Dream on…

Those of you who’ve been following this blog, even for a short while, know that our clients have been gaining a lot of traction as they seek 20/20 clarity around their 2020 vision.  But not all have taken to this immediately.  One of my clients struggled a bit when I first ask him to clarify his BIG dream for 2020.

“Well,” he began, with a deep breath; “I suppose I’ll be…” and he went on to paint a rather fuzzy and predictable picture.  Then he paused, thought for a moment, and started again.  “I suppose my kids will probably be…” he continued…

“And this business?” I asked.

“Well, that depends on a number of things.  If my partner decides to…”  “And if my son finally…”  “And if the market ever…”

This went on for about five long, painful minutes.  Then we just stared at each other for a while longer, and I said, “You don’t sound very excited.”  “I’m not,” he answered.

I then told him his vision for 2020 looked more like a prediction.  A prediction based simply on his current reality, not his BIG dream.

Make no mistake about it; a dream is NOT a prediction.

Weathermen and insurance actuaries predict.  Great leaders and revolutionaries DREAM.  Predictors use rules of probability and historical trends.  Dreamers break the rules and create history.  Predictors help us to see what’s likely.  Dreamers inspire us to see what’s possible.   Alexander was a dreamer.  Our Founding Fathers were dreamers.  Edison, Salk, and Gandhi were dreamers.  Abe Lincoln, Henry Ford, Bill Gates.  Dreamer.  Dreamer.  Dreamer.   Do you think anyone would have predicted the impact each of these men made on the world?  Did any of their accomplishments seem likely to happen?

When you’re working toward 20/20 clarity of your 2020 vision, don’t simply project a “best guess” for the next ten years, based on the last ten.  That won’t inspire anyone, especially YOU.  The magic in this exercise is to dream BIG about what you REALLY WANT your life, your relationships, your team, your leaders, and your business to look like in the year 2020.  The magic lies in envisioning an enormous, compelling, and truly inspiring BIG dream for work and life.  An ideal vision that you step back, look at, and say, “Now THAT would be awesome!”

The poet/philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote, “Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men.”

Translation:  If your 2020 vision doesn’t have your heart pounding, dream BIGGER.

Get Back

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

For people of my age, The Beatles were our generation’s living proof of the maxim that sometimes, “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

In that respect, The Beatles also confirm BUILT TO LEAD’s tagline of “together we improve.”

The Beatles as a “system” had built-in synergy: all four were totally committed to their calling and each other. They practiced for 10,000 hours in places like Hamburg and Liverpool and hundreds of locations around Britain from the time they were young teens in 1957 until they “suddenly” broke into our consciousness here in the U.S. in 1964. Why? Because of LOVE, and OPUS. They simply loved what they were doing, and knew that they were going to be better than anyone else. Each brought individual excellence and passion to the group, and that inspired every other member to “raise their game” in response. Is there any doubt that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were better together than apart?  John, Paul George, and Ringo–described as the four fundamental elements of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

Legendary.

To those of you who lead a “band,” I ask, what if you could “get back” to the beginning of your team? How would you set things up? Would you use The Beatles as a model?

Would you get real clear as to why you personally were called to what you were doing (or assume leadership just in the hopes of cashing in some day)?

Would you dream a dream for the band (or continue to think that “the vision thing” is optional)?

Would you anchor your enterprise on love and joy and service to others (or simply to “maximize shareholder value”)?

Would you insist that anyone who joins that band must love its purpose and commit to that vision wholeheartedly, just as passionately as you were committed (or allow anyone with a modicum of talent and a need for a paycheck to join)?

Would you set up deliberate practice as a team mastering its craft (or throw everyone into the big performance with no time to practice at all)?

Would you mix people of different talents and points of view into your working teams (or maximize efficiency by keeping similar people on repetitive tasks in their functional silos)?

Would you continually pursue excellence, take risks, lead the market, break new ground (or rest on your “core competencies” and milk profits from a stable brand)?

Would you make it your practice to delight your customers with an exceptional customer experience, finely-crafted work, and an occasional positive surprise (or standardize a decent product to minimize production hassles)?

