“Creating choices empowers me…giving choices empowers others” ~ Joe Contrera A friend of mine once asked me a question when I was going through a pretty tough time in my life. They asked, “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” Believe it or not, my initial response was, “I…
Quiet Quitting… An Oxymoron? The term quiet quitting has been being bantered around a lot lately. Apparently, it is a derivative of the Great Resignation, and is defined as an employee who puts no more effort into their job than absolutely necessary, basically it is about doing the bare minimum. As an executive coach, I…
“The time is always right to do what is right.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Oh Wells – Why Do You Fargo Your Ethics? Being an ethical leader in todays world can be extremely challenging. My latest book, Extraordinary Results for Life is based on the premise that you cannot be a crappy person and be…
“Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.” ~ Joseph Campbell The Blame Game Is it me, or have you noticed the astronomical rise in situations where folks are blaming anyone and anything for their problems? Have you noticed that practically every other news media story,…
Who’s On Your Team? As I reflect over the first two months of this year, I was struck by the number of leaders and teams I had the privilege of working with. I have the privilege of walking alongside these folks and help them push past their comfort zones to do the hard work of…
Perfection, Projection, & Integrity Many of us we’re taught to pursue perfection. We were imprinted with the belief that perfection was achievable. We just had to try hard enough, work long enough, or be good enough. Please don’t get me wrong here, I am not saying we should not always strive to do or to…
Us vs. Them: A We Bit of a Problem The other day I was chatting with a client about the inner-workings at a gold mine. There is an ongoing issue that happens throughout the mining industry between the Maintenance Department and Operations. Now remember, we’re talking giant pieces of equipment. Fully-loaded Haul trucks that weigh…
Accountability & Success: You Can’t Have One Without the Other! Most of us want to be successful. If we were being completely honest, most of us, would also like success to happen easily. Isn’t that why we buy lottery tickets or read self-help books and never change? Do you think that’s why some folks believe…
*(An excerpt from Joe’s new coming coming out later this year) Extraordinary Wisdom – Part III “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein. A Most Extraordinary Thinker One of the people I admire most is Albert Einstein. Over the course of many years I have quoted him quite often. Partially,…
Unhappy in Life…Unhappy at Work! A few weeks ago I told you that I was starting to share excerpts from my new book entitled, Extraordinary!:The Ultimate Guide To Living Your Extraordinary Life, which is scheduled to be out the first quarter of next year. Well in doing that I started getting feedback from a few…