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by Rick Baker
On Jan 18, 2017
Indiana Jones reminded us that you don’t have to see the whole staircase to take the first step. A journey of a thousand miles always starts with a single step. And we know a single step can be both one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.
When we take steps, sometimes we miss the desired landing spots. We make missteps and mistakes and, unless we stop moving and doing, chances are very good we will always make missteps and mistakes.
Sometimes missteps signal inattentiveness; sometimes missteps signal inventiveness.
In the first case, our bodies are used to stepping along without help from our conscious thoughts. When the ground in front of us throws us a curve or presents a new wrinkle, our feet are caught off guard. In response to this new information our feet can misstep, stumble and sometimes cause us to fall. In most cases, our missteps are not deemed to be failures. In most cases, they are accepted as little errors, human errors. Now, of course, that does not apply if we are talking about a misstep from a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Regardless, generally speaking missteps happen and we dust ourselves off quickly and move on. We are skilled at this because we have been doing it since we were wee babies…venturing out with our first steps.
‘Venturing out’: Those words bring us to the second case. Sometimes we intentionally venture out into new territory and even into dangerous territory, exploring and inventing. Some people do walk tightropes, sometimes even over Niagara Falls. Other people take steps to climb mountains, even the tallest and most-treacherous mountains. And some people even go as far as the moon to take a small step. These shoes worn for these adventuresome steps are laced with invention. And, regardless of planning and precaution, sometimes missteps happen. Missteps that happen under high-risk can be catastrophic. Regardless, often, missteps under high risk are not catastrophic. They are informative. They clarify the wrong ways to step, move, do things.
Missteps and mistakes are stepping stones. Far more often than not, they take us to better places. We must not lose track of that. We must not lose curiosity or the spirit that drives exploration and invention.
by Rick Baker
On Jan 16, 2017
Five years ago I wrote:
3 forces drive entrepreneurs:
- Entrepreneurs have this burning feeling inside them…a Need To Achieve something. I describe it as ‘a wanting’.
- Entrepreneurs have a desire to create and Build Things Of Value.
- Entrepreneurs have a need to Be Recognized As Different – a different type of contributor.
These are defining internal forces driving An Entrepreneur.
In addition, An Entrepreneur is a business leader who:
- Recognizes, uses, & develops People Strengths…first in self and then in others,
- Clicks with other People [has self-control & a pleasing-enough personality], and
- Is ready, willing, and able to lead change…first in self and then in others.
These are the defining characteristics of – the key Personal Strengths of - An Entrepreneur.
These 3 forces coupled with these 3 characteristics form Spirited Leaders’ definition of An Entrepreneur.
***
When we work to help entrepreneurs by educating them we need to remember they are a different breed of cat. Their stripes are similar to those of the fine artists…but they are not the same, nor should they be expected to respond to the same education. Their stripes are similar to those of the inventor…but they are not the same, nor should they be expected to respond to the same education. Their stripes are similar to those of the blue-chip business leaders…but they are not the same, nor should they be expected to respond to the same education.
When teaching about entrepreneurship...
Remember: you must always be thinking about a fascinating blend of Fine Arts & Science & Business
***
And, of course, you need to observe carefully to make sure the 3 driving forces are present because little of value happens when the furnace is stoked while the fire ain't burnin'.
by Rick Baker
On Jan 12, 2017
Over the last few years, I have written and talked about the communication problems that happen when business leaders use words like Passion and Integrity to lead/encourage/inspire people to be the best they can be at work. The words Passion and Integrity are laced with double entendre and have been overused and misused to the point of obfuscation. Put another way, these two words have been clichéed to the brink of uselessness. Their use has evolved and become mostly bad habit.
Like many of the words and phrases we exchange with one another, the words Passion and Integrity are shorthand abstractions. You can also think of these two words as troubled memes. The words Passion and Integrity have been passed down the generations and passed around the tables for so long and by so many that intent and meaning have been bastardized as happens in ‘telephone games’.
Business leaders should exercise care when they communicate, especially when they use shorthand abstractions that are likely to touch sensitive territories including personal values, morals, emotions and powerful feelings.
Why should leaders take greater care when we use shorthand abstractions?
Here’s some thoughts from Tor Norretranders’ –
“That is also the point with abstractions. We want them to be shorthand for a lot of information that was digested in the process leading to the use of the abstraction but not present when we use it. Such abstractions have depth. We love them. Other abstractions have no depth. They are shallow, just used to impress the other guy. They do not help us. We hate them.”
Article – ‘Depth’ by Tor Norretranders, Science Author. An excerpt from John Brockman’s edge.org inspired book ‘This Will Make You Smarter’, (2012)
PS: Yes - interesting use of the shorthand abstractions ‘love’ and ‘hate’ in the quote above. That goes right to the heart and brain of my message here.
PPS: Yes - much of what we communicate has the forms of both shorthand abstraction and bad habit. That's why we provide definitions of words and explanations: this is one way to help people understand what we are trying to communicate.
by Rick Baker
On Jan 9, 2017
Forgetfulness plagues us all. At least from time to time, everyone forgets things. We forget things on our shopping lists, we forget the places where things are located on grocery store shelves, and sometimes we forget where we parked our cars in those massive shopping mall parking lots. Forgetfulness comes to us easily. It’s a natural thing. Sometimes we can forget two or more of these things during one visit to the grocery store. When we forget these things [as long as our spouse doesn’t make a big deal out of it] we rather quickly write off our forgetful experiences.
