Good morning, Leaders!  It’s Friday!

In the past month, two of our adult children posed the question to me in a text, “Are you voting for Trump?”

To give some background, I do not tell our children what to do (I recognize that my ability to influence dropped sharply after they turned six years old). They consult me on matters of career and finance … and now politics.

We learned Wednesday night that Senator Cruz will not be. He’ll be voting his conscience, although I don’t think you’ll find that entry on your ballot. Sore loser, or maybe just loser.

My rationale is complex but my answer is fairly simple.

Rationale:
•I usually vote for the Republican Party. Not because I wholeheartedly agree with everything in their platform by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t. However, I tend to lean more that way based on pro business, less government and less taxation. Whoopee. Call me a moderate, shame my political views, no matter.

•The process may not have yielded a candidate that gets the majority of conservative voters quickly behind him but a previously agreed upon process was followed. The angry electorate has spoken and it produced an angry candidate with the warts and hair…of ugly wrapping but we can only speculate whether the gift inside is beautiful or ugly at this point.

•Not voting at all removes my ability to have an opinion on anything political in the future four years. I can’t complain or brag if I sit on the sidelines rather than participate.

•The independent candidate is truly unconventional but not serious enough to be a contender so it would be synonymous to throwing your vote away.

•I fundamentally disagree with many of the positions of the one true opponent. What if you removed half of the negative claims currently being circulated or “wrote them down” due to potential embellishment. Would it be enough to change your mind? Not for me.

•Looking at the economies of so many other countries that have failed and reviewing key decisions that led to the current state of political and economic affairs, I don’t want us to become the next Japan, Greece, or countless other failed states across the globe who refused to take responsibility for their individual actions and ultimately led to where the global community sits today.

•Gone are the days when we can get most of what we want in a POTUS candidate. Some of our most heralded leaders were crooks, philanderers or just morally corrupt so when we take a realistic look at what the country absolutely needs versus trying to find a contortionist who makes everyone think they are perfect, we find that the bare minimum may have to be enough.

Note: I wrote and posted before the RNC Convention wraps up so if he delivers the speech of a lifetime or if he lays an ostrich egg, it really doesn’t matter.

Answer:
I am voting Republican. I plan to vote for Trump.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!!

A few years back I read a book by the same title from author John C. Bogle-the brains behind Vanguard, the investment firm. In the book, he quickly highlights the grotesquely greedy behaviors of Wall Street hedge fund managers and it makes you start to wonder how you personally define success. The book was written in 2008 as we dove into the economic abyss we are still climbing out of. Perhaps if we had paid attention to the warning signs and John’s story of how he has led his own life, we could have spared so many so much pain.

The word also voices my sentiment about the current state of affairs with the social unrest, political rhetoric and global anxiety. What value does it provide? Does a heightened state of awareness have a limit?  Does an overstimulated population serve anyone?  When someone jokes about wishing for “world peace”, do we actually think we achieve that by stirring up everyone? Peace starts from within each of us. Patience, understanding, compassion and concern for others before ourselves would be a good start.

Lastly, on occasion, my lovely wife will point out a video, a book or a post on social media that strikes a chord. She brought me thought provoking items like Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture”.  Last night she shared a Facebook post titled, “I wish you enough” based on the poem by Bob Perks and whether you’ve seen it or not, it’s worth reading again:

I wish you enough sun
to keep your attitude bright
I wish you enough rain
to appreciate the sun more
I wish you enough happiness
to keep your spirit alive
I wish you enough pain
so that the smallest joys in life
appear much bigger
I wish you enough gain
to satisfy your wanting
I wish you enough loss
to appreciate all that you possess
I wish you enough “Hello’s”
to get through the final “Goodbye.”

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Sooner or later, the world tends to force us into a choice of one or the other. You may vacillate between them depending on circumstance or age but it is difficult to serve both masters because even though they sound similar, they are diametrically opposed.

Do good seems to imply that you are doing the right thing for the general public, human nature, public safety, often considered the right thing or the greater good. Think Mother Theresa good here. It isn’t about material things, it’s about having a positive impact on lives.

Do well seems to imply that you are doing something to support your personal agenda. You are promoting yourself above others. Rather than investing in the system with faith that you will get your just deserts, whatever that might be… you take a short cut, because you are impatient or, worse yet, greedy.

There are many in leadership positions who do very well for themselves. For instance, yesterday’s news came out that the Viacom CEO was removed from the board. He’s made hundreds of millions of dollars but if he is removed from his CEO post, his contract says he will receive 3x his annual salary in a severance. I’m not sure he’s done good but I am certain he’s done well for himself.

