The Great Reset - Part Two
We are in difficult times here in the United States and around the globe. As some areas of the United States are slowly reopening to restart the economy, other areas are going for a longer lockdown all due to COVID-19. If you had asked me at the beginning of 2020 what I felt the year will hold, I would have told you promise, progress, goals being met and prosperity. Two months in (at least for me partly due to the tornado in Nashville) I sit here and wonder what is the world going to look like.
In these two months, in fact, most likely another month to a month and a half for me, we have sat at home; binge watched countless hours of Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+; listened to music; played with our pets; talked via Zoom, FaceTime, and Skype; started plans for a better future; and some may have created the next best idea. Regardless of where you have found yourself in the spectrum of the day to day of quarantine, realize this, that no matter what you have done or what you haven’t done you are surviving and will be okay. You see we are all dealing with this situation differently and can have high’s and low’s. None of us know what tomorrow holds and we have to live for today.
When all of this started, a lot of us felt shellshocked and bewildered about what was happening. The tangible feeling of fear, hopelessness, and uncertainty, permeated the air. You could feel it and even now going into an essential business you can feel it. Many have been furloughed, laid off, shutdown their dream business, lost everything, concerned about paying their bills, putting food on the table, and so much more. Businesses are re-evaluating their structure, profitability, safety for their employees, expenditures, and so much more. We are all in a constant battle of when will this end and pure raw emotions of loneliness, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and so much more. This is the world we live in right now; however, it is not the world we will live in the future. Though I have personally fought a lot of these battles, I do know that there is hope for a better tomorrow. It may be different than what we were looking at before the lockdowns; however, it will be bright. We all have to make conscious decisions to move forward.
In the business worlds, bosses are being exposed and true leaders are coming to the forefront. The hard decisions of trying to have the business be viable for when the doors open up and the economy comes roaring back. Many businesses have seen a decrease in revenue or a complete halt of revenue. These are trying times affecting not only large businesses; however, in some cases decimating small businesses. The one thing to remember regardless the size of the organization these are our neighbors, friends, family members, and other loved ones that are being impacted. Businesses are having to recalibrate from a growth mindset to a survival mindset.
I read a quote and I may not quote it right nor can find the source; however, someone stated that you can tell the bosses that have never had to live paycheck to paycheck before by the way they treat their staff during this time. This may be a true statement; however, if you do a quick Google search you find that roughly 60-80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck (this would include said boss). Just because our managers, supervisors, executives, and some C-Suite make way more than the entry level does, it does not mean everything is financially sound with them nor they do not feel empathy towards their employees.
Dave Ramsey and many other financial experts tell us to have a rainy day fund of at least six months of bills to weather a loss of job or decrease in income. I personally was on my way of getting this taken care of this year; however, COVID-19 changed that for me. Though I am not where I want to be I now have a fire to get there. I would suggest for individuals/families, businesses, and governments to begin a plan to create an emergency fund to be in a better situation in the future for whatever may come our way. As an Eagle Scout, one of the sayings is Be Prepared. Right now we need to start being prepared for the future, while living for today.
Organizations are having a tough time as they are wanting to open back up; however, is the opening going to be safe. Employees are stuck between losing a job and unemployment benefits if they don’t feel safe going back to work. It is a fine line that everyone is walking and there is so much uncertainty as what COVID-19 will do. Will there be a second wave? Will the second wave be more deadly than the first? We can put all the data in computers and forecast outcomes; however, those outcomes may not be real life actualities. It is becoming more of until we are in the midst of the crisis will we know the true facts of the situation.
So this long intro is bringing me to a couple of ideas to bring hope and sustainability during this time and the opening of business and economies here in the US and around the world.
Personal
Take the time to evaluate if you are where you want to be. If you are not come up with a plan to correct course.
Begin to set up your emergency fund and begin to payoff debt that is anchoring you from freedom.
Discover your passions and align your life to support those passions.
Connect connect connect!
Get out of the house and talk a walk. Pick up the phone and call.
Dig deeper into your faith.
Work on becoming a whole person. Mind, Soul, Spirit, Emotion, Body!
Business
Begin the process of creating an emergency fund.
Train your managers to not be bosses; however, to be leaders (this is a trainable trait).
Decimate silo’s all the way to the top of the organization. Silo’s create alienation and limit creativity. You never know, someone in your organization may just have the right idea that will catapult the business for the next 100 years no matter what department they are in or what title they hold.
Communicate communicate communicate. I can not stress this enough. Email’s, phone calls, workplace messages, or however, your organization chooses. A true leader trust and cares about their teams and will make the human connection to check in during this time and in the future. You can not lead if you do not know your team!
Realign business models. Look at what is being a waste of resources and realign with those that need more funding as they are being more profitable. Take the emotion out and look at the data. Is a program not coming to fruition? Dig deep and figure out if the program/project is going to be a viable source of income or is it time to pull the plug and move those resources to other areas.
Remember you are in the business of humans. It takes humans to do the work of the organization and humans to purchase the product of your organization.
Evaluate your culture. Is it toxic? Is it positive? Ask questions to those within and truly find out. It is one thing if the upper levels of the organization thinks the culture is great and it is not translating to the lower levels of the organization. Again remove the silos and blinders and you might find out some great things or things that need to be tweaked.
Be open, honest, and transparent.
Finally, truly listen and try to gain understanding.
These are some ideas and they all can be flushed out to more in-depth conversations. Remember we are all in this together. We will all come out of this and be better. Be humble. Be kind. Be supportive. Be compassionate. Be human!
Be Bold! Be Courageous! Be Fearless!
Now is the time to soar!
Joel
PODCAST IS COMING SOON!
Every Path has Endings
As I contemplated this post, I had several ideas run through my head. This morning as I woke up, I was reminded of one of the most influential books I have ever read. No this is not the Bible; however, that is the top of my list. This book was suggested to me by a member of a small group I was a part of when I was in the mortgage industry and was searching for my next steps in life. I was at a crossroads and knew that an ending was coming; however, I did not know what that ending was and what the new beginning was going to entail. I was scared, confused, full of fear, lacked boldness and courage. To put it plainly, I was lost. I had no passion or zeal for life and was just barely making it. I was failing in the mortgage industry and in fact was doing a job that I was not created to do. For those in the industry I tip my hat to you as it is definitely a difficult job and necessary position; however, it just wasn’t for me.
This friend acquaintance shared with me a book that ultimately put me on the trajectory path to launch Path of One. This book is about business; however, the impact of the book can be felt not just in business, but in your personal life as well. Dr. Henry Cloud, a psychologist and leadership guru wrote a book many people will recognize Boundaries; however, this is not the book I am discussing. His book Necessary Endings; however, is this book. The premise is that sometimes in business you have to make necessary endings when dealing with projects that are wasting money and the payoff is not coming to fruition. Then there are times that toxic people just need to be let go and get them out of the organization. He calls these people pure evil and you just need to get the lawyers involved and move on. There are two other categories of people that Dr. Cloud talks about in the book and those are wise people that take direction and correction with ease and make the necessary adjustments. The third group is the foolish. Now this is not saying that they are fools running fools’ errands; however, more on that they are not growing in their position or they are not getting the job done. These people if given the opportunity to correct themselves and put into a performance improvement time frame may very well become wise employees; however, with expectations laid out they will know the outcome if they don’t perform.
Foolish may even contribute to where I was at in life. I was not performing well at all at the mortgage company I was at. I was making my calls, yet I was not making progress. I had these passions of helping people and I thought why not mortgage as I had already tried financial services and life insurance. These jobs caused me more stress than I could have imagined, and I needed desperate direction. As I said, this book is more about leadership than personal; however, I saw myself in that book and knew what I needed to do. I put in my resignation and began to take the time to figure out what was next. On a side note, I would not advise someone to just resign their position without a failsafe, i.e. another job. This is what I did and took a few weeks to regain some clarity in life and added other stressors; however, I swallowed my pride and went back to work in the hospitality industry.
Now, you may be saying how did your necessary ending impact you today? That’s a great question. See I went to work at restaurant where I live and quickly became a bartender and trainer within the organization; yet I still wasn’t feeling that I was headed anywhere and though I am good at what I do, I was not passionate about it. One night after work around three in the morning, I opened up my laptop and started Googling grad school programs. To this day I do not remember what I Googled; however, I found a Colorado State University – Global and was started the process of earning my Dual Master of Sciences in Management and Organizational Leadership with an International Business Specialization. My heart’s desire is to help as many people achieve their goals and dreams and make their path a path of brilliant colors.
I know many people right now are looking for change and very well coming up to a necessary ending in life. This can come in many forms. An ending in where you live and moving to a new city, state, or country. Ending a dead-end job and pursuing your dreams and starting a business or going back to school. Taking a necessary ending in a relationship that could be toxic or just has run the course. Whatever your ending is, make the decision to move and allow the ending to launch a new beginning.
If it is a project at work that needs a necessary ending begin the process of change management and being to communicate the change to key associates. During necessary endings and change, always make sure you communicate the why the ending is needed and what the plan is going forward. Allow your staff to process the change and be available to answer any and all questions needed so they are onboard and will help guide the team through the change. Necessary endings are never easy in business nor personal; however, they are needed and can ultimately catapult you to your passion and purpose.
Be Bold! Be Courageous! Be Fearless!
Joel
If you would like to read these books mentioned in the blog feel free to click on the links in the blog or click here: