Dilemma

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Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!

In the past week, I’ve had a common theme conversation with three current or former business owners/leaders who reached a milestone of business accomplishment.  Their investment of time and money grew to a point where they were satisfied with the results but weren’t sure what to do next…with themselves.
As far as the business goes, three typical choices are:
•Sell it?
•Continue to own it but let someone else run it?
•Continue to own, lead it and grow it some more (because they didn’t know what else to do with themselves).
Owning a business is like constantly nurturing a very needy child.  You develop an attachment that often rivals the one with your biological children if you’re not careful.  It’s only natural that it becomes hard to let go.
The bigger question is, what do owners do next?
The traits that make them successful business owners don’t translate well to slowing down or retirement.
If not being content with status quo is a common driver, how do you flip a switch and suddenly become content?
I don’t think you do.
Successful leaders translate another common trait from business to personal life, adapting.  When market conditions shift, you’ve taken the time to plan out what next looks like.  You shift resources, emphasis and effort.
I’d suggest these successful friends and associates adapt and prepare themselves for their future by looking ahead, planning out their personal situation and paying attention to their family in retirement.  Recognize why they started or owned their business in the first place.  Whether independence, autonomy, financial freedom or making a dent in the universe, once accomplished, move on.
Mentor, set up your favorite partner for success or find a new hobby.
First world problems one friend said.
Agreed.  Now go solve it!
Have a blessed weekend!

Stick world

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Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!
We’ve all heard about the two management styles of “carrot” or “stick”.  Its origin is debatable but if you have a stubborn situation requiring some enticing, you could suggest the issue is a stubborn animal (mule) that can be potentially motivated by dangling a carrot just outside of its mouths reach or beaten with a stick.
In my time leading, being led, managing,  and being managed…I preferred carrot over stick.  No surprise.  It is surprising, however, how many donkey riders out there quickly resort to the stick.
It was always easier for me to assume the proverbial donkey was actually just a pudgy pony that simply needed to be treated as a race horse-in-training and it was MY job to encourage the dark horse to evolve into the front runner.
When reactions, behaviors, fire alarm calls and granular focus on trailing indicators occur especially now – toward year end – when people get anxious about financial performance, it easily becomes a stick world.
When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
When your only tool is a stick, everyone looks like a jackass.
But…
Leaders rely on influence and don’t mandate conformance.
So…
Put down your stick, grab a carrot and stand out in a stick world.
Challenge:
Think about a situation where you felt justified using a stick leadership style.  Now turn the tables and put yourself in the shoes of the recipient you just “stuck” and imagine how that felt.  Next, think how you would have preferred to be encouraged.  Finally, reconsider whether the stick is still justified.
Have a blessed weekend!

Thankful

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Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!
Are you getting ready for the busiest travel day of the year?
Have you figured out what all the buzz is about yet?

From my perspective,
It’s not about the turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, Grandma’s house or anything like that.  This time of year might be known for packing the family in the car and rustling some leaves on your way over the hill and through the woods…but why is there an electricity in the car?
Why does it feel different than the daily commute, a trip to the grocery store or dropping off kids at band camp?
•Is the driver in a better mood?
•Does the anticipated food taste that much better than what you get at Applebee’s?
•Is it cool enough outside that you have to be on your best behavior in the house so you practice in the car on the way there?
For those who don’t remember where you celebrated last year – let alone why we gather in the first place-here’s a bit of history…
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists celebrated the gifts and blessings of the past year with the Wampanoag Indians and started a tradition we continue today.  They were grateful for what they harvested and that they coexisted with a different culture.  They created something worth replicating.
•We are all extremely blessed and should remember that, daily.
•We live in a country of abundance.
•Opportunity is so prevalent that people risk their lives daily to join in our prosperity.
I have been blessed this year to hear two presidential historians speak on the topics of leadership and chaos in Washington.  Earlier this year I heard Karl Rove speak in Dallas about multiple historical antics demonstrating our current administration did not invent drama in the White House.  More recently I heard Jon Meacham talk about US Presidents and what he believed made us the greatest country on earth.
•A sense of hope … as Franklin D Roosevelt described “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.”
Combined with
•A sense of humor.  The ability to make fun of ourselves, to laugh and to enjoy time together despite our differences.
Please enjoy your time together, next week especially, but all times and all opportunities.  Live, love, laugh and be forever thankful.

Keep on leading

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Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!

