Jon Bohm

This is how humans are: we question all our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question. ~Orson Scott Card

Today I had a great conversation with a client and friend about what things are truly self evident. The thought was posed that if something is a common truth to all humans, then as an organization you really shouldn’t have to write it down, and if you did write it down, well, that speaks negatively of your organization.

A couple extreme examples might be:

Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Leadership

Awhile back in the Peanuts cartoons, Snoopy had broken his right leg. And with his white cast, while he was hanging out on top of his dog house, Snoopy began to think about his situation and said; “My body blames my foot for not being able to go places. My foot says it was my head’s fault, and my head blames my eyes. My eyes say my feet are clumsy, and my right foot says not to blame him for what my left foot did . . .” Snoopy looks towards the audience and confesses, “I don’t say anything because I don’t want to get involved.”

Today while speaking on motivation and habits of thought to a group of professionals we had a dialogue about motivation. Motivation has 3 arenas it can really be generated from:

1. Fear/Force: This type of motivation is external and it is temporary. When a manager forces their people to work late hours or do something unexpected, or else! This type of motivation will only work while the manager is standing over their people. And since it is external, it becomes temporary, and as they say; “When the cat is away the mice will play.”

2. Incentive: This type of motivation is the most common motivation source I find in business. Often companies use incentive bonuses, trips, rewards, or recognition to provide motivation for reaching a particular level of production or sales. This is also external and temporary. Which means when that incentive is gone the motivation to keep up the same level of work is also gone.

3. Attitude: Or habits of thought, is a type of motivation that is both internal and permanent. Which means, when it comes to performance or excellence your attitude (which is controlled by you) is your source for motivation.

When either Fear/Force or Incentive are removed, people will begin to blame and point fingers at the lack of force or incentive as the reason for a lack of motivation. Things begin to slow down, and eventually people and managers get tired and just like Snoopy want to avoid the whole thing and stay out of it.

But the managers, companies, employees, or individuals who can successfully develop the attitudes of themselves, and those around them, will find the secret to permanent motivation and a true and pure way to avoid the blame game.

When we are motivated by our own internal attitudes there is nobody left to blame, no more excuses to make, and no more responsibility to dodge. We are forced to take ownership of our thinking, our attitudes, and our motivation.

Behavior is always shaped by attitude, change the attitude and begin the process of improving results.

-Jon Bohm

Knowledge, Leadership, Motivation

“To be able to listen to others in a sympathetic and understanding manner is perhaps the most effective mechanism in the world for getting along with people and tying up their friendship for good. Too few people practice the ‘white magic’ of being good listeners.”- Oliver Wendell Holmes

I went through a drive-thru burger joint today, and as I was speaking with the cashier by means of the telecom something hit me. First of all nobody likes that crazy telecom because it is like speaking to the Mars Rover. But one thing any good cashier does well is “active listening.”

“Active Listening” is simply listening to what a person says with enough purpose to repeat back to them in your own words what you heard them say. In the drive-thru, sure this is important, but in relationships it is a necessity. And very few, I mean very few, people do this well.

I once heard someone say that being listened to is so close to being loved that most people can’t tell the difference. When was the last time someone really listened to you? To how you were thinking about something, what you were experiencing, or what you were feeling?

When was the last time you truly listened to someone yourself with enough intent to actually repeat back what you heard, and make sure you understood. Not to take an order at a drive-thru, but because you care. I have noticed that very few people do this very well at any function. Your ability to simply talk to others about what they are thinking, feeling, and experiencing will give you a distinct advantage among your competition.

Have you ever had a salesperson try to get you to buy something who never listened to you, never found out what you needed, and demonstrated they didn’t care enough about you or your situation to listen? If you have, I can almost guarantee one thing; you didn’t buy.

Whether you are a sales person, a supervisor, a minister, a counselor, a spouse, parent, friend, coach, or simply buying your gas we can all pay forward the biggest free gift available to personal interaction. The gift of listening with your ears wide open.