“Synergy” is such a buzzword. So overused and applied to anything BUT true synergy that it’s become buzzkill to even hear the word.

So let’s use the word “chemistry” instead.

When a band has “chemistry” the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Like nested dolls, chemistry is the end result of 1.) devotion to deliver excellence to the fans of the band (your customers) 2.) love and care for each other in your band; 3.) a system of deliberate practice together towards the elusive state of mastery; 4.) an inspiring purpose and vision of the band and a team that BELIEVES and 5.) trust, aka BELIEF, brought by the leader first and built into the fabric of the band.

Your band may not be the equivalent of The Beatles. Today, they may look more like The Monkees.

Who but you will lead them to mastery?

Is it time to reset your sights–gain 20/20 vision–about being exceptional?

Time to Get Back to where you once belonged…

Zero Gravity

At BUILT TO LEAD, we like to say that “mass attracts mass.” What we mean is that people who have worked to build a strong CORE–knowing who they are, why they are here, what they believe, where they are going, and what it will take to get there–end up creating an attractive personal culture. A person’s culture, as opposed to an organizational culture, is what’s happening in the 20-square feet surrounding them.

It seems that we humans are exquisitely attuned to each other, especially to each other’s emotional states. We sense something special when we draw near to someone of “mass.” They seem strangely calm, yet excited somehow. Maybe it’s not excitement, but joy perhaps? Maybe it’s contentment. There is a peacefulness in that 20-square feet.

They are amazingly open, welcoming other points of view and listening with an unusual concentration and with all five senses. They make us feel great because they made us feel like the most important person in the room at the time we were with them. Yet, for all their openness, they seemed anchored to something substantial. They may have listened deeply to us, but they neither patronized our viewpoint nor wavered on theirs. When they speak, their remarks are never simply chatter, but thoughtful, considered, and considerate points. You get the strong sense that they say what they mean and mean what they say, and when they commit to taking an action, they’ll deliver. A promise to them is not “I’ll try” but “Done so.” There is nothing unintentional about them. They know why they are here.

This is not normal.

Normal is “low gravity,” sometimes “zero gravity.” Most people lack a strong CORE, and therefore their gravity field is weak. “Attractiveness” might be present on the surface crust, but because there is no massive center to them, their personal culture fails to draw you in. As a result, we see normal behavior: distracted, bored, worried, busy, or looking for a party.

Low-gravity people float. They look past you when you’re talking with them. They bounce around many topics. They may interrupt your chat to take a call. Perhaps that caller just might be someone more important or interesting than you…If they come back to the discussion, you can sense that they are just waiting for you to shut up so that they can tell you what’s really going on. They’re defensive, argumentative, yet strangely uninformed and wishy-washy. You pick up a weird feeling that, despite the fact they aren’t listening to you, they desperately want to impress you. They really care what you think about them. As a result, they’ll promise you anything, without the slightest intent of actually following through. Did they disappoint you? “Oh, it was nothing intentional! Just got “busy” and forgot. Such a little thing; why blow it out of proportion. Get over it, okay?” They seem uncomfortable in their own skin. They don’t know why they’re here, and so they always seem to be going “there.”

Who are you, really?

Where are you going?

Why?

Do you have what it takes to get there?

How can we trust you if you don’t know the answers to these questions?

When will you find the answers?

How about NOW?

BTL Leaders are out of this…

Committed people work from a full heart.  

They know who they are, they know what the want, the know what they believe, they know where they’re going, they feel called toward their big dream, and they look a bit crazed when your eyes catch theirs.  These are the kind of people that change their world.  These are the kind of people you and I want to become.  These folks grab the reins and somehow at the same time seem to lose their fixation on…

CONTROL.

Compliant folks work from half a heart.

They know what they are supposed to do, they know what the systems demands from them, they know the job at hand, they think they are the responsible ones, they are oftentimes extremely driven to win, they never have enough time, they rarely feel they have the right team, and they desperately grapple with those around them for a little, or a lot more…

CONTROL.

