Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!

Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Normally, this may be referring to pearls of wisdom (and you can take it that way if you’d like) but my reference is to the the way nature forms pearls.

“Natural pearls form when an irritant – usually a parasite and not the proverbial grain of sand – works its way into an oyster, mussel, or clam. As a defense mechanism, a fluid is used to coat the irritant. Layer upon layer of this coating, called ‘nacre’, is deposited until a lustrous pearl is formed.”
Pearls.com

I was still thinking it was a grain of sand so I learned something in writing this one.

So…
What is your nacre? How do you take an irritant and make it a cherished thing of beauty? Better yet, if you fancy yourself a cultural alchemist, converting garbage to gold (you thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you) then what do you apply?

I would submit that the easiest answer is Love. It could take the form of education, financial investment, attention, a sense of belonging, role clarity, trust, autonomy or high purpose but however you define it, it takes serious energy and courage. The courage to push back on status quo, the courage to sacrifice others perception of you, your motives, or your passion. The courage to take the risks associated with the rewards of turning a collective downward spiral (often under the false impression that things are OK) to a positive, aware, functional enterprise on its way to being once again sustainable and successful by the most current definition.

“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.”
Teddy Roosevelt

I chose not to place much focus on the parasite in the definition because we are all too familiar with the forms this dysfunction takes on; anger, deceit, jealousy, apathy…entitlement, poor judgement, blame, etc, etc.

I was recently introduced to a new term, “Embrace the dysfunction.” I bristled at the idea. I prefer to identify dysfunction then eradicate and rebuild. Then I started asking myself, “To what end?” The part I am warming up to is that this slightly slower conversion may be a minimal disruption technique. Rather than split the patients ribcage wide open to gain a grand view of the heart, it may be better to go up through the groin. Less invasive=more effective? Perhaps.
Less “healing”…if it works.

Let’s call this another tool in the belt.
or
Another pearl on the string.

Have a blessed weekend!

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

I think stress is usually caused by the difference between what we think should happen (good OR bad) and what actually does.

I have some awesome coworkers who all deal with stress differently.
•one very fit professional will double their exercise routine to stave off upcoming stress
•another took up welding…
•a number find respite in traveling to a peaceful location and leaving “things” at home
•a large number will retreat to the corner pub where they can grab a burger, a beer and a bar stool and pontificate
•one of my favorites is the guy who simply says, Hakuna Matata.

https://youtu.be/xB5ceAruYrI

Leaders deal with stress like every one else, perhaps a bit more muted or then again, perhaps equally as loud with more resolve to bring the worlds of “is” and “could be” together.

Advice for those looking for their own way to beat the beat down of stress…

•There is the stress from anxiety where we worry ourselves into a tizzy:

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
– Mark Twain

•For those whose stress comes from being frozen, unable to pick yourself up:

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
– Dale Carnegie

•For those looking for an easy way out with no stress:

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
– Helen Keller

So is stress good or bad? The answer is yes. It is certainly both. My opinion is that it has extremely negative connotations. If the amygdala in the brain is triggered with a fight or flight response, your body tenses up and your heart rate increases-stress is as detrimental as you allow it to be. It can also be a motivator to change your circumstances. Either way, you’ll need to find an effective way to anticipate, prepare and deal with it…or it will deal with you.

Have a blessed weekend! Happy Easter!

Good morning, Team!  It’s Friday!

I woke up this morning feeling like a wrung out dish rag.  The flu has had its way with a lot of families this season.  I guess it is now my turn.

My apologies for not submitting a real blog today.  No wit, no sarcasm, no nuggets of wisdom…similar to every other week, just less reading.

Be grateful that reading this doesn’t expose you to the bug.

Have a blessed weekend!

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!