mission

Stay Centered

Posted on September 18, 2017September 17, 2017 by Scott

cyclone-62957_640 As hurricane Irma approached the coast of Florida, meteorologists tracking the storm noticed something peculiar on the radar images. In the eye of the hurricane, were birds – lots of birds. Entire flocks were just flying along, seemingly unaffected by the devastating winds and rain surrounding them.

It seems this is not an unusual phenomenon. Radar imagery from past years show the same thing, flocks of birds moving in tandem with a hurricane by staying close to the center. They aren’t in distress at all. They’re simply going about their business in the midst of chaos. It seems that birds who can’t escape the storm instinctively move as close as possible to the center.

Smart birds.

There are so many times when I feel like I’m caught in a storm. My plate is overloaded, demands on my time come from all sides, and I feel stressed. There are a few things I can say “NO” to (the equivalent of avoiding the storm), but often I can’t. I have to endure the storm until the winds die down. Perhaps, instead of fighting against the storm, I should act more like these birds and move closer to the center, where it’s calm.

My center is my core purpose. It’s my mission – the reason I’m here. I find the closer I stick to my central goal, the easier it is move forward. Any time I allow myself to drift away from the center, I wind up struggling.

We see this reflected in a number of ways. The automotive industry has been trending toward smaller, simpler vehicles because they are more affordable and easier to maintain. Tiny house communities are popping up all over the country as people look to simplify their lives and remove the stress that comes with managing a larger home. Even software companies have shifted to producing simple apps that focus on doing one or two things extremely well.

It’s not unusual for a corporation to diversify in an attempt to spur rapid growth, only to find things spiraling out of control. Those that survive usually do so by trimming off business lines that don’t fit with their core mission. They move back to the center.

We humans have a way of complicating things. We’re continuously looking to do more, be more, and achieve more. But every time we add something new to our to-do list, we take away from our ability to do any one thing well. The more we become a “jack of all trades,” the more we become a “master of none.”

The tension that scenario creates knocks us around. It drags us down and makes us feel like we’re at the mercy of our circumstances. We find ourselves in a hurricane. Making progress is hard because of all the extra demands pulling at us. So we hunker down. We do our best to check things off the list and ride out the storm.

But if we’ll just stay centered, we’ll not only survive the storm, but thrive despite it. By keeping to what makes us great (as an organization, a team, or an individual), we can move forward even as others battle the winds around us.

So, what’s your center? What are the things that you and your team should really be focused on? What needs to be let go?

Lead Like Santa Claus

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Scott

I was looking through some files this weekend and came across my notes from a webinar I attended a few years ago. It was entitled “The 10 Branding Secrets of Santa Claus.” According to presenter Steve Miller, these very specific and deliberate actions provide Santa Claus with “uncopyable superiority.” I love that term.

As I listened to each point Mr. Miller made, I couldn’t help but think about the potential that lies within each business. I believe we are all in a unique position to provide a level of service and partnership to our customers that simply cannot be rivaled by the competition. Those who choose to capitalize on their strengths and outhustle the rest always rise to the top. And so I thought I would share these points from the presentation with you.

The 10 Branding Secrets of Santa Claus

Santa manages expectations. If you’re good, you receive gifts. It pays to listen to Santa Claus.
Santa makes a BIG promise. Compare gifts given for any other holiday – they just don’t compare to the expectations surrounding Santa’s visit.
Santa facilitates referrals. Everyone talks about Santa. Parents even send their kids to him.
Santa creates long-term relationships. Year after year, people turn to Santa with their Christmas wishes.
Santa owns the date. From a business perspective, December 25th is Santa’s day.
Santa delivers an experience. My daughter Abby is 15. She’s known “the truth” about Santa for a long time. But she still gets super-excited every year. And I do too.
Santa owns a color. Who else wears a red suit, cruises around in a red sleigh, and totes a giant red bag?
Santa looks different. You’re not going to confuse Santa with anyone else. Attempts to copy him are laughable.
Santa reinforces his myth. Stores invite kids (and adults) to visit Santa. New movies are made about him every year. Even NORAD tracks his progress! He makes it easy for everyone to buy into his brand.
Everything about Santa walks the talk. Everything about Santa – his North Pole workshop, the elves, the reindeer, the milk and cookies by the chimney – reinforces his story and his brand.

I hope each of you are as excited about 2015 as I am. I hope these observations stir your imagination. And I look forward to working with each of you as you catapult your business into a position of “uncopyable superiority.”

