There’s a Personal Cost to Living Virtually

I make my living using cyber tools to better understand the “real” world. So, I’m the last person to bash the Internet or the emerging social media. But because I spend so much time online I invest a significant amount of time and energy examining what is done well online and what isn’t.

There’s an old axiom that everything comes around again. You know, the old becomes new. Well, one of society’s lamentations has been that as TV became more widely available families stopped sitting down around the table for dinner together. TV trays were invented and people brought their food into the living room and all sat around watching the Boob Tube and no longer talked with one another.

As time has progressed people bought more than one TV per household and that availability of multiple screens coupled with 100s of channels led to even greater isolation as people weren’t even sitting in proximity to each other. Everyone grabs their own micro waved dinner or snack and retreats to their own space to watch whatever interests them and they no longer have to be inconvenienced by their siblings’, parent’s or children’s request to change the channel. And now, the internet provides us with even more thinly sliced niches to explore.

Social media has arisen in response to people’s sense of isolation. The irony is social media tools far from bringing us together are further isolating us. Personal websites, Facebook pages and Twitter are very useful for disseminating information to large groups of people. We post once and “broadcast” to our audience. But the question becomes just because you can do something, should you?

I’m sure sometime in your life you’ve heard the expression, “Think before you speak.” The same holds true with the Internet. Think before you post. Ask yourself why are you posting? Would you say what you’re writing to someone’s face? To paraphrase Dr. Phil, “How’s that work for you?”

A lot of people feel that without social media they wouldn’t be able to stay in touch with their friends because their too busy. I’d like to encourage you to rethink this. We all know long-distance relationships are difficult to sustain. Social media creates artificial distance between us and our friends. It can also sustain the illusion that a true relationship actually exists. Text messaging, email, Twitter and Facebook are all substitutes for being there in the flesh.

At least when you call, people can hear your voice. You can hear the inflections, hesitations and enthusiasm that are so very difficult to convey in writing. However, it does require more time and commitment to the relationship than a broadcast message.

I have no intention of stopping using social media, nor am I suggesting that you do. I just want you to stop and ask yourself what price you’re paying for the efficiency and “convenience”.

Sometimes nurturing your relationship with one or two friends over a cup of coffee can provide more nourishment for your soul and theirs than broadcasting spontaneous, empty, cotton candy updates to all of your friends.

Fishing Is Good for the Soul

In 1970, Alvin Toffler wrote a book called, Future Shock. He wrote of how things were changing so fast that people were becoming overwhelmed. Well here we are pretty close to 40 years later and the rate of change as increased exponentially. If people were in shock in 1970, the poor souls must be comatose today.

That’s where fishing comes in. Fishing allows you time to think. It’s my perception that people who don’t fish, think that fishing is about catching. I can understand this. After all pretty much everything we do in life is about the results. Now, don’t let me fool ya. I enjoy catching fish, as much as the next person. But the secret to fishing is engaging in the process. Being in the moment, focusing on the doing, allowing yourself to relax and be present to what’s happening here and now.

Running a business is a lot like fishing...I volunteer to send proposals out all the time or provide my solution to a problem. That’s like casting my lure. I don’t always get the business right away but I do hear from a lot of clients 6 or 12 months down the road on the same or a similar project. I sometimes have to cast that fly numerous times before a fish bites. Sometimes I have to change flies. But sooner or later my efforts draw the attention of the fish. Now, I’m not calling my clients and prospects fish, but all living creatures respond to incentives. (The science of economics is founded on the principal that people respond to incentives.) People remember when you do a little extra or provide a solution and they often call you back even if it is for another project.

One of my clients credits a fishing trip as the pivotal time in his business. It gave him time to think and determine the course of action for his business. He is incredibly successful. I will be working with him next week. I might be able to get a quote or the story from him as a follow up for a later blog.

I’m going to be headed back to Florida soon. I know I’m going to reap the benefits of my time fishing here in Montana. It’s given me time to reflect on my team, my customers and how our business brings value to everyone we encounter.

