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It’s true in our lives and in our businesses. We make adjustments – changes and improvements – when something isn’t working very well. Usually, when things aren’t working at all or when something is truly broken.

Within an hour of arriving at the office, Jeff has Katherine sitting across from him. She’s been his executive assistant for three years. And she completely changed his life when she arrived. Her efficiency and organization helped him perform at levels he used to dream about. Everybody knows how valued she is to his operation.

Right now, he’s a nanosecond away from panic mode. Katherine has handed him her resignation and two-week notice. She’s moving to accept a new challenge. Jeff never imagined this would happen. He’s pleading with her and asking, “Is there anything I can do to change your mind?”

She’s sheepish, but mostly just wanting this day to be over. That and the next 2 weeks. Her excitement to begin the new journey of her life trumps whatever dread she’s now enduring.

Jeff gets angry. First at Katherine. Then at himself.

“I’ve taken her for granted for so long,” says Jeff. “I just assumed everything was great because it was great for me.”

A year earlier Katherine asked Jeff about an opening in his company. It was in marketing – something Katherine had told Jeff during her first interview was an area of interest. He forgot. And when the opening appeared he dismissed it as not being a good opportunity for her. “You’re learning much more with me,” Jeff told her.

But that wasn’t the point. Her happiness was the point. Jeff’s happiness blinded him to Katherine’s happiness. And now it’s too late. Well, it’s too late for Jeff to hang onto a key employee whose absence will dramatically alter his life. But it’s not too late for Jeff to learn – and change.

We all experience moments and events that seemingly force us to change or do something different (hopefully, something better). A long-term landlord raises the rent drastically on a new lease proposal. A supplier hits us with a 15% price hike. A key employee resigns. A major customer leaves us for a competitor. These events impose on us. So we face them.

Why wait until these things happen?

Why not deploy our creativity and improvement when things are going well?

Mostly because we don’t think about them until we have to. That’s our mistake. It’s human nature I suppose, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept it.

What if today we decided to change our intentions? Jeff wishes he had been more intentional in helping Katherine achieve her goals – and simultaneously avoiding the disruption his life is now experiencing.

Scenario planning doesn’t require the scenario to be current. Or real.

What if Jeff decided it would be to his advantage to think about Katherine’s career goals and happiness? How can Jeff behave more intentionally with not just his executive assistant, but with all employees to see that they’re engaged in work that means something to them? Work that might keep them on the team longer because it works for them – and the company?

What if you thought about your next lease renewal months in advance? What if the landlord hits you with a substantial rate increase? Plan for it now in advance of it happening.

What if you lost one of your biggest customers? Don’t wait until they walk out the door before you figure out what went wrong. Why not dive into their account (and their happiness) now? In fact, why not do that with all your top customers — the ones who compose the bulk of your revenues?

Psychologists have long known that humans typically need to be metaphorically grabbed by the lapels before we make a change. It’s that hitting rock bottom, having a pigpen moment (parable of the prodigal son) and all the other cliches that happen to be true.

Some years ago psychotherapist Amy Morin wrote an article for Forbes, “Change Doesn’t Happen Overnight: It Happens In These Five Stages.”

Ms. Morin lists these 5 stages:

1. Precontemplation
2. Contemplation
3. Preparation
4. Action
5. Maintenance

Each step builds on the prior. If you’re in pre-contemplation you’re not accepting responsibility for the need to change. You’ve got to get to the contemplation stage where you recognize the consequences of not changing. But you still must do more. So you move to preparation where you actually plan to make the change. The better the plan to change, the more likely the change will stick.

All of this is to move us toward action. This is where behavioral change finally starts. And let’s not forget the final stage because it can be the make-or-break phase, maintenance. Too frequently we quit just a few days in because we declare victory too soon. The temptation to think we’ve changed enough is strong. Eating healthy for a few days isn’t nearly long enough to establish a lifestyle change that will stick. Don’t quit the actions to change too soon.

Sit down with yourself. Where are you in these stages of change? Get yourself where you need to be so you can reach new heights of achievement and accomplishment.

