Good morning, Team! It’s Friday! (Father’s Day weekend is almost here)

Leadership lessons start at home. How did your Father (and Mother) prepare you to be a good citizen and a leader?

Kouzes and Posner, in the Leadership Challenge, break leadership development into five categories:

•model the way

•inspire a shared vision

•challenge the process

•enable others to act

•encourage the heart

I’ll focus on how my Dad prepped me for a potential leadership role…

•I was taught to work hard. Long hours, strenuous work, and Dad was always in front.

•I was told why we were doing what we did.

-Push the snow to the end of the storage location or the piles would freeze up and prevent you from using all of the space.

-Balance the truck tires after repair and reinstall so they don’t prematurely wear

-Grade the road to drain so soft spots don’t form resulting in stuck and/or damaged unusable equipment

•I was encouraged to think outside the box. Starting with the big picture, top of the funnel, here is what we need, this is the time we have to complete, you figure it out.

•I was often delegated to. I once heard my father say, a manager’s job is to do your work for 10 minutes that you then do for an entire day. Do it like this, per se. This was not Dad’s forte’.Enabling others to act might sound more like, a managers job is to ensure you have the tools, the training, the resources and the clarity to do your job well and to remove any hurdles that hinder your progress.

•Good Morning! Welcome to the land of the living! That site looks good! You really know how to operate that blade! You kept things moving while we were out!We were not awash with praise in my household. It was rationed like cheese during the Great Depression. It came once in a while so it stood out. The absence then and how it made me feel then created empathy so that I would pay attention today. I had a boss who used to say, “I believe everyone wants to do a good job.” My former, more cynical self would silently disagree. Today, I can admit I was wrong about that.

Leaders, no one likes false praise but everyone likes to be caught doing something right. One of your jobs is to pay close enough attention when it happens that you acknowledge it in the way that individual most appreciates it.

Personal note:My father had Alzheimer’s during the last four and a half years of his life. Visits toward his end of life seemed futile and selfish. The last day I stopped to see him, he was in bed, face down … I spoke up from the doorway to his memory care unit room and asked how he was doing and he simply said “Tough”. That was it. A few days later he was gone.

Love your Fathers while they are here.

Honor their memory when they are gone.

Carry the leadership lessons forward that they first taught you.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

This phrase has a negative connotation for me. Goes back to my childhood where people look at you, cock their head a little, maybe sneer and question your presence. As soon as you walk away, while still in earshot, there was often a comment like, “I don’t know what he’s up to, but I know he’s up to somethin’.”

You bet I was.

•Working

•Studying

•Practicing piano, saxophone or listening to jazz artists on a record or cassette tape

•Or a number of other things a motivated kid whose family business demanded full attention

Fast forward to today. Same line, different meaning.

What are you up to, Michel?

•Working

•Studying

•Listening to music (of all genres)

•Exercising

•Eating right

•Being present for family and friends

•Pulling together some thoughts and sprinkling them around like digital bread crumbs (aka blog)

•Or a number of things that a motivated middle-aged man might do after being conditioned through his formative years with a work ethic that defies logic or common sense

No matter your age, your vocation, your disposition or your physical condition, I hope you’re up to somethin’

Somethin’ good

Good for others that in turn becomes good for you.

Somethin’ fun

We should all be required to laugh daily, lift your spirits, have somethin’ to look forward to(A little treat in the pantry, an ice cream cone on a hot day, a hug or kiss or pat on the back), a long walk in nature.

Somethin’ with purpose

Relevant, benevolent, compassionate…the kind of thing that gives you a tingle and reminds you that it’s not all about you.

Challenge:Get out of your norm this weekend and find somethin’ special to do. Call an old friend, donate some time, talent or treasure, forgive yourself or someone you should have already. Smile in the mirror until it looks natural.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

What are we meant for?

I had occasion to go back through Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s search for meaning” again last week. A gift from my daughter and a must read for all, he breaks this question down to three things (I have simplified … because it’s a blog) that bring meaning:

1. Work
2. Love
3. Transforming tragedy to triumph

If you go into any of these areas without courage, it ends badly. If you choose to be less than authentic, it still doesn’t end well.

Bringing warrior courage to work seems logical but be careful not to confuse behavior with intent. In this day and age, being courageous may be as simple as getting out of bed and doing your job when you are sore, mentally fatigued or displeased with your manager. It does not mean you plow through the day cussing everyone you don’t like or dismissing someone because they don’t share your passion for life. A warrior mindset is to win-be nimble, agile, fluid then decisive and resolute.

Bringing warrior courage to love is much different. It is important to be your authentic self but it also requires you to be vulnerable. All lasting and meaningful relationships start with trust. If you don’t show your weaknesses and vulnerabilities, you aren’t trusting your potential partner, thereby adversely affecting the relationship. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” 1 Corinthians 13:4. That requires courage.

Transforming tragedy to triumph takes more warrior energy than most can muster. Who faults those who end up discouraged, demoralized and defeated? Life is hard and we live in a broken world. However, overcoming tragedy, persevering, conquering whatever force it might be that knocked you down or kicked your ass…is gloriously triumphant. It takes a warrior’s heart to fight and win at that game.

I could list personal pain and defeat [here] and it would add another layer of credibility to this blog. I have plenty of scars to share … but we’ll save those for another time. Instead, I’m going to ask that you picture your own circumstance and take inventory of how many things you’ve overcome to get to where you are. I bet it’s a good list! But you don’t read this blog for a feel good 3 minutes. You read it to grow.

Now ask yourself, are you celebrating in the foothills when you should be summiting?
What tragedies have yet to be transformed in your life and how will you beckon your inner warrior?

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord, the Lord himself is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26:4

Trust is like a piece of paper. Once it’s crumpled, it can’t be perfect again. Author unknown

If I cut you off, chances are you handed me the scissors. William Turner

How do you view trust and how important is it to you? Many believe it is the foundation to any lasting relationship. Patrick Lencioni approaches it from the negative side in a work/Team setting to make a point how destructive the absence is:

“The first dysfunction is an absence of trust among team members. Essentially, this stems from their unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group. Team members who are not genuinely open with one another about their mistakes and weaknesses make it impossible to build a foundation for trust.”

Building trust is straight forward but can be elusive. If you try to rush it, like “Trust me!” It usually has the opposite effect. It is not something you can demand but something that is earned, for most people, it happens over time.

As Dhar Mann says, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and a lifetime to repair.”

It is hard to follow a leader you don’t trust. It is hard to work with someone you don’t trust. It is hard to have any sort of lasting and meaningful relationship with someone you don’t trust. Be conscious and deliberate in how you earn it, how you give it and what it means.

Challenge: Take inventory of your top ten relationships. People you spend the most time with and gain the most value from. Ask yourself if those people are genuinely open about their mistakes and weaknesses and how that factors in to their relationship with you. Now turn the tables. How genuinely open are you with them regarding mistakes and weaknesses? How can you improve that?

Build some more trust today. You can never have too much.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!
What do toilet paper, chicken and gasoline have in common?
Over the last year, we have seen an ugly part of the human condition rear it’s head where people glom on to things, hoard things, stop using things then gorge themselves or fill their pantry or garage or empty space with things that make them feel more secure.
It doesn’t follow logic. It impacts society in ways we don’t understand. It creates ripples in an economic balance that is more sensitive than most recognize. It’s based on scarcity thinking. “There might not be enough [fill in the blank] so I better go stock up”.
I watched a video this week of some woman putting gasoline into plastic bags after the Colonial pipeline hack and ransom ware incident…then on the nightly national news some driver’s car burned up with a large number of gas cans in it. Utter foolishness.
Leaders are abundance thinkers. There will always be more than enough. Growth is a mindset, not an emotion. “We can do more and better” versus “I’m worried we will run out”. “The competition is going to take all of our customers.” “We’re not good enough, big enough, experienced enough…to win that job/contract/business.”
Scarcity thinking becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So does abundance thinking.
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, -you’re right.” Henry Ford
Based on the latest CDC guidelines, masks are not required for fully vaccinated people, outside or inside. The economy is going to boom again, especially for abundance thinkers. Get out. Live. Thrive. Capture market share. Be optimistic. Practice abundance. There is always more!
Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

It is good to get away, to sharpen the saw, to step off the hamster wheel … so that you can gain perspective and answer questions like:

Why do I work so hard?

What am I working toward?

Do my contributions make a difference?

Who knows whether the sacrifices made along the way will be fruitful or in vain?

We need occasional reminders that we are human, not machines or robots. We are social, emotional, spiritual. We seek approval, admiration, acceptance. Not just from our closest family members but colleagues, industry icons, hard-working, enormous responsibility-carrying leaders from every walk of life and all industries. We all matter. We all contribute. We all feel. We all care.

What I learned this week while spending time with generous, long-term friends and the beautiful guests that joined us was an elegant balance of competence and connection, strength and compassion and it can be found anywhere you look. It may be easier to notice when you’re uninterrupted with the latest crisis or question requiring custom answers but the struggle and the solution are interrelated. It simply requires you to observe and influence.

I encourage you to take time away. Fifteen minutes in a work day, an hour on the weekend, a day per month to reflect on who you are and what you want to do rather than allowing your title to define your path. Whatever the increment and wherever the solitude is realized, make your time away count.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

She was moved by a recent death of a local industry icon taken too soon, especially for those around him who depended on him for so much. Her request to meet for dinner grew from just two to three, adding a colleague who also wished to honor a fallen mentor…and to contemplate future direction.

Over dinner, we three covered multiple facets of leadership; personal journeys, gender bias and all the implications that comes with it, compensation and sacrifice and friendships and turf wars, succession plans, disruption, betrayal, greed, and opportunities. After discussing so many topics regarding our unique professional services industry, the demeanor and approach of our fallen brother in arms stood out all the more.

