Machen MacDonald

Are you caught in the busy trap? Do you wonder, at the end of the day, what you actually got accomplished? You know you were mega busy and worked harder than those around you. You may have even checked off a couple of items from your to do list; even the ones you wrote down after you completed the task....

Having a clear, articulated vision is a proven critical success factor. Below is a brief video with a few ideas to understand how your vision can energize your...

by: Machen MacDonald Most of us run our lives on a handful of systems. Between our cell phones, our planners and our e-mail inboxes, we have organized ourselves and our time. And if you ever doubt the importance of these systems, recall your panic the last time you lost your planner. Yet as important as...

These days, the ultimate question may not be “What is the meaning of life?”, but simply, “Where do I find the time?” Between our work and personal lives (family, friends, exercise, sports, hobbies, community commitments), most of us have seriously overbooked ourselves. We strive so hard to “have...

“For the world is full of zanies and fools who don’t believe in sensible rules, and don’t believe what sensible people say,” wrote Rodgers & Hammerstein, in their lyrics to the 1964 movie Cinderella. “And because these daft and dewey-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible...

With organizations and individuals so fervently focused on the bottom line, it’s easy to ignore “softer” goals, such as listening well. All that touchy-feely stuff is a waste of my time, you might say or think. On the contrary! A focus on listening can lead to more effective teamwork, higher...

There is a well-known axiom in business that “failure to plan is planning to fail.” Well-known, and, all too often, honored in the breach. It is planning, in its many guises, that ultimately has the greatest impact on whether you finish a task or project on time. But for many of the tasks thrown our way...

The path of a goal, whether a goal set for your personal life or in the course of business, generally has four steps: assess the situation, set goals for how you want it to be, take steps to achieve the goals, and achieve the goals (completion). After Step 4, many people return to Step 1, with the...