BE the LIGHT!
As the world around us continues its struggle with a seemingly endless series of things that are “just crazy”, the daily piling on of new demanding challenges can be truly overwhelming. I get it. I feel it! I know you do too!
There are moments I find myself just gazing upward and saying… REALLY? So far no answers have fallen from the sky… BUT I go back to a phrase that I have heard over the years and its source is not known to me, so we will credit it to a “chat with the angels”. The following words do not need a lot of explanation, although I will expand on them a bit. The phrase that I reference is….
Don’t wait to SEE the light….. BE the light!
My expansion on that phrase comes from experiences of both a professional and personal nature.
Where I go with all this is pretty simple. What I have found is that when the demands are at their highest, stress seemingly cannot grow, the entire world seems to be totally lost and crazy, and you are about to burst….in that moment your best recourse is to put it all on the shelf for the moment and find SOMEONE to help, to serve, to aid, to protect, or just listen to. If it is someone you know, then find something to do to serve them that you have not done before. It is even better for the world if you go out and find someone new to help. Trust me, it only takes a question or two to find that need and then serve it… serve without reserve!
Go out and BE THE LIGHT… for someone that is lost for the moment and just needs to be able to have a little hope that they did not have up until you served them, and shined some light on their world.
This is a human equation that needs solving. And it’s very “business pragmatic” when you actually realize that our clients are people TOO. And you have the ability to BE THE LIGHT for them, both professionally and personally, if you choose. So go out, BE THE LIGHT. Make a difference!
Don’t wait to SEE the light….. BE the light!
My bet is that within about 3 minutes you can identify a person in your world that blossoms from a little light! Go shine!
CUSP
CARE greatly,
UNDERSTAND deeply,
SERVE endlessly,
with PURPOSE!
It really is that simple. Try it. See the outcomes. And keep going!
Ok, Let’s ROLL!
Mitch
COACHING IS FOREVER!
Coaching is not a journey, it’s a lifestyle. And something that you choose.
Coaching is not a method, it is serving. And doing it without reserve.
Coaching done well is not an event. It is forever.
Coaching is caring greatly about someone. Taking a great amount of time to understand them deeply. It is action-oriented by serving endlessly. And it is deeply founded in a clear understanding of another’s purpose.
And yes, here again, the fundamental framework of CUSP serves us quite well. Care greatly, Understand deeply, Serve endlessly, with Purpose.
There is a funny thing about coaching. A lot of people have come to the conclusion that Coaching, has an endpoint to it. Kind of like the end of a football game. The phrase I hear repeatedly is something like…”I have coached “them” several times on this subject and they just don’t seem to “get” it”. The “coach” is frustrated because they have “coached” the person they are referencing, several times on the same subject with no change in outcome. Often it sounds like they are expecting to have a chat, fix the “issue” and move on.
Let’s tear this “frustration” apart a bit… First, from the comment that I most often hear…” I have coached them several times”, comes the pretty clear reality that what is being done “TO” the person is more accurately labeled mentoring, instructing, managing, directing, or a whole lot more…it is not coaching. So let’s reframe that thought of getting into a true coaching mode that guides us to help someone else achieve what THEY desire to achieve.
And once we get beyond that, the next stumbling block is the assumption that this is an event-driven activity that has an end to it. And if you are going to coach then you need to kill the concept that it is anything less than a continuous improvement project that will have ebbs and flows in lots of directions and will simply continue. Coaching is FOREVER…but ONLY if you want to help others AND improve yourself!
So last week I wrote…. Stop CLOSING, start CARING. And this week I add to that… Stop MANAGING, start really COACHING…. FOREVER!
Ok, Let’s Roll,
Mitch
p.s. and if you want to learn what the VERY BEST coaching looks like, check out my friend Hendre at www.hendrecoetzee.com
Looking to understand more deeply the complexity of anxiety recently I found an amazing piece of work by Dr. Anthony Silard from his site, The Art of Living Free (theartoflivingfree.org). It is an extensive amount of great material, but I thought I would extract just a bit of it and pass it along to you all.
We are first and foremost emotional beings. It is in our structure and in our nature. From there we try to add logic and reasoning, sometimes with limited success. The word interdependence is used below and that is a key to understanding how to relate to our world and our clients. Our clients seek out connections with people that they value as worthy of spending time bonding with. Each interaction that we have with people, family, or clients, is an opportunity to strengthen that connection and add value to that interdependence. Those that understand that connectivity and actively choose to enhance it every time they can bring ever more and more value to the world and those they serve. That choice is yours, every day, every conversation, every interaction, you choose to grow the connection by caring, or not.
