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Are you happy with your career?

by Ron Potter

During this time of lock-down when we have the opportunity for some deep thoughts, now may be the best time to ask yourself if you’re happy with your career choices or happy in the career you find yourself in.

People can get stuck in jobs that reflect what they’re good at rather than what they’re happy with.

One of the Best

I was working with a client that was very good at what they were doing.  They worked in the finance department and were constantly noticed by bosses and peers as one of the best.  Because of this deserved reputation, they had been promoted on a regular basis and were making a salary that was beyond what they dreamed they would be making at this point in their career.

We were having a one-on-one session when they said something almost shocking.  “I hate what I’m doing!”  They knew they had been treated fairly, were compensated well for what they did, and even experienced satisfaction when they accomplished the tasks that were expected of them.  But this is not what they wanted to be doing!  Given their preference they would be much happier working with people instead of numbers.  They wished that had made different career choices earlier.  Now they felt trapped by the position and salary.

One Career may not last

I worked in three very different industries—engineering/construction, computers, consulting—over my career.  I enjoyed working in each of the three but found myself searching for something new and different in each assignment.  When I got to the point where I needed to change, I often found that I had been working toward the new industry for about ten years.  At that point, it was a matter of pulling the trigger to move on.  I don’t want to give the idea that any of those changes were easy.  I’ve gone broke a couple of times.  I’ve spent several years on the bottom rung of a new position before feeling proficient at what I was doing.  It always impacted my family every time I changed!

But I did it!  It wasn’t easy but I did it.

Adam Kurtz in his book Things are What you Make of Them lists 7 steps you can take to be happier with your career.

  • Don’t look back in anger
  • Check your pulse
  • Do your research
  • Update your skillset
  • Hold yourself accountable
  • Step away and take a moment for yourself
  • Just go for it

Don’t Look Back in Anger

The client I mentioned earlier seemed angry at the career they found themselves “trapped” in.  We all make decisions with the best information we have at the time.  That information may even include personal and family needs; college tuition, aging parents, single provider, debts, etc.  Don’t second guess.  Make the best decision at the time.  Now may or may not be the best time to make a new decision.

Check your Pulse

A high pulse is NOT a good thing.  If your work is providing you with a high pulse on a regular base, make a new decision.

Do Your Research

After I wrote my book Trust Me a family member told me they had read the book.  After thanking them, I asked if it provided any insight.  Their response was “Yes, I quit my job!”  That wasn’t quite what I expected so I asked them what triggered that response.

Reading your book helped me realize that the company I had joined had changed over the years and I hadn’t noticed.  All the aspects of good leadership written about in the book were why I had gone to work for the company in the first place.  But, over the years that had all disappeared and I hadn’t noticed.  I didn’t want to work there anymore.  I wanted to work someplace where I would be happy.

Update Your Skillset

Every position requires a slightly different skillset.  Find out what the new ones are.  Learn about them.  Read.  Educate.  Practice.  Get better.

Hold Yourself Accountable

If you’re not happy with your career, there is only one person responsible.  You!

This goes along with the first piece of advice about not looking back in anger.  You’re responsible.  Make the decision that’s right for you.  Don’t look back.  Especially don’t look back with anger.  It was your decision.  Do you need to make a new one?  As the last point recognizes, make it.

Step Away and Take a Moment for Yourself

This is being forced on us by this lock-down portion of the pandemic we’re dealing with.  Use the time wisely

Just Go for It

I’m not a big Nike fan but just do it.  It means your happiness and likely your health.  If it’s right for you, just go for it.

Go for Happiness

The world tells us to go for the big bucks.  Be in a position of power.  Be seen as possessing the best skill set.  However, if you talk with people (and you should) who are at the end of their career or even approaching the end of their life, they’ll tell you to go for happiness.

When people are approaching the end of their life, their best memories are of the relationships they developed over the years.

When I was recovering from open-heart surgery and subsequent infection a few years ago, different friends would visit me almost every day.  Finally, the day nurse asked if I was part of a large family.  When I said no, she was surprised because she thought that my “brothers” had been visiting me every day.  I explained to her that “yes, they were my brothers” but they were not family.  She was envious.  They all seemed so close and concerned about me, she thought they were family.

Each of my “brothers” had been a part of the different careers.  I had chosen happiness.  It made me happy.

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BlogCulture

Open vs Closed Minded

by Ron Potter

Why is it that some people seem to make constant progress in their professional and personal lives, while others appear to be doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over?

While the answer isn’t cut and dry, I’ve noticed an interesting mindset difference between these two groups: they approach obstacles and challenges very differently. It comes down to mindset.

Successful people tend to approach life with an open mindset — an eagerness to learn and a willingness to be wrong. The other group digs their heels in at the first sign of disagreement and would rather die than be wrong.

