Protect your attention

The world is needy and aggressive, and it is coming for you.  Every day, every hour, every minute.

And if you are weak, you will become a victim to what IT wants from you – your attention.

Every moment you spend paying attention to it is one you are not spending accomplishing your great primary objective and being the best version of yourself.

Resist.  Defend. 

Protect your attention. 

Lose sight of the basics?

We like to think we are smart.  After all, we are the leader, however we may have gotten here.

We learn more sophisticated things.  Some of us come to believe in ever more complex models for running things, managing things, and making decisions.  In doing so we can lose sight of the basics of good customer service and quality.  We can forget about the simple things that make our employees want to give their best.

What are the basics that you and your team need to stay close to (talk about, measure, reward) in your business?

Wisdom is earned

“Wisdom, if it ever comes to a person, is not learned as much as it is earned – and often comes at an enormous cost.” – Dr. Mardy Groethe

All the mistakes you have made and lived through are part of you getting smarter and wiser.

Better people run better businesses

Being a better human is connected with being a better business owner and leader.

Work on yourself.  Get yourself together.  Be a better you.  

"Self-made", with help.

I believe in myself and my own abilities.  I have endeavored to keep good character.  I ask no one’s permission to pursue my visions (dreams).  When I succeed, I know it was my will and action that brought about the result – for without me, the result would not exist.

At the same time, I know if I was alone in the world I could achieve but little.  I would not have the achievements of others to live off, stand on, and use as tools to reach even higher.  I know I could only do so much in 24 hours myself, and that I need the cooperation of others.  

I know my leadership determines whether they want to work with me, or not.  I know they bring their talents, many of which I do not possess myself, to my team and use them every day.

I know for me to achieve any great thing, I need a civil society, people of good character around me, and the efforts of so many on my team and in my community, state, nation and world.

I determine the outcome of my life, and I need others to do it.

Get your priorities straight

“Things that matter most should never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” – Goethe

What is most important for you to handle/work on/pay attention to today?

Who is most important for you to assist/pay attention to today?

Bring a voice to the "obvious"

Often times leaders take for granted that their teams/constituents/followers know the basics – so they don’t talk about them.

This is a mistake.

I tell my team – when there is a piece of paper on the shop floor or in the parking lot or on the bathroom floor – I expect them to pick it up, and I will do the same.

What we see tells others around us and the world who we are and what our standards are.  If we put up with trash on the floor and walk by it – no matter if it’s one piece, it tells everyone that it’s ok, and it invites another.  Trash on the floor invites wasting materials and that invites abusing tools and that invites gossip and that invites bad quality and that invites our destruction and that causes low self-esteem and that is the cause of a wasted life.

Pick up the paper on the floor – because our lives are at stake. 

Say it.  Mean it.

Rip VanWinkle the investor

Look at a chart of the S&P 500 for one year.  Are you happy?

Let’s say you were Rip VanWinkle and invested in the stock market 20 years ago, and fell asleep.  

You just woke up and you look at the chart.  Are you happy?

Not all things matter equally

Not all the things that matter, matter equally.

Find the things that matter most and focus on them.

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So,….what will you be doing today?

People don't change (mostly)

That’s why you need to find out who they really are before you hire them.

Take them to lunch.  Talk a long time with them.

Ask deeper questions.  Call their references.  Have a friend or a future coworker/their future supervisor do the same.

As an employer, you want to know who you are getting before you get them.  Because mostly, people don’t change, and you’re not the one to bet on which people are the exceptions.