By coincidence, I had two conversations this week about the perils of letting committees do picking that you should do on your own.  In one case, a friend relied on a “committee of friends” to choose a mentor for her, and the result was lousy.  In another case, some friends joked about one of our clan who “chooses her boyfriends by committee — she brings guys to our regular Wednesday dinner to see if they survive.”

If you’re about to embark on a long-term relationship, committees can be useful for nominating candidates and for vetting nominees but they’re lousy for picking your final choice.  That’s what it’s called your final choice.  Whenever you can, look for what you like then see what your team has to say.

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*Camels get short shrift with this joke.  For what they do, they’re much better than horses (despite the spitting).  Still, don’t look a gift camel in the mouth.

The world gets better for two reasons: first, because of the business that gets done; second, because of the way it gets done.

Owners win, customers win, community wins, suppliers win, the environment wins.

Leaders of good companies are inspired by visions that are greater than themselves — visions that reflect goodness and meaning that are beyond business, but that can be created, in part, through business.

But even as strong leaders see visions beyond themselves, they also know that their place in the world is very much personal.  Their best work is aligned not only with their universal values and visions, but also with their individual strengths and preferences.  Bishop Desmond Tutu and President Nelson Mandela both work for justice, but in very different ways.

From an old Hasidic tale:

Rabbi Zusya said, “In the coming world, they will not ask me: ‘Why were you not Moses?’ They will ask me: ‘Why were you not Zusya?’”

Do you know your vision?  Do your values guide the work you do and the way you lead?  Do you work in ways that truly make you happy?  And do you bring your strengths to work, so that you can make the biggest difference with the greatest ease?  If you answer “yes” on all counts — thank you and congratulations.  We are all the better for it.  But if not, are you ready to change?  The change is both scary and exciting.  The transition is well worth it.

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quoted in The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning, Kurtz and Ketcham

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Mark 8:36, King James Version

Pour accomplir de grandes choses il ne suffit pas d’agir il faut rêver; il ne suffit pas de calculer, il faut croire.

To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

– Anatole France

from Discours de réception, Séance De L’académie Française (introductory speech at a session of the French Academy), 24th December 1896, on Ferdinand de Lesseps’ work on the Suez Canal (per WikiQuote)

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Quote courtesy of Crystal Swain.

Doing the right thing allows you to stop spending money on advertising.

Dan Roach, Roach-Lamburg Roofing

Dan came highly recommended by my realtor, who only recommends the best. Nearly all his work comes from referrals. That’s much more important than repeat business for a roofer — seeing how he sells a product that lasts for decades.

Dan started his roofing company ten years ago, knocking on doors and hoping to drum up enough work to keep him in business before the money ran out. Since then, he’s built a reputation on doing quality work, staying on budget, and giving customers more than they asked for.

Knowing that contractors often require some payment up front, I offered the check (enough for the whole job) that I got from the lawyers when I closed on my new house. “No thanks,” he said. “I’d rather not get paid until you know the job is done right.” If that’s not proof that he knows what he’s doing, I don’t know what is.

But Work isn’t the problem for most people I know. Most people I know are perfectly willing to do the work. The more frequent challenge I see is the need to focus what they’re working on so that they’ll get the results they want.

My third year Latin teacher gave me a pin that said (in Latin) “he who chases two leopards catches neither.” She knew what she was talking about (and as testimony to the gift’s aptness, I had to ask her to translate the pin for me.) Chase one leopard at a time and you may soon have a cage full of them. Chase two at a time and you’ll have none.

By the way, this lesson does not apply if your business model is to chase after things like grubs and bugs that you can pick up by hand in quantities sufficient to keep your belly full. If that’s your business model, you don’t need much focus at all. It’s not a very exciting business model (to me) but you’ll survive. On the other hand, if you want to do more than survive — if you want to build something sustainable and interesting — you’re going to be chasing leopards, and that requires focus.

“You can buy a man’s time, you can buy a man’s physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of skilled muscular motions per hour or day. But you cannot buy enthusiasm; you cannot buy initiative; you cannot buy loyalty; you cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds and souls. You have to earn these things … It is ironic that Americans —the most advanced people technically, mechanically and industrially—should have waited until a comparatively recent period to inquire into the most promising single source of productivity: namely, the human will to work. It is hopeful, on the other hand, that the search is now under way.”

Clarence Francis — Chairman, General Foods

If you haven’t heard of Francis lately, it’s not because General Foods isn’t important. It’s because Francis spoke these words shortly after World War II. In 1952, Time Magazine ran an article on “human resources” which followed the Francis quote by saying, “In that search, at midcentury, lies the finest hope and promise of the Capitalist Revolution.”

How are that hope and promise holding out, 58 years later? While it may be the case that many people understand Francis’s idea better now than they did in 1952, we are a long way from everybody knowing it, and yet farther from everybody doing it.

See the whole Time article here: A New Art Brings a Revolution to Industry: Human Relations.

“Loose Hands Hold More Cookies”.

I got this from my high school friend Chapman Godbey, currently a Commander in the US Naval Service. He had offered (via Facebook) to a friend who is new at managing corporate staff. I suspect that Chap is an excellent leader.

For more Chap-flavored wisdom, see here for his Navy Times piece on adopting technology. I think he needs to write a book or two.

If you tell your staff exactly how do to their jobs, you stifle your company on every front. Your staff won’t have a reason to think, grow or contribute. They won’t have a reason to create or explore new ways to work better. Your organization will get smarter only as fast as you get smarter, instead of getting smarter through the growth of all your staff. You will spend much of your time teaching details and correcting “errors”, rather than using your time to think or create. And any staff with real potential will soon leave for employment that will better reward their brains and energy.

Yes, your staff need the benefit of your experience (if you’ve got it). Yes, your staff need to know their goals (whether it’s a sales guy who needs to create $1 million in net revenue in 2010, or the office administrator who needs to re-do your 80′s-era lobby). Yes, your staff need to know constraints (whether it’s “your sales territory is North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and never lie to a prospect” or “Your decorating budget is $5,000 and let me see the furniture you choose for one final look before you buy it. Feel free to spend less.”) But after you give them what they need to know, get out of their way and let them use their smarts and inspiration to create some value on their own.

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*I can’t remember where I first learned this concept, but I owe that author a debt. Please let me know if you have the original quote and source.

I remember the story of two Zen monks, both prodigious smokers. Concerned about the question of smoking during their prayer time, they agreed to consult their superiors. While one received a stern reprimand from his abbot, the other was given a pat of encouragement. The unlucky one, greatly puzzled, asked his friend exactly how he had framed his question. “I asked,” the second monk replied, “whether it was permissible to pray while smoking.”

- Jean Kinkead Martine, “Working for a Living”

We often get the message that work isn’t meant to make us smile, that making the world a better place is something we do on our own time, and that if we’re having fun we shouldn’t expect to get paid. These messages are deeply wired into our culture and it’s hard to just yank them out. Martine’s story provides a means to short the circuit.

Of course our clients and customers will demand that we provide them with value before they provide us with money. But if we choose our work well, we can provide value while also doing good and having fun. And the great thing is that if we choose very well, the cycle just feeds itself.