The event of a birthday can causes us to be a bit reflective on life thus far. As I am now in my mid-fifties, there’s plenty to reflect on. I am also in transition from being a business owner/leader to a life of coaching and serving others, which is another life event that spurs me into reflective thinking.
Below are thoughts I shared with a number of business leaders recently as I was departing from local CEO group (Vistage) that I was part of for over 16 years. Perhaps you’ll find some of this useful . . .
On Business:
- I waited too long to replace poor performers
- Developing a real leadership team has been key. That means I have to lead, manage and hold others accountable – meaning let and require of others to do their jobs
- Measure, monitor, process orientation, accountability. Those are important. This can be accomplished lots of ways, but ask yourself if you’re really DOING those things or if you simply KNOW about those things. You must close the gap between what we KNOW and what we DO. Be honest with yourself about this one.
- Execution eats strategy for lunch. Sure, having a strategy is really important, but I think we’ve failed more often due to having too many strategies and lousy implementation. Doing few things well moves the numbers. Focus on getting better at that, and you’ll have time for strategizing later.
On Life:
- Love others; really love. Real love is action, so give and serve as often as you can. You’ll never regret having given or served too much. Do this one thing provides relief to a lot of others in your life.
- Faith does not equal religion. I hate religion and how people have been harmed and misled by this over the centuries; but I do have a faith.
- When I look at my life, how little of my good circumstances I really have controlled (where I was born, to whom, opportunities, people that have influenced me, education, good breaks in business, my great wife and kids) then I consider the complexity AND order in this world, particularly in nature, I conclude that someone or something must provide the guidance or intelligence behind all this. It can’t be random; the math doesn’t work.
- No position we take on the subject of orderly, intelligent design or creation by some other method eliminates doubt completely as no side can completely prove its case – so it takes “faith”. Any side of this takes faith to take a position. I believe I have a name for the “who” behind all this. My hope is that you’ll also find an answer to the biggest question mankind has always faced, too.
- Be humble. If you think you are, well, you’re not. I have wrestled with this my whole life. It simply isn’t my nature to be humble. So this one is the only advise here that I would say is truly advise, because I haven’t done this completely yet. I hope to look back someday and see how this may have improved for me. We’ll see.
Happy birthday to me 🙂 I’m excited for what may be to come!
Richard Bahr 