He had quietly epitomized the qualities of leadership we all seek to develop and hopefully emulate:•Humility•Integrity•Empathy•Accountability•Responsibility•Approachability

His funeral proceedings demonstrated that he had his priorities straight at home as well. •Faith•Family•Friends

To truly honor someone, to remember their essence and influence and contributions, something needs to be done to keep the memory alive. A plaque alone won’t do. Memorializing a leader’s contributions requires forethought and clear purpose to be sustainable. Too soon to know what that looks like but rest assured, the seeds were planted and they will bear fruit.

The consulting engineering industry lost a great man recently. A smart, kind, good-hearted leader who left his mark on the lives of the people he touched and left a legacy to be built upon, not ignored.

Rest In Peace, Barry.

Have a blessed weekend, everyone!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I spoke with an esteemed colleague yesterday about life after the unfortunate realities of living (almost) through a pandemic. In a word, she implored the time is Now for action. No more waiting for this or that. We don’t know what might impact plans and might not want to know our future down to the daily details … but waiting, delaying, procrastinating, in light of what we’ve experienced, is no way to live our lives going forward.

We have gone from tracking mask purchases to infections to deaths to vaccines approved to purchased to administered. Thank you Johns Hopkins. We have tracked economic impact and societal inequities exacerbated. We have watched overwhelmed front line workers and medical professionals stretch their Hippocratic oath to its limits and wept as so many lives have ended well before their closest expected they would.

What else did we lose? A year (and counting) of freedoms, breathing “easy”, dreams unrealized, social gatherings evaporated or severely dampened, hugs and kisses, babies born and raised but not shared for fear of infection.

How many times will we have to learn we are not out of the woods until vaccinations reach a scientifically agreed upon level and until then we need to follow basic rules drummed into our heads for 400 days?

What do we need to do NOW?

•Take action

•Live a full life incorporating lessons learned through observation and reflection in whatever level of quarantine you have endured

•Listen to the experts while avoiding paranoia

•Plan your best future

•Celebrate each day as a blessing, identifying the good, the positive – from the small wonders to the enormous victories

Have a blessed weekend!

Good afternoon, Team! It’s (Good) Friday!

Sometimes good leadership can be defined by what not to do. I’ve witnessed where passionate, driven and fairly intelligent people in leadership positions try to get things done by telling other passionate, driven and intelligent people in other levels of leadership positions how to do their job.

•Work in the office where I can see you•

Track your progress this way

•Call this contact at this time and get this point across

It typically doesn’t go well. You get an immediate response and maybe short-term compliance followed by disgust, frustration and burn out. Then they leave. Because they weren’t given autonomy, trust and creative license.

Rather than tell someone how to do something, if you are clear with the results and the reason, people will walk through fire, give up sleep and make you proud.

•I need that estimate by Friday so we can win that work

•Can you finish those performance reviews by next Wednesday so we can get the raised processed and reward our employees?

•Please line up that engineering proposal by the 15th so we can get started on the next phase of this project.

*Oh, by the way, please let me know if you need anything from me.

Your Team wants to do a good job. They deserve your support and they want to take ownership of the task, the initiative, the project. They want the ball and they want to learn how to score without you chirping in their ear every step of the way.

Sometimes the simplest things make all the difference.

Have a blessed (Easter) weekend!

He is risen indeed!

Good morning, Team! It’s Saturday! (I was on Spring Break last week and this one got away from me a little.)

Feed the chickens.

Milk the cows.

Stack the hay bales.

It seems easier to identify with a young farm kid working hard from dawn to dusk than one who grew up in town. I happened to grow up in town and my humble beginnings took place on a job site, not in a farm yard.

Grease the loader.

Haul the gravel.

Crush the concrete.

Reflecting back, I realize I’ve been earning a wage for a half century, gaining experience in construction, engineering, management, leadership, governance, consulting … and along the way, picked up a few nuggets of wisdom, like…

Calvin Coolidge wrote: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

John Maxwell says, “Leadership is Influence.”

Mahatma Gandhi said, “a good sign of a leader is not how many followers you have but how many leaders you create.”

My goal as a kid was to please my Dad and create value for the family business.

My goal as a young man was to work hard, raise a family, do things right, create value for the companies I worked for and have some fun.

My goal as a middle-aged man was to work harder, spoil my family, do the right thing-no matter how hard, create exceptional value and relax once in a while…

In the fourth quarter of my working life, I seek to influence, impart wisdom and help others reach their full potential. That could happen at the front of the room with a tie and sport coat, at the back of the room cheering on and nodding my head or sitting shoulder to shoulder in a circle beating the drum and sharing stories of the lessons I’ve learned from my journey so far.

That’s me, in a nutshell.

What’s your leadership journey and how do you plan to finish it?

Have a blessed weekend!