Simon T Bailey’s Blog

I recently was invited to speak at an annual leadership meeting for the top 400 leaders of MDU Resources (Montana-Dakota Utilities) in Bismark, ND. I was intrigued to visit a place I had never been to before, and curious to see another part of the United States. Well, I was blown away as I listened to President/CEO Terry Hilstead share that within the last ten years their company had grown from 2,000 employees to 13,000 employees and from $600 million in annual revenue to $4.2 billion. I had a chance to sit with him and his wife at the closing dinner. I discovered that he and his team built this incredible company through 126 mergers and acquisitions and by maintaining a decentralized management style built on trust. This has enabled them to operate successfully in 44 states and grow steadily and aggressively. However, my favorite insight from Terry was that in the prior year they had given their employees over $50 million dollars in bonuses, incentives and benefits. Brilliant! Simply Brilliant. There are three big takeaways from my time in with them:

1. Trust leaders to do their jobs and get the heck out of their way.
2. Love is not what is says. Love it what it does. If you appreciate your people, then grease their palm with a few benjamins that can help them with the escalating gas prices.
3. Maintain a rentless focus on the customer experience.

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Why do you work where you work? It is the power and prestige of your position that attracts you to your place of business? Are you challenged to be the very best that you can possibly be? Do your leaders, peers and clients provide intellectual stimulation that causes your mind to be stretched, your spirit to soar, and your heart to jump for joy? In case you are wondering…I don’t work. I play all day every day. While some would call what I do work, I choose to call it my calling, passion and brilliance. And guess what? It feeds my soul. Even when I am in the midst of a challenging situation, I call it an opportunity to grow. (I just change my perspective — it’s like trying to enjoy the squash and okra my mother strongly urged me to eat growing up.) A friend of mine in the Washington, D.C. area recently shared with me that she had quit her job and was looking for a new one. I mentioned that most people keep a job until they find another one. She informed me that in her gut she could hardly bear the thought of driving each day to a place where she was bored to tears, unhappy and suffering from professional malnutrition. She said to me earnestly, “I want more than a paycheck.” I stared at the phone with a blank look…and thought to myself…are you kidding me? You want more than a paycheck. WOW…what a concept. She turns 50 this year and believes she can work another twenty years. Her employer didn’t have enough work to keep her engaged. Therefore, she fired herself. I challenge you to reinvent yourself at your place of business. Transform everything that you are doing…do it better, do it bigger and be intentional. Why? If you are professionally starving, then it’s your own fault. I would like to invite you to get engaged or get out. You are holding up space for someone who really wants and needs that job. It is not the human resource department’s job to provide meaning for you in the workplace. It’s your job to rediscover how to play and release your brilliance.

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“Don’t drop the monkey on me” were the words that I heard from a CEO of a printing company. I looked at him puzzled and wondered what in the world did he mean. As the facilitator, I wasn’t sure where to go with this and then, he explained to a room of 100 CEO’s one of his frustrations with employees. Oftentimes employees come into his office and drop their issues and problems on him and leave. He is disappointed because they only present problems absent of solutions. They make excuses with very little commitment to personal ownership. Could that be you? Own your issues so no one else will have to own them for you.

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“In times of change the learners will inherit the earth, while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” Source - Eric Hoffer

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I had lunch with Gloria, a friend of mine who is the living embodiment of brilliant creativity. During our conversation I sensed that she was living beneath her potential, i.e., “playing small.” You are probably wondering if it was something she said that gave it away. No — what piqued my curiosity was what I heard between the lines. There was very little energy in her voice about her current professional position. It was almost as if she was stuck in neutral at a green stop light. I asked her what she would do if she knew that she couldn’t fail. All of a sudden, she lit up like a Christmas tree, became very animated and began to describe all of the wonderful things that she enjoyed doing. Then our conversation shifted to what would be required in order for her to pursue her passions/core competency. We identified that she would need to rise an hour earlier each day, eat properly, schedule two hours of quiet time (one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening), research online her diverse areas of interests and then put feelers out in the marketplace. Furthermore, she would have to adjust her attitude in her current professional position if she intended to get unstuck. In business as it is in life there are only two things that you do…enter and leave. How you enter determines how you leave, and how you leave determines how you enter. Shift out of neutral and go for it.

