Pumpkin Season Finally

October 3, 2022

Good morning! I had my wisdom teeth pulled; they weren’t functioning. When someone says, “You’re one in a million!” Is it a compliment or something less? Do the math. Literally, it means you are one among ~8,000 others; not too bad, I suppose.

• There is an older woman who hikes her two hundts (hunds) early each morning; we see her from our window as she very slowly makes progress.
  • Just recently it occurred to me, “Slow and sluggish as she is, she still gets to her destination — every single day.”
• Have you encountered Amal — the Syrian puppet?  Pretty cool.
• “More businesses die from indigestion than starvation.”  (Sutton)
• Too many leaders think the key to success is to do more — pile on staff, technology, meetings, training, rules, and more; the opposite is true.
  • Subtraction clears our mind and gives us time to focus on what really counts.
  • Did you see that word again?  Focus.
• Have you driven or ridden in a Tesla?
  • Abandon all of your biases and assumptions.
  • That car accelerates like a rocket ship, maybe more than a Porsche.  (I’ve only pushed a Porsche, never driven or ridden in one.)
• Change:  During a 50-year span of time in the 20th century, less than one percent (<1%) of the country’s one-room school houses remained.
• Change:  The load of shingles and roofing supplies was delivered on a big flatbed truck.
  • The driver unloaded tons of materials with uncanny precision using only a joystick controller.
  • There are data to support video game expertise is excellent preparation for becoming a surgeon.
• At the beginning of any chess game each player has twenty (20) different possible moves available to her.
  • Think about that, twenty (20) moves.
  • We sometimes think of chess as this enormously complicated game, but it starts with just twenty possible choices.
• “It’s a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and find no one there.” (Roosevelt)
• “This is to everyone who has been consistent.  You are already ahead of 90% of people.  Keep showing up; consistency compounds.”  (Madan)
• There are tens of thousands of books written on the topic of leadership, probably millions of podcasts and lectures.
  • In the end there perhaps is nothing more important than being your best authentic self — focused on getting better.
    • Those leaders who are authentic in the face of adversity stand out above the rest.
    • Too many leaders are trying to be something or someone they aren’t, and their team knows it.
    • In the end, the truth comes out; you might as well be your authentic self from the start.
    • Being self-aware is a skill, and it’s developed through being in vulnerable positions that expose the truth.
    • It’s inauthentic to be unwilling to learn, grow, and develop into a better version of yourself over time.  (Eades)
• Purge the poison from your life, your business, your organization; short term pain, but long-term gain.
• From this morning’s The Economist:
  • “The arc of current management thinking bends towards virtue.  Co-operation is what makes teams purr.  Low-ego empathy is the hallmark of a thoroughly modern boss.  Purpose matters to employees as much as pay; society looms as large as shareholders.  But appealing to people’s better nature and ignoring their vices is an incomplete approach.  Nor is being good necessarily great for your own career.”

• • “Take great care to not wake up in your own museum.”  (Birkenstock)
  • “The task of the leader is to get his (her) people from where they are to where they have not been.”  (Kissinger, 2022)
  • “You think he’s angry now, wait ’til we win him over.”  (Ted — Lasso)
  • “Who am I to judge?”  (Jorge Bergoglio)
  • Ever wish you had a better idea of where you were going — or when, or why, or how?
  • On the topic of vision… since that’s what this Newsletter is all about:
    • “You can’t outsource vision or passion — or for that matter, leadership.” (Andrew)
    • “Without a vision the people perish.” (Habiger, Etc., et al.)
    • “At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future, tradition has placed 10,000 (people) to guard the past.”  (Nobel Laureate, Maeterlinck)
    • “What if our best data are flawed?”  (Dilbert/ Adams)
    • “You can never plan the future by the past.”  (A. Lincoln)
    • Vision is a destination — a fixed point to which we focus all effort; strategy is a route, an adaptable path to get us to where we want to go.”  (Sinek)
    • “Vision is the capacity to see that which does not yet exist.”  (Eades)
  • Probably the best mission statement ever written, way back in 1787:
    • We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.
  • Clients often ask, “What is the difference between a mission and a vision?  And why do you need one of each?
    • A mission answers the question, Why do you exist?
      • Your answer should contain both logical and emotional appeal, very briefly stated.
    • A vision is an expression of awe, wonder, inspiration, focuis, possibilities, imagination, intentions, audacious goals… the best-possible outcomes relative to your mission; it draws others in like a black hole vortex or a powerful magnet while inviting them on your journey.  It should result in vertical head nods and goosebumps — or tears of joy.
      • “Vision is the reason we get out of bed each day to come to work.”  (Samantha)
      • A vision answers the question, “How are you going to become bigger, better, stronger, healthier, and happier?”
      • The perfect shared vision should both excite you lots and scare you a little bit.
    • A shared vision is the ultimate motivational and inspirational statement because your carefully chosen words perfectly articulate your message while inviting others to grab hold while making YOUR vision also their own.
    • We do what we can.
    • Very little is forever.
    • Sign on a wall:  May our work, the work of this office — Without A Vision Consultancy LLC — always be focused on results directed toward the achievement of this vision.