Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Today, the Transition Team (TT) that was assembled to help facilitate effective conversation and feedback on a major structural change and ultimate refresh/rebirth of our company met to discuss a status update.

On topic was the young professionals group (YPG) that met the two days prior and saw, as a group, our presentation on why and how the company is changing.

As the TT recounted some of the dialog from the YPG, the repeated theme was: despite the efforts the company was making to communicate key messages, the efforts felt too thought out and too “scripted”. They wanted genuine, honest, intimate dialog with cussing and believable discussion.

I offered up that I would love to spend all day bullshitting and having one-to-one conversations filled with expletives. (I’m happy to show my unscripted, genuine and vulnerable side and often do it without being provoked.) In fact, the challenges I went through to become willing to share inner thoughts and feelings were entirely uncomfortable but once practiced regularly, it seems irreversible.

I caught a quote on LinkedIn today that made me feel better about my vulnerability.

“I think the people who wade into discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories are the real badasses in this world,” says professor and best-selling author Brené Brown.

I proceeded to watch her TED talk on vulnerability. Google it. It’s worth the 20 minutes.

It’s human nature to seek comfort. For whatever reasons, I abandoned that early in life and replaced it with seeking results, organization, articulation, and solutions through root cause analysis. I didn’t embrace discomfort but also wasn’t motivated by comfort.

However, as Brene’ points out in her talk, whole-hearted people who are courageous enough not to numb their pain with purchases, food, or addictive substances … rather embrace the full spectrum of emotions … are able to experience joy and love in their full glory.

Beware that displaying vulnerability and telling the truth about your story can be misconstrued.
•Some might argue you suffer hubris. •Others may believe you overshare.
•Yet others might wonder why you don’t keep those feelings to yourself, like they choose to.

Now I know, as Brene’ points out, I’m just a badass.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!…and the morning after the silver anniversary of Carole’s 29th birthday.

The Michel family just returned from a long weekend in the mountains. Over the span of more than 20 years we’ve been venturing out West to enjoy Yellowstone National Park in all its Winter wonder. This year we did it in style:

Snowmobiling
Shooting machine guns
Good food at the best joints like
-Wild West pizza
-Bullwinkle’s
-Running Bear pancake house
Sight seeing and picture taking
Bear and wolf watching (very cool)
Mega screen movie watching
Hot tubbing-inside and outside
Snowboarding
People watching
Buying funky furs
and singing in the car.
It was riddled with normal family bickering but in the end, we had a chance to enjoy each other’s company.

For those who don’t live in the mountains, there are scant few times where everything comes together…
Sled is running right
Fresh snowfall
Good base
No tracks

This trip, the stars aligned.
•Turbo charged snowmobiles (check)
•8+” of powder (check)
•Great base of snowfall (check)
•untouched areas of powder

Exactly what we were hoping for!

Unfortunately, the lack of riding, lack of exercise and lack of oxygen left us panting, stuck and frustrated. It didn’t take long until the locals showed up … and showed off. Time for the flat landers to tuck tail and boogie on down the “road”.

On our way to the local pub (45 miles away) we pounded through bumpy stuff for a while then when we hit Idaho, the trails opened up and we found the throttle. True to form, out of the 20 some years of tripping to Yellowstone, each year had memorable events; Stuck (badly-where it took two days for the snow conditions to improve and to assemble a 9-person recovery crew), blown up snowmobile, flat trailer tire, dropped sled in the river, rolled sled, broken leg, bent trailing arm requiring bailing wire and lots of duct tape to limp back to town…by now you’re thinking
-glutton for punishment
-horrible snowmobile rider
-poor judgement
-stubborn

I just love riding, pushing the limits of abilities and conditions. Snowmobiling is one of the rare few sports where grabbing a handful of throttle can get you out of more trouble than not. Aggression often rewarded.

The following picture shows an unfortunate byproduct of 200 hp and a rental sled beaten up by a previous rider (or riders).

Notice how far past the track that the sled continued to slide. No one was hurt in the making of this memory. The mechanic for the rental shop had an acute aneurism over the phone but we bowed our heads, pulled it 10 miles to a pick up spot, helped load up the wounded soldier and finished our day on 30 more miles of bumpy trail.

We may never return to Yellowstone but we have a trunk full of memories and a few scars to prove we were there.

My hope for you is to identify a place, a hobby, or a group to find peace in this world. Cherish it and ride it like you’re never coming back.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

We all love a good quote but who can ever remember the right one at the right time?

I enjoy being reminded of a salient point packaged up in a repeatable format with confident delivery.  Sometimes that means you have to have it repeated several times. Here is my latest contribution by way of repetition of well articulated ideas by some of my favorite leadership figures.

