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This week Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been appearing before a Senate committee on privacy, data breaches and the ethics of using customer data. 

Volkswagen appointed a new CEO to replace a leader who had the awful task of navigating the company past an emissions scandal in which the company admitted to rigging some 11 million cars worldwide with software to cheat pollution tests. The company paid more than $30 billion in fines for the scandal which broke back in 2015.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman drew some fire this week regarding racism on the platform.

Just another week of the usual leadership news. And we’re just talking about business leadership. 

Morals. Ethics. Doing the right thing. No matter what.

From a safe distance, it seems so easy. Simple even. In hindsight it all seems so…well, stupid. Maybe it was. Maybe it was stupid. Even from the start. But maybe not. Maybe over time it become something more. Growing like a snowball rolling down a steep hill. 

I’m not judging. Nor am I condoning. I don’t subscribe to situational ethics. Right is always right. Wrong is always wrong. Black and white. 

However, life is a big blend of grayscale shades. 

The C-suite should be like any other leadership group, above reproach. But greed happens. Sometimes it’s for money. Sometimes it’s for more power. Sometimes it’s to deal a blow to the competition. It’s almost always easily explained with logic that makes it seem it’s for the good of the business. 

Right is right. Always. 

Confidence and worry are practical factors. Why erode and amplify the other with questionable behavior or decisions? It’s the stuff CEOs need to function at their highest levels. 

But some leaders lack the character to be guided by conscience. So when they behave immorally or unethically, no problem. They’re not bothered in the least. I’m not cynical enough to think that’s typical though. 

More likely are the slides. One compromise, seemingly not such a big deal escalates into a bigger, and bigger deal. And before you know it, we’re knee-deep (or deeper) in a pit we never intended to even get close to. 

CEO’s can be surrounded by people who think decisions for the best financial outcome will resonate with the C-suite. It can lead to people willing to push boundaries knowing they’re not the final decision maker. That distance allows them to feel okay with their suggestion while the #1, the CEO, has to bear the real burden of responsibility and accountability. 

It’s just one more reason why every top-level leader needs people surrounding them willing to challenge, ask hard questions and remain dedicated to a north star of doing what’s right — no matter what! Being an unclothed emperor is a no-win game. It requires insight and perspective to see the values and benefits of every decision — while simultaneously seeing the risks and downsides. 

Any leader willing to shift their standards of what’s right based on financial outcomes, or anything else, is on a slippery slope. I could make arguments for the rightness of it, but let’s keep it business focused. It’s just good business. It’s better business to avoid immoral, unethical and illegal choices. 

Commitment to avoid even entertaining discussions about choices that are clearly “out of bounds” sets the tone of an organization that won’t foster those options. It puts the team in a frame of mind to innovate in ways that are purely in bounds. No matter what. 

What too few may consider is the impact unethical choices have on the entire organization. If the CEO will make a choice in the name of something other than doing what’s right, then at the individual level, so will other members of the team…all the way down the line. Kids mimic parents. Employees mimic their leaders. The fish rots from the head down.

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My generation was raised by the World War II or Korean War generation (I only use that to give context to our parents’ generation). Old school. 

Just the other morning Twitter was somewhat buzzing about a little video clip of Alabama’s football coach, Nick Saban, ripping into a defensive back. We often associate “old school” training with ripping and snorting. We think of Red Foreman, the dad on That 70’s Show. Or maybe we think of Frank Barrone, the dad on Everybody Loves Raymond. Gruff, blunt characters who didn’t tolerate any nonsense, unless it was their own. 

Some years ago during a conversation with a young person seeking some counsel, I found myself saying (for the first time) a truth that I’ve long believed…

I am who I am because of the old men in my life.

Yes, I am who I am because of the old women in my life, too. But in that moment I reflected on the quick moment of accountability provided by old men in my life. The times old men shot me a look, or made some moaning sound, or even hollered at me. Moments of correction that seemed part of my male mainstream consciousness even though I had yet to hear John Lee Hooker’s line from Boom Boom – “a-how-how-how-how.” I remember hearing such guttural utterances like that all my life as a little boy. By 1973 when ZZ Top released the song – La Grange – with similar sounds, it was nothing extraordinary to me. I’d heard the old men in my life use similar sounds to get our attention and make us behave all my life.

Learning to accept instruction and correction has been crucial for me. And thankfully, I’ve not had to learn everything the hard way. 

