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BOOM!
7 Choices For Blowing The Doors
Off Business-As-Usual
August 9, 2010
BusinessSummaries.com
the authors
Drs. Kevin and Jackie Freiberg are two of the most influential voices
on the professional-speaking circuit today. Their mission: to create
corporate cultures where impassioned people exercise the freedom to
make a difference and change the world! The Freibergs have coau-
thored the international bestseller NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy
Recipe for Business and Personal Success and GUTS! Companies that
Blow the Doors off Business-As-Usual. They have been interviewed
by CBS’s 60 Minutes and appeared on CNBC and the CBS Morning
News for their insights on the links between gutsy leaders, passionate
employees, cultures of accountability, and loyal customers.
value
BOOM! Is a wake up call for every person who wants to make a differ-
ence and every business leader who wants to change the cultural DNA
of an organization doing business as usual.
nutshell
CHOICE #1 BE A PLAYER, NOT A BYSTANDER
Extraordinary Happens When Ordinary People Choose to Do Whatever
It Takes
On the field of life, we are all called to be players and to actively engage in
winning the game. Players are focused on bringing energy, passion, heart
and soul to the game. Players get joy and meaning through their contribu-
tions. Players have a powerful bond and loyalty to their team, and players
always strive to win and make a difference.
Players choose to “be there,” and you can count on them to bring their all
to the competition.
You may not be able to look into a crystal ball and discover the future, but
you should do something, because when you understand how your roles
and responsibilities contribute to achieving the vision, strategy, and goals
for growth, you take a huge step toward being a player!
• Stop rumors and never trust secondhand information. When it’s pos-
sible, make data-driven decisions – go directly to the source for accurate
information.
• Think about how your talents and your work projects will help drive
business success; then get in the game and just do it.
• Benchmark the competition. Study and know them. Visit their web
“Think about sites. Look at their ads, marketing, and PR pieces. Read their press releas-
es… and visit them if you can. Borrow what you learn.
how your tal-
ents and your • Study the market realities and trends in your industry, listen to the
work projects futurists and industry experts, and then apply their observations to your
business.
will help drive
business suc-
cess; then get
in the game
and just do it.”
CHOICE # 2 BE ACCOUNTABLE
There is No “THEY” Only You and Me
Get in touch with the impact you have on others. Think of the positive
impact you could have on your organization if you had the guts to go to
those who receive the output of your work and ask, “What are the top rea-
sons I’m difficult to do business with? “What headaches does our depart-
ment create for your department?” If you decide to do this, here is a note of
caution: Overcome the urge to be defensive by rationalizing or justifying
your behavior, instead accept the feedback, learn and change.
Whoever they are for you, we challenge you not to let them lock you
behind the walls of anger and resentment. Instead grow, stretch and
learn from informed feedback, we dare you to conduct an audit of your
gifts, talents and blind spots and examine the potential you have to make
a mark in the world.
When your contribution takes the form of service to others, your work
suddenly starts to come alive with meaning. And you don’t have to be
Gandhi or Mother Teresa. Service isn’t reserved to helping the poor, wait-
ing tables or working behind a counter. It’s just like Bob Dylan said: “We
all have to serve somebody,” and no matter what your job is, there are
real people – in your company and outside of it – who depend on you for
“Serve some- some kind of service.
Taking the focus off of you and putting it on others is not an easy thing to
do. If you want to make a difference in the world, it’s only going to hap-
pen through service, and it’s only going to happen if you make it happen.
Try it—pay it forward, give without any expectation of acknowledge-
ment. Serve someone who really needs a lift, we guarantee you’ll be
lifted in the process.
The most important thing about you today is not where you’ve been, it’s where
you are going. Your attitude and motivation in the present are shaped by your
view of the future. So what is your vision for the kind of leader you want to
become in the near future? We’re convinced focusing forward will help you
realize that vision.
The benefits to focusing forward are many, but here are five that are pretty
compelling and might just accelerate your ability to become a leader people
want to follow:
5. Focusing forward enables you to create team unity. When people focus
forward, they naturally become less defensive and more accountable. They are
more likely to look in the mirror than look for someone to blame.
Your work matters. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner you can
begin to change your life. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to
you when you’re busy making other plans.” If you don’t plan for your life
to matter, guess what? It won’t, at least not to the extent you wish it did.
The work you do – in fact, everything you do – is a statement about who
you are. Why not choose to make it a masterpiece?
Find a way to overlap your answers to these questions and you will discov-
er your sweet spot and be more inclined to Play to Your Genius and realize
the meaning in your work.
If you ask ten people who know you well what you’re good at you may be
surprised at their answers. They may already have very clear ideas about
where your talents lie.
We often ask people, “If you’re not happy, why don’t you change?” The
answer we most commonly hear: “I don’t have a choice. It’s too risky. I’ve
invested twenty years of my life in this career!” We then respond, “You
always have a choice. If you’ve lost the last twenty years of your life, don’t
lose the next twenty!”
