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!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

There are a few leaders whom I’ve admired for the results they brought forward. I’ve studied the words, the actions and the mindset behind their success. A former colleague introduced me to this saying, an excerpt from a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt “Citizenship in a Republic” given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910. He said to me, “Michel, this is you in a nutshell.”

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Who comes short again and again…

•Did you know that the most heralded basketball player in history to date, failed to make his high school basketball team? [Michael Jordan]

•Did you know that one of the most intelligent men in the world flunked high school math class? [Albert Einstein]

•Do you know how many failures and setbacks [Abraham Lincoln] suffered through before he became our President?
-he was defeated for Illinois state legislature
-he was defeated for nomination to US Congress
-he was defeated for Senate…twice

As Roosevelt said of him,
If there is not the war, you don’t get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don’t get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.

Go out this next week and “strive to do the deeds”.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

Everybody has scars. What’s funny (sad or ironic funny, not ha ha funny) about human nature is we pretend like ours are much worse than anyone else’s. The old movie clip from JAWS reminds me of the pain shared and the one-up-manship that took place on the boat.

We are no different.

Painful situations create scars and we are shaped by them. The deeper the wound, the harder the lesson, the longer the recovery and the bigger the scar. Then what?
Do you run around pulling up your pants leg to anyone who’ll listen about all the terrible things the world has done to you?
Do you withdraw from situations that look like the one that created the scar you carry?

Andrew Carnegie, one of the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders to live, understood the value of scars. He is said to have surprised an employee who made a significant and costly error rather than telling him, “You’re fired”, he chose to look at the mistake as an investment, knowing full well that employee would never make it again.

Do you learn from the events that created your scars?

Do you see the statue in the marble of the circumstances you are facing?
If you know after toil and sacrifice and scars galore, there is a great work of art (perhaps a coworker’s future in leadership or a vastly improved work environment) do you not chisel away regardless of the scrapes and cuts and callouses?

If you are flailing through life, bouncing around like a pinball in an old arcade game and getting scarred up because you have no intention…stop it! Make deliberate, thoughtful moves and if you accumulate scars, whether physical or emotional, make them purposeful, not folly.

Scars are unique and personal but not rare. How you acknowledge and embrace yours will shape your character, demeanor and disposition.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

This week I found myself in Chicago at the Capital Strategies and M&A Forum hosted by the consulting engineering subject matter experts, Matheson Financial Advisors.

The keynote speaker, Michael Farr, is a regular contributor on most financial cable channels and he came to impart some wisdom on the group. In addition to providing valuable predictions for the next five years in the stock market, he shared a story that transcends the financial world.

In Oklahoma, there once was a remote, Native American tribe who went through leadership transition when the wise old Chief passed away suddenly and they found themselves with a new, very young Chief.

Because it gets cold on their reservation, once harvest was done, they began to gather firewood and they looked to their Chief to tell them how much to gather. The novice gave a conservative response but as soon as they started the process, the young Chief became nervous and uncertain, put gas in the pickup and drove to the nearest town to call the National Weather Service (NWS) to find out how cold it was going to be so he didn’t look like a fool in his new role. The NWS told him indeed it was going to be “cold”. He drove back and told his tribe to collect more wood.
Two weeks passed and he became nervous again so he drove back to town, called the NWS asking again how cold it was going to be that Winter and they increased the severity saying yes, it was going to be “very cold”.
Guarding his reputation, the new Chief repeated the process one more time and fearing the worst, he was told, “Yes! It’s going to be bitter cold this Winter.”

By now, he was frustrated after telling the tribe to tear down all the old buildings and cut up every dead tree for miles and asked the NWS, “How did you arrive at this latest upgrade to the forecast? The response was, “We run our computer models, we monitor wildlife patterns and … this year we noticed the local Native American tribe has collected more wood than they have in decades!”

My questions for you are:
•What does your leadership succession plan look like?
-Are you taking it seriously?

•What contributes to the data you use to make critical decisions?
-How often do you seek a second (or third) opinion?

•How long do you think that tribe continued to follow their new Chief?

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

I went to dinner with an old friend last week with spouses and a friendly fifth. Once we got past the introductions and health concerns, the drink order fulfilled and the food on its way, Gary sprang the question we trade each time we get together, “What book are you reading?”

I’ve said it before, Leaders are readers. Whether it’s the morning news, a bible, a business book or any document that will stretch your thinking, add value to your business, add to your personal library and hopefully find a connection to something you already know or believe or completely contradict what you believe…

We chatted about a couple books and you’ve read about here some I recently referred to like “Emotional Intelligence 2.0”. What escaped me at that time was the book I was listening to. With my wireless, noise canceling headphones (I don’t need as much now that I’m not flying every week), I can absorb the contents …without wearing my glasses.

I need to change my phrase from Leaders are readers to Leaders are learners or Leaders are listeners.

My belief is that you should outfit yourself with multiple modes of learning just like we do with shoes. My cowboy boots would look silly at the beach, my flip flops would be dangerous on my Harley and I prefer not to run in my wingtips.

Prepare for flexibility rather than adhering to a preference that may limit your opportunities (i.e. ever try to read a printed book on a noisy airplane or next to a nosy neighbor?).

So, I’m listening to “Wild at Heart” by John Eldredge. The nuggets I’ve mined so far include
•”Desire reveals Design and Design reveals Destiny.” as well as the quote from Henry David Thoreau,
•”The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Which inspired me to uncover a couple more Thoreau quotes that spoke to me this week:

•”Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.”

•”Things do not change; we change.”
Have a blessed weekend!