Early on in my career I took my first business trip to North Carolina where I participated in a ‘higher education’ conference. No, the conference wasn’t on the airplane although we were ‘higher’. Because it was North Carolina there was even a pig roast. Sadly, I couldn’t find an apple. To get from Vancouver to Winston-Salem, I took planes interconnected by the Star Alliance family – Air Canada and United Airlines – and since that trip I very rarely diverge from the family. I’m a loyal customer racking up (according to a recent personalized infographic sent to me by Air Canada’s loyalty program) over 2 million miles of business. Suffice to say that I’ve had a few apples in various lounges unlike Miss Piggy in
engagement Archive
During some recent travelling, I used it as an opportunity to re-read (power read, you might say) fellow author and Speakers Spotlight brother Simon Sinek’s book “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Others To Take Action“. The fact it was first published in 2009 still gives me goose bumps. Simon was — and continues to be — ahead of his time. If you haven’t done so already, watch his TEDxPuget Sound Talk to get a condensed 18-minute version of his fantastic hypothesis and theory centered (literally) on The Golden Circle. But you really should buy the book. (support those authors – we need new ribbons for the typewriter) Aside from a man-crush on Simon and being highly influenced by his book, I was struck
We could learn a thing or two from Star Wars. Take for example what happens when you forget to brush your teeth, floss or use mouthwash. No one wants green slime oozing out of their mouth like Jabba the Hutt. I think some of it might have actually fallen on Princess Leia when she was shackled to Jabba’s throne while wearing what was the coolest bikini I had ever seen as a then 11-year old boy. But I digress. One aspect of Star Wars that goes relatively unnoticed is the galaxy-class mentoring program that is woven into the story arc. No, I’m not kidding. How do Jedi’s become a Jedi? It’s a masterful example of a mentoring program. Anakin Skywalker had Obi-Wan Kenobi as his
As it turns out, cycling is beginning to take over North America as an extra-curricular athletic hobby. According to the National Sporting Goods Association the number of Americans who ride bicycles is greater than all those who ski, golf, and play tennis combined. According to Outdoor Foundation there were 1.2 billion cycling outings in America in 2011 second only to jogging and running. This got me thinking about one of my favourite personal passions (cycling) and our corporate organizations. Maybe if we were to act like a peloton in our organizations, we might see higher levels of employee engagement. What’s a peloton? In cycling speak, it’s what a pack of cyclists are called when they ride together. Check out the photo to the right for