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Thank You White Noise

In my last post I jabbered a bit about the importance of creating time for White Noise so that the pace of our lives does not rock our souls to sleep. Over the weekend, we went on the defense against unnecessary noise and ushered in the white. What was it that was going to come to my quiet mind??

It was more than I would have guessed. Over the weekend we attended a funeral visitation following the passing of a great man whom I once knew well. Here is a snapshot of his final days. Wednesday of last week @ 81 years old, he was putting some finishing touches on the roof of his house. Thursday he was in town with his son and shopping for a new truck. A few hours later he had a stroke which ultimately lead to the final chapter of his Best-Seller life here on earth.

Also over the weekend I was exposed to another individual who likely has many years left to live on this earth, yet they were seemingly dying already. It is likely a mix of buckling under the rigors of life, not reaching out for any help, and the impending symptoms of depression when we do not deal with the demons.

When the white noise came in for us and obliterated all the other sounds, these stories above were the dominance of my mind. This is what I kept hearing the white noise tell me:

We can either live to our death or die to our life.

My friend of 81 was totally alive until the last sentence of his life on earth. This inspired my heart. My other friend appeared to be dying to life. This broke my heart.

Perhaps you thought my white noise was going to bring in some creative biz advice. It actually turned all that off and reminded me of more: Loving People and being more sensitive to their total life.

I thank my wife for helping to create and inspire our white noise - let's do more of it my Princess.

White Noise

The term "White Noise" was a reminder to me last week and has been on my mind during the latter of this week. Why? I need to listen to it, not only do I need to listen to it - I need to make space for it in my biz life.

I had a 20 year old speaker tell me once: "The pace of our lives will rock our soul to sleep." My soul's eyelids have gotten heavy this week and I am thankful to recognize it. What is the result of this pace and schedule? Weaker judgment, less confidence and too much worry.

I am going on the fight against it and I hope you will too because surely many of you are wiped out right now. Either from the intensity of your responsibilities, your minute by minute stare on the stock market, wondering who won the debate and who is going to be your next President. Here is a promise - some of those issues will still be present come Monday without you fretting them. Join me in this:

Turn it all (phones, tv's, music) off for at least a few hours and turn ON the white noise. This is from the dictionary on white noise or white sound: "noise used to mask or obliterate unwanted sounds."

Not just remove unwanted sounds, but obliterate them. I get the feeling the committee that penned that definition was maxed out mentally and felt the need to thrown a flying uppercut to their stresses. I am glad they did because we all have some unwanted sounds that need OBLITERATING.Even if you have to start small - take at least 20 minutes to be quiet and think on something other than unwanted sounds. I predict you are going to need more than 20 minutes - how about 2 hours eh? Now that is going to be tough for us. Let's give it a shot.

I will post next week on what my white noise sounded like. Have a great weekend!

Greatness

Last week I had the privilege to hear Jim Collins speak @ Catalyst. When you think Jim Collins, you likely think Good to Great or Built to Last. It was not surprising that Collins was going to talk about going from Good to Great, however a small twist had him not focusing on good. His main point was greatness.

Mind that 90% of the audience were ministry leaders so his talk was presented for them without a lot of business rhetoric. In his focus he told us that "Greatness is not a result of your circumstances or surroundings as much as it is a result of your disciplined behaviors."

This makes sense of course to each of you, but how often do we take stock of our actions and make sure they are of sound discipline. He used the example of Lance Armstrong's focus on cancer prevention being in similar discipline to his training regimen for cycling. Of course, the raw talent that Armstrong has is paramount, but the disciplined behaviors surely lead to his greatness on and off the bike. I feel strongly that this is an area that too many people lose sight of. We all need to be most disciplined in our behaviors and actions.

What are the daily disciplines that you as a business or ministry must have. There should not be a laundry list of them, just a fine few that you can pay intense attention to.

Greatness is a function of your disciplined behaviors and actions.

The Liability of Strengths

I am a firm believer that to be the best we must minimize our weaknesses and maximize our strengths. As a subscriber to this effective mindset, I am additionally becoming more aware of the following fact:

For the many assets your strengths bring to your leadershipip - each strength also carries its own liability to your leadership. If you were to think on all of your strengths and study the array of strengths found in Buckingham's Strength-finder, you will realize the liabilities of each one. While it may be easy to realize what the liability is, how do you rise above the liability and channel the assets to create a better future?

Manage the liability and allow the asset.

Chew on this: Your strengths are natural abilities and as you cultivate them and learn more about them - your merely just allow them (let them) to do their thing and performance utopia beckons. The liability portion of your strength is not naturally manageable - you have to be disciplined on it.

For example, communication is my ccurrent #1 strength. What is the liability? A gifted communicator can get long winded in a normal conversation. I have to manage my communication and realize that listening is often the best form of communication.

Futuristic/Vision is another one. Most of the time the asset of being futuristic in my thinking helps to inspire a better future. The liability is a tendency to lose touch with reality and not make total sense to constituents.

Think of a "Type A" personality that is all about charging forward and getting it done. They go on vacation and charge through everything and wear the family down when it was time to relax and recharge. The asset of a "go-getter" become a liability when it's time to wind down and create a relaxed environment.

These are for you to think on for yourself and perhaps help others with. What are your strengths and what ways can you manage the liability of those strengths? Email me some strengths and I can give you some thoughts on the natural liabilities to watch out for.

Connect Early

This week, I was afforded the opportunity to speak to a group of leaders on the importance of creating great front line managers and great front lines. Obviously, that's a gigantic subject to fit in one talk. In an attempt to provide some simple "sticky" advice - one item I gave was to "connect early."

