Note From Rand

Toyota’s quality is going into the tank. Suspicion that its executives are hiding the truth is running rampant. Our Federal government has incurred $10 trillion in new debt in a year. The last time I looked, that represented over $300,000 in new, uncovered tax liability from every man, woman and child in the U.S. (expressed in present value). The risk of the dollar’s value diminishing to zero is only mitigated by the financial plight of foreign governments and currencies. This is unconscionable. Distrust of large institutions grows daily. These are big issues!

What can you do?

Make some decisions about how you will comport yourself in your business and life. Never concede to pressure, delusion, excuses, blame or justification. Never relinquish your integrity. Never discard virtue for expediency.

I have a resource that can help you during challenging times. The Josephson Institute develops resources to help organizations and individuals examine issues related to integrity and ethics. They are the big player in their field and a SPECTACULAR resource. One of their “subsidiaries,” called Character Counts, develops resources for school-age children. You should check them out; it’ll be worth your time. A number of Fortune 100 companies utilize their resources heavily, as do some large, successful public school systems.

My first article this month examines the AIG implosion from a different perspective than any I suspect you’ve read. It includes an implication or two for you and your business. The second piece identifies some things you need to do to establish firm footing with your new boss. Please share your thoughts in the comment area below.

As you read this, I’m sitting on Palm Beach in Aruba. I now think of it as my second home. No pressure to play tourist, because I no longer am one. I hope I don’t get sand in my hard drive!!

Until next month, get real, get tough and get going!

The Overlooked Lesson From AIG

About 15 years ago, I got a call from a lead partner at one of the largest executive recruiting firms asking if I’d be interested in talking to Mr. Hank Greenburg about a senior level job at AIG. That company was the big dog in property and casualty insurance and was led by an iconic figure (Hank) that took a small insurance company in the 1960s and built it into a Fortune 10 in a few decades.

The job we discussed was running AIG in the Far East out of Tokyo. I was interested, but after a couple of month of dancing, we were unable to overcome my primary hurdle: I was willing to make a three-year commitment to Japan; they wanted five.

If you’re asking yourself, “Why would someone want to go to work for AIG?” my answer is this: The AIG that Greenburg built was not the same company that essentially folded under his successor, Martin Sullivan. Here’s what the business press didn’t talk about:

Hank Greenburg ran AIG with an iron fist. Some associates joked that the company didn’t need a strategy; it had Greenburg. Every decision of consequence crossed his desk. Autocracy was the order of the day and at AIG it worked. Although he had begun his career as an attorney and insurance guy, Greenburg became both an incredibly successful entrepreneur and operator – a rare combination – and boy, did he ring the cash register. He could navigate between long-term strategy and day-to-day operations with ease. For thirty years, many people got wealthy at the company as both its top and bottom lines grew at a breathtaking pace. Then, in a well-documented act of spite, jealousy, revenge and political opportunism, Elliot Spitzer, that paragon of propriety, got Greenburg ousted. Martin Sullivan became the CEO.

Sullivan was a really accomplished insurance guy. He had successfully run a large number of AIG businesses, both domestically and internationally. He had no experience, however, outside of insurance at a company whose businesses, by the early 1990s, also included derivatives trading and aircraft leasing. If Sullivan had taken the reigns twenty years earlier, when insurance represented the overwhelming share of the company’s business, it would have been a good fit, but as I’m fond of saying, “That’s true…and if I had wheels I’d be a bicycle.”

Sullivan’s style was much more collaborative, consensual and collegial than his predecessor. He delegated many more (and much bigger) decisions to other executives. “What’s wrong with that?” you ask. In this case, plenty.

Stay with me!

Delegation is a good thing; abdication is not a good thing. After their leadership change, AIG migrated (maybe leaped is a better word in this case) from autocracy to democracy, overnight. Executives in far-flung areas of their business – areas that Greenburg controlled with a tight reign – suddenly assumed more control of their own destiny. They began incrementally making riskier decisions – not because they were incompetent or immoral but because their new “freedom” allowed them to do that. Their entrepreneurial instincts were no longer tempered by Greenburg’s multi-dimensional approach. The most egregious case of that was in derivatives trading – most notably in credit default swaps.

CDFs were created to enable creditors to insure their risk of default (and boy, is THAT a simplistic definition). They were labeled as derivatives rather than insurance to enable companies to sidestep state regulation; it worked. Over time at AIG after Greenburg departed, CDFs were used to cover increasingly risky portfolios of mortgages. At the end, sub-prime loans (or worse) represented an irresponsible proportion of this business for AIG. If Greenburg had been there during the two years before it “hit the fan,” it wouldn’t have hit the fan.

Blame Spitzer, not Greenburg, and, oh yes, blame AIG’s Board of Directors. Prior to Greenburg’s ouster, there was no real succession plan in place and at the time of his ouster, there was no one ready to assume accountability for his or her diverse cadre of businesses. Sullivan was not prepared to assume the reigns of this sprawling company. Other than Jamie Dimon (and even that would probably have been a stretch), the right executive for this challenge did not exist.

Here’s the lesson: You cannot migrate from one culture to its direct opposite with a “plug-and-play” approach. Changing cultures is not akin to changing the oil in your car. In this case, all of AIG’s executives were not equally capable of contextualizing, and then executing, decisions with $billion consequences.

Cultures are durable. Destabilize them quickly; change the rules of the game with a “flick of the switch”; impose order on chaos or chaos on order all at once and you will probably face deadly consequences – the loss of your reputation or company. Massive change must be planned and executed in a precise, systematic way. It doesn’t have to drag on for years, but it can’t happen overnight. “Transformation” and “upheaval” are not synonymous.

Your First 90 Days With Your New Boss

In any new job, you face a multitude of challenges… all of which have to be addressed “on the run” and simultaneously. One of the biggest of these is “managing up” – that is, working with your new boss.

For too many people, including senior level executives, this becomes a random process. They don’t want to engage their bosses in a specific, granular discussion that might make them uncomfortable. Here’s my bias: The priority of achieving clarity should trump any and all other concerns. To that end, the following are five conversations that you should have with your new boss – regardless of your level/job title – early in your tenure:

The Situational Conversation. Seek to understand (and reach agreement on) your new boss’s context for the business. Is this a turnaround, start-up, realignment or sustaining success? What are the strategic priorities?

The Expectation Conversation. Seek to understand and negotiate expectations. What needs to be done and how quickly? What does the objective–setting process look like? What will you need to achieve, and how soon?

Style Conversation. What will the “interaction model” look like? What kind of decisions does he/she want to be involved in, how often, and on what types of issues and to what degree?

Resource Conversation. What will you need to be successful – especially money and talent? What kind of support will you need from your new boss (selling and socializing ideas and initiatives, “clearing the runway,” etc.)?

Personal Development Conversation. How will your tenure in the new job contribute to your personal development and career aspirations?

Obviously, these questions will spark others. Your new boss may not have even had a discussion of this type with anyone in the past. That shouldn’t ever diminish the priority of your having it, however.

Note From Rand

I’m a sucker for stories about people who beat the odds, or stories of redemption. My favorite movie, BY FAR, is Casablanca. Most critics agree it’s the greatest American movie and with good reason(s). It has the best dialogue of any film ever made. Quotable quotes galore. It was made during WWII before the outcome was certain, and projects a strong anti-Nazi sentiment that bleeds off the screen. It’s about two former lovers, Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund, whose paths cross again amid very trying circumstances. Primarily though, it’s the story of Rick the saloon owner and his competing impulses. In the end, he rejects his cynical nature and does the right thing rather than the selfish thing.

I also like American Idol. Not the late rounds during which the most talented newcomers compete, but the early rounds – genetic mutants notwithstanding. The stories of young, talented people willing to put it all on the line to achieve their dreams is what gets to me.

The bottom line of all of this? It’s never too late to become the person that you want to be; it’s never advisable to relinquish your dreams (unless you’re 60 and want to become a rock star); it’s never acceptable to create excuses, to point fingers, to caste blame or to become a professional victim. Too many tools are available – CDs, DVDs, courses, books, professional organizations, mastermind groups, coaches – for anyone to give in or give up. Reflect, repent, re-plan, reboot, redouble, refine and resume. Own your life!!!

In reverse order, my second article this month examines what I call the “four-bagger”: how it runs our lives, and why it’s important to challenge your four-bagger when it gets in the way of your personal success. My first article is a rant. It proposes the following: In order for your external service providers to help you create value, they must have a reasonably high level of financial acumen.

The Super Bowl is Sunday. Go Saints! When you get my next issue, I’ll be in the middle of my annual two-week jaunt to Palm Beach in Aruba. Until then, get real, get tough and get going. Bon bini!

Are Your Coaches and Consultants Financially Literate?

I was attending a meeting at one of my client companies a couple of years ago. They regularly conducted sessions for the external executive coaches with whom their leaders worked, to provide updates on company results and strategy.

During one segment of the meeting, the presenter used the accounting term “goodwill.” The executive coach seated next to me leaned over to me and quietly asked: “What’s goodwill?” I was flabbergasted and wondered to myself: “How (or WHY!) could or would any company do business with external coaches or consultants who do not have a fundamental understanding of finance? If their balance sheet is a primary indicator of strategic success and their income and cash-flow statements are fundamental indicators of operating success, how can external experts support their business success without a fundamental working knowledge of these documents and their interrelationships?”

During a meeting at another client company, an external executive coach said the following to me: “I just don’t understand why companies treat people development as an ‘expense’ and not as an ‘investment’. Whenever expense reductions are required, training and development get cut.” My reaction – out loud this time: “People development is treated as an expense because it is. Maybe one day, accounting rules will allow training and development to be treated as a capital expense rather than as an operating expense. If that happens, an annual increment could be expensed as depreciation. I think that more accurately expresses how training and development ought to be booked, as the value of new knowledge and skills depreciates over time. What do you think?”

He said, “I agree,” but I know down to my socks that he had no idea what I was talking about.

I know a woman who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year selling HR solutions to large companies for a top three, international HR consulting firm. One day when we were discussing her investments, she said to me, “I generally sell a stock when it hits $100.” I looked at her incredulously and said, “I think you need professional help managing your investments,” while thinking, “How can she possibly help her clients create value if her investment acumen indicates her overall lack of financial literacy?”

Here’s my bottom line (pun intended) on this matter: If you are doing business with external experts, they need to have at least a working knowledge of finance. Otherwise, they cannot possibly understand how your company makes money. If they don’t understand how your company makes money, they cannot possibly appreciate how to help you create value for the buyers of your products and services. If the professional services you purchase do not, at some point, translate into value for your customers, YOU ARE WASTING YOUR MONEY!!!

What should you do about this? I’m happy you asked.

As part of your triage process, engage professional service providers in a discussion that enables you to subtly (or not so subtly) ask the following questions. These are issues and terms that are critical to a company’s success. Your consultants and coaches must have a basic understanding of them in order to create value for you:

• What is EBITDA and why is it important?

• What does “hurdle rate” mean, in the context of a company considering internal investments?

• What are “net present value” and “discounted cash flow”?

• How does the prospective valuation of “goodwill” affect the valuation of an acquisition candidate?

These are NOT complex concepts. An outside expert pitching you on his products or services ought to have at least a fundamental understanding of income statement and balance sheet issues if he is to be a partner in your success.

Win With Your “Four-Bagger”

Remember this: What you think about, believe about, feel about and act about comes about! I call it (in baseball parlance) the “four-bagger.” It’s true in all aspects of life. If you dwell on the inherent unfairness of the universe and how you have gotten a bad deal, get a check up from the neck up! The reason: You cannot be or become successful and fulfilled if you blame anyone or anything for your circumstances – ever! Let’s examine this concept a bit further.

By the time we’re in our teens, our beliefs and values have already begun to congeal. The things we were taught (primarily by example) early in life automatically find their way into our subconscious, without challenge. They become our facts, our rules for how the world works. Good or bad, our beliefs form the foundation of everything we do. Listen to your self-talk. It has its genesis in your belief system.

As adults, our beliefs inform our thoughts and feelings. We process events that we observe through this filter and have a tendency to view events that validate our beliefs as facts and events that contradict our beliefs as anomalies.

Our thinking about events evolves out of that filtering process, and we then develop feelings from that entire chain of events that inform our actions. We all think that the decisions and actions we make and take in our lives are based on objective reality, when there IS no objective reality. Even the test of “reasonable scientific certainty” often fails in this regard. “Reasonable,” in hindsight, is often shown to mean, “well…that’s what we thought at the time, but now we know that we were wrong.”

If you want to be successful in life, regardless of how you define and measure that, you must constantly and consistently subject your “four-bagger” to relentless scrutiny. A great place to start is with some reading that’ll help you consider these phenomena, and how they work in your life.

Some book suggestions:

Living the Truth by Keith Ablow, MD

Why We Believe What We Believe by Andrew Newberg, MD

Change Your Thinking Change Your Life by Brian Tracy

Are You Ready to Succeed by Srikumar S. Rao

The Only Three Questions That Count by Ken Fisher

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie

Note From Rand

I’m writing this on Sunday, January 3^rd, just as the the NFL regular season is closing out. As for my Redskins – yech!! Back in August on my Facebook page, however, I did pick Baltimore and Green Bay to go to the Super Bowl. Both have qualified for the playoffs. Hey … I’m just sayin’.

We’re now a week into 2010. I, for one, intend to make this my best year ever! Two books coming out. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Business is on a great track for a terrific year. I am STOKED!

How about you? Are you looking forward to this year with eager anticipation? Are you creating new challenges to give you something significant to shoot for? Are you convinced that your personal and professional success is inevitable? If so, great. If not, why not? You are in control of your destiny. Seize the day and go for greatness!

Our two articles this month are designed to put you on a great arc for 2010. The first, Dedicate Yourself to Mental Toughness, highlights the priority of this discipline and recommends some steps to take to achieve it. The second is a brief tribute to one of the forefathers of the personal development movement, the late Jim Rohn.

A happy, purposeful, prosperous and wildly successful New Year to you! Get real, get tough, and get going!

Dedicate Yourself to Mental Toughness

Mental toughness is essential to success.

Vince Lombardi

This past spring, San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Singletary brought a new kind (and new level) of pain to his team’s training camp. Known simply as “the hill,” it’s a 45-degree incline that he had built for running. Singletary first witnessed the use of hill running during his time as a Hall of Fame middle linebacker with the 1980s Chicago Bears. While it obviously increased players’ endurance, its primary benefit was a significant increase in players’ persistence and perseverance. Walter Payton, Singletary’s 1980s teammate and the Bears record-setting running back, believed that hill running helped players overcome the mental obstacles that get in the way of success. Many people still believe the 1985 Bears were the best NFL team in history. Almost all of the so-called “experts” still believe they were the toughest.

Dave Goggins is a Navy SEAL living in Chula Vista, California. He joined the Navy as a 240 lb. power-lifter. SEAL training began his journey to well-rounded fitness. He subsequently began running marathons, ultra-marathons and (later) competing in triathlons. He also completed the Ultraman – a mega-triathlon that features a grueling combination of a 6.2-mile ocean swim, a 261-mile bike ride, and a 52.4-mile run. Dave does it ostensibly to raise money for the Special Ops Warrior Foundation. People who know him insist that if SOWF didn’t exist, he’d find another reason to compete. Dave believes that with focus and discipline, anyone can do just about anything. “I want to see if there is a limit to the human soul,” Goggins says. His motto is “show no weakness.” He visualizes success before undertaking any significant challenge and adds the following: “I remember when I was younger, when things were really hard or difficult, they could be so hard that they made you want to quit. That’s a feeling I’ll never have again.” Dave is one of the toughest guys walking the face of the earth.

Lance Armstrong competes in a sport whose “main event” (the Tour de France) is the biking equivalent of running a marathon on steep hills each day for three weeks. His workout routine is RIDICULOUS! After taking a couple of years “off” (and I use that term VERY loosely) to focus on his charitable work, he returned to the Tour in 2009. When he’s racing, Lance is a silent assassin. This comment from someone who knows him really well sums up his approach to competition: “The way to plant a seed of doubt in the other guy’s mind is by keeping your mouth shut. Lance is nice – then he drills you!”

Lance believes demonstrating mental toughness by crashing through quitting points. When others are ready to give up, he goes into overdrive.

Tim Tebow won a Heisman Trophy and two NCAA football championships as quarterback of the University of Florida Gators. He’s widely regarded as the best leader in the history of intercollegiate football. Oh yeah – there is a lot more to Tim than football. Through the first semester of his senior year, he’s carrying a 3.6 grade point average. He does missionary work during his summers “off.” In 2009, he did 700 hours of community service. He’s also a paragon of humility. Some resentful college football fans don’t like him … referring to him (condescendingly) as “Mr. Perfect.” Many of those are people who admire gun-toting NBA stars. Go figure!

These guys came from very diverse backgrounds, and they all own their own lives. Each of them believes that he is responsible for his actions and accountable for his results.  Each accepts that practice does not, in fact, make perfect – PERFECT practice makes perfect! That extends beyond physical preparation to mental preparation and the development of mental toughness. Their zeal preparing to win, however, does not tell the whole story. The fact is – a lot of mental toughness isn’t about preparing to win; it’s about learning how to lose and learning how NOT to lose. To wit:

Tom Veneziano wrote the book, The Truth About Winning. Tom’s a tennis pro in Texas. He wrote his book to help tennis players win. Tom talks about cultivating the right attitude toward losing. According to him, until a person develops the correct perspective about losing and making mistakes, he cannot sustain success. That perspective includes accepting losses (NOT being resigned to losing – more about the difference later), staying “in the moment,” letting go of defeat while learning from it, cultivating wisdom, and moving on to fight again.

In order to sustain success in life – regardless of your own personal definition of that – you too must develop mental toughness. Some recommendations follow:

• You must learn to distinguish among your beliefs, your thoughts, your feelings and the facts in any situation. We all carry baggage from our past, especially from our respective childhoods. The lessons passed on to us by our early caregivers congeal at a very young age to create each of our own unique world-views. Some pieces of that serve us well; some don’t. Most people accept this notion abstractly or easily see its consequences in other people, but never examine the precise impact on them.

• Accept 100% responsibility for everything in your life. This does not imply hard-headed independence or not asking for help. It DOES imply that victim-hood and blame yield bad outcomes. At one time or another, each of us has been victimized by forces outside of our control. There’s a big difference, however, between having been victimized, and regarding oneself as a victim. Try looking at yourself in the mirror each morning and uttering the following: “I own my life. I am the problem, and I am the solution!”

• Monitor your self–talk, especially in the aftermath of defeat. We all conduct incessant internal dialogue. What does yours say about how you value yourself? How does your internal dialogue position you for future success?

• Learn to accept your shortcomings without resigning yourself to them (this is REALLY hard for me). Acceptance means “giving in to reality.” Resignation means “giving up on possibility.” There’s a huge difference; it’s not hair-splitting.

• Ask yourself (and cite examples) how adept and consistent you are at demonstrating the following attributes of character:

• Openness and candor – with yourself as well as others

• Dedication to “the truth”

• Courage

• Resilience

• Endurance

• Persistence

• Perseverence

• Discipline

• Responsibility

• Loyalty

Get a coach or mentor to help you cultivate mental toughness in 2010 and make this your BEST YEAR YET!

The Late, Great Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn died last month at the age of 79. For people in the personal development field, Jim was the Godfather. A bit of his background follows:

Jim was doing unexceptionally in his profession until the age of 25. He then went to work for a man named Earl Schoff who mentored him on the laws of success. Jim put these laws to work in his own field before setting off to teach others what he had learned. During the 20 years that followed, Jim focused increasingly on refining his message and teaching it to others. By the early 1980s, he (along with Dr. Denis Waitley and Zig Ziglar) had become known as one of the extraordinary guys in his field. Among others, he was a mentor to Anthony Robbins when Tony was living in a small apartment, struggling to find his own voice. Until his death, his audience of admirers was diverse. He spoke in small classrooms to teenagers and in coliseums to groups of 20,000 or more entrepreneurs.

I had known about Jim for a long time, but didn’t “discover” his work until about 5 years ago. I bought a DVD of one of his 3-day workshops and was instantly mesmerized by the profound simplicity of his message. No screaming, no histrionics. All content. I then bought everything else Jim offered. Today, I return to those DVDs once a year to get reinvigorated by his message. I encourage you to discover Jim for yourself (www.jimrohn.com).

As a tribute, some of my favorite Jim Rohn quotes follow:

“Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.”

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

“Don’t wish it was easier … wish you were better.”

“Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Failure is a few small errors in judgment, repeated every day.”

“If you don’t like how things are, change them! You are not a tree.”

“It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind, that determines which way we will go.”

“Make measurable progress in reasonable time.”

“Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t miss a book.”

“Success is not to be pursued. It is to be attracted by the person you become.”

“The book you don’t read won’t help you.”

“The few who do are the envy of the many who watch.”

“The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is who you become.”

God bless Jim Rohn!

Happy holidays! Some reflections on my life and wishes for yours, as the year draws to a close:

I’ve noticed a lot of changes in myself as a direct consequence of aging. Overall, I have a higher level of equanimity than I did as a 30 year old. I’m better at accepting without agreeing with points of view that diverge from my own on almost any subject. I more regularly and rigorously remind myself that my beliefs — even my strongly held ones — are not facts, and that each of my corresponding points of view is simply that. I think I’ve attained some wisdom (as distinguished from enlightenment) from having my backside kicked and as a result, make generally better choices than I did at 30 or 40.

Three developments have surprised me as I’ve aged, however. First, my patience regarding some things has actually diminished, which contradicts what I was led to believe by my parents – that I’d become much more patient as I got older. As a result, I now avoid two types of people like the plague: The first are those who uniformly put their own interests ahead of those of other people, including their own families and closest friends. The key word here is “uniformly.” The second are people who I refer to as “naysayers, doomsdayers, and dreamslayers.” Those people view every glass as half empty and every personal aspiration as out-of-reach or self-indulgent.

The second development is my sense of urgency to accomplish things as my vitality naturally diminishes with age, albeit only a bit. Next year I’m climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. There’s nothing magic about this particular goal except as a metaphor and for propulsion. I’m also publishing a book entitled “Redefining Type A” (the subtitle is still being debated). I feel as if I have a long way to go and a short — or shorter — time to get there.

Coincidental to what I do for a living is the third development: my frustration with people who have stopped growing and are OK with that. These are people who seem to believe that the first 25% of life is for growing and the last 75% is for resting. They are who they are going to be. They’re satisfied, entitled, bored or resentful. Their skills are outdated and/or their perspectives have congealed and solidified. They pine for the way things used to be and whine about how things are. Many regard themselves as victims and all others as villains. I’m fortunate, however. The people who gravitate to working with me are not those people. My clients are executives and business owners committed to fulfilling productive visions of their lives.

The great business philosopher/consultant/speaker Jim Rohn once said, in describing what he did for a living, that he “worked on issues that matter with people who care.” I’d love to steal that and have it printed on the back of my business card. It describes me and my business to a tee.

Here are my 2010 wishes for you: Create the life you dream about. No excuses, no blame, no guilt. Do more; give more; spend some; save some. Become the person you have always wanted to be. Establish goals and take relevant action toward their achievement. Measure your progress; make course corrections along the way. Learn from your mistakes, of which there will be many if you’re actually doing things. Read the great books. Visit museums. Develop new skills. Make new friends and appreciate the ones you already have.

Most of all, whatever your aspirations, never quit!

My friend and trainer to elite athletes (Drew Brees and LaDanien Tomlinson, among others), Todd Durkin, admonishes and encourages others with the phrase “and then some.” You want to be a great leader? Be a great leader, AND THEN SOME! A great dad? Be a great dad, AND THEN SOME! Along the same line, here’s my question for you: If it isn’t worth doing well, is it worth doing at all?

Don’t wait; the time for action is now!!

A couple of years ago, I invoked the name of John Goddard to make a point about personal growth. His name, his life and his accomplishments are worth mentioning again here, for context.

Goddard is one of the world’s great adventurers. Articles about him have been written in many renowned publications. At the age of 15, he created a list of the things he wanted to do, see or experience during his lifetime. Among his accomplishments, he visited the Great Wall of China; he attended the Rose Parade; he retraced the route of Marco Polo; he climbed the Matterhorn in a blizzard that was so bad, even the professional climbers wouldn’t do it.

Here’s Goddard’s wish list. Items with an asterisk are those he completed by the age of 74.