Then, sit down with your leadership team. Discuss where you all are, as individuals and as a collective. Get your entire team – and your organization – where you need to be so you can blow the doors off of whatever past or current success you’re experiencing.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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Last week I watched an interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson. The conversation turned toward alcohol. Particularly, getting off of it – breaking the addiction to it.

Said Peterson, “Alcohol is a really good drug. It’s effective. But you need something better.” He went on to extol the virtues of finding things more productive, valuable and worthwhile – things constructive, not destructive.

I kept thinking about that statement, “You need something better.”

And I thought about you, me and every other leader devoted to growing great. It’s what we all need – something better!

Let’s think about the things in our lives that may be working at some level, but they’re destructive. We need something better. Something more valuable so we can ditch the destructive behaviors, processes, and philosophies.

Maybe drugs and alcohol are destructive habits for you. You likely already know you need something better. Perhaps you’ve not yet found it or figured it out. Let me encourage you to get busy getting it figured out. The downside of leaning on substances to mask our pain and fears, or to increase perceived bravery is too high. Losing family and friends. Wrecking our health. Risking our lives. No matter how effective drugs and alcohol are, they don’t make us better humans.

But when I was listening to Dr. Peterson I wasn’t so much thinking about drugs and alcohol, which were clearly the topical context for Peterson’s comment. Instead, I was thinking about business owners and other clients who have destructive habits that impact their businesses and their lives.

For example, Gary operates a successful website design firm. He launched the business as a solo-freelancer 12 years ago, building websites for local small businesses. Clients were happy and his business grew. Technology changed and Gary found himself needing to incorporate other technologies into client’s websites. Integration became increasingly important to his clients – integration with other software so their businesses could run more smoothly.

Gary confesses that life has been a constant, ongoing struggle since hiring his first employee. Now he has 9. And Gary laments, “I’m never satisfied with the work. Fact is, I’m not even satisfied with the effort.”

Gary complains how he has to step in to make anything and everything happen. If he doesn’t step in, then projects fail. If he doesn’t step in, sales don’t get made. “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done.”

Within a few meetings, I learn what Gary already knew. He just couldn’t yet bring himself to face it so squarely. He’s the problem.

He doesn’t know how to find the people he most needs. He’s unable to effectively interview and vet candidates. He’s addicted to chasing employees based on his desperation to “get help.” The result is he’s surrounded by the wrong people who lack the skills he most needs to please his clients. As a result, the culture is not conducive for achieving what Gary wants. Gary needs something better.

Marilyn launched a skincare line 8 years ago. The products grew in popularity with high-end spas, but now sales aren’t so good. Marilyn is stuck and unsure of how to remedy the current trends. High-end spas want their own private label products. Marilyn doesn’t want to produce products that don’t bear her brand. And she’s uninterested in broadening her market. She enjoys the prestige of the high-end spa market. You can see the dilemma. So can she, but she’s addicted (to beg a word) to the strategy that got her where she is. She’s living in the past and lamenting that market conditions have changed. She wished things would go back to how they once were.

Like Gary, Marilyn comes face to face with her problem. The businesswoman in the mirror. Marilyn’s destructive beliefs and desires to go back to a time when sales were brisk aren’t helping her move forward. She needs something better.

We’re starting a new month. A new week. I’m not accusing you of having destructive behaviors in your life or your business – but maybe! I am challenging you to look at your beliefs, philosophies, processes, systems, business models, principles and anything else to see if you need something better. Truth is, I’ll wager we’re all needing something better. And it never stops. Because it’s what growth is all about.

Change.

Fixing what ails us.

Improving what holds us back.

Making good things great.

Asking – and answering – the question, “What can we do to improve this?” How can we make our businesses and our lives more valuable?

By finding something better. So this month, let’s search more diligently for it, then chase it down until we catch it so we can incorporate it into our lives.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

RC

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We’ll wrap up this week’s freedom theme with some thoughts about the freedom to decide the people who we’ll allow to impact our lives. It’s the idea Leo Bottary and I concentrate on in our podcast, WHAT ANYONE CAN DO.

Who you surround yourself with matters!

YourLifeCounts.org is the website for a suicide prevention organization. They’ve got a page about what some young people have said about their peer group – the impact of the people surrounding them.

