July 2007

Leggo my Legos                                                                    July 2007

Have you ever gotten so mad you can't see straight? I'm talkin' about the kind of anger that literally causes you to lose focus. I rarely get that angry. I'm pretty calm, and I try to practice what I preach about letting go of insignificant things. Last month I experienced something that made my head spin around on my shoulders.

I was doing a full-day leadership program for a client in California. This particular engagement was the first on a multi-engagement trip, so I had quite a bit to pack. I had carefully crammed everything into my carry- on luggage so I could avoid checking a bag. If you travel at all, you know you want to hang on to your luggage. In fact, I would rather stick a sharp piece of steel in my eye than check a bag.

It wasn't until I had gotten the bag zipped shut that I realized I missed something. You see, part of the program I was doing in California included a team- building exercise using Legos. As I turned from my carefully packed piece of luggage, I realized I had forgotten to pack these nine small bags of Legos. I didn't have room for them in my bag, and realized I was going to have to do the unthinkable --- check a bag. I simply couldn't get them in my carry-on or my briefcase. So, I packed them in a box, taped it shut, and headed for the airport. Surely they wouldn't lose a simple box.

It's a lonely feeling when you're the only one watching the baggage claim carousel go around and around. I was hanging on to the slightest hope that my little brown box was going to spit out onto the carousel. While I waited, I examined the only two bags left on the conveyor belt as they went by. One was so old and worn out that it had a duct tape handle. That's right, a duct tape handle. The other one had a plaid pattern on it so horrendous it made my eyes hurt. I was convinced the owners of both bags were standing to the side waiting for me to leave before they'd approach the carousel because they were embarrassed to admit ownership.

After it became painfully obvious that my box was not on this flight, I had the pleasure of going into that little room to talk to a little man about finding my little box. Although it had a bar code on the package, the little man in the little room couldn't tell me the whereabouts of my little box. UPS can pinpoint arrivals and departures to the minute of a package traveling around the world, but this airline couldn't pinpoint my box going from Texas to California.

I won't bore you with any more of the details of my experience except to inform you that my box arrived to my hotel at 2:30 in the morning, and the program went extremely well. After I left the airport earlier that afternoon, I had the pleasure of sitting in traffic for two hours on a California highway as I drove to my hotel, and I had plenty of time to think about what I learned from this experience, including:

Put it all in perspective

Research shows that although airlines lose many bags, they "get it right" 99 percent of the time. I wasn't thinking about that. I was mad that I was a part of the 1 percent, and all I could think about was how this "problem" was going to affect my program. In the big picture of life, it was pretty small. You see, the day before I left on this trip a friend of mine told me his wife had a recurrence of breast cancer and would be undergoing chemo for the second time. Made my little Legos fiasco seem pretty insignificant. As I stomped out of the baggage claim area and headed for the rental car shuttle, I witnessed a man helping another man as he struggled to get his wheelchair on the hydraulic lift of his van. Made my little Legos fiasco seem pretty insignificant. It is my hope that sometime today you stop long enough to look at what's bothering you and put it in perspective.

Blame yourself first

My first reaction was to blame the incompetent and unfocused morons who were handling my box. After I had a chance to think about it, I realized I needed to blame the incompetent and unfocused moron who packed my box --- me. You see, there's one small problem with a box. At a time of heightened security, the airport screeners like to open packages to see what's inside. That's easy (and quick) to do when the package has a zipper. It's not as easy when the package is wrapped up with packing tape. Any credible screener should have pulled that box to the side and examined its contents. And when that happens, the box likely won't make the flight. When I pointed the finger of blame back at myself, I realized they were simply doing their job (and that I hadn't done mine). The next time you get angry about something, start by blaming yourself first. There will be plenty of time to place the blame later if it doesn't belong to you.