-Jon Bohm

Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Leadership

Watching big, “Lake Effect,” snow flakes fall from a winter sky in Upstate New York is a beautiful thing. Landing on thick oak and pine branches and floating down onto the window sill would make a great winter day. And to top off a great winter day we would make a fire and read a book as the fire crackled and the snow fell outside.

A real fire takes at least 2 good logs an hour, usually more, and if you really want it to put out some warmth you have to add twice that. It is a pretty obvious thing to anyone who has made a fire that you won’t feel the heat until you put some wood on the flames.

In the same way you have to put some “wood” on the fire of your business or life before you see growth, profits, and feel the heat. “Wood” could mean books, training, advertising, marketing, sales training, management development or supervisory training. And if you need any of those things be sure to give me a call. But all those things are only good if they are aligned with the strategic direction and plan of the organization.

Wood that really puts out the heat means you have to strategically plan what you need to accomplish, develop your employees to align with that plan, and then set goals and execute that plan in a systematic way that maximizes your resources to see the bottom line improve.

Occasionally I meet business folks who say they will plan their business when they have time, or develop their sales force after they improve their bottom line, or we will align the organization after we get through this quarter.

That sounds just as silly to me as saying, “I will add some wood to this fire once this fire starts putting out some real heat.” In business, planning and executing strategic goals is not a “chicken and the egg” thing. It is the difference between “success and failure.”

Happy Planning!
-Jon Bohm

Knowledge, Leadership

The worst answer available to a question of “Why?” Is just another answer that demands another “Why?”

Like when you were little and your Mom would say “Because I said so.” or:
“Because you are supposed to.”
“Because your manager asked you to.”
“Because it is what we have always done.”
“Because your boss will get a great bonus.” etc.

Those aren’t answers to anything. When you are leading your life or your team–do you have a clear and compelling goal, vision, or passion inducing reason for you or your team to come and work everyday?

Imagine this-

It’s an average day at work. You come home dead tired. After collapsing in your favorite chair, your spouse reminds you that tonight is your bowling league night. So, after about an hour’s rest, you go to the lanes.
Once there, you bowl for hours and throw that 16-pound ball about a hundred times, and you feel great. But think of this: if you have the manager remove the pins from the lane, how long do you think your energy and interest would last? After about four or five throws, you would be pooped and ready to go home and into bed.

Set yourself a goal. If you have a goal to reach, you will be given enough drive to achieve it.

In today’s workplace a paycheck is not hardly enough to keep most employees. If a paycheck is your answer to “Why?” then your turnover will be high.

To help set some pins in the lane for you or your team ask yourself:

1. What is the big picture that we are a part of?

For example - If you make plastic bottles for Pepsi, your big picture might be to make the best soda available for consumption at ball games, at parties, at picnics and hotdog stands all over the region! You are making the world a better place one bottle at a time. As opposed to, “I put bottle “A” in blower machine “B” all day, so that I get my paycheck and go home.”

2. What recognition can you give your team for a game well played?
For example: An announcement, a reward, or a bonus.

3. What “team” or “family” can you create around your work place? Do the supervisors get invited to afterwork social activities with the managers? Can you create a night out once a month that benefits team development? Or, is the Christmas party only for the managers?

4. What productivity incentives can be applied to the work day? For example: The most succesful contractor I know sets a goal before his crew every morning. If the crew completes that goal they go home. It could be noon or it could be 10 pm, it’s up to them. But if they finish by noon, they get paid for the full day. His crew gets more done in a 1/2 day then most crews do in 2 full days.

It’s a matter of keeping the lane full of pins.
-Jon Bohm

Goals, Leadership, Motivation

Risk an ugly result and innovate!

This morning I saw an actual balloon pilot aviator’s license from 1906 signed by Orville Wright himself. An icon and amazing man died this past week. He had spent a majority of his life in aviation, dating all the way back to seeing the first planes take flight.

It often blows my mind to think back on what a 100 year old person has experienced. They have seen more than my mind can imagine. They have felt, seen, and touched things that I can only read about.

