February 21, 2022
Good morning! Can we please stop calling it Presidents’ Day?! Please? The so-called Monday Uniform Holiday Act was enacted by the 90th Congress on June 28, 1968. It moved three (3) federal holidays to be celebrated in perpetuity on various Mondays, including George Washington’s birthday which up to that point had been celebrated on his actual birthday. (The other two were Memorial Day and Labour Day) There is no such day as Presidents’ Day — no such holy day — no federal legal recognition of past presidents other than George, not even Mr. Lincoln. This is one of those battles I will lose. Please don’t forget the cherry pie for tomorrow.
- If you’ve been following the winter olympics, it was the Norwegians on top, then the Russians (although not technically the Russians), then the Germans, then the Canadians…
- Wax your skis and get started on your wardrobe — see you in the Alps and on Lake Como near Milan in 2026!
- Seek to be meaningfully engaged with people who have vision and can see the big picture — the common good — those who get stuff done, and who have fun doing it.
- “Great leaders have the wisdom to give their team the freedom to produce great work because it makes no sense to recruit the best and micromanage their work.” (Leadership First)
- “When you invent the ship you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity you invent electrocution. Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.” (Virilio)
- “The people around you already know you don’t know everything.” (Blanchard/ Conley)
Top Performers Have A Superpower: Happiness
- If you’ve worked with us you know we’re all about helping you to be bigger, better, stronger, healthier, happier.
- Here, from one of the more respected sources in the world, are some interesting data on happiness… something you probably wouldn’t expect.
- Top Performers Have A Superpower: Happiness (Lester, Diener, Seligman; 2022)
- After you scroll to the end of today’s Musings, come back to read this article, it’s worth 15 minutes of your time.
- Which comes first, succeeding and then being happy, or being happy and then succeeding?
- And just how MUCH does initial happiness matter? (Hint: Lots!)
- Happiness (MIT Sloan)
If You’re Going Back to the Office, You Need These Benefits
- (From Bell) — If your employees have been working from home for the last two years and still hitting goals, but for some odd reason you MUST get them back into the office, here’s what you should be offering:
- Company-paid commuter passes, gas cards, and parking passes;
- Free lunch every day and unlimited free schnacks and coffee;
- Expense reimbursement for business clothes (or no dress code);
- Company paid child care;
- Freedom for employees to leave at any time to pick up their kids; i.e., flexibility;
- Children and pets coming into the office;
- Private space for each employee;
- Free access to a gym and showers in your building or nearby;
- Flexible arrival times on snowy days, rainy days, Etc.
- Can’t afford all that? Then just give them the option to stay home. You probably can’t afford to lose your employees either.”
- Please don’t shoot the messenger, my friend… all of the above is from Bell, 2022.
- Without A Vision Consultancy LLC has been studying this post-plague work world for nearly two years and the word we hear most often is FLEXIBILITY.
- From faithful reader and oracle, Dave:
- Most companies communicate to customers by saying
- What they do,
- How they do it,
- But not why they do it.
- Tech giant Apple tells you
- Why they do it,
- How they do it,
- and then, what they do. (Dave)
- Agree? Disagree?
- An experiment was conducted to see if Greyhounds could compete with the speed of a cheetah. When the race gates opened folks were shocked to see the cheetah didn’t move. They asked the race coordinator what had happened and why the cheetah didn’t move. (Ed Wimp)
- “Sometimes trying to prove that you’re the best is an insult to your self-worth.
- There is no need to lower yourself to other people’s level to make them understand your skills, qualities, and contributions.
- It is better to save your energy for more worthy endeavours.
- A cheetah uses its speed to hunt, not to prove to dogs that it is faster and stronger.
- Don’t waste your time and energy proving your value to folks who simply don’t possess the skill set to appreciate your value and worth; move on.” (Wimp)
- 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)
- “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)
