Musings at Altitude

I canvassed my team at the end of last year, and they said I needed to work on the following things:

(1) Structure – I’m too loose; I need to be more structured and force them to be more structured as well

(2) Timeliness – I let things sit if I don’t have time to provide meaningful feedback; sometimes that means days, or even weeks; that’s not good enough when folks are anxiously waiting for input; I need to respond much quicker

(3) Accountability – I let folks get away with things when accountability is needed; I need to set expectations and then hold all team members accountable to deliver against those expectations

(4) Communications – I communicate a lot…more than most…but not necessarily the things that our team members expect; I need to spend more time communicating those things that others feel they need to be involved and get their jobs done

(5) Issue Resolution – It’s always easier to avoid conflict and focus primarily on those things you know you can get done; it takes courage and commitment to engage in areas outside your responsibility but damaging to the company or team; I need to aggressively respond when I see things being done that aren’t right…regardless of who is doing those things…regardless of whose area of responsibility they may be in

(6) Balance – I’m a cheerleader and evangelist…plain and simple…often times even when the situation warrants something very different; I need to balance my evangelism with pragmatism and ensure that my optimism doesn’t drive very bad decisions

(7) Listening – I’m easily distracted and rarely focused on the one talking…regardless of the issue; I need to focus intently on those who are communicating with me and respond appropriately so that those needing me to listen are convinced and assured that I really did get it

(8) Leadership – I feel very comfortable with ambiguity…even when certainty of path and plan are required; I need to take charge of the future and ensure all team members are on board with the path and plan

As I look at these 8 areas of focus, the team pegged me well, and it’s easy to see why they expect more and need more from me as a leader.

It won’t be easy.

Change is hard.

Even when you want to change.

But I’m on it.

They deserve much more from me as a leader.

The learning, growing, and changing have begun!

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At the speed of….???

When do you know if you’re moving too fast?

Your body will certainly tell you if you’re doing too much.

Your friendly neighborhood law enforcement officer will tell you if you’re driving too fast.

Your family and friends will hopefully tell you if you’re taking on too many things.

Those are all good things (except maybe the cost of the ticket).

So there’s a check and balance of sort.

But how do you know if you’re thinking too fast?

Experience allows you to get to answers much quicker than you could without any experience.

History gives you a foundation for decisions that intensifies the certainty and speeds up the decision making process.

Relationships give you references that can be used almost instantly thus accelerating the path to action.

And all three of these – experience, history, relationships – provide great comfort during the rapid acceleration of the thought process.

It’s very similar to riding in a luxury car on the highway thinking you’re going 65 when you’re actually going 90.  It’s such a comfortable ride you don’t sense speed, and thus don’t sense danger.

Same with decision making.

You can get so comfortable and confident in decision making that you’re going much faster than you should be and oblivious to the danger.

That’s not good.

Knowing the right pace to get to the best possible decision is the ultimate risk management issue.

Some decisions (though very few) warrant a sludge-like pace to an answer.

Many (if not most) should never have time to breathe during the decision process.

Knowing the right pace for getting to that decision is what separates the great from the good and the brilliantly successful from everyone else.

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As is often the case, I find affirmation and confirmation for things that happened or things I’m thinking when I got to church on Sunday’s…God’s way of using His messengers to expand my thinking and encourage me to dig deeper in His Word and in my pondering.

Today, our Pastor talked about faith and let us know that faith, belief, and trust all come from the same root word in Greek.  He also let us know that all three require action, something that many people forget as they sit back “in faith” and wait for a miracle to happen.

It’s no different in business and life, the trust I mentioned in my last post is an active trust that comes from knowing each other, in a way, testing each other, and over time, then trusting each other. 

In our Americanized use of the words, faith is hoping things will happen when there’s limited basis for trust, and trust is believing – no, actually knowing - it will happen based on experience and “trial by fire”.

So once again, it’s all about trust.

How many people do you completely, totally, intimately, and unquestionably trust?

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I spent last week on the road…something I seem to do most weeks…meeting new people…getting to know them personally…understanding what they do in business and in life…seeking that moment of enlightenment that clearly shows there’s reason to tie ourselves more closely together for either professional or personal reasons…building a foundation for trust.

Trust.

