The Other Bucket List

There are only three buckets in the professional and organizational worlds and you are in one of them.







The Pro-Active Bucket

The first and most beneficial and productive bucket of people is the Pro-Active Bucket. This bucket is filled with people that have something to prove. These "buckteers" have a bias-for-action. They are risk takers and never run from a fight. These are the 20% that get 80-90% of the meaningful work done in their professional endeavors and their societal contributions. Without this bucket, not much that can be labeled as productive gets done. These are the leaders, leading themselves and now, or in the future, leading others, either by appointment, or by assumption. This bucket is filled with learners.

The Re-Active Bucket

This bucket is filled with people that are always in a tizzy. Nothing productive happens because of their actions, stuff happens because of a lack of their actions. They are always in a hurry and cannot tell anyone, with any clarity, where they are headed, or when they might arrive. Stuff is forever getting in the way of real progress and they truly cannot see the forest because there are too many trees. The "why-me" refrain is common and protects them from a deep self evaluation. After all, in their minds, the events leading to this state of chaos is not a result of anything they did. It is, what it is. This group has no time for learning.


The In-Active Bucket

People in this bucket are more often than not occupying bucket space because life is unfair. They sit around and wonder what happened and rarely ask why. They say things like; "I am doing the best I can." "I did my part and others did not do theirs." " I did not put myself in this place, the unfair and unreasonable business world did." and on and on. Clearly life is far too clear to them. And this life, the life of the In-Active is not a life of choice but a life of chance. Of course they will not accept that if they were willing to take a chance or take multiple chances they would either, not be in this bucket or be climbing out. This group will not let go long enough to learn.

You are in one of these buckets. Which one?

All I Need To Know

All we need to know.

There was a book published a while back that was filed with simple and profound wisdom. The book's title is; All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum.

Robert was largely right about many subjects but here is where I am at odds. 

All I really Need to Know, I learned from my parents, mostly my Mother. 

My Father taught me to never fear any task, just get to the doing. 

Mother had a way of teaching that was primarily focused on me (one of six children) because I needed more teaching than others. Call it stubborn, obstinate or disinterested, I was a problem child and Mother's lessons usually had to be repeated several times before I got the message. 

My Mother had a real commitment to my growth and the growth of the other five siblings. Problem was, I took most of her time and energy. She never quit. She would often double-down.

What I learned at home was what I took to school and into life. 

Some of the lessons my Mom taught me: to take the high road, to listen more than I talk, to get up every day and put my left foot in front of my right foot and walk, to be dependable, to use proper language no matter the circumstances, not to drink too much and never smoke, to eat as right as I could and only as much as I need, to love my brothers and sisters, to respect the USA and to stand during the pledge (because not standing was NEVER an option), that the teacher was always right, not to trust everybody only they who truly deserved to be trusted, to save, to clean my room, to get better at anything make sure you are hanging around better people, that expectations should be reasonable but high, that you don't have to settle for less, that just because you grew up somewhat poor you do not have to stay poor, to never stop leaning, to go to Church and to pray, and never leave the house unless I had on clean underwear! 

She always added that if I was in an accident, she would be embarrassed if my underwear were not clean. Still, to this day am I a bit confused as to the logic and importance of that directive. 

The point is that I learned from someone who cared enough to teach, even to the point of pain.  

All I need to learn, I learned from someone else. 

Teach or be taught.

Get to Yes by Getting to Know

When you want to get to yes. Get to know.

If you really want to get to know someone better and thereby strengthen the relationship for the right reasons, be proactive. 

Here is where you start; Ask what they do and why (the why is more important than the what)  where they grew up and where they went to school, what they like, what they pursue, their passion what they would like to do, their hobbies, what they dislike, whom they admire, what they read and what they read recently, their family and more of what you can sincerely learn. Ask; "If we do build (or strengthen) a relationship can we sincerely share expectations?"

There is a world of information available about people and their professions to they who are willing to devote the time and truly desire to know more about what really matters. The very best source is of course the person themselves. 

Not much matters in a relationship if there is not a sincere desire to learn. 

An amazing thing happens when you strive to get to know someone better. People open up, overtime. Ask questions and listen to answers. 

I could write an entire piece (and likely will) on what should happen when you ask a question. So here is what has to happen; listen. 

Listen with a desire to learn and that means you are not listening while thinking of a response as most people do. 

It is amazing what people will share with you if you ask and they know that you really do want to know, and you really do care about them. 

In a business situation take notes. It is hard to remember what you had for lunch yesterday much less the important stuff a decision maker just shared. 

When you really want to get to yes, you will get to know!

Learn To Read-Read To Learn

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I am a reader. 

 

The reason I am a reader is not just because I am in the newspaper business. Yes, I do read the newspaper daily. 

The reason I am a reader is because I have learned, by reading, that leaders are readers. 

There is a building in downtown Lawton, Oklahoma and hundreds of other cities and towns in America, that prominently displays that it is a Carnegie Library. 

Andrew Carnegie was a self-made, rich-man. A total of 2,509 Carnegie Libraries were built between 1883 and 1929. All of them were built with Andrew Carnegie's money!

Andrew Carnegie believed that the knowledge contained in books would provide the “industrious and ambitious” the knowledge they needed to succeed in whatever they chose to be successful at. He was not interested in helping those that did not want to be helped. 

You must learn to read, and you must read to learn. There is no short cut to this prescription for accelerating and sustaining your success. 

Most of my reading is business and self-help books. I read with a highlighter and the more relevant and impactful, the more I highlight. I can then revisit the books and reread the highlighted portion to reacquaint myself with those messages that meant the most at the time I was reading. 

A business book I recently read is:

The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni.

“Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business”

What I learned from The Advantage;

1. Companies must be smart and have great organizational health

(Health is the way the author describes companies that have a strong culture) 

2. You have to slow down to go fast

3. People in healthy organizations learn from each other

4. Leaders must overcome the tendency to run from discomfort

5. Conflict must occur, and trust must be established for that to happen

There is much more I highlighted, but this is a great look at what I learned in just this one book! 

Currently I am reading a collection of Harvard Business Review articles on Mental Toughness and it is very enlightening. 

Not all of my reading is business. I just finished The Lords of The Plains by Max Crawford. Max Crawford is an amazing writer. 

There are thousands of sources to choose from that deliver edifying reading material. It is probably a good idea to be somewhat selective in your reading material, but read something, daily. Ask your friends what read and what they have read recently. 

The positive benefits to reading are too many to list, but an expanding vocabulary is surely near the top of that list. And if you don’t know what a word means, look it up!

Learn to Read-Read to Learn.

The Only Thing Tougher

The only thing tougher in professional football than winning your first Super Bowl, is to win the next Super Bowl.

The only thing tougher in professional baseball than winning your first World Series, is to win the next World Series.

The only thing tougher than winning your first NBA Championship is winning the next NBA Championship.

By now you know where I am headed.

The best time to win is after you just won. Why then, does it so rarely happen? 

During my career I worked at several newspapers varying in publication frequency from 1 to 7 days a week. What I learned at the once a week publication is that you work like crazy to get the weekly edition out, then, the day after, you can hear a collective sigh from the entire staff as a full-day break was taken before getting ready for the next week's paper. 

Once we got the weekly edition out what we should have done, instead of basking in the victory, is used the less demanding time, the day after, to take urgent action and go places in business we had never been. 

The challenges lie in the challenge to challenge yourself and your team to do something different, to do more. That is the very reason that champions rarely repeat. They are not as hungry as they once were, they don't challenge themselves they way they did in order to win it all the first time. They have the same players and the same coach. What they don't have is that level of desire and commitment that got them to places they had never been. And most, will never return.

You can't quit before the victory and you shouldn't quit after the victory. 

Let Everybody Else

Let everybody else, be like everybody else. You be you.

I have found that a common mistake in life of young and older is to try and be like someone else. Good luck. 

Chances are, that the very person you are trying to be like considers themselves to be one-of-a-kind. They may have, in the past, been highly influenced by others they admire, but now they are who they are because of decisions they made.

You need to be you. Absolutely, you may follow the lead of the right people and choose to make your results a reflection of they who influenced you. But once you start putting your hand to the plow (figuratively speaking) it is your signature on the finished work, not the people you are trying to be like.

You young folks out there have a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunty. Some of the very best people you will meet in your life are teachers. The great majority of these dedicated individuals are sold out in helping you be a better you. They are privileged to spend time with you in your formative years and really want to make a difference. They teach you subject matter that is relevant but I feel that the more important lesson they teach you young people is through an example of a life's work dedicated to others. You will never get this opportunity again. Do not squander it with bad behavior when the right behavior is what is required. 

Even if you are not young and most people reading this are not, be judicious who you choose to pattern your behavior after. Saying; "I want to be like so and so."" is just an excuse to not be like you. 

Do not be afraid to be you. After all, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

I can't reach

I can't reach.

There are times when things are just too good to not share and this in one of those times. 

The basis of this discourse is a friend telling me, regarding a new endeavor I had just embarked on; "You will make it happen as is or find a way to make it happen." 

Herein lies a pretty simple illustration to a not so simple problem. 

Standing at a distance and watching the glass cleaner person from inside the building shielded the top part of the window from my view. The glass cleaner was diligently applying his trade and his window cleaning stuff. So far so good. 

Because I was interested and paying for the cleaning and mostly because I really like clean windows, I moved in for a closer look. The windows were clean,. almost. The very top perhaps 20% of every window was not being cleaned and from inside you could not see that portion, unless you moved close to the window. 

The ladder the window cleaner was using was good enough to reach most of the window but not good enough to reach all of the window. Which proves that; "Good enough never is." 

What should have happened is that the window cleaning person should have notified whomever was in charge and made them aware of the problem. "My ladder won't reach." 

Instead they moved ahead doing 80% of a job they got paid 100% to complete. 

Don't do a job 80% of the way when you can get what you need and do a job 100% of the way. Doing a job partially without asking for the help you need is unacceptable. Once you get the help, get the job done expeditiously, accurately and completely.

If you can't reach, get a bigger ladder!