Good Morning Friends! Here are my 5 Things to Consider this week!
Culture – Culture is lenses. Back in the day when we established out Mission, Vision and Values, we were establishing the foundation of our culture. These we’re a set of self-imposed creeds that defined us as a group of people with a common goal. We stood up wide, put our hands on our hips (read: SUPERWOMAN!) and said, “this is what we believe and if you want to be part of this tribe, we want you to believe this too.” We knew back then that the bigger we got, the harder it would be to teach these creeds to a new and larger group of people. We knew that every decision we made, no matter how large or small had to pass through this set of creeds, this set of LENSES, to make sure it was a qualifying fit. We do this every day. Every decision I make and every decision you make for the company or your tribe should be looked through the LENSES of our mission, vision and values. It’s the only way to tell if the decision will ADD to our culture or SUBTRACT from it. There is hardly gray area when it comes to culture. It’s either you’re adding to and nurturing culture, or you’re hurting it. Growing or dying, you gotta pick one.
Leadership – Listening is hard. The skill of listening is, in my opinion, one of the hardest skills to master or even get good at. Now, I’m not talking about hearing. Hearing is something you can’t help. Listening is deliberate. Humans aren’t naturally born with this skill. Listening requires you to do something consciously. And here’s why it’s hard. Humans are naturally self-centered. When someone starts talking, you naturally stray to your own head processing what the other person is saying and how it relates or affects you. Effective listening requires you to get out of your own head and actually listen, concentrate and process the meaning of the words and sentences and emotions of the person talking. Step one; STOP TALKING. This might be the hardest thing. Shut the fuck up. You can’t listen if you’re taking. People love to hear themselves talk, so let them. Step two; ASK QUESTIONS. Want to be the best listener in the world? Keep the other person talking by asking questions. Step Three; PAY ATTENTION TO THE NON-VERBAL. Gestures, Facial expressions, tone of voice and posture. 55% of a message is conveyed is non-verbal. Another 38% is tone of voice. The cool thing is, you can start being a better listener RIGHT NOW. Today. So try it and let me know who it goes!
History – Pay. Eat. Leave. This value digs into the EXPERIENCE of going to a Late Night Slice or Oddfellows. About 10 years ago, Bryce and I were on a trip to Austin, TX to attend the Austin City Limits Festival. While bar-hopping one night, we ran across this bar with a big, DRINK, PAY, LEAVE (or something like that) on the front of the building. This hit me like a ton of bricks! I had never seen a business so boldly say, “do your thing, then get out!” I loved it. So we adopted it and PAY EAT LEAVE quickly became a part of LNS culture. Early on, it was just something snarky that separated us from the rest of the pack. Then, as we evolved and extracted what our Mission, Vision and Values were, it became apparent that Pay Eat Leave was more to us than a snark. It says that to us, Experience is everything. Without it, we’re just another pizza shop or bar. What’s funny is, as things progress, evolve and grow, sometimes we need to look at things very critically and decide if they still fit. Although the sediment behind PEL is still very relevant and strong, we have to ask ourselves, “does it still fit?” Perhaps it’s time to move on. More on that next week!
Motivation – Always listen to new music. This has a been a personal mantra of mine for a couple years now. It’s something that I practice in both the literal and figurative sense, but really it’s a metaphor for keeping up on what the young people are into. By “listening to new music,” you pay attention to what’s new, trendy, fashionable, relevant and popular. If you don’t stay connected, you grow old and become disconnected and start saying shit like, “I don’t have the FaceSpace” or “I don’t know how to work these damn phones!” Things are popular for a reason and things are always moving forward. You either have to make a conscious effort to stay “in the know” or you get left behind. Embrace change. Change is progress and progress is growth. Plus, not all today’s music is total shit…just most of it. 😉
What I’m Reading or Watching – I just finished Chernobyl on HBO. Super good and well researched mini-docu-series. If you’ve ever been interested in knowing about the worst nuclear disaster in history. This one is pretty damn good!
Thanks for reading! Like or hate any part of this? Let me know! I really value your feedback.
Have a great week!
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