2012 is promising…

I don’t want to be too clever here, but 2012 is promising:

• to be a mix of victories and failures,
• to have plenty of opportunity for hard work,
• to serve up plenty of chances to learn new lessons,
• to remind us afresh of the lessons we should have already learned,
• to cause us to laugh and cry, and
• to give us plenty of rope…

In summary, I believe 2012 will challenge and test our character (who we are at the core; our hearts), our competence (what we know and have learned; our heads), and our communication (how we interact with others and how we get things done; our hands). 2012 wants to know what we’re made of and what we’re actually going to do. In that context, it will be much like 2011. If you weren’t happy with 2011, what will you do differently this year?

Whatever the case, if you strive to “make sense, make progress, make a difference,” it will be a worthy year. I promise.

In Other Words…

“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” – William Gibson

“When God wanted sponges and oysters, He made them and put one on a rock and the other in the mud. When He made man, He did not make him to be a sponge or an oyster; He made him with feet and hands, and head and heart, and vital blood, and a place to use them, and He said to him, Go Work.” – Henry Ward Beecher, Royal Truths (1862), p. 21

“Whatever comes from the brain carries the hue of the place it came from, and whatever comes from the heart carries the heat and color of its birthplace.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Professor at the Breakfast Table (1859), Chapter VI.

“Leadership means that a group, large or small, is willing to entrust authority to a person who has shown judgement, wisdom, personal appeal, and proven competence.” – Walt Disney

“Work — other people’s work — is an intolerable idea to a cat. Can you picture cats herding sheep or agreeing to pull a cart? They will not inconvenience themselves to the slightest degree.” – Louis J. Camuti, as quoted in On the Art of Business (2004)

“If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not;
Speak then to me.”  - William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Sc. 3, L. 58

In The Word…

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.” – Genesis 3:17b, 18

Steve Jobs excelled in thinking differently. Apple iPods changed how we listen to music, iTunes disrupted the music business, iPhones put the mobile telecommunications business into a new trajectory, and iPads created a new segment in the information technology industry. His innovative leadership produced elegant products and software; simple to setup, simple to use, and beautiful to behold. He proved that less could be more.

Brilliant. Visionary. Demanding. Tireless. Perfectionistic. Beneficiary of many accolades. Darling of the strategic thinking set. Excellent pitchman/promoter/presenter.

So, wherein is the sadness?

I wanted my kids to know me

According to ABC News, “in Isaacson’s last conversation with Jobs he asked the one question that has puzzled him for so long – why did the very private Jobs want to reveal so much in a book?

‘I wanted my kids to know me,’ Jobs told Isaacson.  ’I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.’

I once heard Stephen Covey say, “On their deathbed, no one says they should have spent more time at the office.” Over the past two and a half decades, there has been a substantial increase in work which seems to be due, in no small part, to information technology and by an intense, competitive work environment. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs is not unique in getting the work life balance skewed.

Try This

Check you own work life balance. On a sheet of paper, draw 3 circles (one for each: yourself, your family — spouse, parents, siblings, children, extended family — and your work). Let the relative size of each represent the amount of time in a typical week that you invest in each.  Let the circles overlap to the extent that they actually overlap. What does is tell you? Do you need to make some adjustments?

The world will miss Steve Jobs. Unfortunately, it seems his children already have.

In Other Words…

“One must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind him to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and a mystery.” – H.G. Wells

“If you could choose just one of the four, would you want your children to grow up to be happy, smart, successful, or good?” – Dennis Prager

“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” – Jean Paul Sartre

“Don Corleone: You spend time with your family?
Johnny Fontane: Sure I do.
Don Corleone: Good. ‘Cause a man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.”
-  The Godfather, 1972

“Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain.” – Alan Bleasdale

In the Word…

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” – Psalm 127:3 (NLT)

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” – Luke 9:25 (NIV)

We found one! A black and white spaniel mix. This little dog had a story, but we only knew part of it. Animal Services picked her up on the streets. She was about a year old. The Small Dog Rescue Group was to pick up another dog at the shelter. And then the representative from Small Dog Rescue saw this little black and white bundle of love with the giant heart and bubbling personality! He called in, “We’ve got to take a second dog. She’s precious! They’re going to destroy her within the hour.” The answer was, “No. We don’t have room.” The reply, “Never mind. I’ll take her home with me until you have room. ” Room was found in a day to two and we were called, “We have just the dog you are looking for.” They were right.

