and it has reminded me that every business is only as strong as its foundations. These organizational foundations boil down to a talented team, a healthy culture, and the…
Read More >>Responsibility, But Not Control?
Leadership July 29, 2022/Leadership A few times recently, I came across this saying called the serenity prayer. It goes “grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” This probably sounds a little out there for some…
Read More >>Reflections on 2022… Excitement for 2023
Leadership July 15, 2022/Leadership One of my favorite parts of the December holiday season is that it’s a perfect time to reflect on the progress of the past year and set intentions for the next. 2022 has been a year of growth and change for me personally, and for Alliance. We launched our…
Read More >>Are You Selecting or Electing?
Leadership July 1, 2022/Leadership You can tell a lot about companies by watching how they make decisions. Clear, decisive, accountable leadership nearly always leads to better results, but over time, many organizations leave this behind. In my decades of business experience, I have seen inside a lot of different companies. The bigger they…
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