CNN/Money has an article titled What It Takes To Be Rich that has some nuggets of wisdom.  Sadly, they missed the importance of what’s in your heart.  You may think I’m stuck on the "heart" thing, but think of what your life will be like if your richness is only measured in net worth.

In this article from Business 2.0 you’ll discover what the "rest" of the world is doing in developing people-specifically graduate students.  I won’t read too much into it (you can do that for yourself), but it definitely makes you think about what IESE is doing. 

What if we Americans could get our mind off of this quarter’s numbers for just a moment?  I am somewhat idealistic, but here’s to IESE and their desire to develop people in more ways than one.

Give me your thoughts…

For those of you in the Central Ohio area, I will be assisting the Violet Baptist Church in a leadership series starting Thursday, September 21st.  The program will be held during the lunch hour.  Basically a boxed lunch, insights from a speaker and a little Q & A.  Most of my duties will be playing the role of host.  I will also be a featured speaker at some point.  Stay tuned

Is your success (you define it) drying up your brilliance?  Have you had a near loss experience, so that you realize that brilliance is a gift (just look up at the sun).  When we’re poor and struggling we can feel all of our efforts and failures.  They make us more appreciative and connect us to things that were with us before we were born.  Then comes success and we lapse into forgetfulness.  As it has been said before we forget from whence we came.

Tom Peter’s blog entry is rather telling about the affect of success on a culture (as it relates to health care).  He doesn’t talk about it from my angle, but the message is the same.  When people, or a country, become successful they can become lazy and dry. 

We should always be pushing the envelope with our growth, be it physical, mental or spiritual.  Pushing forward…

Funny how success can be our enemy or our friend.

Ever notice how some corporations operate more like a cult than a business interested in growing and innovating?  Note that this does not apply to every corporation (just in case you thought I was being a little cynical).  Think about it, don’t cults require that you see everything the way the leadership does?   Don’t cults kind of demand and value conformity.  Does that remind you of the corporation you work for?

Here’s some ways to tell whether you’re in a cult versus a thriving corporation/enterprise:

1. If they haven’t started any new businesses (inside or outside of their core disciplines) in the last five years, they’re probably a cult.
2. If they frown on true diversity (thought, personality, style, etc.) they’re a cult.
3. If they see value in dissension, they’re most likely a thriving enterprise.
4. If they serve their customer’s needs based on what those customers have asked for, they’re probably a thriving enterprise.
5. If they’re more interested, and spend most of their time on, in what happens internally (policies, procedures and meetings that go no where), then they’re a cult.

Which one do you work for?

OK, yesterday you might have thought that I believe that all work has no meaning.  Let me clarify a few things:

1. Some are lucky and fortunate to work in a place where the leader desires to see meaning embraced.  If that describes your situation, then thank that leader because he or she has probably payed a price to create that kind of environment.
2. Some types of work (solving the AIDS crisis in Africa, searching for a cure for cancer or some forms of teaching to name a few) are inherently ripe for meaning.
3. You still must solve the highest issue of meaning…look in the mirror for this one.

Give me your thoughts…

Much talk these days on how to make work more meaningful and finding meaning/fulfillment at work.  I don’t believe it can be found…not at work anyway.  Rest assured, meaning can be found in life.  But work was never meant to be the destination.  Work was one type of vehicle designed to move you to that place of meaning.  True meaning begins with God and flows from there.

I hope I haven’t shocked or disappointed you with the above, but its the secret of my success.  Start with Who made you and then live out what you were made for.  How could anything be more meaningful than living out what you were designed to do/be? 

When you get this right inside, here are a some things that occur:

1. You’ll understand what is truly important.
2. That glass of Merlot will taste that much better.
3. Every love song will make you cry.
4. The sight of newborn child will be awe inspiring.
5. You’ll discover that serving is better than being served.
6. The painful times will be gifts, not debts to be paid.
7. You’ll really understand that people and relationships are what make organizations great.
8. Legacy will be important to you.
9. You’ll value authenticity.
10. Each sunset will remind you that God is an artist.

This wonderful piece from Business Week Online is not only poignant, but inspiring for all who seek to be successful in life and work.  Michelle Nichols provides us with the right amount of reality and vision.

She is a great partner (even though we’ve never met) in the pursuit of helping people discover the "epic" in life.

Here are some more of those life lessons:

1. Pay attention to the smallest matters (a smile, a brief meeting, a feeling inside) they are clues.  Many times they are from God.
2. Your organization has a set of priorities, see where you rank, then ask yourself what’s most important.
3. Embrace reality…even when it hurts.
4. Legacy is defined every day.
5. Go look for the stuff you buried (hurts, betrayals and losses) and embrace forgiving and letting go.  You just might set yourself free…

I saw a quote somewhere that said that over thirty percent of American workers are not fully engaged in the organizations they work for.  Engaged meaning; fully there, fully productive, fully effective.  As many of you know, I am the "weeping prophet" regarding this problem.  I don’t see the problem as so much an organizational structure problem, but a people/influence problem.

If the leaders of your organization back-date options, how likely are you to be engaged?  If your manager (the middle variety) never asks for your opinion, how likely are you to be engaged?  My gut says very unlikely.  But we continue on with the charade…as long as we’re hitting our numbers.  Hitting the numbers is the "holy grail" of the average. 

Maybe your senior leaders say "we’re in this to make money, not engage people."  Would someone tell me how you make money over the long term without engaged employees?  Sadly, a number of leaders are not in this game for the long term.  They want to make it quick and move on to the next "village."

I wonder what the agents of fear and greed will do when they can’t find enough qualified employees to carry out their wishes.  Do you see the day (in a about five years from now) when its an employee’s market?  I do…