My thought for you for this week….. stop “closing”, start “caring”!
OK, Let’s Roll!
Mitch
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Dr. Anthony Silard
The Art of Living Free
Social Distance is Not Emotional Distance
In actuality, what we need to engage in is not social distancing at all, but physical distancing. In this sense, we need to clarify that social distance is not emotional distance. As human beings, we are meant to be social; accordingly, we need to view our relationships as a matter of mental health during this confinement.
The Changing Needs of Relationships in a Pandemic
During isolation, emotions expand and magnify. For this reason, among others, anxiety levels are, on average, three times higher than they were a year ago. Relationships must take these psychological changes during the pandemic into consideration. We are not just in the presence of the Covid pandemic; there is also a loneliness pandemic and a technology pandemic. We never thought we were going to use technology in these new ways to buffer physical isolation.
Time for Change
It’s time to connect with each other. Now is the moment to take care of our parents and others who have taken care of us for so many years. We have to consider and reach out to people we know are suffering. Sharing our feelings and emotions is a marvelous way to open up to each other, lower anxiety and stress, to show vulnerability, and to engage in profound and genuine relationships.
The eye-opening corollary of loneliness is that there are so many people with whom we have come into contact for years and know nothing about it. We don’t know how they feel, how they are handling the pandemic, or how they are reconstructing their lives. We can transcend our comfort zone, reach out to some of them, and deepen our social relationships.
The ones who cope better are the ones who accept what is happening. By accepting that you don’t control everything, you become more capable of engaging in mutual reliance and interdependence. You begin to realize how much we need each other. These types of thoughts and actions will help us move strongly through the largest public health crisis in our lifetimes.
Following on from an internal email that I sent to our team a couple of weeks ago, and that I published last week in this blog, is the following….
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Coming back to the powerful concept of focus on ONE THING!
I will start with a paragraph from the Success Framework email that I sent out last week…
“Let’s start simply however with a pragmatic view of what our team’s outcome objective is… This team’s prime objective is to drive highly profitable revenue GROWTH! Now there are a lot of fine points to that and a ton of nested specifics, but let’s get this one clear. WE own creating highly profitable revenue GROWTH. In a flat industry and tough times, this is not easy. Fully understood! Still got to do it!”
Revenue growth is our team’s reason for existence. Accomplishing GROWTH within the framework of DOING THE RIGHT THING, is the challenge. This is not an easy task, and it must be done while adding value to every person (client and MCHP) involved in the actions.
There is one overpowering aspect of growth that we have to clearly understand and then act into…
…growth requires disruption, breaking the status quo(the existing state of things) at the client….change!
Our role is to interrupt what “is” at a client, to make it what “will be”, as we see it. All with the focus that to actually do that requires that the client see us differently and that we are seen as having a co-created value that makes a difference to THEM.
We own this challenge, and I see you all doing it regularly. In the fear-based environment that we face today where change has significant push back, this challenge is even magnified.
This complex interaction has pushed back from almost everyone in the chain of decisions. Everyone fights hard to maintain the status quo. The client is reluctant to change. There is a risk to any disruption. Disruption is not of value to the distributors as it opens up the possibility of “loss”. Every competitor is fighting with all of their mite to prevent any disruption or loss.
It’s not easy, which makes it of GREAT value for us to focus on and achieve.
Our role in the scheme of things is to create unique client value thru the disruption of the client’s status quo. We can do that. I see you doing it. We need to be clear that this is the “HOW” to our singular objective… creating highly profitable revenue growth for our family.
Our involvement with clients, either directly, or thru distribution requires this focus. We need to realize, however, that there is a very natural push back from the distribution channel in addition to the fear of change from the client that we will have to work to resolve. Just think of it as “twice the fun”, and even more sticky once you earn it.
I went to ask for a particular action and follow up from our global leadership team. They are in the process of doing that and as always I am finding great creativity when you seek it.
For you, I propose the following….
I suggest that you spend some time with your team locally and walk thru the definition of status quo, the meaning of disruption, understand the client’s reluctance to change, the impact that your channel may have, and then brainstorm new ways to show the possibility that the change can be good for them.
Ok, Let’s Roll!
Mitch
The message below is one that was sent out to the WW Client Engagement team where I am employed. It references a couple of things that may not make sense unless you are on the inside, and the “poster” mentioned is not attached here….don’t fret, it won’t make a difference to the message for you…
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To the WW Client Engagement Team;
A bit of writing this weekend vs our new video format. We’ll come back to that next week. With all of the challenges of the world for us to consider it felt like the right time to clearly communicate just what we as a team are focused on and how we are aiming to accomplish it all. A bit of a reframe for some and reiteration for others. Both work.
