Preston is already late for work and feels stressed by the fresh Monday morning upon him. He decides to stop for coffee anyway. The five-mile drive to his office seems more like fifty. He is in his seventh month as production supervisor, and it feels like seven years. "How did it get this bad so fast?" he thinks. He used to love his job and his life. He is twenty-nine years old with a three-year-old baby boy at home. His relationship with his wife, Cindy, is excellent. And yet, he is so miserable. That faint yet undeniable sick feeling is coming back, and he ponders whether he needs to vomit again today.
I have discovered some powerful reasons why managers seek mediocrity rather than excellence for the organizations they serve. Surprisingly, the challenge for greatness is often "not more difficult" to achieve. It simply requires a different mindset when presented with a problem.
A recent study revealed that the key to human happiness is the ability to live in the moment and place less emphasis on the future and the past. Our obsessive preoccupation with the past or future is a significant burden that limits our happiness during life. The study indicates that our stress over past events and our worry about the future harm our current satisfaction. Furthermore, the ability to live in the current moment and search for the contentment of the present is a critical key to deliberate joy and happiness.
I have had my suspicions now for quite a while. I knew something was not quite right regarding leadership positions in most organizations. After all, how could there be so few excellent supervisors? How many followers would consider current supervisors to be actual leaders? I have been puzzled by the epidemic of bad leadership, which exists at all levels. Freshly minted supervisors up to seasoned executives struggle to earn the title of leader from their followers.
Three distinctive individuals can exist in a typical organization based on activity, attitude, and contribution to the collective work. These individuals rarely identify themselves as one or another, yet all three persist organizationally. They do not wear tee shirts for identification, yet you will recognize each one once a description gets provided. Ironically, most organizations never discuss or acknowledge the separation of these identity groups. Self-examination and a candid workforce will help you discover where most team members fall within this analysis.
Being busy does not mean you are effective. The higher you are in an organization, the more demand exists for your time. If not disciplined, schedules expand like that “great-stuff” expanding foam to fill each day. A full calendar is not a sign of efficacy, but rather a lack of decision-making and effective delegation. Temporary activities and conditions may create periods that require more time. However, a chronic full calendar is a severe problem for most aspiring leaders. Sadly, too many people equate activity with success.
"I will not pay for employees to train while I am paying them to work," said the CEO of a company. It reminds me of the CFO that told the CEO, "If we train our people, they will leave for a better job." The CEO replied, "What if we don't train them, and they stay?" This polarized thinking forms the foundation for organizations' challenges during the Great Resignation.
Can we make the wolf persona mainstream in sales? Should I buy a Super Bowl ad to communicate my new wolf sales model to the world? Too big or too lofty a goal? I need to share the model and test interest with the world to answer these questions. A virus mutates to survive, so sales models must adapt to the changing buyer. The 2009 financial crisis gave birth to the challenger sale model in 2011. My goal is to use the 2020 pandemic to introduce the Wolf Sales Model to the world in 2022.
I am a massive fan of David Friedman's work for culture by design instead of culture by chance. He does a fantastic job helping company's transition abstract values into concrete behaviors (he calls fundamentals). Unfortunately, many organizations do not understand what their culture represents to the people on the team. Many CEOs have a large blind spot when it comes to culture. They are too close to see what is happening. It is like the odor of one's home. Others can smell what we cannot.
Leslie leaves her job after 18 years for another that pays about the same amount of money. Raymond leaves his new job of six months for another job that pays 50 cents an hour more with a longer commute. Sarah is looking for a job in another field. She is tired of the negativity at her current firm. What do these three have in common? They all did not feel appreciated at work. There is one skill to fight the great resignation and win.
You are always having an impact on those around you. At the same time, we often neglect to tell others how we feel about their presence in our lives. As you open the wrapper in 2022, I encourage you to be like this little boy. Let others know how they impact you, and show sincere appreciation for the deeds they may take for granted.
In business terms, the normalcy bias causes leaders to make corrections to achieve comfortable rather than excellence. In a challenging environment, many leaders seek the comfortable (no matter how mediocre) rather than the change needed to prevent the same outcomes. These leaders may even lose their job or steer the organization into failure rather than making the necessary changes to be successful.
His information is both provocative and engaging. His speeches can be an emotional roller-coaster with the audience laughing one minute and holding back tears the next. Energy and passion are the two most common words used to describe John Grubbs as a speaker and trainer.
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