Stripped from a recent movie line, the words in the title caught my attention when I heard them, albeit out of context.
I don’t care if you believe you are “natural born” or if you earned the respect of others the hard way, if you’ve reached the level of leadership where you yearn to provide guidance and you love to help others reach their potential, do not be easily dissuaded, keep on leading.
Whether you’ve been duped, lied to, or cheated out of something any reasonable person would have cried foul to, do not stop doing the right thing because someone did you wrong…keep on leading.
You don’t behave a certain way to please your constituents or hope someone catches you doing something approximately right.  You focus on the organizations needs, not your own, despite what happens to you.  Keep on leading.
You know how to live with humility, honesty and integrity.  You expect it from yourself and encourage it out of others.  Keep on leading.
When outside of the typical work setting, you invest time with family or your religion or a charitable cause.  You model the way by your actions because it’s fulfilling and enlightening.  Keep on leading.
When the going gets tougher and you don’t know if your leadership is moving your company to a better place.  When lonely is a deep-rooted feeling, not some clever catch phrase about the top.  When the fate of hundreds rests on your ability to make the best short, mid and long term decisions – KEEP ON LEADING!
Have a blessed weekend.

Thrive

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Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

While at an industry conference this past week, I enjoyed listening to Susan O’Malley, first woman to run a professional sports franchise, address the topic of “Thriving in a male dominated world.” She is a snarky northeastern leader who, through self-deprecating remarks, warmed the crowd up and marched through her points on how she thrived.

What I found most interesting is she did not bash a gender, she did not subscribe to a cheat code or short cut, she delivered a heart felt, albeit salty rendition of her struggle for respect in the sports industry with one of the lowest performing basketball teams at that time.

Her “seven” points on how she lives her life

(I understand listing them without the dialog is less than perfect but hey, I work under a 500 word limit here.)

1. Make your bed every day
•Motion creates motion
•If you don’t do the small things right first, how are you going to do the big things right?

2. Plan your work, work your plan
Identify the top 3 things you’re going to focus on and go execute!

3. Keep working on your craft
“Everybody did something better than me so I watched and learned”

“Seventeen times makes a habit”-Pat Summit

4. Set expectations
Communicate! Don’t assume
Tell people exactly what you want out of them.

5. When you mess up, make it right
Susan used to call up their customers (season ticket holders) to express gratitude and ask what they could do better… one guy simply said he wanted the gum scraped off the back of his chair because he kept getting dirty pants from all the fans getting up to get beer and the customer had to tuck his legs under, only to get gummy pant legs each time.
Susan took a scraper down to the seat and cleaned it off herself.

6. Have fun!
If you’re having fun, you do things better

7. People make the difference
Talented, positive, productive people.

When she finished, a successful woman in the industry sitting next to me said, “I thought she was going to tell us how a woman thrives in a male dominated industry.” to which I replied, “I think she just did!”

Start your list. Maybe it’s seven, maybe it’s less, maybe it’s more.

Have s blessed weekend!

Popcorn and marbles

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Good morning Team!  It’s Friday!
Anyone old enough to get their cholesterol checked has heard the analogy between High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) and Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL).  A doctor will tell you that HDL is similar to a marble and LDL is similar to popcorn so if you took a pipe and put a funnel on top of it, started pouring a combination of the two small but very different substances through it, the marbles pass right through and collect on the bottom (or shoot out from the bottom) and the popcorn takes its sweet-ass time to get through and has a tendency to clump up together and stay toward the top.
Sales prospects are similar to popcorn and marbles.  Some are a definite go and some are still a figment of imagination that might make their way through the sales pipe … someday.  The biggest mistake is to mischaracterize them (either way).
If you tell everyone in your circle of influence that something is a “winner” and it doesn’t materialize, you lose credibility.  Especially when you are too embarrassed to follow up and your audience finds out the bad news from another source.
If you tell everyone something might turn into something “eventually” and it quickly shows up on your doorstep ready to play, you might not be ready.  Still not an ideal situation.
It’s important to perform some triage and call a spade a spade understanding the difference between popcorn and marbles.
Example:  When arguing a point of view, you can address things with facts or conjecture.  The facts pass through the pipe like marbles but the conjecture causes confusion, indigestion and constipation.
As Joe Friday from the TV show Dragnet used to say, “Just the facts, Ma’am”
Have a blessed weekend!

Encouragement

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Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!
I stumbled on this video recently and it reminded me of just how much difference the right words at the right time from the right person with the right intentions can make.  Please watch.
What are you doing for the stars on your team to set them up for success?
Do you expect them to develop on their own?
How can someone be expected to stretch if they don’t know where they stand and they don’t know how much you care?
I recall ninth grade gym class and we’re supposed to perform for the presidential fitness competition.  I was doing sit-ups (which I still hate and they are harder now) and tired quickly.  Mark Lingen, who I didn’t know well, starts yelling at me because of my anemic effort.  I doubt I got any awards because of it but I genuinely felt like someone cared and did a helluva lot more sit-ups because Mark showed interest and wouldn’t let me off easy.  We became good friends after that and stay in touch today.
Who are you encouraging to do more today?  What motivates people to reach their potential?  Is it staring at someone with their arms folded, pouting and displaying their disappointment in your performance…or is it someone who crawls down the field screaming in your face to give more?
If you consider yourself a leader, you may want to make certain you have some encouragement arrows in your quiver.
Have a blessed weekend!

