Profiles in Passion: October 2010, Judge Jason Brown

The small things we do impact the lives and future of generations to come. Jason Brown recognized this from a young age. Growing up with a father who treated everyone, regardless of background and social standing, with the same fairness led Jason to aspire for the same. Jason Brown has been an associate circuit judge for the 31st Judicial Circuit since 2006.

Though it wasn’t apparent at first he wanted to pursue a life in law, Judge Brown always knew he had a passion for listening. “I often found myself in a position where people found it easy to talk to me, to open up and ask for my take on their issues,” he says. “I had a sense I would be involved in assessing peoples’ interactions. Deciding what is right and fair could have landed me as a counselor, judge, or another walk of life where I would offer feedback.”

Another walk of life wasn’t in the cards for Judge Brown. He attended law school after college. He knew a legal background would give him opportunities he otherwise wouldn’t have. When he began doing trial training, his interest and passion was seeded.

He practiced for 16 years as an attorney where he witnessed on various occasions victims being treated unfairly or without respect. With the encouragement of peers, Judge Brown took the risk of losing his practice and ran for election. This is a risk many lawyers who would otherwise make great judges opt not to take. The risks outweighed the benefits and he was elected to the bench in 2006.

His impact in the Greene County community is substantial. “I can’t say I’m changing the world, but hopefully I’m contributing to society by giving people faith that civil and criminal cases are handled fairly, that people can come in and have a fair hearing where their rights will be enforced and crimes punished.”

Daily headaches come and go, but Judge Brown enjoys the opportunities being a judge present. The best part of living his passion as a judge is feeling a daily sense of accomplishment. Even though there are always people who will question decisions, Judge Brown hopes people understand and respect his decisions whether they agree or not. He firmly believes in deciding on facts and law, not for artificial reasons like status or relationships.

Judge Brown encourages others to share their professional goals so that they, too, can feel a sense of accomplishment within their lives. “If it’s something you consider a goal and think about often, let others know. When there is an opening, people will think of you first as a possible solution to their need.”

Judge Brown he hopes his lasting legacy is that of a fair judge:  someone who listened, treated people with respect they deserved, and gave everyone fair shake and equal opportunity.

We find these truths self-evident

This line from the Declaration of Independence is one of the most powerful ever penned.

Truth, real truth, can stand on its own. It needs no defense.

People have an innate ability to ferret out truth. Like cream on fresh milk, truth has a way of naturally coming to the top. If you give people enough space and room they will consistently spot truth and do the right thing.

I frequently talk to business owners who don't think their employees will make the right decision if they don't make it for them. Let me frame this in another light, in the United States legal system we literally make life-and-death decisions based on the ability of 12 random people to ferret out truth and make a quality decision. While it's not perfect, the system is highly accurate and effective.

If you give employees the opportunity to ferret out truth, do you really think they won’t make the right decision? Of course they will, and if they don't, and it is their decision, they will more than likely do everything they can to make it work. Isn’t that what you really want from your people -- for them to be all in emotionally and mentally?

A highly committed and fully engaged workforce with a good idea will outperform an apathetic team with a great idea virtually every time.

So let’s revisit the idea that your people might make a bad decision.
If they are fully vested in the process of making the decision and they have to live with the results, they will be the first ones to tell you they made a mistake. Without being told, they will regroup and move in the right direction.

Why?

Because people tend to take responsibility for what they own.
We tend to not take responsibility for things we don’t own. If your people are not taking responsibility, I can almost guarantee you they don’t own what is going on in your business.

Let me give you a quick example.
I live on the east side of Springfield. While I may be intrigued by crime stories in Kansas City or St Louis, they are of little concern to me. When I start hearing about crime in Springfield, then I become concerned. When the crime happens in my neighborhood, I am alarmed. When the crime happens at my house, I am outraged. In this process I have moved from passive spectator to fully engaged participant. Everything changes when it involves what I personally own.

If you want your employees to be more responsible, let them completely own both the decision making process and the results. And remember, it is hard to argue with the truth.

Profiles in Passion: September, 2010 -- Don Harkey

“Watching people being successful is powerful,” says Don Harkey.

In his experience, though, Don has seen professionals from entry level to industry experts fail miserably. Their lack of success is a direct result of them not living their passion. “It has everything to do with being empowered with what you’re doing,” says Don. Over time, he has recognized the patterns behind people’s satisfaction levels and seen the difference in people and organizations when people like what they do.

Don owns Galt Consulting and is living his passion as a strategic planning and process improvement business consultant. “I don’t know how to articulate the incredible feeling of freedom in living my passion. I’m not waiting for the 5 o’clock whistle to blow so I can go home where I can be myself,” he explains. “I’m always doing what I like to do.”

