Differentiate

"What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the divine beauty better than any other creature can."
C.S. Lewis

We are not only uniquely created, we are uniquely created for a purpose.  Offering what is unique or particular about us is part of how God is known.  It is one of the ways He is most glorified and how His nature is more comprehensively understood.  Because of the power our unique identity possesses, it is also incredibly assaulted.

When Steven Pressfield talks about our enemy, the devil, he refers to it as the “resistance”.  He says this about our unique identity.

“Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable.  Resistance aims to kill.  Its target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on earth to give and that no one else has but us.  Resistance means business.  When we fight it, we are in a war to the death.”

If we were placed here to glorify God and make him known through offering our unique identity, it should come as no surprise to us that it is a particular point of our enemy’s assault.

Interesting enough, we experience that same tension with the businesses we coach.  We believe that organizations are intended to uniquely represent the heart and glory of God in the way they operate, as well.  There is a unique set of personalities, experiences, and ways of doing business that should also point to the unique aspects of God’s nature and heart for His people.

Given the assault against unique identity, it should not surprise any of us that most companies pull their values from a fairly consistent list:

• honest
• integrity
• trust
• passionate
• positive
• committed
• hard working
• reliable
• loyal
• etc.

Our belief, however, is that core values should differentiate you from all other companies in your field.  It should be the particular set of things you value that shapes your decision making, determines resource allocation, decides who you hire, reward, and fire.  It is the set of things that differentiates you in the marketplace and helps protect and preserve what is unique about your company.  It is also the way you make God known.

Here are some examples we recently helped create:

• hyperlocal, trusted, memorable country music, care
• better together, story of one, why, intentionally Kingdom focused, around the table
• team, coaching, restoration, stewardship, adding value

These real sets of core values, completely differentiate their organizations from every other one in their respective fields.  When you talk to team members about these values, they elicit excitement, provide motivation, and have them calling forth stories that illustrate and prove their reality.

That is kind of the point, right?

• Do you have established core values?
• Do they differentiate you from others in your industry?
• Do they elicit excitement & provide motivation?  Are you able to back them with real examples?
• Do they offer a unique aspect of the glory and nature of God?

Simplify

sim·pli·fy
ˈsimpləˌfī/
verb

1. make (something) simpler or easier to do or understand. "an overhaul of court procedure to simplify litigation”
2.  synonyms: make simple/simpler, make easy/easier to understand, make plainer, clarify, make more comprehensible/intelligible

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There is a classic study related to making choices among jams.  The famous “jam study,” conducted by Sheena Iyengar from the Columbia Business School, set up a table in a store offering samples of 6 different jams.  The first week:

• 40% of the people who walked by stopped to sample one of the six jams offered
• 33% of those purchased a jam
• 13% of the total number of people who passed by, purchased

A few weeks later, in the same store, during the same timeframe, the researchers came back and offered samples of 24 different jams:

• 60% of the people who walked by stopped to sample one of the twenty-four jams offered
• But only 5% of those purchased a jam
• Only 3% of the total number of people who passed by, purchased

By just simplifying the set to sample from, people purchased at a rate 4-5 times higher than with the multitude of options.  

Does that surprise you?

At a recent Donald Miller marketing course I attended, he talked about how the human brain is constantly seeking simplicity.  The more information you try to communicate in a product offering or message, the more confusing it is to the listener.  If our brains have to think too hard to sort through the multitude of ideas or what we’re seeing isn’t very easy to understand, we essentially move on to the next thing.

Think of the potential purchasers of your products and services sitting there with a remote control in their hand.  They are having to sift through an ocean of websites, commercials, print ads, or even personal recommendations and online reviews.  The remote control of our brain is clicking through channels and eventually lands on the thing that is most simple or easily understood.

Less truly is…more.

We coach dozens of different businesses and leaders in dozens of different ways, but essentially we are walking every one of them down the exact same roadmap.  We start some at different places in the roadmap and some move faster than others, but after reading dozens of books, attending lots of conferences, and mining the best tools from our multitude of collective coaching certifications, we’ve arrived at a defined path for businesses and their leaders that…

…takes them on the journey from where they are to where they want to be.

And if you broke everything we do down into the most minute detail, there are many steps on that journey, but it can be summed up in three basic ones:

• Build a Team
• Define a Future
• Create a Plan to Get There

It really is that simple.

• What do you do?  Can you describe it in a few words?
• Do your team members, your website, or your other marketing avenues communicate it that clearly?  That simply?
• Are you aware that many possible customers or potential hires might be passing you by if you are unable to simplify and communicate your offering?

Culture

“Healthy cultures are places where ideas and people flourish. It is like being in a greenhouse where the nutrients and the light and the energy are helping grow your team members and the overall business as a whole.”      
Glen Jackson

The companies we admire are rarely due to product or profitability, they are typically due to the culture and people.

Characteristics of a healthy culture:

• Shine externally
• Attract and retain top talent
• Actualize people and their potential
• Permeates every aspect of your business
• Carry bonding traditions
• Eject people or ideas that are not a fit
• Deliver rewards before they deliver results

Healthy cultures deliver rewards and results, but they deliver the reward before the result.  Rewards drive the results not the other way around.  There are four rewards:

1. Fun - people enjoying what they are doing
2. Fascination - keeping your team engaged with innovation, ideas, and what lies just around the next corner
3. Future - people see and believe that they have a future here…the company has a healthy future as well
4. Financial - take care of your people.  Make sure they are compensated fairly and participating in your success.

Truly healthy cultures, where these rewards are in place, organically grow.  They become a self fulfilling prophecy that transcends leadership and advances almost on its’ own.  It is constant and unmistakable to all who encounter it through your company.

“The best companies have a cultural torch that they carry with them every day.  That torch is warm, bright, and other people notice it and want to be around it.  Externally, when you carry it around, it helps strengthen your brand, reputation, and growth as a business.” 
Glen Jackson

There is a great story told by a young business leader in Atlanta.  He was flying on the same plane to Washington D.C.with Truett Cathy of Chick-fil-a.  He observed Truett purchasing a luggage cart and loading a young pregnant woman’s luggage off the conveyer belt.  She thanked him for helping and he replied with, “My pleasure.”

No task is too small for the servant leader.