—Shane Parrish, Farnam Street Blog

Business journalist and television personality, Suzy Welch talks about two qualities necessary to get ahead:

1. Grit
Inevitably you’re going to receive some tedious assignments. Completing them with a positive attitude, Welch says, is something your boss will notice.

“Grit is getting the job done without complaint,” Welch says, “especially in challenging situations.”

To show grit, don’t give up when the simplest solution isn’t an option. Be creative and show resolve in completing the assignments you’re given. Welch says a boss can identify grit in an employee who demonstrates “perseverance, resolve, creativity, and the ability to just figure it out.”

“Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty.” was the definition given to us in last week’s blog by author, Heidi Grant Halvorson.

2. Gravitas
The second trait, gravitas, is all about presence and the way you carry yourself.

Welch describes this elusive characteristic as a mixture of “seriousness, maturity, thoughtfulness, wisdom” — traits that are tough to fake, and that will lead your boss and colleagues to respect you and give your perspective greater consideration.

You can also cultivate gravitas, Welch says, through the behaviors you avoid, like gossiping, being unprepared for meetings, interrupting others, or improvising important presentations.

Grit

Of the two, grit seems to be the one that can be developed over time.

  • Getting the job done without complaint.
  • Don’t go with the simplest solution.
  • Commit to long-term goals
  • Creativity

The attribute that is more difficult to learn over time is creativity.

Some personality types are more prone to “doing it by the book”.  Others feel that creativity requires coming up with complex and completed solutions that no one has thought of.  Both are wrong!

Creative Types

One exercise I’ve run with teams has been about creativity.  Unbeknownst to the team, I divided them into the personality types that naturally tend to be more by the book and those who tend to be more creative.  I give them the same exercise that requires creativity and measure the results.  The “creative team”

  • Shows the most creativity in the first round.
  • On the second round there may be some creativity but at a much lower scale.
  • By the third round, the “creative’ types are generally out of ideas.

By the book types

This type performs at a much different cadence.

  • In the first round, these types often complain that the creative types somehow “broke” the rules.  Although most of the rules are in their head.
  • In round two, once they realize that the rules are more flexible than they imagined, the come up with a substantial about of creativity.  However, it is usually less creativity than the other team achieved in the first round.
  • By round three, the creativity continues at a pace similar to the last round.
  • And for several subsequent rounds, the pace of creativity continues.

The other issue I see with the “By the Book” types is feeling that a creative solution should be complex and complete.  The best and most creative solutions are simple.

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful” – John Maeda

Both types are Creative

It’s simply a matter of pace.  Creativity types seem to exhibit the most gain early.  But burn out quickly.

“By the Book” types may demonstrate more creativity over time.  It just takes more time.

Gravitas

Too me this seems to be the trait that’s harder to develop over time.

It’s dependent on the mindset of Creative vs Victim.  I’ve written a few blogs on this concept and it seems to strike a chord with many of my readers.

If you’ve adopted the Victim mindset, there is no way to project Gravitas.  Remember that Welch describes these as “seriousness, maturity, thoughtfulness, wisdom.”  Being a victim projects none of these traits.

If you’re serious about developing this trait of Gravitas, then it requires a trusted, truthful mentor.  This type of mentor tells you the truth, both good and bad.  This type of mentor also helps you get to the root of the victim issue rather than simply adjusting the traits that look like gravitas.

Open vs Closed mindset will make all the difference in your career and life.  Grit and Gavitas: develop them for your own well being.  Others will also notice.

 

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Blog

Unlucky Loser

by Ron Potter

Are you a winner or loser or do you consider your lucky or unlucky?

I remember a car commercial from a couple of years ago where a dad was walking his son back to the car after a soccer match.  The father was proudly examining the trophy his son had just earned when he saw the title on the trophy.  The label on the trophy said “Participant.”  The son had just been given a trophy for participating.  Winning or losing made no difference.  Participating was what counted.

Even Video Games

I have a game on my phone and tablet I have used to kill time.  About a year ago I noticed a change in the game.  The game had always declared me as a winner or a loser depending on whether I beat the computer during the game.  But all of a sudden I noticed that it no longer declared me as a “loser” if the computer won.  It declared me as being “unlucky”.  Now I was either a winner or unlucky, not a winner or loser.

How do you view the world?  Do you think of winning and losing or does your mind go to unlucky vs lucky?  I believe this can be critical in how you face the world.

Controlling Luck

The winner/loser thinker doesn’t like to lose.  If they find themselves on the losing end, they will begin to think about how they can work differently, think differently or use a different frame of reference to cope with losing.

Those lucky/unlucky thinkers don’t like to be unlucky either.  But if they are, there doesn’t seem to be much they can do about it.  At least that’s their mindset.  They can’t control luck, they can only be the recipients or victims of luck.

