Leaders Love Collisions

​Collisions are chance meetings where two or more people come together and something meaningful happens.  Leaders love collisions.  They are out and about creating them daily.  Leaders love serendipity too!

Leaders Love Reality

Real leaders run a series of small experiments.  They look at the results.  They adjust or even scrap the idea based upon evidence and feedback from others.  Leaders love reality.  Many non-leaders roll-out huge sweeping changes without any regard as to how it will impact their stakeholders. 

Leaders Love Pranks

One of my personal favorite leaders of all time (this includes statesmen, business, military and spiritual) is Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Southwest Airlines. He once said that the “business of business is people.” This was not a mere platitude written by a speech writer. This was a direct reflection of his core values. It informed everything he did, including the way he treated every employee of the company.

So, how do pranks come into this? 

It turns out that Herb Kelleher (and many other top leaders) loved to play pranks. They are the kind of pranks that make everyone laugh and causes people years later to write about it. Herb Kelleher was famous for:

• Occasionally hiding in the overhead luggage bins on planes and then jumping out mid-flight to the surprise and delight of all the passengers (and crew). 
• When challenged on a trademark issue, he challenged his "opponent" to an arm wrestling match. 
• During the annual BBQ bash, he would show up on a Harley wearing a costume. 
• He would appear in airports dressed in a costume to greet passengers as they boarded.

These are things that can only be pulled off by a leader. Someone who loves the employees, loves the customers, loves what he is doing in the world. More often than not, this results in a lot of love coming back towards the leader and the business itself.

Are you free to make customers smile and even laugh? Does your organization exercise the freedom of delighting the stakeholders?

Leaders Love Training

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
~ Aristotle

The best organizations spend lavishly on training. They know that their mission depends upon it. Training benefits the organization, the individual and the larger society within which they operate.

The best leaders invest extravagantly in their own ongoing program of education and training. They do not wait for permission. They find a way to “always be learning” from books, audiobooks, webinars, masterminds, coaches and courses. The top CEOs we know are learning machines. They set the example for the entire company.

The key of course is to not just attend a course but to put it into action. To implement what you learn as soon as you return to the office (or the field).

How much do you personally invest in your own learning and development? Does your organization have a meaningful program that actively encourages everyone to receive training every year?

Leadership Fuel (Part 1)

It is hard to lead when you are tired, sick or overweight. The Standard American Diet (SAD), that is now spreading across the globe is the perfect diet if you wish to create less than optimal health. It is the diet of the non-leader (The couch potato). This series of posts is designed to eliminate all the misinformation about the SAD and provide the best of the best insights that we have discovered at CMC to make you more antifragile.

Although there has been a lot of press about nutrition and its effects on overall health and longevity, very little has been said about the connection between what you eat and the quality of your leadership and decision making. Of your ability to lead your life and lead your team.

With that said, we will explore a few easy things that anyone can research to see if it makes sense for them to begin doing. In the spirit of Kaizen, one small step is all we are after at this point.

One of the biggest areas and maybe the least obvious when it comes to nutrition is fat. This has become a three letter word that people try to avoid at all costs. Yet, we do so at our own peril. What we need to do is make the distinction between healthy fats and toxic fats.

Toxic fats
A toxic fat is something we definitely want to avoid putting in our bodies at all costs. Hydrogenated oils (could be considered a plastic) are not helpful. Soybean oil, canola oil, vegetable oil are all on the list. Just about any oil used in any fast food restaurant is in this category of oils to avoid. Avoid rancid oils (if the bottle is in clear glass or plastic, there is a high probability that it is rancid).

Healthy Fats
Healthy fats are those fats that fuel the body and fuel the brain. They are what we not only crave but need to function at optimal levels of performance. Here are my personal favorite healthy fats. They can be used every day to maximize your nutritional profile.

