Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…
The weekly Newsletter of Without A Vision Consultancy LLC
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July 20, 2020
Good morning!
Almost two inches of much-needed rain moistened the soil this past Saturday; keeps the corn growing and the rivers flowing. Over the weekend I enjoyed a couple of long hikes, popped a big bowl of popcorn, turned on a fan, sat in a chair, and watched a few holes of the PGA tournament on television, live from Ohio. I felt almost normal. Yesterday was National (World?) Ice Cream Day, or so I’m told… shouldn’t they be givin’ it a whole month?
“Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?” (Lewis)
- Highly recommended movie: Greyhound, starring the inimitable Tom Hanks, though he can no longer pass for being in his 30s or young 40s.
- Based on the World War II Battle of the Atlantic, it’s 80 minutes of brilliantly edited, nail-biting cinematography sandwiched between five minutes of prelude and postlude.
- Book: This Tender Land, Krueger, 2019
- “Everything we do affects everything we do.” (Fritz)
- Each encounter and each experience contributes to our cumulative identity. (YT)
- I have only anecdotal data, but have we reached the point where it is more common to have at least one tattoo than to have none?
- “True strength is the courage to ask for help.” (Sinek)
- Norb Berg is bigger than life. Born during the Great Depression in rural Wisconsin, he’s among the youngest members of what they now call the greatest generation. Number one in his high school class, decorated Korean War veteran, charming, good-looking, engaging, enormously successful, Norb has a personality that fills a room. He served as the #2 man at Control Data when it was a giant and a darling on Wall Street. Bill Norris, Control Data’s founder and CEO was Norb’s good friend, as is Bud Grant, the Minnesota Vikings legend.
- While at Control Data Norb pioneered a number of innovative personnel policies, procedures and processes that are now commonplace in industry. Quite simply, he’s among the most famous people I know. There is no logical reason I should be connected with him except by good fortune. About twenty years ago I met Norb for the first time. His reputation had preceded him and I was star struck, if not a bit intimidated.
- Truthfully, Norb didn’t make it easy for me, but I persevered in working to be in his presence – and to learn from him, if he’d let me – as much as possible. Norb sought me out eleven years ago when for the second time in my life I was appointed a CEO. He worked with me, gave me solid advice, asked good questions, and coached my success; he was genuinely interested. Once each year we sat down for a formal evaluation of my performance; we lived 150 miles from each other, we met in the middle. He was nothing if not kind and gentle; he understood the politics of an organization better than most – and wanted to be sure I did, too. He is probably among the top twenty best friends or mentors I’ve ever had from my perspective. Several years ago he similarly befriended my wife, which is a good lesson in remembering to always embrace a friend’s inner circle within your own inner circle.
- I’ll save the details for another time, but in 2016 changes at work beyond my control started to happen. The winds shifted, politics changed, a new Board was named, different personalities had different agendas, priorities were rearranged, and what had been the norm very quickly no longer was. Though we had been successful by most measures, those measures were no longer the standards by which my work was being judged. The long and short of it, I was out and someone else was in. Norb and I had many visits throughout that difficult time. He understood there was nothing left to salvage and he didn’t give me false encouragement. He coached me to look to the future and to remember my own dignity. It was cathartic to laugh with him and to visit with someone who seemed to know exactly what I was experiencing.
- Come to find out, Norb did know what it was like. Though I had been visiting with him on numerous occasions for two decades, it wasn’t until one of our more recent visits he revealed he had had the experience of being ousted from Control Data, disconnected completely from his baby; he had never shared that before, and yet he visited with me as if I had known all about it all the time. All of his stories, his anecdotes, his counsel, his wisdom never touched on what I came to learn was a very sudden, undesired departure. He was the presumed successor to Bill Norris and was scheduled to take over as CEO. On the day before the announcement to Wall Street and the national press, Norb was told by his Board he wasn’t the one. He was given some convoluted reason, but it was just politics. At a relatively young age Norb made a quiet, sudden, dignified departure from the company he had helped create and lead; he was still in his 50s.
- I never fully understood Norb’s effectiveness and his relationship with me until that moment when I realized he had empathy.
- Empathy; if you can offer that to someone, true empathy, then you are giving perhaps the greatest gift of all. (“… Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools…” – Kipling)
From Leadership First:
- What do you get when you work with Without a Vision Consultancy LLC?
- We listen, we learn, we listen some more — and then we customize our response to deliver:
- Confidence
- Clarity
- Coaching
- Companionship on your journey… sometimes it gets lonely and it’s good to have a friend.
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