Musings at Altitude

I was in the Wal-Mart parking lot earlier today after picking up a couple of things, and as I was sitting in my car checking my blackberry, a lady in a pickup truck with her son in the front seat with her pulled into the space in front of me.  I looked up and watched with curiosity.  The parking lot was full of shopping carts, and it seemed like there were 2, 3, or 4 carts in each of the open spaces and in front of cars already parked.  As the lady pulled in, she pulled right up to 3 of those carts, inching her way forward till just about touching.  When she got as close as she could without touching, she realized she was crooked and immediately backed out and pulled back in again.  This time she was straight, but she couldn’t get far enough in without pushing the carts with her truck, so she pulled back out just a bit and got her son to get out of the truck and move the carts forward just a little bit so she could pull far enough in to be out of the lane.  As her son moved the cart I finally looked at the front of her truck and the front bumper was completely crumpled from a previous wreck.  I smiled watching her work so hard to avoid that cart when the bumper was already completely smashed right where she would have touched the cart.

I smiled for quite awhile as I thought about how careful she was even with something of hers that had already been crushed.  Aren’t we really all that way though?  Regardless of the state of our affairs, we still tend to be so incredibly careful as we inch our way forward in life and push so close to obstacles that may be in our way.  We often times back up a few times too, trying to optimize our position or trying to get that perfect angle of attack on any such barrier.  In the end, we’ll find a way to remove that barrier by either pushing it or using someone else to help us open the path.  One way or another, we will find a way!

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I was just watching the NASCAR race in the hotel bar and I couldn’t help but think about how much the strategy at the end of the race mirrors business – in fact it is business.  Jimmy Johnson won this Race in his Lowe’s #48 car because his team’s strategy out-witted and out-lasted the other race teams.  Here’s a quick synopsis:

— All of the teams were running out of gas at the end of the race

— Each team had to decide “do I stay out” or “do I pit and take tires and gas” or “do I pit and take gas only”

 — The first team ended up pitting with 15 laps remaining, probably hoping that the leaders would run out of gas

— This first team to pit plus those others that pitted in the next 5-8 laps took two right side tires along with some gas

— Several more teams pitted between 15 remaining and 8 remaining

— One team pitted with only 6 remaining and only got gas – in fact, the gas he got probably made very little difference at all

— The winning team stayed out – coasting at the end to victory – running out of gas after crossing the finish line

The comparisons to business are stark.  So many companies are running hard and using all their gas to stay in the race, getting so close to that finish line.  Many of those companies are so afraid of running out of gas that they leave the track and hit the pits early so they can “re-fuel” to try and make it to the end.  Other companies run hard right up till close to the end and then pull into the pits for a “splash of gas” just to re-charge and gain a bit of confidence to make it to the end.  But the winner always seems to be the one that has the confidence of making it to the end even though they may be close on gas and running on fumes.

I truly enjoy being part of that team that takes that chance to drive it hard all the way to the end.  I’m not talking about being reckless; but I’m talking about having confidence in your equipment, confidence in your team, confidence in your metrics, and confidence in your business driver.  That’s a winning combination!

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Every now and then I spend way too much time thinking about things that really should cause no thinking at all – unfortunately, today is one of those days.  Here are some of the things I’m wondering about today:

(1)     Why do people upgrade on a redeye flight when they sleep the entire way?  I consider the upgrades I get from United as special gifts, and I use them preciously when I can get the most advantage from First Class.  But I don’t use them to upgrade on the flights when I sleep the entire way.  For the redeye, I just put the pillow up to the window and fall asleep typically during the safety video.  I know there are a lot of folks who just love being up front – but I like to maximize that experience!

(2)     Why do people back into parking spaces?  I think they are just showing off to those of us that can’t do it!  Maybe it’s a belief that it’s quick egress from the parking lot, saving a couple of seconds on the outbound path.  Of course, it costs you a few seconds on the inbound path so time is all a wash.  If you’re some kind of law enforcement official or special agent, maybe it makes sense, because those couple of seconds may be precious.  It kind of makes sense then.  Otherwise, I’m just left wondering.

