Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Whenever you have to visit multiple providers with MD, PhD or DDS at the end of their name in a given week, it’s probably not a good indicator of what your quality of life has been.

On the other hand, we are pretty fortunate in this country to have access to specialists that allow us the opportunity to maintain a high quality of life.

I’m reminded of the current debate on healthcare languishing on in Congress and it makes me wonder, what’s the right thing? There seems to be as many opinions as there are people affected.

Our household has endured a tremendous amount of heartache in the past two years with health insurance providers; cost, access, pre-approvals, clerical errors, pharmaceutical idiosyncrasies, etc.
-and I am fully aware we are among the fortunate.
•we have pretty good coverage
•we have access to competent professionals
•we have the means to pay what insurance doesn’t

What does that say about the state of healthcare in this country? Is there something missing here? Or are our expectations unrealistic regarding degree of service compared to the associated cost?

I grew up believing you get what you pay for. Specialists cost more than generalists and when you really need a specialist: heart, brain, cancer, or pain…you need a specialist…or you suffer.

While I am writing this blog, I hear national news in the background talking about a “skinny repeal” and the ultimatums that senators are laying out about whether they will vote for a new healthcare bill. The lack of leadership displayed by our elected officials is appalling, especially on this issue.

John McCain came back from Arizona to vote Tuesday just to move the senate forward after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He lit up his senate colleagues in a lengthy rant, calling for compromise and essentially accusing them of a lack of leadership…but then said he wouldn’t vote for the bill in its current form. From my perspective, he almost got it right.

You can’t tell me he wasn’t reflecting on healthcare while it impacts him so directly today and his future given the diagnosis.

Leadership requires doing things that may not win the popular vote but is considered by the majority to be the right thing. Several senators, regardless of party affiliation, are putting their own skin or the party platform ahead of what the American people need. This is not leadership, it’s self serving and avoidance of the tough conversations with their contingency that should take place after they vote for a national improvement, not a state centered bill.

The human brain responds five times faster to negative news than positive according to author Don Rheem, CEO of E3 solutions. In that spirit, I point out Congress’ inability to compromise and pass legislation this country desperately needs as an example of what not to do.

Leaders think bigger than what’s immediately in front of them. They look forward and lead with conviction. They are not concerned about their own welfare until they know others are taken care of.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Have you noticed how quickly we tend to leap to judgement?

•situations
•locations
•each other

We are all subjected to an onslaught of messaging that encourages us to place a value; financial, contribution, aesthetically pleasing or otherwise…on virtually everything we encounter. Have we forgotten some of the golden rules to live by?

-Assume noble intent
-Do not judge a book by it’s cover
-Innocent until proven otherwise

-We judge others by their actions yet we judge ourselves by our intentions. {Hmmm. Read that one again.}

How about “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37 NIV

Does this assume we don’t assess, compare, measure and hold accountable for performance?
Nope.
However, I believe the complete answer may lie in the subtlety of the definition and intent.

Webster says a judge is “one who gives an authoritative opinion”.

So, what makes you an “authority” on whatever it might be that you are judging?

Been there, done that?
-Once or twice?
-Seven times?
-Hundreds of times?

My personal belief is that we, as a society in whole, have grown intolerant of anything we haven’t experienced or don’t fully understand and we don’t understand what we refuse to take adequate time to familiarize ourselves with.

Trust your gut … but take the time to perform the diligence necessary to properly assess, validate, and calibrate. Snap judgements might satisfy the desire for immediate feedback (you’ve been Pavlovian trained to salivate for…) but you will assuredly miss treasures that persevere despite the broken world they may come from.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Perhaps the single best book I’ve been introduced to on leadership is written by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, titled “The Leadership Challenge”.

The authors highlight Five Practices of exemplary leaders I’d like to share with you.

The Five Practices aligned with the Ten Commitments of Leadership are:

•Model the Way
-1. Find your voice by clarifying your personal values.
-2. Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.

•Inspire a Shared Vision
-3. Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities.
-4. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

•Challenge the Process
-5. Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve.
-6. Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.

•Enable Others to Act
-7. Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.
-8. Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion.

•Encourage the Heart
-9. Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence.
-10. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.

The book is a must read.
The summary above should be committed to memory.

What it says to me is … build an environment where the people around you can be their best self everyday if they choose then make sure you don’t get in the way of their aspirations and development with policies and procedures that send different messages.