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I was teaching a class on how to have a brilliant year and took the participants through an exercise to eliminate their Brilliance Blockers – you know, things that prevent you from doing your best. One of the questions I asked this eager beaver group was, “What do you need to start doing and stop doing as it relates to beliefs and behaviors that sabotage your outcomes?” One lady raised her hand and said, “I tend to delegate away what I should do to focus on what I want to do. I need to stop that and own it.” The moment she said it, there was a shift in the energy in the room and everyone was dead silent. I knew immediately that we had hit a nerve. So I told her to write down in her notebook the words “I will own it!” When she did, she became wide eyed and it was as if a switch was flipped. This is the mark of a true professional…no excuses. Just own it. This is how people establish an internal brand in the organization. Just own it. No finger pointing, just own whatever is in front of you. People will know that you are the go-to person. If you intend to Release Your Brilliance, then own your work. It will speak volumes for you.

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A few years ago Florida Trend magazine interviewed me for a feature story. During this interview, the writer asked me where I saw myself in 10 to 15 years. Amazingly, I said, “I see myself as president of the second largest entertainment company someday and eventually its chairman and CEO.” Was I high on pixie dust? Yes. The day the magazine hit newsstands and I read the story, the full impact of my statement finally hit me like a pile of bricks. What in the world was I thinking? I wasn’t passionate about becoming the number one guy at the house built by a mouse. I felt entitled to a promotion, and I was simply trying to position myself in the eyes of my superiors as the person to consider for the next big move up. Did my plan work? What do you think? Of course not! I learned a valuable lesson about myself, however. Effective leaders understand the difference between being self-serving and being a leader who is sincere about serving others. At that point, my entire professional career was based on the need to perform and impress others, and the truth is that I didn’t even know who I was! I was pursuing a promotion to obtain more status and green cheese (money). Meanwhile, I was smiling on the outside but dying on the inside for my cheese-chasing ways. Chasing after more cheese was more about me trying to impress others than understanding my purpose for existence and expressing it. I was acting as if I had my act together, but I had yet to make an impact. As a Gen Xer, I believed I was entitled (and long overdue) to receive a bigger block of green cheese instead of doing the work necessary to legitimately earn it. An entitlement mentality leads to needs-driven behavior rather than actions that are based on sincerity. When you behave a certain way in order to manipulate a situation to get what you want, you are operating purely from your head and have disconnected from your heart. Remember, what you reap is what you sow – if your behavior is insincere and you have ulterior motives, any rewards you manage to receive may have the same insincerity at their foundation. It can be a hollow victory.

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I recently attended an awards dinner and heard a powerful statement.“The higher you go in an organization the less you know and it forces you to rely on people to get things done.” Dick Nunis, former chairman of Walt Disney Attractions, Inc.

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This past weekend I attended the funeral of the CFO for one of my largest consulting clients. After battling cancer for four years, his body finally succumbed to this deadly disease at the young age of 56. He left behind a wife of 16 years and three daughters all under the age of 12. As you can imagine, it was a very solemn time as 200 people celebrated his life.

I sat listening to the CEO reminisce about the times he played golf and racquet ball with the CFO and how he had an inner drive to win. He never quit until he won, and he had fun doing it. At one point, the CEO broke down and, struggling, said, “I didn’t just lose a business colleague; I lost a friend – a true man who made a difference.” Well you could’ve heard a pin drop.

During the memorial service, they showed a 10 minute video of this man’s life. In each of the pictures he was either holding one of his daughters, taking them for a walk, celebrating their birthday or holding them in his arms as they napped on his shoulder. It was very moving.

The man’s younger brother shared a story about their childhood and how they were raised. He said that his brother was a man of integrity and honesty. He would do whatever he could to help others, but at the end of the day, he wanted to make sure that everything was done in decency and in order. Then the minister got up to make the final remarks and said, “[This man’s] life was all about creating memories that will forever be etched in the minds of his wife and daughters. His life was in balance.”

I sat there thinking…“I wonder what people will say about me when I go to the other side.” It was a wakeup call for me.

What will people say about you when you are resting in your casket? Are you creating memories that will live on long after you’re gone or is your entire existence focused on the bottom line?

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