(3)     Why do people who are standing in line loudly talking on their cell phones look around and smile at others while they are annoyingly sharing their conversation with everyone unfortunately in line with them?  I rarely answer my cell phone when I have a bunch of people around me – it’s too embarrassing and makes me way too uncomfortable.  But others seem to thrive on letting all of us unfortunate enough to be in line around them that they are important enough to need to be on the phone and talking loudly at that very minute. 

(4) Why does it hurt more two days after you work out rather than the day after?  I’ve been trying to exercise much more frequently lately, and when I skip a day, the day I skip I seem to feel much better than that next day when I want to exercise again.  I’ve been complaining to my wife lately of how much it sucks to work out.  I’m typically joking (or maybe not!) but at my age I do have lingering pain most of the time, and the more I work out, the more pain I have lingering!

(5) When any group of people are in a meeting and the meeting leader asks “who wants to go first”, why do most if not all of the folks around the table look down?  I’ve watched this happen in meetings of all levels of people in an organization, to include a gathering of Presidents.  It’s funny to watch, and you can tell an awful lot about both the folks at the table and the leader by that reaction and who the leader then picks to go first. 

I have so many more wonderings and yet so little reason to actually be wondering and even less reason to share these with others!  I must admit though, going through life shaking your head at the things you wonder about does add just a bit of enjoyment to life!

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Recently, I’ve been fond of saying “just do your job”, or “JDYJ” for short.  I’ve been frustrated by folks who have opinions on everything, who want to have a say in everything, or who believe they have the right answers to everything.  In fact, I have to remind myself of JDYJ, because I sometimes fall into that very same trap wondering why everyone else can’t realize the obvious genius that I must be having answers to all the known (and unknown) problems at my job!

On my flight this week, I was able to spend a few minutes talking to someone who lives JDYJ.  Sitting next to me on the plane was a young lady celebrating her 25th birthday.  She slept most of the flight (five and half hours long), so I gained a life time of respect for her in about 10 minutes between the time she woke up and the time we landed.  This young lady had just left Afghanistan – for the second time – and was arriving at home to celebrate her birthday, spend a few days with her family, and then head back to Afghanistan for another tour with the US Army.  She wasn’t a soldier; she was a civilian with the Department of Defense.  She was a Human Resources technician supporting our efforts in that remote part of the world.  Her tours of duty were six months long, and she had just recently volunteered for her third consecutive six month tour of duty.  She talked about her work there, her stop over in Dubai, her transit through Germany, her flight cancellations in Chicago, her RON in Denver, and then finally her last leg going home on her birthday.  For that lifetime of learning in the 10 minutes we talked, she never once said anything negative, she never once indicated that she struggled with her deployments, and she talked proudly about her promotions and her desire to now get a college degree.

As I think back now on that conversation, she’s a great example of most of the folks I know – the real heroes that just do their jobs, regardless of location, regardless of situation, and even regardless of danger.  She’s a great example of those who so humbly and non-descriptively provide the backbone of services that any organization (and in this case any nation) needs.  She’s a great example of being the “trusted middle” of an organization, not living on either extreme of being overly vocal and critical or overly quiet and accepting.  And she’s an example of someone that smiles in spite of setbacks or unexpected changes in circumstances and charges on in life knowing that the next day will offer new reasons for excitement and new opportunities for advancement.

I am so thankful to this 25 year old young lady for reminding me of JDYJ.   Her example was another lesson in life for me.  Happy Birthday!

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As I picked up my triple grande soy with whip caramel machiatto at the Starbucks drive through today, the customer service representative (I call him that because he wasn’t the barista and I don’t know what they call the person dishing out the drinks through the window) handed me a receipt with an email address to respond to a survey and he made sure I knew his name as well as the barista in case I wanted to say something special about them during the survey.  He said it in a very enjoyable and probably semi-joking way, but you could tell he was very sincere about me taking the time to go to that web address and share my experience in the survey.

Since I had a couple of minutes free and since I’m a Starbucks “power drinker”, I decided to take him up on the offer and give some feedback.  Just for background, I average about 150-200 drinks at Starbucks a year, and if you added the drinks I buy for family, friends, partners and customers, you can probably add at least another 100-150 drinks.  Almost all of the drinks I buy are “loaded” with extra shots, and most of the drinks that I buy others are something different than a standard “drip” coffee.  So I frequent Starbucks for between 250-350 drinks per year – and I think that’s conservative.  In the past 7-8 years, I’ve had years where I know it was much higher than that, and I probably have had years that may have been just a bit lower.  But I am a significantly addicted Starbucks drinker.  During this heavy usage time, I can’t remember a time where I had a significantly bad experience at Starbucks.  In fact, I can only remember a very few times where I had any problem at all with a drink or with timeliness to fulfill my order.  Also, I can only remember a very few times when I entered a Starbucks (anywhere in the country) and felt that the service was a bit sub-standard – and even then it wasn’t so bad that I felt dismayed about it – it was just different enough to create some curiosity on my part as to what may have been causing that particular team member of Starbucks to be having a bad day.

With this background, I want to go back to the survey.  It took me about 5 minutes to fill out…couldn’t have been much longer than that.  But near the end, it gave me a chance to provide comments and I provided feedback similar to the background information I provided above.  At the end, the survey gave me a chance to send additional comments and feedback to a customer service representative, and I quickly took them up on that offer to provide a very important recommendation – Starbucks should find a way to recognize and reward their “power drinkers” and make them feel special in some way.

I shared a story earlier in the week with friends about Best Buy, where Best Buy sent a letter to my house recognizing that we had recently purchased a HD DVD player from Best buy (within the last year), informing us of Toshiba’s decision to get out of the HD DVD business, and giving us a $100 gift card for anything in the store as a means to tell us they care about us and the technology we buy.  Best Buy made us feel special and also made us feel like they were concerned about the impact on us for having bought that technology.  As a “power buyer” at Best Buy, I did not expect such a gift and more importantly, I probably wouldn’t have changed my buying habits because of it, but the fact that Best Buy went through their user records and then decided to offer a special compensation to those who bought the HD DVD players, that made me feel even more special.

But treating customers in a special way isn’t limited to just Best Buy.  I’m also a “power flyer”, spending well over a 100,000 miles in the air every year, and I’ve probably flown that much and more well over half of my business life.  I prefer United because of the routes and the hubs, and I prefer United because they too make me feel special.  As a 1K flyer with trips at least 45 weeks out of the year right now, United provides me those special services that truly make a difference when you fly – a 1K desk for check in; a 1K desk for reservations and flight questions; special upgrades throughout the year; and tracking of my status as I close in on the “million mile” club.  I’d probably fly United (because of the routes and flexibility) even without all of these special privileges, but I do at times truly appreciate having the recognition of the revenues that I generate and the miles in the air that I fly with them.

And that gets me back to Starbucks.  I don’t know of any program that Starbucks may have that recognizes the “power drinkers”.  In fact, culturally that may be something they are completely against.  But I can’t help but think how cool it would be if Starbucks had some way of tracking the number of drinks consumed by any one individual, and in that tracking, had some way of flagging certain high volume milestones to the team members in the stores so that they could say something extra special as those high volume milestones passed!  Just by recognizing those that frequent given stores and more importantly continue to visit Starbucks across the country and across the world during travels would bring even more smiles to the “power drinkers” and even more loyalty as the options for those power drinks grow.  I recommended to Starbucks in the email that 1,000 cups was a pretty significant milestone, and for the drinks I buy, many thousands in revenue.  I would be very pleasantly surprised if one day I got a letter in the mail with a gift card saying “thanks for sharing the Starbucks experience with us” as I passed significant milestones.  I’d be even more surprised and incredibly excited if instead of the gift card that letter contained some seemingly insignificant to them but incredibly significant to me number of shares of Starbucks stock – just 1 share would be something I’d proudly display in my home office (though I recommended to Starbucks they consider 5 shares for 1,000 drink buyers).