Mike (aged 16) says:
“I smoked my first cigarette when I was 11. I didn’t want to but all my friends were smoking and I didn’t want to be out of the group. Once I’d started I couldn’t stop. I was addicted… I wish I hadn’t started. I knew it was wrong and I didn’t want to.”

Liz (aged 15) says:
“I went to a party with my friends from school. My mom always told me not to allow any guys to take advantage of me and to stick together with my friends when I’m at parties. All my friends said they wanted to have some fun with a guy and most of them said they had been with a guy. I had never been with a guy and didn’t want to. But at this party all my friends danced with guys and I went into the garden with a guy who said he wanted to go somewhere quiet. I don’t know why I did that. He raped me in the garden while everyone was having fun at the party. The music was so loud no one could hear me. The cops came and it was horrible. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through.”

Ryan (aged 15) says:
“I like cars a lot. Me and my friends started stealing cars over a year ago. I didn’t want to do it but we all felt we could have some fun and get away with it… I’ve been caught twice by the cops and they say if I do this again I will go to jail. I don’t like what this has done to my mom and dad. They don’t want me to hang with these guys anymore but they’re my friends… I wouldn’t do this on my own but when I’m with the guys it makes me feel good and I can do stuff.”

Here’s the last statement on that page…

Remember that you are important. Your life counts, and you can make a difference in this world. If you ever need to talk about this or anything else, feel free to get in touch with us. We’re here for you.

I don’t have to convince you that mental health is supremely important. Your mental health.

Do I? Please don’t say you’re not convinced that your mental health is of paramount importance! Just do a Google search on it and you’ll find compelling evidence that would convince the biggest of skeptics. But just to make the point let me mention some numbers cited by the American Psychological Association.

As of January 2019 these are just suicide numbers. Depression, anxiety, chronic loneliness and a host of other issues can plague any of us.

30%
The increase in the rate of death by suicide in the United States between 2000 and 2016, from 10.4 to 13.5 per 100,000 people, according to a National Center for Health Statistics analysis of data from the National Vital Statistics System. The rate increased by about 1 percent per year from 2000 through 2006 and by about 2 percent per year from 2006 through 2016.

50%
The increase in suicides among girls and women between 2000 and 2016, from 4 to 6 per 100,000.

21%
The increase in suicides among boys and men between 2000 and 2016, from 17.7 to 21.4 per 100,000.

10
Suicide was the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States in 2016. It was the second-leading cause of death among people ages 10 to 34 and the fourth-leading cause among people ages 35 to 54.

As business owners, executives and leaders we know all too well how lonely it is professionally. Sometimes that professional loneliness is worn like some badge of courage because it’s how we think it’s supposed to be. And I get it.

We want to run our own show. That’s why we do what we do. Understood. But that doesn’t mean other people can’t provide value to help us.

We don’t want others making decisions for us. Again, it’s why we do what we do – and why we do it the way we do it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t lean on the perspective and wisdom from others to help us make better decisions.

Our lives are our habits. We’re in the habit of being alone. And in making others think we have all the answers, even when we don’t. Quite literally, we live by the moniker, “Never let ’em see you sweat.” We only want people to see our highlight moments. We hope they don’t see, or will quickly forget our low ones.

“If everything is important, then nothing is important.”

I was still a teenager when I first said it. I was about 25 when I made it part of my business philosophy.

It was born in my head as I watched a frantic business owner – the guy I worked for – anguish over every little detail. EVERY detail. He’d go off about the slightest thing. Meanwhile, I noticed things I felt were major – big constraints in our operation – would go totally unnoticed. It was that whole stepping over dollars to pick up pennies syndrome that I so frequently see among business owner control freaks.

After a few years of leading, I realized it had a deeper meaning. Business success demands consistently good decision-making. It’s problem-solving. With the intent of making the best decisions possible with the hopes of getting it more right than not. It’s priorities. Our ability to establish them for the organization and our ability to keep the company on track toward accomplishing specific objectives.

You need to look at your life as the resource – the asset – that it is. Every business owner and CEO has one fundamental job – to properly allocate resources where they can accomplish the most for the organization. You can’t support or fund everything. You know that. Except when you’re operating your life, you forget it. Or neglect it. Maybe intentionally (which is really stupid). Head in the sand syndrome and all that.

