Find Purpose at Work

January 3, 2022

Good morning! Thank you so very much for helping to get us to Year #4 of this business and its Newsletter! In this little corner of the world we started 2022 at nineteen degrees below zero (F) — and yesterday morning we measured twenty-three degrees below zero (F).

I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours. Throughout the Year #2,022 A.D. I will work at — and achieve some success at — being a better human, a better husband, a better father — and grandfather — a better consultant, and a better friend. A friend at age 80 said he’s not getting old, he’s getting whole. Are you watching the public television remake of Around the World in 80 Days? Takes me back to I’m not sure what year, but maybe the 1950s?

• This is fascinating, as reported recently by Tavi Troy:
  • How have recent Presidents of the United States marked the new year?
    • On his last New Year’s Eve John Kennedy reportedly flirted poolside with a young woman in Palm Beach, FL and later that night sipped champagne with Jackie;
    • Lyndon Johnson (1967) extolled the virtues and the efficiencies of the Viet Nam war as being the most expertly coordinated and executed in history;
    • Richard Nixon (1972) was all alone in the White House;
    • Gerald Ford was at a public gathering mingling and trading self-deprecating jabs with commoners;
    • Jimmy Carter (1977) visited Tehran where he toasted the Shah of Iran as leading and governing “…an island of stability…”
    • Ron Reagan celebrated with Nancy at a lavish party at the home of his BFFs, the Annenberg’s;
    • George H. W. Bush visited wounded soldiers recently returned from the war in Panama;
    • Bill Clinton spent some private and not-so-secret time with Monica Lewinsky immediately adjacent to the Oval Office;
    • George Bush (2004) said he was, “…early to bed.”
    • Obama planned and directed a family talent show;
    • Trump tweeted;
    • Joe Biden hiked his new hundt and stayed home in Delaware to fight the COVIDs plague (this final one researched by YT and not attributable to Troy).

Find Purpose at Work

• Help your employees find purpose — or watch them leave.  (McKinsey)
  • Are we witnessing a trend or a fad?
  • From an IRL discussion late last week:  “We have lots of fun at this company… we can wear jeans on Fridays and occasionally we play Pictionary.”
  • Probably not gonna reach the level required.
  • What might be the single most important skill for management, if it wasn’t always?  Listening 
• On the topic of vision… since that’s what this Newsletter is all about:
  • “You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.” Alvin Toffler
  • “Leadership is transforming vision into action and sustaining it.”  (Bennis)
  • “A great leader’s courage to achieve a vision comes from passion and not from position.” (Maxwell) — (though the two need not be at odds.)
  • Vision is a destination – a fixed point to which we focus all effort. Strategy is a route – an adaptable path to get us where we want to go.” (Sinek)
  • “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision.” (Ali)
  • “A person without a vision for the future always returns to the past.”  (Unknown)
• In the County of Stearns where I live in Central Minnesota (United States) the Minnesota Department of Health reports fifty-seven percent (57%) of eligible people in this county have received the COVIDs vaccine shot.  Not sure if that means one, two, three shots or more…
  • The shots are free, readily available, effective, life-saving in 99%+ of situations, and, it would seem, a simple gesture of common sense and good citizenship.
    • Remember that famous phrase we agreed to in 1787?  … promote the general welfare…
• “To become a successful philosopher king, it is much better to start as a king than as a philosopher.”  (Taleb via Jordan)
• “Revelry comes to those who make it.”  (Crosby)
• (Harvard Business Review) — Four key aspects to helping employees understand change, to drive commitment, and to ultimately contribute to success:
  • Inspire people by presenting a compelling vision (my emphasis) for the future;
  • Keep employees informed by providing regular (accurate/ transparent) communication;
  • Empower leaders and managers to lead through the change;
  • and find creative ways to involve employees in the change.
    • Funny, as I report this it seems almost trivial and cliche… but maybe a good starting point?
    • Also, have we reached the point where the term employees is a pejorative?  IDK