I dig Lois Kelly's insights, so no surprise that I would link here. Her Bloghound blog brings some thought around beliefs-specific to an organization. The post's title; Beliefs more useful than mission statements, says it all.
Take notice of the list from Google. Their number one is so easy to write and say, but very difficult to live out. I see Google doing a good job at thinking of me, the user, first.
Social networks are not new. The explosive growth of external social networks is rather breathtaking. There's more going on than a business plan though. Social networks reveal a lot about an organizations employee base.
It's smart business to do what Bank of America and Whole Foods have done with their customers by creating an online community specific to their brand. But more should do it internally. Losing a customer because you were not connecting through a blog is one thing (loss of revenue, cost of acquiring a new customer). It's even more frightening when it's an employee.
The alarming part, for some organizations is when the discovery is made around their own social network. I mean the employee base. There are a number of companies that think social networking is translated into LinkedIn, Twitter or Digg. But as great as those tools are, they're not as powerful as your organization's own internal social network.
Some might say; "we don't need to have an intranet site for social netowking." You have a community and it's ebbing and flowing before your very eyes, whether you know it or not. Could be organizaed or could be fragmented. My friends over at Webbed Marketing specialize in building online communities, but they can't create what your leadership can't see-vision.
The take-away is; your people crave community. And they'll find a way to connect. The question is whether you (the organization) want to be out front in providing the path.
When I was much younger (a time when I thought I was invincible) I had one significant incongruent value. That was the value around my physical health. At barbecues or off-site business meetings I would tell the world that my physical health was important. However, I lived a different paradigm. I was all talk and no behavior. It wasn't until about two years ago that my mouth, mind and heart came together. I won't bore you with my routines for physical health, but I am in the best shape of my life.
Keep in-mind that incongruent values don't make you a bad person, but they do reveal that something is "off" in your life. The choice to do something about it is totally up to you. I took action when the storm clouds started to gather. Funny how time and reality conspire to move us.
When I wrote Waking Up In Corporate America, my urgency around doing what I say increased dramatically. I wanted to make sure that I was living up to the coaching I was dispensing. We all need mechanisms in our lives to drive accountability.
Marshall Goldsmith has a great post on Why We Don't Do What We Say. Marshall's perspectives are spot on. The ideas are not new, but give a needed reminder of how important our actions are.
Remember, life is a limited time offer. You won't get a do-over.
In life and work it can be easy to call the game before everything plays out. You may think that the current state is a predictor of the final outcome, but history has shown that often the result is very different. For example, look at Great Britain after France fell to Hitler. Many back then declared the end was near, except Churchill thought differently. I'm glad he did.
Before you start thinking that Churchill, Hitler and WWII have nothing to do with your life and work, let me illustrate some key realities:
If we're not careful, we'll disengage before every thing has played out. This is hard! But the upside is tremendous when we see things in the form of a story-our lives and work. Without this view, betting on a "sure thing" is all you'll have stomach for. And sure things are nothing more than code for playing it safe. I am convinced that you must let the story play out. No early exits.
I have a friend who works for company that frustrates him almost daily. You could argue that some of it is his fault, but on the whole he has reason to be frustrated. His company is mediocre. If I were coaching him as a client I would advise him to cast a vision for a better future (with or without the company he works for), set goals around that vision, and create an action directive to see it through. But he is not a client, so right now the issue is purely surface oriented.
So what should he do about the frustration? I advised him to think about his company's story. Yes, organizations have a story to live through as well. Organizations set in motion the elements of their story through structure, people and mission. Each of these will have tremendous impact on how their story will play out. If the organization sees their people as nothing more than a means-to-an-end, then disengagement will settle in and take root. You've read stories like this. You've seen this movie before, haven't you?
We're too caught up in daily information to understand that a story always plays out over the course of time. We wake up and our mediocre company is still open for business. We wake up and our jerk boss is still in-charge. These are hard realities to face, but the story hasn't fully played out.
There is tremendous opportunity here…if you're willing to look closely. By seeing the good and the bad, it places you in a very liberating position. You can begin to see clearly because you've embraced the story through the lens of beginning, middle and end. Your options really open up at this point.
Just don't make this only about work. Your life is a story and it will play out as well.
Many management and career consultants have said that the idea of safety and security in the workplace is pure fantasy now. I would say their a little late to the party. Life/work today, and a hundred years ago, is not safe or secure. It was never supposed to be.
Somewhere, we began to see the organization (specifically the place we worked) as "mommy and daddy." This made total sense since as humans in a prosperous age our desire for safety and security far outweighed our desire for risk and adventure. With organizations making many promises (pensions, health-care, etc.), many people thought that all would be well until that magical age of sixty-five.
Then things changed, as they often do. And like the addict who realizes that their "stuff" has been taken away, people began seeing change as the enemy. The idea of safety and security started to ebb. All of a sudden (or so it seemed) the mirror reflected the responsible party. The person who would need to toughen up and grow.
Far too many organizational leaders are soft. I know this, because I was one of them. I went to bed at night, during my time in corporate America, hoping and believing that my great future was set. I found time to revel in my impressive numbers (sales, money, prestige, power) and I relied heavily on my own logic. The logic that convinces you that you're loved by the organization and that you're invincible. I didn't toughen up and grow until I was escorted out.
Image how life would look if we didn't see things as safe and secure:
Ted Kennedy has some advice for us today; Forever Now!
By now, you may know that Senator Kennedy has been diagonsed with brain cancer. My prayers go out to him and his family as he will certainly face a tremendous challenge battling the disease. The cold reality of Senator Kennedy's situation reminded me of the fact that we're all terminal. He, however, has the advantage/disadvantage of knowing.
People who don't know (maybe you and I) can easily put the thought out of our minds. We figure that our end is an eternity away. That is a very dangerous mind-set! It's not just dangerous because one-out-of-one person dies, but because it produces the following:
So if you're in a career or a life designed by the "you need to/ought to" group, get out now! Senator Kennedy would advise you to live "forever now."
Took on a consulting project with a company who’s focus is on event marketing. As I talked to the president this morning, the following list came to my mind (we were discussing what customers care about specifically):
One thing was clear after our conversation; customers care about relationship (do you care, can you be trusted, can you be a difference-maker) and value (when the transaction is complete the customer feels good).
This is not a political/2008 American election post. This is some friendly/honest advice for Barack Obama.
For consistency, I’ll focus on things relating to leading. So here goes:
With all of the talk about the economy one could get lost in the maze and forget where great opportunity can be found. I don’t write this to diminish any pain you may be experiencing, but to remind you of what could be ahead of you.
In that spirit, look at the below post from a couple of weeks ago:
Having trouble in life and/or career?
Think about the following: