Re:Focus

What The U.S. Special Forces Know That You Should Also

Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you.  He is training with minimum food or water, in austere conditions.  He doesn’t worry about what workout to do – his rucksack weighs what it weighs and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him.  The True Believer doesn’t care “how hard it is”; he knows he either wins or he dies.  He doesn’t go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the cause.

  Now, who wants to quit?   

These are  the words that hang on a nondescript door, in a nondescript hallway, in a nondescript building on a military base somewhere in the United States.  There is a small plaque next to the door with a room number embossed and the word: SOCom – military speak for Special Operations Command.   What the leadership of SOCom understands so well is that belief is more powerful than resources. Devotion is more potent than technology. And “the cause” is what inspires people to take extraordinary risks or suffer awful conditions for no other reason than to advance the cause.  

Business is no different. 

Apple, Southwest, Disney, Harley-Davidson, Container Store and the handful of other companies that seem to have mystical powers and unbalanced success all have something in common.  They are defined by their cause, not their products or technology. More importantly, they only want to hire “True Believers,” those who believe what they believe.  And for good reason. People who believe what you believe will work for you with blood and sweat and tears.  People who don’t believe what you believe work for your money. Customers who believe what you believe will pay you a premium, suffer inconvenience and give you a lifetime of loyalty.  Customers who don’t believe what you believe will demand that you offer them a cheaper price and even if you do, they’ll still never be satisfied.

A company of True Believers will always frustrate the competition, regardless of how well resourced the competition is.  Apple frustrates Microsoft.  Lexus frustrates GM. Google frustrates pretty much everyone.  And Obama’s grassroots $5 and $10 fund raising frustrated both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.

Being flush with resources does not guarantee success.  In fact, it seems the better resourced an organization is, the more its people seem to stop caring about the cause.  They become more concerned with how many hours they’ve worked, the size of their offices and the benefits they will get.  The huge advantage companies with a cause have over even much bigger competitors is that everyone who comes to work is there for the same reason - to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They have no resources.  They have no expense accounts.  They play the hand they are dealt and they will fight on for no other reason than because they believe. 

People who go to work to be a part of the cause don’t go home.  They are home.

Now - who wants to quit?

The Difference Between Direction and Directions

There is a difference between giving directions and giving direction.

Direction is the far-away destination to which you are heading and directions are the route you will take to get to get there.

As leaders and managers, we often forget the distinction.  When we want to tell someone to do something, we give them directions when we should be giving them direction. Great leaders do not get involved in the details of what route is taken, they focus on ensuring everyone is clear of the destination.

Once established, a leader needn't obsesses about the short-term gains or losses, but rather the long-term trend.  If a submarine commander, for example, says head north, he doesn't focus on the frequent course corrections, he just wants to feel confident that his ship is heading due north.  The same is true for any company or organization.

Any leader who spends too much time worrying about the directions instead of the direction risks destroying any morale, creativity and commitment they may have gained.  Worse, while looking down, they will miss what's far ahead.

Directions are instructions given to explain how. Direction is a vision offered to explain why.

Directions are given by teachers, of which there can be many. It is for you to decide which directions suit you best.

Direction is set by a leader, of which there can be only one. It is for you to decide if you want to go on the journey or not.

Direction must always come before directions otherwise how will people know where they are going?

The next time someone asks you "what do you want me to do?" Don't answer their question.  Don't give them directions.  Point and offer them the direction you want to go in and let them figure out the rest. That's what all the great leaders do.

If You Want To Be An Entrepreneur, You Have To Take The Bagel

Most Sundays throughout the year,  the New York Road Runners organizes races in Central Park. They range in distance from a mile or two to distances just shy of half-marathon length.  Though there are medals for the winners, hundreds even thousands of New Yorkers take part simply for fun or to try to beat their own times.

One  Sunday morning, a friend and I ran in a 4-mile race together.  My friend is a decent runner. He is more disciplined about keeping a regular running schedule than I am. And because of it, he's generally a little faster than I am too. Though he works for a large bank down on Wall Street, on more than one occasion he has mentioned a desire to start his own business one day.  Given his discipline, I assumed that he was well suited to be an entrepreneur. 

That was...until we got to the end of the race. 

Sometimes they give away free stuff to the runners at the finish line.  On this day - free bagels.  There were boxes of bagels sitting atop 2 or 3 of those long, brown fold-up lunch tables, like in high school. One one side of the tables were volunteers giving out the bagels. On the other side of the tables was a long line of runners waiting to get a free bagel. A long line of runners. 

