The Time (nearly) Every Man Faces

Not quite a wordless picture, but certainly&nbsp;paints a thousand words...&nbsp;


Provided by a precious client, it&#39;s my privilege to pass it on.&nbsp; You might choose to &#39;Save&#39; to your computer, so you can enlarge&mdash;and share.


Enjoy&mdash;&nbsp;

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The Maturity Climb

This past week, as I&#39;ve spoken with several professional salespeople, I&#39;ve been ruminating on the importance of hope.&nbsp; Again.&nbsp; It&nbsp;seems that I&#39;m always coming back to it...


You know&nbsp;about hope, right?&nbsp; (It&#39;s much more than simply the birthplace of Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee.)


Hope is the&nbsp;meme that undergirded the entire 2008 Obama presidential campaign,&nbsp;best captured&nbsp;when artist Shepard Fairey&nbsp;rendered that&nbsp;iconic, colorful&nbsp;poster.


Hope is the thing which animates, in large part,&nbsp;logotherapy as created, defined and lived by the&nbsp;inimitable Viktor Frankl.&nbsp;

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Hope is the thing which, reliably, Shakespeare wrote about in his 29th sonnet:
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When, in disgrace with fortune and men&#39;s eyes, 
I all 
alone beweep my outcast state 
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless 
cries 
And look upon myself and curse my fate, 
Wishing me like to one more 
rich in hope, 
Featured like him, like him with friends 
possess&#39;d, 
Desiring this man&#39;s art and that man&#39;s scope, 
With what I most 
enjoy contented least; 
Yet in these thoughts myself almost 
despising, 
Haply I think on thee, and then my state, 
Like to the lark at 
break of day arising 
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven&#39;s gate; 
For 
thy sweet love remember&#39;d such wealth brings 
That then I scorn to change my 
state with kings. 

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(I know what he meant when he wrote it) but hope is also the thing that Benjamin Ola Akande (economist, scholar and Dean of the Business School at Webster University in St. Louis) declared, &quot;Is not a strategy.&quot;


(I know what he meant when he wrote it) but&nbsp;it is also the thing that salesman Rick Page wrote an entire book about&nbsp;under the title&nbsp;Hope is Not a Strategy.&nbsp;


And yet today&mdash;and every day&mdash;to those who say, &quot;Hope is not a strategy,&quot; I say poppycock.&nbsp; Balderdash.&nbsp; Baloney.&nbsp; Hogwash.&nbsp; Hooey.&nbsp; Malarkey.&nbsp; 


Hope is THEE strategy.


Hope is THEE magnet that&nbsp;draws each and every one of us upward and forward day after revolving day.


Hope is&nbsp;THEE spark that ignites our fuels and energies, our passions, our meaning.


Hope is&nbsp;a common denominator in virtually every&nbsp;pure denomination, every thriving culture, and&nbsp;any thriving relationship.


There is more to life than &quot;hope,&quot; to be sure.


But in the words of Andy Dufresne (as written by Stephen King in&nbsp;the classic 1994 film adaptation of&nbsp;Shawshank Redemption), &quot;Remember, Red&mdash;hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.&quot;


Hope, unquestionably, is a formidable meme&mdash;a living, breathing, organic, transmitted, viral idea that infects and inoculates humankind.


Martin Seligman proved it (again) in his definitive masterpiece, Learned Optimism, when he documented that the single, most determinant attribute of successful salespeople is not experience, not competence, not discipline, not people skills, not technical prowess, not mastery of the features and benefits but is, instead, flat-out and simply:&nbsp;optimism.&nbsp; 


&quot;That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.&quot;


Hope = Optimism.&nbsp; 


So make your calls and fill your pipeline, but remember this: preceding and succeeding any great pyramid, project, process&nbsp;or plan is the utter hope of it.&nbsp; The dream of it all.

The Primacy of Hope

To Tweet, or not to Tweet, THAT is the question

For
this gorgeous Friday, I have four diverse quotes comin&rsquo; at ya&hellip;each of which, I
hope, speaks to the true heart of leadership, which is service.