We picked her up on the Saturday before Easter three years ago. Once we heard her story we named her “Hallelujah” and called her “Hallie” for short. When Hallie wagged her tail, her whole body “wagged.”

Hallie’s big heart and winsome personality won over the city girl. “I’ve never loved an animal like I love this little dog.” Even the cats accepted her as a member of the family. And so it has been: family.

Fast forward to the present: we had a bad weekend. Hallie sustained a spinal cord injury that left the back half of her body paralyzed. We had to “let her go” Sunday afternoon. Oh, how we miss her! My wife asked me this morning, “What will you miss most?” Well, everything, of course. However, Hallie had, as many dogs do, a special gift. No matter how long you were gone, ten minutes or ten days, she was glad (excited) to see you. She was joyful. She loved unconditionally.  That unconditional love was irresistible.

What does this have to do with leadership? Leadership is about building willing followership for a cause, an idea or a course of action. If you don’t love ‘em, you can’t lead ‘em!

Leadership consultants James Kouzes and Barry Posner believe leadership is an affair of the heart. “The connectedness of people is a fact of life. No leader ever got anything done alone in isolation. Exemplary achievement always involves a team of people working together in an atmosphere of trust and collaboration. To the extent that a little bit more personal suffering and a little bit more interpersonal communication, sharing and support – a little bit more of loving each other – can enhance our ethical character and abilities to achieve greatness, we ought to give it a try.

Love is what sustains us along the arduous journey to the summit. Love is the source of the leader’s courage and the leader’s magnetic north. Leaders are in love: In love with leading, in love with their organization’s products and service, and in love with people. In the end, ethical leadership is not simply an affair of the head, it is an affair of the heart.” (from Ethical Leaders: An Essay About Being in Love, © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers)

I believe Hallie would agree.

In Other Words…

“I have the secret to success in life. The secret is to stay in love. Staying in love gives you the fire to really ignite other people, to see inside other people, to have a greater desire to get things done than other people. A person who is not in love doesn’t really feel the kind of excitement that helps them to get ahead and lead others and to achieve. I don’t know any other fire, any other thing in life that is more exhilarating and is more positive a feeling than love is.” – Major General John H. Stanford, 1986

“Care and responsibility are constituent elements of love, but without respect for and knowledge of the beloved person, love deteriorates into domination and possessiveness.” – Erich Fromm, in Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics (1947)

“If you would be loved, love and be lovable.” - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard (1755)

“Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.” – Petrarch

“In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror.” - John Steinbeck in East of Eden

In The Word…

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians (NIV)

Here’s a fun exercise to help you paint that picture in a slightly different way: you’ll need a piece of paper, something to write with, and two minutes. In two minutes, write as many simple, bullet-point type statements as you can that describe you. Then go back and see what it says about you.

Here’s my list. I’d love to see yours in the Leave A Reply section below. Please feel free to use your nom de plume if you’re uncomfortable sharing.

Me? I am…

• forgiven (grace and mercy are seriously under-rated)
• a husband, father, brother, and recently, father-in-law
• named after my maternal grandparents
• humbled that God could love someone such as me
• curious
• a coffee lover
• a baby-boomer
• tough, but I cry at Wal-Mart openings
• a shotgun shooter
• amazed at how slow days and weeks can go while months and years fly
• a learner
• an advisor to business owners and senior managers
• an admirer of fine pens, well made knives, good cameras, and most anything of elegance that’s well made or done right
• one who loves a good laugh, even if it’s on me
• a small town boy living in a big city
• a cat person, a dog person, a people person
• one who values true friends, storytelling, real people, and conversations characterized by good will, candor & sufficient passion
• not a sunshine patriot
• hopeful that at my funeral someone will say, “Oh, look he’s moving…”

In Other Words…

- Who Am I? – The Trial, Les Misérables

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make 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’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”, Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3

All men should strive
to learn before they die
what they are running from, and to, and why.
- James Thurber

Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle?  A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.  - William Butler Yeats

Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.  - Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

He not busy being born is busy dying.  - Bob Dylan

Know thyself, or at least keep renewing the acquaintance.  - Robert Brault

In The Word…

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! – 2 Corinthians 5:17

This is appropriate bravado for a CEO. I hope it is not misplaced.