Merry Christmas!

Lady Liberty – A Symbol of Teamwork

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Scott

My wife and I recently returned from a weekend vacation in New York City. I’ve visited a couple of times before to attend conferences, so I really enjoyed this opportunity to see the city through the eyes of a tourist. We mapped out a few places we wanted to eat and some attractions we wanted to visit and, of course, Susan had some shopping in mind as well.

One of the attractions we made a point to see was the Statue of Liberty. I’ve always been amazed by large-scale works of art such as this. And pictures just don’t do it justice. You have to see Lady Liberty first-hand to really appreciate her.

Did you know that the statue was a gift from France? It was first conceived of in 1870 by the politician Édouard René de Laboulaye and sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. They hoped that by honoring the United States’ advances in the name of freedom and liberty, the citizens of France would be inspired to move toward democracy themselves. Bartholdi traveled to America to gain support for the idea. President Grant quickly agreed to the gift and Bartholdi returned to France to begin the work.

Bartholdi’s design called for building the statue in sections that would be shipped across the Atlantic and assembled on site. French citizens donated to the project and as sections were completed, they were displayed at fairs and other exhibitions. The statue was completed in 1884 and fully assembled in Paris. It was presented to the U.S. Ambassador and the French government agreed to pay for its trip to New York.

But the Statue of Liberty almost never made it to America.

Under the original proposal, The United States would finance the design and building of a pedestal for the statue to stand upon. The American government, however, proved reluctant to donate to the effort. The Governor of New York, Grover Cleveland, vetoed a bill to provide half the cost. Democratic representatives stalled a congressional bill to fund the full project. The pedestal, initially designed to be 114 feet tall, was reduced to 89 feet in order to reduce the cost.

Still, the statue sat in Paris for almost a year before sufficient funds were collected to complete the pedestal. It took a grass-roots campaign by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer (does that name ring a bell?) to generate enough interest to move the project forward. Eventually, sufficient work had been completed for the statue to be moved to New York. It was finally unveiled in place on October 28, 1886. Now President Grover Cleveland presided over the city’s first ticker-tape parade as part of the festivities and the Statue of Liberty began welcoming immigrants seeking a new beginning in America.

I find it interesting that people, and organizations, so often fight against clearly beneficial opportunities. The Statue of Liberty would obviously serve as a symbol of America’s success to the rest of the world, and yet Congress refused to allocate the necessary resources. It would bring recognition and tourism revenue to the City of New York, but the funding bill was rejected. And keep in mind – the statue was a gift! All we had to pay for was a display stand. I wonder what the French thought of us at that point.

As is the story of America, the people stepped up. The pedestal was paid for by 120,000 individual donations from ordinary people. Pulitzer published the names of every single donor, and 80% of the donations were of less than $1 each. The team pulled together and accomplished what seemingly couldn’t be done.

What opportunities are you missing out on right now? What great work is being held up by infighting, someone’s desire to maintain the status quo, or fear of failure? What if your team actually pulled together? What could the sum of their many individual efforts, focused on a common cause, accomplish? Something amazing, I bet.

What it Takes to Win

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Scott

Henri had a problem.

Sales of L’Auto, his daily newspaper devoted to sports, were slow. He’d started the paper in 1900 to compete with France’s largest sports paper, Le Vélo. But after almost three years, circulation hovered around 25,000, far lowered than desired. Henri wanted to not only compete with his rival, but dominate them. So he called an emergency meeting of the paper’s staff. They needed an idea – something big that would cement their legacy as the country’s premier sports authority.

The answer, suggested by a young writer focused on rugby and cycling, was a race. The paper would sponsor a six day, multi-stage bicycle race around France; creating an event grander than anything seen before. The proposal was quickly adopted. As plans for the race progressed, it grew to 19 days. Six just wasn’t enough to attract the kind of attention L’Auto needed. Unfortunately though, this put the race at out of the reach of many would-be participants. By the time it started on July 1, 1903, there were less than 100 registered racers.

However, while the field of competitors was small, the race attracted hoards of avid cycling fans. L’Auto’s circulation immediately jumped to over 65,000. The race became an annual event and circulation continued to grow. By 1923 over 500,000 copies were being sold each day. As luck would have it, the paper was eventually shut down in 1946, having been associated with Nazi influences during the Second World War.

But the race continued.