To add to the confusion, it is proper english to indicate you are doing well when someone asks “how are you doing?” suggesting “how are you?” or “what is the status of your well being?”, but most people will say, “I’m good” almost unknowingly conveying arrogance.

Then, I received a response today in an email where I wished someone well and they responded with, “I am doing fine but could be doing better”…

What does an optimal leader do? They pursue doing good and they have faith that they will be doing well.

Have a blessed weekend!

Remember your Father.

Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

I’m spending time reflecting and projecting this week.
•I was invited to our 10th annual awards celebration last weekend in Manhattan. My first response was to decline the RSVP. I opened it and couldn’t find a way to say no thank you so I ignored it. Oops. Then I received a plea from my division president’s administrative assistant to which I said no thank you (again). Double oops. Finally, I was invited out to NY for two modestly significant meetings the day before the awards celebration to which I finally said OK, I get it now. No subtlety here…
The event was GREAT! Taking the time to celebrate what my colleagues do both at and outside of work, the event had an “Oscar” flavor without the Hollywood celebs. Excellent setting, food, drink, ambiance at the Harvard club but the real treat was the value the people brought to our industry. I got goosebumps more than once and just about popped buttons on my new shirt when my chest was swelling…and I’m still getting to know this group.

Then,

•I joined my executive group in Duluth for a quick retreat where we discussed a variety of topics including faith, operational excellence and future financial considerations for retirement.
•Will you have enough money to retire? •What should you be thinking about?
•How do you prepare?
•What will you do?
•How much does that cost?
•How long will you live?
•Will there be any social security?

By the time I got home and ready for the next work week, I was pooped. I just finished looking backwards in a grand manner surrounded by significant national and international company executives. I also just finished looking forward with anticipation and anxiety joined by a dozen local executive colleagues imparting wisdom to be a better version of myself. Then I had to look to tomorrow, literally, and decide what am I going to wear, what am I going to do and will it be significant enough to celebrate next year or will it even be enough to contribute to our retirement fund.

Was it going to be worth my time to get out of bed?

I did … but I won’t know right away. True worth cannot always be measured on the day we expend the effort. Not all projects begin and end in the same day. Most efforts require vision, commitment, strategy, tenacity (there’s that word again), patience and faith that you are doing things approximately right and will have impact, whether now or eventually.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Perspective is an honor and an expectation of leadership. You receive a certain amount of data and information from your core areas of concern like financial, legal, information technology, human resources, sales, marketing and communications and, of course, operations.
In addition to what you know of your organization, you work hard to gain access to valid external information like the political and economic environment, industry trends, and client feedback.
Finally, you must decide which information will demand your attention, which to monitor and what you can (or should) ignore. Now you’ve assembled your perspective.

The internally generated information should be readily available-I would argue to the entire company (i.e. open book) , easy to understand and have some range of acceptable operating parameter that ties to the business philosophy of the organization. One of the many dangers here is the “loudest voice in the room” where an issue in an area may be important but not critical yet the manager of that particular area has succumb to the tyranny of the urgent and will contend it is actionable and immediate in nature.

Today we have an abundance of external information readily available for little or no cost beyond the time it takes to consume and digest it. What and who to listen to as well as what information you can trust is becoming the new focus; facts versus opinions, old data, new data, market research or trusted advisor.
All leaders need to elevate their thinking, the way they process data and information to reach assessments that guide an organization forward. If we allow ourselves to be pulled into the muck, who’s steering the ship? Who is there to pull others out of the muck?
Do we tend to feel, as leaders, we must get our hands dirty to demonstrate our relevance?
Let’s not mistake our prerogative to dig into an issue as an excuse to soil our hands and prove our worth in a tangible and widely recognizable manner. If so, you are depriving someone else in the organization the opportunity to earn their own wings.

A leader immediately gets issued a megaphone and a spotlight that follows them around. Each word measured, each facial expression questioned whether it is consistent with the words spoken and the barrage of questioning why something was decided upon, specifically if it creates negative impacts, even though the data and information used by the leader to make decisions is often not obvious.  There is a delicate balance between some necessary short term wins to pacify the masses and making the harder, long term investment type decisions that sustain the company for the long term.

What you do with information is what differentiates a great leader from an average one…and everyone will have an opinion about the conclusions you’ve reached and the actions taken. The sad irony that follows leadership in this immediate gratification world we live in is that you may not be present to witness the resultant of all the critical decisions made.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders!  It’s Friday!

