Let’s bring some humanity into it all!
We are all involved in an amazing amount of new video conference time. What had once been something that we used occasionally has become the de facto standard for almost every conversation and meeting. It has shown us a lot of good and I hope that this new mode of excellence does not fade a bit. We plan better when we know this is about to happen. We get focused on outcomes better, and we simply get more done in this mode than ever. It is amazing, and it is a bit flat.
What I find is that it does bring a higher level of personalization vs cold, faceless, boring emails. We are spending time face to face, not keyboard to keyboard. Much better for true complex conversations. And yet it has a certain limited 2 dimension nature to it. I believe that is because we don’t start these gatherings with any of the social interactions that we would normally do. No idle chit-chat or “how are you’s”. So I have a proposal for those of you brave enough to step up a bit.
In a conversation that I was having with my colleague Ken Pye the other day, we invented a new move to start every video before you dive into all of the “agenda”. And we labeled it the….. VIRTUAL FIST BUMP!
So, as you get everyone online… ask them all to do a Virtual Fist Bump to their camera…. Start the conversation with the smile that is generated from that little activity and then move into an even more personalized form of “chatting”.
You know the move… Know where your camera is at, give yourself a bit of room to see others, and do a VIRTUAL FIST BUMP!
Let’s start a global movement… VIRTUAL FIST BUMPs transcend language and culture. No room to shake hands, bow, or otherwise salute, but this new media form works perfectly in VIRTUAL FIST BUMP mode.
Try it!
And then Ken and I ended the meeting the same way…. A goodbye VIRTUAL FIST BUMP… Very cool! Double bumps!
VIRTUAL FIST BUMPs may not change the world, but it just might bring a few smiles into this video conferencing world.
Ok, LETS ROLL… and have a bit of fun!
- Mitch
No sales chatter this time. No business issues, not this time. This time I write from a very personal perspective. Please forgive my unusual demeanor this time….During the many months that we have globally battled COVID-19 our corporate family has lost several of those close to us. We have lost mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. Each loss is a tremendous blow to all of the family. I talk with many of you around the globe with the same deeply felt shared pain. My prayers are with each of you and your family.
Your help is needed now!
A very good friend of mine, a good man that I have known for decades faces a family battle unlike any. He has a beautiful 9-month-old granddaughter that is tonight fighting for her life. Baby “H” has been in intensive care for the last week. Her medical issues are not COVID related, however, they are threatening her life deeply. Nine-month-old little girls are meant to be wearing princess dresses, not hospital gowns, tierras, not oxygen masks.
I may be out of line here, so be it. The family that I know that takes a moment to read this stuff cares about “little girls”! So my request of you is simple….
Please put Baby “H” in your prayers tonight and each night. I know the power of this community to make a difference it great. Please help me with prayers to make a difference for Baby “H”.
Bless you, all!
Mitch
I have written about FEAR on occasions and it is a topic worth digging into a bit again, as these times we are in can be fearful. From my commitment to being “short and sweet” in my messaging, I will aim at that with this.
Courage is not the absence of fear,
but rather the judgment
that something else
is more important than fear.
Ambrose Redmoon
Our fear freezes us from taking action in the service of our clients.
Our fear limits our thinking and creativity.
Our fear stops progress, ends change, kills revolution.
However, fear is ours to embrace or ignore. Our choice to act in the face of fear is courageous. You choose!
This week take a moment to face the fear of something difficult in serving your clients that you have been putting off and choose to be courageous. Then, do it! Take the decision to just do it! Define it, share it with your team, plan it, DO IT!
Be courageous as you…
Care deeply…
Understand greatly…
Serve endlessly…
with Purpose!
OK, LET’s ROLL!
- Mitch
PLAN EVERYTHING!! Really….. YES!
Ok now that is said, where am I headed with this thinking? Well, in the vein of “keeping it simple”… I will focus on just one perspective of planning. We all know that planning every conversation with every client is a LOT of work. AND if you want to optimize the narrow time now spent in client conversations, it IS the only way to excel in serving them.
