Why You Should Have a Love Affair with Problems

 

"The problem, if you love it, is as beautiful as the sunset." – Jiddu Krishnamurti

We live in a world where people have been conditioned to get rid of problems or breakdowns.  In fact, we are trained to use more comfortable words like challenges.  It is a problem to use the word problem; people become uncomfortable when you tell them you will give them problems.

However, the world of breakthroughs or quantum leaps is almost always

Part One of Interview on the LadyK Show

In an engaging online interview, I talk about business, breakthroughs and relationships.  Listen to part one of counterintuitive perspectives on how to have greater success in your career or business.

See link for interview:  http://theladykshow.tumblr.com/post/140664356811/today-on-the-ladykshow-we-are-talking-to-ted.

What do you think? I’m open to ideas. Or if you want to write me about a specific topic, connect through my blog www.turnaroundip.blogspot.com.

Top 10 Ways to Become a Bad Leader

In a recent video, I talked about the difference between leadership and management.  In it, I stated that managers control and oversee what happens in time and space.  Leaders, on the other hand, disrupt what occurs in time and space.  While that approach may sound simple, many leaders unknowingly

Ted Santos - Can You Be Empowered by Adversity?

Ted Santos - Are You a Leader or a Manager?

Ted Santos - Talks About How to Gain From Adversity

Maximizing Board Dynamics

So You Want to Be Chairman of the Board?

Do You Need Special Talents to Produce Breakthroughs?

Why Solving Problems Does Not Solve Problems

Tools for Breakthroughs

What’s More Important Than Knowledge?

"Imagination is more important than knowledge" – Albert Einstein

Why would one of the smartest people in history say something so counterintuitive? We are taught to depend on knowledge; that it is power.  Furthermore, we are taught to depend on knowledge that was created by others.  We spend countless hours studying and memorizing knowledge others conjured up in their imagination.  After memorizing what we studied, our intelligence is assessed.  If we retained most of the knowledge created by others, we are deemed intelligent. 

However, knowledge is from

Ted Santos Talks on Breaking Barriers

What's Your Breakthrough?

If It’s Not Maximizing Shareholder Value, What Is the CEO’s First Priority?

In recent years, Apple Inc. was announced the most valuable stock to ever be traded, reaching a peak market cap over $950 billion. Since the departure of founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, company shares have continued to grow. From debut through the present, Apple has been a driving force outside its original core competencies and a poster child for innovation.

Apple’s performance is

What Do You Want?

What do you want? Is a simple question. It can be applied to your career, marriage, friendships, recreation and life in general. While simple, many of the answers people give may not be what they want. The answers may be more of a sign of the times.

If we go back 150 years, in the US, when most worked on farms, people may have wanted

How Important Is Alignment?

Whether your company has 10 or 10,000 people, everyone needs to be aligned. It does not mean absolute agreement. It means “we” are aligned on how to move the company, department or team forward. The first alignment is to what the organization does. Do we make tires, cars or shoes? Once we know the product or service, we can identify our target market?

While those questions appear simple, if everyone in the company is

3 Things CEOs Should Know Before Changing Corporate Culture

There is a common belief amongst most corporate executives: “changing corporate culture is one of the most difficult things to do.” Perhaps it’s so difficult because it involves human beings. People are not as simple as changing the oil in your car or the software in your computer. While transforming culture may appear analogous to changing computer software, there are complexities that make them enormously different. With that said, here are 3 aspects that outline some of those differences. Every CEO should consider them before initiating change initiatives.

People come with baggage: Unlike software in a computer, people have been

The Road to High Performance

“If you pay in peanuts, you get monkeys.” – Anonymous

In a high performing culture, which comes first – money or performance?

Doling out a salary of peanuts to your employees may very well turn them into monkeys.  At the same time, you don’t want to overpay them either. Before you get caught up in a chicken-egg paradox, you must realize that money alone will not increase employees’ value proposition to the company.

After speaking with many retired CEOs, they have all commented that it is

4 Things CEOs Should Never Do

There are many books written by people who have a theoretical understanding of leadership. They write about characteristics and ideologies that sound like common sense. Yet, putting those abstract ideas into practice is almost never as easy as it sounds.  After decades of leading organizations and advising CEOs, I have seen leaders struggle to produce great results through others. In some cases, they attempt to overcome the struggle with short cuts. While some of those short cuts can give the appearance of control, they often backfire. Here are four common errors that can

Here’s Why Some People Will Never Be Emotionally Resilient

Emotions have nothing to do with emotional resilience. What’s called emotional resilience has everything to do with the conversations you have with yourself. Before there is an emotion, there is a thought. That thought dictates whether or not you have an emotion and what it will be. Therefore, it is the

How Well Do You Lead Your Direct Reports?

If you're the CEO, your direct reports are critical to the success of the company.  In fact, some may say direct reports are smarter than the CEO.  Yet, they can be the most under utilized resource the CEO has. This happens more so if the CEO is very smart.

While being smart has its benefits, it can

Are Perfect Relationships Possible?

Thus far, we’ve established that nature is perfect. We’ve also established that human beings are nature. Therefore, people are perfect. If we observe nature, it seems she does not make mistakes, even if we don’t fully comprehend her plan. With that said, how is it that two people who are essentially perfect come together in a relationship that falls apart? In the US, more than 50% of marriages end in divorce. Nature does not divorce herself from us. She operates in cycles. She wastes nothing and has an intention for every event, whether it’s

Build the Perfect Corporation

In nature, you find perfection. And everything functions according to its design. You don’t find fish climbing trees nor do you see hawks running around on the ground chasing its prey. The fish swim in water with precision and alacrity. The hawk uses flight for surveillance of the land then swoops down on its prey and carries it away. In nature, you see the fish and other animals operate with optimal performance as they function in the capacity they were designed to do. In corporations, it’s possible to elicit optimal performance from employees. However, if you squander talent in an organization, you will find less than optimal performance. Squandering talent is

Is It True That No One Is Perfect?

Before you respond to the title, consider the following.  If you observe the universe, it’s perfect.  The same is true for nature on our planet.  The collaboration between the celestial planets and stars allows life to thrive in great abundance.  With that said, if you look at human beings, we are part of nature.  In fact, it could be said we are, like all animals, nature.  If nature is perfect, that makes people perfect.  But…..

We have been