YOUR ROLE IN PEACE MAKING

It's Memorial Day in The United States--a day to honor the military who died while serving.
Most turn it into a day-off picnic.
That's OK. There many ways to celebrate and honor people.

I'm thinking about you as a top leader and your  role in teaching peace.
Wondering:

--Do you think high performance demands high conflict?

--What if you modeled bringing peaceful resolution to your company conflicts?
   There are plenty of them.  Corporate vs Retail.  Sales vs Marketing.
   Executive Committee vs everybody else!  (Yep) High Potentials vying for fewer
   and few top positions.

--What if every time you left the room, you left an atmosphere of graceful
   respect and readiness for cooperation

--What if you saw your role to include soothing troubled waters of your organization

--What if you regularly brought any conflict to your office for gentle conversation  
   and resolution?

--What if you taught that challenge creates higher level collaboration not, fight 
  or flight.  

--What if the world has to learn to give up killing to resolve conflict and you
   could consciously teach your associates that a peace laden, gentle 
   organization can out-perform, out- produce others and prosper.

--Do you think this is impossible or too Kumbaya for you?

Just a thought on a day that remembers that good people die due to conflict
that can't be resolved.

"GO FOR THE GUSTO"

"Go For The Gusto" was an advertising phrase for Schlitz Beer quit a while ago.
Must have stuck because it came to mind today.

I was thinking about how many businesses today are straining, straining, straining to survive and grow.
Something feels wrong about it to me.  Straining over the long run is non-productive, non-sustainable, and sure not motivating.  Strain can be good for that last burst of effort, that one moment that makes a huge difference, but constant strain doesn't give progress. At best it holds your place against an equal but opposite force i.e. the competition.

The word "gusto" came to mind as in, "Where has all the gusto gone in so many businesses"?  Gusto is a combination of joy and rigor.  Isn't that  perfect for what you want for your company?  "Joy and rigor?"  

Where does real joy come from for a business?
--Serving a customer really really well
--Being proud of the product of the company
--Enjoying working with good colleagues
--Being glad to follow the top leaders

Where does rigor come from for a business?
--Watching how hard colleagues work to please a customer
--Standards that are inhaled from the behavior of respected leaders
--The intrinsic satisfaction of work well done
--Reward for doing the difficult

Now run your efforts through those simple factors of "gusto" and see if they align well.
Next-- stop all the foolishness that doesn't.  It's the foolishness that creates the strain, that kills the joy, that reduces the vigor and keeps your company 
in the death spiral.

TOO BUSY WITH SUCCESSION PLANNING TO WRITE TODAY

That means I am babysitting for my two year old grandchild:

+ giving her independence while keeping my eye on her

+ guiding her to do the right thing while giving her choices

+ making her take a break when she has lost control

+ noticing what she does well and supporting it

+ seeing her as a unique individual

+ remembering that my role is to help her grow to be an ethical, grown-up
   doing what she does well to contribute to her area of influence

See what I mean?  Very busy with succession planning!

STRATEGY DEFLATION

I wonder:
—if you're strategic planning has become listless, has no energy, is a rote exercise demanded by the calendar
—if you strategy is too constrained and defined by specific actions
—the back lash against vision (especially 'statements') has killed the drive for doing something radical and unique that only you and your company can do
—if you believe that you and your company are special
—if your strategy would fit any company in your industry
—cost-cutting supports your strategy or IS the strategy (a critical difference)
—if you've dumbed down the strategy to meet the competence of your company
   instead of bumping up the competence
—if you have mixed up strategy with goals
—if you as top leader can taste and feel what needs to happen and if you sell 
   and tell it well enough that no overt strategy document is needed.

Just wondering on a Monday morning.