Creating Culture

Jack Welch: Winning the Game

Listened to another great podcast this week by EntreLeadership with Jack Welch, former CEO of GE and the vice president of basketball operations for the L.A. Clippers, Kevin Eastman.  They both spoke about creating culture. Here are some of the takeaways:

Jack Welch

• Make sure your employees have purpose. Give them the why of the organization.
• Create a growth atmosphere.
• Concentrate-do not dilute. Do not focus on too many things. Become a master of a few things not good at many.
• Leaders must be transparent.  Don't have an environment of secrecy. This will help when your organization has to face adversity. Transparency leads to truth and trust.
• Truth and trust leadership is a mentality and methodology. Create this atmosphere in your group and as a whole organization.  Trust will get you answers quickly. Trust is a muscle-it will get stronger in time. 

Kevin Eastman

Building an organization is a delicate balance of culture and people.  If you have the right culture and the wrong people, this will kill the organization.  On the other hand,  if you have the right people and the wrong culture this one still has a chance because the right type of people will try and do what they can to keep trying to change the culture.

Culture should be seen, heard, and felt.  One way it can be seen is just by looking at the physical environment.  As you walk around the office space and you see that it is clean then you know that the details matter to that organization.  Also, when you are strolling around pay attention to the sounds you hear.   If you hear please and thank you then you know is a place of respect. If you hear laughter then you know it is a healthy environment.

3 Things Critical to any Organization:
Culture
People
Belief

The 4 C's of the Clipper's Culture:
Character
Class
Committed
Communication

3 Groups of People in Every Organization:
Bought-ins:  have complete buy in of vision
Give-ins: have not bought in but will do their jobs because supposed to
Not-ins:  will never believe in vision

He stresses the importance of spending time on the "give-ins" group.  Leadership must work to get rid of the "not-ins" group. Once you can eliminate the "not-ins" and some of the "give-ins" then the "bought-ins" will thrive along with your culture.

Leaders must understand that people will follow you based on their eyes and ears. People are looking at leaders to see if your actions match your words and that your words match your actions.

To help deal with the fear of failure make sure and not just focus on what the consequences are if you fail but also give the same value to the consequences if you succeed.

"Leadership is a position of power and responsibility. On the way up it is all about you but when you get to be the leader it is all about them."

Innovation

"Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this.  For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward." Henry Ford

An excerpt taken from https://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/hf/default.asp:

"Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. He didn’t even invent the assembly line. But more than any other single individual, he was responsible for transforming the automobile from an invention of unknown utility into an innovation that profoundly shaped the 20th century and continues to affect our lives today.

Innovators change things. They take new ideas, sometimes their own, sometimes other people’s, and develop and promote those ideas until they become an accepted part of daily life. Innovation requires self-confidence, a taste for taking risks, leadership ability and a vision of what the future should be. Henry Ford had all these characteristics, but it took him many years to develop all of them fully."

Henry Ford is a great example of an innovator who was not afraid to fail.  His curiosity of how things worked began as a young boy on his parent's farm. Both of his parents encouraged his innovative mindset to tinker with the machines on the farm to make them better. This early encouragement taught him to not be afraid of failure but instead to learn by trial and error. Teach those around you that it is okay to fail. As John Maxwell preaches, "the best teacher is not experience but evaluated experience."

From his failed experiences Ford learned to persevere through setbacks. His first two companies failed before he found success with Ford Motor Company. He learned from each of those failed attempts and had the faith and belief to keep trying.

Ford recognized early that people mattered.  He had an ability to identify and attract outstanding people that believed in his vision.  Another great quality was his ability to learn from others. His idea for the moving assembly line came from the meat-packing industry.  His innovative and outside the box thinking helped stabilize his workforce.  The company was having a problem retaining employees so his solution was to double their wages. Problem solved!

My greatest takeaway from Henry's Ford experience, is that as a leader, do not accept the status quo; this is the way things have always been done.  Be an example for your followers and become a creative thinker and problem solver.  Make it a habit to challenge your own assumptions.

"Don't do things the way they have always been done.  Don't try and fit the system. If you do what is expected of you, you'll never accomplish more than what others expect." Howard Schultz Chairman and CEO Starbucks

Emotions determine Destiny

They say the best way to learn is to study the best.  Over the past year I have listened to several of Tony Robbins speeches, interviews, and I am currently reading his most recent book Money: Master the Game.  What he does better than most is really make you dig deep into your personal motivations, drive, and understanding how your emotions lead to action.