On the other hand, if someone steals that last open parking space we have been zeroing in on then we will have a tough time forgetting their ignorance, rudeness, and self-centeredness.
Most of us can quickly forget and forgive the grocery store people after they pick such good hiding places for the most-important things on our grocery lists. However, many of us will not treat grocery store parking-space thieves so kindly. At the very least, we will ruminate about their ignorance, rudeness and self-centeredness. At most, we will fight the parking-space thieves until one of us is dead. Between these two extremes we will retell the stories of parking-space thievery to our relatives, friends and coworkers until we have exhausted our inability to forget. When we finally let go of such tough-to-forget incidents they will leave no vacancies in our minds because other ignorant, rude and self-centered people will fill the voids by bringing other unforgettable experiences to us.
Sometimes we really struggle to forget things, especially the negative experiences brought to us by others.
Our minds exhibit curious abilities, including:
- our minds are quick to blame others for our negative experiences and
- our minds hold onto negatives and are fully receptive to upgrading negative content by adding fresh, unforgettable negative memories.
These are symptoms of our unforgettable-negatives mindsets. These are weaknesses. These are bad habits.
With persistent work, the bad habit of unforgettable-negatives mindsets can be corrected.
All we need to do is understand and believe forgetfulness comes to us easily and upon that foundation build the good habit of looking our 'unforgettable experiences' in the eye and persistently bidding them, “Adieu”.
by Rick Baker
On Jan 5, 2017
I think there are 2 types of busy in business:
1. There's good-busy
2. There's ?-busy
When business people tell me they are 'too-busy' I am uneasy because I have no place in my brain to file that type of busy. So, I either wonder if they are telling me they are experiencing #1 [good-busy] or I jump to the conclusion it's just another case of #2 [?-busy].
I admit I am prone to jump to the #2 [?-busy] conclusion because experiences tell me there's an awful lot of #2 out there.
On the other hand, I do not always jump to conclusions so I regularly find myself wondering, "Is this too-busy good-busy or ?-busy?" When I am wondering in the direction one thought always finds its way into my mind, "Is your too-busy coupled with increased gross margin?" Sometimes that internal thought finds its way to my external voice and I blurt out, "Is your too-busy coupled with increased gross margin?" That's always followed by my observation of a puzzled if not surprised or maybe annoyed face peering right at me. The conversation either goes uphill or downhill from there. While the downhill conversations are not particularly enjoyable the uphill ones more than offset their downhill counterparts...resulting in an overall net gain...call it 'productive and constructive conversation'.
Needless to say, when I slip up and almost start thinking I am too-busy the little voice in my head keeps asking me, "Is this almost-too-busy coupled with an increase in gross margin?" When the answer is "Yes", I know I am dealing with some good-busy work...so I don't even feel tempted to get stressed out about it let alone complain about it.
PS: There are competing thought-cycles at play with one another here. When almost-too-busy is tested and found to be good-busy the opportunity for too-busy disappears. When almost-too-busy is found to be ?-busy further thought is required: one good example of further thought is 80/20 Rule thinking. Further thought about ?-busy results in paring of some underlying work, which again reduces the possibility of too-busy thinking. Either way, there is little temptation to be thinking, "I'm too busy". And, that's a real good way not to be thinking.
Successful people have more time...
...because they do not fall into the trap of thinking they are too busy.
And...we want to be successful...right!
PPS: good-busy --- Good Habits --- Acting in the direction of Goals
Original posted October 3, 2013
by Rick Baker
On Jan 4, 2017
Values are concepts covering things important and admirable to us (our minds). Values are our perceptions of intrinsically valuable or desirable ways of doing things.
Virtues are concepts about good behavior and character, reflecting how other people think of us…perceptions they carry in their minds about us.
Rules are concepts, which set boundaries on thoughts and action. Rules are determined by our values. Actions are things we do. Actions are governed by our rules.
***
When you have Integrity – I mean when you have Integrity as I define it - your actions are closely aligned with your values. You say what you mean and you mean what you say…and you do what you say. Put another way, when you have Integrity your perceptions of your values closely match other people’s perceptions of your virtues.
When your values and virtues are closely aligned people find it easier to trust you. Trust grows naturally…organically. You feel no need to advertise your Integrity and other people have no need to witness such advertising. They observe the ‘real thing’ when they see the consistency of your behaviour and that’s the way trust is built between people.
There’s a saying, “Rules are made to be broken.” That’s a fair and accurate statement considering the reality of human behavior. All rules get broken…by someone…sooner or later…(and often we don’t have to wait for later).
Even rules based on our deepest and most-admirable values get broken. As one example – nearly everyone lies…even to the people who mean the most to them. People have their secrets and certain questions defy honest answers. While it is admirable to think people can behave like open-honest books, that expectation is inconsistent with reality. Those who seek perfection in others will find the human condition is laced with imperfections. So, when considering others virtues and drawing conclusions about their personal values and their character it is important to set the bar at a reasonable level.
When people slip up - when people who matter to you clearly illustrate they have broken their own values-rules -
- Fight the urge to question their virtues and write them off [as Covey described the reality of human behaviour] by quickly emptying their ‘trust account’,
- Step back and consider the reality of your own values-rules breaches and try to counteract your natural attribution bias, and
- Be open and candid with the people, but stop well short of dragging them through the coals or humbling them as if you are blessed to administer that right.
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