It’s No Big Deal

You may feel this way about things that are easy for you—it’s no big deal; anyone could do it. Be careful of the wrong thinking. The things that you find are “not a big deal” are things you earned because of:

1. Hard Work: You spent the hours probing, exploring and figuring out how something works. This may be learning how to navigate your computer, mastering your camera, building gadgets, or dissecting financial statements. The repetition and frequency is something you have done over time to gain an efficiency and mastery.

2. Passion: Do you know what most people are doing this evening? They are in front of the TV. My guess is that you are doing something you are passionate about. Do you know what I am doing? I am learning. I love learning. I am passionate about it. I am not passionate about vegging for Read more

Born Not Made

I see the frustration every day. It comes from people believing a myth. The myth is, “If I just keep working harder at it, I can master it.”

It is the American ethos which sounds noble, but it is a lie. There are many things that we all can work very hard at and the best we can hope for is mediocrity. If there were a scale ranging from 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, you land somewhere on that scale in various areas of your life. You can only move up 2 points on that scale with hard work.

For example, if you are a 4 at jumping, then working hard will make you a 6. People will not show up to watch you high jump. You will become obscure. However, if you were a 7 at throwing, hard work will help you become a 9. Throwing a ball may lead to a major league career. People pay for a 9. Read more

Seeing the Elephant in the Room

In one of our recent seminars we conducted to help business professionals step into the new economy, I spent some time on the concept of awareness. Because we look at a situation through our own lens and bias, we inherently limit our perspective. It is part of being human. Our brains do not work in such a way which allows us to focus on more than one thing at a time.

Imagine looking at an elephant in a room. Two people are looking at the exact same object. One person describes the elephant as having a tail, a large round surface area and rough gray skin. Read more

Test the Welcome Mat

One of the best ways to know for sure if customers really count is to evaluate how an organization deals with complaints. At one of our Dream Retreats, we learned from a participant whose daughter manages a Limited, Inc. store location in Arizona that the company will dismiss a store manager who receives three unresolved customer complaints.

At first, we were somewhat taken aback by the severity of this practice, but after a little research into the effects of customer complaints on the bottom line, we realized that the policy makes very good sense. The Technical Assistance Research Programs Corporation of Washington, D.C., which publishes statistics on customer complaints, has found that for every customer complaint that an organization receives, there are 26 other dissatisfied customers who will remain silent. Each of the 27 dissatisfied customers will tell 8 to 16 others about the experience, and 10 percent will tell more than 20 other potential customers. If you do the arithmetic, you will find that three complaints translate into more than 1,000 potential customers hearing about poor service a company provided. No company can afford to drag its feet when handling customer complaints.

We have been wowed many times by Disney’s exceptional attention to guest problems and complaints. One example occurred when we were visiting Disney World with a group of clients.

After we had all checked into the hotel, we quickly departed for dinner. As we were riding along in one of the in-park buses that shuttle visitors around Disney World, the driver asked us how our rooms were. One of our clients mentioned that the faucet in his bar sink had an annoying drip, and he added taht he hadn’t had time yet to report it to maintenance.

“Sir, I’ll take care of it for you,” the driver assured him.

We didn’t give it another thought, but when we got back from dinner about 10 o’clock, the faucet was fixed. And then, more impressive yet, shortly thereafter the driver showed up on his own time to make sure that the problem had been taken care of. This is the level of service you should aim for when you ask your employees to treat every customer like a guest in their own homes. The bus driver was truly committed to making the guest experience the best it could possibly be. That is service with a capital “S.”

— Obtained from the book, The Disney Way by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson

What aren’t you seeing in your business?

We all have blind spots. The blinds spot I am talking about are in the areas of your business that you do not see yourself or your situation realistically. This unawareness often causes damage to you and your business. Some of the results are: Read more

Paying the Brain Bill

We can all remember the tedious task of researching information in the not too distant past. We had to use the card catalog at a library in lieu of a database to find what we were looking for. The newspaper was delivered every day to our doors to feed us information that we accepted as soon enough. It was a different reality that we felt was good enough before the web, on-demand media and RSS feeds to our BlackBerries filled in our mind space and attention. Speed, complexity and convenience took over. Technology has enabled a new reality for us. Read more

Prospering Without Cleanup Duty

“Where no oxen are, the trough is clean;

But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.”

