All it Takes is...

Every now and then, a client subject will achieve the absolute unthinkable when looking for a job -- over time.

Consider profile first and end result a little bit later. Profile: 60+-year-old, consultant and business owner. Expert and longtime work in telecommunications, which now may be reaching advanced "horse and buggy" status when it comes to true innovation. He's also a Caucasian Man who has seen things from every which way, but the loose.

But that's quite alright. What some companies lack are actual brains, hearts, hands and feet that know how to do things together because they know it through and through. And even if they don't know it, lack of courage will prevent actual progress.

While there may be change in the J-O-B, there isn't as much when it comes to finding a specialized industry expert. Artificial Intelligence (AI) also will be mainstream soon. But not in the form of a human being.

The fact that this type of client, who also became a friend, now will be employed by a major company provides pause. And affirmation that if you never, never give up (Winston Churchill), then victory will happen.

God bless the hiring market -- and this good to great person -- who finally has earned what he deserves. Amen,

JG 

Digital leaders vs. dummies: Where’s the Beef?

 

Credit: Old Wendy’s ad, see next interactive link. (1:30.)

https://www.google.com/search?q=wendy%27s+ad+where%27s+the+beef&source=lmns&tbm=vid&bih=668&biw=360&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi658X2osL8AhWGlFMKHRiNDAYQ0pQJKAJ6BAgAEAo#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:6c25c0a3,vid:riH5EsGcmTw

Is digital leadership a given or skill developed with true teaching? Answer: Neither. Here’s why:

1.) Spam, spam and more spam. Retailers send huge flows vs. what they get or receive. There are simply too many irrelevant emails now to discern the What or Where. Or most importantly, the Why. Technocrats are rarely present teaching or educating, mainly because they speak a different, digital language

2.) Filters. Are ways to focus more easily non-existent or considered too technical for caring? Just asking the question so we don’t have to unload so much spam.

3.) Transactions vs. Relationships. For an older version, please see http://povblogger.blogspot.com/2015/10/which-came-first-relationship-chicken.html. Transactions now outrank by a pretty wide margin. That’s partly why so many are on the Internet all the time sending messages that some see and others don’t.

4.) Texts have replaced email at urgency or hourly/daily level. But there aren't any accepted practices other than "get outta here," or non-response ghosting. Which leads to the following reality…

5.) Ghosts now rule all the channels. (ref. previous entry.) Like everything else except not winning, digital comms. rarely produce an outcome. Unless you're simply selling widgets. Or jewelry and clothes that have already been approved. Ghosting now transcends on-line to be off-line, too.

Here’s a recommended approach to be a digital communications leader vs. digital dummy:

1.) Respond at least once, directly and indirectly. Set time to connect directly, if necessary or desired. Then if nothing happens, or there's no mutually discussed need, exit digital stage left. Save the actual phone for those who check a few boxes.

2.) Follow on chosen or shared media, such as LinkedIn (first, professionally), Facebook or Instagram, the top style-driven social media site.

3.) If and after direct engagement, thank you emails or physically mailed notes/cards (Gasp!) help if there's perceived shared desire present. If there’s not, move along at the speed of…text.

Thoughts? Let TGR know if there any other essentials to manage this mandatory category called Digital Leadership. Happy on-line living!

9/11: 20 years later

It’s no longer a closely held belief. It’s now a truth: We have lost commonly shared perspective. That’s the bad news. The good news is we can regain perspective by reminding ourselves what is truly important: Faith, relationships and shared values united by common purpose. Wherever you may be, or whatever you’re facing, this is a timeless truth. 

When I first came across what will soon be shared below, the story renewed an awakening deep within about what it means to have and hold covenant-based relationships. One of my mine, or so I thought, was recently challenged in a real dollars and cents way. Looking out over the next season forming, please consider taking to heart The Who vs. The What in a more intentional way.

To mark the coming days, and to experience a short story that will move your soul (if it doesn’t, then your soul may be dead), keep reading below. It’s an excerpt from a collection of first-hand accounts (AARP, The Magazine, August/September 2021). Please, no old guy cracks! 

Five short bursts: May Day guide to COVID-19

So what if we could have a virtual or socially distanced get together without discussing COVID-19. Is that even possible? It seems pretty unrealistic but could evolve into a norm with a little practice. Just ask heads of private equity firms in Boston who evidently have set aside Zoom calls to do group walks six feet apart, according to PE Hub.

