Serendipitous Endeavour

Just completed the worst hotel experience of my life, checked out at 3:30 am, and began the search for an open restaurant in Orlando.  Drove for 15 minutes down the road, headed westbound on SR 436 and did a u-turn to check out the McDonalds.  As I turned and looked up, there it was in perfect black skies, the space shuttle Endeavour had just launched.  I pulled over and watched the shuttle riding on an enormous plume of fire until the two solid rocket boosters began to flame out and separated, leaving the 3-engine brightness of a very slow shooting star racing into space.

It’s been 16 years since I saw a live launch and it is still simply breathtaking.

I had no advance notice of the launch and certainly didn’t plan to be driving the empty streets of Orlando in the depths of the night, but my complete lack of sleep has now been replaced by a complete sense of gratitude.

Serendipity indeed.

Ishita’s Meditation

From Seth Godin’s soon-t0-be classic Linchpin, the words of Ishita Gupta:

Every day is a new chance to choose.

Choose to change your perspective. Choose to flip the switch in your mind. Turn on the light and stop fretting about with insecurity and doubt.

Choose to do your work and be free of distraction.

Choose to see the best in someone, or choose to bring out the worst in them.

Choose to be a laser beam, with focused intention, or a scattered ray of light that doesn’t do any good.

I have written often in this space about our power to choose. To choose our path, our response, our own way.  But I’ve never written anything this powerful. My gift to you today.

PS Read Linchpin as soon as you can. Very few books compare with Good to Great, and Seth Godin has accomplished that feat.

Ultra Human

“Getting up at 2 am to train for an ultra sucks.”  Unknown runner, Lake Mary, Florida, 5:00 am EST, February 4, 2010

Out for a run this morning in glorious darkness and 51 degree temperatures, I crossed paths with unknown runner quoted above.  And he got me thinking.

Only 70,000 people complete an ultra-marathon event, usually 50 or 100 mile distances, each year.  Out of 6.7 billion people on the planet!

This guy wasn’t complaining, he was feeling significance.  He is also training to run this event because it gives him incredible variety.  He is also part of a small tribe of ultra runners that share a kindred spirit, so he is feeling connection and, this morning, he connected with me.  One thing is for sure, when we satisfy three or more human needs, we don’t “suck.”  We are screaming out our joy for life.

And in far fewer characters than he needed to Tweet, he helped me remember why I run and why I lead.  How about you?

Linchpin

About halfway through Seth Godin’s new book, “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” If you haven’t read it yet, please make the investment.  You and your teams deserve it.

Touching Hearts and Minds

The best leaders have learned that enabling change requires them to touch hearts and minds.  I have quoted a friend of mine who speaks of making the eighteen-inch journey from head to heart.  I love the connotation and have come to embrace this concept as an important tool in determining whether progress is being made in an organization.

In determining change readiness, I have found that an energy audit of the office, factory floor, cafeteria, customer lobby, employee entrance and board rooms is an important indicator of culture (the combined behaviors of the people) and of a company’s readiness to create change and react to it.

Low energy companies are characterized by people walking the halls and looking at their shoes.  A bit better are those where people stare at other people’s shoes. Hallway conversations are minimal, cafeteria’s are not buzzing with conversation, wall art, if present, is subdued and ordinary.  Reception areas possess tomb-like quietness.  Doors are closed and work spaces confined.  Parking lots are empty at 7:45 am and at 5:15 pm.

High energy companies have a buzz within them.  The people walk faster in the halls, express greetings to their colleagues, enjoy serendipitous conversations about family and projects.  The cafeteria is filled with energy as impromptu meetings spring up with a constant ebb and flow.  Reception areas are bright, well-lit, filled with current reading materials and marketing for the firm.  Receptionists are cheerful and energetic.  The people seem genuinely purposeful in their movements.  There is a palpable sense of urgency built around winning rather than false urgency built around busy-ness.  Meetings are held in glassed-in rooms or open spaces and people are often standing rather than sitting to keep the meetings focused, brief and productive.  Cars fill the parking lot early and late because the projects are interesting, fulfilling and meaningful, not because of command and control workaholism.