Set clear expectations for performance because people want to know how you define success so they can interpret it for themselves and take action accordingly.

Communicate with people. Open your heart, make yourself vulnerable, transparent, flexible, responsive…emote. If someone is asking the question in your organization,
“Do leaders really care about me?”
-What I deal with day-to-day,
-my dreams,
-aspirations,
-challenges,
-concerns?

Be assured that
“Good leaders do.”

Remember what Abe Lincoln said,
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”

The framework shared above is what I would call a good start. Buy, read and put into practice the principles in the book.

Lead on.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

I’m not a chemist and pH balance is not my forte’. I’m just a guy who notices things and when they make me curious or chuckle, I write them down.

I’ve had the good fortune of being home most days the last few months so I walk our dog, take her to the vet, spoil her rotten so she’s here and happy when I’m not. She’s Mama’s shadow, snuggle buddy, snack hound and furry baby. You get the picture.

We have new neighbors. Seem nice enough and they have a large, older, female yellow lab. It let’s us all know when her Mom and Dad aren’t home. I couldn’t help but notice after the new neighbors moved in, their grass started dying.

I also noticed that when OUR dog soaks the grass, it grows faster than the area around it.

The other day at the vet after a $1300.00+ dental bill followed by a $350.00 check up and “other maintenance”, the vet asked me the question, “Would you say her quality of life is good?”…are you shitting me? I coughed a little, smiled and said “Definitely.”

Now we all know that dog breeds have typical behaviors, typical ailments, and typical life spans. The longer they live with us the more attached they become. Simply put, pets enrich our lives. We don’t want that to stop so we extend their presence as long as possible, usually disregarding the price tag.

Pets are a $60B+ industry in this country alone. (This figure is staggering but at least I know I’m not the only one taking out a loan every time I visit the vet.)

So I have to ask the basic question, when you pee on the proverbial lawn, are you killing it or do you make it grow? Does the reflected quality of your life enhance the life of your organization or does it kill it off? When you walk out of a room after sniffing around, wagging your tail and leaving behind…pearls of wisdom…were people happy you dropped by or just happy you left?

If an honest answer isn’t the one you want, what are you doing about it?

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday! (I’m posting this one a little earlier than normal so I can focus on what’s what when)

This week my wife Carole and I celebrate 32 years of marital commitment to each other. We raised a family together, invested in the communities we lived in, supported and demonstrated care for each other, navigated countless challenges and still manage to have heartfelt conversations now and again when we’re not distracted by the busyness and hard edges of life.

A few years ago I was talking with my friend Rajesh from Wisconsin. He told me as we looked around the room of design professional leaders, “Any one of us could get a job somewhere else…but could you recreate the life you now have with your family? It’s important to get (and keep) your priorities straight. Figure those out and everything else will fall in place.”

I’ve been through three and one half career moves (out of, in to, out of and almost in to again) since then. Each one painful…but progressively less so. Practice makes permanent. I keep thinking I can will my way to keeping a role but safe choices and the right choices are rarely the same. My voicemail used to conclude with a deliberate “Make it a great day!” because I believe attitude is the gate to the mind and one of the few things I have 100% control over. This does not translate to keeping a leadership position just because that’s what I prefer. There are entirely too many other variables at play for you to have ultimate control over your career. Besides attitude, staying within the bounds of legality, morality and ethical behavior, your choices may impact you differently than you’d like to believe.

In a marital relationship, there are fewer variables and the choices you make are more obvious. For instance, when I ignore my 50% equity partner, there are swift repercussions that hit the bottom line. Also, “for better or for worse” is a stark comparison to working in an “at will” employment state.

My path to vulnerability includes an admission that my desire for clarity as it pertains to “how much?” continues to consume more brain power than it should.

How much
•time should I spend at work?
•time can I spend at home?
•time do I spend on myself, restoring my soul, without feeling guilty about it?
•time will I spend in prayer?
•how much nest egg do we need to be comfortable when the paychecks stop coming?
•how much of the time, talent and treasures I have been blessed with do I give to others?

Continuous calibration of these items is not necessarily healthy but will likely continue for some time to come. I know that an abundance mindset is far better than a scarcity mindset but it is a daily effort to keep this priority straight.

Since meeting the woman who consciously elected to become my bride, I’ve worked for seven different companies. Some I knew were temporary, some I thought were until retirement but all were meant to help advance the mission of the Michel family to be successful.

Have a blessed weekend! and remember to show and tell the ones you love just how important they are to you.