Let me encourage you to go fishing. Take a break and use the time to reflect. Aristotle said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” My experience has been that when I take the time to step back and reflect, I tend to be more productive moving forward.

How about you? Have you been fishing lately?

Being the Boss

How do leaders assure their teams deliver as promised?




In a previous blog, I wrote of how the people who work with me understand what's to be done, what success looks like and how I'm going to evaluate the work. I also wrote that I trust my judgement as to their ability to do the work I assign and their commitment to fulfill the assignments they accept.


Every now and then things don't always work out the way envisioned and it's necessary to correct course. Sometimes the situation has changed. At these times, it's purely a matter of communicating the changes as quickly as possible amongst ourselves, so we can get back on course.


When a change in circumstances is not the resaon for an individual's performance not living up to my expectation the cause always falls into one or both of two areas: attitude or ability.


Let's start with ability; if I and/or the person to whom I've assigned a task have misjudged that person's ability to do the work in the time allotted within the resources provided then my job as the leader aka the boss is to uncover and correct the diconnect. This can be a very awkward situation. Because both the person who's falling short thought they could do the job and so did I; both of our judgements have been proven wrong. Depending on how you handle the situation, fellings can be hurt and then the folks involved are not thinking about how to fix the situation, but how to avoid blame.


So, creating an environment where the person reporting to me feels respected is crucial. The moment the person I'm "correcting" feels disrespected, the relationship and the trust that holds it together begins to erode. Relationships, particularly between people who are charged with thinking for a living, are held together by trust.


Hence, when I identify the issue as one where the person was not capable of doing the work; we both have to accept responsibility and do our best to either provide the person with the knowledge they need or reaasign the work. No harm, no foul; we thought we could, we made a mistake; let's fix the situation and move on.


That's enough for today.


I'll write about handling the situation when it's one of attitude at another time.



How do you handle situations like this?

Please, write me, I'm always open to hearing how other leaders help their people succeed.

Leadership – It’s what they do when you’re not there.

I continue to be amazed at the people who are prisoners of their business. I'm not talking about the employees; I'm talking about the owners. I hear these people lament, "You can't get good help, anymore." I hear them say, "People don't want to work." This isn't my experience.

I'm from Montana, but my business is located in Florida. The people who work for me are located all over the country and because I rarely see them face to face I decided to take a little road trip home. Once I arrived I found the fly fishing just too alluring and I decided to stay a while longer than I originally planned. Several people have asked me, "How can you afford to stay away from your business for this long?"

Well, it's pretty simple. I have good "help" and the folks who work for me want to work. To go a step further I'm going to brag a little about them and say if the fishing continues to be as good as it's been I might stay a little longer, because we haven't missed a beat.

How do we do it?

Number one, we're all clear on our individual and collective goals. We all know what spells success for the team and we're all clear on our individual roles in achieving that success.

Number two, everyone's clear on how I evaluate performance.

That's it, it's rather simple. I trust the people with whom I work. I think I've done a good job assessing their capabilities and they're sufficiently committed to what we do, that if I were to ask them to do something they didn't feel they could deliver, they would tell me.

So, when people lament about their employees and say they can't get away; I wonder where the problem lies. Do their people not understand what success looks like? Do they not understand their role(s)? Have the owners hired people who don't possess the capacity for the tasks they've been assigned?

I'm sure there are other factors which contribute to our success, but the fundamentals of being able to trust people are (a) they know what's expected, (b) it's within their capacity, (c) they understand how I'm going to judge their performance and (d) they've accepted my trust and (e) have committed themselves to accomplishing the goal.

With that in place, I'm quite comfortable goin' fishin'.

I hope you can join me soon; cause man oh man have they been bitin'.

