Tremendous Tracey

I hear a great deal about culture, and it seems to be this elusive wild animal that may be kind or may tear up your organization. I think it gets blamed or praised for a whole lot of the success and failures business owners and entrepreneurs experience. Individuals are what constitutes a culture. Each is responsible for the energy and behaviors he or she brings into the workplace. Each employee must continually ask themselves, "Am I here to make a difference for the organization or am I here to make a difference for myself?"

Becoming the next version of tremendousness is simple: Spark your willpower; fuel your staying power; and watch your tremendous power become a reality. Write down what you want to do with your week, your month, your year, your life, then ask yourself the two follow-on questions. Once you can answer yes to both, add healthy doses of people, books, prayer, self-discipline, and self-belief, and you’ll be on the path to a tremendous transformation.

As leaders, we wear many hats. We are optimists, encouragers, ethicists, decision-makers, saviors, and sense-makers. So just like the mighty forests, we must do the same for ourselves and our organization. We need to be intentional about who we allow in our forest. After all, you cannot get it right without the right people. We need to stay nourished as well because leading others, although incredibly uplifting, can also be unbelievably draining. We must deal with bureaucracies, laws, budgets, attitudes, and global issues. To stay above the fray, we need to make sure our roots go deep; so deep that when the winds of change or fires of crisis come into our forest, we can not only survive, but thrive.