Ghee
From the oldest known texts in the world, the Rig Veda: “Ghee is the first and most essential of all foods.” It took me years to learn to like the taste of Ghee. Now I love it and use it every day. You can cook with it (it has a high smoke point), add it to anything where you would use butter or use it to make Bulletproof® Whole Bean Coffee 12 oz. in the morning (highly recommended). The best ghee comes from grass fed, pastured cow milk. The best ghee on the market is: 100% Organic Ghee from Grass-fed Cows, 32oz

Coconut Oil
Coconut oil can be used for everything including skin care and hair treatment. It can be used as toothpaste and used for oil pulling to detox the mouth. Like ghee, it has a high smoke point and is perfect for cooking. You can had it straight to smoothies and use it for bulletproof coffee.  Here is a good one: Carrington Farms Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, 54 Ounce

Olive Oil
This is an Italian staple. There is nothing like a tomato salad with fresh basil and high quality olive oil and a little salt and pepper. The key word is high quality. Olive oil has a low smoke point and it should not to be used for cooking (drizzle it on after the dish is already cooked). There are a lot of olive oils on the market that are less than stellar (many are cut with other oils). Here is one from California that you will love: Acropolis Organic Olive Oil (500ml) Brand: Acropolis

Krill and/or fish oil
Lots of research points to the need we have for Omega 3 fatty acids. It is curiously missing from the Western diet. That means supplements are required. One of the best sources is:  New Chapter Wholemega, Whole Fish Oil with Omegas and Vitamin D3 - 120 ct

Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon
This is the best fish ever. Get is fresh at Whole Foods or get it canned from Wild Planet. This is one fish that is low on pollutants and high on nutrition. Avoid all farm raised fish and especially avoid genetically modified salmon which was recently approved (ill advisedly) by the FDA.  Here is a good canned version: Wild Planet Wild Alaska Pink Salmon, Boneless & Skinless, 6 Ounce Can (Pack of 12)

Sardines
Just like there is a lot of fake olive oil on the market, there is a lot of fake sardines being sold under the label of sardines. The real thing is a little known nutritional gem that fuels brain power. One brand we know that checks out is: Bela Olhao Sardines Lightly Smoked Sardine in Tomato Sauce, 4.25 Ounce -- 12 per case.

Nuts
Nuts pack a powerful punch when it comes to nutrition. Get nuts sourced from reputable organic growers. Pistachios, Macadamia, Almonds, and Walnuts are all excellent sources. Yes, they have a lot of healthy fat and that’s a good thing. 


Avacado
One of the best foods ever!  Loaded with healthy fats and other goodies.

Is this the end of the story? No. But you have to begin somewhere. From our experience, toxic oils can have the most devastating impact on health while healthy oils can have the most positive impact. We will look at another area of leadership fuel in the next post.

Saying Thank You

Part of thanksgiving is feeling gratitude. It is about being grateful for what we have. Focusing on that is a game changer. For the readers of this blog, we have a lot to be grateful for (for starters, you have eyesight and are able to read, you have a computer, electricity, and some form of shelter, you are on the path of growth and development, etc.).

Yet. There is another side to Thanksgiving. That is saying 'thank you' to those who have specifically contributed in a positive way to our lives. It could be something small or it could be big. Either way, we have some obligation to recognize the other person. To say thank you. It is amazing how few people actually do this.

Let's start a trend and begin appreciating those who contribute to the quality of our lives with a heartfelt thank you (throughout the next 12 months). Other people will appreciate the recognition and we will feel good at the same time.

If you are in a leadership role, consider adding this practice to your performance objectives for the coming year. It is a kaizen practice (something small that will have a huge impact).  You will thank me later.

…And The Alpaca You Came In On

A good friend from college recently responded to a Craig’s List posting for a Caretaker of a ranch outside of town. According to what he saw in the advertisement, it would be the perfect position. He is a true outdoors-man having spent over 20 years in the rugged mountains of Colorado. Watching over a large ranch is a perfect job for him.