For the rest of us who already take daily walks, it’s May Day so let’s dance around the flagpole, https://www.almanac.com/content/what-may-day while reviewing a few points to help endure the crisis. Everyone seems to have a list of lessons learned, but few seem able to suspend judgments in the face of the unknown. Believe it or not, that’s actually normal.

Here’s something to look forward to: The Thanksgiving table when we can resume talking about sports, the weather or latest streaming show that Mom hasn’t seen. While avoiding politics, religion, and now, COVID-19. Can you refill my wine glass, please? Following are a few views through to the other side whenever that may occur:

1.) Don’t confuse beliefs and position with learning and adaptability. Because whatever conclusions you’ve drawn so far may be wrong. From the outset of the pandemic, all the way back in early March, it’s been shocking to watch and listen to ignorance when it comes to science. One friend, who is from New York and currently lives under a local rock, asked during the second week whether I knew anyone who actually had the virus. As if to suggest that since everyone was walking around Home Depot close by without masks that things were hunky dory. My answer, before quickly getting off the phone, was no, not directly, but that I do know others who have friends who have the virus. 

There is still a ton to learn about this pandemic, and if that statement makes you want to crawl under a rock, you’re not alone. Just remember that no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

2.) Avoid absolutes. You don’t know what you don’t know and that’s okay. None of the experts do either. Simply take the next step. A client/friend who runs a restaurant recently started a Facebook page after years of resisting change. That may sound caveman-like, but when you’re running a very successful business without the time suck of social media, then why would you change unless you have to? They’re paying their rent this month with curbside to go so all is good right now in this case. Far too many others can’t say the same.

3.) Take this time to reassess if you can. But do so with caring and compassion, both for yourself and others. Another friend/advisor recently shared some sharp truth when asked what he thought about the current ad line: We’re all in this together. ”Technically, we’re not,” he said. “We’re actually all in this alone, at a social distance. But we will pull through this together.” Bravo, Senior Contrarian. With most of the nation single or on their own, this was a great reminder to always level things off, first with yourself then others. Political leaders simply aren’t willing to do this, nor will they ever. But let’s not go there right now.

4.) Single greatest rule during change: Not doing something is doing something. It’s okay to sit at home, not work and do nothing. Just know what you are doing. Not doing something can often create extra space to do something better. Ask anyone not directly impacted by this virus whether the time has been productive or unproductive. Some lives have been restored despite the tragedy of the pandemic. Isn’t that called redemption by some definition? Families are eating dinner together again. April in Atlanta has been most beautiful. Surreal is a word that comes up often in my mind. You may have another favorite term.

5.) Finally, and this is one is geared more to larger businesses: People, purpose and profit are not mutually exclusive and should never be viewed that way. Companies that get all three right during the current season will have achieved something epic, as the hipsters like to say. For those whose livelihoods, customer bases and marketplaces have vanished into thin air, our hearts and minds remain open to help envision and act upon what may come next. Involuntary change is brutal and suggests softening the Darwin line, adapt or die. Good thing there’s still hope and that’s a wonderful thing. Perhaps the best of things. — Andy Dufrane, “Shawshank Redemption.”

 

Chasing the rabbit, or is the rabbit chasing you?

          (E-letter distributed on 2-20-20)

Dear Clients and Colleagues: 

Let’s pause for a minute of obvious email reality: We live in a sea of content. Most is highly deletable, which spellcheck confuses with “delectable” for some odd reason. If you don’t know the source, chances are it goes straight to the trash bin. Some messages go in the bin anyway. My own brand was built largely on content, or what we used to call writing with a unique point of view on issues impacting executive-level leaders.

The imperative now is shared content, or something that you can pass along to others. Along those lines, consider the following for your own consumption, career path, board trajectory, etc. Or simply life, that ever changing thing that grows in importance when we realize a good bit is in the rear view mirror. 

If you’re still channeling your inner Elmer Fudd, then the following image and story (courtesy: Ken Boa’s Feb. teaching letter) may help straighten things out. Who doesn’t want to Finish Well? There’s not a trick answer: No one...

JG

Higher Ups in public

Instead of dissecting finer points of the latest Business Roundtable (BRT) decree, issued earlier this week with great Twitter fanfare, let us examine a more fundamental example of social purpose called corporate executive behavior. Or the individual, in this case.

The individual happened to be a senior ranking Delta employee, who along with his wife, were allowed to cut into the security line at Hartsfield Jackson's international terminal.