If the lucky/unlucky mindset rules your life than you can only be a victim.  Someone or something beyond yourself is to be blamed or thanked for your plight in life.

One of the more powerful and well-researched instruments in the market place is Life Style Inventory by Human Synergistics.

Passive/Defensive

One of the sections they measure (for individuals, teams, and cultures) is titled Passive/Defensive.  This section includes four styles.  One, in particular, Dependent, speaks to this issue.   Here are the words that Human Synergistics uses to describe the section:

Passive/Defensive styles lead people to subordinate themselves to the organization, stifle creativity and initiative, and allow the organization to stagnate.

Why would a person subordinate themselves to the organization?  It’s easy to understand if you live in the lucky/unlucky framework.  In this world, it’s not your fault, it’s fate, it’s beyond your control.  There’s nothing you can do about it.  You’re just unlucky.

If the winner/loser framework is what rules your life, then you don’t subordinate yourself to the organization.  You’re a creative human being.  You have control.  You can make choices.

Don’t misunderstand, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a subordinate in a large organization.  People often talk to me about a particular leader or boss that was wonderful.  They have high regard for that person and often the teams they were allowed to work with and be a part of.  The difference is that they felt they were in those positions because of choices they made and the free will they exercised.  They were not victims of being unlucky.

Don’t be a Victim

Being a victim is a terrible way to go through life.  Figure out who you are and where you want to go and be responsible for getting there.  It may not happen overnight.  A person said to me once that they had always viewed me as knowing what I wanted and simply deciding to go that way.  I explained that on average it took me about ten years to be prepared and shaft gears with each major life change.  And, along the way, I won some and lost some.  It was difficult and took a lot of sacrifices.  The person who made that observation was a little taken back.  They assumed that I simply made a decision, made the change, and got on with my new life.

My observation is that neither framework is without difficulties and challenges.  The interesting part to me is while you may face even more difficult situations in the winner/loser framework approach to life, it always leads to a happier life than living in the lucky/unlucky framework.

Be responsible for your own situation.  Don’t blame others or the “roll of the dice” assuming it’s random luckiness that separated people in the end.  It’s actually your framework and outlook on life that makes the difference.

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BlogLeadership

Deep Work in Isolation

by Ron Potter

I seldom do a quick follow up after a recent blog but the next couple of blogs have been triggered by reader feedback.

Recently many readers commented on the blog post titled “Coronavirus and Deep Work”.  In that post, I recommended that you not waste this forced time at home.  Use some of it to sit quietly and think deep thoughts.  We seldom get a chance to do that during our former work life even though it is much needed.  I referred to Cal Newton’s book Deep Work where he goes into much more detail.

Isolation Advice

Then today—April 17—I was reading a Wall Street Journal article titled “Coronavirus Lockdown Lessons from Antarctica.” The article looks at many of the scientific teams that populate Antarctica during the wintertime and are completely isolated.  They focus on one team in particular from Norway that works at the Troll station.

“On a recent evening, Troll’s six-person team put together a list of advice for those struggling with extended lockdowns.

    • Give people space…folks have to be allowed time on their own to read books, listen to music, watch television.
    • Don’t let problems linger and get bigger—talk about it from the start.
    • Stay active, and even if you are in a small place, move furniture and get fit.
    • Take a deep breath, this is a time to be curious”

Curiosity

I think curiosity is the foundation piece to deep work.  Wikipedia says

Curiosity is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans and other animals. Curiosity is heavily associated with all aspects of human development, in which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill.”

Development and Learning

Notice that curiosity is heavily associated with development and learning.  I once had a friend who was fond of saying “as long as you’re like the little kid pulling his wagon up the hill, you’re doing fine.  But as soon as you stop exerting the effort to get up that hill and you sit down in your wagon to rest, you’ll find yourself at the bottom of the hill”

Reflection

I think the first thing to be curious about is yourself.  Socrates is quoted as saying “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”  I’ll give Socrates a pass because he was alive about 400 years before Jesus but the Bible says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Even if you don’t hold to the Christian faith, let’s put those two concepts together.  What they are really saying is that you must know who you are and how you fit into this life and humanity as a whole.  That doesn’t come easily.  A complete lack of this reflection is a sign of Psychopathy.  Just a few of the symptoms of Psychopathy include: Grandiose sense of self-worth, lack of remorse, guilt, or empathy.  Lack of long-term goals.  None of these symptoms show signs of self-reflection.  Start with yourself.

Notice that not having long-term goals is one of the signs associated with lack of self-reflection.  Where are you going?  What does the end of your journey look like?  What do you want to be remembered for?  These issues and others are not part of our busy lives, they are reached only by deep, reflective thought.