On Saturday, he arose before dawn to ride out to meet the owner and check out the ranch. It was nice enough with plenty of land and large views of the countryside. There was a herd of Alpaca on the ranch. That was part of the deal. Take care of the flock and the property. But here’s the rub. When they were discussing payment, the owner talked about rent. Not a salary for being a caretaker. Not rent in exchange for watching over the property. No, she was talking rent for the "privilege" of watching over her animals and land.

My friend was of course taken aback. His choice words to the owner began with the letter “F” and then “you” and ended with the classic refrain “…and the Alpaca you came in on.”

This situation illustrates the modern phenomenon of people wanting their cake and to eat it too. Rather than find a way to create win/win/win agreements, they attempt to create win/lose agreements. They push the boundaries of common sense and common decency. It is yet another example of unconscious people trying to do business.

This is why we love conscious businesses (Trader Joe’s, Southwest Airlines, and COSTCO in the U.S.). They play by a different set of rules. They bend over backwards to make the customer happy, the employees happy, and the investor happy, all at the same time. Not a bad way to roll.

Note: An alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is a domesticated species of South American camelid. It resembles a small llama in appearance.

Time Management for Highly Creative People™ - Session 2 (Video)

 

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.
~ Zig Ziglar

In Session 2 we go from your Weekly Success Map to your daily plan. Each day is planned and recorded on a ruled 3x5 card. There is amazing magic in planning each day and then executing on the plan. Of course, things will come up and you will need to adjust. That is to be expected. But the discipline of planning is indispensable to success. It is the difference between moving out with a purpose and drifting through life.

Within the video, we mention a few resources that you may want to consider ordering. You can order directly from our Amazon links. See below…

Levenger 300 Non-Personalized 3x5 Cards - White Ruled (ADS6780 RL)

Levenger Shirt Pocket Briefcase Purple (AL5945 PU NM)

The Dream Job Intensive 2015

We are doing a private version of the Dream Job Intensive starting Monday, October 26, 2015 (that's next week). Because there are a few slots open, we are opening the doors to the readers of this blog on a first come basis. The tuition for the program is normally $1,995. Because of the short notice, we are offering a one-time-only discounted rate of only $397 per person (this session only).  Please check out the details here. 

If this program resonates with you and you are up for a challenge we would love to have you with us.  Although it will be difficult and will require a lot of work, it will be a lot of fun at the same time.  

For everyone else, there will be a regularly scheduled intensive beginning January 18, 2016. We will post more information when the date gets closer.

We look forward to your success!

Thanks,
The Dream Job Intensive Leadership Team

Time Management for Highly Creative People™ - Session 1 (Video)

 

If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.
~ Yogi Berra

In Session 1 we focus on your Weekly Success Map. This is the key to the whole process. If you do this one thing, your success could well multiply beyond your wildest dreams. The reason for this is, you are combining your creativity with focused attention on what you intend to do in the coming week.  It is not magic but it can seem like it once you get into the habit.

Within the video, we mention a few resources that you may want to consider ordering. You can order directly from our Amazon links. See below…

Time is On Your Side

Forever is composed of nows.
~ Emily Dickinson

It is never a question of not enough time. The question is always about not enough living. We are served up a huge dish of life every single day. Yet, most of us complain. We forget that this day is the show itself. The main act. The final cut. All the absurdities we read about in the newspapers may be due to a very simple but deadly miscalculation about the nature of existence.

Life is sweet precisely because we know each day is a once in a lifetime experience. Each sunrise is totally unique, never to be repeated in the same way again.

If your faith calls you to believe in the afterlife, then live this life to the fullest. If your faith does not allow for such a belief, then all the more reason to be alive and happy now.

Don’t Try to Control the Uncontrollable

Don’t Try to Control the Uncontrollable
~ James Key Lim

In our recent Antifragility Webinar (listen to the excerpts here), one of our special guests was James Key Lim. James is a consultant who spent a long time at Zappos, one of the few companies on the planet known for having a truly world-class culture.