I turned to my friend and said, "lets get a free bagel." He turned, looked at the line and said, "nah, forget it, line's too long."

I looked at him, puzzled. Pointed to the bagels and said, "lets just get a bagel - they're free."  He pointed to the line and said, "yeah, but I don't want to wait."

And it was at that point, I realized he could never be an entrepreneur. 

Entrepreneurs see the thing they want or need then try to figure out a process how to get it. People who shouldn't be entrepreneurs see the standard process they need to go through to get the thing they want or need then decide if they want to go through that process.  My friend didn't want to stand in line, so he opted to abandon the bagel.  I wanted the bagel, so I opted to avoid the line.

I could see that he would rather not have a bagel than break the rules. So I pushed him, "come on, we don't need to stand in line, lets just get a bagel." He refused. He pushed me back, "come on, lets just go...the line's too long."

Realizing we saw the world differently, I walked up to the tables, leaned through the line, put my hand in one of the boxes, pulled out two bagels and walked back to him with our breakfast.  Not a single person in the line said anything to me or even seemed to care.

Entrepreneurs smile when I tell this story.  Non-entrepreneurs like to tell me that I shouldn't do things like that, because if everyone did things like that, we'd have anarchy.  And they'd be right...IF everyone had what it took to be an entrepreneur.  But everyone doesn't. Which is why most people don't start their own businesses and why most people are perfectly fine to stand in line.

And this is why the whole system works. Because the two mindsets need each other. If no one ever broke the rules, then we'd never advance. But if a few people were willing to take the bagel, to break the rules in order to find or create a better process for the majority to follow...that's called progress.

The most successful entrepreneurs all start with WHY. Do you know your WHY? Pre-order Start With Why and find out WHY. And if you do, please order two and give one away to another entrepreneur you want to inspire.

How Did That Idiot Get To Be My Boss?

As anyone who has every held a job can attest, at some point in ones career you will work for someone who clearly has less talent or ability than you do. On a regular basis you’ll ask yourself, “how is THAT guy my boss?” The answer has less to do with the poor sod who was promoted above you and more to do with how we view talent and reward performance in an organization.

The biggest problem is that companies often promote someone who is good at their job to being a manager. But doing the job well and managing others to do it well are not the same thing. In fact, they are completely different skill sets. A great salesman is just that, a great salesman. But a great salesman does not necessarily make a great sales manager. But very often, the top-performing salesman is promoted to sales manager not because he’s necessarily qualified, but because he did well at his other job. And it gets worse. Not only are we promoting people into the wrong jobs, we’re not even training them once they get there. I can guarantee that top-performing salesman was given tons of training to be a salesman. He probably even shadowed more seasoned veterans to learn the ropes. After he became sales manager, however, his training likely stopped. And he almost certainly never shadowed more seasoned sales managers to learn the ropes.

click picture to buy the t-shirt

When people are in middle management and below, we train the heck out of them. That’s because they are doers so, logically, companies train them so they can be good at their jobs. With all that training, they prove themselves and earn promotions. But then the amount of training plummets.

As people get more senior, they move from being doers to being thinkers and managers, but most companies don’t train people how to manage or think. If you make widgets – there is a training on how to make the best widget. Get promoted, and you’re left to figure things out by yourself. There are painfully few companies that train their managers how to manage or think strategically.

Being good at your job does not equip you to manage others, nor does being smart. Two men in recent history widely regarded to be some of smartest to become US Presidents were Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Nixon’s intellect, in fact, was said to be astounding. Yet neither of them had particularly remarkable presidencies. Smarts do not necessarily equate to leadership.

Leadership is a skill set that does not always mean you’re good at the job itself. Tommy Lasorda, the famed LA Dodgers manager was hailed as one of the great all time baseball managers. His own baseball career, however, was short and not so sweet. In contrast, Isiah Thomas was one of the great basketball players in the ‘80s. He eventually joined the management of the New York Knicks and he was an abysmal failure.

When someone got promoted because they were very good at doing a job, they feel they can do it better than those who now work for them (and maybe the can). The temptation to micromanage or to tell people to do it their way can be overwhelming. Sometimes their intentions may be good, they may be trying to teach, but other times they simply miss being in the trenches and yearn to get back in. Either way, it manifests as poor management. And poor management is to blame for a lot of the ills our economy is facing now. It's not that bad things were being done at the lower levels, it's that the people weren't managing properly.