I know an emergency physician who, by his own admission, had a good life working 9 nights out of 30 at a prominent hospital in the Twin Cities. He encountered a veteran who was suffering from intractable pain due to a horrendous war wound (bullet through the back) and growing increasingly dependent on opioids. The veteran confessed that smoking a joint overseas took away all his pain but once back in the states, no marijuana use due to its illegality prevented him from removing pain from his life. This coupled with the reality that marijuana is not addictive and you cannot overdose on it convinced my well to do doctor friend that he must commit his professional life to reducing pain that doesn’t create addicts and doesn’t cause potential overdoses.
Inspiring.

I know an engineer who has seen many, many sides of the electric utility business. He’s sold products, he’s managed large construction projects, he’s run engineering and operations crews in union settings, he’s performed system studies, and educated technical people on business-related portions of the business. But his passion in outage management systems (OMS) came during a snow storm in South Dakota on his way home from the eastern part of the state when he was stranded in Wall, SD by highway patrol and the hotel had no power. Being familiar with the local utility, he made his way down to help the singular line manager in the office who was dispatching, taking outage calls, troubleshooting from his desk in a humble, deliberate and committed manner. My friend was moved by his personal involvement in getting the lights back on knowing how the customers pain from the cold and the dark had been relieved. That long “day”, that ended about 3 the following morning, convinced him to dedicate his life to resolving outages and build reliable outage management systems for as many utilities as he could affect.
Infectious.

I know an executive who started with nothing more than a dream of being “successful”. Not knowing what that really meant, he had blind aspirations, driven by material accumulation (often viewed as security) until this one day…after years of chasing, volunteering for every possible challenge to prove himself, educating himself, putting theory to practice, critiquing performance, seeking opinions from experts, analyzing, adjusting, adapting and answering questions like
•what good was and what it took to be considered good by most?
•what influence was and where to exert it?
•what paying it forward meant and how to make it sustainable?

…he had to admit his pursuits had been somewhat hollow. Beyond helping his spouse raise children; providing a roof, shoes, food, a spiritual environment, a guarantee of a higher education and the gristle in the gut to finish whatever you started, the rest seemed to evaporate. What positive impact stems from a bigger TV, a fancier emblem on your motor vehicle or 800 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets?

After recognizing that the plan he was following wasn’t really his … only after the hand of God reached down and smacked him (with affection) as if to say, “Son, I didn’t bless you with these gifts so you could look in the mirror and admire yourself…get your butt back out there and make a difference!
Lead my people, educate the studious, put your shoulder into it and save some souls, uplift, empathize, and inspire! Make my world better.”
Inevitable.

Readers, have you had your “one day” but chose not to take action?
My challenge for you is to reflect back on your life to this point and if you haven’t had it, be aware. If you have had but ignored it, dust off the life lesson and apply yourself. It’s not too late. Tomorrow is the perfect day to start.

Have a blessed Memorial Day Weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

As my colleagues and mentors start to retire, it becomes more clear than ever that they aren’t counting their money as they exit their last paying role, they’re counting the number of people they touched and they’re reflecting on the influence they’ve had on the industry they worked in.

I received a special invitation from an old buddy (who has bravely been fighting progressively worsening symptoms of Parkinson’s disease) to attend an industry meeting I first came to know more than twenty years ago. I questioned if I wanted to return because I’ve passed on this baton twice to others who have made their own mark at the conference but I was pleased to come back to see the progress, rub elbows with old friends, make new ones and catch up on the latest topics covered at this sixty year old conference.

My buddy shared stories of his exploits, his intern program, his direct involvement on multiple industry panels and scholarship programs, his discussions with thick headed board members, crotchety lineman who quantified their mistakes by an assigned number (representing how far the subject’s head was up their ass that day). He introduced me to one of his four talented, intelligent and motivated problem solving children, and in a quiet moment with the cane by his side, he shared how ready he was to hang up his spurs. He has led an incredibly interesting and fulfilling life and has an enormous amount to reflect on and be proud of!

Another leader at this meeting is also retiring who led his consulting firm to prominence, sparred at a legal level as an expert witness, wrote standards and passed on his latest roles to three managers who he’d been grooming for decades. He successfully helped define and defend the electric utility industry and continues to impart wisdom as a board member, national code committee member and industry scholarship supporter.

Yet another friend and leader prominent at this conference stepped back from the company he founded to focus on the thing he loves, clients. It is fairly rare to see a technically prone individual embrace business acumen and capitalize on the nexus. Even more rare is to have that same leader let go of well-earned titles and be so self-aware to focus on what he loves. I’m confident his bank account is substantial…but you’d never guess it by talking to him. Today, he counts his success by the number of grandchildren he has and the quantity of 8″ brook trout he catches.