Let’s go back to March 2004 when Joan Magretta spoke to The Leadership Forum in Atlanta. Blockbuster was of king of the hill and Neflix was the brash start up.  As Joan pointed out, the success of Blockbuster’s business model seemed to be in lots of stores, lots of videos (but not nearly enough; they called it “managed dissatisfaction”) and lots of late fees (plentiful). One of their customers was Reid Hastings. He got ticked off and founded Netflix.

In a New York Times interview Hastings said, “I got the idea for Netflix after my company was acquired. I had a big late fee for ‘Apollo 13.’ It was six weeks late and I owed the video store $40. I had misplaced the cassette. It was all my fault. I didn’t want to tell my wife about it. And I said to myself, ‘I’m going to compromise the integrity of my marriage over a late fee?’ Later, on my way to the gym, I realized they had a much better business model. You could pay $30 or $40 a month and work out as little or as much as you wanted.” That line of thinking produced flat fee video rentals that you could view as little or as much as you wanted. They were mailed to your door almost overnight from regional distribution centers and there were no late fees or drives to the video store for poor service and “managed dissatisfaction” of limited inventory.

As Magretta pointed out way back in 2004, different value chains produce different kinds of value:

Remember, business models are about converting insight to enterprise. A business model is a set of assumptions about how an organization will perform by creating value for all the players on whom it depends, not just its customers. A good model tells a good story: clearly drawn characters, plausible behavior, and the numbers add up.

The story turns on an insight about value. According to Rita McGrath of Columbia University, in the history of classical music, only 14 compact discs have sold more than a million copies each. One label was responsible for 5 of those 14 top sellers. That label… Victoria’s Secret. They demonstrated a particular insight about customers’ thinking and behavior when buying lingerie: the customer is not focused on whether or not the garment is colorfast or the arrangement of the merchandise in the store…

I see three things Blockbuster needs to think hard about:

1. Value migration – their value “migrated” because consumers saw a more innovative (consumer friendly) delivery platform. The new helped them see their latent dissatisfaction with the old. Where is Blockbuster’s new value creation model?
2. Consumer experience – as I said, consumers easily embraced a more convenient, more flexible, more consumer-centric experience. Like Reid Hasting’s gym, Netflix works on their schedule. This schedule-accomodating trend continues today with on-demand viewing.
3. Relationship with the customer – while it may be necessary in retail store that simply cannot carry every title all the time, “managed dissatisfaction” is a poor foundation for building a relationship with the consumer.

I don’t mean to minimize the challenges ahead for Blockbuster: effectively leveraging and managing the kiosks relationship with NCR, making the most of it’s marketing relationship with Comcast, finding value and opportunity in newly minted relationships with Samsung, Toshiba, Sonic Solutions, and Motorola, and, of course the debt that exceeds assets.

Yet Blockbuster has a lot of work to do on its business model; on it’s insights about value and consumers. A good business model starts with the customer. It tells a good story which produces insights about customer behavior that leads to enterprise. Perhaps they can take a lesson from Victoria’s Secret.

In Other Words…

“Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.” – Peter Drucker

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

“… all too often, a successful new business model becomes the business model for companies not creative enough to invent their own.” – Gary Hamel

“The purpose of every business is to create and keep a customer.” – Peter Drucker

“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” – Winston Churchill

“A word to the wise is infuriating.” – Hunter S. Thompson

Clearly Apple does not sell inexpensive phones. Others do. It’s a conscious choice: trading market share for profit share. Apparently Apple still believes in thinking differently.

How do they do it? See Gary Hamel’s insights in the Wall Street Journal about Deconstructing Apple.

In Other Words…

“It’s better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.” – Steve Jobs

“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.” – Steve Jobs, Revenge of the Nerds, 1996

But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.

“‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”- Steve Jobs, The Guts of a New Machine, 30 November 2003