Defiant men and women work from a broken heart.

They want to stick it to the man because of all the men that stuck it to them.  They want to beat the system because they feel like it’s badly beaten them.  They feel that the boss is a control freak and that the last thing he’ll get from them is compliance.  They would rather die.  They fight authority even if authority always wins. They look like they’re pissed off, because they are.  They are resisting being controlled, unproductively I might add, by someone who they feel is in…

CONTROL.

Gallup breaks the American worker into three buckets.  They contend that 28% of American workers are “engaged,”  55% are “disengaged,” and 17% are “actively disengaged.”  In our words, 28% work from a full heart, 55% work from half a heart, and 17% work from a broken heart.  28% are committed, 55% are compliant, and 17% are defiant.  Exceptional, BUILT TO LEAD Leaders create an environment that breeds, fosters, and energizes all of its workers toward the possibility of becoming autonomous, becoming a master of their craft, and becoming ONE with each other.  ONE team that is BUILT TO LEAD.  This is so rare in the world of work for one reason.  Most CEO’s don’t want to give up…

CONTROL.

Why is it that most of us see ourselves in the 28% bucket?

Why is it that so many CEO’s want committed workers they can control?

Who controls your heart?

Do you see where you need to lose control with your team?

Have you recently asked them?

Why is it that so many workers are willing to give half their heart, and yet most of their time to some control freak that doesn’t even know their name?

Tell me more…

We Are What We Attend To

Mae West was famous for saying “It’s not the men in your life, honey; it’s the life in your men.” That’s a funny way of saying that, in a heads-up trade-off, quality beats quantity any day.

So, I’ll offer this thought to a couple of days of brilliant blog posts from my gifted colleagues:

Your life is measured by what you pay attention to.

When you think about it, your attention is YOU. It’s literally your “life force.” It’s the energy you summon and give to the world around you.

It’s really the scarce resource in our lives. Not money. Not even time. It’s our attention.

Like any form of energy, it can be strong or weak. Positive or negative. Focused or scattered. Connected or disconnected.

The modern world has the potential to sap our life’s energy by draining it of force and focus, scattering it across too many distractions, too many obligations, too much multi-tasking.

Imagine yourself a worker on a packaging line, with little boxes representing the moments of your life steadily and relentlessly passing by. All of us have our own packaging line. Some get more boxes than others. That’s not the point. The point is this: Our job is to ship the boxes full, not empty or incomplete, right?

Right?

It’s our choice to recognize this and do something about it, or passively to allow the empty or incomplete moments to pass right by us. Chronological age is how many moments have passed by so far. It’s an incomplete measure of life. The true measure of life is how many moments you have chosen to fill and ship to others as your “finished goods.”

Otherwise it just a warehouse littered with empty boxes…

It’s not the years in our lives, honey; it’s the life in our years.

Who are you pouring yourself into today?

Are you fully alive in this moment?

Do you know what matters most, and what’s important NOW?

Tell us how great it feels to fill each of those boxes…

ACT and think, NOW…

ACT like a child and think like a happy, peaceful 90 year old.

Simple, huh?

Mostly, however, this simple recipe, somehow in our “middle” years, becomes muddled in our minds.  We lose perspective and oftentimes feel like we’ve lost our way. Here’s a brief, but powerful reminder.

Remember…

Children, in “pre-school,” do NOT need to be told that most learning is done through playing.  They cannot tell the difference.  All are artists and really couldn’t care less if their “mud pies” are up to your standard.  They are simply playing and learning at the same time.  Sounds a little romantic, doesn’t it?  Can you remember your early brushes with your art?

Peaceful 90 year olds think very little about their bank accounts.  They worry very little about what others “think” about them.  The peaceful, happy ones are focused on the friends that remain, and mostly laugh about those they’ve lost.  They think about the “richness” of their relationships and, practically speaking, about with whom they’ll share their next meal.  God love ‘em.