Sadly, among the first things to give is our mental welfare. We accept stress and all the rest of it with resignation that “this is just how it is.” But it’s not how it has to be. Because like those last lines of the YourLifeCounts.org website says, your life matters. I only take issue with their statement, “IF.” If you need to talk with someone, they’re ready. I appreciate it and my issue may be subtle but it’s enormous. People DO need to talk with somebody. The question is, “Who?”

Who will surround us?

For most of us, it’s purely organic. It’s our family, friends, professional acquaintances and social acquaintances. That’s it. It’s all these people who surround us because our kids play sports together and attend the same school. It’s all these people we go to church with. It’s all these people we encounter at work. It’s the people who sit near us at the stadium because we’re all season ticket holders. The bottom line is, it’s the people who surround us because something else – perhaps something very important to us – brought us in contact with one another.

It’s not that we went looking to join ourselves to these people because we knew they could help us elevate our lives.

It’s not that we intentionally figured out a group of people who shared our common goals and hurdles – other business people willing to let their hair down and share what they’d learned and what they were still working to figure out.

Why? Why not?

Because statistics prove that fewer than 2% of CEOs take advantage of such a thing. Crazy, whip-smart leaders capable of running businesses that generate the global economy can’t figure this out? What’s up with that?

I’ll keep preaching the truth of it. Courage!

Men and women courageous enough to make big bets on themselves and their ideas. And their companies. Men and women who have faced down world-class adversity to escape the gravitational pull of failure! But men and women who simply don’t stare down the barrel of one of their biggest challenges – WHO can help me go higher? What group of people can I surround myself with who get it? People who understand what my life looks like – what it feels like. Who?

The simple answer is people doing what you’re doing. People running companies. Business owners. People working diligently each month to make payroll, get the bugs out of that code, get those widgets off the assembly line, get those cars sold and delivered, get those custom houses built and sold, get that magazine published (and the advertising sold). All the stuff that we need to accomplish to make our operations successful – who can we surround ourselves with who gets it? All of it?

The answer isn’t singular.

I was born in a small Oklahoma town where the business leaders gathered in the morning at a local café for breakfast. They did more than mingle. They connected. They communicated. They collaborated. They networked. They became friends. That was also in a time and place where such things were commonplace around the world I suspect. Especially in smaller, more rural places where community may have been easier. Who can be sure?

The Ghostbuster’s movie question is worth asking, “Who you gonna call?”

When the chips are down and you’re struggling to figure it out – who you gonna call?

When the decision is big and looming even larger – who you gonna call?

When you feel like you need another pair of eyes to just take a look at it – who you gonna call?

When I was in junior high and high school I had a close group of friends. We were all good students and had many of the same classes together. Hours and hours were spent in free time sitting at large round tables in the library talking. Sharing experiences. Checking in with one another. It was like most of the groups I described earlier – organic. But it had a benefit we likely didn’t fully realize at the time. We were going together in this scholastic journey. And it was bigger than schoolwork. It was life stuff, too. We were free to decide we wanted to be there for each other. We cared about each other. And we trusted each other.

I’ve never experienced it since then. That was 45-50 years ago. And that makes me sad. Sad that during all these moments of our lives we’re making this much, much harder than it is. All because we don’t exercise the freedom to decide who will impact us.

That’s why my life’s work during this encore edition of my work is almost entirely focused on THE PEER ADVANTAGE by Bula Network. It’s an online group of just 7 small business owners who will get together – like me and my friends did around those round library tables – except we’ll get together using the Internet via a video conferencing platform. It’s a group with a single design – to provide freedom for every member to be intentional and purposeful about the people who can help them soar higher and more quickly overcome their challenges. Please go check it out at ThePeerAdvantage.com and hit that “apply now” button.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

RC

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Let’s put the G on the end of LUG – learn, understand, grow. Today we continue this series on freedom since Monday was Memorial Day here in the United States. The freedom to grow!

Growth has pains. But that doesn’t make it bad.

When I was young I had leg aches. My dad would come into my room at night and rub alcohol on my legs so I could sleep. I remember the leg aches, which were growing pains. It didn’t last long, but it was the price my body paid for my physical growth. I’m sure my parents would have been very concerned if I didn’t grow as they expected. Thankfully, I did grow. In spite of those pains.

