I’m enjoying the newest issue of Motto magazine. The magazine’s tagline is "Purpose, Passion, and Profit." To give you a flavor of the magazine, think Fast Company meets Body and Soul.
The May/June issue has a cover story on 50 Life Tips from 10 Top Coaches. To be honest, there’s not a whole lot new under the sun when it comes to tips from coaches. So I was pleased to see two coaches interviewed who I admire (me and lots of other people), Marshall Goldsmith and Andrea Lee. Both are unconventional thinkers.
Goldsmith finds the nugget of wisdom by being a keen observer of human nature. His tip? "Stop adding too much value." His point is that successful people have a hard time saying "I already knew that" or "I know a better way" when others share ideas. This might be fine if you are talking to your neighbor about fertilizing the lawn or getting rid of rabbits. But it’s counter-productive when you are trying to motivate and develop your staff.
Lee’s gift is in making sense of the counterintuitive. Her tip: "The goal is to double your income and double your time off. You do that by getting more mileage out of single actions." I like the idea that we get more, by doing less, more strategically. It doesn’t have to be hard. Really, it doesn’t.
There’s lots more in this issue. I looked for months for the magazine on newstands and came up empty-handed. So when I got a subscription last Christmas, I was thrilled. Due to a glitch in their subscription department, the first issue didn’t arrive until this week, when I was laying in bed, recovering from a nasty virus, sapped of my usual energy. Someone must have known that I was in need of a little inspiration.