Opportunity

You’ve been handed an opportunity.  Don’t waste it!

  • What kind of person do you want to be?
  • How will you become a great leader?
  • What will make you an outstanding team member?
  • What is that thing inside you that you always wanted to learn or explore?

Build it into your routine.  Find a quiet place and a quiet time at least several times per week.  Force yourself to go quiet and think about these things.  You’ll come out the other end a better person.

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BlogLeadership

“Soft” Skills Win

by Ron Potter

Start with skills

An article in the Wall Street Journal was written with and about Bob Funk, founder of Express Employment Professionals and former chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.  Mr. Funk makes his living by matching people who want jobs with employers who need good employees.

When Mr. Fund talks about the interview process he starts with what most employees think of as the Hard Skills.

Hard skills and experience, he says, are only half the equation, and not the important half.  “So many people do not realize how important the soft skills are to unlocking job opportunity,”

Mr. Funk offers a quote from a boss he had over 50 years ago.  “There’s a person for every job and a job for every person.  That’s still true.”

Try before you buy

Most of the companies he works for are small and medium-size companies with fewer than 250 employees and he places most of his workers in part-time positions.  But over 60% of them go on to be full-time employees.

Hard skills and experience are only half of the equation and not the important half.  (Italics are mine).  Soft skills are the important part of unlocking job opportunities!

Soft skills rule

Mr. Funk found that the top five skills that employers look for are:

  1. Attitude
  2. Work ethic/Integrity
  3. Communication
  4. Culture fit
  5. Critical thinking

While Mr. Funk concedes that education is vital, the most important thing for most people is the ability to be trained.  And while I agree with Mr. Funk on this issue I don’t believe he gives enough credit to that ability to be trained with people of education.

Higher Education

So many of today’s graduates from major universities have been convinced that their degree from that particular institute has taught them everything they need to know to be successful.  I’m a graduate of the University of Michigan Engineering school and for a period of time recruited new hires from that institute.  What I discovered was that it didn’t make any difference which university the candidate graduated from.  What made the difference was number 5 on the list above, the ability to think critically that made the biggest difference between potential employees.

Learning is what’s important

As a consultant, I once ran an old exercise that didn’t produce any results.  When I asked my client why the effort fell flat they said they got the most out of sessions where I was sharing what I was learning.  My own learning produced the best results for my clients.  I believe that a college education gives you the opportunity to start learning.  Showing up to work every day assuming you’re there to share what you already know will get you nowhere.  Showing up to work every day ready to learn will show an eagerness to learn, which will carry you a long way.

 

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BlogCultureCulture Series

Culture – Consistency: Core Values

by Ron Potter

In just about every company I’ve worked with over the last 30 years, their values were printed somewhere.  Some times they’re in the employee handbook or other printed document but the majority of the time they’re printed in a beautiful art form on the front wall in the reception area.  They were there for everyone to see.  But employees don’t see them.  They probably saw them for a few days after the reception area was remodeled or repainted but then they walk right past them every day without notice.

Actions Speak Louder than Words

I’m not sure who first spoke those words but I believe it came from direct observations.  People will say almost anything for various reasons.  But their actions demonstrate what they really believe.

Printed words mean nothing in the face of behavior.

Words of the Core Value Culture Survey

Some of the words from Core Value questions include:

  • managers practice what they preach
  • there is a characteristic management style
  • a consistent set of values
  • held accountable
  • ethical code guides behavior

You’ll notice that only once do words come into play.  They practice what they preach.  And the focus is not on the words but on the practice.

Printed Words Mean Nothing

The only time printed words become meaningful is when they’re violated.  Few people believe words.  Everyone believes actions and behaviors.

One of the simplest explanations I’ve seen of corporate cultures and values is a straight line drawn left to right.  This line represents the current level of values or culture.  This is where the “bar” is set.  If someone violates one of those values and there are no consequences for that violation, the bar was just lowered.  Corporate Culture is less valuable when that happens then it was prior to the lack of accountability.

Corporate leaders must be vigilant in protecting the values and culture of the organization.  It slips away very rapidly through simple acts of violation with no accountability.

Bankruptcy

I’m reminded of the old story about someone who went bankrupt.  When they were asked how that could happen they said

Well, I had a missed payment here, made a bad decision there, made a bad loan to an old friend and pretty soon I was bankrupt.

Bankruptcy, like lost values, doesn’t just happen one day.  There were little things along the path that were pointing toward an eventual bankruptcy.

Core Values in corporate cultures are not just lost one day.  There are always little things along the path pointing toward the bankruptcy of values.

Mile Markers

I was once consulting with a division of a large corporation.  Things were going quite well at the moment.  Sales were up.  Marketing seemed to be clicking with potential customers.  Productivity costs were down.

