While the ink was drying on the blog I wrote last week —Don’t Drink Your Own Kool-Aid, an amazing couple of events happened. The very next day, while in a board meeting that was directly impacted by the meeting that I discussed in my blog, something amazing and incredibly magical happened that I want to share with you.
But before we go there I want to take a moment to reflect on Thanksgiving week and how thankful we need to be for everyone around us, and for all of the independent perspectives, thoughts and experiences that we have collected along this journey that we call life. This very group of family, friends, and work colleagues has been carefully crafted by you to give you exactly what you want and what you perceive you might need.
So just for giggles, have you ever listed the team that surrounds you? We all have one —and yes, you can include the dog and your barista! Do you inspire this team? Does the team challenge and inspire you? Have you ever taken the time to thank all of them for being part of your team? For giving and sharing their insights, their thoughts and experiences? Are you asking them for help along your own journey? Are you asking them how you can help them?
Now let’s get back to the BOD meeting. For several years there has been one guy on this board that, for some reason, seemed to always disagree with my point of view. I didn’t agree with his either. Not sure why and embarrassingly, I will admit I just started ignoring him and not really listening to what he would say. (Not what a board member with a fiduciary responsibility should do, so just keep this between us!) Anyway, I was coming off the meeting that I wrote the Kool-Aid blog about and I was head down, focused, and still a little startled by the outcome of that previous meeting. Oh my! Now a day later, the BOD meeting was heating up and progressing. I was driving home my points. Funny, because I noticed my colleague was also ignoring me, too. Perfectly understandable. Then (and I am paraphrasing here to make the point) one of the leaders of the board asked, “Ok, I get the short term, but what are we long term? What is the big idea here? What are we going to be when we grow up?”
I gasped! I was so focused on the near term that my mind wasn’t looking at the big picture. Now, any of you that know me know that this is the total opposite of me normally. I am never in the weeds and always thinking about the big picture. In fact, many times too big for most of the organizations I work with, but not in this moment. I babbled a little on what the big picture could look like. In other words, just tap dancing and saying a little of this combined with a little of that. There was a pause, and the individual who I had tuned out earlier spoke out very confidently and said he had been thinking along the same line. He proceeded to describe a business model that was absolutely brilliant. I jumped in and for the first time in two years, I was totally on the same page with him! Not only was I on the same page, but getting more excited about his thought process by the moment.
He was inspiring me to a really aspirational place, and that was so exciting. I thought, this guy deserves the “most brilliant idea of the year” award. I stopped and said to myself, wow, you can’t write the script! How thankful I was for this person speaking up, taking the time to think big picture while I was in the weeds. Yup, it was the perfect prelude to Thanksgiving week.
So now you know where I was going when I said be thankful for the team around you, your posse. How are you maximizing the experience you have with each of them? Do you all have each others’ backs, no matter what? With experiences, thought processes and support, whether or not you agree with them? I am just glowing, thinking about this experience. And again, reminded of how important a diverse team is and how important it is to reaffirm that everyone in the room counts, and that everyone should be heard.
Following up on Don’t Drink Your Own Kool-Aid, let’s extend the thought to include “don’t think you know what everyone in the room has to offer.” Take the time to get to know an individual better before you make judgments. Realize that you have assembled this team around you for a reason.
Now, take out the list that I asked you to make earlier, the one with all of your team members, all the folks you interact with everyday. Be sure it includes everyone –sons, daughters, dogs, cats, even receptionists and baristas. As you look at the list, remember that these are the people that are molding you every day. Now, with this list, do two things. First, ask yourself what are they working on that you can help them with. Then, vice versa –what are you trying to accomplish that they can contribute to? Are you going to have that dialogue with them and be thankful for having them as part of your eco-system, your team?
Immediately after the enlightening BOD meeting I referenced above, we met with a company that has an anti-snoring device that we called (affectionately) “snore no more.” I literally had no idea how it worked, or even if it does or really, anything about the market or what a business for this product could look like, so I was a pass.
Then driving from that meeting, one of our Code Blue partners, Paul, called. I told him about the meeting and said that I really didn’t know anything about this snoring biz, when he said, “Oh, I used to work on snoring. I know a lot about snoring.” I said, “Really!? You know about snoring devices?” He said yes, that he had worked a lot on the science and making the medical devices and selling them through dentists’ offices. I said oh, my! I had no idea that he had had that experience and we talk everyday! And the shame is that I probably would not have known if we hadn’t talked directly after the meeting.
So, recognize that you have assembled your own “Board of Directors”, your team, your posse, and that they all have a critical and important role in your life. How are you going to activate your team and recognize how you can contribute to their life and how they can contribute to yours? What new expertise do you need? Who has wanted to get into your circle and you haven’t let them in? Have you wanted to be on someone else’s team? Well, you get where I am going, I am sure. So activate your posse –contribute, ask questions and “ignore no more.”
Happy Thanksgiving—
AZ