 

•The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.
Jim Rohn

 

•A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.
Douglas MacArthur

 

•No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.
Andrew Carnegie

 

•All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.
John Kenneth Galbraith

 

•If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Sir Winston Churchill

 

•Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.

General Colin Powell

 

•If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams

 

•Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
John F. Kennedy

 

•What you do has far greater impact than what you say.

Stephen Covey

 

•Whatever you are, be a good one.

Abraham Lincoln

 

•You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

•A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

George Patton

 

•The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.

Dwight Eisenhower

 

•A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

 

•Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

Warren Bennis

 

•Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

Jack Welch

 

•The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Theodore Roosevelt

 

•The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

Kenneth Blanchard

 

•A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

John Maxwell

 

•Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

Peter Drucker

 

42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10 42-45 NIV

 

Hopefully you resonate with some, if not all, of these quotes and they inspire you to do something leader-like today.

Have a blessed weekend!

 

Good morning, Tribe! It’s Friday!

What part have you played in advancing others through life on this earth?

Parent / Grandparent?
Pastor?
Officer of the law?
Mentor?
Teacher?
Bar tender?
Coworker?
Boss?
Friend?
Counselor?

If you’ve had a vested interest in another soul to help them get from one point to the next on this earth, you know what it feels like to move someone through a rough time in life.
•Maybe it’s a 5 minute mention in passing to get past a daily gripe.

•Maybe it’s a 30 minute conversation over lunch where you confide regarding a financial concern with a buddy.

•Maybe it’s chatting with a parent about college or career choices.
•Maybe it’s pillow talk with your spouse about the next days plans or an argument that wasn’t resolved earlier in the week.

•Maybe you see a paid professional who unties the knots that life twists you up with.

Whoever and however this transpires, we all need someone to lean on.

I used to feel like the spring in an old manually wound alarm clock that was just at the brink of being twisted too tight where if the end were to snap off, you’d go “oops”, chuck the clock in the garbage and move on. I valued the discussion with the right coconspirator to keep me from making that last and fateful twist.

Last night I had one of those moments. A mentee who has made me, his teachers, his parents and his coworkers exceedingly proud of his accomplishments shared his concern about the tension in my spring. “Can I share that I’m concerned about you, old man?” he asked with a serious tone I’ve seldom heard.

We shared a nice meal, a drink or two, traded war stories, recalled the first time we enjoyed a cigar together and a few high spots along the way. I heard about some of the traditions developed under my leadership continuing where other mentees are being honored for their impact.

I was reminded of the benefit I contributed during my tenure at a previous workplace. Then I was encouraged to go do it again. In Teddy Roosevelt style, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you’re at.”

Instead of looking back wishing things hadn’t changed, I’m slowly letting the positive memories percolate to the top. Its helping me find peace looking back, excitement looking forward  and grace looking up.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Tribe! It’s Friday!

The Winter Olympics are underway and in their respective sports, we will find out who will win gold. Relative to the entire world of competitive athletes, who is the best? Who will stand on the elevated platform while their accomplishment is recognized? The well-deserved limelight includes high-definition television coverage after years of dieting, training and practicing to reach the pinnacle of their sport.

This time, in the sequence of the games, serves as a reminder for me that, in a much dimmer light on a much smaller scale, each of us regular Joes and Janes are inspired to be our best every day.

What do we do to be the best human, person, husband, father, brother, or son?
Or the best employee, leader, manager follower, contributor, or mentor?

Is it a restrictive diet, intense training, and unparalleled sacrifice?
Maybe…

•We know from years of medical research that the health of “the gut” is the single most critical factor in a person’s health

EAT WELL

•Intense training, modified for “regulars”, as in 30 minutes of cardio exercise 5 days a week, like it’s your job, is recommended for improved physical health

EXERCISE

•Sacrifice…giving it your all. Staying so focused on one goal that nothing else matters. Sounds appealing in an obsessive-compulsive kind of way.

I think this is where I tripped up…
I’m highly motivated to be my very best but was so confident that by working harder, traveling more, carving a niche and making the toughest decisions others avoided…that I’d be rewarded with my own gold medal (whatever that meant at the time).

I was wrong.

Masked as being a high-functioning provider, I hid behind the excuse that work needed me more than family. Turns out the best employee is rarely the best husband, father, brother, son or human being.

I must have been working when they taught the balance lesson – or maybe I thought I knew better and just woke up too late.

MODERATION

So what makes us “best”?

God made us all and he expects that we treat the vessel of our soul well while we’re here on earth and that we reach our full potential-to be the best version of ourselves every single day.