Always under-promise and over-deliver

About 9:00 that night I got a call from the airport informing me that my box had arrived into LAX. My hotel was in Irvine, and they promised to deliver the package to my hotel by midnight. At midnight, I went to the front desk --- no package. I asked them to call me as soon as it arrived. The call finally came at 2:30 in the morning. At that point I had stopped blaming them for the delay since I had come to terms with the fact that I could have made the situation better, but I couldn't help but notice they missed an opportunity to make it up. Imagine if they told me it would be delivered to the hotel by 6:00 in the morning. They would have been heroes to me for getting it there by 2:30. When you've already done something to anger someone (whether it's your customer or your spouse), you can do a little damage control by under-promising and over-delivering.

There was a time when traveling was glamorous. Those days are long gone. They've been replaced by delays, cancellations, lost baggage, and irritable passengers. That's the bad news. The good news is that a myriad of life lessons are packed into all that insanity, and we can learn from them all if we're willing to take the time. So, the next time you have a flight delay, get a box of popcorn and take a seat. The lessons are many. Here's to the next lesson! God bless!

Enthusiastically, 

Clint Swindall - President & CEO

*Book Review

Engaged Leadership, by Clint Swindall

Here's what I've been reading lately ...

My first edition of this newsletter was sent out in February 2006. Since then, I've done seventeen book reviews, and each time I finished the review, I thought about what it would be like to review my own book. Well, now that Engaged Leadership has officially released, I finally have the opportunity, so here goes!

This month I would like to share with you my book on overcoming employee disengagement. My personal experience has shown me that disengaged employees keep companies and organizations from reaching their true potential. In fact, according to The Gallup Organization, 74 percent of employees are at some level of disengagement. They show up to work (we hope), do the bare minimum to get by, collect their paycheck, and go home. It's an issue every company on the planet deals with every day, and it's all about culture.

Engaged Leadership was written to help readers build a culture to overcome employee disengagement. It includes what I consider to be the three main aspects of leadership: Directional Leadership, Motivational Leadership, and Organizational Leadership. Perhaps most importantly, it addresses the essential issue of Character Core. The concepts are introduced in a fable format (not a rat and cheese format --- a real business story including characters with which readers can identify), then explained in the traditional how-to format.

* Raise a Glass

A reason to celebrate

This month we raise a glass to lemonade stands! For many people, summer is a much-welcome break from ordinary life. For others, it's an opportunity to gather the family for a memory-building vacation. For me, it's an opportunity to look for my favorite summer activity --- the lemonade stand. Some people think it's a silly little thing that will keep the kids busy for a while. But I see it as much more. I see it as an opportunity. It's an opportunity for family to come together to work on a project. It's an opportunity to teach kids responsibility. It's an opportunity to teach kids some important business skills. And it's an opportunity for us to switch roles. You see, when we stop by a lemonade stand, we get to feel like a kid again, and the kid gets to feel like the adult. So to anyone who helps their kid with a lemonade stand, and to any adult who stops to help teach the lesson, we raise a glass!

*Quotes

Inspirational thoughts

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."
- Unknown

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."
- George Boardman

"By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn."
- Unknown

*Question to Ponder

Some time to think

Big things can come when we take the time to teach. While some people claim to be too busy to teach, others think it just won't matter. Seven years ago a four-year-old girl named Alexandra Scott showed how teaching a simple lesson can really matter. In 2000, she announced she was setting up a lemonade stand to raise money to help "her doctors" find a cure for kids with cancer. As a four-year-old cancer patient, she was building on a simple lesson and taking steps to change the world by setting up "Alex's Lemonade Stand for Childhood Cancer" on her front lawn in July of 2000.

For the next four years, Alex held an annual lemonade stand to raise money for childhood cancer research. Others were inspired around the country, resulting in thousands of lemonade stands and other fundraising events to benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for childhood cancer. When she died in 2004 at the age of 8, she had raised over $1 million for childhood cancer research. As of June 2007, her foundation has raised over $12 million for childhood cancer research. All from the action of a little girl having learned some very simple lessons.

Someone took the time to teach Alex those very simple lessons. In addition to teaching her how to run a lemonade stand, someone taught her about love and kindness, and the power one person can make in the world. So that is my question for you to ponder this month. At the end of each day, I want you to ask yourself that one simple question ... did I take the opportunity to teach the simple lessons of life to someone, knowing that those lessons could someday change the world?