Fact: We lead people. We manage the work. 

Leadership is about getting things accomplished by serving the people who do the work. It’s about helping them achieve more (faster and better) than they could without your help. No business can scale without solid leadership. Learning to lead is foundational for any business owner intent on growing their business. You’ve got to learn to listen and follow before you can learn to lead.

Every leader was influenced by people who helped them develop their leadership. People taught them things. Showed them things. They observed, watched, paid attention and began to try things. Sometimes they got it right quickly. Other times they didn’t and they had to change and improve. They’ll all tell you they learned by following the counsel, advise and patterns set by people who were leading them. 

Leaders pass it on by helping developing leadership in others. It starts with first being open and available to learn…and follow.

Grow Great is going to be bringing you some brief 20-minute or so conversations with CEO’s, founders and owners. They’ll share how people influenced their leadership and share with us some of the most important leadership lessons they learned. I plan to bring you as many of these conversations as I can, from as many different types of leaders as possible.

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Thank you!

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If the market doesn’t hit you in the mouth, then the economy will. You may think Mike Tyson is an idiot, but he did say something very smart.

Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth.

Here’s the list of recessions I’ve experienced since I began working:

1. November 1973 to March 1975 (the oil crisis and stock market crash)
2. January 1980 to July 1980 (Federal Reserve raised interest rates dramatically to stave off inflation)
3. July 1981 to November 1982 (inconsistent exported oil and tight money supply)
4. July 1990 to March 1991 (increased inflation, rising interest rates, and lower consumer confidence)
5. March 2001 to November 2001 (the bursting of the dot-com bubble)
6. December 2007 to June 2009 (dubbed “The Great Recession” prompted by the subprime mortgage crisis)

Yes, I remember high-interest rates. I’ve experienced the double-digit mortgage (in the mid-80’s it wasn’t uncommon for people to sell a home, and write a check to the BUYER). Rates soared north of 13%, something anybody under the age of 40 can’t fathom. 

Experience matters. Learning from it matters more!

Being skilled in critical thinking is the ability to take one’s thinking apart systematically, to analyze each piece, assess it for quality (accuracy, validity, etc.) and then improve it. It’s the basis of our decision-making ability. Cognitive science has established certain elements of reasoning: purpose, question, information, inference, assumption, point of view, concepts, and implications. 

Sounds sterile and ideally logical, but there’s emotion sprinkled all over the place. Emotion like feeling stunned…when we get smacked in the mouth. Emotion like feeling disheartened when that punch puts us on our back. Emotion like not wanting to get up when we’re knocked down. Or the emotion of wanting to get back up as quickly as we can to keep on fighting. 

“If you have bananas on a pole, you’ll lose your bananas.”  -Dr. Claud Bramblett, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas in Austin

For more than a decade I’ve heard the story repeated. I didn’t know where it originated until I decided to find out. Here’s an infographic of the story.

Here’s the summary as evidenced by the infographic:

• A group of scientists placed 5 monkeys in a cage and in the middle, a ladder with bananas on the top.
• Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water.
• After a while, every time a monkey went up the ladder, the others beat up the one on the ladder.
• After some time, no monkey dared to go up the ladder regardless of the temptation.
• Scientists then decided to substitute one of the monkeys. The 1^st thing this new monkey did was to go up the ladder. Immediately the other monkeys beat him up.
• After several beatings, the new member learned not to climb the ladder even though he never knew why.
• A 2^nd monkey was substituted and the same occurred. The 1^st monkey participated in the beating of the 2^nd monkey. A 3^rd monkey was changed and the same was repeated (beating). The 4^th was substituted and the beating was repeated and finally, the 5^th monkey was replaced.
• What was left was a group of 5 monkeys that even though never received a cold shower, continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder.
• If it was possible to ask the monkeys why they would beat up all those who attempted to go up the ladder … I bet you the answer would be … “I don’t know — that’s how things are done around here” Does it sound familiar?
• Don’t miss the opportunity to share this with others as they might be asking themselves why we continue to do what we are doing if there is a different way out there.

Competing For The Future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad (1996) seems to be the first citation of such an experiment, but no attribution is given. No experiment is cited. And I couldn’t find any evidence that it’s true. It reminds me of that photograph of wolf pack that gets shared so frequently. It sounds good, but it’s completely false. Fiction. 

According to the website, TruthOrFiction.com —

David Attenborough took the photo in question for the BBC’s “Frozen Planet” Series in 2011. It shows 25 timber wolves hunting bison in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. The female alpha wolf led the pack, and the others followed in a single file line to save energy as they made their way through deep snow, according to the environmental website Benvironment.

Wolf packs are typically about half the size of the pack pictured in the photo from 2011. Most packs don’t hunt prey the size of bison (which is 10 times the size of a wolf), but the larger pack is able to. And the wolves walking in a single file line through deep snow is a classic example of how they’re able to use weather conditions to their advantage while hunting prey that’s much larger than them.

Also, the idea that wolves have to be on the lookout for “ambushes” or attacks isn’t true, either. Wolves are at the top of the food chain and have no natural predators. Aside from turf battles with other wolves (which wouldn’t start in an ambush) bears are the only threat to wolves in Canada. Even so, experts say that bears are only able to prey on wolf pups because grown wolves are too fast, swift and clever to get caught by them.

The Fast Company Consultant Debunking Unit took that monkey story to the University of Texas professor and he gave them that terrific quote: “If you have bananas on a pole, you’ll lose your bananas.” 

This doesn’t mean that our assumptions are always spot on. Or that we can’t get it wrong. Truth is, the fact that these (and countless other) stories get widely circulated as fact proves the point. We can deceive ourselves. We can be deceived by others. Our assumptions can lead us to make poor decisions. 

Enter the punch to the mouth. I might edit Mike Tyson’s quote and say that we all have a plan until our assumptions (or our conclusions) get punched in the mouth. 

It’s about leadership. It’s about business.

Every executive makes some assumptions. Those assumptions are the result of inferences we’ve made. 

For example, one I often use is getting cut off in traffic. A person cuts us off and we can say to ourselves, “That guy is a jerk.” That’s our inference. Our assumption is that everybody who cuts us off in traffic is a jerk. 

But we could just as easily choose to have it happen and then say to ourselves, “That guy is panicked for good reason.” Our assumption then might be, everybody who cuts us off has a good reason for needing to get somewhere fast. Maybe they have a family emergency or something of that sort. 

What we do will be based on our view of the situation. It’s no more logical to assume one than the other really. Our emotions help us ascribe whatever meaning to it we want. If we think the driver who cut us off is a jerk we may exhibit road rage. But if we feel empathy for a person who may be rushing to the hospital for a family emergency, then we aren’t remotely tempted to exhibit road rage. 

Today is April 3, 2018 and we’ve been experiencing some prosperity. World-wide. Money is nearly free, and easy (for folks who want to raise money). Interest rates are low. Since The Great Recession we’ve had a pretty good time. It’s not going to last because good times never do. I started today’s show listing the various economic downturns – the punches to the mouth – that I’ve experienced. And I’m old, but I’m not ancient. 😉 

I’ve seen lines for as long as the eye could see to just fill up our car. I’ve had a mortgage with insanely high-interest rates (compared to today). I’ve experienced what the world called, “runaway inflation” where prices soared while incomes didn’t. All these punches to the mouth have shown me – in good times and in bad – that there’s a lot more to it than being lucky or having good timing. 

Back in 2010, the Huffington Post did a piece on big brands born during bad economic times. On the list were brands like GE, IBM, General Motors, Disney, Burger King, Microsoft and Apple. Of course, scads of businesses closed up shop when the going got tough. Sometimes that punch in the mouth knocks you out. That’s not good.

But if you can take the punch, survive it and learn from it…it can be a real advantage. 

For starters, it shows you what you’re made of. We all like to think we know ourselves, but we only kinda sorta do. We think we can take a punch, but there’s no way to know for sure until you get hit. 

I go the gym daily. I see guys half my age lifting insane amounts of weight, building ridiculously sized muscles. Sometimes I’ll look at them and wonder, “If that guy came at me really hard, would I be able to fend him off.” I like to think so, but honestly, I’d likely have to rely on my getaway speed more than anything else. That and my ability to scream like a 13-year-old girl. 😀 

Truth is, we don’t know until it happens. When business is hard – or the economy goes south – we learn some things about ourselves (and our company) that we wouldn’t otherwise learn. 

It’d be great if we learned it in real time, but oftentimes we don’t learn it until it’s over. Sometimes after we’ve been soundly beaten. Defeat is only temporary though if we’re determined to stay in the game. The game of business. Only the novices have yet to fail. Those of us who have lived a bit have all had more than our fair share of defeat and failure. 

Punches to the mouth teach us how to fight better. They don’t merely toughen us, but they teach us how to avoid being hit quite so hard the next time. Duck. Dodge. Perry. Move. 

Knowing when to retreat and when to attack is a vital skill for every business leader. Increasingly, we rely on accurate data. It’s accessible in real-time with speed unlike anything in the past. I’ve spent countless hours pouring over data provided by organizations (like newspaper companies, which used to be the best depositories of consumer behavior). Information that was kept in printed form, or on microfiche (Google that). I’ve got a ton more data accessible via my iPhone than I’ve ever had before. 

Part of our punch to the mouth today may be too much data. We’re getting smacked in the face with so much data it’s hard to make sense of it all. Which is why A.I. (artificial intelligence) is so critical to our future. We have to have help to figure out what it all means. 

But getting hit had value. We don’t look forward to it. We train to avoid it. But until we’re knocked down and dragged out we don’t fully understand the pricetag on achievement and success. We just think we know. 

Outliers abound. The wannabe actress goes to Los Angeles to become a star. On one of the first auditions, she gets a part. Then another. And another. And quickly ascends to the heights she dreamed of. Meanwhile, millions of others are having a very different experience. They’re working hard to bulldoze their way to success. Knocking down walls. Being knocked down. Bleeding. Sweating. Feeling the pain of the struggle. And our quick success actress is experiencing none of that. Yet. She may find her first punch to the mouth catastrophic because she didn’t see it coming. Quick success may not have made her success-ready. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of quick success. Just remember, the punch is coming though. If not now, later. Brace yourself.

So the punch reveals important data about us. It tells us more about ourselves than any success would ever hope to. If success amplifies who we are, then failure (or the punch) shows the real us. The genuine person we really are. And it may not be who or what we want. So we’re armed with an opportunity to respond to the punch by working to become more like the person we want to be. Good to know, right?

And far better to know we can’t yet take a punch than to con ourselves into thinking we can until one day we’re knocked out. 

It also shows us that our business and our career aren’t linear. Nobody has had a hockey stick career curve. Look at everybody’s Linkedin profile and it appears we’ve all just gone up and up and up. I suppose the youngest among us are the only ones who’ve had that kind of a career curve. That’s only because they’ve not yet been in the game long enough to take a punch. 

When your career took a punch, what did you do? If you’re still in the game, you got back up. That may look different for all of us. Maybe the founder who didn’t navigate quickly enough to escape the gravitational pull of failure and crashed the company finds herself going to work as a mid-level executive. Maybe the CEO who raised millions of dollars in VC funding, only to realize that the runway wasn’t long enough (and would frankly never be long enough) pivots into a completely different industry sector. Whatever it looks like…it’s a response to the punch in the mouth. A response that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. 

Learning to fight is part of it. Beating up weak opponents doesn’t make us tougher. But weaker. 

Getting smacked around shows us a thing or two. Important things. Critical things. 

I’ve got more wrinkles than ever before. Working out and proper diet are far more critical to my physical well-being than ever before. The metabolism is much slower. So are my reflexes. 

But it all represents the battles I’ve fought and survived. I may not have thrived during each of them. Nobody does. But I got back up off the pavement. I kept swinging while learning to duck more quickly. Learning to counter punch more effectively. So did you. So did all of us who have experienced tough economic times. 

I’m not a prophet, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize there’s another downturn coming. Are you ready? Are you prepared to be punched in the mouth? Do you know how you’ll respond? If it’s not your first punch, you’ve likely got some ideas. But if you’ve never been hit before, we’re about to learn if you can take a punch or not. And like every downturn, the market makes winners and losers of us all. I hope you win!

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I’m old so I’ve encountered my fair share of dumb ideas. Many of them were my own. I own my stupidity. Why not? It’s hard to hide from it, so you may as well lean into it. And hopefully, learn from it.

Do you have any recurring dreams? Or nightmares?