Truett spoke later that day to the Washington press corps.  His message for that presentation was…

No task is too large for the servant leader.

When you culture is healthy and real, it is not just merely aspirational words on a wall.  If it is healthy and real, it incubates like a greenhouse helping everything and everyone grow more fully and abundantly.  It is embodied by the servant leadership at the top, but felt and rewarded in every employee.  There is evidence of it at every turn and it is played out in both the largest and smallest of tasks.

• Is your culture healthy?  In your family?  In your company or organization?
• Is it evident in the ways we discussed above?  Do others note it and find themselves drawn to it?
• Are you really interested in defining, establishing, rewarding, and encouraging a healthy culture?   It is the greatest determinant of long-term success.  Let us know if you are serious about it…we are.

Beachhead

“Jesus came to bring a revolution.  And that revolution is a revolution of the human heart.  And He didn't come to establish churches or companies or ministries.  He came to establish beachheads of His person.  From the inside out.  Human hearts transformed, living immersed in the reality of the Kingdom of God, with a few invading every aspect of human life.  Invading companies and cultures and churches and cities and families.  It is an invasion and it will not stop until it is on earth as it is in heaven.”  
- Morgan Snyder

A friend of mine was having a disagreement with a ministry leader.  This leader insisted that there were “Christian companies” and my friend posited that inanimate objects could not be “Christians”.  Institutions (families, companies, or organizations) can be inhabited by Christians, but that doesn’t make the institution a believer by the definition of the word.  I don’t think either mind was changed.

My friend, and the quote above from Morgan Snyder, are making a powerful distinction.  Like Normandy, we are intended to be part of an invasion.  Like the pill boxes occupied by the Germans that our troops encountered on that D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, our enemy is bunkered into positions in our families, our companies, and even our ministries.  We are to live immersed in the reality of the Kingdom of God…wherever we are.

The image above, from the photographer Robert F. Sargent, was powerfully recreated in Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”.  

Do you remember the visceral experience of that opening scene?

The futility?  So many trying to make it to the shore to establish a beachhead through the bullets raining on them.  So few actually surviving the journey.

Have you ever found yourself in the position of trying to establish a beachhead in enemy territory?  With a much less transformed heart, I made several forays into the broader culture of my family system.

The bullets are still flying.

I like to take ownership of my responsibility and I believe some of their reaction was due to my clumsy manner and immature heart, but part of it is also the fact that people don’t like invasions of what is established.  Even if what is established is unhealthy and the invasion is by truth, light, and love.

And while I feel the need to excuse all the military imagery here, I think it is far more indicative of the times we live in than we have been led to believe.  It feels like we are at “war” in almost any arena I can imagine.

When you look at our government, many churches, and maybe even your family of origin, it is easy to lose heart.  I have spent a lot more time discouraged than invigorated for the heart.  But there is a sense of urgency rising in me.

I have grown a little, I am very clear on my unique identity, and I am flanked by other awakened leaders increasing my resolve…those choosing the culture of the Kingdom.  I want to play the part I was intended for and awaken as many hearts as possible to the necessary invasion of “companies and cultures and churches and cities and families.”

You up for it?  

We should talk.

• Do you feel like you are a beachhead in a foreign and hostile territory?  In your company, family, or community?
• Has the culture around you discouraged you to the point of not believing change is possible?
• Where are you being stirred to establish a beachhead?
• What is the right next step in that direction?

Craftsman

crafts·man

ˈkraf(t)smən/
noun
noun: craftsman; plural noun: craftsmen

1. a person who is skilled in a particular craft.
2. synonyms:  artisan, artist, skilled worker; expert, master;

I was visiting with my dentist as he worked on me a few weeks ago.  He is in his mid-50’s and is one of the best people I know.  His sacrificial, intentional, and good heart toward others have blessed many people and helped sustain many ministries.  He has a huge sphere of influence among fellow dentists and the community at large.  I asked him a simple question…

What are you doing with this greatest season of your influence and impact?

I didn’t get a clear answer, but it seemed like he was going in a sort of ride-off-into-the-sunset direction.  I asked him about succession and he said that he had given up on the idea after a series of false starts had left him discouraged.  He said…

• Dentistry had changed
• Everything was big production dental factories now (Monarch, Apple, etc.)
• He couldn’t find anyone who shared his values
• No one really seemed interested in doing things with a high priority on relationship, technical ability, or care

Essentially when he was done, his practice would be done.

I am not okay with that.

How he does what he does is worth fighting for.

I told him about the rise of the craftsman…the groundswell of cottage industries and things locally sourced.  I told him how there was a renaissance among consumers that are so relationally disconnected (even as they are more connected technologically) and devoid of meaning for their lives, that they are actually looking to the products and services they need to find the life they are lacking.

Getting really clear on what he believed (values & purpose)…
and translating those into a newly imagined future (vision)...
would lead to the necessary pathway (strategic plan)…
that would result in a more inspired and sustainable future.

Articulating everything that was unique and powerful about doing business the way he desired was also the path to rallying the team, hiring the right people to sustain the practice, and drawing a larger customer base that would be willing to pay more to be part of a better story and experience.

For a better experience and product, we’ll pay $4 for coffee instead of$2.

For a piece of handcrafted furniture, a hand made belt, craft made recycled paper, etc., with a powerful story, we’ll pay much more than we would pay otherwise.

Supermarkets are giving way to Trader Joe’s.  Starbucks is losing market share to local coffee houses.  Craft brews are pecking away at the big brands.  Mega churches are being replaced by house churches or much smaller varieties.  People want to be known, connected, and feel they are part of something substantial.

Here are a few great examples of companies I am familiar with…

Lamon Luther - restoring dignity to the homeless by employing them to create handcrafted furniture from discarded pallets.

OakWrites - writing redemptive stories in the Texas Hill Country as they create timber frame houses, furniture, floors, and kitchen items from previously discarded trees suffering oak wilt.

Redtail Hard Goods - locally hand made leather goods living up to a standard of quality and craftsmanship that is rarely exists anymore.

My dentist isn’t passé like he feared, he is more relevant and has a more powerful opportunity than he ever has…

This could be his greatest season of influence and contribution.

• What is your unique contribution? (we can help you figure that out at the next Lifeplan retreat)
• What do uniquely represent in the marketplace that could impact and change lives?
• Are you clear on what that is and is it articulated in a way that your employees, clients, and prospective ones know what it is?
• Are you living the season of your greatest influence and contribution?