But my final report after spending two weeks with the leadership team said that they were in trouble and headed for disaster.  I based that assessment on what I observed as the constant erosion of Core Values even over a short two week period.

My report fell on deaf ears.  All they could see were the positive numbers and metrics that were happening at the time.  They wrote me off as not knowing what I was talking about.  Two years later they were hemorrhaging.  Most of the leaders had left, numbers were bad and getting worse.

It turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg.  The leader of that group left when times were good to become president of another company.  He only lasted a couple of years.  The division went from being profitable to being sold.

Pay attention every day to Core Values.  Don’t let things slide.  Don’t just let “this one” go!  You will slip into bankruptcy quicker than you think.  Protect the Core Values with every bit of your fiber.

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BlogCultureCulture Series

Culture – Involvement: Capability Development

by Ron Potter

When I see low scores in the area of Capability Development, they seem to be driven by a couple of issues:

Leadership View

The leader and corporation almost always feel like they’re providing a great deal of training, education, and skill development opportunities and therefore don’t understand why the employees give them low scores in this area.

Employee View

Yes, the corporation gives lots of “training” but always where the corporation wants them to develop, not in the area where they want to grow.

Corporations often:

  • bring in trainers for the day
  • provide seminars
  • even provide opportunities to go off-site to one of these training sessions, seminars, or continuing education.

BUT, all of this capability development happens in the area where the company wants the employee to improve.  And it’s directed at improving the employee in the area where the corporation has them positioned.

One person said to me “I’m grateful to the company for providing me education and skills that have moved me to the top of the accounting department.  It provides me a great salary.  BUT, even though that’s an area where I have skills, that’s not the area where I have a passion.  I would much rather learn about and have an opportunity in the marketing area”.

I worked with Dr. Cloraire Rapaille for a few years.  He wrote a great book titled The Culture Code.  One of the Corporate Studies that Dr. Rapaille did for several major corporations was to help answer the question of what motivates people in the corporate world.  I believe it was in that corporate study where Dr. Rapaille coined the team “Future Potential Self.”  He discovered that people are not motivated by money, public recognition, or other forms of corporate motivational efforts.  People are motivated by what helps them get to what they see as their future potential self.

In my story above, the person’s “future potential self” was in marketing, not accounting.

Future Potential Self

So what does it take to provide training for a person’s Future Potential Self?

As a leader, you need to know what the Future Potential Self of your team members!  It requires that the leader get to know their team members on a human level.  Not just knowing their skill level.  Not just knowing their competencies.  But knowing who they are as a person.

One of my clients told me a story about putting in some long-hard hours on a particular project and yet felt very rewarded by their boss when the project was over.  When I asked what made them feel that way, they told me that their boss bought them the exact guitar they had been dreaming about.

Was it expensive?  It was very nice quality, but it was not considered a really expensive high-end guitar.

So what made it so special for them?

  • My boss knew that I loved playing in the church praise band.
  • My boss knew that any extra money we had right now went to caring for our new baby.
  • My boss was listening enough to know exactly which guitar I was desiring.

In short, their boss knew them as a human being!

That’s capability development.  Yes, they provided training courses to help them get better at their job.  Yes, they were offered off-site education to help improve their skills.  But, when added to the fact that their boss knew what they were desiring personally, that’s what improved the scores in Capability Development.

Know your people!  It makes everything else more valuable.

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BlogLeadershipTeam

Team and Leadership: Summary

by Ron Potter

Over the last several weeks we have been reviewing and expanding on the elements of a great team in our Thursday blog.  At the same time, our Monday blog has been exploring more detail on the elements of great leadership.  These are the first two legs of our Team Leadership Culture (TLC) model.

In general I believe it’s important to build a great team before working on leadership skills but in reality, it’s difficult to accomplish one without the other.  In many cases, they are tightly coupled and interdependent.

Today let’s review the elements of team and leadership and see how they fit together.

Elements of Team

Truth – Respect – Elegance – Commitment

Elements of Leadership

Humility – Development – Commitment – Focus
Compassion – Integrity – Peacemaking – Endurance

Interdependence

Let’s start with the elements of Team and look at the interdependence, overlap, and alignment with the Leadership elements.

Truth => Humility – Integrity – Peacemaking

To build a great team, members must be truthful with each other.  Truthfulness requires Humility, Integrity, and Peacemaking from the Leadership Skill List.

Humility

Humility has been misunderstood and misused in recent years.  Often people think of “turning the other cheek” or even being a “doormat” in order to be humble.  The original meaning of the word meant great power under complete control.  Humility doesn’t mean you’re powerless.  In fact quite the opposite.  It means that you have tremendous power.  Enough power to crush your opposition.  But when you’re humble, you choose not to use that power in a destructive way but to use the power for intense learning and curiosity.  Humble people may be the most powerful people in the room but are focused on individual and team learning through curiosity.  Humble people assume the other person may know something they don’t or have a very different perspective that’s worth learning.