So for this week I suggest that you take a bold step forward, get specific, narrow the planning challenge, and only PLAN TO UNDERSTAND… your client needs in every conversation you have. Don’t try to get YOUR message across. Simply take one easy step forward in the planning process and as Stephen Covey would say “seek to understand, before being understood”. PLAN TO UNDERSTAND your client’s business shifts that are happening, UNDERSTAND the impact that working from home is having on their product development plans, UNDERSTAND what they have personally learned about themselves in these last 4 months of WFH. Do all this and more, plan the conversation, plan the thoughts that you would like to explore. PLAN the call, the email, the video, the text… whatever it is, PLAN TO UNDERSTAND….THEM!
Because you CARE, you take time to UNDERSTAND…..
Then you SERVE… with PURPOSE!
CUSP
U
S
P
Serving YOU with PURPOSE!
OK, lets roll!
- Mitch
When I look at the most significant shifts that will come from our journey over the last months and those yet ahead of us, my view is that the role of everyone, not just leadership, needs to take a big move towards what Andrew Carnegie, in the late 1800s, early 1900s, defined as the capability of the MasterMind.
Napoleon Hill studied Carnegie and his wisdom and wrote this about Carnegie’s MasterMind approach. Hill defines the principle as, "Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”
I am a mechanic and electrical engineer by education and trade. I like the battery concept that Hill relates….
Hill/Carnegie writes …“To better illustrate the concept, he compares the human brain to a battery.
Just as a group of electric batteries will produce more energy than a single battery, a group of coordinated brains will produce more thought energy than one, single brain. And just as different batteries will provide different levels of energy depending on the capacity of their cells, some brains are more efficient than others.”
The MasterMind perspective is not a Carnegie creation, it has been around for a VERY long time.
In the Post Graduate Survival Guide, Sinem Gunel gives some further definitions of the MasterMind…
Per definition, a Mastermind Group is a mentoring concept through which individuals can form groups to learn from each other and grow together. The intention of a Mastermind Group is that peers can help each other solve problems and develop themselves together through input and advice from each other. The core value of a Mastermind Group is the synergy of energy, motivation, and commitment as well as the willingness to learn and grow together.
“No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind [the master mind].” — Napoleon Hill
The beauty of Mastermind Groups is that participants raise the bar by challenging each other to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with total honesty, respect, and compassion.
At the start of any MasterMind gathering, Carnegie would read the following…
I RELEASE… I release myself to the mastermind because I am strong when I have others to help me.
I BELIEVE… I believe the combined intelligence of the mastermind creates wisdom far beyond my own.
I UNDERSTAND… I understand that I will more easily create positive results in my life when I am open to looking at myself, my problems, and opportunities from another’s point of view.
I DECIDE… I decide to release my desire totally in trust to the mastermind and I am open to accepting new possibilities.
I FORGIVE… I forgive myself for the mistakes I have made. I also forgive others who have hurt me in the past so I can move into the future with a clean slate.
I ASK… I ask the mastermind to hear what I really want; my goals, my dreams and my desires, and I hear my mastermind partners supporting me in MY fulfillment.
I ACCEPT… I know, relax, and accept, believing that the working power of the mastermind will respond to my every need. I am grateful knowing this is so.
Recall this was his thinking in the late 1800s. In this perspective specifically, Mr. Carnegie was extremely progressive. While the intro above is a bit too “my” centric for “our” world, the beliefs are the same. And that leads us to my perspective of what we are learning about our world today.
I believe that every one of us is a leader, perhaps not by title, but absolutely by role. The “old” perspective was a title in nature and implied that you were at the top of some org structure. (another outdated topic for an upcoming blog). What is coming to be is the need to shift from leading “people” to lead “thinking”!
That is where we now go. It is the companies, groups, and organizations, of all kinds, large and small, that will shift, again, into high gear, and mobilize the mass good that MasterMinds can help us all co-create the global goodness that we all desire.
No easy feat, as every part of our world fights with all of its might to hold on to the status quo, and not become irrelevant. My perspective is that the ONLY way to remain relevant and thrive is to recognize that the world has changed and make sure YOU change to complement and LEAD the thinking.
Just maybe, what was once old, is actually new again. AND more relevant than EVER! Go out and study a bit, about Master Mind, and form your own perspective…… Please learn and choose your direction!
OK, lets roll!
Mitch