Woo

“WOO stands for winning others over. At the heart, Woo is a social Intelligence theme. People with the strength of Woo have a great capacity to inspire and motivate others. Woo is not just a cheerleader, rather, Woo is adept and skillful in the social setting.”

Woo is one of the 34 talent themes identified by the Clifton Strengthfinder test.  Talent themes are people's naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied.  While it is a particular gift of some individuals, it is one of the essential abilities necessary for successful leadership.  

Increasingly, it seems to be one of the things we provide that our clients value most.

In the overwhelm and discouragement of the day-to-day, it is often difficult for them to take a step back, elevate, and see the truly extraordinary going on all around them.  Sometimes it is reminding them of something forgotten, but often it is identifying purpose, meaning, and value where it has been previously unseen or acknowledged.

There is always a nobility or transformational purpose that can bring needed inspiration, commitment, and momentum to a team.  And at the heart of every human being is an often unawakened desire to change the lives of others.  Identifying the purpose of your organization can serve to awaken and connect every employee to the unique way they were created to glorify God and change lives.

And as we often quote Patrick Lencioni…

“Every organization must contribute in some way to a better
world for some group of people, because if it doesn’t, it will, 
and should, go out of business.”

Knowing what is unique, profound, or inspiring about your organization or idea is the “why” behind how you rally the uninspired and distracted.  It is the essential element in getting everyone to know, understand, and buy into the bigger purpose that their work could provide.

My ability to woo has been largely self-serving for most of my life, but it is one of the things God is powerfully redeeming.  Turns out that you can use clarity and persuasion to inspire others to live with a greater purpose and positively make a difference in the world.

Woo, like any other gifting or ability, can be used or abused depending on the motive.  It is the tension in every great super hero movie that differentiates the good guys from the villains.

ONE USES THEIR POWERS FOR GOOD
AND THE OTHER FOR EVIL.

I can bring her flowers because it blesses her life and reminds her of her own beauty, or I can do the same as a mechanism to get something form her that I desire.  As a leader my use of power, strength, and persuasion can woo people toward a life of purpose and impact, or just make my own life a lot more comfortable.

• What is the purpose and anchoring core values of your business?
• Are you wooing those you love and lead toward that purpose?
• What is the necessary step you must take toward wooing your team?  Get clear on values, purpose, vision?  Restructure process, procedure, or meeting governance to win others over?

Unmistakable

“We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

There is certain “art” that requires no signature.  So unique and particular that you need not identify what it is:

• A Monet or Warhall painting
• The skyline of Paris or New York City
• The voice of Frank Sinatra or Robert Plant
• The shape of VW bug or Corvette
• The sound of the Edge’s guitar or Miles Davis trumpet

These people and things are so iconically known, so universally recognized that they don’t require identification.  They are unmistakable to almost anyone who hears or sees them.

“Unmistakable people and businesses make a dent in the hearts and minds of humanity.  They create a ripple beyond any measure.”

Breaking ranks with conformity and charting a truly unique path are the necessary ingredients of the unmistakable.  They are also, however, the path to criticism and opposition.

The unconventional is often challenged.

The different is often ridiculed.

The non-conformist is often attacked.

We aren’t too comfortable with those that are different or challenge our conventional thinking.  Ironically, for those of us that call ourselves Christians, unconventional thoughts and actions were the hallmarks of the one we are called to follow.

Jesus seemed to zig when everyone else zagged.  He tended to go the opposite way of everyone else and defied conventional thoughts about religion, hierarchy, & law.  He ultimately started a revolution that changed the course of human history.  Even those that doubt his deity cannot deny the fact that he walked the earth and was wildly disruptive for good.

We are to be the purveyors of the unmistakable.  Our actions, lives, and words should be wholly in the context of God’s direction, but wholly disruptive at the same time.  While we live in a culture (even in many of our churches) that seem to drive us toward homogeneity, we should be fighting that tendency to offer the unmistakable.

Our job is to make Him known and bring Him glory.  When we operate in unmistakable and unique ways, He is better known and most glorified.  It also turns out that differentiating yourself in a crowded and noisy marketplace is also necessary for your business’ success.

Donald Miller is known as the “story guy”.  Whether it is in the business world through his “Storybrand” concept or in the publishing world, he is unmistakable and iconic when the idea of story comes into the conversation.  He says that this is the “real estate” that he owns.  The ground that he occupies uniquely and powerfully as a differentiator from all others.

Knowing what is unmistakable about you (knowing why you exist) is the necessary step to defining the unmistakable about your business.  Knowing and living into what is unmistakable about your business is the necessary ingredient for sustainable success and the way you ultimately own the “real estate” that only you can.

• What is unmistakable about you?  What did God uniquely place in you so that people would know more about him?  (We can help you find that at our Lifeplan retreat in October.)
• What is unmistakable about the things you lead? (your business, organization, or family)
• How are you uniquely glorifying the Father through how you live your life and operate your business?
• What “real estate” do you want to own?

Problem 3

Part 3 of 3

We’ve aggregated a pretty expansive set of tools into our roadmap:

• Mined the best in class from the numerous coaching certifications we carry.   
• Read hundreds of the best books on organizational health, strategic planning, effective meetings, and operating with purpose.
• Worked with dozens of clients.
• Aggregated the best tools and processes from our partner’s former consulting practice.
• Combined all that with the imperative of purpose we bring to individuals in LifePlan retreats and to organizations in our Strategic Enterprise retreats.

The Roadmap we take every organization down, whether it is our team coaching, our executive board experience with one-on-one coaching, or through our free tools, is exactly the same.

• Identify a Team - Key representatives from every part of the organization.
• Get Healthy - Work with them to establish a healthy baseline for interaction.
• Establish or Enhance - Core Values and Purpose
• Craft a Vision - Draw a clear and concise picture of the future.
• Get Focused - What are the vital few things we must focus on to realize our vision.
• Develop a Strategic Plan - Goals, initiatives, and action steps with ownership and timelines.
• Meeting Governance - Establish a high execution model to meet, provide accountability, and accomplish tasks.
• Organizational Design - Create the ideal structure and team of the future to realize your vision… walk your team in that direction.
• Reset Goals & Initiatives - Craft an annual meeting structure where you reset quarterly and annually.

