Your Meeting of the Year

When are you going to have your best meeting of the year?   Next week?  Next month? 4th Quarter?

I may have already had mine the day before yesterday.  I set out in 2013 with the goal of more coffee and lunch meetings with more creative people to network, brainstorm, and gain ideas from to help kickstart the year.  And my meeting with Nicholas McGill, an acquaintance I've not seen for several years, ended up providing me with more value and inspiration than I ever imagined.

We have the potential to help each other with connections, business opportunities, and personal goal achievement--and it made me wonder why I let several years go by without reaching out to him.  We have our next meeting already on the calendar to follow up on the areas where we might be able to help one another.

In case you're wondering, this extremely bright talented young man runs his own company here in Northern California, Heroik Media, and has a team working with him transforming businesses, people, and heck--who knows, maybe the world next.  Watch Nicholas' two-minute video introduction--you won't be disappointed and it might inspire you to:

• Consider how you tell the world who you are
• Consider who you are in the first place
• Consider reaching out to Nicholas via email
• Consider that next coffee or lunch meeting you schedule.

When will be your best meeting of the year?

Right People, Opportunity, and Compensation

"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings—and put compensation as a carrier behind it—you almost don't have to manage them."               --Jack Welch--


I'd add that this means giving your people the tools and target, getting out of their way, and clearly showing the rewards for winning.

What If The Coach Didn't Show Up?

It's game day. The football teams have arrived and have finished warming up.  The fans have filled the stadium.  The players are ready.  They've practiced all of their careers for this game.  There's a coin toss, the teams take the field, and it's "game on."  The Blue Team against the Red Team.

But the Blue Team's coach hasn't shown up.  The game begins.

In the first plays of the game, the Blue Team is flawless.  Everyone knows their role and is doing their job. All of their training and practice has prepared them for this day.  They are veterans and have run these plays a thousand times before.

But an overload of maneuvers and opposing efforts from the Red Team begin to distract the coach-less players.  They begin focusing on one thing--and their opponents do another.  They let down their guard and are overcome by moves they didn't see.  In the huddle, everyone expresses their own idea on how to make the next play.  Without a coach's view, perspective, and coaching from the sidelines, the players are constrained by their own individual agendas and blinded to the distractions which are thwarting their efforts.  They are not playing their best game.  They are not playing as a team.  They are not being led.

If he'd have been there, the coach wouldn't have played the game.  He'd have helped them play better.

One of the leader's main jobs is to help others get their work done, to grow, and become better.  The leader doesn't do the work.  In an orchestra, the conductor does not play an instrument.  In football, the coach does not kick the field goals.

Good leaders LEAD, DIRECT, and TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY for the results.  They don't assume their star players will perform music or win the game on their own, without intense coordination, guidance, and direction.

Be there for your team.