Video of solar flare courtesy of NASA

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Pardon the technical jargon and please humor me through this week’s blog…it wanders a bit.

Recent headlines in one of the technical journals I subscribe to mentioned something we can all relate to: Loss of electrical service. Imagine, if you can, there would be

•No TV
•No computer
•No cell phones

You may have heard of solar flares and the impact they can have on the electrical grid. A CME is worse. It is slower and it disturbs the earth’s magnetic field more severely. There is also a 10% chance, according to experts on this subject, an event similar in magnitude back in 1859 (known as the Carrington effect) that knocked out telegraph systems in the US and Europe, could happen in the next decade. In case you think those odds or the stat is unrealistic, there was a smaller but similar event more recent in 1989 in Quebec that impacted a major city, shutting down the Montreal Metro and the airport.

Why did this grab my attention or why should it matter to you?

We tend to take things for granted, like: electricity and the sun.

My good friend Dave from Montana spent his life in the electrical business and shares stories about electrical outage restorations. He recalled one during our conversation just last week where an elderly customer called in…the next morning…hoping a power line crew could get out “by the weekend”. Tell me your heart doesn’t skip a beat when power goes out during an electrical storm for more than thirty seconds and you start worrying about food spoiling in the freezer. Imagine waiting (patiently) for several days…

Now think about how much you rely on the sun. Pretty much everything we do hinges on this fiery ball a mere 93 million miles away…and we plan our lives around it, every single day. If the sun started spewing excess plasma our direction, what would you do?

One of the many issues leaders are asked to consider is disaster planning (i.e. Zika virus, computer virus, connectivity issues, wood ticks, lawsuits or floods) and now we have to think about explosions on the sun?

Yes.

Leaders are not rewarded for complacency, they are charged with finding ways to eradicate it.  Come prepared…or stay home.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

This week I was reminded of the power and the value of relationships. I created the opportunity to meet with several long-term relationships for a variety of reasons, as detailed below:

•First meeting-There are a number of ways to deal with stress but I’ve never learned how to avoid it. I found a deep tissue massage helps alleviate much of what gets under my skin. It’s also important for me to work with a professional who knows what needs work and how to resolve it quickly. While traveling to this week’s destination, I was able to schedule with my preferred massage therapist to work out the kinks. Awesome!

•Second meeting-I have 28 sweet “tooths” so all but 4 have crowns. After a relocation to the Twin Cities, I finally met with a new dentist who tried to suggest I needed…a lot of work…so in seeking a second opinion I met with my original dentist (who I trust). He sorted through what needed to be done and compared what was unnecessary. The difference is about $10,000. Thanks Doc!

•Third meeting-I met up with a long-time friend, going all the way back to childhood, for burgers, beers and BS. We talked through work, motorcycles, kids, spouses, aspirations, frustrations and just caught up on life. Good food for the soul.

•Fourth meeting-While in a particular town for a potential career changing meeting, I scheduled coffee with a colleague who knows my industry, knows my background and seeks my personal and professional opinion, and I hers. We covered some work issues, people issues, concerns, aspirations, and Father’s Day plans. A confidence builder on top of just maintaining a cherished friendship.

It is important to be aware, more important to maintain but even more important to acknowledge how much the people in your lives mean to you.

•What’s it worth to be able to reduce your stress?
•How often do you wish you could get a second opinion on critical, high value concerns?
•Do you spend much time reflecting with decades old friends on glory days when you used to dream about what you’d do when you grew up, just to check in, stay humble and recalibrate?
•When is the last time you needed to know you were good enough for whatever comes next? Who do you seek counsel from?

Perhaps most important, how are you balancing the scales?  Reciprocating?  Actively listening?
Who is looking to you for help, stress reduction, a second opinion, soul food or a confidence boost?
Are you making yourself available?
What will you do TODAY to follow through?

This weekend is Father’s Day celebration.  My dad was a lot of things to me.

-A disciplinarian

-A living example of hard work

-An entrepreneur

-A mentor

-A moral compass

If your Father is still alive, give him a long hug, even if he’s not a hugger, and tell him exactly what he means to you.

if he’s not, spend a few minutes in prayer and talk to him.  I’ll think you’ll find there is more than one Father listening.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

I watched some of the (former FBI director) Comey testimony Thursday. Several times I thought to myself, I considered my problems to be significant…until I listened to some of his testimony.