That’s what it all comes down to.  Do they appear trustworthy from the moment you shake hands to the moment you say thanks at the end of the meeting.  If not, is something they said, or did, or didn’t do, reflective of who they are or just a momentary lapse in consideration and not who they might really be?

I’ve found myself relying heavily now on those first interactions, those first indications of trustworthiness, those first insights into who people really are.  Because some folks are exactly who they really are at all times, thus giving you great visibility into who you’ll be relating with going forward.  Others are very different in those first meetings, or in meetings with very senior and respected people, or in meetings where even they know they need to be acting different in order to achieve whatever desired result they may want.  It’s harder with those folks.  You need to watch more closely, dig in just a little bit deeper, open up for the intuition to take the lead rather than just accept or believe in face value.

Trust.

Beyond that first meeting, trust is built or firmly established through the tough challenges that are then overcome together.  Trust in deeply ingrained or instilled through the very candid conversations and desperate desire to do the right things at all times even when something must be sacrificed to do that going forward.  Trust is ultimately rooted in those shared, tough, overwhelming-at-times experiences where the words, actions and results are pre-determined in a sense from the intimate relationship building that has been done over the weeks, months, and years of then knowing each other.

Trust helps you overcome the challenges sure to come.

Trust helps you meet and exceed expectations.

Trust helps you serve more, give more, love more, and live more.

It’s all about trust.

And we’re assessing our ability to trust someone all the time.

Even if we say we’re not.

It’s all about trust.

What do you do to determine if there can be trust or if their is trust in your relationships?

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I’m starting to think of everything in 5 minute increments…because there’s so much now that has to be processed forcing me to gather information, assess what’s been gathered, decide on a course of action, and communicate that course in an effective way.  If it takes longer than 5 minutes, it’s probably going to take significantly longer, therefore, it should probably be properly scheduled, researched, analyzed and then acted on.

But much of  what we do in any given day doesn’t require extensive time, though we sometimes get caught up in allowing those less than significant things to take up a lot of significant time (arguably, much of what flows in and out of the “to do” queue each day is significant, but for me, I would argue that those that are most significant are less than 10% of the things that occupy the bulk of your time).

Since 5 minutes is my new target, I’ve been thinking about how I could break down that 5 minutes to make it most effective.  GADC – gather, assess, decide, communicate.  When spinning through a process and driving to an action that quickly, every second is incredibly valuable. 

Some would argue that the bulk of the time should be spent on gathering and assessing, thus protecting the integrity of the decision.

Others would argue that most of your time should be spent on assessing then deciding, thus valuing the analytic process and making a credible decision.

And then a small few would say focus all required time on communication, because that’s where you ensure the execution is perfectly aligned with the expectations you have as a result of the decision.

Where do I fall?

I’m in the last category.  The right decision will suffer mightily in execution if the expectations (objectives, timing, funding) aren’t clearly communicated once that decision has been made.

Others would counter that the wrong decision with great communication would be equally if not more bad.

I’m going to lean heavily on the fact that experience, intuition, and gathered data will make the bulk of all decisions proper, thus driving the emphasis towards the communications.

I’m anxious to see how I’ll do over the next few weeks.

Who knows, maybe the lethargy I feel in the pace of business progress will be changed through the simple act of forcing things into 5 minutes GADC cycles!

Let’s hope so!

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1/26th of the year is now done.

Anyone revising your forecast yet?

Anything happen that was totally unexpected?

Most of the time, the awesome things happen after lots of work and well into the year.

It’s the adversity that comes early, forcing each of us to adapt quickly or face a year of great distress.

Adversity has no respect for timing.

If your forecast has changed, I hope it’s because of things you didn’t think about that now make things better than expected.  If bad things have already happened, I wish you well in adapting quick and compensating for the adversity in ways that make the forecast still very achievable.

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If you knew from the very beginning in any interaction that everything you said or did would have some impact on the one you were interacting with, what would you do differently?

Because it does.

So what would you do differently knowing that?

I’d stop and think before speaking.

I’d plan what I was saying so the impact would be positive and not negative.

I’d focus intently on the other individual to hear and hopefully understand what she was saying.

And yet I don’t.

Sad really.

I know it does, and yet I don’t.

Most of us are probably that way.

Even more sad.

Because it does.

And yet we don’t.

We affect scores of others daily who hear, see, or directly feel the impact of our words and actions.

And yet we (certainly I) don’t pause for that precious short moment to assess that impact before we (definitely I) spew.