The List

EXPLORE:
1. * Nile River
2. * Amazon River
3. * Congo River
4. * Colorado River
5. Yangtze River, China
6. Niger River
7. Orinoco River, Venezuela
8. * Rio Coco, Nicaragua

STUDY PRIMITIVE CULTURES IN:
9. * The Congo
10. * New Guinea
11. * Brazil
12. * Borneo
13. * The Sudan (nearly buried alive in a sandstorm)
14. * Australia
15. * Kenya
16. * The Philippines
17. * Tanganyika (Now Tanzania)
18. * Ethiopia
19. * Nigeria
20. * Alaska

CLIMB:
21. Mt. Everest
22. Mt. Aconcagua, Argentina
23. Mt. McKinley
24. * Mt. Hauscaran, Peru
25. * Mt. Kilimanjaro
26. * Mt. Ararat, Turkey
27. * Mt. Kenya
28. Mt. Cook, New Zealand
29. * Mt. Popocatepetl, Mexico
30. * The Matterhorn
31. * Mt. Rainier
32. * Mt. Fuji
33. * Mt. Vesuvius
34. * Mt. Bromo, Java
35. * Grand Tetons
36. * Mt. Baldy, California

37.Carry out careers in medicine and exploration (studied premed, treats illnesses among primitive tribes)
38. Visit every country in the world (30 to go)
39. * Study Navaho and Hopi Indians
40. * Learn to fly a plane
41. * Ride horse in Rose Parade

PHOTOGRAPH:
42. * Iguacu Falls, Brazil
43. * Victoria Falls, Rhodesia (chased by a warthog in the process)
44. * Sutherland Falls, New Zealand
45. * Yosemite Falls
46. * Niagara Falls
47. * Retrace travels of Marco Polo and Alexander the Great

EXPLORE UNDERWATER:
48. * Coral reefs of Florida
49. * Great Barrier Reef, Australia (photographed a 300-pound clam)
50. * Red Sea
51. * Fiji Islands
52. * The Bahamas
53. * Explore Okefenokee Swamp and the Everglades

VISIT:
54. North and South Poles
55. * Great Wall of China
56. * Panama and Suez Canals
57. * Easter Island
58. * The Galapagos Islands
59. * Vatican City (saw the Pope)
60. * The Taj Mahal
61. * The Eiffel Tower
62. * The Blue Grotto
63. * The Tower of London
64. * The Leaning Tower of Pisa
65. * The Sacred Well of Chichen-Itza, Mexico
66. * Climb Ayers Rock in Australia
67. Follow River Jordan from Sea of Galilee to Dead Sea

SWIM IN:
68. * Lake Victoria
69. * Lake Superior
70. * Lake Tanganyika
71. * Lake Titicaca, S. America
72. * Lake Nicaragua

ACCOMPLISH:
73. * Become an Eagle Scout
74. * Dive in a submarine
75. * Land on and take of from an aircraft carrier
76. * Fly in a blimp, balloon and glider
77. * Ride an elephant, camel, ostrich and bronco
78. * Skin dive to 40 feet and hold breath two and a half minutes underwater.
79. * Catch a ten-pound lobster and a ten-inch abalone
80. * Play flute and violin
81. * Type 50 words a minute
82. * Make a parachute jump
83. * Learn water and snow skiing
84. * Go on a church mission
85. * Follow the John Muir trail
86. * Study native medicines and bring back useful ones
87. * Bag camera trophies of elephant, lion, rhino, cheetah, cape buffalo and whale
88. * Learn to fence
89. * Learn jujitsu
90. * Teach a college course
91. * Watch a cremation ceremony in Bali
92. * Explore depths of the sea
93. Appear in a Tarzan movie (He now considers this an irrelevant boyhood dream.)
94. Own a horse, chimpanzee, cheetah, ocelot, and coyote (yet to own a chimp or cheetah)
95. Become a ham radio operator
96. * Build own telescope
97. * Write a book (about his Nile trip)
98. * Publish an article in National Geographic Magazine
99. * High jump five feet
100. * Broad jump 15 feet
101. * Run mile in five minutes
102. * Weigh 175 pounds stripped (still does)
103. * Perform 200 sit-ups and 20 pull-ups
104. * Learn French, Spanish and Arabic
105. Study dragon lizards on Komodo Island (boat broke down within 20 miles of island)
106. * Visit birthplace of Grandfather Sorenson in Denmark
107. * Visit birthplace of Grandfather Goddard in England
108 * Ship aboard a freighter as a seaman
109. Read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica (read extensive parts in each volume)
110. * Read the Bible from cover to cover
111.* Read the works of Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, Dickens, Thoreau, Rousseau, Conrad, Hemingway, Twain, Burroughs, Talmage, Tolstoi, Longfellow, Keats, Poe, Bacon, Whittier, and Emerson (not every work of each)
112.* Become familiar with the compositions of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Ibert, Mendelssohn, Lalo, Liszt, Rimski-Korsakov, Respighi, Rachmaninoff, Paganini, Stravinsky, Toch, Tschaikosvsky, Verdi
113.* Become proficient in the use of a plane, motorcycle, tractor, surfboard, rifle, pistol, canoe, microscope, football, basketball, bow and arrow, lariat and boomerang
114. * Compose music
115. * Play Clair de Lune on the piano
116. * Watch fire-walking ceremony (in Bali and Surinam)
117. * Milk a poisonous snake (bitten by diamondback during photo session)
118. * Light a match with .22 rifle
119. * Visit a movie studio
120. * Climb Cheops’ pyramid
121. * Become a member of the Explorer’s Club and the Adventure’s Club
122. * Learn to play polo
123. * Travel through the Grand Canyon on foot and by boat
124. * Circumnavigate the globe (four times)
125. Visit the moon (”Someday, if God wills”)
126. * Marry and have children (has five children)
127. * Live to see the 21st century

What are you waiting for?

Note From Rand

Well, the football season is approaching its mid-point, and my Washington Redskins are a mess. That team is a testimonial to the impact of poor leadership. A friend of mine once told me “a fish rots from the head.” Amen!

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rogers was just selected as “Offensive Player of the Month” in the NFL. On my Facebook page, I projected him as the league’s 2009 Offensive MVP. At this point, I like Drew Brees for that award — 20/20 hindsight. I also picked the Packers and the Ravens to go to the Super Bowl. The Packers won’t make it; the Ravens might.

My first article this month re-emphasizes the importance of a leader understanding the power of his voice. I cite an example from my own experience to make my point. The second one deals with voice mail, its misuse and poor use.

Happy Thanksgiving and I’ll see you in December. Until then, get real, get tough and get going!.

Know the Power of Your Own Voice

The new CEO of an unprofitable telecom, Frank hired me to help him create a corporate culture that was less “fraternal,” and more results-driven than it had been in the past. Until a few years earlier, the company had been a “quasi-government” entity, employing relatives and friends of cabinet secretaries, former cabinet secretaries, deceased oil barons, Saudi sheiks and various and sundry other hangers-on who were delighted to collect a paycheck, but not similarly enthused about hard work or value creation. The company was a great place to hang out with one’s buddies from just after breakfast until just before the cocktail hour.

They had recently been acquired by a private equity firm serious about making money and with a reputation for constantly prodding the leaders of companies it owned to achieve challenging financial commitments. Frank was equally serious. A 50% improvement in EBITDA coupled with 25% top-line growth would result in about $70 million in his pocket if the owner sold the company as planned, two years out.

Serious dough, n’est pas?!

Frank took his first six months to assess the state of the organization and craft his plan for improvement. He then assembled an “all-hands” meeting to announce his plans and to entertain questions. I was excited to watch his “pitch.” He was a brilliant presenter with a corresponding command of detail that onlookers often described as “breathtaking.”

The first 30 minutes or so of his presentation was awe-inspiring. Frank wove a tale that honored the past but, at the same time, outlined challenges that would overtake the company if things didn’t change. People were riveted. He prowled the stage like a cat. He deftly balanced his emotions — enthusiasm, joviality, concern. It was brilliant.

Then the bottom fell out.

As he described the culture he envisioned for the company – one that should be “merit” rather than “politically driven” – he said the following: “We’re not here to make friends!”

Yikes!

The mood in the room changed instantly: from eager anticipation to quiet concern and then to cynicism and anger. It was obvious, but Frank didn’t see it. He was wrapped up telling his story and painting his picture of a future that would be brighter if everyone focused on value creation. No one heard any of that; they were fixated on, “We’re not here to make friends.”