Integrity

Integer also comes from the same root as integer.  It means whole, complete, sound and even incorruptible.  A person of high integrity is the same, complete, whole person no matter where they are or who they are with.  You can always trust they are and will be the same and say the same thing no matter what.  This is essential for the Truth required on teams as well as Commitment.  If you can’t trust that someone is genuine and has integrity, it’s difficult to get at the truth or sustain commitment.

Peacemaking

Peacemaking is also a word that we’ll see associated with Truth and Commitment.  Peacemaking is not the absence of conflict and different opinions.  Peacemaking understands that differences of opinion is natural for human-beings but has figured out a way to work through the differences and conflicts in a healthy productive way.

Respect => Humility, Development, Compassion and Integrity

Building and maintain respect with a team requires a leadership style built on humility, development, compassion, and integrity.

It’s important to note here that when I use the word leadership, I don’t mean the identified leader of the team.  I have observed people of all ranks and positions being leaders.  True leadership comes from your actions, not your position.

Humility and Integrity

We talked about humility and integrity in the Truth section above.  The same issues apply to Respect.

Development

From my book “Trust Me” development is described as “Leaders who accept the truth and train others to seize the benefits of adversity, loss, and change.  Growing people and giving them opportunities is one of the best ways to show respect.

Compassion

There have been a few clients through the years that didn’t believe compassion had anything to do with business.  In their minds, business was logical and should be dispassionate.

I’ve often used an old adage to counter that thinking:  “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care!”

When people feel like you care for them as a human being first, they feel trusted and respected.

Elegance => Commitment, Focus, Peacemaking

Commitment and Focus

I’ve combined these two but they do go together in many ways.  It requires a firm and aligned grip on the goal and purpose of the team to accomplish the required tasks in the simplest way with the least amount of friction.  Make the goals and purpose clear and then make sure everyone is committed.  This will eliminate much of the territorial behavior that happens with teams.

Focus is under attack more than any point in history.  All of our modern devices are determined to capture our focus thereby scattering our attention.  Our own egos also drive us to accomplish more things and be in more places than necessary or even possible.  Staying focused on the goal and purpose is the only way to keep things Elegant.

Peacemaking

Peacemaking was discussed above.  In making sure that things are accomplished in the simplest way possible, it will take a great deal of peacemaking to settle territorial disputes.

Commitment => Commitment, Peacemaking, Endurance

Commitment and Peacemaking

These two were also discussed above.  In terms of Team Commitment, it will take a strong commitment to the goal and purpose of the team.  It will also take a great Peacemaking/Decision-Making process.  Our earlier blog on Team Commitment talks about the process that provides a win-win environment which is essential to reach full commitment.

Endurance

I used the TREC (Truth, Respect, Elegance, Commitment) acronym because it looks and sounds like the word TREK.  A TREK is described as a long arduous journey.  Especially one involving difficulties and complex organization.  Building a great team is a long arduous journey.  It takes great leadership to deal with the difficulties and complex organizations.

Team and Leadership

That’s the summary of the first two elements of TLC, Team Leadership Culture.

  1. Build a great team
  2. Development great leadership skills
  3. Create the culture to achieve the goals and purpose

The Rest of the Year Adventure

Over the next several months we will be talking about Culture, the third leg of TLC.  We’ll be doing this in our Thursday morning blog posts.  Our Monday blogs have been dedicated to the Leadership aspect of TLC.  For the rest of this year, we’ll be using Monday’s to blog about things that provoke some thought.  These usually come from my daily experiences in life, what I observe in the world, an article or book that makes a point that I think should be shared.  They won’t happen like clockwork every Monday morning but simply when something strikes me as worthwhile.  Stay tuned.

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BlogTeamTeam Series

Team Elements – Commitment: Diversity

by Ron Potter

We’re looking at the element of Commitment in our Truth, Respect, Elegance, Commitment (TREC) journey to great teams.

Last week we talked about the trust required in great teams.  Trust of purpose, leader, and team members.  In building that trust we must look at the diversity of thinking and points of view.

Word of Caution

During my career, I have been asked to either lead a “diversity” effort or coach the person who was leading the effort.   The first thing that struck me was that diversity was defined by outward appearance.  Race and gender were the two most common ones but any number of characteristics can be identified.

Inclusion, not Diversity

One of my first reactions was that it shouldn’t be called “Diversity training” it should be named “Inclusion training.”  Because the name identified it as diversity, it seemed like the curriculum was based on emphasizing the diversity rather than turning it to inclusion.