He began his career as an engineer and has a background in chemical engineering.  There, he saw teams not aligned in their goals, not working together. At that point, he knew that his true calling was something deeper than engineering alone.

For Don, like most entrepreneurs, breaking away is a scary thing to do. An engineer at heart, Don calculated the risks and moved forward, decrease his engineering work as he increased the amount of consulting he did. He now has six years experience consulting, the last three of which he has worked full-time. “At some point, you have to jump in and take the cold water – take the shock.”

The biggest challenge for Don was doing all aspects of the job on his own, from marketing and client development to accounting and financials. At his first attempt at his logo, he spent 50 hours creating it. “I’m not an artist,” says Don, who learned his lesson. “Pay someone else who knows how to do the things you aren’t good at. I could have used that time developing clients and making new contacts.”

As a consultant, Don works directly with organizations, often saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year through helping them find direction and focus. He unveils answers to problems within the company and workforce and has generated a great many testimonials to his productivity in passion.

For instance, Don worked with an organization to find areas of improvement. Through his calculations, he found they were losing 50k a year from production waste. The operator developed a plan to eliminate the waste once Don showed him how much it cost.  He cut the waste in half in two weeks and eliminated it altogether within three months saving the company $50,000 per year. 

The company not only saved a bundle of money, but the operator confided in Don that he was so unhappy with his job prior to this experience he was planning on leaving. Since then, he has independently developed improvement projects throughout the organization and been promoted from his entry level position to supervisor.

Don has helped numerous businesses such as this, but his passion goes beyond financial restraints. One of Don’s goals is to be financially free enough to assist new businesses. Often, start-ups are the ones trying to find their footing but are passionate about their goals. One of Don’s favorite quotes embraces this entrepreneurial spirit:  “Destiny exists when a person knows what they can be and no one else suspects it,” Bob Dillan.

Through the entire process, truly feels he is living his passion. “I’ve always thought of hobbies as what you do outside work, but that doesn’t change much for me. When I have free time in the evenings, I am doing the same thing I’d be doing during the day. It doesn’t change. Not a workaholic, but I enjoy what I do enough to enjoy it always.”

Are you Wealthy?

I recently heard Dr Gay Hendricks give a new definition of wealthy that caught my attention. He said, “A person is wealthy when they have all that they want and want all that they have.” What an interesting definition of wealth. So how does a healthy person have all that they want? Isn’t drive and ambition a natural part of being truly healthy? I would definitely say yes. In fact if there was no drive, ambition or need for achievement, I would say something is missing.
In my mind what it really comes down to is the person comfortable with themselves and are they pro-actively engaged in their own personal journey. That state of being is critical if we are going to be truly wealthy. It is not dependent on what you have. It is based on who you are and how congruent your own conduct and behavior is with that person.
I've also heard it expressed like this: Be; Do; Have. Start with being who you are and then out of that being, do what you need to do, and ultimately you will have everything you need to have. Then, what you have will be more than enough.
Unfortunately many of us have been working off a formula something like this: Do > Have > Be. If I do enough, I will eventually have enough, and then I will be somebody. Many of our traditional thoughts about wealth revolve around the idea of accumulating things. If I can accumulate enough stuff, cars, houses, money, trophies, degrees, friends, etc, then I will be somebody-I will finally be happy with myself.
The truth of the matter is that none of those things can really make you happy with yourself. In fact, the more reliant you become on external sources to make you happy, the less happy you normally become. All that stuff you're accumulating eventually becomes a millstone around your neck. In the words of Dr. Hendricks, “you end up not wanting what you have.”
Are you beginning to see the insanity of living a life based on Do; Have; Be?
Let me frame this for you one more way. Our traditional view of success goes something like this:

Me + Something = Happiness/Success

Our new model for success and happiness looks like this:

Me + nothing = Happiness/Success

If you're looking for something to come along outside of yourself to make you happy, you are headed for ongoing disappointment and despair. We don't control anything outside of ourselves. But we do have control over ourselves. True happiness comes from within. Start seeing yourself as successful and happy in the present and you will be well on your way to ongoing success and happiness. Success is a journey not a destination.

What Are You Asking For?

I was recently talking with a successful restaurateur about some of the difficulties he was having at his business. Like many small business owners he was putting in so many hours working in this business that he had little time to think about working on his business. In particular he needed some managerial talent to help share the load. When I asked him what he was doing to find that help, he said that he had put a sign out in front of his business saying “dishwasher wanted.” He said he had hundreds of applicants but that none of them were suited for management. I asked him if there were some good dishwashers out of that lot and he said yes but what he really needed was a manager. Finally the light came on. If he wanted a manager, then a manager is what he needed to be asking for.