It might not surprise you that some companies we talk to simply want a strategic plan.  They feel like that is the ultimate solution to all their problems.  We couldn’t disagree more.  That, in a vacuum, will not solve your problems.  In our extensive experience and research, if you don’t walk through the essential steps necessary to get to this kind of strategic plan, the plan won’t be…

• Owned
• Embraced
• Accomplished

Let’s be honest, you and your team are already really busy.  But if you don’t regularly gather together with the essential few employees.  If you don’t work with them to get clear on who you are and what you believe.  If they don’t participate in crafting a more inspired future.  If you don’t jointly commit to the essential few things that must happen to get you there.  If there isn’t meeting governance that drives accountability and establishes regular resets…

NOTHING WILL CHANGE

What we all need is not a plan, but a new way to live.  A systematic and planned approach that takes us from where we are to the place we’ve always desired to be.  That will comfortably take us from chaos and overwhelm to clarity, margin, and freedom.

• Are you really ready to change things?
• Have you given up on believing they can?
• Let us know, we feel called to help.  We’ll help you determine which path is best for you.

Problem 2

Part 2 of 3

This is another variation on the Problem I talked about in the last post. 

Since calling or gifting is…

• Something given to you 
• Entrusted by another
• For the sake of everyone

…doing it vocationally is sort of challenging.  Some people can’t afford a private coach or to have a team of coaches come work with their teams.

(And, BTW, based on what we’ve experienced, I am pretty convinced that most companies can’t afford to not hire a coach or a coaching team, but I will spare you what already sounds like a shameless sales pitch.)

As we prayed through how we are to offer proper stewardship over all these processes, exercises, and tools that lead organizations down a transformation journey, we were left with a very clear conclusion, we are supposed to make it available to everyone.

We defined 3 different paths that lead to the same destination:

• Coaching for Your Team - Hire us to work with you and your team directly.
• Get a Coach - Meet with me or another coach and gather around a table with other leaders.
• Do It Yourself - We’re building a free online database of all the tools, processes, and exercises we use to take a team on a complete transformational journey.

This resolve gets tested sometimes.  There was a business leader that contacted me earlier this year.  He needed some strategic help with his team.  He needed a clear plan.  He is a high integrity guy who runs a great business.  They are one of those best places to work companies.  And they have grown as a result and he needs help in order to continue to scale the business in a healthy way.  (The best companies become the greatest ones because they keep striving for even greater success.)

Frankly, we were pretty excited that we would get to work with them.  A few nights ago, however, he wrote to say that he had hired an employee who just happened to have a lot of strategic planning experience in his past.

I responded quickly…

“Congratulations!  Sounds like a great hire.  Let us
know if we can do anything to help.”

I wrestled with how to make that sincere.  I am not trying to keep a foot in the door.  I am sincerely interested in helping them and others find the success they desire.  I am going to point him toward our free resources online, but I felt like I needed to share even more.  In our next post, Problem 3, I’ll share the intended path I believe a company must walk down in order to realize true transformation.

• Do you dislike the place you are at with your business?  Are you motivated to do something about it?  Are you coachable?  Are you wanting someone to come work with you and your team?  (Coaching for Your Team)
• Are you the kind of leader that just wants someone to walk alongside you to provide support, accountability, and encouragement on getting the right things done?  (Coaching for You)
• Are you the kind of rare individual who can read new ideas, communicate them well, and get them implemented fully within your team?  (Do It Yourself)

Problem 1

Part 1 of 3

I have a problem.  Okay, it is a good problem, but it is a problem nonetheless.  Here it goes…

I know why I exist.

I know why God placed me here on this earth and what role He has created me to play.  Does that sound kind of arrogant?  Or maybe audacious?  It kind of did when I first started to say it, but it doesn’t any longer.  

If you sat in front of the massive pile of evidence that I did 7 years ago at the end of a LifePlan process, you would share my conviction.

If you saw how my passion, desire, gifting, ability, and a surprising number of life events and experiences all pointed in a similar direction, you would be saying the same.  

If you had walked closely with me over the last 7 years and watched the increasing experiential confirmation of that identity, you would know it was true.

But that’s not the problem.

It is actually my greatest privilege to know that, to operate with that sort of all-encompassing clarity.  It feels like a comforting beacon of light in a dark and often confusing world.

The problem comes with the knowledge that it is my treasure in the field that I’ve sold everything to find, but that I am called to offer freely to anyone else desiring the same clarity.

I exist to help others and the organizations they lead, find the unique role they were created to play in the larger story of God.

It is the intended path to clarity, peace, and prosperity in every form.  And it is the way that our God is best known and glorified.  It is the way it was always intended that He would be known.  And I am supposed to help others and the businesses, organizations, and families they lead, find it.

That happens in a lot of forms:

1. I do that with a growing list of corporate clients and their teams.
2. I do that with individual coaching clients.
3. I do that with pretty much anyone who will take the time to have a real conversation.

The first two items listed are sort of my job, vocationally.  The third is sort of my job also, but in more of a calling kind of way.  And it happens all the time and everywhere…

• With the waitress at dinner
• The chance meeting with a father of a friend
• The lady who owns the import shop in Colorado
• The girl a the AT&T store who hooked me up with a new phone
• The guy sharing the table with me at Starbucks
• My dentist working on replacing a lost filling last Friday
• The friends of my adult children when they sit around our kitchen island as we prepare a meal
• Etc, etc, etc

So how is all of this a problem?  Because I believe that walking that journey toward clarity and transformation will change an individual or organization's future, it feels kinda weighty to carry around.  Sort of a privileged burden.  That is what calling and purpose feels like… a great treasure that you have both the honor and responsibility to offer to the world.

Mine is very disruptive.  

Disruptive for good, but disruptive.  

Disruptive in a way that will make you realize that there isn’t any life worth living other than the one you were uniquely created to play.

• Why do you exist?
• What is the unique role you and your organization could play in changing the world and making Him known?
• Join us for our upcoming LifePlan retreat, contact me to set up a meeting, or just risk getting stuck next to me on a plane, in the grocery store line, at the DMV, etc.

Plan

“The mind of man plans his way, 
But the Lord directs his steps.”