High energy organizations have found a way to touch the hearts of their people. The mission, vision and purpose allow people to be aligned and engaged in a common journey.  Diversity of thought is rewarded.  People bring 100% of themselves to work rather than leaving their stronger points of view at home. Everyone is working toward something bigger than them.  And that gives them connection, significance, variety, growth, and contribution.  And any organization that can do that, keeps their best people around doing their best work.

Humans are motivated by emotions.  The best leaders understand that about their people and find ways to tap into those emotions to build productive, high-energy organizations where people can contribute fully.

If you are working to take your team, department, division or company to the next level, working on the eighteen-inch journey from head to heart will be time well spent.

Behavior in Uncertain Times

One of our needs is certainty.  During times of uncertainty, our team members, citizens, neighbors, children all look to us as leaders to provide them with some measure of certainty.  So how do we provide it?

There are a few things that come to mind:

1. We decide what we believe to be true and take a committed stand for those beliefs.  We stick with them even when we are attacked or criticized.  They are true north for us and are built on our values.

2. We keep the list of things we need to do to a critical few during times of great change.  To do otherwise leads to overwhelm for us and the people we are leading.

3. We communicate the why, what and how of our approach.  We respect that people must first be given awareness before they can get understanding and move to acceptance.  And all three of those conditions must be met before we get engagement and commitment.

4. We stay focused on our message and repeat it frequently in order to provide those we lead with a sense of urgency and sense of focus.

At a national level, it seems most political leaders have decided to act in ways that increase our collective uncertainty.  The inability to articulate what is and isn’t health care reform.  The focus on cap and trade.  The decision, this week, to focus on jobs after a year of 10% unemployment.  The stops and starts of financial reform. The lowering or raising of taxes.  The focus on government intervention. And tonight, a President that wants to get involved in college football bowl game decision-making.

This dog’s breakfast of priorities does not create confidence.  It leads to executive teams becoming even more risk averse.  Hiring always lags coming out of recessions, but when the uncertain cost of government programs, unintended consequences of monetary and fiscal policy and seeming shifting priorities in governance come together, the level of caution rises significantly.

Companies have found ways to do what they need to do with less people.  It is possible that the new structural level of unemployment is closer to 10% than 5%. Until demand begins to return and outpaces the productivity improvements companies were forced to make to survive, no government program that increases the deficit and tax burden will do anything to change that.

We need to get focused on the vital few for our companies (and country) to thrive. What gets focused on gets done.  Now more than ever.

CEO of the USA

Our President has a big speech tonight.  Several people have asked me what I would say if I were in his place.  Apart from being quite happy to not have the most difficult job on the planet, several things spring to mind.  But first, some context.

Our collective human need for certainty has been attacked on multiple fronts during the past year.  Economic meltdowns.  Sticky unemployment numbers.  Two wars and more nuclear threats.  Terror back on the front page.  Financial shenanigans making us question where and if to invest our money.  Health care confusion.  Legislators more divided than ever.  Lost civility.  Bombardment with disparate data.  The list goes on.

All of these things keep us off center as individuals.  One thing has not changed in the USA: When uncertainty runs rampant, we look to our President for signs that we’re going to be alright.

So, what would I say?

About half of you didn’t believe I had the experience to be President.  I now have one year of it.  And what I have learned has been profound.

From this point forward, I am going to listen to reasonable people when they say they are hurting, but will spend less time on polls and pundits.  I have made mistakes because I’m human.  I’m going to make more.  But tonight I want to say this to all of you:  I have never been more committed to my responsibility to protect your safety and security and to creating an environment in this country in which performance is rewarded and empty words are discarded, starting with me and my team.

These are the things I believe in, no matter what:

These are the values I hold dear:

These are the things I am going to do differently:

These are the things I am going to do the same:

I realize that many of you may not agree with me on any, some or all of my views.  I respect that.  I also realize that, if I am not consistent with these statements moving forward, that my actions will speak louder than words and I will lose credibility with you.  Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my Presidency.  I am committed to serving this country to the utmost of my ability and I am humbly requesting your support along the way.

Walk with me.  We are going to be alright.

Indeed we will.

Presence

Last year provides us with some lessons about what worked well and what didn’t.  It is fading quickly in the rear view mirror.