This Is Not the Future Our Parents Foretold

Don Reynolds, the noted economist and futurist, states that 70% of the jobs that are going to be created over the course of the next decade will be in firms employing less than 50 employees. He goes on to predict that 70% of those businesses creating the jobs will be women or minority owned. He continues with the belief that 70% of these new jobs will NOT require a college education and that 70% of those jobs will be engaged in international trade.

These prophetic words reinforce the prediction that micro businesses (five employees or less) are the fastest growth sector in the US economy. Many of the people who’ve been laid off have either been unable to find jobs or have chosen to start their own businesses rather than further subject themselves to the impersonal whims of big business.

Peter Drucker wrote that it was easier to buy innovation than to grow it inside large corporations. The corporate cultures that innovate run counter to the cultures that leverage products and services and scale them up for wider distribution.

The irony here is that the mind set that invents and innovates frequently also runs counter to the simple systems needed to take creativity and turn it into a successful business.

As Michael Gerber wrote in his landmark book, The E-myth, there’s a big difference between baking a great pie and running a great bakery business. As I mentioned before, many of the people who are and will be starting these micro businesses are probably experts at what they do, but the vast majority are going to need assistance turning their expertise into a business.

What all of these random theories add up to is the idea that over the next decade and probably into the foreseeable future there will exist the opportunity to fashion an industry around providing affordable, business-systems and processes for micro business people.

What business opportunities do you see arising out of the changes brought about by the current economy?

The Highest Common Denominator

I was thinking about how the basics in life are the basics in business….being honest and consistent in your business practices and brand-messaging. Don’t over-promise…over-deliver. These sorts of thoughts run through my head all the time. I don’t separate my life into work and other. Work is one of the ways I invest my time as I live my life. As such, I don’t have one set of values for work and another set for the rest of the time.

It’s hard work finding customers. I want to keep them. It’s too expensive to just work with people once. I feel the same way about my friends. However I found them, I appreciate them. I’ve invested in our relationships and I don’t want to squander that investment.

So, whether it’s at work or elsewhere I behave in a manner that I believe encourages trust. I believe I’m worthy of people’s trust and I behave accordingly.

I mentioned being honest and consistent about what I say. I do my best to manage expectations. I want people to feel they get more out of their time with me than it “cost” them. I want people to want to have a relationship with me, business or otherwise.

I treat people with respect. I do my best to be on time and I want others to show me the same courtesy. I listen to people when they talk to me; I want others to give me their attention when I am speaking to them. I treat people fairly and want to be treated so in return.

This is beginning to sound like a rant and that’s not my intention.

What I’m offering is the belief that treating people with respect is appropriate behavior at all times: at work, behind the wheel of your car, at home, everywhere. Not everyone has gotten this message. All I can do, is do my best to lead by example.

I am asking everyone who reads this, to do your best to lead by example, as well. Holding ourselves accountable to the highest common denominator standard of behavior will enrich all of our lives. I think that’s what civilization is supposed to do for us.

If I may, let me encourage you to choose civility.

Focus is Good for You

People have always used used metaphors to help them understand their world. As we became and industrial society we used to speak of the universe as running like a fine watch. Today, considering the influence of computers it’s no surprise that we speak of our mental capacity in terms of bandwidth. It turns out that neuroscientists have determined how fast our brains process information and it’s a finite amount in terms of bytes processed per second. That number is not the focus here, but the fact that it exists.

There is another similarity between our brains and computers. Just as when we switch from one program to another on our computers our brain must power down one form of application and then “boot” another application to perform disparate tasks.

Now, granted, for most of us this may happen faster than our awareness. None the less, that does not mean the process is not happening. Hence, when we multi-task (a misnomer in itself as we are simply performing series of sequential tasks) our brain must shut down and reboot between each unrelated task.

Research has shown that long term this behavior deteriorates the brain. So, let me encourage you to take or should I say, retake control of yourself. Instead of attempting to perform multiple tasks “simultaneously” give your complete attention to each task at hand. Contrary to popular belief, you’ll get more done and your brain will perform better, longer.

After all in the knowledge economy our brains are our only truly competitive advantage.