And they know some things that many people today don’t understand. One of those things, I believe, is the value of first time dreams, innovation, and trying something that often comes out not working very well or risks operating like a bucket of bolts.

So often business owners are gun shy about trying things that we fear may not come out well. But how well has anything that was every worth a shiny penny ever started off brilliant? Innovation doesn’t start that way. It starts in Henry Ford’s garage looking like an old lawnmower, or on an ugly tan piece of plastic that you give away because nobody wants to by a computer with an “apple” on it, or with 2 brothers building a bicycle with some sheets spread out running down the beach in North Carolina.

Business guru Tom Peters tells about a businessman whom he admires whose motto is “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” “The logic is impeccable,” says Peters. He points out that the plane the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk was nothing to write home about. Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone was not exactly up to Bell Lab standards. Yet if Bell hadn’t foisted that piece of junk on the world we wouldn’t have a vast communication network that can instantly link anyone on this planet, and if Orville and Wilbur hadn’t gone for lift-off with that bucket of bolts down at Kitty Hawk, we wouldn’t have 747s.
Peters goes on to say, “I emphasize the point because the number one failing that I see in small and large organizations is the failure to do stuff. . . In an environment where we know nothing for sure, the only antidote is, to quote my old man, ‘Don’t just stand there. Do Something!’”

Taking the time to risk failure and doing something beats using the same old thing or just standing around any day!
One of the advantages of a soft economy can be that you find yourself with some more time. So don’t just stand there- do something- risk an ugly result, and innovate!

- Jon Bohm

Innovation, Leadership, Motivation

Change is a funny and powerful thing.

Have you ever noticed that when you or someone you know tries to break away from the “Land of Status Quo” into the “Land of Positive Change and Rewards” things can get difficult?

It is often like a bucket of crabs. When one tries to escape all the other crabs work real hard at pulling them back into the bucket. And so it is with people. When someone tries to break out of the status quo and make some real positive and big steps in the right direction, you can find yourself with some discouraging thoughts and questions as you are sucked back into the bucket.

You’ll start hearing things like:
• What are you doing?
• Why do you want to do that?
• Stay here where you belong.

As you face even more obstacles, you’ll start getting noise in your own head. You might hear yourself saying things like:
• What am I thinking?
• Can I really do this?
• This is a lot harder than I thought.
• Is it really worth it?

The Noise often gets so loud that many return to the “land of status quo” in disappointment. But when you can push through the noise and get to the “land of positive change and results” you will begin to enjoy the rewards of your hard work. And other people in the “land of status quo,” who were watching you break out, often find themselves inspired to do the same. Before you know it, you are leading change in the most powerful way, by example.

Back during the days of the space race, Wernher Von Braun gave a lecture on the subject of putting a man on the moon. When his lecture was finished, he asked for questions.
A woman’s hand immediately shot up: “Why,” she asked, “can’t you forget about getting people on the moon and stay home and watch television like the good Lord intended for you to do?”

Change is what carries us into the future. If you can’t change, you will be stuck in the past.

Some questions for personal reflection:

1) Are you worrying over something you can’t change? What can you do to “let go”?
2) How might a change in perspective or outlook improve your team’s productivity?
3) What are the changes you’d like to make in your lifestyle? List the benefits of changing and the steps you’d need to take in order to change. Find people who will support you.
4) How might you be an encourager to a friend or colleague who is trying to make a change?

Goals, Knowledge, Leadership, Motivation

How do you view change? Is it positive or negative?

Unfortunately many businesses view change as negative. Which means as a leader you have to find ways to address change in a positive way and keep your team moving forward. Change can be a great competitive advantage. But to exploit change to our advantage, it is important to understand why change is often resisted. So here are 4 major reason change is resisted.

1. The first is FEAR. Fear is internal; it’s in our head. There’s a saying that I am fond of, “Fear is the great crippler of human potential.” There’s also an acronym that uses the letters F, E, A, and R that defines what fear is. The acronym stands for “False Evidence Appearing Real.”