Frank concluded his presentation and received mild applause. Without that one comment, it would have been a wildly enthusiastic standing ovation. What a shame.

Afterwards, he asked me how I thought things went. I’m sure he believed that my reaction would be a back slapping, “Frank, you da man!” Instead, I said, “Houston, we have a problem.” When he asked why, I explained that the look that overtook attendees’ faces when he made his “friends” remark polluted their collective perception of his entire presentation.

He couldn’t believe it. Incensed, he asked me to informally survey a small number of key staffers. Their input confirmed my suspicion.

I’ll cut to the chase: Frank spent the next two years repairing the damage from that one comment. He apologized in the company newspaper and in videoconferences. He used part of virtually every interaction to provide context for his comment. While most people said that they understood, my sense was that his explanations were the equivalent of a page 10 retraction of a page 1 story.

Here’s the implication for you: What you say may not be what people hear. If you lead people (or, really, even if you don’t), you have to understand people’s context. Every human being brings unique “baggage” to every interaction. If your success depends on people understanding your intentions, you have to be absolutely precise with your words and clear about their context.

Successful Voice Mail Protocol

Try this: Randomly call 10 business associates and listen to their voice mail greetings. “What if they answer their phones,” you ask? Don’t worry; they probably won’t. Most people don’t actually answer their phones any more (more about that shortly). Unless you are completely desensitized, you’ll be amazed at the (poor) quality of their greetings. Following are a few examples and my suggestions for improvement:

• The executive that has his assistant leave his/her voice on the message rather than his own.

That greeting implies this: “Your call isn’t important enough for me to even leave my own recorded voice for you, you inconsequential twerp!”

The solution is obvious: Leave your own voice, not a surrogate’s.

• The voice mail greeting that says this: “I’ll return your call at my earliest convenience.”

This is NOT an appropriate response to a call. When I hear this, my reaction is: “What if it isn’t convenient until next month, you bone head? What if I’m a customer wanting to do business with you?”

The solution: Say this: “I’ll return your call shortly.” Then, do it!

• The greeting that sounds like the greeter is in pain or blasé about life in general.

The solution: Get a clue! People do not want to do business with someone who sounds like he needs an adrenalin injection. Pep it up! Sound like you mean it!

• The greeting that says: “We’re closed for Thanksgiving. We’ll be open again on Monday.”

The problem with this greeting is that it isn’t appropriate in August!

The solution: It’s OK to leave a “one size fits all” voice mail greeting. When you choose to change it up a bit, however, and leave one that is day/date specific, make sure you change it when it’s no longer appropriate.

• The greeter who never answers his phone, but uses voice mail to screen calls. This person then decides whether to return specific calls at all…EVER!

The solution: Anyone who employs voice mail for this reason should pack his bags, lock his office, quit his job and go home. He lacks the manners and judgment to be successful.

If you want to hear a great voice mail greeting, call and listen to mine (301) 482-2598. Don’t leave a message, however, because I don’t want to talk to you — only kidding!

Note From Rand

Somehow, somewhere, someone developed the following perspective that permeated and finally pervaded business: With enough work, a person can change anything about himself. That assertion is simply untrue. My first article cites one example: character. I believe you’ll like it; I know you’ll find it illuminating.

My second article this month examines the importance of questions. I believe that most people, including business leaders, could benefit from asking themselves better questions about their milieu. I contend that if you want really great answers — answers that provoke, answers that incite, answers that instigate and irritate — you have to ask really great questions.

I’ll see you in November. In the meantime, you can always catch me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rand.golletz. Until then, get real, get tough and get going.

When is a “Fixer-Upper” Really a “Tear-Down”?

You’ve seen the real estate ad. It goes something like this: “50 year-old home. Needs the tender, loving care of an owner with patience, talent and time.” My translation: “It’s a money pit. You’ll spend years trying to get it where you want it. You might succeed; you might fail. In either event, an adequate payback for your time, talent and money is highly unlikely.”

Real estate professionals call this kind of house a “fixer-upper.” I call it a “tear-down.”

Occasionally — actually, more often than I’d like — I get called by nervous CEOs or their HR heads to work with executives who are “tear-downs” masquerading as “fixer-uppers.”

What is an executive “tear-down”?

I once got a call from the CFO of a Fortune 500 company requesting that I contract to work with his controller. The CFO said that the controller would benefit greatly from working with an executive coach, and he had heard that I had a high level of success working with “tough guys” (his actual description). I laughed to myself because, while I actually had a record of success working with “harder-edged” executives, his description conjured up an image of DeNiro in Goodfellas.

I agreed to meet with the CFO to discuss the matter further. Here’s my (abbreviated) recollection of our conversation:

Him (forlorn): “Well Rand, it’s like this: Frank [not his real name] has a bit of a problem controlling his temper. A couple of weeks ago during one of his staff meetings, he yanked his phone out and threw it through the wall.”

Me (astonished but composed): “Is there more?”

Him (nervous and fidgety): “Well, yes, actually. During a discussion a couple of weeks before that, he took off his right shoe and smashed his heel through his computer screen.”

He went on to describe behavior that alternated between violent and destructive to property and verbally abusive to people, and it was escalating.

Me (increasingly wary and incredulous): “What’s the reason that you called me?”

Him (pleading but hopeful): “I’m hoping that you’ll work with this guy and fix him.”

Me: “I don’t fix people, but I’ll give you my quick take and a couple of insufficiently grounded recommendations. None of this will require you to pay me a penny. This guy appears to have a severe anger problem, an impulse control problem or both. [I know that by now you're marveling at my insight.] My guess is that before you realize any benefits from his getting help, he’s going to do some REAL damage. Here’s what I would do if I were you: I’d either fire him, require him to get psychiatric help (as a condition of ongoing employment), fire him as well as pay for his psychiatric help or give him a leave of absence — paid or otherwise — in order to get psychiatric help.

You are on the hook for this guy’s behavior. This is not an executive coaching challenge, although I’m sure that you’d be able to find a coach to tackle this, especially at the fee level you mentioned on the phone. I am not your guy, however.”

Why is this not a coaching challenge?

I won’t bore you with the rest of this story. Here are my key points:

Executive coaches can be really effective at identifying and dealing with many professional (and some personal) development challenges, including:

Knowledge and skill development

Creating and supporting the execution of specific, quantifiable development plans and

Procuring and providing feedback on executives’ actions.

Executive coaches should never be hired to work on significant “character issues” with people. You must go to great lengths to be sure that you are not engaged in folly, i.e., misdiagnosing a character flaw as a performance or development issue in order to delegate it (or abdicate) to an outside expert.

What is “character?”

I recently read the following definition of character: “The aggregate of personal attributes that enable a person to resist temptation and ethical compromise.”

That’ll do.

Here are some of those personal attributes:

Courage. Overcoming crippling fear (not the absence of fear).

Discipline. Doing what needs to be done, the way it needs to be done, when it needs to be done, EVERY TIME.

Persistence, resilience, perseverance and endurance. In total: Not quitting, being flexible, sticking to it and being tireless.

There are a lot more, but you get the idea. These attributes enable noble performance. They are cultivated by example, primarily early in life by caregivers, family and friends. They form the foundation on which knowledge and skills are built and without which knowledge and skills are useless.

The bottom line: Coaches cannot develop character. By the time someone becomes an executive, she either has it or she doesn’t.

If You Want Great Answers, Ask Great Questions

In my profession, I hear all kinds of excuses. Here’s one: “The economy is awful. How can our company possibly prosper during times like this?” And another: “We’re a small business. How can we compete against the big guys?”

You get the idea.

Some people, including executives, constantly make excuses in all arenas of their lives. A couple of years ago in this publication, I said the following: “It’s not your ’stuff’ that determines your success. It’s what you do about your ’stuff’ that determines your success. We all have ’stuff.’ Victims (and excuse makers) are on a recruiting mission to geometrically increase the membership of their two clubs: The Loyal Order of Irritating, Recreational Whining Victims of America and its sister organization The Submissive, Indulgent Enablers of the Loyal Order of Irritating, Recreational Whiners of America. The former group retains the services of personal injury lawyers ready to extract large sums of money from those they believe are to blame for their malaise — everyone but them. Members of the latter group (the farm team for the first group) listen and bob their heads in agreement as those victims whine. Both clubs meet at water coolers and in the restrooms of leading organizations.”

