George Kinder is not your average financial advisor. For most people, when a financial planner asks, “What really matters?”, clients talk about when they want to retire, if and where they intend to buy a second home, and how they plan to support their children’s educational needs. George’s approach is different. When he wants to understand what really matters, he looks for deeper meaning, the purpose and driving force behind his clients’ lives with the following questions:
- If you had all the money in the world, meaning you had no financial concerns, how would you live your life?
- Imagine you discovered that you only had five to ten years to live, what would you do differently for the remaining years of your life?
- If you went to the doctor and she takes you by surprise, saying you only have 24 hours to live, what will you feel that you have missed? What did you not get to do with your life?
George says that these questions, particularly the last question, and what comes forth, becomes the backbone of a person’s life plan. Only then can the real financial planning begin, in his opinion.
How do you seek to understand what really matters to the people you lead?
Do you operate as an average financial planner, pushing numbers and targets, or are you looking to make a deeper, more meaningful connection of what really matters regarding your work, and the work of others?
The way we answer this question, and how we choose to go forward, set the sails for our life and those around us.
Choose, as only you can, a path that really matters to you.
Enjoy your August news2use.
Regards,
Dan
“Relevant & pragmatic ideas, tools and insights to play at your best.”
For You
Sacred Setbacks
A setback is a disappointment, a defeat, an obstacle or an interruption in our forward progress and an important sign that we are in a “learning zone”. If you are not experiencing setbacks, chances are you have wrapped yourself up too tightly in the comfort zone. Do not let setbacks keep you down, instead use the S.A.C.R.E.D. frame to help you move through them.
Separate yourself from the setback. It is simply a sub-optimal result and not a reflection of you as person. Early in my career, I took setbacks far too personally and this chipped away at my self-esteem until I learned to separate setback from self.
Anticipate the rewards beyond the setback. There is no achievement or aspired future that that comes without some struggle or sacrifice. Setbacks are always a part of a success story.
Construct positive self-talk. Setbacks linger when you let negative, self-defeating language dominate your self-talk.
Reflect during setbacks and take note of your emotions and actions that you want to modify. Do you simply need to turn your perspective a few degrees or do you need a radical adjustment to move through the setback?
Elicit feedback from stakeholders for ideas and approaches for the future. At the end of the day, setbacks are personal, meaning we must manage them, yet feedback from the outside can be hugely helpful.
Develop multiple options (ideally three) that you can use to compare ways to move through a setback. Options mean choice, and choices empower and propel us through setbacks successfully.
For You & Your Team
Get the unsaid said.
Over the past several months, I have seen and heard remarkable stories of sacrifice, flexibility, and resilience to stay safe, preserve the family and serve the business. In some cases, teams have maintained open communication channels to share the good, the bad and the ugly during the covid crisis.
Yet others simply buried what bothered them, feeling that there were more important issues to deal with at the time.
Help your team get the unsaid said, because nothing gets better until you can say that something is wrong.
The ability to create and maintain resilient relationships is one of the benchmark practices I describe in my book to create highly effective leadership teams.
To create more resilient relationships in your leadership team, consider getting everyone in your team a copy of my most recent book, and use the ideas to support you and your team.
For You, Your Team & Your Business
What is our organizational approach to develop highly effective leadership teams?
Ask this question in your next executive meeting or ask the head of your leadership development program and listen carefully to the answer.
It is still surprising how many organizations, with strong commitments to people development, cannot provide a convincing answer question above. Mainstream thinking is still very locked in the outdated belief (and practice) that leadership is alone an individual experience.
This is a costly assumption, because no matter how much you invest in individual leader development, it cannot compare to the leadership improvement and organizational results that you achieve through leadership as a team endeavor.
Why you might ask?
There is no individual contribution, no matter how excellent or innovative, that leads directly to organizational results. All individual efforts are transformed into organizational results by the characteristics and qualities of the executive and strategic leadership teams in your business. Teams, not individuals must become the unit and focus for effective leadership development.
Today only one out of five executives believe they are part of a highly effective leadership team. If you want to improve leadership performance AND organizational results, there is only one place you can start. The team at the top.
Please reach out to me if you want to discuss this topic, and the benefits for you and your organization.
People, Places & Technology
Walk into Kubicki Motors and you might think you have travelled back in time. Classic cars from many makes and models are spread out around the shop, all in various stages of repair. Chris Kubicki and his crew of expert mechanics are a passion breed of craftspeople who love the challenge of restoring cars to their best condition.
If you are interested in old timers, or just want to see and smell a real automobile repair shop before the age of electronics, check them out.
While the sight of these classic cars is appealing, this is not the most compelling thing I took away from my visit with founder Chris Kubicki. It is how he feels about the customer. Here is what he said:
“Sure we have lots of inventory here, but instead of selling one of our old timers to someone, convincing them why it is a good buy, I would rather learn what their dream old timer is and help them get it.”
Here is another business leader that puts the customer at the center of everything he does, congratulations Chris, and the team at Kubicki Motors!
Thought for the Day
Don’t be pushed by your problems.
Be led by your dreams.”
―Ralph Waldo Emerson