&ldquo;If
anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.&rdquo;&nbsp; (Mark
9:35)




&ldquo;Everybody
can be great, because anybody can serve.&nbsp; You don&#39;t have to have a college
degree to serve.&nbsp; You don&#39;t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.&nbsp; You
only need a heart full of grace.&nbsp; A soul generated by love.&rdquo;&nbsp; (MLK)




&ldquo;The
first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.&nbsp; The last is to say
&lsquo;thank you.&rsquo;&nbsp; In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.&nbsp; That sums up the progress of an artful leader.&rdquo;&nbsp; (Max DePree)




And
to these, one might add, &ldquo;To succeed, assume the responsibility to communicate.&nbsp; To fail, presume it is others&rsquo; obligation to understand.&rdquo;




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Leadership = Service

Cock-a-doodle-do &amp; Happy New Year to You!


This morning, five &quot;articles for 2012&quot; jumped out at me.&nbsp; Because I thought they might &#39;speak&#39; to you, too, I have assumed the responsibility of &quot;aggregator&quot; by combining them into one PDF.&nbsp; (I have made zero efforts to modify, clean-up, or edit any of them, of course, so caveat emptor.)


I believe you will enjoy them.


Reading them in one brief swath, you will see a common thread: more and more, the Customer-Client-Student is CENTER.&nbsp; Not peripheral, but front-and-center.


Now, of course, this is a multi-millenia reality, but never as focused as today.&nbsp; The magnifying glass has found the sun, and the diffused light has become a laser beam.&nbsp; I can see the smoke and smell the sizzle.


The first article, &quot;Physicists Seek to Lose the Lecture as&nbsp;a Teaching Tool&quot; describes the transition from &#39;Sage on the Stage&#39; to &#39;Guide on the Side.&#39;&nbsp; In short, students who are required to answer questions and wrestle with reason&nbsp;via &#39;peer instruction&#39; learn 3x more than those who sit idly by&nbsp;and listen to a professor pontificate.&nbsp; Historically (e.g., before Google... &quot;BG&quot;), the&nbsp;&#39;gathering of information&#39; was the hardest half of learning, when compared to&nbsp;&#39;making sense of information.&#39;&nbsp; Today, gathering information is easy--it&nbsp;almost happens passively, as we are immersed and&nbsp;awash in it hour by hour.&nbsp; This allows, therefore, professors to invest their time&nbsp;provoking, guiding and leading inquiry and understanding...rather than transmitting data.&nbsp; While this is no great epiphany, it will ultimately upend the teaching model as we&#39;ve known it, challenging all of us to &#39;adapt or become extinct.&#39;&nbsp; (Read it to see how the student, not the professor, should be at the center of the learning process.)


The second article, &quot;The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives&quot; speaks to the importance of humility (respect), boundaries (character), curiosity (followership), receptivity to disagreement (retention), authenticity (vs. attention), reality (vs. hype) and change (vs. worshipping the past).&nbsp; It&nbsp;is an interestingly nuanced and subtle&nbsp;juxtaposition to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451648537/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_s=center-2&amp;pf_rd_r=0031AAGVAN6CMZH4DPQA&amp;pf_rd_t=101&amp;pf_rd_p=470938631&amp;pf_rd_i=507846" target="_blank">Walter Isaacson&#39;s biography&nbsp;about Steve Jobs</a>, describing why&nbsp;(perhaps) several of Jobs&#39;&nbsp;core behaviors were&nbsp;exceptions--not&nbsp;the rule.&nbsp; (Read it to see a balanced view on market, customer, and leadership vision and strategy.)