Implicit in that comment is my assertion that if you want to create success, you have to own your life — PERIOD! Furthermore, success depends upon asking questions that will yield powerful answers. The question “Why is everyone in the world conspiring to ruin my life?” yields very different answers than “What must I do to attract people into my life who support my success and happiness?” The question “What niche is Starbucks not filling that we can fill?” yields more productive answers than “Starbucks is a behemoth. How can we be expected to compete against them?”

Several years ago, I was hired to help the CEO of a Fortune 500 company instill a “questioning culture” in his company. It was November, and the company was experiencing a disappointing year. He wanted to use their annual, worldwide management meeting to provoke a high level of introspection and critical honesty. We separated the 200 attendees into groups of 10 and asked them to answer the following questions:

How can you leverage the [company name] brand and value proposition in a more focused and disciplined way next year than ever in the past?

What obstacles stood in the way of doing so and achieving this year’s planned results? Did you adequately anticipate them?

As this year progressed, did you create any “excuses” (for yourself, to make you feel less culpable) for not achieving planned results? What were they?

Success often breeds hubris. Did past successes lead to any overconfidence this year? In what way(s)? What will change next year?

Looking at next year, what stands between you and the achievement of your planned results?

In what ways are you “smarter” now that’ll better enable you to achieve next year’s planned results?

Were your expectations realistic this year?

Did your plans adequately identify and deal with opportunities and threats?

Are your results scorecard and review processes sufficient to identify slippage? What systems and processes must change for you to deal with slippage more effectively?

Are your internal systems sufficient to respond quickly and adequately to adverse conditions?

How do you respond to midterm negative change and surprises? Is this adequate?

When negative results surprise you:
Are you solution-oriented or blame-oriented?
Do you hold your entire team accountable rather than one person or function?

What are the consequences for not participating fully with the team?

Their answers resulted in many new insights that instigated a review and fundamental change in the company’s planning, performance review, leadership development and control processes. Again, if you want compelling answers, you have to ask compelling questions.

Note From Rand

This month’s “Real Deal” is a bit of a departure. As I’ve previously mentioned (ad nauseam), I have two books coming out in the next several months. The second one, my solo effort tentatively titled Redefining Type A — I’ve learned that until the first copy is printed everything is tentative — will be out by the end of the first quarter of next year. Right now, my contract attorney, Henry Clarke, and I are reviewing the contract language, not a big deal but a long deal. Also, Robyn Spizman (with the publishing house) and I are debating alternative subtitles for the book. (Does anyone have any novocaine??) This is an important, if tedious, exercise. Robyn is simply the best in the business at book marketing, and I’ve learned just how critical title selection is. Go into an airport bookstore and see which business titles grab and shake you; you’ll see what I mean.

The first book, Stepping Stones to Success, will be published in a couple of months. An anthology, it’s comprised of chapters from a lot of well-known contributors. David Wright, the publisher, has given me permission to print one chapter in this newsletter.

Rather than including the entire piece herein, however, I’m making you do some work. I’ve included the book cover and the first few pages of a chapter entitled “The Journey from Hard-Headed to Tough-Minded Leadership.” It’s an interview with me by the publisher. With all due humility, you’ll like it.

Until next time, get real, get tough and get going! Go Redskins!!

The Journey From Hard-Headed to Tough-Minded Leadership

Following is an excerpt from an interview I did with David Wright, publisher of Insight Publishing. This is the second time David and I sat down for a discussion on my management and leadership philosophies.

David Wright (Wright)

Today we’re talking with Rand Golletz. As an executive coach, consultant, speaker, and author, Rand brings something unique to his profession. He’s been a CEO, the Chief Marketing and Sales Officer of a Fortune 100 company, and the practice leader of a worldwide consultancy. Rand’s value proposition can be summarized by saying, “He’s been there and done that.”

Rand works with corporate leaders and business owners to develop the characteristics of what he calls “tough-minded leadership.” This is his second collaboration for Insight Publishing. The last, Blueprint for Success, was published in 2008. His solo book effort, Redefining Type A, is currently being edited for publication in 2010.

Rand, welcome—or should I say “welcome back!”? How have you been, what have you been doing and, more specifically for our readers, what have you been thinking about?

Rand Golletz (Golletz)

Actually, one thing that’s been consuming me since we talked for the Blueprint book is helping organizations do a better job of leveraging their leadership strengths. That includes helping leaders identify and develop them into über strengths, accepting the notion that there’s no such thing as a perfectly well-rounded leader (that’s a difficult proposition, by the way). I’ve also been helping both companies and their leaders configure their strengths in ways that give them the best opportunity to win.

Wright

So, if I heard you correctly, Rand, including what you’re not saying, you think the traditional path to developing talent—identifying weaknesses and developing them into strengths—isn’t the way to go. True?

Golletz

Now that I’ve opened that can of worms, let’s deal with the worms. First, I have created “rules” (if you will) for developing leaders that serve as the entry point for my discussions with prospective clients—leaders in large organizations. The rules comprise my governing beliefs about leadership development. Here’s the first one:

You must accept that you are not equally and infinitely capable of all things.

Wright

Okay, let’s stop there, Rand. Are you saying that someone who is not a good people manager won’t become a good people leader?

Golletz

Not exactly. Here’s what I am saying. Someone who’s not a good people leader (and by the way, that category needs to be defined more precisely to have any hope of working with it) might become a better people leader than he or she is. But the likelihood of taking a guy like “Chainsaw” Al Dunlop—the CEO accused of driving Sunbeam into the ground—and turning him into Mother Teresa is slim. So I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to improve in areas of weakness, only that you will not get your best leverage there.

As a strategic matter, the quickest road to success is to apply one’s strengths to opportunities that present themselves. That occurs when leaders make decisions about where to focus their company’s resources—all of them, including time, talent, and money.

Leaders accepting that they’re not capable of all things begins with how parents raise their children. Parents often drill into their kids’ heads the notion that they can be anything they want to be. If they truly want their children to be the best they can be, that premise is simply untrue. At a fairly early age, kids telegraph what they’re good at and what they love doing—and they’re generally the same things, by the way. Unfortunately, parents and school systems do their best to turn kids with specialties into uninspired generalists. Here’s a fresh way to think about this: To be successful in business, you must at least have acceptable, baseline levels of capability in a variety of areas. You must know, however, where your strengths are. From there, you do your best to create opportunities to exploit your strengths while limiting the exposure of your weaknesses in critical situations. Therefore, my second “rule” is this:

You must understand your strengths and weaknesses in a precise and granular way. Knowing them starts with feedback.

Wright

I’ve heard you say before that “feedback is the breakfast of champions.” You’re not telling me now that feedback is useless, are you, Rand?

Golletz

No, I’m not, David. I want to convey that much of the feedback obtained in the interest of personal development today is a complete waste of time. Let me explain. Most of the companies I work with use a formal 360-degree feedback process with their executives. Some are “off-the-shelf” processes, some are custom-designed, and many combine the two. What’s the problem? Many of these processes ask well-meaning but generic questions. What’s the result? They generate well-meaning but generic answers.

Wright

Can you give our readers an example of these questions and answers?

Golltez

Sure. I recently worked with an executive who had been through a written 360-degree feedback process. In addition to having a “check-the-box” exercise for providing feedback, people also had ample opportunity to write in narrative insights. One of them wrote: “John (the leader) does not collaborate very well. Unless he learns this vital skill, I believe that his promotional opportunities will be very limited.”

Wright

I get the feeling you believe that the feedback wasn’t very useful.

Golletz

I’ll go you one step better, David. It was completely useless! Here’s why: It’s imprecise and unactionable. The word “collaborate” is too lofty and too generic a word. When I think of that word, more specific words come to mind that describe collaboration—like “negotiate,” “compromise,” “influence,” and twenty or thirty others. All are part of collaboration and would do a better job of describing the potential development opportunities for John than “collaborate.” Each of those words can then be broken down into even more precise and finite descriptions.

Note From Rand

Facebook. Wow – what a concept! If you are not at least beginning to get involved in electronic social networking, you’re missing the boat. If you are a business person and a LinkedIn devotee, I’m sorry to tell you this: LinkedIn is teetering on irrelevance. Too pallid, too passive, too, well, BORING. It doesn’t force you to actually DO anything.