In Patrick Lencioni’s latest fable released last month, “The Ideal Team Player”, he focuses on the cultural quality of teamwork. Great leaders build teams. Great leaders possess many positive qualities; they are hungry, humble and smart and those qualities manifest in behaviors like:
•Trust-a willingness to be vulnerable
•Conflict-a preference to face it realizing there is a solution once faced and dealt with respectfully
•Commitment-to the Team you are working on
•Accountability-to do what you said you would without expecting someone else to hold your feet to the fire
•Results-effort without accomplishment is rarely rewarded. Business respects results and if you expect to be competitive, you can’t go to your customer or client and say “sorry, we tried” and expect to stay in business.

I’m confident that although the three colleagues I cited left a legacy because they were great leaders, I believe they accomplished what they did because they were great Team builders and great Team members.

Remember,
It’s not what you get out of it…it’s what you contributed.

Have a blessed weekend!

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

While in Bismarck, ND this week I took in a succession planning conference led by one of my favorite presenters on the planet, Geordie Aitken. His humor, genuine and engaged demeanor, quick wit and sticky wicket, hipster style are magnetic.

We spent time on the “cauldron of change” topic but people experience it more than once in their life. Most will see substantial change at marriage, birth of children, and career advancement as well as retirement.

Geordie talked about two cycles in the change process: one of resistance and another of suffering. Both have trigger events and consequences but I think the most important point he made is we must realize the tension between work and home…career and family…personal purpose and professional purpose. Note: He was talking to a room full of engineers/problem solvers/company leaders and emerging leaders who typically say “yes” too much, thereby creating substantial tension between the office and the house.

The phrase “some tension allowed” not only recognizes there is and will be tension but it gives permission to live with it…at least some. Too much tension creates problems and forces us to make difficult and painful choices. As my old friend Raj says, Any one of us could get a new job but could you find another person you’d want to share the rest of your life with?

When you go through a major life change, your purpose changes. Having a sense of purpose is the best way to navigate through uncertainty. If you resist and deny, the suffering cycle is prolonged. Geordie quietly suggested we learn fast and suffer less.

At a major change point, the learning is paired up with letting go. Making a substantial shift in life involves 50% letting go and 50% learning new things. As Nelson Mandela said, “I never lose, I either win or I learn.”

As for me, I’ve experienced substantial change in the past couple of years.  I haven’t always learned fast.  I found myself bargaining with … myself … why I needed to resist the inevitable and it certainly created, compounded and prolonged the pain.  To learn fast is to wise up and to let go is to forgive.

Learn fast, let go and suffer less.

Wise up, forgive, be happy!

Have a blessed weekend.

Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

The World loves simple, easy explanations and has traditionally put labels on everything to satisfy its desire for instant comprehension.

I’m reminded of a presentation by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, I heard during a Red River research corridor conference roughly a decade ago. He was discussing the origins of an invention to provide clean water to third world countries. Intelligent inventors and conventional wisdom (The World) said of this concept, “that’s impossible”. After assembling many smart people and giving them time to create a solution, Dean presented it to …the world… who retorted, “that’s obvious”. Mr. Kamen contends that in between those two worldly labels is “genius”.

In the past month, I’ve heard multiple examples of how the world tells us we must choose a single vocation (at a fairly early age) and stick to it … but life doesn’t happen that way. We are multi-faceted, multi-talented complex beings who, by our nature and preference for survival, adapt and adjust to the circumstances we are faced with.

I heard Daniel Pink describe his research findings that the most successful salespeople exhibit a chameleon-like behavior and instead of the assumed extrovert being best, it is the “ambivert” demonstrating introverted and extroverted tendencies depending on the situation, who sells most successfully.

I watched TedX Bend on a flight back from New York last week where Emilie Wapnick described herself and many epitomized examples as a “multipotentialite”.

This past Tuesday, I heard Jared Leto-accomplished musician, award winning actor, and sophisticated tech investor on CNBC. He is highly regarded for multiple reasons. Richly successful, he mused that a CEO on the show at the same time was easily accredited by one label where it took five minutes to describe his background.

Each of these examples demonstrate that we don’t even have words in our vocabulary to aptly describe the phenomena today. A generalist implies that someone might be ok at many things. A specialist is typically good at one thing. How do you label someone who is very accomplished at many, many things?

My contention is that we have all been blessed with multiple gifts and if we pay attention, muster and exhibit confidence and then tak action, you too can defy conventional wisdom in this label prone society and enjoy a multipotentialite-type existence.

Challenge: Are you comfortable with just one vocation? If yes, should you be?
(Don’t let the world squash your genius because it desires to slap on a label and unknowingly stuff your talent in a small box.). Be all that you were designed to be.

Have a blessed weekend!