The third article, &quot;Five Resolutions for Aspiring Leaders&quot;&nbsp;outlines simple-yet-transformative things you can tackle in 2012 to continue your&nbsp;professional development.&nbsp; (Read it to see how &#39;gaining knowledge,&#39; not &#39;defending it,&#39; will keep you&nbsp;front-and-center...and relevant in the months ahead.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;


The fourth article, &quot;What Americans Keep Ignoring about Finland&#39;s School Success&quot; describes something I tackled in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Strategic-Mind-Visionary-Architect/dp/0979883016/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1325784691&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">Cultivating the Strategic Mind</a>: the&nbsp;value of cooperation&nbsp;rather than competition.&nbsp; Equity vs. Excellence.&nbsp; I know, I know, it sounds heretical!&nbsp; (Read it to&nbsp;see &#39;the bigger picture&#39; and understand how--and why--putting EVERY student at the center of an educational process makes Finland a North Star.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;


The fifth and final article, &quot;Five Predictions for Higher Ed Technology in 2012&quot; shows, by way of Stanford and MIT, that online learning is here to stay and, given that more and more college students are drowning in debt and questioning the value of diplomas in a soft economy, universities must find alternative delivery methods.&nbsp; From &#39;peer&#39; and &#39;distance learning&#39; to replacing bulky, back-breaking-backpacks&nbsp;full of&nbsp;anachronistic, outdated and overpriced textbooks with iPads and tablets, the future is here.&nbsp; And now.&nbsp; Once universities get their own act in gear, the dam will burst, the watershed will overflow, and those &#39;lockers&#39; we all experienced from K-12 will be about as useful as a hitching post at your local watering hole.&nbsp; (Read it to see why, once again, the customer--aka student--is king.)


<a href="/blogging/file.axd?file=2012%2f1%2f5ArticlesFor2012.pdf">5ArticlesFor2012.pdf (235.13 kb)</a>

The Student is Center

On this, the sixth anniversary of
your birth, you are on the hearts and minds of all who know and remember.


Thankfully, it was gorgeous today;
the sun shone brightly and warmly on our faces.















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&quot;Rejoice always, pray
continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God&rsquo;s
will for you in Christ Jesus.&quot;




