The bottomline is appreciation is appreciated. And it affects your bottom-line! But to affect your bottomline, you can’t do it to affect your bottom line. You must do it because you mean it! It is an interesting paradox.
Today’s post is the featured article from the June 2011 issue of The Front Porch Newsletter. If you would like to automatically receive The Front Porch e-newsletter on the last Thursday of each month just click here to sign-up for your complimentary subscription.
It seems like only yesterday that Mac Anderson, founder of Successories and Simple Truths, and I were having lunch discussing his desire to create a book about building value with core values. Mac wanted to address this critical leadership issue in their line of Simple Truths books and thought I would be a good match to be the author of the book.
The concept certainly aligned with the nature of all of my other work and it seemed easy enough. After all, the concept of core values seemed like such a simple idea. Shortly after our lunch, I got back with Mac and told him I appreciated him thinking of me and I would be excited to take him up on his offer.
It has proven to be quite a growing experience.
Both the experience of writing the book and the journey since its release, has provided me the opportunity to understand how complex the simple idea of core values can prove to be. And why organizations, and individuals alike, struggle to genuinely connect to their core.
As I go before an audience to do a keynote presentation on core values, my biggest fear is that they will tune-out from the beginning … thinking to themselves “yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all about this core value stuff.” And they would be correct in thinking so … because intellectually they probably do. I mean, how complex could it be? I have now learned quite the opposite seems to happen. Most participants seem to, rather quickly, experience a wake-up call realizing that maybe they don’t know their core values as well as they thought they did. In experiencing a bad case of normal, they typically realize they might have a gut feel or an intuition, but draw a blank when it comes to the specifics.
The value of values is in the specifics … not in your gut.
Having a gut feel might have worked 30 years ago, but today a gut feel is an incredibly risky formula. The key difference 30-years later is the speed at which we move. And beyond the speed is our obsession with the short- term … often with indifference to the long-term.
There is no question that having a commitment to core values will cost you … especially in the short term. It just so happens not having them will destroy you in the long term. It’s just a matter of time. Simply a timing issue you might say.
It is what made writing this simple book so hard. Especially hard since Mac Anderson and Simple Truths, as the publisher, are all about powerful messages in as few words as possible. Just as they should be … because I think what we often do is create complex theories, models and methodologies so we can simply go and ponder it rather that do something about it.
What is difficult about core values is not the theory. It is the commitment!
Genuine commitments ignore the short-term cost because of an obsession for the long term. Not the other way around.
Many organizations have made the effort to define organizational core values. Some believe in them. A few actually measure and reward based upon them. But very few have ever challenged their employees to investigate their own personal core values … and then to purposefully understand the connection to the organization’s core values. It is then and only then that any organization has a chance that their people will genuinely begin to understand, own and hold first themselves and then others accountable to the organization’s values.
It is here that employee engagement is born in a way that breeds genuine service. It is the ultimate call of a leader and the dawning of their greatest potential. It is the inherent responsibility of every single one of us.
This week, Simple Truths released an inspirational movie for the GOOD to the CORE book. In the spirit of Simple Truths it is a short movie … just three minutes. But, hopefully, it will keep you thinking much longer than a full-length motion picture.
To view GOOD to the CORE: The Movie CLICK HERE!
It all seems so simple. Yet I warn you this is not easy. Rarely is anything of great value very easy. Maybe this is why, in organizations, it is so rarely done. Maybe it is just easier to continue to consider core values as one of those nice touchy-feely soft issues.
In the end, I suppose, not valuing values is a value. A tragic one for sure.
Networking … your success in it, interesting enough, depends on if you go to get … or go to give!
The next question you ask may open your eyes to an entirely new understanding. What we assume sometimes prevents us from asking that all important next question.
Today’s post is the featured article from the May 2011 issue of The Front Porch Newsletter. If you would like to automatically receive The Front Porch e-newsletter on the last Thursday of each month just click here to sign-up for your complimentary subscription.
It’s a really important question for us to ask every now and then. In other words … does what I do really matter? And do I know what really matters about it? It is easy to get caught-up in the inertia of our schedule, our to-do’s and our endless list of commitments. It is just as easy to get caught-up in our routines … simply going through the motions of each 24-hour cycle, each week, each month and each year.
But with what you do … does it really matter? Does it really matter to you? If you stopped doing “it” would it matter to you? Would it matter to anyone? It must matter or you would have stopped doing it a long time ago. Maybe.
Imagine if you got up each morning and decided to do only what really mattered.
But would you know? Would it be clearly evident to you? Could you make a quick list of your “what really matters” and eliminate your “matterless?” We might have more free time on our hands than we would think!
What we do has the potential to really matter … especially if we stay connected to understanding the matter at hand. That is if we remain intentionally aware of why we do what we do. In a world of endless measurements, it is easy to let reports, results, and efficiency be all that matters. We can get very efficient at a lot of things that really don’t matter. We can also become ineffective at the things which really do matter.
Without understanding what really matters, it is also hard to nurture passion for what we do.
