Avoiding Mediocrity: Three Life Lessons from My Dad

Some People are Destined to a Life of Mediocrity

I interact with a lot of people for work.  Sometimes I am the customer, and sometimes the people I am dealing with are my customers.  Over the years I have become more and more aware of the fact that some people are just not very productive, no matter what job you put them in.  They just are not mentally prepared for success and therefore are destined for a life of mediocrity.  I started thinking about why some people are more driven (and likely) to succeed than others.  One of the many reasons that people think the way they think is the environment in which they are raised.  My father recently passed away.  I took some time over the past several weeks since his death to reflect on what I learned from my Dad and how those lessons have made me the man that I am.  While my Dad gave me plenty of advice (some good, some bad :-)), there were three recurring themes in all of his lessons. They are actually pretty straightforward words to live by.  I have captured them here and hope that they are as helpful to you as they have been to me.

Is there not a cause? Improving Team Performance through Visionary Leadership

Impassioned people do tremendous things

I spent many years in public service as a U.S. Marine and in Law Enforcement here in Central Florida before transitioning to private sector.  I have to say that during my time in public sector, I was constantly humbled by the high quality of the people I met and what we were willing to do for people we barely knew or, in most cases, did not know at all.  When the time came to act, we just did.  I know people who have paid a high price to serve others.  History is filled with those who gave even more... Those who "gave the last full measure of devotion" for a common good and in some way made us all better people.

Lessons on Leading Organizational Change

I have met those that believe organizational change is an exercise in futility.  They feel the amount of effort required to truly change a dysfunctional team is not worth the cost in emotional energy and stress.  Instead, they would rather continually suffer the wiles of errant team or simply quit.  Believe me, there are times when you probably should cut your losses and just find another job.  However, there are many instances in which rolling up your sleeves and engaging with others on the team will net the required results.

The Comfort of Chaos

Why do people prefer to live lives filled with mayhem and dissonance?

Do you know anybody that always has something going wrong in their lives either at home or at work.  If the kids aren't sick, then there are problems at work.  If work is going good, then their marriage is tanking.  If the marriage is good then their job sucks and is draining them completely.  In the workplace this attitude can be seen in people who allow the chaos from their private life to creep into their work life (or vice versa)