GREG’S BUSINESS GROWTH NEWSLETTER #232
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Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week.
In this issue:
– Techniques for FIT
– Being Human
– Random Stuff
Techniques for FIT
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- Unless you’ve been on a serious retreat, you’ve noticed things are changing. Especially the adoption of remote work tools and our people’s expectations of software. Take note.
- Realigning your team’s perspective takes effort. “I told them to change,” won’t create long term change. If you want the change to happen, prepare to repeat yourself. A lot.
- New members of management are surprised to learn every utterance becomes a command, and every exception turns into a rule. Encouraging pushback can help.
- Describing an outcome is difficult, but worth the strain. The clearer the end goal, the easier it is to realign when you inevitably get off track. We all need a North Star.
Being Human – Not looking for passion
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An excerpt from “The Human Being’s Guide to Business Growth.”
Have you ever heard a speaker encourage leaders to “find people with passion” for their workplace? It’s a misguided concept. We don’t need people with passion to accomplish goals. As a matter of fact, based on 20 years of exposure to various jobs and companies, I’d run from anyone proclaiming, “I’m the right person for this seat on your bus because it’s my passion!” Really? What if I told you that you have to sit right there and do your passion 40+ hours a week for 50+ weeks a year? Are you still the right person for this seat? Exactly. Grinding away at your passion is the fastest way to kill it. Employees say they have passion because they want the job. Employers say they want passionate people because they don’t like managing. The whole find people with passion argument is like telling someone to find a needle in a haystack. It’s possible, but not probable.
I will say this however; you need people to feel like they can apply some part of themselves to their work. And if we want to call that “passion,” I’ll go along with it.
I used to sell marketing lists to a telemarketing company in Los Angeles. They acted as a lead generator for technology companies, and when I say acted, I mean it. The owner actively searched for struggling actors and actresses to fill his positions because he could train them to “act” like the world’s most successful lead generators. He asked them to bring some of their passion to his business. For instance, he wouldn’t just give them a script to use on call, he’d ask them to learn it and bring it to life. He wasn’t just teaching them closing questions, he was asking them to go into character and ask themselves, “What would my character, the successful sales person, do now?”
That sounds like the right way to apply talent to a job. Human beings are fast learners and adapt to any environment, but it’s hard work. So, anything that makes it easier for our people to learn, I’m all for. I’m just not calling it “find your passion.” You may happen to bump into the rare bird with a burning passion for the work you need done. If so, hire them. Just don’t plan on it.
Random stuff
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“2. It’s better to be a pirate than join the Navy.” Steve Jobs
I’m still cleaning rooms out, but I’m done with drawers and on to bookshelves. I have too many books and today I’m struck by a number of copies of my novel, The Legend of Mad Gringo. I wrote it as a going away present for FOTG (friends of the gringo) and it was accompanied by a limited edition tropical shirt/t-shirt combo.
My writing isn’t much better, but the story still strikes me as funny. It’s about a middle-aged dude who unwittingly stumbles into trouble with a corporate behemoth and is pursued by a Brooks Brother wearing psycho bent on ruining him. I should re-write it because it’s a little heavy on tropical shirt details, the hero could be more bumbling, the villain more villainous, and the action much faster.
It’s that way with most things. You take your best shot with what you have and you live with the results. Sometimes we hit the mark, most of the time we don’t. I heard an entrepreneur say about his success: every blade of grass on the golf course fairway thinks the golf ball is going to land on it. When it happens, it feels pre-ordained but there are millions of other blades still waiting for their golf ball, trying their voodoo, thinking their positive thoughts. The next ball is going to land and change another blade of grass’ life.
Good stuff.
It might be time to take another swing at a story! Maybe the ball will land on my story this time. I’ll let you know if it happens because you’re my favorite. Always have been.
Enjoy the weekend.
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