- King Solomon

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Does this still come as a surprise that you were uniquely created and wonderfully made?  

That something was intended when He intended you?  

That the goal of your life is not to become something different, but to figure out who you already have in yourself to be, and become it?

The startling thing that people find when they wade into the idea of calling and purpose (when they do something like a LifePlan retreat), is that what God intends for them…

    …is often the opposite of what they believed.

    …is what they almost always secretly hoped.

    …is what they had largely forgotten.

    …is what they almost quit believing.

If the unique way you bear His image is the way He is best known; if His glory is most manifest in the unique way you share some aspect of His glory that no other creature can, like C.S. Lewis says...

"It should not surprise us that your unique purpose is opposed and hidden."

But it is the “treasure in the field” we should sell everything to purchase and unearth.

We all have that sense that there is something more. 

You know that feeling, right?  The one we anesthetize with all those less wild lovers than the Lover of our Soul.  That bit of unrest that leaves us feeling that there has to be more to this life.  More to us.

"If you do not cut the mooring, God will have to break them by a storm and send you out. Launch all on God, go out on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and you will get your eyes open."

 - Oswald Chambers

I am not telling you anything you don’t already know (in your heart of hearts at least).  God created us for a purpose and He is about the business of us finding the life He intends for us.  He wants us to go out on the great swelling tide of his purpose and tilt our bow toward unchartered waters.  

There really isn’t any life worth living outside of the one we were created to live.

• Do you know why you are here?  What you were created for?
• Are you ready to leave the uncertainty and chaos of the storm and sail into some clearer and smoother waters?
• Do you have a few quick minutes to dip a toe in the water and see what God stirs?  (Spend a little time on our LifePlan site)

Cost

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

Jesus of Nazareth

I saw a movie about 20 years ago called “The War.”  In it, a veteran of Vietnam (Kevin Costner) returns from the war a shell of his former self.  He is wrestling with the role he played, the enemy he faced, and what life needs to look like in his reentry.

His son has been facing a similar war with a family of wild neighborhood children that have tormented him in his father’s absence.  In one of his first day’s back, the veteran takes his son downtown for an ice cream cone.  As they walk out of the store, they pass one of kids that has been harassing his son.  He is dirty, shirtless, and lacking any of the joy or boyhood innocence of his son beside him.

He takes the ice cream cone in his hand, intended for his son, and gives it instead to the ragamuffin in front of him.  

His son is incredulous, “What did you do that for?!”.

“Looks like no one has done anything nice for him in a long time.”

This small gesture of kindness is initially misinterpreted, but when his young son is later faced with a much more dire circumstance involving his tormentors, he risks his own life to save one of theirs.  The son is watching the father.  He’s taking cues.  Not so much of what he says, but what he is doing.  The son is deciding who he will be as a result.

The journey our family has been on for the last 5-10 years has come at a cost.  We’ve had to downsize, change neighborhoods, simplify, etc., but we and our children really want for nothing.  There have been a few times, however, where things seemed pretty desperate.  We’ve had to get comfortable with the simple truth that while there may be a lot of uncertainty and not much margin… that things aren’t how we might want them to be… we certainly have everything we need.

We want our children to learn that as well.  As a result, I’ve changed part of my tuck-in routine over the last few years.  Part of my prayer routine with them is to stop and thank God that He has given us everything we need.

Water and food.
Protection and coverage.
Health and love.

Isn’t that enough?  

It is if you are about to lose one of them.   

It is if you currently are living without one of them.

We aren’t preaching some sort of new monasticism or anything like that.  We’re not saying that we should take a vow of poverty.  But we do want to differentiate between need and want for our lives.  And we want our children to grow up deeply knowing the same.

It has very little to do with what we say
and everything to do with what they see us do.

Living sacrificially doesn’t always mean that you also buy someone an ice cream cone because you have something left over after you have bought yours.  It means that sometimes you forgo the ice cream cone for yourself so that someone else can have one.  It means that it costs us something.

We want our lives to look progressively more like that, so their lives will look progressively more like that too.  My children, the people I lead, my neighbors, and a world that is largely living apart from the life of God, are watching.

• What has following Jesus cost you?
• Has there been obvious costs that those you love and lead could identify?
• Do you know how watched a person you are?

Unique

“When you're introduced to a man, you are meeting the collective experience of every day he has lived from the first to the last.”

We are all a by-product of the lives we have lived up to this point.  I left a very dysfunctional home and decided to take a path 180 degrees from everything I had ever known up to the point of my salvation in college.  It wasn’t until I was married that I realized that the muscle memory of my life experiences would inexplicably and without intention, show up in my every day life.

One of the beautiful opportunities of our walk with God is that all of those experiences, even the worst ones, can be redeemed.  As redeemed, they are monetized into a currency that allows us to live more powerfully and have greater impact on others.

““Every past experience is preparation for some future opportunity. God doesn’t just redeem our souls. He also redeems our experiences. And not just the good ones. He redeems the bad ones too, especially the bad ones. How? By cultivating character, developing gifts, and teaching lessons that cannot be learned any other way.””

— Mark Batterson

All of those redeemed experiences are actually the most valuable assets you bring to the table.  It is what is of greatest value in all of your employees also.

I have a younger friend who was contemplating taking a project management job.  He was weighing the decision and rightly noted that there were things he like about the job and things he didn’t.  There were things about the guy who had the job previously and how he did the job, that he didn’t agree with.

I told him about the Position Agreements we work on with our clients and the Results Statements that shape each one of them.  What is most important is that a particular result is required from each position.  Ideally, if it is the right person, you want them bringing unique and inspired ideas to how they accomplish the task at hand from their vast and unique experience.

I told him that I don’t know anything about building multi-million dollar custom homes, but if I had that kind of job, I would accomplish the essential things associated with that task, but add in what was unique and powerful about my particular perspective and experience.  I would probably start with story and ask a lot of questions.

• I would want to create a timeline of every house they lived in.
• Did they have a fort or playhouse?  What was that like?
• What was their first home?  What do they remember fondly about it?
• Did you have any friends whose house you loved?  What did you love about it?
• Where did you live next?
• What was the first house you purchased?  What was it like?  What did you love most about it?  What made you decide to buy it?
• What do you want the culture of the house to be?
• When you dream of the future, who is gathered in the house, what room are you in and what are you doing?  Do you see everyone inside our outside the house?