Growth is such a big topic that no single episode could possibly do it justice. That’s why this podcast is devoted to the subject of growth and not just any growth — but the work we need to put in if we want to grow great. And great isn’t for me to determine for you, or for you to determine for me. It’s individual to each of us. I simply want to be a voice to encourage all of us to do our best to reach whatever potential we have. Nothing wrong with chasing an ideal – specifically the ideal version of ourselves.

Today’s topic is exercising the freedom we all have to grow. The thing that jumps out at me when I consider this notion is belief. So many people don’t believe they have the freedom to grow. They think they’re restricted or limited in some way. Their circumstances, their situation and whatever else they can point to prevent them from growing – prevent them from improving. And that’s what we mean we talk about growing. Improvement. Change for the better.

Do you ever wonder why a person with every visible advantage falters and can’t seem to find their way while another person with no apparent advantage figures out a way to soar? Puzzling, right?

I can overly simply it to one thing – belief. One person believes they have the freedom (and therefore, the ability) to improve. The other doesn’t believe it, or they have doubts. It’s the power of freedom and realizing it’s REAL.

Yesterday I mentioned the parable of the elephants with the ropes around their legs. It’s such a simple, but a powerful lesson for us in these issues of freedom to learn, understand and grow.

Popeye was the first I heard say of himself, “I am what I am.” Well, you’re not Popeye and neither am I. It’s a flimsy excuse for failing to change – improve and grow.

Do you know the enemy of this and other freedoms we’ve talked about this week?

Acceptance.

Put another way, complacency. Apathy. Indifference.

We tend to accept things about ourselves as truth – our reality. But the worst part is we accept these things as permanent when they’re only temporary…if that’s what we decide.

Let’s have some fun and engage in some mind games – some thinking games!

Think of a person you really admire. I don’t care what you admire about them, or why. Aim as high as you want. Go for a famous person if you’d like. I don’t care. Got somebody in mind?

Focus on what you most admire about them now. Again, it doesn’t matter what it is. Or why you admire it. But think of the trait or characteristic they have that you most admire.

Now for the fun part. Imagine that you’ve got that trait, but you’ve got it to such a degree that they’re doing this exercise thinking of YOU. As good as you think they are in that thing, imagine that you’re even better! So good in fact, they’d love to be as good as you.

Imagine what life would be like. How would you feel? How would you behave? How would your daily actions be different? Keep doing this. Give this some serious thought and really engage your imagination!

Unless you’re thinking of some world-class athlete (physical prowess is required and let’s face it – we don’t all have it)…or a world-class physicist (intellectual prowess is required and let’s face this, too – we don’t all have it)…you’re likely thinking of somebody with an ability that’s not superhuman. I did tell you that you’re not Popeye, didn’t I? Well, you’re not Spiderman either. ‘Cause my almost 4-year-old grandson has dibs on being Spiderman! 😀

We mock dreaming and it’s pathetic. Dream more. Dream about what your ideal self looks like. What’s different about your ideal self from who or what you are right now? Why ACCEPT that gap as your final destiny? Why ACCEPT that you’ll never be closer to that ideal than you are right now? Who made that rule and imposed it on you?

Look down at your legs. Is there a rope tied around one of your legs? Then you’re free to grow.

Stop accepting the status quo as the last chapter of your book. Today is a chapter. Your reality is what it is, but that doesn’t mean it can’t change. Our past is our past. We wrote those chapters already. They only impact future chapters when we refuse to embrace the freedom we have to grow and write whatever chapters we want for our future. Combined, they’re chapters that make up the story of our lives. So while we’re still alive let’s get busy writing the best chapters possible.

Learn. Understand. Grow. And let’s craft chapters that show all that improvement.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

RC

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LUG = learning, understanding, growing

Today’s let think about appreciating and taking advantage of our freedom to understand. Life is about leadership if only in the sense that every one of us is responsible for leading our own lives. As business owners, executives and entrepreneurs we’re also responsible for leading our organizations.