During the webinar, James said something profound (many things) that I’ve been thinking about ever since. He said, “don’t try to control the uncontrollable.” The more I think about this, the more deep it goes. These words of wisdom speak about chaos. He cautions us not to get hung-up on things we cannot control. He even invites us to not only accept chaos but to actively encourage it (if everyone is prepared to do so).

In a very real way, the only thing we really control is ourselves and how we will show up in the world today. If we get that handled, then everything else has a tendency to work itself out. If we can begin to accept the chaotic nature of things, might we one day learn to love it?

Antifragility Panel/Webinar: Practice Beyond the Rhetoric (Audio Excerpts)

We joined Si Alhir and Barry Bettman to discuss Antifragility with Judith E. Glaser and James Key Lim. This was an amazing discussion. Listen for some Zappo's stories from James and insights around neuroscience and art from Judith.

The full audio will be posted on Si's blog in the near future here.

Why There Are No Pharmacies in Whole Foods Market

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
~ Hippocrates

The great John Mackey and his company Whole Foods Market (WFM) essentially created the health food movement as we know it today. We take for granted that there are healthy (or at least healthier) choices when it comes to food. WFM is within driving distance of almost every major town or city within the United States. They are truly delivering on their Higher Purpose.

But there is one thing conspicuously absent in WFM that every other grocery store has. What is that? A pharmacy. There Are No Pharmacies in Whole Foods Market. Anywhere. Ever. It is almost as if they actually listened to Hippocrates' famous quote about letting food be your medicine and your medicine your food.

Could it be that Hippocrates was right after all? Could great healthy organic leafy green food really become your medicine? Could an ounce of prevention really be worth a pound of cure? Well, we leave that for you to discover. The fact that pharmaceuticals are not part of the success equation at WFM speaks volumes.

We’ve written about Whole Foods Before and how they are Antifragile (see the post here). Despite recent criticism of WFM in some corners, we continue to recognize them as leaders without which the other stores who now carry organic foods would no longer be able to do so. Rock on WFM!

How to Start and Complete Any Creative Project

Let’s say you have an idea for a book, a blog, a work of art, an online course, a new service or anything else that requires creativity. Almost everyone we talk to has something they have been “thinking about” doing for a long time. Some have started. Few have finished.

Here are a few tips that you can use to overwhelm anything (usually internal) that prevents you from starting and completing your creative project.

Begin at the End
This is an old trick I originally learned from Steven Covey in the book,The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal ChangeIt basically means to see the final result before you ever get started. Get clear on what you are creating. See the big picture. Use this as a guide to create your masterpiece.

Commit to Doing It
Until you make a decision nothing will happen. Thinking about doing it is not the same thing as doing it. If you decide to go on a cruise, you go on the cruise. Same idea for your project. Decide once and then begin.

Utterly and Absolutely Forget about Perfection
Most people get hung up on creating the perfect thing, whatever that thing might be. It is one of the major stumbling blocks to creative work. As Reid Hoffman the co-founder of LinkedIn said, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.” The main idea is to launch.

Break It Down Into Logical Pieces
In every project, there is a logical sequence to what needs to happen and when. Some things can be done out of sequence but other things depend upon something else being completed before the next step can begin. Brainstorm everything that needs to happen and then arrange each step into a sequence. PostIt notes are invaluable for this.

Go Public
Use social pressure to your advantage. By telling everyone you know what you are up to, you put pressure on yourself to follow through. The more people you tell, the better. Most people will not want to report back that they did not start or finish the project they were so enthusiastic about a few months ago. Forming a mutually supportive Triad (three people who are all working on something important) can be a huge boost to your productivity.

Set Traps for Yourself
A productivity trap is something that distracts you from completing your goal. Conventional wisdom says to clear the decks so you have time to focus on your priorities. This can work but often does not. The alternative is to book your calendar with meetings, exercise, social events, etc. This will force you to schedule in an hour or two every week to work on your project. This time becomes truly focused work time.