This is a proverb of the famed King Solomon. He is speaking about two types of mindsets in life - those who want a clean trough and those who want increase. Everything you and I are doing in life is about pursuing our happiness. The question is what mindset and method we are employing. As our world increases in complexity, speed and innovation, we have a choice by which we will engage. Read more

Mindset: Growth or Fixed

Do you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? According to Carol Dweck, PH.D. in her book Mindset, she states that we all have one or the other. The fixed mindset is a belief that your qualities are carved in stone. You are who you are and it matters little what you do about it. This mindset means you either think you are smart or not smart and that’s just the way it is. Failure means “you’re not smart”; therefore, you avoid putting yourself in a position where you might fail.

The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, and very little is set in stone.

So what does this mean? It means the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want. How can a simple belief have the power to transform your life?

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone — the fixed mindset — creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser? Although people may differ in every which way such as talents, aptitudes, interests, or temperaments — the growth mindset says that everyone can change and grow through application and experience. This mindset doesn’t mean you can become anything you want, but it does believe that a person’s true potential is unknowable; that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with YEARS OF PASSION, TOIL, AND TRAINING.

Ben Hogan, one of the greatest golfers of all time, was completely uncoordinated and graceless as a child. Cindy Sherman, considered one of the twentieth century’s most important artists, failed her first photography course. Donald Trump, in 1997 was considered by many to be a complete failure; today he is regarded as a business and architectural genius. Henry Ford, ridiculed because of his lack of formal education, has created a legacy with his name.

So what mindset have you adopted? Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them? Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you and push you to grow? Why seek out the tried and true instead of experiences that will stretch you? The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, especially when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset where you will thrive during some of the most challenging times in life.

4 Ways to Be Coachable

There is a glaring irony in life. Those that are at the top of a game know they need more insight and help to keep getting better. Those that are not even in the game think they have the answers. I guess this is why those that seek to be the best become the best. They understand that others help them get there.

World class athletes have a coach or several coaches. I enjoy reading about those relationships and how the athlete keeps enjoying greater results from being coachable. The same mentality is required in business for achieving more. Here are four ways to be coachable:

1. Eat and Drink Humility. Coachable people realize they do not know everything. Benjamin Franklin said, “Pride is a funny disease. It makes everyone sick except the person who has it.” Humility has to be chosen in order to see clearly. Without it, there is no opportunity to grow.
2. Ask Great Questions. Einstein’s mother used to ask him every day after school, “What questions did you ask today?” People who cannot be coached have stopped asking great questions. They are in auto-pilot. Either their passion is gone or their self-esteem keeps them from engaging people who have answers.
3. Invest In Yourself. If you were different in how you think, would you get different results? Obvious answer. Irrational behaviors, however. In our knowledge economy, what would it be worth to grow in knowledge? Coachable people connect knowledge to results. They connect knowledge to dollars. They value what they pay for and pay for what they value.
4. Constantly Upgrade. We can observe the rigidity in our parents and grandparents as they age. They love the routine and seem to stay safe. The funny thing is that we become them. They were once us. If you do not flex a muscle, it will atrophy. Train your brain to keep refining. Look for better ways. Never be content. The world around you is constantly upgrading. If you are not in the same mindset, then you will feel the effects of old age.

Coaching does not work for non-coachable people. Success will be limited if you cannot grow. The neat thing is that it is a choice. You are who you have been becoming. What will you choose?

Why Is a 91-Year-Old Still Growing?

“A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” - John Burroughs

Jacque Fresco is 91-years-old. He is a fascinating picture of a human being. He has not limited his thinking or his attempts. He is a futurist who has conceptualized what buildings, ecosystems and life may look like by design. A movie that captures his brilliance and vision has been created.

Most of us will not live as long as Mr. Fresco. Many will not dare to think big like he has. One thing we can do, however, is adopt one simple behavior that has been the strand which has stitched his life together - constantly growing and failing forward.

Catch yourself when you get frustrated at yourself and others. Beware when you rationalize and make excuses. Those are signs of your mindset. You will eventually just grow old rather than grow.

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