The spectacular thing about the freedom to understand is that too frequently we’re uninterested in taking advantage of it. Look around at the cultural debates. Pick the topic. Any topic. Politics. Morality. Anything. Everything. Disagreement abounds.

Joe thinks real estate investments will be safe for the next decade.

Betsy thinks the real estate market is due a correction or worse within the next 3 years.

Forget why they believe what they do. They just do. And both are dug into their position. It’s what closed minds do – dig in and shut off any outside influences or information.

Neither is interested in understanding the viewpoint of the other. As a result, both lose. They lose the freedom to understand even though it’s readily available to them. They confuse understanding with agreement. Maybe they’re even fearful of being converted to a different opinion, but not likely. Mostly, they’re too lazy to put in the effort required for understanding. But let’s think about what each of them loses.

There are benefits and values in having our ideas challenged. Nevermind that we’re not required to give up our ideas, beliefs or viewpoints – but if we’re so scared ours won’t hold up, then it makes sense to avoid having them challenged. Even if it’s done respectfully. What kind of value do they have if they won’t withstand the slightest challenge?

There’s value in defending them. Or even in trying to defend them. It forces us to verbalize what we think and feel. That helps us and those who may be seeking to better understand us. Challenges sharpen us and our thinking.

Some years ago I began to need reading glasses. At first the slippage in my eyesight was so subtle it was hardly noticeable. But over time I found it difficult to read the watch on my wrist. I knew I wasn’t seeing clearly.

But I didn’t know how unclear my vision was until I decided to try on some reading glasses one day while I was in the store. I slipped on a pair and BAM! Crystal clear. Sure, I hated having to wear them, but it was better than not being able to see. And I realized reading – which I love to do – was so much easier with the glasses.

The problem with blind spots and our failure to understand is it’s not nearly as clear. If you know what good vision looks like, it’s easier to realize this ain’t it. But when you hold a viewpoint that’s the only one you’ve ever held, it’s super hard to realize there may be differing views – with valid reasons behind them. It doesn’t mean they’re right, or more right than yours, but why not take advantage of understanding them? At worst, it’ll expand your thinking. At best, it may provide you ample evidence to realize you were wrong. Presto! Now you can be right. Or more right. Where’s the loss in that?

I know people who can speak, write and understand multiple languages. I envy their abilities. Their ability provides them with a level of understanding beyond what I’m capable of. So it goes with our dedication to understanding others. It also helps us better understand ourselves. It rounds us out and helps us relate better to others. Who among us doesn’t need to improve that?

Freedom to understand reminds me of the parable of the elephants.

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

We can understand, but too often we choose not to. Maybe we think it’s impossible. Maybe we enjoy filling in the gaps of our understanding with predetermined notions. Who knows why? Or cares? Mostly I want us to realize we’re paying an enormous price by not putting in the work to exercise this freedom.

Clarity trumps fuzziness. In eyesight and in understanding. The dialogue (even potential debate) required to gain greater understanding is helpful for all concerned. The other day I was engaged in a lively conversation about leadership authors. I’m a fan of Jim Kouzes and Warren Bennis. He was a big fan of John Maxwell. It’s like me being a fan of apples, but he likes oranges. During the discussion, he admitted he hadn’t been exposed to Kouzes or Bennis. He had discovered Maxwell when he was younger and just stuck with him. I didn’t disparage Maxwell, but I did explain why I found greater value in some other leadership experts. I understand why he’s fond of Maxwell. He understands why I more prefer others. It wasn’t about converting one another. It was about better understanding each other and along the way, we both gained some insights into how we viewed leadership.

I rather enjoyed defending my view and I’m certain he did. It wasn’t an issue of who was right or who was wrong. We each had our preferences, but we ended the conversation better understand what was behind those preferences. I think we both won something valuable.

Let me end with giving you a couple of words to consider. Think of them in terms of the value they can provide. The words are friction and resistance. Without them, there’s no innovation, no improved understanding, and no traction.

Ideas get proven. Financials endure due diligence. Business decisions of all sorts endure scrutiny. For good reason. We want to prove things. We want to get it more right than not. There’s no way to do that without exercising the freedom to understand.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

RC

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Yesterday was Memorial Day here in America. That makes it a fitting week to focus on freedom. Today let’s consider our freedom to learn. 