Yours truly, on way to D.C., was standing in one of two general lines because the TSA pre-check line was closed for business @ 10:30 AM due to low traveller volume. The sign said the line would reopen @ 12:30 PM, which seemed a bit odd. Several of my closest friends and associates were waiting rather patiently for the slow moving line to accelerate. It never did. At a late interval, right before bin heaven, a Delta red coat stopped the lane to let whom she called a "higher up," cut in front of everyone.

Now with all due respect to a corporation's social purpose, which the Business Roundtable is now asking members to swear by in blood, isn't the issue fundamentally more about entitlement and the declining number of elites willing to put others before themselves?

Jamie Dimon, CEO, Citigroup

This is an epidemic, in my view, and while it has something to do with income gaps, the behavior will never change until more are held to account for not at least trying to put others first. After all, social purpose begins at home and in the community -- not in the board room.

Back to the security line and Mr. Higher Up. He didn't even acknowledge his public. A simple thank you, or better yet, visibly letting a few others go before would have done wonders in at least demonstrating awareness bordering on care. Delta passengers pay his salary anyway, right?

The sad fact is few try to be selfless, and the ones who the public wants to try even less. Consider members of Congress who now seem to be in fear of their lives 24-7. In Atlanta, it's hard to name anyone on the private sector side who excels at public acumen. Truett Cathy is gone, and Jimmy Carter and Andy Young are old enough to do whatever the hell they want. The rest avoid displays and for good reason. Super elites hop on private jets, not 737s.

Higher-ups, please remember to humble thyself when in public. This week's sighting was a missed opportunity, but it was seen. And now maybe it will be heard.

Short bursts: Ghosting, time flies and the Trump Effect II

Are you a ghoster? That's a rhetorical question. Every last business decision-maker has ghosted someone at one time or another. We're not talking about date or stock ghosting, which is illegal. Business ghosting is when a prospect, client and/or whatever we call that in between phase (send in your nominees) goes silent despite the litany of ways that technology has created to communicate. Hint to the indignant: Technology isn't the problem here, behavior is.


A great friend and client goes through ghosting seasons and then suddenly re-emerges as if no time ever elapsed. That's an art form that most of us cannot perfect. So don't be a ghost: Return calls and good emails/texts, even if it takes a little while to send one-line responses. Or you conveniently forget.


Time flies, period. Speaking of time, here's a great personal efficiency exercise for those who think they don't have time to do anything more, or what they want to do vs. what they have to do. Another great friend introduced this once upon a time, and I had the privilege of recently sharing with a time-starved client struggling with priorities.

There are 168 hours in the week. If you say you're working 60 hours a week and sleeping on average 7 hours a night, then the math is pretty simple: 168-60 = 108-42 = 66. Take out meal time or 3 hours a day, which is a high estimate even counting preparation, and you get another breakdown: 66-21 = 45 hours left in the seven-day week. That's roughly 6.5 hours a day to spend more wisely. Guard your time accordingly. Note what activities were not allotted time in the previous breakdowns.


Trump Effect II. So a D.C.-based influencer recently asked, "What do you think of Trump?" Oddly enough, I had a similar conversation over the holidays with my mother who now owns a small handheld squeeze ball figure of our 45th president, courtesy of a stocking stuffer given by her loving son.
Trump is an answer to the previous regime's inability to understand and connect with real angst out in the rest of the country besides New York and San Francisco. Things like the Great Recession will do that sometimes. Enter change in the form of a New York City billionaire who I believe loves his country despite cynics that say he's self interested con man. [You can exit the blog post now if you haven't already, no love lost.]

Love or loathe him, Trump simply reflects, or did at the time of the last election, the lesser of two evils. But he also tapped into something that those who live in gated communities and ride around in black cars simply refuse to accept: Something needs to change, preferably for the better, in government, media or any other institution for that matter. And that the change starts with them personally. Nothing works except fanning the flames of special interest.


So no matter what you think of Trump, consider this point of view: He's an aberration, last of a generation. What will follow is even more unpredictable and potentially unstable, assuming you expect a savior from this world to rescue the country from itself. The way we work, live, shop, seek/receive health care, travel, etc., is changing at a rate that no one could possibly keep up with -- much less grasp fully. Anyone under 40 could care less who the nightly news anchor is, much less names of their congressional representatives.


By the way, this is not necessarily bad despite how you may reading into tone. There's tremendous ingenuity, creativity and opportunity that arise during change. It's up to each of us to channel the positives, manage/discard the bad and serve those who feel disenfranchised. That comes in many forms. It's not a one-day event. Don't just make a difference, be the difference. And remember to use those daily leftover hours (6.5) wisely. Good day,


JG