Tag Archives: Motivate

Are We Using Our Super Powers?

22 Sep

On the way to work today, I had a couple of different ideas converge with each other, and it’s made me rethink how we look at employees.  We’ve often heard how important it is for people do be doing what they love.  Are they?

Morgan Spurlock’s TED talk in 2011 challenged us to think about what our own personal brand is. The question: What do we stand for? Seth Godin, several years back, suggested that we identify our super power. Rather than introducing ourselves to others by our job title, we introduce ourselves by what we’re good at.

What if we took the time to discover what each of our employees or team members are skilled at?  You’ll need to think about this for a minute, because we don’t want to hear what jobs they are good at, we want to hear what makes them good at their jobs. See the difference?

For example, you might be good at scheduling drivers and managing delivery routes, but what your super power, or skill might be, is solving puzzles.

I think it’s a powerful exercise. Find out what your entire teams’ individual skills are.  Make a map, write down their name, their skill, and then in another column, write down their current job.  Is everybody in the position they should be?

At the very least, you may discover there are people in the building that should be consulted on projects they currently don’t have any input on. You’ll be encouraging employees to “change lanes” once in a while. That’s a lot more interesting than driving in a straight line day after day. It also makes your business more agile and rather than reacting to slower traffic (competitors, economic conditions), you can avoid it.

Stop. Look. Listen.

16 Sep

I made a grocery run last weekend in pursuit of corn on the cob.  Our grocer stages trash barrels so you can do the shucking on-site.  I generally hate this job, but I had help, so my son and I got to work on four ears. After his first one, he looks up at me and says this:

“Can we do more than four? This is cool.”

“Really?” I thought. “You want to just stand here and shuck corn?”

“Totally!”

We kept going, three then two more, than another three. We started handing them to strangers.  We laughed, made fun of ourselves, he kept telling me how great it was.

In the mean time, there was a guy running around in the tomatoes chatting with someone through his Bluetooth ear piece.  He looked like an idiot. Two little ones in tow, he just wanted to get in, get out, and get some work done. He missed an opportunity to engage with his kids.

Connecting with your audience is no different.  Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the transaction, that we miss out on listening and learning from them.  That’s the good stuff, that’s where the great ideas and inspiration come from.

It’s just like crossing the street:

Stop. Look. Listen.

If you don’t do that, you’ll never make it to the other side. If you don’t do that with your customers, you won’t get your brand to the next level either.

Everything is On Fire!

7 Sep

You’d think I’d be talking about how busy I am or how urgent everything on the “to do” list is, but I literally mean everything is on fire.  It’s been a horrible 3 weeks for this country and after an earthquake and a hurricane, I guess it’s no big deal that we have an outbreak of wildfires here in Texas.

We’ve been in a drought for quite some time, and this past weekend the Austin area lit up like an old Christmas tree.  Suburban neighborhoods evacuated, homes destroyed, deaths, one fire has burned over 35,000 acres.

Times like these are when we stop. We have to. The stuff we’ve been working on takes a back seat to the stuff that matters. Our family and friends, our communities, they need us, and we want to be there.

There’s another interesting thing that happens, I’m sure it happened with you in the last 3 weeks; we start wanting to do something to help. Anything.  We’ll give money, donate stuff, volunteer or pray. Something inside us says “go”.  I wish it didn’t take events like this for the “do” switch to be turned on, but sometimes it does.

My Kid Peed in the Backyard!

31 Aug

I asked my 8-year-old son to take the dog out to relieve itself. The dog, and the responsibility, is fairly new so I intended to go with him.  He had a head start, because I fumbled around for shoes.  Eventually, I strolled across the back of my house and turned left to head down the side. There it was a glorious stream, not from the dog, but from my son.

That’s right; my son was peeing with the dog. She’s squatting, and he’s standing with one hand on the leash and the other…you get the idea.

Just because the dog does it, doesn’t mean you get to do it.  Lesson #86 of gazillion he’s heard from me over the years, like:

  • because we take turns
  • because your teeth will fall out
  • because we have a penis
  • because you can’t fit under the bed
  • because it’s not going to make itself (bed)
  • because you’ll get sick if you eat it
  • because you have a fever
  • because if you don’t pick it up I keep it
  • because you can’t
  • because I said so

To be fair, Max has taught me a few things too:

  • There are no short cuts; you just have to do it.
  • Stop focusing on what everybody else is doing, and start focusing on what you’re doing.
  • Saying “Hi” can knock down a lot of walls.
  • Farting is still funny.

My radio station is not #1, I’m not out of debt, we don’t live near family, and when the toilet flushes on the second floor above my office at work, I can hear it. Life isn’t fair.

Say these words with me: “It is what it is”.

Now get on with doing what you do, as well as you can do it.

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