Posted by: Paul Dunk People are people – not tools to accomplish a vision, or a means to get what we want. A while back, Susan and I were at a family gathering and were being introduced to her sisters boyfriend. We were going around the room introducing ourselves, and at some point someone used a classic cleche’ often reserved for moments like that one … “Don’t worry, we won’t test you later on all our names.” After we...
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Posted by: Paul Dunk Stressing fundamentals. When I coach the little 9-10 year old bobbleheads on the football field each fall, I yell some of the same things that will be yelled this weekend during the AFC Divisional Game. Regardless of stats, salaries and endorsement contracts – there are certain things that are non-negotiable and fundamental for success at any level. Like reminding a player to “hold onto the ball” for instance. Not exactly new information, but based on...
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Posted by: Susan Dunk I wonder how many pounds lost, books read, races run in 2012 will exist only in the imagination? Locked forever within a wish. What makes a dream a reality? Resolution? It’s possible. The power of will has a achieved a lot for mankind. Vision however, is a much more compelling force than resolve could ever be. What could be possible if this year we had a vision for who it is that we want to...
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Posted by: Susan Dunk Paul just replaced the light bulb in our fridge. It had been out for years. I came downstairs and noticed it immediately when I opened the door – it was like I had a brand new fridge. What I found enormously interesting was how accustomed I had become to the light being out. Every time someone was over and opened my fridge they would say, “Did you know your fridge light was out?” and I...
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This blog was spurned on by a recent tweet I read…”just because your feelings are loud doesn’t mean they are right.” Your feelings being right really isn’t the issue if they are loud. If our feelings are loud, don’t you think they’re trying to say something to us? Sometimes as leaders we need to be willing to go a little deeper than “I shouldn’t feel this way.” Feelings get a bad rap. If they are inconsistent with what we think we...
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In every organization, team, group, family and relationship, there is the opportunity for complaint. To see transformation, the question isn’t “Is this complaint justified?” But rather, “how long has the complaint persisted?” Examining the length of time a complaint exists is very telling as to our commitment to actually desire to move forward. “The communication around here is terrible.” “My kids just don’t listen.” “I wish things were different around here.” How long has it been this way? “Years”...
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You might have seen on twitter that I had the opportunity to coach my sons football team in the Rogers Centre last week. A great experience for sure. The minutes leading up to it however, had my stomach in knots. Traffic was awful headed into Toronto and I got a text from the head coach that we were on the field in 2 minutes … but I hadn’t even parked the car yet. When I got the text and...
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Today Susan and I were hosting a leadership training at Manulife Financial in Waterloo for a select group of staff with our company, in2possibility. After an interactive exercise, Susan comes up to me and makes an observation. She shares it with me and says, “I’d like to share this with the team.” I reflect on it, and suggest it might not serve. About two minutes later, one of the VP’s of talent development comes over and makes the same observation...
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Last week Susan and I had the amazing privilege of traveling to gorgeous St. John’s NewFoundland together. I am in the initial stages of creating a national youth initiative for Gideon’s Canada. We were given a few minutes on stage to address the crowd which was in excess of 3,000 teenagers in the Mile One Stadium in St. Johns at the YC Conference. As we waited to go onstage (when I took this pic) the presenter who was ahead...
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We love movies. We always stay for the credits. Always. Trailers are like highlight reels: they show you some ultra-cool stuff in the hopes you’ll buy into the whole story. The behind-the-scenes section of the Blue Ray disc is full of things that never made it into the feature. A potentially discouraging leadership dynamic is that that we are acutely aware of what is going on “behind the scenes” in our business, but when we look outside, online or...
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