BE-DO-HAVE

Are you playing to win, or are you playing to not lose?

Are you playing along, or are you looking to disrupt?

Are you playing it safe, or are you pushing boundaries?

Today we see more people being careful to not rock the boat than ever. Let’s not push the envelope, seems to be the COVID method. We are ALL looking for safety, sanity, and an assurance that “it will be alright”.

Well….. STOP IT! We cannot make what we have gone through disappear. We cannot make the hurt go away. It will not just magically become “alright”.

We can however choose to take action into creating a new future for each and every one of us, and all of those that we serve.

We MUST choose the mindset of playing to WIN… for ALL involved.

We MUST choose to DISRUPT the current thinking that has us stuck in the mud.

We MUST destroy the boundaries we perceive that have us frozen in our tracks.

Actually, human beings are wired to do what we believe. We act out of our sense of purpose and what we do is a result of what we believe. If I believe that I can make a sale, I will do all the work that is necessary to make that sale. If I believe that things are going to get difficult, then things are most likely going to get difficult. We become our own self-fulfilling prophecy. We create our way of operating from our way of believing.

Mahatma Gandhi described the thinking challenge like this…

Your beliefs become your thoughts,
your thoughts become your words,
your words become your actions,
your actions become your habits,
your habits become your values,
your values become your destiny.

If you are afraid, then you are going to act and do things that a fearful person does. If you are hopeful, then you are going to act and do things that a hopeful person does.

So we need to shift our order of operations from believing that if we do certain things, we will then be able to have the things we want or need, and then we will be successful (DO-HAVE-BE). If I only work harder, then I will have more stuff and I will be happy. Instead, we need to adopt the order of Be, Do, Have. What we believe about our world and ourselves in the core of our being, determines what we will do, and ultimately the results we will have (BE-DO-HAVE).

So it starts with believing in the value that you co-create with others, including our clients, who have the ability to make a difference for them. It starts with believing that to create that outcome we must understand “others’ deeply, and we do that because we care about them and their world. We believe in serving others WITHOUT reserve, and that creates a better world for all. And all of that drives toward achieving our stated purpose (more on purpose another time).

CARE greatly,
UNDERSTAND deeply,
SERVE endlessly, with
PURPOSE

Reverse the normal old, pre-COVID, thought pattern and build this thinking into your day…BE-DO-HAVE.

Have a conversation with a client this week that you have never had with anyone before. Ask them if they are playing to win, or playing to not lose. And if it is the latter, what would it look like if they were playing to win. Let’s see who has the courage to care enough to ask that question.

OK, Let’s ROLL!

Mitch

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

-------------------------------------------

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….

---------------------------------------------------------

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

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram