A few months back I wrote about relationships in terms of how you can use them to bring value to your work, home and spiritual life.  Today I want to explore how friendships can impact our professional and personal relationships now and for years to come.  I’m looking at this from the viewpoint of how my career has rewarded me with “friendships”, in addition to “relationships” that bring value to a business.

Goal setting is the first step in building an ultimately successful business. Goals define what you and your team want to achieve and in what time frame. So as a team you set the long-term goal, then the mid-term goals, and short-term goals. It will let your team know where you want the organization to go and how to get there.

Simply stated, Leadership means to lead. Yet how many of us take time to examine how we lead? Is our mindset, “do as I say, not as I do?” Or do we “lead by example?”

Building or maintaining a company culture of excellence requires an understanding of the importance of following SOP’s, or communicating through the proper channels. To achieve excellence within the organization requires an implicit understanding among all team members of the corporate expectations that are built on creating a legacy of trust, timeliness, credibility, and more.

In recent months, I’ve shared my thoughts on how to go from bad to good or good to great, and about passion. The underlying energy that allows us to change for the better, or to feel passionate about our work, is a foundation for creating and maintaining strong bonds within our family, our faith, and most certainly, our careers.

What does "passion" mean to you? There are obvious meanings – strong affection or desire, an outbreak of anger, or an intense feeling or conviction. The Christian religions refer to "The Passion" as the suffering of Christ between The Last Supper and his crucifixion. When I think about my passion, I think about ardent affection and intense conviction. This definition is how I embrace passion and how I've used passion throughout my career.