Good Morning Friends! Here are my 5 Things to Consider this week!
Culture – A strong culture acts as a defense mechanism for our business. A lot of businesses have had their cultures tested lately. Two very close-to-home examples are Condado and Northstar. Each one had a cultural breakdown recently that was very public and very ugly. Crews walked out, videos were posted and people ripped them to shreds online. When their individual cultures were tested, they failed. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why theirs did and why ours didn’t. I’ve never worked for either company, so I can’t pretend to know the deep innerworkings of their cultures, but I can say I’ve never heard anything great about either of them. Sometimes companies grow too fast to support, nurture and grow a healthy culture. Some simply don’t consider it a priority. Now, I’m not naïve enough to think we’ve never had our slip ups or that we’ve always got it right. We’ve been wrong plenty. I also know we weren’t tested like they were either. I do know that for 11 years now, we have made our culture the centerpiece of our existence. We’ve been led day in and day out by our mission, vision and values. People know what we stand for and our crews know what we fight for. Our culture is our immune system for our business and, after the last few weeks, I’m confident that it’s strong and healthy. Is our work done? Never. That’s the thing about cultures, they need to be nurtured every day or they atrophy and become weak, just like an immune system. Neglect it and you’ll get sick.
Leadership – Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk. Author Lance Secretan once said that authenticity is the “alignment of head, mouth, heart and feet – thinking, saying and doing the same thing consistently.” Effective leaders are constantly trying to match their words with their actions. Ultimately, this process builds trust and earns credibility. Trust is earned when the leader is able to both walk the walk and talk the talk. Leaders use language to communicate their vision and beliefs, but their actions ultimately determine the validity of their words. Learning to walk the walk and talk the talk is about the crucial work of creating alignment between what we say and what we do. No great leader, team, or organization can perform at a high level without first committing to the hard work of building trust, earning credibility, and creating alignment. Walking the walk is the natural extension of leaders who talk the talk. Actions speak louder than words because the ultimate test of our character is the transference from our beliefs to our behavior. Our character comes from our values, our values are informed by our beliefs, and our beliefs grow out of our purpose. Character is simply the manifestation of these values in our day-to-day actions in the world. Put more concretely, leaders can learn to walk the walk by asking themselves a simple question: “Are you going to do what you promised to do?” For leaders, there is no discipline more valuable than ensuring the alignment between what they say and what they do. This is what it means to lead with integrity and authenticity, this is what it means to talk the talk and walk the walk.
This section is borrowed from “Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk by Quinn McDowell
History – Comfest. Comfest was one of the reasons we bought a truck in the first place. We wanted to take our amazing pizza to the masses and Comfest was the holy grail of “masses.” We had only been around less than a year at that point, and we knew how hard it was to make the cut, but our reputation proceeded us and on our first try, we got accepted! Our first Comfest was amazing. We sold over 20k worth of pizza, way more than we had ever made in a weekend, and had the longest lines we’ve ever seen. We knew we were on to something! Throughout the years, we’ve made numerous friends at that festival and some of the organizers I consider more partners than friends. Now-a-days, we’re part of the food social fabric of Comfest, just like the Fried Swiss Cheese on a Stick guy, a personal favorite of mine. People know where we’ll always be and they’ll wait a flatteringly long time to get our pizza. For some, it’s a once a year treat. Comfest is our roots and we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for it.❤️
Motivation – “Cultures are shaped more by the invisible than the visible. They are willed.” – Michael Orbits (Founder of Creative Artists Agency)
The 5th Thing (something I’m reading, watching or inspired by) – If you haven’t seen the episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Police reform, please watch it. You can watch it here for free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4cea5oObY
Baby Update – As little William continues to turn from baby to boy right before our very eyes, I can’t help but wonder what his life will be like. We’re doing our best to raise a well-fed and well-rounded kid, but really nobody knows what the fuck they’re doing. At the end of the day, “we did our best” is about our only consolation. It’s his life after that. I only hope the world he grows up in is as good as the world we grew up in.
Thanks for reading! Like or hate any part of this? Let me know! I really value your feedback.
Have a great week!
5 Things to Consider Archive 