He encourages you to explore your needs, beliefs, and emotions that are controlling you.
He helps you reach your full potential and understand what is preventing you from fulfillment and success.  He believes we all have the ability to make a positive impact and it is up to us to overcome our fears to reach that potential.

Spend 20 minutes & find out for yourself by listening to his 2006 TED talk, "Why We Do What We Do."



Here are a few of my takeaways from his TED talk.

Start with your Why.
Why power connects your dreams and values. Your Why has to be motivating. It's not will power that matters it's why power. Your why is the fuel of your passion.

Discover your Inner Drive.
What is your motivation for action?

What excites and inspires you?

What is your emotional force of life?
Internal drive is what activates you. Emotions is what leads you to action.

Understand that DECISION IS THE ULTIMATE POWER.

Change your mindset. Most people blame failure on a lack of resources. Instead learn to become RESOURCEFUL. YOU have the power of decision to change.  Decisions are what shape your destiny.  Decide what you are going to focus on and give meaning to that focus.  That meaning is what is going to produce emotion which will lead to your actions!

My next post I will talk in great detail about his Power of Strategy, Story and State. If you are looking for a breakthrough then don't miss it!

10 Commandments of Good Human Relations

A great reminder for us all on how to treat others.

1. Speak to people. There is nothing as nice as a cheerful word or greeting.

2. Smile at people. It takes 72 muscles to frown, only 14 to smile.

3. Call people by name. The sweetest music to anyone's ears is the sound of their own name.

4. Be friendly and helpful. If you would have friends, be friendly.

5. Be cordial. Speak and act as if everything you do is a genuine pleasure.

6. Be genuinely interested in all people. You can like almost everybody...if you try.

7. Be generous with praise and cautious with criticism.

8. Be considerate with the feelings of others.  It will be appreciated.

9. Be thoughtful of the opinions of others.  There are usually three sides to a controversy: yours, the other persons and the right one.

10. Be alert to give service. What counts most in life is what we do for others.

Add to this a great sense of humor, a big dose of patience, and dash of humility and you will be rewarded many-fold.

-Robert G. Lee

Personal Responsibility

 

http://thecompoundeffect.com/

 

On my way into work this morning I was listening to Darren Hardy's The Compound Effect and the chapter was about Personal Responsibility.

Most of us believe that for a relationship to be effective both parties must be willing to give 50/50 but in truth you need to be willing to give 100% and expect back 0%. 

You are 100% responsible for what you get out of each and every relationship. 

You need to own that 100%. 

Each one of us is fully responsible for all our choices and experiences. 

 We must own what we do, don't do, and how we respond to what happens to us.

Once you adopt this philosophy of 100% personal responsibility you can no longer be the victim.  You are responsible for what you did, didn't do, or how you responded to what was done to you.

So starting today, do not make excuses or blame others, the responsibility is on you. 

When things don't go right, look at yourself and what YOU could have done differently!

 

 

 

Burn Your Goals Part 3

http://www.traintobeclutch.com/burn-your-goals-to-become-the-person-of-your-dreams/

I wanted to give a big thank you to Sallie Guillory, Associate Head Coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for allowing me to share her notes from Burn Your Goals by Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert. If you are not receiving Sallie's Coaching newsletter you are missing out.  She does a great job with her content.  When I started this blog I was hoping to create a space where coaches could share ideas so thank you Sallie for sharing this week.   

Burn Your Goals Part 2

http://www.traintobeclutch.com/burn-your-goals-to-become-the-person-of-your-dreams/

I wanted to give a big shoutout to Sallie Guillory, Associate Head Coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for putting together another great Coaching Newsletter this week and sharing her notes from Burn Your Goals by Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert. 

This is part 2 of Sallie's notes.  Enjoy and please not only read the notes but take the time to reflect.  A lot of great quotes and material here.

Servant Leadership

Podcast Episode 78 - Why Leaders Eat Last with Simon Sinek

Had the opportunity to listen to a great podcast.  You can check it out at the link above.  Here are a couple of takeaways.  

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more.  You are a leader.  John Quincy Adams

In physics the definition of power is the transfer of energy.  Leaders and organizations should operate in this same way.

When marines run a marathon in full gear and they feel like they want to quit they don't say "I can't."  Instead, they scream out to others, "Motivate me."  What a great mindset!