&mdash;1 Thessalonians 5:16-18



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Happy Birthday, Beloved

A couple weeks ago, I watched Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life.
Talk about "Give a Mouse a Cookie!"
It's not really a movie.&nbsp; It's more an exposition on existentialism.
Sure, it's presented via film, but it's&nbsp;primarily a hallucinogenic journey from creation to destruction, with Texas and philosophy&nbsp;residing somewhere in between.
The early lines about two ways to live, via grace or nature, are breathtaking.&nbsp; And, as the journey unfolds, similarly heartbreaking.
But the film led me on a Terrence Malick bender, proceeding from The Tree of Life to Badlands, Days of Heaven and The New&nbsp;World (which was particularly rewarding because, after&nbsp;devouring A Land as God Made It and A Kingdom Strange [both by James Horn, about the Jamestown and Roanoke colonies, respectively], I had also just returned from an emotional day at Jamestown Colony).&nbsp;
After growing up in Waco, TX, Malick graduated from Harvard with a degree in philosophy.&nbsp; He then attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, but he did not complete his doctoral work, opting instead to drop-out, become a journalist, writer, itinerant professor at MIT&nbsp;and, surely, one of this century's most reclusive, enigmatic, brilliant directors.&nbsp; His personal story is marked by lows and highs, from his pianist brother's crippling his own hands and eventual suicide to Malick's three marriages and his ultimately directing what many regard as the finest film ever made, Days of Heaven, which proved that 'the magic hour' right before dusk can be the most gorgeous time to roll tape.&nbsp;
Malick's own inquiries, evident in everything he has touched,&nbsp;are about Being.&nbsp; In fact,&nbsp;one of his&nbsp;best known scholarly works is a translation of Martin&nbsp;Heidegger's (1889-1976) Vom Wesen des Grundes, published by Malick as The Essence of Reasons.&nbsp; Heidegger, a controversial figure then and now, explored the meaning of Being, determinism, our role in the world ("in situ," as it were)--and the extent (or limited extent) to which we can be, in short, "masters of our domain,"&nbsp;advocating instead that we are&nbsp;probably just&nbsp;"leaves in a stream."&nbsp;
These films by Malick, the books by Horn, my introspective&nbsp;day at&nbsp;Jamestown (during which, virtually alone for hours, I felt like an alien landing on earth some 300 years after it imploded)--coincide with my 42nd birthday--placing me (God willing and health permitting) smack-dab between my own creation and (carnate) destruction at the intersection of Texas and philosophy.&nbsp; Mid-life, to be sure.
<div><img src="../../blogging/image.axd?picture=2011%2f12%2fJamestownPort.jpg" alt="" width="877" height="570" /></div>
As I've written before, our daughter&nbsp;articulated her first, deep existential angst about one month into 1st Grade.&nbsp;&nbsp;As I lay&nbsp;her in bed one night, her heavy head on the pillow, tinkly music drifting in the background, she stared up at me with her big round eyes and inquired (God as my witness), "Daddy, is this all there is to life?"&nbsp; Perplexed, I asked, "What, Sweetie?"&nbsp;&nbsp;Sighing, she said, "You know...dressing,&nbsp;eating, sitting in plastic chairs all day listening to a teacher.&nbsp; Coming home to eat, undress and do it all again tomorrow?"&nbsp;
Needless to say, I was first taken aback.
Who spoke these words?
In return, I was speechless.&nbsp;
There is, to life, a number of days in plastic chairs.
And a number of hours&nbsp;standing in line.
Along with perhaps 87,600 meals.
And 29,200 showers.
And, if you want them and are fortunate, perhaps 2.5 kids, a couple cars, a house in the cul-de-sac, a few diplomas on the wall and all the rest.
Sure, yes, there is much about life that is pedestrian, pragmatic, prosaic.
As we spoke, for what amounted to perhaps one hour, we proceeded to move beyond these ideas though, at which point&nbsp;I tried (speaking to a six-year-old) to describe meaning, belief, service, faith, hope, love and all the rest.&nbsp; And, very briefly, to describe a sense of calling,&nbsp;living a life on purpose, and talents.&nbsp; (Hey, she asked.&nbsp; We're too far in to turn back now, I reasoned.)&nbsp;
Looking back over the nearly four years that have lapsed since then I can say, with a degree of shock, that it did seem to click.&nbsp; She was listening.&nbsp; She more than heard me--she somehow,&nbsp;through her tiny ears and wet eyes, understood.
And her journey, like mine--yours--ours, is often about Being more than Doing.
We are trained, most of us, to focus on "behavior," as it is, from a reductive standpoint, observable and, therefore, "measurable and coach-able."
But I must say, as I get older, that any worthwhile reflection on one's personhood begins much deeper.&nbsp; Not at the 'genetic' level, mind you, but certainly at the 'atomic' level of, say, one's Being and Beliefs.
To make this demonstrable, consider the hypocrite.&nbsp; The politician, for example, who Is and who Believes one way, yet consistently Behaves obversely.
More slippery still, consider the person who Behaves well toward you, demonstrating wonderful actions, when all the while a brew of anger, hate, jealousy or vengeance roils right beneath the surface.
Psychologists and philosophers have wrestled with and written about these "veneers" and "masks" for millennia, and they always will.
The questions of "Who am I" and "What do I believe" undergird and give shape to our very existence.
They precede Behavior and, to my current way of thinking, actually supersede it.&nbsp; True, I care about Behavior.&nbsp; I/we all do; should; will.&nbsp;&nbsp;Agreeing with the cognitivists (e.g., Maslow, McClellan, McGregor, Herzberg) more than the behaviorists (e.g., Pavlov, Skinner and all the rest), I believe that, while&nbsp;actions and reactions matter,&nbsp;behaviors are primarily symptomatic in nature, with&nbsp;one's&nbsp;starting disposition being more&nbsp;causal.&nbsp; (Yes, yes, there are limitless exceptions, from seatbelts and smoking to aromatic foods, ringing doorbells and vibrating phones, but these do not dissuade me from my 51/49 lean.)&nbsp;
As I reflect on Malick's films, the colonists who forged this nation, the founding fathers who (nearly 160 years later)&nbsp;canonized its liberties...and even David Fincher's&nbsp;interpretation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I am convinced&nbsp;beyond certainty that Being and Beliefs, while not quite prologue, are immeasurably paramount.
When I coach someone who has had "a change of heart," his/her ears and eyes are wide open.
When I coach someone who "intellectually understands," yet maintains a concrete bunker around&nbsp;his/her heart, we both fail.
I share these ruminations in the magic hour of 2011, as dusk is coming and, with it, the sun is slipping below the horizon.
All too soon, 2011 will be but a distant memory and we, like the rooster, will be crowing about 2012 and all that dawns ahead.
May this New Year be your best one yet, so abundant with blessings that your storehouse nails pop clean out, boards bursting at the seams,&nbsp;flat-out overflowing.
But more than this, much more, my hope and heart and mind and prayer is this: may you find and be at peace with your own Being and Beliefs.
So much that, should this or that be your last hour, you&nbsp;might rest&nbsp;your head on a soft pillow&nbsp;knowing, tomorrow and beyond, there is unquestionably Meaning, Reason and&nbsp;Hope well beyond the plastic chairs.&nbsp;
It is the way of grace.
<a href="../../blogging/file.axd?file=2011%2f12%2fJamestownPhotos.pdf">JamestownPhotos.pdf (12.52 mb)</a>

