It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of our daily work.
Particularly, when you’re growing something - from a project to a business - there are any number of things that need to be taken care of, and every single one of them seems important.
All tagged Visions and Missions
Empathy And Authority
No one wants to be told what to do, but everyone wants to understand what they should be doing.
From your employees to your colleagues to your customers, this is a truism.
If I give you an order, you’re not likely to take it well, no matter how well versed I am in the subject…
Cultivating A Pace That Matters
There’s an excitement when we’re running at full tilt that’s hard to replicate. It’s as if every fiber of our being is alive and tingling, as we work towards a specific goal.
Certainly there’s a sense of risk (you might even call it fear) but it’s one that pushes us to stay on our toes, alert and focused. We’re geared to execute carefully, we’re mindful of staying agile as we do so, and we’re entirely focused on results.
Yves Chouinard: Values In Practice
Like most folks, I was floored this week when I heard the news that Yvon Chouinard, the 83 year old founder of the outdoor apparel maker, Patagonia, was going to give away his company, instead of selling it or taking it public.
Specifically, ownership of the $3 Billion company (that generates $1 billion in revenues and $100 million in profits every year) would be transferred to a specially designed trust and nonprofit organization…
"For-Purpose" Or "For-Profit"?
At some point, I think we all have to decide if we’re “For-Profit” or “For-Purpose”.
Yes, we can and should be about both, but one has to take precedence in defining who we are and what we’re doing.
To be “For-Profit” is to be focused on the numbers.
The Perils Of Ideology
Ideologies are a useful mobilizing force. They rally our communities and allow resources to be effectively deployed towards a common goal.
Everyone involved knows exactly what they need to do and the ends towards which they’re working.
The Courage Of Our Convictions
One of the hardest but most valuable abilities we can develop is the ability to maintain strength in our convictions, our beliefs and our vision. This is true in all walks of life, but particularly so where you’ve been tasked with achieving a specific objective or leading a team towards a particular end goal.
In that quest, you are called upon to define the specific path, chart out how best to navigate it, and then, as you embark on the journey, bring others with you.
Why We Need A Central Idea
There’s a passage in Ayn Rand’s book, The Fountainhead, where the central character, Howard Roark, lays out his personal rules for Architecture. He says:
"Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike.
Omerisms Podcast - Episode 124
It's always struck me as odd that anyone would choose - over the long term - to do work that meant little or nothing to them.
I get that can be the case in the short term, but in the long term, what we do for a living matters, as I discuss in today's episode. Make it count.
Omerisms Podcast - Episode 121
From a young age, we're programmed with the idea that we'll grow up to get a job and do our work. But we don't often consider what that means.
Why are we doing what we're doing? What are we trying to achieve? As I discuss in this episode, it has to be about more than the money - whose mission are we serving?
But What Does Your Company Actually Do?
Company missions need to be to the point. They need to focus on what the company actually does, so that when you read them, you have a sense as to the firm’s aspirations and where their collective energies will be spent.
Tesla talks about “accelerating the world’s transition towards sustainable energy”.
Omerisms Podcast - Episode 102
Today's podcast takes on the idea of having allies versus accomplices. That is, when we're growing something of consequence, social or economic, real progress is made when we have people willing to give - at some cost or risk to themselves - to further our collective goals. How they become accomplices is the real challenge.
Why We Get Worked Up About Competition
I have this hypothesis that we get more worried about the competition when we’re not actually focused on being something.
What I mean by that is that, when our business or product doesn’t have a defined mission or overarching goal, when we’re not focused on moving towards becoming, then we tend to become fixated on what others in our space are doing.
Cultures Don't Get Created Overnight
Culture isn’t created overnight. You can’t mandate it.
You also can’t leave it be and assume a positive productive culture will create itself.
Culture needs to be defined and cultivated, which means a few things:
It has to be intentional. It requires a clear definition i.e. we need to be clear as to what we want it to be.
It has to be actively pursued - we need to have a plan to cultivate it.
I Don't Know
You don’t need to have all of the answers. I don’t know how to get there is actually fine as a response.
As leaders, though, we think that isn’t an option. We think we need to know exactly the way there.
But the reality is we won’t - not all the time anyway, and certainly not when it comes to big ticket changes that we’re putting in play.
The Thing About Division
Getting things done, as a team, is a challenging task at the best of times.
It requires us to pull together and take actions that are consistent and coherent with respect to our common end goal. This, in turn, requires clarity, communication and alignment.
In other words, we need to all buy in and then do our bit (as part of the overall plan) to get there.
Going Beyond The Numbers
It’s a fact that strong financial management is fundamental to sound business management. If your revenues don’t exceed your costs on a consistent basis, you will be out of business soon enough.
There’s simply no arguing with that. You can layer in whatever complexity you like, but that truism still holds (which is why it’s a truism).
These Are Not The Slots You're Looking For
When I started in Management Consulting, everyone wanted to do “Strategy” work. Strategy was sexy. It was glamorous. It was something to brag about. Newly minted Analysts and Associates would jostle for pole position to be part of those teams.
And make no mistake, Strategy work was interesting and fun. But, for the most part, that wasn’t what paid the bills.
Signal-to-Noise Ratio In Our Lives
The Signal-to-noise ratio measures the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It’s commonly used in science and engineering applications but, of course, it has as much application in our professional and personal worlds, metaphorically speaking anyway.
When someone close to us emotionally recounts a personal situation and demands that we get involved and do something about it - and we do.
Matters of Culture
One of the hardest things to get our heads around is this idea of culture, and specifically, cultural fit, in terms of people we work with.
We’re well versed in assessing technical capabilities and the “how” we do the work that we do. You need to have these specific qualifications or you need to show those particular process skills, or you need to demonstrate that you’ve delivered on that defined platform in your prior experiences. All defined, all measurable, all tangible.