I’m not what most would describe as “political”. Comey stated he and the bureau work hard at staying unbiased toward either party but that doesn’t mean he isn’t political. Quite the contrary. He’s a player.

Problem description that I dug up in my archives:
•An undesirable state of existence
•Based on fact
•That can be changed
•Within reason

Leaders find themselves facing problems every day and most days, more than just one. However, most decision makers have a strong tendency to jump to solutions rather than properly defining the problem.

It’s difficult to solve a problem with the best possible outcome if you don’t define what you are trying to correct. On the other hand, clearly defining what the undesirable state of existence is sets you up to generate one or more solutions and maybe even pull in some colleagues to bounce ideas off of.

Instead of ready, fire, aim…take the time to frame up the problem at hand, devise at least three options, include people closer to the stated problem and enlist their help, empower them to integrate the solution and delegate authority to solve future problems where they tell you about it, when and only when they think you need to know.

Problems exist everywhere. How you describe them and who you enlist to help you with them will make all the difference in your world.

Have a blessed weekend!

Actual package delivery outside on Thursday.  Post delivery person didn’t even have the energy to hit the doorbell by the time they finished piling everything up.

 

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Leaders can get pulled into making many decisions in a single day…if they allow it.  I maintain this shouldn’t happen in a well-run organization.  It’s as easy to get pulled into the knock ’em down decision making as the one click order button with Amazon Prime or calling in to QVC (Ahem).

One of the most critical steps required in good decision making is to separate wants versus needs. At home, that line can get blurry and the control mechanism might be your check book balance. In business, the line moves constantly and requires diligence, solid and defensible logic and a strong constitution to live with the decisions, no matter the amount of criticism that comes from those with less perspective.

It may be hard for some to discern between a cost and an investment.  For instance:
The perspective varies between long-term employees worrying about bonus distributions at the end of the year compared with the new-grad-recent-start who wants to see investment in Information Technology, equipment and updated systems and processes that will make them more efficient, mobile and effective.

I remember the day my CEO predecessor ordered a pile of new computers from Gateway when they shipped them in cow-pattern boxes. It was a visual and an affirmative decision statement sitting in the foyer of the business, saying under his breath, “Hell yes I just bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of computers. We were underinvested and we need to give tools to our talent.” Point well made.

I’ve also witnessed the other end of the spectrum where Chairmen and Board Directors get in the weeds on things they feel strongly about.

Folks,

•That defies good governance

•That ignores role clarity

•That undermines the significance of the established, responsible leader

If those misguided people WANT to run operations, they NEED to get their own damn company to run.

Whether at work or at home, make sure the vision and the actions are aligned. Create a good plan, review the plan often and stick to the plan.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Americans! It’s Tuesday!

Carole and I spent a very quiet Memorial Day weekend at home. We rested, watched TV and made room for our daughter to relocate back to Minneapolis (starting a new job) with as much independence as possible until she finds her space and her place.

I read several Memorial Day notes asking us to remember all of our fallen soldiers and all of the men and women who sacrificed so much (they had me at “Memorial”) so we could enjoy the freedoms we enjoy today.

For instance, on Saturday, my neighbor Pat and his old buddy Bob invited me to go for a ride to a neighboring Harley Dealership for a hog roast. It wasn’t until I pulled up behind them that I realized they both had Vietnam Veteran plates on their bikes. Bob is retired and Pat would like to be…within the year, he figures.

I also realized the high percentage of veteran/bikers out and about that day. I saw tattoos, flags, patches; USN, Semper Fi, Vets helping Vets. My eyes were opened just a little as I was invited into a different view of a common get together with loud pipes, shiny paint, chromed everything, lots of leather, tasty pulled pork sandwiches, a groovin’ band and some very proud Americans celebrating the freedoms that are protected so well:

•The freedom to assemble
•The freedom to say what you want, when ever you want, about whatever you want
•The freedom to travel where you choose to by two wheel, four wheel, 18 wheel or whatever combination suits your fancy

-You can read what you prefer
-Work as hard or as little as you desire
-Wear what you want to wear
-Eat what your body can tolerate
-Worship the savior of your choosing and if you’ve read this blog before, you know I have a strong preference for God

God bless America and every one of the souls who have, are and will protect the finest country on the planet.

I believe we all carry the reciprocated obligation to remember 365 days a year, not just one, how fortunate we are to live here. Be your BEST self…daily …because you can be.

Have a blessed week!