Being vs. Doing

This is no great revelation, of course, but I thought I would share this way of thinking about it because, for all i know, it might come up in a Performance Review you must give today.


It&#39;s not unlike the analogy of traveling eastward and, thousands of miles later, finding oneself in the west.&nbsp; 


Strengths work in a similar way.


That ability you have, that talent, that gift, that natural capacity that accompanies you so effortlessly...it can, when applied beyond its appropriate envelope, be a weakness.


Are you a great listener with no voice?


Are you a great speaker with no ears?


Are you&nbsp;a great visionary who lacks people skills?


Are you an insightful person who decides prematurely?


Are you a wonderfully gung-ho sort who bulldozes over people?


I don&#39;t know.


Maybe you are or maybe you aren&#39;t.


But the problem is you might not even know yourself.


It&#39;s often hardest to see ourselves.


For example, I &#39;think&#39; I know what I sound like when I speak.&nbsp; After all, I speak daily.&nbsp; But then I hear my recorded voice and shudder.&nbsp; &quot;Is that really ME?&nbsp; Yikes...&quot;


The same is often true of our strengths--we think we know them, we presume they work wonderfully for us...but perhaps we should step back, regularly seek feedback from others, and be cautious when red-lining our talents and abilities.


After all, the maxim, &quot;If some is good, more must be better&quot; ain&#39;t always true.


Too much medicine is poisonous.


Too much of most good things is debilitating.


Those strengths we possess, when used in moderation or appropriate situations, can be wonderful.


Just remember, they are circular, too.&nbsp; 


Perhaps David Banner said it best, &quot;You&nbsp;wouldn&#39;t like&nbsp;me when I&#39;m angry.&quot;&nbsp; True that.


Green is great, but even more so in small doses.

Strengths are Circular

While I&#39;ll be among the last to declare merit in worry, there is a light dusting of truth herein: &quot;Hope is not a strategy, but worry is.&quot;


Why?


Because those who live by hope, and hope alone, don&#39;t exert much effort looking around corners.&nbsp; 


On the other hand, that&#39;s all worriers do!&nbsp; Almost like the paranoid, the worried are constantly looking around corners.&nbsp; But sadly, they are often inventing and imagining corners as well...


But as I&#39;ve written and described extensively, we can--with caution--learn from the worrier because he or she is, in some ways, only 1 or 2 degrees away from&nbsp;the strategist.


How?&nbsp; 


Just as a great strategist is a chess player, constantly evaluating moves, potential moves and possible repercussions, so is the worrier.


The primary differences being &quot;healthy and constructive&quot; (the strategist) vs. &quot;unhealthy and destructive&quot; (the worrier).


So yes, if you aspire to be more strategic, continue envisioning and looking around corners.&nbsp; 


Just make sure you do so with others, do so with an eye toward creating the future and, lastly, do so in ways that are reasonable, healthy and constructive.


Better yet, while pondering the future--never lose&nbsp;your sense of wonder and hope.