I think this is harder than it appears to be. I know, because I often fail at getting it right. In a profession where I am constantly faced with which projects and clients to invest my focus, time and energy … I can easily get foggy on what matters and go down dead-end pathways.
Part of the disconnect has to do with genuine gratitude for the gift of each day … or I should say the lack of it. Do you get up each day with a keen appreciation for a new day? If we did, I think we would, more often, think harder about what we might be willing to trade for the value of this 24-hour period. We get this when someone asks us how we would spend our time if we only had one day left to live. But that is artificial … it eliminates many of the pressures of our day-to-day life if we are here today and gone tomorrow. I’m talking about truly appreciating today knowing there may be thousands more days to follow … yet seeing each one as incredible in and of itself. For it is incredible … especially when you know that each and every one of them has the potential to matter in whatever season of life you currently happen to be.
Beyond gratitude, I think another disconnect looms. It is challenging, if not impossible, to understand what really matters if we are not specifically aware of the core values which drive us … both personally and organizationally. A lack of understanding of our core values is often the missing link to understanding what really matters day-to-day. Core values exist whether we understand them or not. If we are not intentional about them, they still evolve and drive our daily actions. And without core values being intentionally selected, we still live them but are not passionately connected to them. And they can lead us to do a long list of “matterless” stuff.
Leadership has never been more important. In a world filled with exponentially increasing capabilities of technology to monitor and drive our behaviors, substantive leadership is critical. Leadership gives birth to core values.
Leaders of substance are nothing short of the keepers-of-the-core.
Leaders of substance keep us focused on living from an intentional core that allows us to put our day-to-day efforts around what is most valuable. This is easier said than done … whether as an organizational leader or in leading our own life. Distractions, expectations, metrics and rewards disconnected from the core can easily cause us to drift. Measurements and rewards are a responsible tool when they are connected to the core. They are tragic undermines when not.
Gratitude for each day and an intentional set of core values provide a solid framework in helping us know how to use the next 24-hours on what really matters. They may not immediately eliminate the “matterless” tasks of our life, but they will certainly begin to move you towards a daily life that really matters.
I remember in the 8th grade, when you raised your hand, my teacher would always ask … “What’s the matter?” I think she meant “what’s wrong.” As a matter of fact, today, I see it as an excellent question for asking … what’s right!
Yikes … maybe should have left this episode on the “cutting room” floor! Except … in the midst of the “willy nilly” it asks an important question. Really!!
Today’s post is the featured article from the April 2011 issue of The Front Porch Newsletter. If you would like to automatically receive The Front Porch e-newsletter on the last Thursday of each month just click here to sign-up for your complimentary subscription.
I forget. I get distracted. Sometimes I just get in a comfortable rhythm. Other times I just get uncomfortably overwhelmed. Maybe you, too, have days or weeks or months like this!
It may be the reason why our bodies were designed to need sleep each and every day. Not for sleep … but rather for the practice of “waking-up.” Both “waking-up” and “staying awake” can be a real challenge. I’m not talking about post-sleep. I’m talking in our everyday life through the circumstances, challenges and celebrations that come our way.
Keeping our eyes wide-open helps us see beyond the veneer of our work and our life. Beyond what appears to be happening vs. what is really happening. The increasing speed at which we move can diminish our ability to think. More importantly, it diminishes our ability to reflect upon and ponder our day-to-day experiences. It has an impact on every arena of our life … family, faith, and formation. It certainly has an impact on our work.
Speed and efficiency can be deceptive.
They can look good on the surface and in the short-term. But they can be the enemy of what is profound. They can also be the enemy of “waking-up.”
A lot had happened just before I began to pen the manuscript of my first book, Silent Alarm. There was Enron, Worldcom, the related implosion of Arthur Andersen, the first bankruptcy of United Airlines, the tragedy of 9/11 and the beginnings of a crisis in the Catholic Church. All of this had happened in a short six-month window. I remember questioning … are we going to learn something from this? Or are we just going to hit the snooze and try to get back to normal? You know, just go back to sleep.
Tragedies are ultimately tragic only when we have learned nothing from them. When we refuse to wake-up and grow from our experience. Silent Alarm was designed to be a wake-up call … and emails, since its release, have indicated to me that the call has rung loud and clear for hundreds if not thousands of people who have read it.
It was certainly a wake-up call for me when I wrote it.
Businesses have worked hard to weather this economic storm. They have strived to become as efficient and effective as possible. But I know how easy it is to fall back asleep … even after we have been wide-awake. We forget … get distracted. Sometimes we just get in a comfortable rhythm and again get uncomfortably overwhelmed.
Just like the need for our daily sleep, we have a need to wake-up on a daily-basis. While Silent Alarm is the parable of a fictional character named Jack Turner … I believe Jack is very real in most of us. It is a story of his terrible accident created by his own doing. Actually his tragedy is the context … the story is really about what he learns about life as he recovers. He clearly has a wake-up moment. Tragedies can tend to get your attention … and wake you up.