And others are hurt.

So.

Stop.

Think.

Frame.

Speak and/or do.

Most of the time it will then be appropriately impacting then.

And pray that I will learn to stop-think-frame-speak/do.

I desperately need the prayers.

Thank you.

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Six years ago, our family went to a concert of a very popular Christian band.  On the way home, my young daughter asked, “Where did their name come from”?  I said, “I don’t know, but why don’t we email them and ask.”

That night, I went out on the web and found the email address for the lead singer, and I asked him that question.  I certainly didn’t expect a quick answer, and I sort of expected a canned response, quite possibly from their publicist instead of the actual lead singer.

To my surprise, when I woke up the next morning, I had a reply in my email from the lead singer.  My daughter was amazed – stunned may be a better description – that such a famous person would reply personally to my email.

Neither one of us should have been surprised, because this famous person was really no different than either of us.  He certainly had great talent, but he was still a father, a brother, a son, a friend, a church member, a team member, and in his particular case, the lead singer of a very popular band.  With the exception of that last part, he truly was no different than me.

Over the course of my life, I’ve had the great privilege and enormous blessing to be physically close to world leaders, billionaires, multi-billion dollar company founders, politicians, 4-star generals, Hollywood stars, and popular athletes.  Each of these individuals, when off of the dais, out of the formal function, or momentarily removed from the role that by protocol required the pomp and circumstance, behaved no differently than any of us.  Some were incredibly humble and loved the simplicity and informality of those out-of-the limelight moments.  Others still had some ego, but loved a good joke, greatly enjoyed the time outside the public view, and shared openly and joyfully as if each individual present were part of one big family.  Only a small few of these “very important people” were guilty of carrying the nobility of their office or stature into the more private settings.

Fortunately, the bulk of those that through their very presence create a tremendous sense of awe in those surrounding them, are just like the rest of us in most ways.  In fact, they’re no different in most ways.  They’ve had more breaks; they’ve leveraged their talents to higher positions; they may have even been just a tad bit luckier than the rest of us.  But in reality, they’re no different in many of the things that matter the most.

Each of us at various times will be perceived by others as being in a lofty position.  When we are, let’s take the lead from those VIP’s who are truly in lofty positions and still act no different than you and me.  Let’s do the unexpected and hang out at the front desk, go vacuum the floor in HR, do a coffee run, or play on the company softball team.

After all, we’re no different than anyone else.

All sinners.

All needy.

All seeking.

All dependent.

On Him.

God made us even though He knew we’d be this way.

No different.

Yet different.

And wonderfully blessed!

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How often do you reinvent yourself?

I’ve been reading recently about others that reinvent themselves, some seemingly every year, some every decade or two, and some never.

If reinvention means learning from the past, envisioning being somewhat or lots better in the future, and then doing it, then I think I reinvent myself quite often.

If reinvention means being dramatically different, dramatically changing the way I am, dramatically changing my line of work or the things I’m doing, then I may not reinvent myself very often…at least not more than every few years.

2011 will be a year of reinvention in several ways:

• I’ll be working hard to be better as a leader, better as a team member, better as a follower
• I’ll be seeking every possible opportunity to give — in some way to as many of those who are in need as possible
• I’ll be prioritizing my time differently, focusing more on family and friends, taking the needed time to revive and refresh, and then working even harder in the time I focus on my job
• I’ll be changing the way I track my activities (for the 20th time or more), seeking to make sure the things that are most important to get done stay at the top of the list and don’t get diluted and then invisible amongst the myriad of things that end up on that list
• I’ll be looking much more often to help others, to ask questions rather than jump to conclusions (often times very wrong conclusions), to ask for help (rather than think I can do everything on my own), and to seek the counsel and wisdom of mentors and those (almost everyone) so much smarter than me

I’m not sure all of these individually or in total add up to reinvention, but who knows.  When all is done, 2011 is behind us, I might be a very different person than I am today.

I hope I’ll like who that is!

I bet I will!

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That’s what it feels like.

Start of a new year.

Refreshed from a long vacation.

Pondering and in a sense celebrating a year of growth.

A year of smiles.

And the new year begins.

A new start.

New resolutions.

New challenges.

New relationships.

New opportunities.

Hello 2011!

I’m ready for anything you throw at me.

Bring it on!

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