I’m not sure if I do or not, but I do sometimes dream about being back in college and falling behind. When I started college I was going into engineering. Talk about a major, “What are you thinking?” period of my life! I hated it. Hated every minute of it. I wasn’t wired for it, had no desire to do it, but I was practical to my core. It seems practical. No matter that I had no drive or desire (or capacity) for it. So a semester would begin and I’d go to the first class of some subject. I’d go until I stopped going. I’d just blow it off because I H-A-T-E-D it so. I knew what was going to happen. I was going to avoid going, fall behind and end up dropping the class prior to the “drop” deadline. Dropping was like a lifeline. What else are you going to do when you’re 18, working nearly full-time and trying to go to school full-time and you love your work, but you HATE school? 

I look back and even though I know what I was thinking, it still prompts me to ask myself, “What were you thinking?” Namely, what was I thinking by even pursuing that education? Answer: I was thinking I should pursue something practical that would earn a decent living. 

Maybe the more important question, and what today’s show is really about, is — What wasn’t I thinking? 

I wasn’t thinking long-term. I wasn’t even thinking past college. I never considered, “Do you want to do this for a living after college?” That question alone would have altered my course much earlier. Turns out, after a few years of hating every second of it, I left engineering and went to journalism where I felt like completely different. I loved it. I immersed myself in it. It was more up my alley. No, I still didn’t think I’d enter that field professionally, but it seemed practical from a skill perspective (writing and speaking are always nice skills to develop, I thought). By this point, I really felt – but never talked about and didn’t think too much about it – that business was going to be where I’d spend my life. Turns out I was right! 

This is just one example I could give you. I’m sure you’ve got a ton of them in your life, too. Times where we just took the wrong path. Made the poorer decision. Didn’t get it quite right. Or didn’t get it even close to right. 

What were you thinking? If you’re in the throes of it right now, “What ARE you thinking?” Deep down you feel you’re on the wrong path. You picked the wrong fork in the road. Maybe it was a mile back, or maybe it was 1,000 miles back. No matter, you know it’s the wrong course! 

I talk with lots of business people about a variety of ideas, plans and strategies. My habit is to work toward understanding the answer to that question, “What are they thinking?” As they make these decisions, what’s behind it? What’s driving that choice? What’s driving their conclusion that this is their best option at this moment?

Sometimes the talk is about a pivot. Or a new business idea. Or the need to accomplish something (like more sales, or reduction in overhead). 

While the motive can sometimes be clear, the path chosen doesn’t. And the more I ask and the more they explain what they’re planning to do, or what they hope to do, the more I sometimes sense they question – deep down – whether or not they’re being smart or wise. Business can make fools of us all. I don’t care how brilliant or experienced you are. 

Each time I leave one of these conversations I’m struck by the opposing question, “What wasn’t I thinking?”

What should I have thought about that may have altered my course, and helped me make a wiser decision? If I go back to my college days I’d have saved a ton of money, time and spared myself lots of misery if I would have simply thought about some things I frankly never did think about. Not early on at least.

I didn’t think about what I was most suited for. 

I didn’t’ think about what my natural talents were.

I didn’t think about what fueled my energy.

I didn’t think about how any part of my education would help me build a life I most wanted.

I didn’t even think about the life I most wanted.

I was only thinking it was something I had to endure and get through. Filled with dread each day. Hating every minute of it. 

No wonder I was making some pathetic choices. And no wonder I didn’t succeed. I wasn’t thinking about the most important things that would have helped me make better choices. 

Right now. At this very moment, you’re making some decisions. Choices are happening, either in your head or ones you’ve already put into action, and you don’t feel good about them. You made them based on some thinking, but more importantly, you made them based on some things you neglected to think about. 

What are you thinking? Better yet, what are NOT thinking? 

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Stupidity and foolishness know no bounds. They don’t respect any of us. 

The other day I was doing some computer work and the ID channel was on. It’s the channel crime mystery lovers watch. A show about the murder of a woman was on. Turns out her husband, an MIT educated guy with a Ph.D. did it. I caught enough of the program to tell it was one stupid decision after another that climaxed with him killing his wife. I was thinking what most of us always think when we hear such things, “How can a guy who is so smart be so stupid?”

Because we all have a tremendous capacity for stupidity and foolishness. Even the smartest and wisest leaders can make stupid choices. 

Many people appropriately admire the goodness or greatness of General George Patton. But quite often this brilliant general was known to jam his foot firmly into his mouth. Many leaders have allowed their ego (or something else) to override their senses. It happens. 