HUMILITY

I think the fruits of the spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22  are also worth mentioning to help us to be our very best:

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Tribe! It’s Friday!

I got called grouchy at work this week. That’s not what I was going for. I try to be pleasant, talkative, humorous (in a sarcastic kind of way) … and genuinely helpful. I am definitely pragmatic but that’s not often interpreted as grouchy.

Mayo Clinic has provided me some very good medical advice over the past decade. Recently, I learned of their formula for happiness and thought you might like to learn more about it.

Mayo’s latest suggestions include the 5-3-2 happiness plan.

FIVE-Start each day with gratitude

•The moment you wake up, think of 5 people for whom you’re grateful.
•“See” them in your mind and thank them.

THREE-Find novelty where love is

•At the end of the day, spend three minutes meeting your loved ones as if you haven’t seen them in months.
•Be genuinely interested.
•Creatively praise.
•Do not judge or try to improve them.

TWO-See others differently

•Mentally say “I wish you well,” within the first two seconds of encountering someone.
•Choose a positive frame before your mind judges negatively.

Should we focus on being happy?
Why not?
According to http://www.healthline.com, happiness:

•Promotes a healthy lifestyle
•Appears to boost the immune system
•Helps combat stress
•May protect your heart
•May lengthen your life expectancy
•May help reduce pain

Have a blessed and happy weekend!

 

Good morning, Tribe! It’s Friday!

It’s not a question of if, but when … and how often … and how hard … you will get knocked down in this world.

Whatcha gonna do about it?

We’ve all been bullied at some point in our life. “Lowell” on 18th street was my first bully. Looking back, he was a mere vessel of hatred. He would literally knock people down, stand over them and laugh. Four doors down to the North of us, a broken family with occasional pain delivered to the neighbors. South 6 doors from us, convicted criminals and drug users. A half block away was an entire family of bullies. Another block to the West another family with criminal history and anti-social behavior. I could speculate the horrors each endured behind closed doors or the absence of discipline, love, mercy or grace. All that matters here is for you to know, I grew up in a tough neighborhood.

I am intrigued by Niche’s advice (effectively) ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. I had plenty of strength training. The environment was more nature than nurture. Was I the lucky one?

I joke that my upbringing was based on the philosophy behind Johnny Cash’s song “Boy named Sue.” Almost as if Dad took the short cut and said, “This ought to make a man out of you.” After research following his passing, I realized he had no father figure after age 9 and didn’t know what he was doing. We four children were experiments (and inexpensive and highly accessible labor) left to get knocked around by the world and the neighborhood.

Why spend so much time talking about a sucky childhood? Despite.

Despite a tough environment (I understand many, many have had it worse than me) I walk with pride.

•I made it out with an education
•I found the love of my life
•I have faith in God
•I’ve been blessed with children, a grandchild, real friends, and a rewarding career

Most of all,
I am equipped for the future:
Experience, education, empathy and a lethal combination of fire in the belly (my amygdala glows a bright neon orange 24/7) and a sense of urgency to influence…more.

God doesn’t make mistakes so every time I was knocked down, it was not for me to curl up in a ball of pity, with a Lowell-like asshole standing over me. Nope, got up then and I’ll get up again and again. I will regain my balance, I will brush off the bullshit, the haters, the idiots and the wanna be’s.
You don’t own me. You can’t deter my momentum with your righteous crap. I am the captain of my soul as William Ernest Henley would remind us. Small minded thinking and control-freakish behavior does not serve the greater good. Reckoning a cometh.

If any of this resonates with you, please understand that we ALL fight garbage in this world. You are not alone.

I choose to regain my swagger. Some mistake it for hubris, cockiness or a lack of situational awareness. I beg to differ. My strut says to each and everyone of you:
-I am comfortable in my skin
-I am not perfect nor do I try to be
-I’ve seen some serious shit and it didn’t scare me off from fulfilling my mission
-I am confident that I am in the right place right now and I have high purpose

If you had it, and lost it, why?
If you never had it, why not?
If you still have it, Congratulations! Swagger away.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning! It’s Friday!

I received a book for Christmas from my daughter. Not just a book but a tool for the future.
Author Tim Ferris provides more in his introduction to “Tribe of Mentors” than many books I’ve read…and he does it all with questions.

A former colleague of mine, Bruce Lake, from the HR profession used to remind us of “the power of the question”. Mr Ferris brings the concept home in spades. The entire book is based on eleven thought provoking questions put to some of the brightest minds today.