I would understand that if the home is going to meet their expectations at the highest level.  If it is going to address the deep longing in their life, it will have to source the experience they have had in terms of homes and living and provide the hope of the life and experience with people they dream of finding.

But that’s just me.  Everyone one of us, everyone you employ, has something unique and valuable to offer in terms of how they would accomplish any task.  The necessary step is to agree with the fact that there is more than one way… my way… to do get something done well.  There is likely a much better way.

• Do you bring what is unique about your life and story to the tasks in front of you?
• Have you done any work in terms of finding the redemptive perspective on the experiences from your life?  We do that at Lifeplan. 
• Have you permissioned those you love and lead to bring their unique nature and perspective to the tasks in front of them?

Freedom

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”  

Paul to the Church in Galatia

We recently surveyed 125 local business owners and leaders.  We were trying to test some conclusions we had drawn about how they felt about their work, what they most needed, and where they saw solutions might come.  The itch we were scratching is that despite the incredible amount of time, resources, and energy they applied to their challenges, not much seems to be changing.  The survey largely confirmed our thoughts.

Echoing in my mind as I read through the data, was a series of statements I’ve heard from the hundreds of business leaders I have been in conversations with over the years:

“I don’t own the business, the business owns me.”

“I don’t work on the business, I only work in it.”

“I work for my employees instead of the other way around.”

etc.

I have heard all of those (or similar statements) dozens of times.  Ironically, those sentiments reflect almost the opposite of the reasons they all say they got into business for themselves

They wanted to work for themselves instead of others.

They wanted the freedom to do it differently and better.

They wanted to have the business serve them and the life they felt called to live.

They wanted to thrive and not merely survive.

Of course they did.

Of course we do.

For it is for freedom, that He set us free.  It was always intended that we would be unburdened from the yoke of slavery, that we would take our place as sons and daughters of the King, and as those sons and daughters of a King, we would benevolently rule over this Kingdom on His behalf.

Freedom is the cry of all our hearts.  It is our destiny.

Of course this is a country of entrepreneurs where our populace is largely employed and cared for by small to medium sized businesses.  It is the natural conclusion to the privilege of freedom that we would seek to establish a vocational space that reflects that freedom and seek to restore the nobility and generative governance that a healthy culture can provide.  

Of course.

• Those who came from unhealthy environments, be it work or family, are seeking to join or establish “healthy.”
• Those who came from healthy environments, seek to recreate the same and even push the bar higher.

It was always intended this way.  It was part of the plan. It is, however,  rarely realized.

As a coach, one of the great privileges of the work, is that I get to partner with the courageous and humble few who are willing to go on the rare journey to reclaim the freedom that was always intended.  That is their heritage.

To find positional freedom in salvation is amazing.  But to live in practical freedom, running unfettered through the fields as only a well loved daughter or son understands, is what we all desire… in our life and our work.

Despite all the world and your experience might have taught you to the contrary, it is still possible.

• Is “freedom” one of the words you would choose to describe how you feel about your life?
• Is it a word that others would describe about you and your life?
• Does your heart rise at the possibility?
• What are you willing to sacrifice to find it?

Appropriate

ap·pro·pri·ate verb /əˈprōprēˌāt/

devote to a special purpose.

I was obnoxious, impertinent, and confident.  I didn’t think I knew more than everyone else, I knew I did.  Some of my teachers, especially the math ones, couldn’t stand me.  I knew better and more efficient ways to get to the answers than the painfully tedious ways they were walking the class through.

Why couldn’t everyone else just see it my way.

As an orphan without much fathering, I was figuring it all out on my own.  I made most of my own decisions and lived in a world where whatever I thought was right, pretty much was.  This forced me to grow up a lot faster than I should have and often had my adolescence and inappropriate freedom leading me in all the wrong directions (I’ll spare you all the sordid details).

Understanding my own identity as a man and understanding all the gaps in my masculine journey to adulthood was a necessary, but very challenging journey.  There was a natural progression of things I needed to learn, know, and understand, that I had largely missed in my matriculation from boy to man.  It is the same for nearly every honest man or woman I have ever come across.

The revelation of all of this, had me doubling back to fill in gaps in my developmental journey.  It also had me aggressively seeking out the wisdom of old age.  It was in this season that I began to see myself as an “Inverse Abraham,” a son of many fathers.  I needed and cried out for maturity, wisdom, and mentoring.

God rescued me.

I had mentors and older men in seemingly every corner of my life that selflessly spoke into, challenged, and encouraged me.  It even affected my work as an investment manager.  My standard opening line with new investment coverage was:

"I am just smart enough to know there are a lot of people smarter than me."

I had a lot to learn.

I valued the wisdom of age.

I was open to hearing what they had to say.

I would apply what they taught me.

A little secret:  All of us older guys have energy for younger guys who are sincerely interested in doing the hard work of growing, refining, and transforming.  

And I was.

It was a sweet season of growing as a man, father, and in my leadership in every arena.  I went from passive-aggressively resolved to what others described as clear, confident, and formidable.  Others also described my clarity and conviction as “disruptive.”  With a heart also in some stage of transformation, some even described it as “disruptive for good.”

I am far more gray than I was in that season, but I still seek out the wisdom of age.  I desire to sit at the feet of sages and mighty men of wisdom.  I have even been so overwhelmed with a sense of honor at the man sitting before me that I have fought the urge to take off my shoes and kneel before them as they share truth, wisdom, and experience.

These ideas play out powerfully in our work.  Our Transformation Roadmap for companies has us:

• Organizing a healthy leadership team
• Cultivating real core values and purpose
• Crafting a vision (those values and purpose powerfully lived out 2-3 years in the future)
• Creating a solid strategic plan to realize that future
• Building the organizational structure of the future it will take to fulfill that plan

That often means that leaders (and typically older ones) need to transition into different roles.  Our new mantra for transitioning experienced leadership is to…

Honor and Appropriate

Honor, honor, honor, all that they have contributed to the success of the organization to this point.  Appropriate that experience, wisdom, and knowledge in a way that honors them and brings the greatest benefit to the organization and the future.  Based on my story and experience, that is a huge win-win… for everybody.

