I recognize that all of the readers of this blog are not on the East Coast or even in the United States. But, where I am it is 5am and there is already about 8 inches of snow on the ground. And, we are bracing for 1 to 2 feet more. My family is upstairs in bed so I thought I’d send a quick note out to my readers with a few things to do during the next few days…even if you are not caught in this snow storm. Continue reading “SNOW! What to Do…”
Author: Ted Capshaw
Do You Know What You Signed Up For?
Two mornings ago at about 2am my almost 4 year old, Jaxon, crawled into bed next to me. Jaxon shows up most early mornings next to me but on this night he must have been spooked or not feeling well. I heard a whisper in my ear, “Daddy, I want you to hold my hand.” I put my hand near him, he grabbed it an held it close to his chest. Actually he held my hand tight with both of his hands. And if I moved, he quickly pulled it closer to him. This happened 3 more times in the next 2 hours. I was touched and my heart was full of love and gratitude. But, I also laid there realizing the depth of what I signed up for as his father. Continue reading “Do You Know What You Signed Up For?”
Read This Post Carefully…
…and consider changing your approach.
My Grandfather, my Mom’s father, was an amazing man. A war veteran and a New York City firefighter. But these two experiences didn’t necessarily match up with his ever so gentle approach to people. A gentle and engaging soul. I loved him dearly.
When my grandmother died some years ago, I flew down to Florida to attend her funeral and my approach to addressing death changed forever. I never told my Grandfather this before he died but now, in his name, I share it with you. After the funeral we were back at his house and he brought me into his bedroom. He first showed me that he kept my number in his wallet because he thought I was a good person to talk to and then with his lip quivering he said this, “Ted, people keep telling me that I should be grateful that I had so many years with Grandma, but what they don’t understand is that it is just many more years to miss.” Continue reading “Read This Post Carefully…”
Who are YOU?…Take 2
In my last last post I challenged you to pay attention to who you truly are. Not just pay attention but to think about who you want to be…how you want to be perceived. I even went so far to ask you to picture yourself at your own funeral and ask yourself some questions around that. Since posting that I have l done some more reflection around this. Most of my reflection has been centered around the fact that I have been seeing a lot of campaigns on TV and social media that are focused on “What is your why?” or “Find your WHY”. This obviously is similiar to my last post. However….
Terror! Feeling Helpless. We are Not.
Terrorism. I am not dismissing international terrorism. How could I? The heaviness of it. The loss of life. The injustice. The deep sense of fear it instill in most of us. The anger. The sadness. The feeling of helplessness.
However, in the last week the alerts on my phone, the news, the regular shows being disrupted, and the radio have been dominated by terrorism. Domestic terrorism. In our own backyards. Committed by our neighbors. And in my mind, they create all the above emotions. Perhaps tenfold as we try to wrap our heads around what is going on in our country. That is if we have not become numb to it or accepting these happenings as the norm. Can you actually name all the mass shootings that have happened in the past year? I can’t but there was a time that I could. A time that I miss. That I long for. A time that I surely would have held my wife and kids tighter but not as tight as I want to hold them right now. It has gotten out of control.
It sounds cheap to say, my thoughts and prayers are with the families affected in just the last week by the two shootings….and all of these tradgedies. But they are. As I write this and break a major rule I have for myself and my family…being present…I am trying to concentrate while I listen two my two beautiful sons “be brothers”. I would not normally do this (step into my den during family time) but I refuse to render myself or you helpless, because I have to protect them in anyway I can. Continue reading “Terror! Feeling Helpless. We are Not.”
Who are YOU?
If I asked you to draw a penny, could you? What is on the face of a penny? Who? And, can you put all that is on a penny in the right place? Go ahead, try it. Really, stop reading, and try it.
You failed, right? If you didn’t fail, congrats, you are among a rare minority.
We have been handling pennies since we were small children…20, 30, 40 or even 60 plus years of handling pennies yet we could not even describe exactly what is on it. Sad, isn’t it.
I have been doing this excercise for about a decade with individuals, small groups and larger audiences. I can remember maybe 3 times that someone got it right. I have always found it interesting but only in the last few years have I flipped the script on what the exercise illustrates for me. What began as an excercise about paying attention to detail turned into an excercise about self. Let me explain. Continue reading “Who are YOU?”
Stopping to Smell The Roses…
…and reflect on a few lessons learned since the inception of my blog.
Many Requests…Many Fears…17 Years. It’s Time!
That was the title of my first post. I was nervous. Would anyone want to read this stuff? I was surely going to alert people, some of who I didn’t even know, about the inner workings of my being, my insecurtites, my story, and my view on life and leadership. And, that was unnerving to say the least. I said to my wife, “It would be cool if one day I had 100 people plugged in.” Well, this is my 20th post and some folks have plugged in…blog stats from today. Continue reading “Stopping to Smell The Roses…”
A Players Will Leave
Characteristics of an A Player:
- Competent at what they do and delivers desired results consistently
- Understands that leadership is action not position
- Highly emotionally intelligent and therefore someone that is sought after for practical and otherwise advice
- Proactively seeks to add value in undirected ways
- Positive attitude and an ambassador of the desired culture
- Holds himself/herself accountable
There are other characteristics and always ones that are specific to a job, but these are the foundational ones to me.
Now, have you ever lost someone like this? Ever worked with someone that left you behind to take on “bigger and better” things?
Losing A Players slows down productivity, beats down morale and takes a chunk out of the bottom line. And often enough starts a trickle down resulting in losing more A Players. Go a layer deeper only to find clients wondering why you can’t hold on to good employees. Result…You could lose clients too. No bueno.
But, completely avoidable in many instances…if not all. Continue reading “A Players Will Leave”
Proud Papa
I would stand on a mountain top and scream at the top of my lungs how proud I am to be the father of my son, Maxwell, who turns 2 today. Well, I most likely would not be able to scream because I would be crying. Those of you that know me well know this to be true. Maxwell is more than worthy of my tears of pride, joy, humility and soulfully deep love.
Even since before my sons were born I have been writing them letters. For holidays, their birthdays, after family vacation, while I am on a plane for a business trip or when something seemingly simple yet profound happens. They each have their own album of letters and my hope is to present them with the letters on the day they graduate high shcool. And yes, I do think if something should happen to me that they will have my written word on what they mean to me, a few lessons thrown in there, and images of my life with them. Below I share the letter I wrote Maxwell for his 2nd birthday. I share it because it is something some of you could be doing for varying people in your life. Something that could have a profound affect on them later in life. But mostly I share to share my joy and pride. I am indeed a “Proud Papa”…very proud!