Sweet spot

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Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!

This month at my peer advisory board meeting, we heard from the author of Conversational Capacity, Craig Weber.
He’s done a fantastic job of identifying how to manage between candor and curiosity.  I have yet to pick up the book but based on the author, the content of his discussion and his enthusiasm for the subject and his numerous examples, you can bet I will.
He told the story of Mike Mullane, famous engineer, pilot and astronaut who, on his maiden flight with instructor by his side, encountered “bingo fuel” but the pilot elected to ignore it and Mike was too new to feel comfortable saying anything, probably assuming the pilot knew what they were doing.  They crashed but amazingly walked away.
He tells another story about a nurse who worked with a gifted but arrogant surgeon.  During an operation (apparently before they started marking limbs with a purple marker) this surgeon cut into the wrong leg but because the surgeon struck such fear into the hearts of his staff, she chose not to say anything.  (Surgeon realized it on his own eventually, sewed up the scalpel handiwork on the wrong appendage and finished the procedure.)
Not enough candor can have severe consequences.
The other end of the spectrum can be equally dangerous.  If we think we know everything, we shut down curiosity.
Since Craig has been a professional speaker for decades, he has been given countless opportunities to see groups in action.  In one very technical setting, a genius kept shutting down conversation by telling everyone in the room that their ideas wouldn’t work.  The “flamethrower” finally had been bounced from team to team, not because he wasn’t brilliant but because he was so destructive to teamwork and healthy dialog.
Finally, after being bounced several times, his latest leader sat him down to say “Nigel” (made up), I enjoy having you in the meetings to leverage your 200 point IQ but I can’t sacrifice the other 1000 points of IQ in the room every time you interrupt and shut them down.  Increase our conversational capacity by showing more curiosity or simply shutting up more often.  (I’ve taken some liberties with the story but the gist is the same.)
Now you know about the sweet spot.  •Speak up when you have something important to say-it could mean life or limb.
•Be more self and situationally aware (emotional intelligence cornerstones) because you may not be adding the amount of value you think you are by constantly imparting your wisdom…collective knowledge and diversity in thinking makes for better solutions every time.
Have a blessed weekend!

Japanese beetles, dandelion roots and cow teets

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Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!
Do you remember your first job that paid money?  If so, what impression did it leave on you and does it shape your thinking and behavior today?
I saw some friends last weekend and among a plethora of topics we wrangled with, the topics of the first job came up. Beyond the humorous picture it painted of a younger version of the storyteller capturing bugs, pulling weeds and dipping tits in iodine…it demonstrates that our first vocational experience left a mark.
We’d be ignorant to think this didn’t shape us.  Whether to simply tell ourselves we never want to be in the position that this is how we would eek out a living today (especially at a penny a bug or a penny a “complete and full root”) or perhaps it inspired something in how we selected our field of study leading to our career.
It was the first recognize-able start to our career path.  Nostalgic, interesting typically remarkably different than what we do today but does it provoke thought about signals of where your career is today?
Do your present duties reinforce your your passion for your purpose?  Another way to put it, does your job bring you joy?    Is it reinforcing and validating or is it whispering in your subconscious ear to consider an alternative?
Does it at least bring a net positive feeling?
-People you work for and with?
-Compensation at market value or better?
-Does it afford you the time to nurture your family and your soul?
I think your daily experiences are contributing to the idea of whether you are where you should be or telling you something different.  We shut them out because we are afraid, comfortable, or too exhausted to muster the energy to change.
I applaud the courageous who seek a fit before the compromises alter chemistry and dull the pain but kill the enthusiasm…and just saying “life is short” only creates anxiety and expectation.
I suggest you:
•Seek joy.
•Stay true to your morals, values and beliefs.
•Flex your muscles.
•Remind yourself and others who you are and how you intend to show up.
•Refresh your passions.
•Be inspired AND be inspirational.
•Give and give and give.  Restore and give some more.
Have a blessed weekend!

What matters

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Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!
Is it power?
Is it money?
Nope-they are fleeting
Is it knowledge?
Is it wisdom?
Yep-they both have value (when applied appropriately)
Is it love?
Is it family?
Absolutely-though the world will twist perceptions around if not held sacred and upheld daily
Is it God?
Is it truth?
Unequivocally
Some might claim this is debatable.
Facts, indisputable evidence, or perhaps pure faith…there are many ways to discover the truth but once you see it, experience, feel it…there is no denying it.
Why, after a multi-week deferral, would I address the topic of the truth?
Perhaps a belly full of:
•worldly rancor
•misinterpretations
•false claims
•smear campaigns
•berating commentary
it is exhausting, overwhelming and unwanted.
So rather than be swayed by the constant drone of discontent,
-Let us think positively!
-Let us think of how to inspire!
-Let us destroy controversy, disparagement, and deceit!
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
Winston Churchill
Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.
Mahatma Gandhi
Have a blessed weekend!