Last week’s memories may be useful to review some things that we did well and some that fell short.  Perhaps a cause was set in motion that we can build on or finish this week.

Tomorrow holds the promise of a rekindled resolution, a run to be taken, a project to be completed, a hand to be held, a conversation to be had.  In that promise lies hope.

But today is the time to combine the lessons of the past, to prepare for tomorrow, and to influence others.  For we can only contribute in the present, when we are present and if we want to gift someone with our presence.  Our maximum ability to contribute is right now in whatever place we stand.

As you go through today and each day this week, make a conscious effort to stop, look around, and notice what is happening around you.  Ask yourself how you can be a contribution in that moment.  It could be anything.  A door held open, a shopping cart returned to the store for a shopper, a kind word to a peer, a smile and a wave.

Whatever it is, it will confirm the fact that everything we accomplish is done in the present.  And that knowledge may begin to convince us to stop dwelling on the past and worrying about the future.  Spending more time being present may be the ultimate gift.

Brewery Leadership

I spent part of my day in Shiner, Texas, population 2,070.  Shiner is the proud home of the Spoetzl Brewery and home to the famous Shiner Bock.  In continuous operation since 1908 including the 1918 to 1933 Prohibition period during which it produced ice and near-beer, the establishment is still independently owned and operated.

Having spent most of my life around manufacturing, I was still in awe of a few things today.  The brewery produces 482,000 bottles each day using the talents of only 66 employees.  The company has no retirement age and its current longest-serving employee has been there 41 years, its brew master for 31 and the record for tenure belongs to a man who served the company for 61 years.  Long a Texas treasure, the beer is now sold in 31 states and the Cayman Islands.  The now-owner purchased the company in 1989 and saved it from extinction.  The beautiful part is that his picture is nowhere to be seen.  Instead, the founding members from 1909 and long-time owner Kosmos Spoetzl, who passed away in 1950, continue to be the faces of the company.

It makes sense.  When Prohibition ended in 1933, Kosmos put a keg on his bicycle and pedaled through town offering his neighbors free beer.  His relationship-marketing touch has not been lost.  More than 25,000 people toured the brewery last year to view the brewing of some of the 120 million bottles of beer it produced.

Friendly people, immaculate property, fascinating manufacturing process, great beer, low employee turnover, owners that embrace history while finding new ways to compete in a crowded market, all set with a backdrop of a classic Texas town.

Brewery leadership, indeed.  Simply doesn’t get any better than that.

Change Leadership

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”  General Eric Shinseki

Change is inevitable, but it isn’t necessarily the change we planned on or the change we desire.  It stands to reason that, in a country in which 90% of heart attack victims are unwilling to change their dietary habits when facing death, we tend to fight being changed.  We also don’t embrace extremes as a population, with most things having a tendency toward the mean (e.g. housing prices, interest rates, standardized test scores, and discretionary employee effort).  We gathered further evidence last night in Massachusetts that when the combined forces of the pendulum swinging back, complacency and hubris come together, anything is possible in politics and life.

Is changing people a hopeless cause?  I don’t believe so.  But if it’s true that we don’t actually mind change but do mind being changed, how we go about effecting it becomes important.

When a vision of something greater provides us a destination worth moving toward, change is possible.  When such a vision combines with a collective belief that we must also move away from something causing us pain, change is possible.  When we see a mutual purpose established and corresponding mutual respect for diverse opinions and honest disagreement, change is possible.  When we become less defensive about how to change while maintaining what to change, change is possible.

As leaders, we are often put in the position of justifying change to our people.  When we explain our position and then actively listen to our constituents, team members, employees and customers to refine our approach and build a coalition that moves us in a desired direction, we significantly increase our chances of leading successful change.  Again, a big enough “what” has to be coupled with a big enough “why” in order to effect change.  And allowing your people to work on the “how” keeps them engaged in pursuit of a common goal.

If we ignore unintended consequences, we lose.  If we don’t actively listen and respond, we lose.  If we must hold onto the power to define what, why and how a thing is done, we lose.  If we are complacent about our challenges rather than realistic about them, we lose.  If we are unwilling to adopt a plan B, C, or D when faced with obstacles, we lose.

Change is inevitable.  How we respond to it is up to us.