Great managers, in contrast, are able to coach others to maximize their own potential and work to their own strengths. They give out responsibility instead of tasks and allow people to make mistakes. Great managers may even have an advantage if they are not good at the tasks themselves because it forces them to step back and rely on those around them. And most importantly, great managers are always aware of the big picture and the long-term strategy.  That, afterall, is their job.

American organizations need to change two things if our management is to become as skilled as our workforce.

1: Companies need to get better at assessing people’s skills before we simply reward good performance or big brains with promotions. The higher someone gets in a company, the better they are supposed to be at managing down. Instead, the Peter Principle rules – where we promote people to their highest level of incompetence.

2: If companies ignore this first requirement, then there is even more pressure to provide more training to people as they are promoted up the ranks. We teach technicians what to do, but we need to teach leaders how to lead. Management and leadership, like any skill, require learning and practice.

So the next time you get a promotion for a job well-done, ask for some training as you enter your new job before you find yourself as the idiot that people can’t believe they are working for.

Is your company doing any effective management or leadership training your company is doing? Please let me know in the comments.

Originally published on The Huffington Post

Do No Work

I sat down with Mike Michalowiz, the entrepreneur's entrepreneur and author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.  He's nuts and brilliant and understands better than most the things to do to build a successful small business (and how to keep it fun).

He was interested in my theory of going to work to do no work. 

Interview With Simon Sinek from Toilet Paper on Vimeo.

It's Better To Be Given Than To Take

You arrive at a meeting but you forgot to bring a pen.  It's not the worst thing that could have happened, but it may be a little embarrassing. You get a break, however, the person with whom you are meeting excuses himself for a minute and leaves the room. There is a cup of pens on his desk, so you help yourself to one of them. They are not expensive pens, just your run-of-the-mill disposable pens that he probably picked up from the supply cabinet. You know it's not a big deal, it's not really stealing, he won't miss it.  You just need a pen.

The gentleman with whom you are meeting returns and sits back down at his desk and the meeting commences.  And there you are, with your pen, ready for the meeting.

But there's a problem.  The pen's not yours.  You took it. You're using it.  But it doesn't belong to you. Even though you know it's not a big deal, you KNOW it's not yours.  One of three things will likely happen:

1. Fearing that he will notice that you took his pen and say something that could create an awkward situation,  you take notes on your lap to keep the pen out of sight.
2. You take notes as normal, but you still hope that he doesn't say anything for fear of being caught.
3. You say something as soon as he arrives back. Something like, "I hope you don't mind, I took one of your pens." To which he will likely reply, "no problem, let me know if you need anything else."  Your guilt relieved, the meeting can continue in a more productive manner.

There is a difference between being given something and taking it.  When we take things, even if the item being taken is of no consequence, we know it does not belong to us.  Even if you left with the pen, you know it is still not your pen.  But if something is given to you, then that thing becomes yours.  You earned it and it creates the feeling of belonging.

The same is true for things bigger than pens. When we push others a side for a  job or to get recognition, we took the recognition, we weren't given it.  Even if we did the work required for it, the fact remains, we still took it. This creates the feeling of fear that others will know.  We may become a little defensive when others challenge us.  Worse, the fear of being caught may become the motivation for how we act moving forward. We've all worked for people like this. They may have achieved something but it's no fun for the rest of us

However, when we focus on the work at hand and not on the reward and are given a promotion or bonus as a reward, as a symbol of gratitude, then that bonus belongs to us.  We earned it.  We are less bothered if someone challenges us because we know that the bonus belongs to us.  After all, it was given and we didn't just take it. 

When we fixate on the reward, we will stop at nothing to get it.  But that reward will never really belong to us.  We just took it.  However, when we fixate on the reason we come to work, if we fixate on simply being the best at what we do, we do not set out to best anyone else but ourselves. Fear, as a motivator, declines and confidence goes up. We are better able to take joy in the success of others and feel vastly more fulfilled when we are given something. 

This dynamic exists in almost every situation where we can "get" something.  We can take clients by beating our competitor's price, for example, or we can be given the business because the client feels more confident working with us regardless of the price.  In both cases we get the bonus, the promotion, the job or the business, but in only one case does it belong to us.

By the way, I noticed you don't have a pen...please, take mine.