John Maxwell captured this best with his "law of connection" that states - "Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand." When I say connect early, I am referring to the need for a manager (front-line, mid-line, top-line) to connect with a new hire's heart - right out of the gate. How is this best done?

What I learned from one of our young amazing managers was to spend one-on-one time with a new hire and find out special dates in their life and create a connective schedule for them. For example - finding out if a new hire has a spouse or significant other. If so what is their name and birthday and even an anniversary date if celebrated. This manager also finds out if this person has children and if so - what are their names and birthdays. What our manager does here is give his associates the option to take those dates off. Not only does he provide the option - he encourages the option and injects his desire for his people to have strong family focus.

IF it is found out that this new associate (especially 18-20 year olds) has no spouse/signif other, no kids - he goes a different route. He will find out two dates that are important to them during the calendar year. Maybe it's a race weekend, a family reunion, a concert...whatever it may be, he gets that date and provides the option to take that time off.

While this sounds simple - it is! It most of all however it's a connect early approach. These new hires get a taste really quick that this manager cares about them and their families. Most of all, he backs up this behavior throughout their careers and all else follows those connections.

This is adaptable and scalable at any level. It makes that early connection happen and begins a productive environment.

This is not for your HR department to do for you or your managers. This is manager must.

Pen to Paper

Falling in line with my last post on getting anyone to talk to you, I want to plant a likely reminder for most of you. As the 18th century author Samuel Johnson once wrote: "people need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed."

I remind you or instruct (for those that this is new news) to never let up on sending handwritten notes. The handwritten note creates a memory and becomes a treasure to the recipient. For one, based on the fact that handwritten notes have beenlost in our email world - your note's arrival will be a surprise. It will immediately separate you from the mmajority.

I am at two conferences this week and meeting new people.One conference I got to attend and speak @ in Minneapolis will generate professional relationships. The other conference is in Atlanta in which I am one of 12,000 and will meet many professional and personal friends. Next week when I am back in my office, much of my initial mornings will have me putting pen to paper and not fingers to keys. While everyone else will be sending emails and crowding the recipients already jammed inbox, my notes will show up once the storm has settled and they'll be a sunshine vs a rain.

When someone impacts your life in a positive way this week, make a "note to self" to write them a note next week, seal it with happiness and send it on its way. The person that impacts your life might even be a server at a restaurant - send them a note. When people who you serve at work do something that adds value to you - send them a note to their house. It will get great mileage for them and your relationships will grow stronger.

See if you can write 5 notes over the next 3 weeks and post a comment  or email me when you get a "thank you for the note" from the recipient. If you post a comment on how this worked out for you, I will send the first 3 commenters a gift.

A few simple thoughts for your notes:

1) Do not try to be a literary or handwriting genius. Make it simple and legible. Tell the recipient what they specifically did that added value to you (they will repeat the behavior or task that you praise them for).

2) Put a stamp on it and mail it to them. It has to arrive in their mail - not in an inner-office box or be handed over by a friend.

3) Keep it short if you can - just a short paragraph. Make it memorable.

4) Once you pick up this habit, get your own personalized stationery.

Enjoy...

How to Talk to Anyone

One night this week, it was great to take a few-hour vacation in the comfort of our home and do a little magazine reading. Being a fan of style, design, and fashion - I sat down with the latestissue of GQ Magazine. Much of the magazine was dedicated to being a 21st century Gentleman and it had some good thoughts. One snibit that I particularly liked and want to share with you is some advice from Sid Mashburn. Sid is a successful business owner in the world of mens clothing. He's in ATL - check him out. He gives some good advice and 5 great simple tips:

Sid understands that a great deal of his own success comes from getting to know people. "The art of conversation is 'tell me about you.' It's drawing someone out so that they feel known - that's what we all seek."

1) "Where are you from?" is still the best icebreaker. "It's a question that always gets the person talking about home, their roots. And that tells you a lot of who they are."

2) Extend a hand. "You'd be amazed at how many people don't introduce themselves first."

3) Keep things upbeat. "No one wants to be around someone who is not cheerful. I always say, 'Light attracts Light.' "

4) No Cusswords (thank you sid!). "They intimidate some people."

5) Your good-bye is as important as your hello. "Someone comes to visit me at my house, I walk them to their car, stand, and wait to make sure it cranks over for them. I wave good-bye. People remember those touches. It should be the same when you finish your conversation."

Interview written by Michael Hainey.

These 5 tips and Sid's simple advice are applicable today for you. Number 5 is my favorite and you should do this with customers who come to visit you. Not only will all of these bring "person value" to you - it will make your more emotionally attractive to your associates, boss - anyone. If anyone disagrees with you, just ---- umm shake their hand.

Blog-cation

Thanks to all of you who regularly subscribe and visit the blog. One might think I was on a blog-cation (vacation away from blogging). That however is not the case. Selfishly, I have missed it more than you and I hope to get back to it as of now. My reason for being absent is one I am sure you can relate to.

I have been busi. Nah, that is actually not a typo. I have been busi with business and it's been quite exhilarating. Over the last few weeks I have gotten to work on some great things with even greater people and the time and energy consumption has been high and mighty. Working long fun days and long nights (with my great bride's help) has been and will be necessary during this season.

Why busi and not busy? When we are busy we tend to do the "circle run" and our tiring efforts do not lead to much impact on the priorities that matter most. When we are busi, our tiring efforts are extremely relevant and have a great ripple effect to our people, our customers and our total brand (personally and professionally).

I learned it years ago, but I am more focused on being busi and creating an environment where people are busi. If we are busi fueling the business and not busy fueling busyness, everyone we touch will be thankful - except for the people that just want to be busy muddling.

How busi is your team today and what must to be done to move from "y" to "i" ?