A number of my friends say, “I use Facebook for personal stuff, and I use LinkedIn for business stuff.” When I ask them, “What business stuff?” they say “networking.”

Really?! You fill in your data, you “link in” with other people, and then what happens? NOTHING! It’s a repository. Conversely, I defy you to become a Facebook member and then leave it alone. You can use it for your personal stuff; you can use it for your business stuff. I PROMISE, however, you WILL use it!

If you look at my Facebook page, including my “info page,” you’ll notice that I have encapsulated everything from my favorite movies to my personal beliefs. If you read my Web site and my Facebook page(s), you’ll have a reasonable idea of who I am. If you scan my “friends” list, you’ll see people that, I guarantee you, you didn’t know that I know – unless you happen to be one of those people. Many of them are people with whom I share a deep, common interest in something. Others are current or former clients. Some are family. They paint a picture of me. You have to figure out what that means.

If you fear disclosure or transparency, stay away from Facebook. It’s no fun if it’s used superficially.

Two really good articles this month. The first deals with a rampant corporate affliction: terminal lateness. The second highlights one of my (and perhaps your) ongoing personal struggles, that of “acceptance.”

I’ll see you next month. Until then, get real, get tough and get going!!

Rand Golletz’s Profile | Create Your Badge

Are You Committed to Being Late?!

A couple of years ago, I wrote back-to-back articles on the subject of “commitment.” The thrust was this: When we say we’re going to do something, it’s imperative that we do it, even if the thing seems insignificant. A lot of people responded: “I ALWAYS keep my promises.”

Really?!

I went on to invoke some examples: The mom who promised she’d absolutely be at her daughter’s soccer games, when what she really meant was, if something at work didn’t interfere. The guy (in this case, the example I used was ME) who, in his voice-mail greeting, promised to return all calls within 24 hours and then didn’t. The sales woman who committed to achieve her planned results and then employed every excuse imaginable when she failed

We all blow it now and then. The problem is not that we ought to expect perfection (although we should STRIVE for it). The problem is that many of us have such low expectations of ourselves that breaking commitments either creates no dissonance, or it provokes the creation of feeble excuses. My favorite one: “I’m only human.” When I hear that one, my first thought is: “No, you’re not only human. Humans have free will, the capacity for discipline and the ability to control impulses.”

We take commitments lightly in our society. In a work setting, THE most egregious example of this is “tardiness.” Many executives — I won’t go so far as to say “most,” but it’s close — have no concept of the importance of being on time or the cost to themselves and others for being late. They show up late to appointments scheduled by others. They show up late for appointments or meetings that they schedule themselves. They plan back-to-back meetings, an hour apart, and then just move on to the next one when the current one is finished, expecting that attendees will excuse their behavior, because it’s just part of the way business is conducted today. After all, everyone is busy and everyone is overscheduled. Here are some problems caused by “terminal lateness” that you ought to care about:

• If you are an executive, you have to set an example for others and “lateness” demonstrates a lack of discipline (I define discipline as “doing what needs to be done, the way it needs to be done, when it needs to be done — EVERY TIME!). Remember, people follow examples, not orders.

• Being late demonstrates poor manners. It’s rude. It’s disrespectful of other people’s time.

• Lateness inflicts damage on overall organizational effectiveness and productivity. If everyone is late as a result of your being late, what’s the cost of the cascading consequences?

You might think that “I’m in charge; the big kahuna; the causer of all action and the decider of all decisions. It’s my right to make other people adjust to my schedule. I’m da man.” Remember this: There is no more morally indefensible reason for doing ANYTHING than “because you can.”

If you read this and think “this is all easy for you to say; I don’t really control my time,” you’re a victim. I write this newsletter exclusively for leaders who make a conscious choice not to be victims. These are people who believe in establishing their own rules of engagement; people who believe in self-governance; people who accept the notion that one of our priorities as leaders is to be the productive example for others, not to follow the dysfunctional example of others. Victimhood is diversionary and irresponsible.

One of my mentors, the great Dan Sullivan, crafted what he called his “four rules of referability for entrepreneurs.” Those are:

• Say “please” and “thank you.”

• Do what you say you’re going to do.

• Finish what you start, and

• Show up on time.

How many people do you know that adhere to these admonitions? How about you?

“Acceptance” Has Always Been the Bain of my Existence

There is no formula for success … except perhaps an unconditional acceptance
of life, and what it brings. - Arthur Rubenstein

Per Wikipedia, “acceptance usually refers to cases where a person experiences a situation or condition (often a negative or uncomfortable situation) without attempting to change it, protest, or exit. The term is used in spirituality, in Eastern religious concepts such as Buddhist mindfulness, and in human psychology. Religions and psychological treatments often suggest the path of acceptance when a situation is both disliked and unchangeable, or when change may be possible only at great cost or risk. Acceptance may imply only a lack of outward, behavioral attempts at possible change, but the word is also used more specifically for a felt or hypothesized cognitive or emotional state. Acceptance is a key for all family members, because it lets one feel accepted, thus someone may decide to take no action against a situation and yet be said to have not accepted it.”

Yeah, whatever!!!

The truth is, “acceptance” has always been difficult for me. If I accept things/conditions/situations as they are, doesn’t that mean that I’m “throwing in the towel”? I know that it’s emotionally and spiritually unhealthy to obsess over situations – to fixate on how messed up they are. Still, how can anyone say that, in a world with starvation and AIDS and constant war, we should be “accepting”?

In a business context, I was raised to believe that “you plan your work and you work your plan.” How does that notion comport with the concept of acceptance? If you’re off track, aren’t you supposed to do more, work harder and find another way to achieve the results for which you planned? Isn’t acceptance the wuss’s way out?

No, it isn’t! It took years of hard-learned lessons and the development of a modicum of wisdom for me to get there, however.

The truth came to me as I was planning for a meeting with one of my driven, obsessive “type A” clients. “Acceptance” and “resignation” are vastly different.

Acceptance is “giving in to reality.” Resignation is “giving up on possibility.” When I accept things as they are, it means that at any given moment, the world exists precisely as it’s supposed to. Today, I can accept that as truth. I’m at peace with it (or as close to being at peace as I get). It does not stipulate, however, that I have to like it! It does not imply that I should not try really hard to improve tomorrow by the actions I take today. I do not have to be resigned to the continuation of the status quo.

Consider my point of view. If it makes sense, adopt it as your own. In any event, come to terms with the difference between acceptance and resignation and its implications for your life. You’ll be happier – I guarantee it.

Note From Rand

In Las Vegas, it’s called going “all in.” Author and consultant Michael Gerber (The E-Myth) calls it going “whole hog plus the postage.” Personal trainer (maybe he should actually be called the personal trainer) Todd Durkin calls it “and then some.” More about Todd and his perspective:

Todd owns and operates Fitness Quest in San Diego; he’s also the Chairman of Under Armor’s^® advisory board. He trains Drew Brees, LaDanian Tomlinson and other world-class athletes, in addition to “normal” people and geezers like me. If you live in the mid-Atlantic area and his name sounds familiar, it’s because he was once the quarterback and captain of the College of William and Mary’s football team. Todd has a
philosophy of life he calls “and then some.” When doing anything, he believes, we should do it “and then some.” You’re a parent? Be a great parent – and then some. A volunteer? Be a world-class volunteer – and then some. At work? Do your best – and then some. Anything worth doing, according to Todd, is worth doing – and then some. He’s right.

My two questions for you:

• If it’s not worth your best, is it worth your time?

• Are you living your life — and then some?

And, here’s a commercial pitch:

One of Todd’s training devices is called TRX. Invented by Randy Hetrick, a former Navy SEAL and founder of Fitness Anywhere, Inc., TRX is what’s called a “suspension training system.” Hailed by Men’s Health magazine as the fitness product of the year, it’s a simple device that uses body weight for resistance, minimizing or eliminating the risk of injury common with free weights. Anyone who know me knows I’m a fitness fanatic; in addition to my treadmill, bike, multi-station gym and dumbbells, I have two TRX systems. At a cost of about $200 each, they’re economical as well as extremely effective and transportable. If you’re interested in the TRX system, here’s a link.

Only one article this month. It continues a theme that has dominated my business, and thinking, of late. Read it; marinate in it; do something about it!