As you head toward your 2020 vision with 20/20 clarity, remember that most humans lose their way somewhere in the “middle.”  They pay too much attention to the amount of “zero’s” in their bank accounts and too little toward “measuring” the richness of their relationships.  Do NOT make the same mistake.  Do not lose perspective.  

It is predictably irrational to muddle your middle years.  Instead, remember to ACT more and more like a child, and think like a happy, peaceful 90 year old…

NOW.

Simple, huh…

Top 10 Attributes of a MASTER CONNECTOR

One of our favorite clients in the financial services industry has a crazy big dream to make EVERYONE in their firm a “Master Connector”.      We just started practice last Friday (see Chet’s blog called  We practiced… from January 30) and began the journey together.

To drive this deep into the core of their DNA, they asked our help to answer the question “what are the attributes of a Master Connector” so they could integrate these into their firm-wide performance goals & evaluation process.   What a cool idea.

You can find these described in greater detail in the 12 Essentials of Personal Excellence under the 11th, which is BUILD YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS.

Anyway, here’s a summary — enjoy!

Master Connectors:

1.         Have a strong core (they know who they are, their purpose & passion – they have found their “voice”)
2.         Believe in their message & speak from their heart (with “shoot in their eyes” that pierces the hearts of those who hear).
3.         Ask the best, insatiably curious questions leading to another feeling deeply understood (with empathy in their hearts, not rushing to judgment- rarely telling something they can ASK instead)
4.         Listen carefully like an animal being stalked (with full eye contact & every fiber of all 5 senses — translating all types of signals to cut through noise & find the true melody line)
5.         Are masters of their subject (like sponges, they are lifelong learners with a deep reservoir of knowledge that comes from 10,000 hours)
6.         Write with uncommon clarity (they have become disciplined through mastering the art of “rinse + repeat”, re-writing as needed for squeaky clean clarity)
7.         Tell others exactly what they want — being clear, concise & direct with respect (having learned to “hit + hug” as a truth-teller,  inspiring others to do the same — “mining for healthy conflict” instead of burying it so as to achieve real harmony)
8.         Align body language with their message (by cultivating emotional intelligence to remove subtle non-verbal signals of criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling & especially contempt)
9.         Tell good stories that are memorable and inspire action (“sticky” = S.U.C.C.E.S.S  Simple Unexpectedness Concrete Credible Emotional Stories)
10.       Attack the curse of knowledge (by frequently re-calibrating with the listener to establish proper context, test assumptions, and play back what’s been heard through reflective questions)

2020 vision with 20/20 clarity…

Many in our culture are addicted to short term thinking.  Everything is urgent.   AND, our needs, as soon as we feel them, have to be met.  CEO’s, in general, simply reflect our culture.  Today, the average “time” of a Fortune 1000 CEO is less than 18 months.  Not long ago, the average “tenure” of the same CEO grouping was over a decade.  

Talk about shrinkage.

Hitting the quarter is an addiction.  When the average CEO “feels” that they only have ten of them, it’s almost understandable.

I am gaining a ton of energy, as are many of my clients, by changing our gaze from the quarter to the next ten years.  I am challenging every CEO and business owner to gain clarity of their 2020 vision with 20/20 clarity.  It’s amazing how much more productively we ACT when our gaze is adjusted upward.  We just do.  

STOP.

Picture you, your team, and your leaders in 2020.  As you gain 20/20 clarity about your future you will be amazed about how much more consistently you ACT your way forward.  AND, how much more peaceful you become about the process.  

Step one is a simple and really hard one.  Do not miss this.  This is HUGE.

Slow down and capture your 2020 vision.  Put it in writing.  

Rinse and repeat until it’s squeaky clean.  Rinse and repeat until you and I can see it with 20/20 clarity.

Very cool…

Deep change, sunscreen, and getting burned…

In the winter of 2000 I was first diagnosed with squamous cell skin cancer.  I can remember that call when I first heard the dreaded “C” word directed my way.  I had lost my father to cancer in 1996 so the wound was still fairly fresh.  

Twenty two “cuts” later, my doctor believes that the worst is behind me.  I’m not so sure.  Here’s my biggest learning through this process.

I knew about the need for sunscreen even when I was a kid.  My Dad was a doctor and my Mom a nurse, so I had heard all about it.  I applied this knowledge somewhat sparingly.  I wasn’t disciplined.  I got burned.  I didn’t think that much about it. 

After the first cut, my behavior changed.  Deeply changed.

The sun damage that I’ve accumulated all these years cannot be reversed.  All that can be done is what I’m doing.  Limit my exposure and apply sunscreen like a banchee.  I would love to go back and rewrite my “suns” history, but time does not allow us that luxury.  I took too long to apply what I knew.  I took too long to deeply change.  I got burned.

I hope that you do not worship the sun without coverage and I hope that you’ve been blessed with dark skin and dark eyes.  

I tell this story to my clients oftentimes to make a point.  The point has nothing to do with the sun, their skin, or preventative medicine.  The story serves as a setup for this question.  I ask them what is it going to take for them to deeply change one of their performance limiting behaviors.  

It could be that they’ve told me that they know that they drink too much and they want to limit their alcohol to two drinks a night even though they average six.  It could be that they want to stop responding in ANGER, even though they explode oftentimes to the point of blind rage.  It could be that they want a “better” relationship with their brother, even though they continue to wait for him to initiate.  It could be that they want to lose those thirty pounds, even though they continue to work all the time, entertain clients at the trough, and drink like a fish.  It could be that they want to stop taking those oxycontin pain pills, even though they find themselves chewing them on more than one occasion.  I could go on.  I’ll stop.  I then tell them this.

I ask them if they understand that just like me playing in the sun without protection, they are playing with fire.  The consequences may be delayed for decades but the consequences are coming.  They can either deeply change or prepare to be badly burned.  

What behavior do you need to change NOW before you get badly burned?

If you can’t see any, try asking your truth tellers for a bright light?

If you don’t have any truth tellers, you just found the need for deep change…

Clear Purpose. Full Power. Realized Potential.

The hero’s journey is deliberate movement along a path towards mastery. It is literally “the road less taken,” since so few people summon the courage to slow down long enough to find the answers to life’s fundamental questions. Among those questions are:

Who am I, really?

Why am I here?

Where am I going?

How will I get there?

On top of that, “Mastery” turns out to be a weird place. Weird in that you can never fully arrive there. It, in itself, is not a destination. It is another journey to increasing levels of mastery. It’s easy to tell a true master from an imposter–the imposter will try to convince you he’s a master; the true master will always admit, “Not yet.”

I am not even close to being a master in anything. I’m one of those people blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view) with a wide range of interests and talents. I have not developed any of them to a point of mastery. Up until two years ago, I had been managing a career as what some people would call a “journeyman”–a “jack of all trades and a master of none.” You could say that my hero’s journey was more a wandering around than a deliberate movement along a path leading to mastery

That was then. This is now.

BUILT TO LEAD helped me slow down to speed up. Through the support, care, teaching, and tough-minded “hitting” of my friends in The Band at BUILT TO LEAD, I have gained incredible focus on “why I am here” and “where I am going” and “how I will get there.”

I am here to help connect others to the true purpose for their lives and, in so doing, unleash their latent power to achieve their full potential. This is my purpose…why I am here.

I was born for this. I am called to this. I have been preparing for this, semi-consciously, for most of my life. I am determined to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can, as completely as I can, to help as many people as I can, as well as I can, for the rest of my life.

Good Lord willing. Even if the creek does rise…

I have never felt this kind of clarity, energy, and excitement in my life. I welcome all the hard work I will have to undertake along this pathway to mastery. Is it work, or play? It’s tough to tell on the road to Opus…

I wonder if you, dear reader, feel the same way about your journey?

Are you excited about the path you are pursuing? Do you feel that the hard work you do is building towards mastery under the guiding light of your true purpose?

Do those around you see that light…feel the heat of your passion?

I hope so. I really do. Tell us about it. I’m sure it will inspire us.

If not, why not? Tell us about it. We are here to help you.

Yes indeed.