You Are Who You...

... spend the most time with. Do you buy that?

In my keynote entitled The Dirty Little Secret of Business, we talk about the importance of relationships. During the keynote I ask people in the audience: "How much does it matter who you spend time with? Why?"

Overwhelmingly the responses are that we are significantly impacted by the people we are surrounded by. Speaker and author Allan Holender says it this way: "You are the mean of the five people you spend the most time with."

As you look around your office, this might scare you. :)

This principle goes beyond just the workplace or even adults. A study released earlier this month found that kids with overweight friends tend to be overweight as well.

In the keynote I challenge people to be more intentional with whom they surround themselves. You may not be able to select the members of your team, but you do have control over who you go to lunch with, what podcasts you listen to, which books you read, and who you hang out with socially.

We talk about the importance of diversity in relationships and finding people who make you better, not tear you down... who take your further, not hold you back... who you can help as well as they can help you.

Andy Stanley says, "What and who you listen to will determine what you do." Even if this isn't completely true in every situation, I'm convinced from my own experience (as well as from coaching hundreds of executives), that much of your success will come down to who your greatest influencers are. And you are most influenced by those you spend the most time with.

Take a look around.

P.S. If you would like more information about our Dirty Little Secret of Business keynote, contact me for details. It's a perfect session for company or department meetings, offsite meetings, and conferences.

Labels: culture, influence, keynotes, leadership, listening, relationships

posted by Andy at 5:18 PM  

"Trillion is the new billion"

It's a key message in my book Navigating the Winds of Change: Staying on Course in Business & in Life: Perspective matters.

It's so easy to lose perspective. Whether you're trying to convince a boss to make a change or trying to evaluate if a government reform idea is a good deal or not, getting a sense of perspective can make all the difference.

Frankly, I have trouble visualizing a trillion of anything. As reported this last week, the White House predicts a deficit of $1.841 trillion dollars for the current fiscal year.

Seems like a really big number. To get some perspective, how does that compare to some previous years? The biggest deficit for any fiscal year on record is $454.8 billion, rung up in fiscal 2008. So we're predicting to be $1.4 trillion dollars worse than the worst year on record. Yet as bad as that sounds, I still find it difficult to get my arms around how big a trillion really is.

Often a picture can serve up perspective more effectively. Here are a couple examples that illustrate a trillion dollars:

• From PageTutor.com
• From YouTube

This posting is not about whether health care reform or stimulus spending is a good idea or not. It's not about left vs. right or Republicans vs. Democrats.

Here's my point: when you hear any leader (whether in government or in business) throwing around numbers that are difficult to comprehend, try to get perspective using a picture. It will help you better evaluate the long-term implications of their statements.

Labels: accountability, communication, culture, illusion, integrity, managing change

posted by Andy at 4:51 PM  

What Do You Give the Person Who Has Everything?

We're entering that time of year when many of us rack our brains on what to give to people who have more than they need.

Truthfully. Do any of us really need more?

I can think of all kinds of things I'd like to get as presents this year, but need is a powerful word. Understanding need requires perspective, and perspective is easy to miss in a world that fills us with "You Need More Stuff!" 24 x 7.

Here's some perspective that smacked me up side the head this year:

• Nearly 30,000 children die every day, most from hunger or preventable diseases.
• More than 1 billion children suffer a lack of proper nutrition, safe drinking water, decent sanitation facilities, health-care services, shelter, education and information.

Nothing against global warming, friends, but there are countless people who aren't remotely worried about polar bears and ice caps a century from now. They're trying to figure out how to eat today.

We talked about this recently as a family and came to the conclusion we're not doing enough to help. Our kids came up with the idea to use their love of soccer as a platform to make a difference. Their idea: Kicking World Hunger! We're talking about the biggest soccer juggle-a-thon in the world (that we know of)! Think "walk-a-thon" but only more fun and with a soccer ball!

Here's how it works.

• Make a difference by raising money. Do you or your kids love soccer? Why not set a goal to juggle, say, a couple thousand times and raise money to help kick world hunger? Check out the website for more details on how to turn your love for soccer into help for those who are truly in need!
• Make a difference by giving. Instead of buying someone something they don't need, make a donation to Kicking World Hunger! How about 5 ducks to a family for $30? Two chickens for $25? Tell someone that you gave a goat in their name for $75 and see how they react! Go to Kicking World Hunger to make your donation today.