Last night CBS 60 Minutes’ Anderson Cooper interviewed Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claims to have been intimate with Donald Trump. Lots of discussions have ensued about leaders and U.S. Presidents who have been guilty of “indiscretions.” Indiscretions? Well, that’s being polite. Sort of like calling Ms. Daniels an “adult film” star is a polite way of saying she’s a porn star. President Kennedy wasn’t the first (and he did it while in office), nor will Trump be the last. Smart men behaving foolishly. 

I don’t care what your politics are. Or what color the state is where you live and work. It doesn’t matter to me. And notice I’ve not said anything about “great leaders.” That’s likely far more subjective than smart. Whether you loved Kennedy, Clinton or Trump. Or hated them. These (and many others) are inarguably smart guys who were able to achieve some success in life prior to being elected President, which requires a certain degree of smartness. 

Really smart people – smart leaders (people who are at the top of the food chain in an organization) – can be stupid and make really bad choices. Rather than throw rocks, what can we learn to help our own leadership? It’s a loaded question and there are likely as many reasons as there are people and situations, but let’s give it a go and try to learn some things.

Selfishness Trumps Them All

Pun intended. 

Every single act of foolishness and every stupid choice can likely be traced all the way back to selfishness. The leader was primarily (maybe only) thinking of himself. 

General Patton, like many other leaders, could blurt out things that others found appalling. In each case, he was thinking of what he wanted to express, or maybe spewing out thoughts he had been harboring for a long time. Sometimes it may have been an expression of frustration. No matter. It was about him.

From infidelity to immorality to murder, smart people and smart leaders can become so focused on themselves they lose sight of wisdom. Good judgment leaves them as they grow increasingly focused on what they want. 

I’m a baby boomer. I grew up knowing one thing about leadership. It’s service. The phrase “servant leadership,” is credited to Robert K. Greenleaf who wrote about it in 1970. Sorry, Bob, but you did not invent it. Jesus exemplified it. It’s as ancient as time itself. I thought it was the only kind of leadership worth exercising. For me, as a young leader (decades ago), it was THE way to lead. The other option was a dictatorship, which meant being an autocrat. And I’ve always hated autocracy. 

Patton loved his army and his men. Yet, in a self-centered moment, he could behave like a mad dictator. So can you. 

And in one fell swoop, you can undo years of good. 

Empathy Drives Us To Serve

Thinking of those entrusted to our leadership…making sure they’ve got what they need when they need it…helping each of them elevate their performance to achieve success together and individually. 

You can’t do that when you’re wrapped up thinking mostly about yourself. 

Smart leaders sometimes make stupid choices because they think it’s about them. And they don’t think about anybody else. It may be momentary. It may be who they are, autocratic jerks. Smarts don’t matter if you don’t properly deploy them…and as the leader, that’s your only job. To marshal resources (or acquire them) to serve your people so they can succeed. Cause you’ve got the authority to flatten their speed bumps. And to knock down the barriers that get in their way. 

Sometimes smart leaders are making stupid choices that make it harder for their people. It’s destructive. For the leader and the people. The minute you realize you’re being stupid, stop it. Own it. Apologize. Fix it. Move on.

I’m smart. But I’ve been stupid before. And I’ll be stupid again. But my business philosophy continues to be my north star.

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People are supposedly driven by only 2 things: our attraction to pleasure and our fear of pain. Sadly, the fear of pain is usually the stronger of the two. Which means, we’ll work harder to avoid pain than we will to gain pleasure. 

These are big, broad and sweeping generalizations that can encompass many things. For CEOs and business owners, the desire to grow the business means we generate more revenue, which means we generate greater profits, which means we reap bigger financial rewards. Hello, Pleasure. It may also mean we work hard to avoid hitting a sales slump because that brings with it a slower flow of cash, more restricted resources (aka cash) and the risk of losing our business if it continues. 

Some people claim to have a fear of failure while others vow they’re more afraid of success. I’m not quite sure about all that, but I’ve come to believe that these 2 reasons – pleasure and pain – are likely at the heart of every motivation we’ve got. Professionally and personally.

Pain, and the avoidance of it, maybe among failure’s strongest weapons. But it’s inevitable. If we press on we’re going to experience pain. It’s a given. And only a matter of time. 

Pleasure and the pursuit of it are often very temporary. We hit a certain sales goal only to realize we now must chase something higher in order to feel good about ourselves, and our company. Such is life. 