As entrepreneurs, business owners, executives, and leaders we should be on the frontline of learning. Daily in our organizations, we’re challenging people to improve so it only makes sense that we step up as leaders and show folks the way.

You hear me speak often about LUG – learning, understanding, and growth. Like most quips, it’s an oversimplification perhaps, but I hope it helps you remember. Simply put, leaders – the very best ones – are learners.

And I’m not talking about formal education. I don’t care about that. The best schools on the planet don’t produce leaders. Leaders emerge from every dark corner and every bright mountain top around the planet.

Jack Welch observed 5 traits of leadership, 3 of which, he asserts, a person either has to doesn’t. So Jack believes 2 of the 5 traits can be learned. The others are innate, according to him.

1. Positive Energy
2. The Ability To Energize Others
3. Edge
4. The Talent To Execute
5. Passion

Welch argues that positive energy and the ability to energize others is largely hardwired. It’s personality driven. Likewise, passion. People seem to have an intensity and curiosity or they don’t. These traits are part of a person, or they’re not.

Welch believes that leaders don’t exhibit a lack of energy or negative energy. They have positive energy built in and it influences others.

Positive energy is infectious. Contagious. It attracts team members and helps energize people to accomplish the tasks.

Edge is how Welch describes a leader capable of making tough decisions. Leaders don’t waffle, but rather give distinct, decisive answers. Leaders are intent on learning what they can in order to make the right decision more often than not.

Leaders get things done. They learn how to implement. It’s not enough to decide. It demands follow through. Otherwise, it’s all just talk.

Leaders care about themselves, their people, their goals, their organizations and their markets. Great leaders care about their customer base. This passion drives them to excel.

I don’t take issue with Jack. Mostly, I remain a big fan of his work. But don’t let this list get in your way of pursuing learning. You’re free to learn. Embrace that. Believe it.

Can we change who we are?

Sure. If we don’t believe that, then we don’t believe growth and improvement are possible. The degree to which we can change is largely very individual and personal. Some may be able to change dramatically. Others not so much. But I might argue that it likely has little to do with ability as it does willingness.

The catalyst for our change plays a part.

Yesterday, I binge watched Vietnam in HD on the History Channel. I’ve seen it before, but since I was a child of the 1970s I’ve been fascinated with that war. I grew up watching Walter Cronkite on the news report the body count and show various war correspondents submit reports.

As I watched these stories of life-changing experiences I once again realized how people’s lives are forever altered. Young men who escaped physically whole from that war – not unlike young men from any war I suppose – altered their lives. Some dramatically.

Sunday night CBS News 60 Minutes did a Memorial Day report on a story first reported a few years ago featuring a ridiculously talented Green Beret commander, Derrick Anderson. Anderson was accused of being a poor, ineffective commander who caused the death of his own men from friendly fire. It seems the accusation is an easy out for the military, but it has certainly changed Derrick’s life. After serving, he entered law school where he aspires to serve people navigating accusations like the ones he has endured.

I don’t know what Derrick will do now that he’s graduated law school, but I suspect his experience in being falsely accused is driving major changes in his ambitions. So it goes.

We’re likely capable of so much more than we’ll ever realize. Hopefully, our lives won’t require some drastic, life-altering event to force it on us. We’re free to learn by simply making up our minds that we want to learn.

The question is, “What?” What are we going to learn?

That’s for you to decide and figure out, but let me end with a few suggestions.

Learn all you can about yourself.

Learn all you can about others. Figuring out what makes people tick and why is highly valuable. Not so you can judge them, but so you can take the next step (one we’ll talk about tomorrow)…understand them.

Learn how to make better decisions. Learn to get better evidence. Commit yourself to evidence-based leadership where you don’t forego your gut or emotions, but where you gather facts to prove whether your gut may be right, or not.

Learn all you can about your customers. What do they most want? What makes them happy?

Be curious enough to learn all you can about you and your ability to successfully interact with others. You’re free to learn whatever you’d like. Embrace that freedom and dive into it today. Don’t wait until something external drives your direction. Make up your mind that forward is the direction you want to go. Learn how to move faster in that direction so you can go as far as possible, and help take others with you.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

RC