Have a great 4^th of July. Get real, get tough, and get going!

Rand Golletz’s Profile | Create Your Badge

You, the Navy SEALs and Johnson & Johnson

“You know nothing about me. I was lost long before the [Berlin] Wall fell. I was once destined to become a man much like yourself: true-hearted; determined; full of purpose, but … character is easier kept than recovered. We cannot control the things that life does to us. They are done before you know it, and once they are done, they make you do other things. At last, everything comes between you … and the man you wanted to be.”

Wilhelm Wexler (traitor played by actor Armin Mueller-Stahl)
to Louis Salinger (Interpol Agent played by Clive Owen)
in the movie “The International.”

Jim Rohn, business philospher

Note From Rand

Ken Blanchard, “The One Minute Manager” guy and one of my co-authors for last year’s Blueprint for Success, recently celebrated his 70^th birthday. His family had a party for him in southern California that he billed not as his “retirement celebration,” but his “re-fire-ment celebration.” I’m convinced that Ken will live to be 150 and will work right up to the end. He brings lofty vision, incredible energy and a genuine love of people to everything he does. He is totally engaged in living his life.

Age is only a number. If you truly own your life … if you are totally engaged in living your life … if you believe that your own growth and vitality are among your super-ordinate priorities, you must define and achieve greatness along dimensions that you determine are important. Why settle for less?!

Are we connected on Facebook? If we are, go to my “info” page and check out “my beliefs” under my personal information. I frequently ask my clients to detail their beliefs and then regularly assess how they’re doing versus what they espouse. Try it in your own life and be ready for its transformative power.

Lastly, my friend Dr. Denis Waitley, a legend in the personal development field (his audio-program, “The Psychology of Winning,” is still the all-time bestseller), former Navy pilot and Naval Academy grad, shared the statement below on Memorial Day. It’s never too late to remember.

“My name is unimportant; it isn’t even known. My face is unfamiliar; it is never shown. I live only in the hearts of family and my fellow men. Remembered mostly once each year, then forgotten once again. But I feel no sorrow or loss of faith, and my values endure and sustain. For I am the Unknown Soldier, whose life was not in vain.”

My first article this month concerns the Law of Attraction. Here’s the short version: It may be true, but it’s not a law. The second article cites the late basketball coach, Chuck Daly, as an example of effective leadership. He once made the comment, “You want to create an environment where they’ll let you coach them.” That sounds obvious; its implications, however, are profound.

See you in July. Until then, get real, get tough and get going.

Rand Golletz’s Profile | Create Your Badge

Attraction: Call it a Principle; it’s not a Law

A few hundred people crowded into the hotel ballroom. Smoke billowed from the dry ice planted behind the stage, creating a mystical impression. The evening’s speaker, a renowned “authority” on the “Oprah circuit,” emerged from behind the curtain to wild applause from the crowd who believed he would impart clues to their fulfilling their dreams.

He launched into a superbly crafted, hugely entertaining but scientifically flawed presentation. The subject: The Law of Attraction. In case you’ve been asleep for the last couple of years, the law of attraction says that all your thoughts, all images in your mind and all the feelings connected to your thoughts will later manifest as your reality. In other words, everything you have in your life now
has been attracted to you through your mind. I buy it — partially.

A bit of history:

In the early 1900s, Napolean Hill was engaged by Andrew Carnegie to conduct a study of the most successful people in the world. That decades-long study was published in 1937 as Think and Grow Rich. Make no mistake about it, this was and is a great book — maybe the best book ever written about success. I’ve read it and re-read it and encourage you to do the same (Click here to purchase). What I do not encourage you to do is to take it literally and absolutely. Think and Grow Rich introduced the masses to the concept of the law of attraction. It stated unequivocally that success begins with a clear image and definition, as well as with certitude and conviction.

Fast forward to the 1970s: Jim Rohn, Denis Waitley, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and others each began teaching their personalized versions of the laws of success to the masses. They supplemented the message of “if you can conceive it, you can achieve it,” with a good bit of “and oh, by the way, you also have to plan, focus your energy, discipline your actions and work your a– off.”

In the 1990s, the concepts of spiritual enlightenment and material prosperity converged and, at some point, many people who were spiritually inclined but who were not previously disposed to strive for financial success collapsed the two. (I have neither the time or inclination to get into that any deeper here.)

So far, the 2000s have spawned a large number of “gurus” who have pitched the idea that if a person:

• knows precisely what he wants,

• asks the universe for it,

• feels, behaves and knows as if the thing he desires is on its way and

• is open to receiving it all while letting go of the outcome, then

the object of his desire will manifest itself in his life.

I’m OK with all of this, but I would put these assertions in the category of “necessary, but insufficient.”

From my perspective, here’s the rub: Calling attraction a law rather than a principle creates the impression that it survived an unassailable, scientific triage process. Here’s the real deal:

In our world, we use the “scientific method” to test hypotheses before we call them laws. In really oversimplified terms, the scientific method is a process of:

• stating a problem,

• creating a hypothesis,

• collecting and analyzing data and

• drawing conclusions.

Hypotheses must pass through the scientific method before becoming theories, the next formal stage in the journey from hypothesis to law. A theory is a more detailed and substantial explanation of phenomena. It has some predictive value. Ultimately, if a theory is validated over time; if it is shown to be true; it is designated as a law.

Gravity is a law; attraction is not!

The implications (and here’s where my cynical side emerges): I believe that many of the purveyors of the “attraction is a law” school of thought know better. In an effort to sell product to the “I want prosperity, but I don’t want to dirty my hands with the seamier side of capitalism” crowd, they intentionally omit one requirement: hard work.

I’ve been with and worked with enough successful people to know that attraction works magic in their lives. Their belief in their vision, their faith in an outcome and their conviction of their own ability ignite their fire. Their discipline and hard work, however, are the fuel without which their aspirations would be hallucinations.

They Have to Allow You to Coach Them

Chuck Daly died a few weeks ago of pancreatic cancer. In the 1980s and 90s, he was the head coach of NBA’s Detroit Pistons. That team was referred to as the “nasty boys,” an obvious nickname. (Google it for the reasons!) They won back-to-back NBA titles and beat the Bird-led Celtics, the Johnson-led Lakers, and the Jordan-led Bulls in doing so. Earlier, Daly had also coached the University of Pennsylvania. Go Quakers!

A Hall of Fame coach, Daly also led the 1992 Olympic basketball team, known as the “dream team” (Jordan, Bird, Johnson, Thomas, etc.) to a Gold Medal.

Daly’s forté was taking groups of big egos and free spirits and transforming them into teams. What struck me at the time of his death was this comment attributed to him about his coaching style: “You want to create an environment where they’ll let you coach them.”

How obvious; how elegant; how simple; how elusive!

Notice, he didn’t say, “You want to create an environment where they know who’s in charge.” He didn’t say, “You want to create an environment where they fear that if they don’t contribute, they’re outta here!” He didn’t say, “You want to create an environment where they know that their first job is to obey my rules.”

Charles Barkley, no shrinking violet and a member of the 1992 Olympic team, didn’t know Daly well prior to that experience and developed such an affection for him during that time that in the weeks immediately preceeding Daly’s death Barkley called him almost every day. He said that Daly had an endearing way of engendering loyalty: “In Monaco, it would be me, Michael Jordan, David Robinson and Chuck Daly. … We’re all carrying our (golf) clubs and walking and saying to each other, ‘This guy is the coach of the Olympic team and he’s out here carrying his own clubs!’” Great leaders are humble and they’re not afraid of doing the “heavy lifting.”

Daly recognized that today’s athletes are spoiled, self-indulgent and highly compensated, but that’s not the point. The REAL point, the ONLY point is this: How can the coach get the most out of the talent that he has, both individually and as a team? How can he configure and exploit strengths?  How is that measured? Simple — the final score.

I know a lot of executives — “C” level people — who dwell on things that do not, and will not, translate into competitive victory. Those things have a lot to do with executive rights, privileges and prerogatives; they have little to do with winning. These same guys understand Covey’s concept of “starting with the end in mind” when it comes to “chunking down” long-term financial objectives into short-term action steps and working backwards, if you will. When it comes to understanding the implications of Covey’s exhortation on human motivation and behavior, however, those same guys are
frequently clueless.

Don’t be one of them.