A short time ago I began to help a friend out with some live streaming. Miguel Dias operates ScaleupAcademy.io. He’s in Portugal and wanted to start a new live streaming show, Scaleup Heroes. It’s the first European live show on scaling up a company (for instance, growing a company from $10M to $100M). As companies scale up they encounter new challenges and new opportunities. What once worked, may stop working. Companies, including their C-Suite leaders, must learn along the way so they can continue to grow. These are especially true for European companies where markets may be much smaller than here in America. 

The interesting thing I’ve found as I’ve interacted with a variety of business people from Europe is that a common problem continues to resurface. Communication. And along with it, culture.

And each person readily admits that intentional incorporation of diversity is not just important, but urgent. Companies devoted to growth and scaling up are finding that diversity is crucial as they continue to innovate. It’s also how communication and culture can best be improved. 

Companies intent on scaling up are searching for the pleasure of success – higher revenues, more customers, more resources and bigger profits. Simultaneously, they’re working hard to avoid the pain of losing in the market. Fear of lower sales, laying off employees and potentially closing their doors are all daily drivers behind their decisions. 

It doesn’t matter where we are – North America or Europe. Our desires and fears are common. Ditto with our problems and challenges. Not necessarily true with our opportunities, but we’ve got plenty of those, too. 

CEOs and business owners are by nature stubborn. We have to be. Our stubbornness helps us succeed. And overcome all the adversity. But we’re all different. I suppose some of us pursue the pleasures of success and achievement more than we pursue escaping pain, but every CEO and business owner I’ve ever known has a healthy drive regarding them both. 

From engineering to marketing to sales to top-level leadership…that diversity issue comes up over and over again. People in every area of a company can speak to how valuable it is when we’re talking about communication, culture, and INNOVATION. Fact is, growth, improvement and transformation are especially important in the C-Suite. And that’s where those things are often most lacking. Because it’s so easy to be complacent. It’s easy for top-level leaders to grow comfortable with themselves. No, rarely will we be comfortable with the performance of our people, or with whatever success we’ve achieved. But we can reach a point in our lives where we just want to avoid any fear of pain. Life is good, and so our attraction to pleasure may remain fairly constant. Taking chances isn’t something we’re likely to embrace though — because that would mean change. Most of us hate change! 

That’s why we continue to do what we’ve always done. Our meetings this week look and feel just like the ones we had last week. And last month. 

The way we approach challenges and opportunities hasn’t likely changed in a long time. We’ve found a rhythm and formula that worked, and we stick with it. No matter that it’s not working as well as it once did. It’s still comfortable for us. So we stay the course. Mostly, because it’s what we know. 

Okay, so we’re all chasing pleasure and hoping to avoid pain. That’s precisely why we get stuck! Comfortable with whatever level of pleasure we’ve achieved. Comfortable with avoiding serious pain. 

You’re constantly looking at the performance of your people, especially your direct reports. Sometimes you know you’re judging them more harshly than they even deserve. But you figure it’s your job. You’re the boss. You can make it be however you want it to be. Ownership has its priveledges. 

I’m asking you to take a moment to exam yourself. Don’t think about your team. Just think of yourself as the CEO or owner. 

What’s holding you back? Why haven’t you innovated in your own work? Are you still doing what you’ve always done? In much the same way?

Be honest. 

Are you stuck? Listen, sometimes we get stuck in some pretty good places, but we’re still stuck. Being stuck in a pretty good place may be the most dangerous place of all because it makes us vulnerable. Susceptible to a big loss. Open to attack. Complacency is always dangerous.

Sometimes we need a jolt, but we don’t want a jolt. Sometimes we just stay the course until or unless something forces a change. But we’re the number 1. We should be pushing ourselves. Welcome to the human race. CEOs and owners aren’t exempt from being comfortable, even if we know (deep down) that we’re hiding or avoiding necessary improvements. 

Diversity may provide some insightful answers. We’re listening to the same voices. Reading the same trades. Following industry trends. All things remain as they’ve always remained. This rut we’re in is liable to become our grave if we’re not careful. Maybe it’s time to expand our outlook. Maybe it’s time to get some different perspectives and viewpoints. If only to debate what we assume is true. And to have people challenge us in all the best ways.

We’re busy pushing people and our business. We’re constantly urging people to grow and improve. What about us? What’s stopping us from doing the same thing?

Will you look back and wonder why you didn’t foster these same things in yourself and your leadership? 

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