As a "thank you" for everyone who makes a donation on the Kicking World Hunger site, I'll send you a free electronic version of two of my books:

• How to Organize Your Inbox & Get Rid of E-Mail Clutter
• Shining the Light on The Secret

Give a gift and make a difference in this world. Sounds like something we need to do!

Labels: culture, make a difference, recommended sites

posted by Andy at 9:28 PM  

Oversimplifying the issue

“Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem.”
John Galsworthy, English novelist and playwright

A customer recently shared this quote with me based on a topic we had covered prior to a break. I had to share it with you… Have you seen Galsworthy’s wisdom in action?

We are a culture that loves the sound bite. Wrap the concept up in a 10 second blip… that’ll do just fine. From a cultural standpoint, think about how we oversimplify issues. For example, you’re either a liberal or a conservative. You’re either for saving the lives of millions of people through embryonic stem cell research or you’re a religious whacko. It would appear there’s no middle ground or shades of grey.

In business, think of how many times training classes or articles state we need to “do the right thing”, “put the right people on it”, “ask the right questions”. A recent article recommended that prospective leaders make sure they “do the right thing at the right time”. Uh, thanks for the insight.

At 30,000 feet, everything looks pretty simple. As Galsworthy states, “Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.”

Think about projects that, once you dig into the requirements, are not as simple as they might have seemed on the white board with the sales & marketing folks. How about an employee who is struggling with his performance but has some real world challenges going on in his personal life? Or maybe you can think of processes that are a good idea but require changes to the culture to allow for acceptance?

Start digging into issues a little deeper and we’ll often find there’s less black and white and more shades of grey. It becomes more apparent that answers aren’t quite as easy as we may have thought.

For example, the whole stem cell debate has caught my interest. Did you know that while the politcally active mud wrestle about funding of stem cell research, adult stem cells are being used to treat over 67 diseases... today? And there’s promising research (here’s one example) that may make embryonic stem cell usage irrelevant some day.

In business, the reality is some things are black-and-white. There are generally accepted accounting principles that need to be followed. It’s not all shades of grey. Also, we need to simplify at times. In fact, I’ve found many an aspiring leader who failed to influence a situation because they presented too much detail to their executives. They should have provided more headline, less encyclopedia.

We can often win when we do a good job of simplifying.

But oversimplifying can be deadly. This blog entry is a call for you to be wary of oversimplifying.

Suggestions:

• Spend some time in the mud. If you are not spending enough time managing by wandering around, your idealism might be unfounded.


• Check yourself to see if you too often speak with the “right ______” phrasing. If you catch yourself saying, “We need to do this the right way” or “use the right tools”, let that be an alert that your altitude may be causing you to not appreciate the reality of the situation. Is it really a matter of right and wrong? It might be! But often it’s a matter of trade-offs.


• Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth. You need people around you who will tell you the truth, not just defer. Though it can drive me crazy at times, I purposely develop relationships with people who look at the world differently from me to make sure we’re not all sharing the same Kool-Aid.

Labels: culture, idealism, illusion, planning, project management, reality, requirements

posted by Andy at 3:18 PM  

Peace at any price?

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any- price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life." Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), from a letter dated Jan. 10, 1917.

I first came across this quote in a children's magazine that focused on the remarkable life of Teddy Roosevelt. The quote has some interesting implications at many levels (not the least of which is the international level, considering conflicts in the Middle East and threats of terror around the world. Would Teddy be calling for "Cease fire!" or "Bring the troops home!" to stop fighting for the sake of stopping the fight?).

Yet take it out of the national/international arena and we can find ways to apply it to our day-to-day leadership responsibilities.... I had an executive coaching session today with a leader who is wrestling with how to confront an employee on a particular issue. He isn't looking forward to the discussion but agrees this is an important part of his responsibility. Peace at any price? Prefer to avoid conflict? It will eventually eat away at the effectiveness of your team.

NOTE: Our Beyond the Rock and the Hard Place:

How to Deal with Conflict More Effectively

workshop and keynote can be a great way to help you

and your team learn how to manage conflict in a more

productive way. Contact us to learn more.

How about prosperity-at-any-price? We could think about Enron, but are there decisions you are making that are choosing short-term comfort over long-term benefit? Similarly, it's easy to fall into get-rich-quickly approaches, rationalizing we're taking some early wins from low hanging fruit.

As perhaps only Teddy can do, this quote reminds the aspiring leader that the journey to success is not smooth sailing on calm waters, with favorable winds, clear visibility, and easy tacks for shortcuts. We'll have such days, thankfully. But perhaps more than we desire, the most effective leaders will have plenty of days when the fog obscures the way ahead, the waves of conflict tempt you to steer away, and the safety of the port seems much more enticing. Remember Teddy's quote.