Getting clear about what you really want is a critical first step in ultimately getting what you want. That is why coaching is so powerful. It helps people get crystal clear about what they need to do. Once you are clear about what you need to do the appropriate actions will naturally follow. I wouldn't walk out into the middle of a busy highway during rush hour because I'm clear about what would happen. When you get that clear about what you really want, it is much easier to inform the world around you about what you need. Then both you and others can go to work solving your mutually connected problems. I am confident in today's job market that there are lots of people looking for work that would make great managers. More than likely those same folks are not looking for a job as a dishwasher. Get clear about what you want and then specifically tell others what you want and you'll probably get it.

Give it Away

My friend, Richard Vance, who owns the local McAlister restaurants, e-mailed me today to let me know that he is giving away free tea at his restaurants on July 29. That's right, free tea. Why in the world would he be willing to give away an item that people gladly pay him for every day? There's probably more than one reason but the most obvious one to me is that it is just good business. If you've ever had one of those extra-large glasses of McAlister's sweet tea you know it is good stuff. If you haven’t, Richard is confident enough in his product that if you try it just once, you will come be back to buy more.
People are great at spotting real value. If your product offers real value, there are only three reasons people won’t buy it: 1) they don’t know about it, 2) they don’t need it, or 3) they don’t trust you. Giving it away addresses all three. If you give them a sample, they definitely know about your product and how it might help them. Some people who think they don’t need your product will decide after trying it that they were wrong. One of the best ways to build trust and show that you are trust worthy is to be the first to ante up. Reciprocity is a powerful human dynamic. The next time you go into a building, hold the door for the person behind you. There is a pretty good chance they will intern hold the door for the person behind them.
None of this stuff works if people think you are simply trying to manipulate them. In fact, give aways work best when there are no strings attached. It shows you have supreme confidence in the intrinsic value of your product and respect the customer enough to let them make a decision based on their own personal value system. That kind of behavior not only builds trust; it also grows revenue.
Now back to sweat tea. Come by any local area McAlisters on Thursday, July 29th and enjoy some of that famous sweet tea absolutely free.
For more info on how to build trust, get a free review of the book Trust Agents at LeadershipBookoftheMonth.com.

Motivation in the Workplace

I have been reading a great book by Chip Conley called Peak. Chip is one of the key players in a group of San Francisco based boutique hotels operating under the name Joie de Vivre Hospitality. The company’s name comes from a French term meaning a delight in being alive. Conley has tapped into the intrinsic human need to self- actualize as outlined by Abraham Maslow in his famous hierarchy of needs. Each hotel in the group has a unique personality that allows patrons to experience something beyond the basics of sleep and comfort. That extra something is consistently delivered by employees that are motivated on three distinct levels.

Do you want to have highly motivated employees? Then make sure you cover all three of these bases. The most basic of these is wages and benefits. If people are not making what they perceive to be a reasonable wage compared to others working in similarly situated positions, they will become unmotivated. The same is true for general working conditions. Wages, benefits, and working conditions can prove to be dissatisfiers if they don't reach certain minimums but they rarely produce high levels of worker satisfaction when they are above that threshold. As a manager in your organization, you need to make sure that you are paying competitive wages. Paying above competitive wages can actually be detrimental to your organization. People who need to go hang on way past their time because they don't want to give up the great wages and benefits.

The next level of motivation comes from a sense of belonging and teamwork. When people's basic needs are met they look to the next level in the hierarchy to receive satisfaction. Being part of a winning team is motivating. We all want to belong and if you belong in the workplace your chances of being productive and staying motivated grow exponentially. A popular phrase from Marcus Buckingham is “employees don't leave companies, they leave managers.” What are you doing to help employees have a sense of belonging? Are they part of the team? Have you institutionalized the recognition process? One of my clients created a “fun team” that was commissioned with the responsibility of regularly coming up with fun and enjoyable out-of-the-box activities on the company's dime. When this company had to recently lay off a couple employees due to the extreme economic downturn in their industry, the parting employees asked if they could come back and work for free to wrap up some of the loose ends. That is a sense of belonging!

The next level of motivation, and it's really only possible if the first two are in place, revolves around purpose and meaning. As humans we are wired for purpose and meaning. If your organization or company has a clear and compelling mission or purpose, the highest levels of motivation are possible. We are all looking for something that transcends the ordinary drudgery of everyday life. People want to be part of something that's bigger than themselves. Does your company offer that? At its core every company or organization exists for a reason or a purpose. As a leader one of your primary responsibilities is to tap into that cause or purpose and articulate it both internally inside the organization and externally to the world around you. When the self-actualization and the organization’s mission become natural compliments to each other, people grow and so does the company. Think back about those times when you felt most alive and I think you will find that it was because you were connected with something that was bigger than yourself. While this third level of motivation is the most compelling, it is not realistically possible without providing the first two.