As I got to know the people who were to be part of the process, I noticed that two members thought similar to each other even though they were of a different race and gender.  While another pair almost never saw eye-to-eye even though they were the same race and gender.

Diversity of Thinking

Great teams have learned to respect different points of view and how to work with those differences as simply differences.  Not good or bad.  Not right or wrong.  Just differences.

In my car the other day, I heard an old song by Dave Mason that hits this one right on the head.  The words are:

There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy
There’s only you and me and we just disagree

No good.  No bad.  Just disagreement.  Let’s start with the fact that we just see things differently.

Brain Science

Why is that?  Why can we observe the same thing and yet it seems like we see things differently?

One of the tools that have helped answer that question is the functional MRI (fMRI).  The MRI has been around for years but it simply took a snapshot.  The fMRI takes video!  We can actually see movement within the brain.

When our eyes observe an event, the image isn’t simply recorded on our brain and then stored on our “hard drive.”  There are two major flaws in believing that’s how we see the world around us.

Brain Processing Centers

First, are the known processing centers of our brain.

  • Values
  • Emotions
  • Goals
  • Beliefs
  • Ideas
  • Memories
  • Pain
  • Stress
  • Experiences

There are somewhere over twelve processing centers known today and many scientists believe there may be at least twice that many.

What we know from the fMRI is that when an image enters our eyeball and the optic nerve, it is split into at least 127 million bits of information and dispersed throughout the processing centers named above.  The image is then funneled through the ancient processing centers of motion detection and object recognition before being “reassembled” into coherent perception.

Think about that for a minute.  You and I can watch the same event.  But, because I have very different emotions, goals, beliefs, memories. etc. the image that is “reassembled” in my brain can and will be different from the image reassembled in your brain.  We see different things!

Courtroom judges will tell you that if two eyewitnesses tell the same story, the judge knows there has been collusion because “no two eyewitnesses ever see the same thing!”  We see things differently!  Just because someone has a whole different take on a situation don’t mean they’re not telling the “truth.”  “There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy.  There’s only you and me and we just disagree.”

Memory is Not a Hard drive

Because we’ve been using personal computers now for several decades, we’ve come to think that our memory functions much the same as computer memory.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  When we enter data onto a computer storage device or in the cloud, we can depend on it to be exactly the same when we retrieve it in the future.  However, our human memory doesn’t work that way.  Not only is it modified by the processing centers that we just talked about, but new experiences are also constantly modifying our memory from the moment it’s stored.  Our memory is never an accurate representation of what was first stored in our brain.

Beliefs and Assumption

Because of this science-based understanding, we should start conversations about decisions and difficult topics by having everyone share their beliefs and assumptions.  They’re all valid.  It will help you understand where others are coming from.  It will help them understand your position.  It will actually give the team a great foundation to begin working toward a position of commitment.

Appreciate diverse thinking!  It’s powerful!  It gives us a broader range of perspectives and helps us move forward together.  Every point of view is an accurate one.

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BlogTrust Me

Golf and Preference

by Ron Potter

Let’s talk about golf!

Golf is an enigma. (Now there’s a classic understatement!)

They say golf is like life, but don’t believe them. It’s more complicated than that.”
—Gardner Dickinson

The sport abounds with perplexity and paradox: fairway and rough, dry land and water, green and sand trap. And then there are all the complexities involving mind and body.

Golf and Hand-Preference

Most of us are born with an arm/hand preference. Some of us are right-handed; others are left-handed. Golf says, “Don’t use what comes naturally! Let your other hand (your out-of-preference side) pull the swing through the ball.”

For example, for many players their right hand is dominant in all other aspects of their lives. But in golf, if they allow the right hand to control their golf swing, the ball hooks—hello rough.

However, if they learn to use their left hand effectively—a new swing style—they will hit the ball straighter and have lower scores (which, of course, in golf is better).

So how is this relevant?

Isn’t that just like leadership? If we allow our dominant preferences to always be in control, we will often not have complete success. However, we can learn to adjust our style away from a dominant (and in some cases damaging) preference and become better leaders if we are willing to make some changes.

To be successful in golf, players need to learn how to overcome or “position” their natural tendencies (or preferences) in order to hit just the right shot.

This is also true with leadership. We look for and focus on our strengths, but we are better leaders when we also allow other qualities to develop and come to the forefront. For example, it is not natural for many of us to be humble team builders. It is much easier to strive for the attention of others and build a personal résumé, ignoring the team’s input and value.

The temptation will always be to head in the other direction—toward the dominant preferences inside us and on every side in our environment. But by intentional effort we can learn to be humble and at the same time increase our success as a leader.