• Do you have sages in your life?
• Do you regularly carve out the time to learn the things that only the experience of others can teach?
• If you are a sage with more to offer than you’ve maybe realized, who is currently in your orbit that you can invest in?

Rare

I was having lunch with a coaching client recently.  He said he had taken a recent post on tendency, sent it to several of his friends and had them answer the questions about what kind of tendencies they saw in him.

He didn’t like everything he heard. He wanted to dismiss or reject what they had to say, but he looked for the common denominators.  Identified a few areas.  And has gone to work on changing them.

Wait.  What!?!
Who does that?

Everyone is trying to climb the mountain.  We are all looking to get higher, achieve, and get to whatever we define “more” to be.  On the way to the summit, however, very few of us divert off onto the less worn paths.  The paths that lead into the clouds with unknown destinations.  Very few leave the “what everyone is doing” to find the “what we most need to do”.

Very few look past getting the “more” and “better” to work on becoming the “more” and “better”  

Very few realize that the path to the abundant life requires having the temerity of spirit to ask others to identify the things that we cannot see, embrace what we hear, and then go to work on restoring the things that aren’t as they should be.  That takes humility, courage, and sincerity.  (Things that would have made my journey much easier if they hadn’t been in such short supply during most of my life.)

He asked.  He heard.  He is changing.

Wait.  What!?!
Who does that?

I had to break rank and leave established protocol of a business lunch with a client.  I needed a fist pump.  I needed him to know what incredibly rare air he was breathing.  I wanted him to know how proud I was of him and how extraordinary him going on this journey would be for himself and many others around him.

I was humbled and honored to hear was he was saying.  

I am challenged to take a similar journey.

• Have you recently asked anyone what they found challenging about you?
• Have you ever really listened to what they had to say?
• Have you taken that rare journey of trying to work on the things that other’s have identified that you need to change?

Let me know.  I’ll fist pump you the next time I see you.

Hyperlocal

hyper-local [hahy-per-loh-kuh l] 
Information oriented around a well-defined community with its primary focus directed toward the concerns of the population in that community.

It is one of those terms you typically hear associated with hipster restaurants and grocery stores, but is now starting to gain some broader appeal.  During the recent Olympics, Subway got into the act by positioning the concept around all their stores.  In a new commercial called “The appetite for better is everywhere”, they state that:

“Every day we are finding new ways to serve fresh, locally
sourced produce and food free of artificial preservatives
wherever possible.”

Notice that they don’t say they only serve “fresh” and “local” and completely avoid “artificial preservatives”.  They are merely trying to do better, but those kinds of concepts are so powerfully received that there is benefit in merely associating with them.

Recently, we were working with a media group that consisted of a few radio stations in rural west and east Texas.  The challenges around radio station viability are pretty obvious.  We’re a huge Spotify family and according to statistics, so is pretty much everybody else.

Why listen to a radio station when every song ever recorded
is immediately accessible at any moment from the device in my pocket?

In addition to helping the media group build a team, define a future, and create a plan to help them get there, we got a real education on the incredible value of rural radio.  What we learned was…

1. The FCC, who regulates radio stations, was created…

"for the purpose of the national defense" and "for the purpose
of promoting safety of life and property through the use of
wire and radio communications.”

2. The largest radio station in this group was established in the barn of the original owner 34 years ago for the express purpose of alerting his fellow unaware farmers/ranchers about tornados and other weather hazards in the area.

3. These local stations consider themselves part of the public trust and the most trusted source to inform, communicate, celebrate, protect and partner with their local communities.  They have gotten calls attributing their weather bulletins to saving people’s lives!

4. And then there’s the music.  They have call-in shows where local residents (many who have little or very poor wifi access and telephone coverage) call in to have their most precious memories visited through the songs they attach them to.  They play memorable country music.

As we walked through their storied history, capturing the powerful values and purpose they represent, casting a transcendent vision (what those things look like lived out in the future), hope and excitement began to rise.  The answer was not to shrink from the inevitability of digital media and hunker down in a bracing for impact.  The answer was to…

…become more powerfully who they already
are at their core.

The treasure in the field is always buried just below the surface.  It is worth everything and one of the great privileges of our work is that we get to remove some of that thin topsoil, unearth the treasure, and celebrate what we find with the teams we work with.

More than any trendy restaurant could ever hope to epitomize, these folks are about…

“Information oriented around a defined community”

“where the primary focus is directed toward the concerns of the population in that community”

They’re making t-shirts with the call letters of the stations on the front and that phonetic spelling and definition of “hyperlocal” on the back.  They are honoring me with the first one.  They found the treasure buried in the field and they are ready to share it with everybody.  How great is that.

• Do you know what your treasure buried in the field is?
• Do you have a defined leadership team?
• Do you have a well defined and powerful future clearly in front of you?
• Have you created a plan to get your team there?

Better

“You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out His best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text: No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it— What God has arranged for those who love him. But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.”

Paul to the Church in Corinth

One of the first tried-and-true marketing techniques I first heard when I got involved with a consumer replacement home contractor was “good-better-best.”  In other words, we don’t have any bad options, just good ones.  And not only that, we have a better one and even a better one than that (if you are the kind of person who desires having the best available).

There are many contemporaneous examples of this type of strategy.  The obvious one is gasoline.  Virtually every pump offers three varieties of fuel differentiated by levels of octane.  Does anyone really know how the differences in octane affect the performance of our vehicles?

Every time we fill up, we are faced with a choice and the one we go with might just say a lot about who we are and what we value.  It also might say that in the simplest of ways, we are pretty much like everybody else.  Most studies indicate that the average person will typically choose the “better” or middle of the three pricing options.  

As in… we aren’t the kind of people who need the best of everything, 
but we’re not cheap!

Even the most hallowed halls of business schools in the world have studied this concept.  HBR (Harvard Business Review) shared their thoughts on the topic in a recent article.  They offered a few reasons why this is such a powerful strategy:

• It helps determine price elasticity.  Instead of missed opportunities from a single price point, it allows a business owner to take advantage of a downward sloping demand curve.
• It is more accommodating to the consumer to give them multiple options rather than a “take it or leave it” single option.

One of the coaching certifications we carry taught us that most people won’t tell you the truth about how they are doing.  Society has conditioned all of us to smile and say everything is okay, even thought it is not.  I won’t go on a rant about social networks, but that is clearly not helping either.