Lighthouses&nbsp;(hope) bring many a man to safe harbor, while flying through fog without instruments (worry) is a one-way trip to nowhere good.&nbsp;

Hope is not a Strategy...is Worry?

Recently,&nbsp;I bought a magical new toner cartridge for our home printer.&nbsp;&nbsp;After installation, the printer&nbsp;produced a bizarre test page.&nbsp; Upon this page were printed these random Observations, Laws, Constants, Corollaries and Rules.&nbsp; Where they came from, gremlins only know.&nbsp; But as I read them, I&nbsp;chuckled--and thanked the gremlins.&nbsp;&nbsp;After reading them, you just might do the same.


Laugh on.


&nbsp;&nbsp; 


Ettore&#39;s Observation: &quot;The other line
moves faster.&nbsp; This applies to all lines--bank, supermarket, tollbooth, customs
and so on.&nbsp; And don&#39;t try to change lines.&nbsp; The other line--the one you were in
originally--will then move faster.&quot;


Boren&#39;s First Law: &quot;When in doubt, mumble.&quot;


Murphy&#39;s Law: &quot;If anything can go wrong, it will.&quot;


O&#39;Toole&#39;s Commentary on Murphy&#39;s Law: &quot;Murphy was an optimist.&quot;


The First Corollary to Murphy&#39;s Law: &quot;Anything that is to go wrong will do so at the worst possible moment.&quot;


The Unspeakable Law: &quot;As soon as you mention something,
if it&#39;s good, it goes away; if it&#39;s bad, it happens.&quot;


Non-Reciprocal Law of Expectations: &quot;Negative
expectations yield negative results.&nbsp; Positive expectations yield negative
results.&quot;


Howe&#39;s Law: &quot;Every man has a scheme&nbsp;which will not work.&quot;


Zymurgy&#39;s First Law of Evolving System Dynamics: &quot;Once
you open a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is to use a larger
can.&quot;


Skinner&#39;s Constant: &quot;The quantity which must be
multiplied by, divided by, added to or subtracted from the answer you get
to give the answer you should have got.&quot;


Law of Selective Gravity: &quot;An object will fall so as to
do the most damage.&quot;


Jenning&#39;s Corollary: &quot;The chance of the bread falling
with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the
carpet.&quot;


Barth&#39;s Distinction: &quot;There are two types of people:
those who&nbsp;categorize people into two types and those who do not.&quot; 


Ninety-Ninety Rule of Project Schedules: &quot;The first 90%
of the job takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90%.&quot;


Farber&#39;s Rule: &quot;Necessity is the mother of strange
bedfellows.&quot;

Fortune Cookie Cartridge

Shared with&nbsp;me today by a very dear collaborator,&nbsp;several of us&nbsp;found this Civil War era love letter profoundly touching; and that&#39;s saying something--because a great many of these bygone letters are highly eloquent, moving and altogether romantic, either despite or because of the circumstances in which they were written. 


While most of our politicians are doing their best, it does seem as though they lose their way more often than they find it...bickering, grandstanding, politicking, posturing, oversimplifying, overcomplicating, spinning, subterfuging, zero-summing.&nbsp; And all, allegedly, under the guise of &#39;good faith negotiations&#39; and at the behest of&nbsp;some vague, amorphous electorate who issued&nbsp;an oft-invoked referendum on taxing and spending. 


Though I&nbsp;write&nbsp;tonight while Congress haggles over increasing the&nbsp;U.S. debt ceiling, leadership squabbles--and political ones--are timeless and unceasing.&nbsp; 


For this reason alone, I personally find Major Ballou&#39;s letter to his&nbsp;wife, Sarah, a great reminder&nbsp;of why patriots do what they do.&nbsp; Or should.&nbsp; 


It&#39;s a clarion call, indeed--or a North Star, or a lighthouse, or a touchstone or, at the very least, a glimmer that catches one&#39;s attention and brings his eyes back to the road. 


I&#39;m sure it will do the same for you: <a href="/blogging/file.axd?file=2011%2f7%2fMyVeryDearSarah.pdf">MyVeryDearSarah.pdf (141.70 kb)</a>