Category Archives: Business

Complacency

Complacency – Unconcerned by things that should concern them, and they may neglect their duties. Satisfied with the current situation and unconcerned with changing it, often to the point of smugness.

It is so easy to get relaxed and into the groove of doing the same thing every day and expecting improvement.

When was the last time you were complacent about wearing seatbelts? When did you just stop paying attention to them because they didn’t seem that important or you were distracted by other things? The answer is probably never. You either have formed the habit of using seatbelts or you have not. If you have formed the habit, you automatically buckle the belt, regardless of your complacency, sense of vulnerability or other distractions or priorities. If you have not formed the habit, you may buckle up only when you are concentrating on the need for such precautions (or not at all).

Windshield or Rear View Mirror

When you are setting out for a drive, how often do you only look at the rear view mirror to get to your destination? Not too often I am guessing. The results may not be favourable. So why do we look backward at events in our life, yes it is good to learn and adapt but let’s look forward.

30k+ Rear View Mirror Pictures | Download Free Images on Unsplash

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

Only You Determine Your Definition of Success

Music Monday: A Song for Our Times – Put Your Hands Up – Borden's Blather

Hands up if you hate peer reviews….I thought so!! Whether it’s a great athlete or a great comedian, the truth is the same. The better they get, the less they care about results. That’s not to say they don’t care about winning, or about success—of course they do—it’s that the longer you do something, the closer you get to mastery, the less external results matter in terms of measuring progress.
The comedian Dave Chappelle has talked about how he hardly even cares about the crowd anymore, and definitely not the money. What matters to him is doing the thing, at getting closer to perfecting his craft—even if it’s in ways that the audience can’t even notice.
Early on in a career, because we don’t know much about it or ourselves, we use proxies to measure ourselves. We care about the critics or we care about stats or we care about getting this honor or that one. But the better we get, the more it becomes clear to us how little control we have over those things. The more experience we get, the more it is evident how little our best work actually correlates with getting those external achievements.
As Marcus Aurelius writes, “Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you.” But real success, real mastery, real sanity? That, he says, comes only by “tying it to your own actions.”
The better you get, the more you are able to tie your identity to the only thing that matters according to the Stoics: your own choices, your own work, your own judgement. Everything else? The better you get, the less it matters.

BE CONFIDENT IN WHO YOU ARE!

Culture and Hebb’s Rule

Donald Hebb is the author of Hebb’s Rule used to explain the mechanism of neural and synaptic plasticity – the process within our brains that leads to growth, change and rewiring. How does this relate to culture? Well simply put, Hebb’s Rule is quite often summarized with the simple phrase – “Neurons that fire together wire together”.

Hebb’s Rule – Neurons that fire together wire together.

Culture is defined by Eagles Flight (www.eaglesflight.com) as the sum total of all the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of individuals within the organization. As a leader, your challenge is to define the desired culture, assemble a team that has the desired attitudes, beliefs and behaviours and coach the team in living the culture. If you can achieve that, you will have one of the key ingredients to a high performing team.

Neurons that fire together wire together and as a leader, when you assemble a team that fires together focused on a common goal you will end up with a team that is wired together.

When to Provide Feedback

We all struggle when providing feedback. When is the right time and should I say something that may upset the person? While giving kudos for a great effort is easy and we all feel good when delivering the message, offering constructive criticism is the challenge. As a leader, there comes a time when you observe a specific behaviour or action that requires feedback.

1) When the feedback has a high chance of improving someone’s skills and the person will have the opportunity to use those skills again.

2) When the person knows that you are aware of a certain action or behaviour and is expecting feedback.

3) When an action or behaviour can not be ignored due to the detrimental effect on another team member or the organization.

Providing feedback can also have a negative effect in certain situations.

1) When the person does not have the knowledge or skills to improve.

2) When you have not taken time to think through possible solutions.

3) When you do not have all the information and make assumptions.

4) When the person to whom you are providing feedback is in an emotional state where the message will not be received or retained.

5) When you are not in the proper emotional state to provide the feedback calmly.

When you are ready, there are three questions I suggest you ask yourself before delivering the message. If you can answer yes to the following three questions and have considered the above, provide the feedback and help someone to improve.

Election Time

It is election time in Canada. So often we are caught in that decision – I love the person but not the party. Case in point, Jack Layton had this fantastic quote before he passed away too soon. No one can argue with these words and the sentiment behind them.

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” Jack Layton

Jack Layton (1950-2011)

The “F” Word

My “F” word isn’t the same as yours. My “F” word is “Frustration”. I tell everyone that frustration is a useless emotion, whether in your personal life or your business life. Frustration occurs when you believe you are blocked from reaching your goal by something that is outside of your control. In my personal life, I have come across many frustrating situations and I have learned to reframe those situations as challenging vs frustrating. We underestimate how much is within our control. I love a good challenge.

In my business life, I spend most of my time observing and listening. Listening for that “F” word. When you hear the “F” word in your leadership journey, don’t avoid the situation hoping that it will correct itself. Rather meet it head on and find a solution.

I have a good friend (shoutout to Trevor) that has made a career of going into companies and listening for that F word. When Trevor hears the F word he develops an app to solve it. Trevor has made a career on solving the F situations.

Whenever you hear yourself or someone else use the F word, don’t run away from it, rather walk straight into it and find a solution.

Built to Last

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras authored this fantastic book documenting the successful habits of Visionary Companies. The main takeaway – if you are involved in building and managing an organization, the single most important part to take away is to “preserve the core and stimulate progress”. This is referred to as clock building in the book – building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any single leader and through multiple product life cycles. Sound simple?

Preserve the core and stimulate progress is referred to as embracing the genius of the AND. How often in our leadership journeys do we struggle with this? Low cost OR high quality or can it be low cost AND high quality. As a parent is it living by the rules OR creating a loving environment or living by the rules AND creating a loving environment? In our personal lives is it living healthy OR enjoying the moment or living healthy AND enjoying the moment? Yes, we can have both.

In the book we are given mechanisms that have proven to be successful with other successful companies – Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs), Cult Like Cultures, Try A Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works, Home Grown Management and Good Enough Never Is. A great read and very powerful for my current business challenge.

Performance Management

I just finished re-reading a leadership classic – Winning by Jack Welch. The concept that really jumped out this time was performance management. Jack explains that any proper performance measurement system should measure people on relevant, agreed upon criteria that relate directly to an individual’s performance. Very importantly, not just if the results were delivered but also how the results were delivered. How well did the team member live the values and behaviours of the organization.

Jack Welch – Winning

Zone 1 above is simple – the team member is living the values and getting the results. Promote this team member.

Zone 3 above is also a simple decision – no results and no values. Help this team member find another organization to thrive in.

Zone 4 – This team member has the values but is struggling for results. Give them another chance.

Zone 2 – This can be the most difficult decision. Great results but poor values. If values don’t approve then this is the same as Zone 3 – help this team member find another organization that will tolerate the values.

Status Quo Is Not An Option

The great thing about life is that each day provides us with an opportunity to improve. One time at work, my boss showed up when I was having some challenges and the group results were not as expected and most importantly, not as I had committed to earlier in the year. His simple message to me was “Status quo is not an option!” It also reminds me of the quote from Will Rogers, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” During our lives, we always come to the day where change is necessary. It can be results at work, a health issue or a relationship challenge.

The key is to set goals, chart progress and change before you need to.