There's a reason why we call it work, leader. I wish you all the best as you navigate today's challenges.

Labels: conflict, culture, keynotes, leadership, peace

posted by Andy at 10:22 AM  

Leaky Decisons: Illusions that Led to the Great Chicago Flood Crisis

Our Lipstick on a Pig keynote is based on an insightful quote by Jerry Weinberg: "It may look like a crisis, but it's only the end of an illusion."

For those of us who have a passion for getting things done, delivering projects, and leading people, there are powerful lessons to be learned by exploring the illusions we face.

Charles Leroux provided an entertaining and insightful look (Chicago Tribune link no longer available) into a crisis that gripped the Chicago area: the Great Flood of 1992. It clearly illustrates how illusions led to the crisis that cost the area an estimated $800 million.

Do you have an upcoming company or department meeting that would benefit from an entertaining, business-focused keynote? Give us a call to get our Lipstick on a Pig keynote added to your meeting agenda!

Labels: crisis, culture, illusion, keynotes, Lipstick on a Pig

posted by Andy at 1:46 PM  

Leadership Musings on the Olympic Opening Ceremony

Our family had some quality time in front of the tube this weekend, watching the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. I always enjoy the creativity of the opening ceremonies, often being somewhere between fascinated and bewildered, depending on the year and the wackiness of the production.

I have to think Italy could have done better than "Freak Out", "Funkytown", and "I Will Survive" during the Parade of Nations. I was expecting more Pavarotti than Bee Gees.

But I digress. Here's a leadership thought to start your week off with….

Think Peaceful Thoughts
Though many may have found the singing of John Lennon's "Imagine" a perfect fit for the Olympics, I had to scratch my head at the ironies. Don't you wonder what Lennon would have thought about having his song highlighted in a commercialized, multi-million dollar, corporate funded event such as the Olympics?

There's more. Consider the irony in the lyrics:

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do"

It wasn't just Peter Gabriel's singing that made it hard for me to do. This is an event that is all about countries and celebrating national pride for our champions. Clearly the Olympics are about coming together in peace, if only for a couple weeks. Yet an objective reading of Imagine's lyrics shows it has more to do with a Marxist worldview than what most people would accept as a path to peace.

I've come up empty trying to find the lyrics to the "Peace Poem" read by Yoko Ono. Here's what it sounded like to me: "Think peaceful thoughts… Do you want peace? Think peaceful thoughts. Spread the word. Think peaceful thoughts."

I'm not reliving bitterness here about Yoko breaking up the Beatles. This is a leadership blog after all. So, where's the leadership lesson?

I run into too many managers that think they can resolve conflict using the Peace Poem Technique: "Think peaceful thoughts!"

Can't you hear the lyrics?

Imagine there's no Marketing,
It isn't hard to do.
No HR to warn us.
No bean counters too…

If you have to work with one or more humans, opportunities for conflict abound. And if you think holding hands and singing Kumbaya (or Imagine) is going to make everything better, you are a dreamer. And unfortunately, you're not the only one.

Hope is Rarely A Good Strategy
Dealing with conflict is a messy business that requires skills and intentionality. Being optimistic about favorable outcomes can be helpful and sincerely desiring harmony is fine. Yet hope is rarely a good strategy, and I see way too much hope applied as a wishful salve when it comes to the bloody wounds of conflict.

I respect the rights of those who demand the U.S. leave Iraq right now. I understand and share their desire for the bloodshed to end--I have loved ones over there. Yet I rarely hear responsible alternatives beyond "Give Peace a Chance".

I respect managers who want their teams to get along with other teams. I get that you may not agree with how another group is handling an issue that's causing stress. But wishful thinking doesn't cut it.

I fundamentally believe that learning to deal with conflict in a responsible way is one of the key skills sorely lacking in managers today. We can help you and your organization develop these skills. Give us a call to learn about our workshop "Beyond the Rock and the Hard Place: How to Deal with Conflict More Effectively" and our use of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument.

Oops, got to go. Kids are excited about watching Shaun "The Flying Tomato" White on the halfpipe. "Imagine there's no gravity, it isn't hard to do…"

Labels: Beyond the Rock and the Hard Place, conflict, culture, Olympics, peace, strategy, TKI, worldview

posted by Andy at 8:38 PM