This is the summary of many elements so you may find me getting a bit wordy here, please indulge me, this is vital.
What we are about to look at, is called…..
…The Microchip Client Engagement Team Success Framework!
So, let’s start high, with the why, and work my way down into the details of the what and the how along the way.
Let’s start simply however with a pragmatic view of what our team’s outcome objective is… This team’s prime objective is to drive highly profitable revenue GROWTH! Now there are a lot of fine points to that and a ton of nested specifics, but let’s get this one clear. WE own creating highly profitable revenue GROWTH. In a flat industry and tough times, this is not easy. Fully understood! Still got to do it!
Challenge understood, now let’s take a look at how we drive that. Not LET it happen… DRIVE it, MAKE it happen.
Coming back up to a high level and looking at the “system”. It looks like this. The elements of our system are the following.
Attached is a document that our team created more than a decade ago.
A few of the elements have morphed a bit and some of the numbers need to be updated, some up, some down. We have morphed our understanding of what a good PURPOSE statement looks like and we will dig into that here shortly. A very key part of the work shown attached is the nature of what matters and its consistency. Our values, our styles, our simple view of life, and our vision remain incredibly well-aimed and show that this guidance has served us quite well.
Let’s dive into some thinking on some of the elements. Our vision as shown on the attached “poster”, remains at heart very clear to what we have always known that we were aiming to create, and we have. And we also continue to evolve and improve upon it. A 10-year-old stab at some numbers ended up high or low in a few respects, but the heart and soul of what we were aiming to build IS what we have built, and are still building.
Our mission…. Drive Design Wins to Revenue! Is more true today than ever. It is the ONE thing that every one of us MUST do each and every day to deliver our vision. Not simple. To drive one, you must find one. You must then WIN one, and then make sure that it actually produces revenue for our client and provides an appropriate level of ROI for MCHP as well. Everybody must win on this one. We must learn to choose better so that our efforts yield a higher ROI. That means choosing markets, clients, and projects that we believe will deliver the most results. That is a scrutiny level that we are very immature on and needs rapid evolvement.
Our values and our styles remain core to our success. They require constant vigilance to ensure that they remain intact and that we are all living them, all the time. We must hold ourselves and those around us to a higher standard and be open to recognizing the need to change.
Let me step back a bit to the subject of PURPOSE. From our clients, we have been told that they see us differently and that we view things differently. And that is both true and intentional. From our team’s perspective, the non-commissioned compensation model that we deploy puts us into a highly favorable position of being able to simply SERVE our client without bias or manipulation. Our role is to simply SERVE our clients in the best way we can determine, and help them deliver innovation to their clients. We do that best by helping them make better decisions, faster. And by removing all of the possible roadblocks that they may run into during their journey of innovation. We do this with intention, planning, and a lot of 2-way conversations. This is the outcome we are planning when we say that our team’s purpose is to…
Deliver the freedom to innovate!
Active, not passive, removing obstacles and opening up the doors so that the WORLD can do what only it uniquely can do…. INNOVATE beyond imagination.
Our purpose is guided by analysis and planning as we create strategic objectives that are well-targeted, planned, and executed. Always pushing ourselves into stretch goal mode.
Within our team, we have a way of thinking that has us focused on serving our clients to the max and helping them achieve their objectives. This is the Microchip Client Engagement Process. At its heart is the perspective of CUSP that represents HOW we engage with our clients and what our mindset is as we journey with them.
Always about them, and their world, and their needs!
COMPASS is our real-time operating system that keeps MCEP running, leading the charge in the best direction, enabling conversations, and helping us clearly understand what the next best actions should be. We are in the early stages of that level of engagement coaching and making great progress on COMPASS being your best friend!
To most effectively DRIVE actions forward we must have a bias toward action, not data. The days of old where we did massive quarterly reviews of every known attribute of a BU or two no longer works. Our library is open, COMPASS, and anyone wanting to know anything that the Client Engagement team knows is welcome to dig in and search and explore to their heart’s content. Our gatherings and discussions must shift to forward-looking action plans and ideas. Information is great as long as it drives an actionable outcome. Otherwise, it is just a history book that once read, gathers dust. Our discussions, meetings, plans, and ideas must all be action biased. Within our team, for the past many years, we have circled around the concept of Plan/Do/Review. That is even more important now with 20+ BUs all looking for help to aid them in driving their profitable revenue. We own this focus. We must always come back to “what will move this forward” as a baseline.
Thanks so much!
Mitch