The good news is that I feel special every time I stop in or drive through Starbucks – that’s something that is consistent across the many stores I’ve visited over the last decade or so.  I also feel special on United each time I fly.  And I feel very special now thanks to Best Buy.  With the data that’s collected and the buying patterns that are tracked today in seemingly every business environment, won’t we all feel special when every store we frequent realizes how often we do frequent and then provides us that special treatment as we hit milestones or as we experience some disruption because of the products or services they provide. 

I hope we get there soon!

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One of the most wonderful things about life is change – the growth of a child; the arrival of spring; the improvements in relationships; the maturing after learning from experience; the almost constant sales in the stores now to spur on buying and bring smiles when you get a good one; the snow in the morning and the sunshine in the afternoon – life is truly filled with change. 

Business is no different than life.  One of the most wonderful things about business is change – the growth of a business leader; the arrival of a finished product; the transition of an acquaintance to a marquee relationship for the company; the change in pricing of products and services based on changing market demands; the loss of a major opportunity one day and the win of an even more major contract the next – business is also filled with change.

Interestingly enough, though all of life and all of business is filled with change, many people seem to resist change, worry enormously about change, or ponder change hoping that it becomes more routine rather than a major decision.  In effect, change is routine, and in spite of the resistance, in spite of the worrying and in spite of the pondering, the change is occurring regardless.  The real question becomes, is the change that is occurring (whether we want it to or not) the kind of change that we (as business leaders) feel will benefit the business or will focus the business in a direction that we feel is appropriate, meaningful, and accelerating against goals?

I’m convinced that it takes as much if not more effort to restrict change (which is actually a form of change in itself because you’re actually trying to pull back rather than lean forward) than it does to embrace and encourage change.  As Denise and I were walking yesterday, it was very noticeable how hard it was to walk into the wind and very uplifting to then turn around and walk with the wind.  As we leaned into the wind going out, the resistance was significant and the time to reach destination was quite a bit longer.  When we then turned with the wind on the second half of our journey, the pace picked up, the smiles increased, and the journey seemed to pass much faster. 

As I think about change, one of my favorite songs is by The Scorpions, called “Wind of Change”.  I remember so clearly this song being played time and time again when the Berlin Wall came down.  Early in the song, they sing, “the future’s in the air, I can feel it everywhere, blowing with the wind of change.”  Though a pretty extreme comparison, that same wind of change is blowing in every business.  Our challenge though is that in business we create competing winds of change.  There is a natural wind that blows up from the operations that drives the business towards an easier and more meaningful path for those that are held accountable for revenue and income.  There is another wind that is driven from the staff and the overseers that carries with it the risk tolerance of an organization and the restrictor plate on the overall speed of growth.  And there is another more subtle and yet more defining wind that comes from the whispers of an organization carrying undefined and yet undeniable policies or ways of doing business that are acceptable though maybe not recordable.  And finally, there is a wind defined by the expectations and yet the politics of an organization, where the force of the wind may be driven by the promises made and at times accelerate the winds from the operations while at other times totally negating that wind.

The very best businesses can feel each of those winds and can even identify their origins.  If at any time those winds become mutually aligned, the gales of success for the business can be enormous.  Unfortunately, those times are rare, though incredibly rewarding.  More realistically, those winds are constantly competing with each other, and our jobs as business leaders is to have more of the winds pushing in a progressive and accelerating flow thus leading to a much easier and more enjoyable journey.

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I’ve been home for more than a week now, which only happens about once every 3 years.  I’m talking about being physically present in my own home, sleeping in my own bed, and spending quality time with my family (ok – I realize the “quality time” assessment varies across each family member).  As I think back over the last 30 months, when I leave on my next business trip in the next couple of days (assuming that I do indeed get excused from jury duty), this may be the single longest consecutive day period that I’ve been physically at my house to sleep in my bed (Denise will argue it’s her bed since she’s in it most of the time and I’m not) in that entire period.