So why do so many of us choose “better” when the “best” is available?  What do you think it means when you ask how someone is doing and they respond in one of those three ways?  It is almost as if good-better-best actually means:

• Good - Not really good at all, bad really
• Better - At least it isn’t bad
• Best - What is that?  You mean there is actually something better available than this

And there it is.  Everything in the Christian faith (and most of the rest of them for that matter) point toward something beyond our current experience.  A better life.  A better way.  Something more and grander than we could possibly imagine.

Why wouldn’t we all grab that kind of life and opportunity with open arms?  Maybe our enemy's greatest victory is not convincing us that the life we are living is not very good, but that there isn’t anything better available.  I am working hard to change that mindset… in myself and others.

We spend a lot of time at the boot camps I help lead trying to overwhelm the lie that there isn’t more available than just “good” (or bad, as it were). 

I spend a lot of time at Lifeplan retreats helping attendees find clarity and create a roadmap to realize what their particular “best” is!

• How are you doing?  Good, better, or best?
• Do you live with the expectation that there is a “Best” life available? That this “best” life is actually intended for you?
• Why are you settling for “Good” when the “Best” life is available?

Coach

“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? 

Or am I trying to please people?”

- Paul to the Church in Galatia

He was sort of unnerving, but in a way that made me totally comfortable.  Even in this first meeting, he seemed to know more about me (or at least more of the things that really mattered) than I knew about myself.  He didn’t seem to need anything from me or particularly care what I thought about him.  That was the unnerving part.  

The fact that he cared so deeply about the deepest things about me was incredibly disruptive, but intriguing at the same time.  It was as if I had stumbled into a conversation I had been desperate to have, but didn’t know I needed.  The fact that I was 23 years into a successful banking career didn’t seem to faze him.  He knew I was born to be a professional coach and referred to me that way in our very first meeting.

“You are a coach, so let’s talk coach to coach.”

There was a certainty about who he was that made his certainty about who I would become, surprisingly acceptable.  Even though I knew that following his line of thinking would be wildly disruptive and likely dismantle everything I had assembled around myself… all of the things to keep life manageable and safe.  What I didn’t know was that the walled city of my life was actually keeping me from living the abundant life I was desiring.

Coming to the conclusion that I wanted to do what he did came quickly.

Going through a Lifeplan retreat with him made it incontrovertible.

But if you had told me that in 6 short years later I would be working with dozens of individuals and businesses of every size doing exactly that, I would never have believed it was possible.  

I realized, almost immediately, that the biggest changes required of me would not be vocational, but would be in terms of my confidence and identity.

I wrongly assumed his financial independence was the source of his audacity.

His guileless ability to not care what I thought and say exactly what he was thinking, as it turned out, came from something far deeper and more valuable.  His conviction and almost unnerving sense of identity came from his Creator.  He believed that everyone was created for a particular purpose and that their lives, the lives of others around them, and the Kingdom at large, were better served by them finding and living into that identity.

I know now that what made him such an effective coach was his clarity, conviction, and his faith.  None of that has anything to do with money or power.  I knew that if I was going to be an effective coach, I needed to find the same.  The non-negotiables for my coaching and our entire coaching practice were inspired by what we saw in him.

Our “hills to die on” - the things that everything else rests on in terms of our client engagements are:

• We ask the questions that no one else will ask. 
• Say the things that no one else dare say.  
• Always propose the right thing for the client, regardless of the implications.
• Provide value at every engagement.
• Do everything in our power to make sure the client realizes the desired outcome.

We are honored to operate out of the DNA of this founder.  We’re ensuring that none of those essential ingredients are lost by putting the right guiding principles in place to make sure that we don’t.  Just like we do with our clients.

• What are the hills that you will die on?
• What are the essential ingredients that define your organization at the highest level?
• Have you captured them, celebrated them, and institutionalized them in a way that will ensure they continue?

Gestures

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

- Mark Twain

---

My friend Jeff played piano with Tim McGraw for almost two decades.  When he started to look into recording on his own, he met with some industry types to talk about getting singed to a record deal.  They told him they had to figure out his potential commercial viability by calculating the strength of his following as an artist.  

Believe it or not Facebook follows, Twitter traffic, number of likes, fan emails to his artist website, etc. all had a numerical value.  But the thing that was worth the most… many, many order of magnitude beyond all the rest… was hand written (snail mail) letters from fans.

Someone taking the time to bypass all the convenience and impersonality of the much easier technological methods of communication, reflected a depth of feeling and interest that dwarfed the others.  

I am not surprised.  Are you?

I ignore a heap of e-mails on a daily basis, but don’t think I’ve ever left a handwritten letter unopened.

I heard Frank Blake, former Chairman/CEO of Home Depot talk about some of the tools he implemented as part of his successful run.  One particular thing he mentioned was that he wrote an average of 100 handwritten notes to employees every week of his 8 year term.

100 handwritten notes a week!!!!

I can’t imagine doing that. When I was leaving a 15 year career with a bank I was very fond of, a friend challenged me to finds ways to honor those I respected that I was leaving behind.  By the time I was done, I had interoffice’d 47 handwritten notes to other leaders at the bank.  The process took on a life of its own and it was incredibly gratifying to do, but it took an inordinate amount of time.

Frank said he wasn’t sure if the letter writing thing was really making a difference until he started to see them framed all over the place and saw the ripple effect of many of his mid-level managers continuing the practice through their staff members as well.

But the day that he decided he would never stop writing was when he was visiting one of the stores in Atlanta.  An employee approached him and asked him to rewrite the note he had sent to her.  He said that he would, but wanted to know why.  She said that all her co-workers told her that her note couldn’t be real… there was no way the chairman of a company with hundreds of thousands of employees would write personal notes.  Surely it had been done by machine.

But when she dunked the note in water to see if it were real, the ink ran and she had her answer.  She wanted another one so that she could frame it and save it forever.  He realized that team members are so jaded about even the sincerest of gestures of management, that he had to continue to fight to change their perceptions in this very small way.

Consider

• How do you honor your team members as a regular practice?

• Do you do it in ways that they actually receive it as sincere?

• How would the sincerity of a handwritten note be consistent with the way you treat them on a day-to-day basis?

• Got any stationary? Maybe you need to get some writing going.