Tim shares with us in the intro that some of the questions that bubbled to the surface at his major life events (these are not any of the eleven referred to above) sound like:

•Were my goals my own, or simply what I thought I should want?
•How much of life had I missed from underplanning or overplanning?
•How could I be kinder to myself?
•How could I better say no to the noise to better say yes to the adventures I craved?
•How could I best reassess my life, my priorities, my view of the world, my place in the world, and my trajectory through the world?
[Heavy question I’ll explore further below]

Then, perhaps the best question,

•What would this look like if it were easy?

Indeed.

I had a major life event today. Delivered directly by the Chief. It’s caused me to revisit the “reassess” question for the third time in three years. Specifically, my trajectory through the world.

I’ve had a few readers comment recently and privately on why I don’t share more angst in my blog…try this on for size…in Ferris format.

*Isn’t it enough to work extra hard?
*Isn’t it enough to make solid, logical, defensible decisions on a daily basis?
*Isn’t it enough to create clear expectations?
*Isn’t it enough to be transparent, vulnerable, and humble…yet confident?
*Isn’t it enough to evolve from engineer (relishing the simple math concept that 1+1=2 every single time) to entrepreneur where you introduce enough sweat equity, innovation and alchemy so that 1+1=3, or 4, or 15?!

*Is it possible to work under the basic premise of being ethical, legal and moral and still expect to be wildly successful?

What would it look like if it were easy?

Let me know when you figure it out.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I have no idea what the big deal is about razor blades. Sharp strips of steel in multiple rows stroked across the faces of countless people every day … and apparently a very big business.

I used to travel a long way to work each morning so I shaved with a rotary razor in the car to save some time. Somehow my face grew sensitive and the doctor recommended I switch to a single blade…that was at least ten years ago. I’ve been through a few hundred disposable blades and many cans of shaving cream.

I’d rather not lather up each day and run the risk of nicking myself…but I do it anyway.

The other day Carole and I were in Target buying some essentials and I decided I should get some travel shaving cream and I ran into this orange tube and I swear, an old commercial started playing in my head. The essence was how little the blade (or blades) mattered, it was all about the medium interface from skin to blade. Could have been total bullshit for all I know but I was motivated to try out the theory.

Gillette claims to “own the face” due to the amount of research it’s done and the product success. Their marketing team says it’s “the best a man can get”. I guess I never thought about it before the fateful moment when I bought a tube of shave butter for $5.99 + tax. Inexpensive experiment I told myself.

Guess what I realized?

Everybody likes butter. It’s like ice cream and bacon. Everybody likes butter. I now like shave butter, provocative little name by a who knew company but you have to ask yourself, Do I want to smell like my grandpa…or the future?
Do I want to experience a very smooth shave and catch a whiff throughout the day of mango mixed with magic?

All I could think was, this is exceptional. The mundane has been replaced with an experience, an exceptional experience. I now enjoy shaving again with a similar joy to when I first shaved more than once a month.

Who or What do you consider exceptional?

•Your spouse?
•Your children?
•Your company?
•Your Team?
•Your favorite musician?
•Your future?
•Your ideas?
•Your leader?
•Your mentor?
•Your Savior?

I found an example in a small orange tube with a quirky name and an unusual viscosity. Surely, you can identify at least three exceptional things in your world this morning. Count them up and lock it in. Final answer. Now go conquer the world.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good Morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Picture Summertime at the lake, kids are swimming, running, jumping and they plop down next to you, exhausted. They explain how big they are getting, how well they can swim and how strong they are so you say,
“Show me your muscles!” They jump up, chest out, arms folded and even though they’ve never seen it, you’d swear they are posing for the Olympia finals body building contest.

Now, picture a Monday at the office. It’s the start of a new year after missing revenue goals for the last 4 years. Your Team is a little beat down, many have left from the heydays of wild revenues and easy profits. Customers aren’t clambering for your goods or services, they’ve moved on to the latest path of least resistance.

You’d like to walk up to every single person and say, “Show me your muscles!” but they might not quite understand your intent. Wouldn’t it be great if your employees and business partners rebounded as quickly as a toddler flexes their biceps?

You could paint on the doorway into the building(s) something like “Stay humble, stay hungry” or “Every day get bigger, stronger, faster…because your competition is” but it’s likely that the paint would wear off or people would stop looking above the doorway.

This conversion of direction is no simple task or basic request…

•Building confidence is hard.
•Rebuilding confidence is harder. •Fighting apathy is confounding.
•Combatting entitlement is laborious and painstaking.

Frankly, I don’t care what inspirational method you employ to get people to think about getting better, seeking excellence, and realizing a positive turn around. It may take several methods and multiple repeated attempts.

The good news is that it’s tremendously rewarding when people finally start walking up to you and start showing off their muscles.

Have a blessed weekend!