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BlogTeamTeam Series

Team Elements – Elegance: Summary

by Ron Potter

We’ve looked at three of the four sections that will help us build great teams: Truth, Respect, and now Elegance.  This week’s blog is a summary of the Elegance portion that has been written about over the last three weeks.

Elegance is made up of Simplicity, Focus, and Role Clarification.

Simplicity

Simplicity:  We all know the old adage KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid.  I love old adages because they’re built on truth, even if they are a little rude like this one.  But the point is right on target.  Keep It Simple!  Once we start adding complexity to an issue, it becomes less elegant, more prone to mistakes, missteps, miss understandings, and missed results.  Our human brain is lazy and overloaded.  It looks for ways to simplify things so we have the capacity to understand and deal with complexity.  The more we simplify the greater chance the team has to perform together.

Focus

Books have been written about how our modern technology is not only destroying our focus but is destroying our ability to focus.  That’s scary to me.  But, like any muscle or ability, we can enhance that ability through dedication and practice.  You’re not going to be in good physical shape without regular exercise.  You’re not going to be a good reader without reading on a regular and disciplined base.  You’re not going to be focused without regular exercising of focus.

In every case, the concept is simple but the execution is difficult.

  • Go out for that walk, run, or bicycle ride on a regular basis.  Get to the gym several days per week.  Seems simple enough.  But it takes dedication and determination
  • Pick up that book rather than turn on the TV or flip through social media or complete just two more games on your phone.  Seems simple enough.  But, there we are, watching TV, finally looking up from our social media not realizing that we just spent an hour.  Time is more valuable than money.  We can always earn more money.  But, once you spend that hour, ten minutes or even ten seconds on something frivolous, it’s gone forever.  You’ll never get it back.  Focus.

Role Clarification

This one is a negative, not a positive.  While simplicity and focus are things that will greatly enhance teams, demanding that everyone stay in their “swim lane” or just do their role well and don’t worry about everyone else is a negative when it comes to great teams.  Yes, good teams rely on everyone knowing and doing their roles well but great teams tend to blend and mix thinking and perspectives in order to come up with the best solution.  Great teams function more like orchestras where the parts blend well together and are much richer and stronger in harmony they are as individuals.

Elegance

Elegance is the third leg of our team journey.  It’s an important and positive leg but is more subtle than the previous two.  When we’re not sharing the truth or showing respect, it’s obvious.  When our Elegance is slipping it is not always to see it happening right away.  Stay diligent on this one.  Look for the signs of Elegance waning.  Build an Elegant team.  It’s powerful!

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BlogLeadership

Enduring Leadership

by Ron Potter

A.B. Meldrum once said,

Bear in mind, if you are going to amount to anything, that your success does not depend upon the brilliancy and the impetuosity with which you take hold, but upon the ever lasting and sanctified bull-doggedness with which you hang on after you have taken hold.”

Most of my clients would probably never hire me if I told them it was going to take five years to complete the major changes we talk about at the beginning of many of my consulting assignments. At one high-tech company, after three years of intensive effort to develop a new leadership style and corporate culture, the leadership team asked me to evaluate how they were doing. I asked them to rank their “completeness” in each of several major change categories. Overall, they ranked themselves at about 60 percent. I admitted that if they had asked me at the beginning of the process how long it was going to take, I would have estimated five years—so 60 percent after three years was just about right.

One strong leader whom I’m working with now took over an assignment three years ago in one of America’s largest corporations. When he was hired he was actually identified as the “change agent” that the company needed. Needed, maybe, but certainly not wanted. After three years of struggling with the internal practices of the company, he has finally assembled a leadership team that should be able to carry out the many changes that are needed to meet the firm’s looming challenges. I can recall many one-on-one conversations with him over the last three years when he wondered if he had the energy to keep going and whether it would be worth it in the end. But he has endured. I believe he will pick the fruit of an enduring company.

A leader needs to understand that he or she may quite naturally have an easy time focusing on the future or on how the future will look when certain projects, tasks, or goals are completed. Others within their teams may not be able to clearly or easily see the future, or they may be naturally pessimistic about anything involving the future. A leader needs the persistence to bring these people along—they are valuable to the team’s overall balance. They may simply need the leader to either ask them questions to propel them into the future or help them visualize steps to the future outcome.

Bringing an organization along also involves being particularly effective during times of change. Many on the team will naturally resist change, so leaders need to humbly and calmly coax people along to the new direction or vision.

Throughout the history of man, the greatest achievements have been accomplished by leaders having an against-all-odds tenacity. The unshakable convictions of the rightness of their causes have kept adventurers, explorers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries going despite overwhelming difficulty and fierce competition. They were and continue to be persistent, holding fast to their beliefs and moving the idea or the organization forward.

That’s the path to building an enduring organization.

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