Today, the Tour de France consists of 21 day-long segments covering approximately 2,200 miles over 23 days. It is generally considered the most prestigious multi-stage bicycle race despite the grueling schedule (there are only two scheduled rest days). While the route changes each year, participants are guaranteed to encounter steep uphill climbs, unpredictable weather and a variety of road hazards. Every day, veterans and rookies compete to be the first overcome the physical demands of the race and don the yellow jersey (a nod to the yellow paper L’Auto was printed on).

Winning the Tour de France is complicated. It’s more like a game of chess than a race. In addition to physical performance and high tech gear, it involves strategy, teamwork and a great deal of patience. There are times when you give it your all and times when you sit back and let others lead. It involves sacrifice for the sake of the team and a steady stream of communication between teammates and even other riders.

In many ways, winning the Tour de France is like winning in business. There are periods of preparation and planning followed by periods of intense activity. There are times when the best strategy is to lay low and times when those who want to win leave everything they have on the road in pursuit of the goal.

Winning is hard. It isn’t for the weak of mind or spirit. It isn’t for those who take the easy way out. Winning is for those who are willing to sacrifice in order to stand on the podium. That’s why so few ever do.

What does it take to win your particular race?

Walking the Tightrope

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Scott

Last week, I wrote about Jean Francois Blondin, the first person to walk a tightrope across Niagara Falls. As I thought about his story this week, I was reminded of another famous tightrope artist – Karl Wallenda. He and his family, known as the “Flying Wallendas,” were famous for their trapeze and tightrope routines. Their signature act was walking the tightrope as a team – stacked on top of each other in a pyramid.

Karl was not only the leader of the Wallenda clan; he was a daring individual tightrope walker as well. He was known for performing high above the ground without a safety net. He felt the net gave him an excuse to be less than perfect. He knew that the key to a successful walk lay in keeping his focus on his goal at the other end of the rope, not on what could happen if he fell. Falling was simply not an option for Karl Wallenda.

Wallenda used to perform shows where he’d walk across a tightrope stretched between two buildings. His last stunt occurred in Puerto Rico and involved a walk between the city’s two tallest buildings. But something was different this time. Wallenda overheard some people talking about another tightrope walker who had recently fallen and he began to focus on that. He began to worry about what could go wrong and on the day of the stunt was preoccupied with checking the ropes.

Halfway across the rope, Wallenda lost his balance and fell to his death.

When leaders start focusing on what they have to lose versus what they have to gain, the only direction they can go is down. The result may not be physically deadly, but the consequences are still dire. Projects stagnate, innovation dies, and communication stops. Forward progress comes to a halt as everyone either adopts the leader’s myopic focus or opts out.

To move forward, you have to look ahead, not down. You can’t blaze new ground if you’re busy building fences. You can’t WOW your customers or employees if you’re worried about the potential downside.

I’m not saying you should be reckless. You can’t ignore obvious dangers. But there’s a balance that needs to be achieved. No great achievement is without risk. But nothing great is ever achieved without it.

The Power of Mission

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Scott

On July 21st 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to walk on the moon. Most of the people reading to this weren’t even born when this happened and don’t understand the significance of the event. They don’t remember the grainy TV pictures or the excitement in the air as people around the world listened to Armstrong declare “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

And it was a giant leap. Just eight years earlier, President Kennedy had presented the challenge of placing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Almost before the words had escaped his lips the skeptics appeared. It’s a waste of time. It’s too expensive. It’s too dangerous. It’s impossible.

But for those who believed, the challenge became a mission. They dedicated themselves to seeing the dream become a reality. Some made the ultimate sacrifice for the mission; men like Ed White, the first American to walk in space who later died in a launch pad fire along with fellow astronauts Virgil Grissom and Roger Chaffee.

However, most of those involved were mission specialists and controllers, men and women operating behind the scenes, each playing some small part in accomplishing the mission even though they themselves would never personally experience gazing back at the planet Earth from the surface of the moon. It was the combination of hundreds and thousands of contributions that led ultimately to Armstrong’s moonwalk. Without everyone playing their part, it never would have happened.

Sometimes it’s hard for people to see how their small contribution fits into the overall mission. It’s the job of the leader to help them see it. Leaders have to “connect the dots” so that everyone understands how important they are to achieving the larger goal. It’s not enough to just delegate tasks. You have to paint the “big picture” in order to draw people in.

Does everyone on your team understand the mission?
Do they each understand their role in achieving that goal?
What will you do today to help connect the dots?