September 2020 - www.andwin.net

September 25, 2020

This week, in the Indianapolis shop, a fire truck was brought in for service. It’s been fun to observe grown adults react to the thing. It seems that one never outgrows the childhood sense of wonder and curiosity that goes along with being near a hook and ladder. There’s just something about the things that elicit smiles, and set imaginations ablaze. In those moments, the constraints of reality seem not to matter, who we’re “supposed to be” is less of a concern, and the limits of possibility seem a little wider and a little longer than before. Because with curiosity and wonder come unimagined, and often better ways of doing things.

And that’s the point for the week.

Curiosity and wonder are often associated with childhood. I suppose that’s because we lose these things as we get older. Or they are lost for us, by well-meaning adults who drum them out of is in the name of maturity and serious thought. Curiosity and wonder are the purview of dreamers we’re often told, not of those with both feet firmly planted on the ground. To the industrious go the spoils. To the dreamers go whatever’s left.

But I don’t believe that. I believe that every great advancement in the history of mankind came about because someone curiously thought about some better way. I believe that every great team ever was full of people who dared to imagine a better alternative, a picture of winning that was different from the reality that painted their past. I believe that those who refuse to let go of that child-like spirit of wonder are those who win – those who boldly lead others to new, different and better places, places where lives are improved.

It matters not to me whether we’re talking about a team of folks in the fleet service business, or a family, or a group of people intent on making their community a better place to live. When curiosity and wonder replace an obsession with the worn-out, the staid, and the status-quo, progress becomes possible – and not until then. Something else happens as well. Those who are part of what’s happening start to resemble those who just saw a fire truck; they start smiling, they begin having fun again, they open their own eyes and minds to the possibility that things can change for the better. And maybe best of all, their own sense of curiosity and wonder takes over, and new ideas begin coming from all corners, propelling the group to heights never imagined – all because it became OK to wonder again…to be curious again…like a child again.

So pretend you just saw a fire truck. And wonder.

And win.

If you like the blog, you’ll love the book. To purchase a copy of Phillip’s book, The Not So Subtle Art of Caring: Letters on Leadership, from John Hunt Publishing, London, please follow this LINK. “Letters” is based on 85 story-backed lessons Phillip used while leading actual teams to accomplish extraordinary things. It is an outstanding resource for those who wish to commit to becoming the sort of leader that people WANT to follow.

To learn more about Phillip, please click HERE.

September 4, 2020

Twenty-one years ago today, my dad died right beneath me – when the CPR I was performing didn’t work. He was just 58 years old. For a long time after that, I let what happened that day eat me alive. It consumed me. It affected others around me negatively and impacted my ability to lead. Something that happened days, then weeks, then months, then years in the past that I had no ability to do one thing about was determining how I approached the things I could impact. I was sub-optimizing my life because I was re-living a moment that I could never get back, instead of concentrating on the one right in front of me. See, there’s only one thing we can control, the present; the past is gone, and tomorrow ain’t here yet.

And that’s the point for the week.

It seems that it’s human nature to want to go back and try things again. To search for a giant do-over button of life. But there isn’t one. Yesterday is gone and it’s never coming back. Try as we might, there isn’t one thing we can do to change one thing that happened before.

But what we can do is choose to make now better. We have the power at any point in time to make the present different than the past. Even if our day starts out poorly, we can choose at any time to consciously change the direction of the rest of our day.

The same is true in our business. I don’t particularly care what happened before. You nor I can do not one thing about it. Being angry or bitter won’t fix it. Quitting on us won’t fix it. Refusing to change certainly won’t help. Doing the same things over and over again, harder or faster won’t fix it. But what we can do is choose to make now different. To do something today that was better than yesterday, and when tomorrow becomes today, to make it better than its yesterday.

When every one of us recognizes that we have the enormous power of influence over the now, something incredible will start to happen. This business will begin to transform itself from the inside out. And it will happen with speed, carried by the jaw-dropping force of momentum created by a team of hundreds of human beings intent on winning each day.

And it will happen because we all made one simple choice – to abandon the futility of giving one tinkers damn about yesterday, in exchange for pouring our whole hearts into today.

So let yesterday go. Focus on today.

And win.

To learn more about Phillip, please click HERE.