Tag Archives: life

January 29, 2015 · 3:24 pm

Show Me The Money

I read something this morning in USAToday that sparked a thought.  I was reading through the various Super Bowl stories and came across a piece on player movement on the Seattle Seahawks.  This was what piqued my interest:  

Michael Bennett had a more lucrative offer to leave the Seattle Seahawks as a free agent last March. But the standout defensive lineman chose to re-sign with the defending champions on a four-year, $28.5 million contract.

His logic was fairly simple.

“If you win, you’ll get more money,” Bennett said Wednesday. “If you’re a champion, people love you more. You get more stuff. You get to hang out. You get to be on TV.

“You can make a lot of money and be on a terrible team, and people don’t even recognize you.”

You may be thinking “what the heck does this have to do with my business, Keith?” but hear me out.  Every one of us at some point gets the opportunity to change jobs.  When we do so, I’d encourage each of us to approach it much the way Mr Bennett has.  Look at the team and the possibility for long-term success.  Being a member of a great team rubs off both in terms of how we’re perceived in the world as well as the standard to which we hold ourselves.  Being the best player of a lousy team may make you financially rich but being a part of a champion team makes you richer beyond your wallet.

It’s also something we need to get our employees to consider.  More money is great.  Is it enough to make up for the damage to your reputation caused by being a member of a lousy business?  What’s are the job prospects beyond the lucrative one?  How long will the terrible team be in business?  The onus is on us to run a championship team.  The onus is on our employees to choose wisely.

Food for thought…

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January 21, 2015 · 3:03 pm

Is Tech Hurting Our Kids?

This was kind of a disturbing thought:

According to Havas Worldwide‘s “New Dynamics of Family” report, one in three adults say technology is destroying family life, and half believe that allowing a child unrestricted access to the Internet is a form of child abuse. Some 92% of children have a digital footprint by the age of two, and now, most adults believe digital technology and the Internet are ruining childhood.

How do you feel about that?  I mean we’ve all seen a two-year old handle an iPad or cellphone.  Did they seem as if they were being abused?  Not to overstate the point since it really wasn’t the focus of the study but it does get one thinking.  You can read more about it here.

We raised two children just as the digital age was dawning.  Most of our family time was spent doing things outdoors although once the first Playstation hit our home we played video games together as well.  Not every day and not in lieu of other things.  At the end of the day I think blaming technology is misplaced.  Yes, an iPad is a convenient babysitter although all it has done for some is to take the place of the television. Why is it ok to park your kid in front of Sesame Street but not ok for them to play with the Sesame Street app?

I could make the opposite argument.  Not allowing kids to understand technology or the social sphere is worse.  Going forward the world is going to become more technologically based (although hopefully with better, more intuitive, self-correcting interfaces).  Kids need those skills.  They need to understand what is appropriate to share and what isn’t.  I agree that the kid who does nothing but communicate with a video game controller to the exclusion of human interaction is going to have issues.  It’s our job as parents to make sure there is a mix of real and virtual.  Excluding either one is bad in my book.

How do you feel about this?

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January 19, 2015 · 12:23 pm

Listening And Leading

I started to write another post about Dr. King in celebration of his birthday.  I went back to something I had written in 2011 which in turn went back to something from 2009.  In all candor, I stopped trying to write a new one after heading out into rants on the subject of race relations today. Since we don’t do politics here I’m reposting the older screed. Maybe in honor of Dr. King you’ll go see “Selma”, as imperfect as that film is, and reflect on his message.  

Today is the day we pause to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday.  I went back and looked at my post from two years ago, which was about dreams – specifically one of Dr. King’s dreams becoming a reality.  That was sort of focused on what he saw – his vision.  Today I want to focus on one of the great man’s best qualities that influenced how he acted to make that vision real.  I think it’s applicable to business.  No, it’s not going to be another ethics rant (although those are never out of style in my book).  Today, it’s about the most important skill I think all great businesspeople – and great leaders – posses.

To me, great leaders serve to fulfill the needs of their people.  For Dr. King, it meant endless meetings with various groups to understand their concerns and explain how broadening civil liberties to be more inclusive could help meet them.  For those of us in business, it means paying more attention to the concerns of our customers and co-workers than to our own agenda – these folks ARE our agenda to a certain extent, along with the underlying needs of our businesses.  In a word – listen.

Everyone wants to feel as if their ideas and thoughts are being heard if not acted upon. Without someone hearing them, action on those concerns is impossible. Listening, then speaking, brings trust.

I know this isn’t a new thought in this space but it came to mind on this day thinking of Dr. King.  If you go back to the early days of Dr. King’s involvement in the civil rights movement, it’s pretty clear that he was a reluctant leader. He was drafted to lead and was kind of unsure of himself.  As he listened to the members of the community and other clergy, he realized that he was simply a voice for the community and their agenda became his agenda.

Many of you will be familiar with Stephen R. Covey, who wrote that we ought to “seek first to understand, then to be understood.”  I think Dr. King, if he read pop-psychology, would have appreciated that.

What are you listening to today?

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