But, hopefully, we don’t experience tragedies every day. We experience everyday life. This is possibly why it is so hard to wake-up each day. Often times it is just another day. And what we end-up with is not very pretty. As my long-time mentor, Kevin Freiberg, puts it … we end up with dead people working. Unfortunately, we also end-up with dead people living day after day.
We can all become quite competent in “dead” living!
I am also convinced we can become masters of waking-up each and every day … every hour … even every minute! And it doesn’t take a tragedy to do so.
Last fall, I approached my great friend, Jimi Allen, to create a video experience that, while inspired by Silent Alarm, was really more reflective of our need to wake-up each and every day. Jimi Allen Productions, along with their strategic partners, came back with the animated video of “Life of i.”
We released it on the internet last week. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, I hope you will take the short 3-minutes it takes to experience it (just click here). If you’re too busy to take a short 3-minute timeout to watch it … well, let’s just say you probably have been hitting-the-snooze too long! (And please don’t ask me how I might personally know this to be true!)
Taking the time to do so, is the paradoxical answer to getting more done … or, at least, the right things done. If you watch it and it leaves you hanging (with like a huh?, or a what?), it has likely done its job. It’s just to get you thinking. And unless you hit the snooze, it will likely keep you thinking for a while.
While it may look like a wake-up call, please know it is sent as a gift. Wake-up, oh sleeper, and rise from the dead! Again.
No better way to deepen what you understand about what you see … than by trying to see through another set of eyes!
Getting past the blame game … gets you beyond getting more of the same.
Today’s post is the featured article from the March 2011 issue of The Front Porch Newsletter. If you would like to automatically receive The Front Porch e-newsletter on the last Thursday of each month just click here to sign-up for your complimentary subscription.
There is no way to prepare for it. No pictures or descriptions do it justice. You simply have to experience it. That is what I told my son, Ryan, when we recently made our father/son trip out to Mesa, Arizona for Cubs Spring Training. I’m not talking about being a Cubs fan (although it may apply). I am talking about the one day we took a break from the ballpark and ventured up for Ryan’s first visit to the Grand Canyon. As we walked the newly constructed path, leading to our initial viewing point, I told him that when we got to the edge I would share with him why I loved the Grand Canyon for the exact same reason I loved the mountains and the ocean. Being a smart young man, or more likely in just knowing how my crazy mind works, he said “I think I already know …”
Because it’s so much bigger than you.
Exactly. He knew it. I was bummed I hadn’t waited to share my thought until we were toe tips to the edge … so we could feel it. Moments later we experienced it. It won’t let go of you. And there is a paradox tucked within the wonder of the insignificance it creates. While it nurtures the soul, it also screams one of the most subtle lessons of great leadership. It is the lesson of humility.
It is a lesson some leaders forget. For other leaders it is intentionally forgotten … seen as a weakness to be avoided at all cost. For many leaders, it is a trait simply dropped along the way while they were picking-up more responsibility and visibility.
For followers, it is a lifeline for connection.
Unchecked, the road to leadership can easily lead to a bigger image of self … rather than holding onto an image bigger than self. I would propose genuine humility is grounded in a deep sense of confidence. The lack of it is rooted in arrogance. The most practical definition I have heard of humility is “not thinking less of yourself … but rather thinking more of others.”
A few leaders strive “to arrive” and upon getting there build a wall of protection to guard their self-interests. They fight the temptation to succumb to their perceived “weakness” of humility. These leaders happen upon the C-level suites of organizations, but are just as likely to be found among department heads or group supervisors. It happens on community boards and among the pastor ranks of a church.
But, for most, the seductive rise above humility is not intentional. It is incremental.
Leaders who embrace a sense of humility and maintain it through their ascension, most likely have made it a priority. They have discovered their sense of success has transcended their own accomplishments and been replaced by the delight in helping others succeed.
While I am sure there are a number of strategic recipes for leaders desiring to cling-on to a genuine sense of humility … I would like to humbly suggest three!
First, always embrace and cherish a critical few people in your life who love you enough to tell you the truth … and you love them enough to accept the truth when you don’t want to hear what they are telling you. For years, I have maintained what I call my “life” board of directors. They have full authority to ground my hot-air balloon when it gets all puffed-up. It sure beats a crash landing.
Second, build-on your past … don’t just move-on. Last week, I had the privilege to speak with the faculty of Holy Rosary Grade School in Memphis. This wasn’t just any grade school. It was my own childhood grade school. It is one thing to remember your past. It is a whole different experience to literally walk the hallways of your past. Historical anchors, both places and relationships, have a way to nurture the virtue of humility. For most, the veneer wasn’t so polished back then. It was pretty transparent … well, at least until junior high! No wonder so few become prophets in their own hometown.
Third, if all else fails … take a trip to the slopes of the mountains or to the beaches of any ocean. Take an honest measurement. If your ego is bigger than the mountain or more vast than the ocean … know it is time to take a trip to the Grand Canyon!
