By Your Life

  Welcome to the one hundred and ninety-eighth episode of By Your Life. Thank you for joining me. If you haven’t already, please subscribe via your favorite podcast app, or on the right side of this page so I can send you notifications when each new episode is posted. And please forward to a friend you think would benefit from By Your Life. My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It is my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace, and to trust that it is good for business. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life. In this edition, we will reflect on the readings for  The Baptism of the Lord . I must admit, I struggled with this week’s episode and not because there wasn’t anything important to take away. Rather, there were too many things. But at the risk of being obvious, the thing of primary importance was and is our Ba...

The difference between power and authority: Authority comes with a position and is limited. Power is the ability to influence and can be unlimited. To develop your power, develop humility.

Although work/life balance is talked about a lot, it isn’t really what we seek. Instead, what we really want is more harmony in all areas of our lives.

Is your future a function of what you do now, or is what you do now a function of how you view your future? It is a little of both, so how do we enter this “chicken and egg” causality dilemma to affect change if we are dissatisfied?

People are attracted to leaders who challenge them, follow leaders who see in them the better person they can become, and are loyal to leaders who are ethical and worthy of following.

Dealing with difficult people is so frustrating that our instinct is to give them some of their own medicine. It may give some satisfaction, but in the long run, it often makes things worse.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but complacency killed the company. Beware that you and your company do not become complacent and let the competition catch you by surprise like a thief in the night.

Great leaders know that no one has all the information, can see a situation from all perspectives, nor has all the answers. Acknowledging this is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength.

A clear vision provides motivation to keep moving forward, a guide for making decisions, and direction for when we get off course, in business and in life.

What leaders say and do is important to their people if their people believe they are important to the leader. There is no simpler way to say “you’re important” than by remembering a person’s name.

Honoring the Golden Rule in the marketplace and generating profits are not mutually exclusive propositions.

One of the most difficult things to do is to correct others in a positive way.

In our capitalistic society, it is great to witness companies that have found the way to true and lasting success by benefiting their people and the greater good of society.

By Your Life seeks to transform performance reviews from well-intended, often dreaded, and rarely effective meetings into a more positive and productive experience for all involved.

Honoring commitments is more than just doing what you say you will do. Honoring commitments means helping others keep their commitments to you too.

A manager has the authority to direct the work of those who directly report to him or her. A leader, on the other hand, is one who influences others to achieve great things, regardless of title.

If what you are doing or how you are doing it doesn’t contribute to the mission, you should question why and how you are doing it.

Things go wrong and we look for someone to blame. But they will always go wrong because we are incapable of fully synthesizing complexity and what is efficient, isn’t necessarily right.

Feedback is as much of a gift when it is given as when it is received. Yet many organizations suffer from a lack of accountability because people aren’t comfortable giving and receiving feedback. Effective feedback is truth wrapped in mercy.