2. The second reason people resist change is because of EGO. The need to be right is a powerful human need. It’s a common problem with leaders, managers, and business owners.

3. The third reason why people resist change is to avoid CONFLICT. Because when you try to leave all the people back in the “Land of Status Quo,” you’ll create and get some conflict. It’s not fun, so many people just avoid it all together.

4. The fourth reason that people resist change is LACK OF PURPOSE. Without a sense of purpose, people become stagnant and complacent. People get burnt out.

As a LEADER of yourself and others:
1. You have to overcome your own fear and help others overcome theirs by helping them change their mental attitudes that hold them back.

2. You also have to make sure that your EGO doesn’t get in the way. By being open to new and different ways to view things, as well as being open to the feedback and insights of others, you create an atmosphere where change is not an “I’m right and your wrong” mentality.

3. Of course, conflict is best handled through proper communication. It sounds simple on the surface, but we all know that it’s not.

4. Finally, you have to develop a sense of purpose, for yourself, and your team. What’s your vision for the change? Is it something that everyone understands and has a stake in?

Today… you have to be open to change to lead, and your organization needs to constantly change and evolve to survive. Think about all the changes that we must deal with. Technology continually changes. Customers continually change. Markets continually change. Competitors continually change. Why should our organizations be any different. CHANGE OR DIE: it’s been said so often that it sounds like a cliché, but it’s true.

In today’s world, we face more change in a year then our grandparents faced in a lifetime. It can be overwhelming; it can be scary; it can be frustrating, or it can be EXHILIRATING. Regardless of how you view change, the fact remains that it is very real and it will not go away.

With such rapid changes going on around us, we must find some way to comfortably accept change and actually benefit from it.

In his book, The Renewal Factor, Robert Waterman says, our “willingness to understand and exploit change is a powerful competitive weapon.”

When you can view change as good, then you will already have a competitive edge on the market, and when you can roll change out in your organization by addressing the above major reasons of resisting change then you will reduce turnover of both your teams and your customers.

May we view change as a great strategic partner.

Leadership

As a kid I had GI Joe’s, teddy bears, and transformers. But nothing was as awesome as the super hero action figures that moved when you pushed a button. All the other toys were good to look at, but they didn’t really do anything.

Relating that to business and life seems strange but I have to tell you that action is the biggest difference between success and failure on just about any given day. How easy it can be to allow obstacles like email, phone interruptions, a lazy morning, the desk top shuffling of papers, or hour long desk cleaning ritual, that keep us from actually doing anything that generates revenue or improves life. We can have some emails and clean desks to look at, but we didn’t really do anything.

Success comes when we can address the obstacles that keep us unproductive- find a solution for those obstacles - and then take responsibility for what actually needs to get done. So instead of throwing our hands in the air and saying I can’t get it all done “I had too many emails;” we find a solution for that obstacle and take responsibility for our own lives and results.

Columnist Herb Caen wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle sometime back: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

- Jon Bohm

Goals, Leadership, Motivation

Take a moment and think of someone you really admire as a leader. What character or personality traits do they have? Go ahead, take a moment to build a mental list.

What did you come up with?
Could those qualities be developed or do you have to be born with them?

If these traits are so easy for us to identify, and they can be developed, why isn’t everyone a great leader?

Can you have great leadership traits and still not be a leader? I will try to answer that question with the following incredible story:

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter couldn’t help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter’s legs and slammed his sorry butt against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn’t the same elephant.

Peter had a lot of great leadership traits; courage, goodwill, curiosity, compassion, adventure, etc. But, Peter lacked the most important defining ability of a leader, the ability to get great RESULTS.

No matter what character traits you have, if you don’t get results you are not a leader. Building character in your team is good, and important, but it doesn’t guarantee results. You can make a leader out of anybody if you are able to help them plan, set goals, and achieve results.

Likewise success doesn’t just happen. It happens when we plan, set goals, and make it happen.
-Jon Bohm

Leadership