As I’ve adjusted myself to being at home for more than a week again, I’ve come to really appreciate the simple things that I don’t often do or don’t often notice when I swing through for a couple days – make the bed in the morning; smell the aroma of our “back home” Community coffee brewing; sit on the front porch and watch the morning commuters heading off to work; go on a long walk with Denise; enjoy the snow in the morning and the sunshine in the afternoon; wave good bye to the son as he heads off to school; take the youngest to the bus stop; meet good friends at Starbucks and catch up; spend an evening at dinner with friends to wine and whine.  It’s been months since I took the time to visit at dinner with friends.  It’s been years since Denise and I have had two weeks at home together to exercise and to talk. 

When you get back to the simple things and think about what these simple things mean in your life, you regain an appreciation for the things that matter most in life – time with the family; time with very good friends; time admiring God’s creation and praying intensely for His path to be known in your life; time in reflection, which always makes you better at work and at home; time in discussion, without the burdens of travel or the constant chaos of packing and unpacking. 

I’m very much enjoying the simple things right now. 

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I’m known by many as the ultimate optimist – I believe any adverse situation will get better and any tough battle will end up in victory. I’m also known by some as an evangelist – I believe in many things and I relentlessly promote those things to anyone that will listen. And I’m known by others as a crusader – I get focused on some idea or some premise and then work incredibly hard to move that idea forward. I’m rarely if ever none of these, and often times all of these. In the most desperate of times, we need evangelists and crusaders. When optimism wanes, evangelism and crusading can reinvigorate it. When evangelism wanes, optimism can re-energize it. When crusading wanes, evangelism can renew it.

I can’t imagine being in business without some combination of optimists, evangelists and crusaders!  So much of business can tear you down – the loss of a key client; the loss of a key team member; the decline of an entire market; the rise of an unbeatable (or so you think) competitor; the unexpected missing of numbers – and it’s very easy to then focus on those things that went wrong.  But it’s the optimists, evangelists and crusaders that can take those things tearing you down and turn them into irrational (or so it seems) exhuberance, creating excitement for what’s to come rather than despair for what there is.  Focusing on those things tearing you down creates that business quicksand – the harder you focus, the faster you sink into despair.  Focusing beyond those things tearing you down and seeing glory beyond the obstacles or challenges brings smiles (regardless of how irrational) and hope for the things yet unseen – the harder you focus, the more you believe.  But it takes that one optimist, evangelist, or crusader to shine light on that horizon and to deflect your attention from that valley below.

In my perfect business environment, I’d have several optimists, evangelists, and crusaders on my team and one or two critics, skeptics, and naysayers.  Every business needs the “doubting Thomas” who has to see and feel to believe.  The skeptic ensures that both the obvious and less than obvious questions are asked.  The critic scrutinizes to the point that you know you’ve covered the tough issues and fully assessed the remotest of possible pitfalls.  And the naysayer gives you the feel good story when all works as or better than planned.  Of course, when all doesn’t go as planned (when does it ever), these very same people launch quickly with “I told you so”, but that too can then be an important point of learning and thus an important positive step going forward.

Ultimately, when I go into business battle, if I’m the optimist, I want the evangelist on my right, the crusader on my left, and the critic, skeptic or naysayer right in front of me.  If someone has to take the business spear as we rush forward, let it be the skeptic!

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As I’ve grown older, I can’t help but think of the things that affect me today that didn’t seem to affect me before.  I now dwell on things for extended periods of time and I find myself much less patient (although I’ve never really been patient).  I have a sense of urgency now that didn’t exist before – at least not for the same reasons, and I’ve shortened my time frames on things to a short number of years and sometimes even months rather than decades or careers (like pursuing a 20 year career in the military – which I came up 5 short in active years though finishing in the reserves).

But in these last 5 years through my mid 40’s, the thinking has turned to pondering and the pondering to musing – so here are some current thoughts on the affects on me of middle age:

(1) Mortality is sinking in.  In the last few years, I’ve lost business partners and friends; friends have lost parents; friends have lost spouses; friends have lost children; and we’ve lost parents.  With age, the frequency of loss accelerates and it’s rare to go more than a quarter now without that call or email coming in of another sad moment for someone close and thus for me.  When I was young it seemed like every 10 years I would experience the sadness of death.  In my 20’s and 30’s maybe every 5 years.  In my later 30’s and early 40’s, maybe every year, and now it’s so frequent that my prayer list is lengthy and my hearfelt sadness ever constant for those in pain.  Immortality is truly sinking in.

(2) Urgency to make a significant impact is building.  I’ve always been one that felt a keen sense of urgency to have things happen fast.  But the urgency now isn’t just about business, it’s now also about urgently affecting the lives of those I touch and also urgently making a difference that can change whatever “corner of the world” I’m part of.  I believe we can all make an impact in every situation we’re in, but I believe we’re only graced with the chance to make “significant impacts” at certain times in our lives and we’re probably best prepared for that significant impact when we have decades of experience behind us and decades of opportunities ahead of us.  Now is the time.

(3) Desire to have deeper and more meaningful friendships is growing.  I’ve always said in business that it has to be more than just about the office – it has to be about a shared journey in life.  Now more than ever, that is a priority for me.  In all of our lives, in both business and personal affairs, their are intense moments of exhilaration and then intense moments of frustration or despair.  Friends provide that much needed and natural calming affect that roll you back from the highs and pull you up from the depths of despair.  Being at either point – extreme high or extreme low – for too long can be dramatically bad.  Friends know that.  Friends help you through that.

(4) A longing for lasting memories is emerging.  I don’t remember much.  In fact, a joke in my family is that I don’t remember yesterday.  There’s some truth in that.  I’ve been known to say that my mind is a FIFO buffer, “first in, first out”, and when any new event comes up today, something from my recent passed has to be shoved out for that new memory to go in.  But I’m at a point in my life where I want trips to be meaningful, and I want events to be memorable, and I want relationships to be enduring, and I want “down time” to be intimate.  I am blessed with a wonderful companion for life in my wife who remembers everything so I don’t have to right now.  But when we’re both sitting on our porch swings looking at the mountains and thinking back on those always special times, I don’t want to remember based on her recollection, I want to smile in remembering based on my own memory.

There’s so much more about middle age that I can and probably will write about at some time.  I wonder now if my car or my body will be the first to break down.  The car has 192,000 miles on it, and my body has close to 2,000,000 air miles on it.  I wonder now if my risk tolerance is as high as its always been – going without pay for many months, loading up the credit cards with company debts, changing business paths on a whim without thinking through long term consequences – but I’m not necessarily anxious to find out.  And I wonder if the world is spinning itself into a complete and insane cycle of intolerance or if this is just more visibility into the way the world has always been.  But these and so many more can wait till another day and another time. 

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In continuing the discussion and thinking on leadership, I’ve been most impressed with leaders I’ve worked for that had extreme confidence in their actions, even when sometimes they were wrong.  The good leaders that ended up being wrong  (in some specific instance) were very open to being guided away from that wrong decision or course of action – but they demanded very good staff work or a clear understanding of why they were wrong in order to change their mind or change their course.

I get very discouraged when I end up working with leaders (either organizational or functional) that need lots of time consuming input and coordination to make otherwise no brainer decisions.  I do believe there are times where coordination and shared decision making are critical – that’s when the business is on the line or the decision is so significant that shared responsibility for that decision at the senior executive level is critical.  But how many decisions in normal business activities really fall into that category?  It’s not that many.

Leaders need to be decisive.  Leaders need a level of confidence that warrants their leadership roles.   Leaders need to have an incredibly rapid OODA loop on all business decisions.  No brainers shouldn’t even enter the OODA loop cycle – instead of OODA they should just be OA!  Those that aren’t very effective as leaders spend a lot of time in the OO phase getting others to give them comfort regarding an issue, and they only get to DA if they have mutual support of lots of others or the decision is so obvious they aren’t at risk in making that decision.

Business is incredibly complicated.  If it’s easy, you don’t need leadership for success.  If it’s typical of most business, you need leaders that have great confidence in their abilities to quickly observe, orient, decide, and act.

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