Have Faith
Without a little faith, you will be always doubting yourself. That is not helpful when you are doing something you have never done before. If you can muster up the belief that you can do it, that what you need will be available when you need it (even though you have no evidence from the past that says you can), you will be way ahead of the game. Think of how children create. They just get going with a lot of faith that they can do whatever it is they choose to do. They happen to be right. 

That's it!  If you use the strategies, you boost the probability of not only starting but finishing any creative project that you decide (yourself) that you desire to create.  We would love to hear about your successes.

Connecting the Head with the Heart

Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.
~ Leonardo da Vinci

Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto) pointed out that the people who study happiness, as a group, tend to look like they are very miserable. We could extend this insight to almost any field. The “experts” understand something at a superficial intellectual level.  That’s as far as it goes. Their knowledge has not traveled into the heart. Their charts and graphs are unable to bridge the gap. They are unable to practice what they preach.

This may account for the fact that most of the breakthroughs in every field have come from regular people who enjoy experimenting on their own (for the sheer fun of it). It may be why only a relatively few companies have a conscious business model despite the fact that conscious businesses are more successful (by every measure) than their competitors.

If we want to move forward, we need to be able to not only talk about something, we need to be able to do it. This requires that we love what we are up to in the world (heart power).

The Wisdom of Embracing Failure

Most of us, most of the time, fear failure. We hold back. We don’t try. We keep a low profile. All because we fear the dreaded “f” word.

The problem with this particular fear, maybe more than any other kind of fear, is it keeps us playing small. Really small. The new book, the new painting, the new website, the new blog, the new job, all get put to the “back burner.” Usually, they never get done.

But why? Why fear failure? There is no good answer for this. In many cases, the cost issue is no longer an excuse. With everything online, "I don't know how" is no longer an excuse. We just need to learn to push through the fear and keep pushing through it step by step.

Pema Chodran’s new book Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better: Wise Advice for Leaning into the Unknownis on the reading list. This book comes at a good time when so many people are holding back from unleashing their greatness. The time to get started is now.

A takeaway for this topic might be this quote from Jeff Bridges. He says, “Live like you're already dead, man. Have a good time. Do your best. Let it all come ripping right through you.”

An Easy Way to Increase Your Level of Consciousness

We just released Part 10 of the free version of our wildly popular course How to Create Your Dream Job Now™ (you can see it here). In this final session, the focus is on increasing your level of consciousness. The idea is that to really thrive within a conscious business, we need to become more conscious ourselves.

There are a number of things we can do to become more conscious. It requires a practice. Something that we do every day so that eventually we become more awake and aware. More tuned-in to what is happening right now.

One of my personal favorite practices is the mindfulness walk. To do this, you simply take a walk with the intention of actively noticing new things. Then, while on the walk, you actively notice new things. You notice clouds, trees, bark, insects, birds, people, and whatever else appears within your field of vision.

If you keep this up for several days, you may notice a distinct shift in how you feel. Over a period of a few weeks, you may find yourself being transformed in a very positive way!

It is Not Joy That Makes Us Grateful

As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than there is wrong…”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

Everyone speaks of gratitude these days but very few have turned it into a practice. Those who have turned it into a practice, like the monk Brother David Steindl-Rast seem to be transformed by this one thing alone. He says, “the root of joy is gratefulness... It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” That is powerful (when we give it a try).

Here is an inspirational video from Brother David to enjoy…

Antifragility Webinar on Organizational Change 2015-09-02 (Audio Excerpts)

Strategy is a dance between "hard" approaches, which set direction, plan, and persevere, and "soft" approaches which sense, respond, and flex.
~ Paul Gibbons

This recording includes a few highlights from the Antifragility webinar we did with Si Alhir and Barry Bettman on the topic of organizational change. It was an amazing discussion with our special guest Paul Gibbons who focuses on science, leadership, philosophy and business. The discussion was extremely content rich. You can subscribe to Paul's blog here.