It’s your life, and it’s the only one you’ve got. The work you do is a statement
“It’s your of who you are. If you want your life to matter, then you have to transform
your work into something you are turned on about. It’s your choice, rediscov-
life, and it’s er the meaning in your work—look around, what needs to be done? Find a
the only one way to play to your genius and engage—do what you are good at and do what
love!
you’ve got.”
What happens when you create vitality, energy, and buzz in an organization?
Well, you are certainly more visible, and you have more of a voice than oth-
ers. Your ideas will carry more weight and have more influence on the busi-
ness. That means you have a better shot at getting other people to rally around
your ideas.
Whether it’s calling to check in from a different time zone in the middle of
the night, going the extra mile to research an issue, filling in when you are
short staffed. Or connecting you to significant others in their network, people
will give you more of their discretionary time and energy.
People who choose to “get it done” hang with the best. Why, because
thoroughbreds like to run with other thoroughbreds. People seek out
people who energize them. That means you have a better shot at put-
ting together project teams that win. Do this enough and BOOM – you
will build a reputation as someone the organization can trust with big-
ger or more important assignments. Do you bring the same level of
energy and passion to the game as those you admire?
Here are some things to consider if you want to become a get it done
“buzz agent” and bring more life to others and infuse more energy into
the organization.
Give people a voice. When you create room for people to “weigh in”
with their ideas, you value them – even if you disagree with them.
When we are valued, we feel more vital to the organization. One of the
greatest ways we can energize people is by asking for their insight, lis-
tening without distraction, and acting upon what we learn.
You stand a much better chance of getting it done and making a differ-
ence when you recognize that you earn your way into more responsibil-
ity, more autonomy, higher visibility, bigger jobs, more important roles,
and better pay.
There are three myths, three points of confusion that entangle many of
us. Each contributes to an entitlement mentality, and each diminishes our
“Just because effectiveness as energizers, and “buzz agents”:
you put in a
Myth # 1: Fairness = Equality
lot of time and
expend a lot of It’s easy to confuse these two concepts. People who operate from an
effort does not entitlement mentality frequently complain that they are not being treated
fairly, when what they really mean is they want equality.
mean you are
adding value. ” Myth # 2: Busyness = Results
Just because you put in a lot of time and expend a lot of effort (look and
act busy) does not mean you are adding value. Do not confuse activity
with accomplishment.
No one is paying you today for what you did yesterday. You cannot rest
on yesterday’s headline. The shelf life of your contributions keeps get-
ting shorter and shorter. Seniority is no substitute for the result achieved
through loyalty and engagement.
Do not let these myths entangle you and deflate your potential. Instead,
understand and embrace fairness, results, and loyalty as rights that you
are not simply entitled to; they are rights you earn through effort, time,
contribution and a passion for getting it done.
It doesn’t matter where we are in the world; when we talk with CEOs and
senior executives, they rarely gripe about people who take too many risks.
We have yet to hear them complain about folks pursuing new initiatives, new
products and services, and new revenue streams that stretch the organization
and challenge the core business.
As we said, most of the executives we’ve met in the last twenty years don’t
whine about employees who stand on their convictions and fight for things
they deeply believe in – people who are bold and uncompromising when pre-
senting their ideas. They do, however, talk about people who lack initiative or
play it too safe and avoid taking risks.
What makes YOU unforgettable? What makes you stand out in the eyes of
your coworkers, your boss, your customers? You become unforgettable when
you leverage your unique gifts, perspectives, and voice to make a difference.
Of course, this assumes that you have the courage to risk, to step through the
door of uncertainty to seize an opportunity.
Think about it. No one ever makes it into the innovator’s hall of fame by com-
ing up with a better imitation. It is the “game changers” who ultimately get
our attention.
Do you have the courage to try new things, test new ideas, and challenge
the status quo, particularly if your boss is the one promoting the status
quo? Do you have the guts to circumvent the bureaucracy and step out
beyond the boundaries of just doing your job?
“It’s not the It’s not the absence of fear that makes leaders successful; it is their abil-
ity to step through fear that makes the difference. No one is exempt from
absence of fear fear; it is deeply rooted in the human condition. Fear deadens our spirits
that makes and draws us into smaller lives. In fear we hesitate, procrastinate, ratio-
nalize, make excuses, and ultimately end up living smaller, less-fulfilling
leaders suc- lives.
cessful; it is
their ability to Yet fear always confronts us with a choice, and how we handle it is our
choice. We can do the thing we fear, or we can give in to it by not taking
step through the risk. If we choose to face it and step through it, fear loses its strong-
fear that makes hold. If we repress or run from fear, it gains strength and enslaves us.
Each time we give in to fear, it weakens our courage, diminishes our self-
the difference.” esteem and stalls our gain.
So, what does it look like to risk more, step through fear and not let it con-
trol or consume you? There are no quick-fix, banish-it-forever formulas,
but here are six powerful – but by no means easy – approaches that work:
2. Find the bigger YES. Make your passion bigger than your fear. It
is a lot easier to say no to anything, especially fear, when you have a big-
ger YES to live for. Stepping through fear is about looking beyond the
danger you face to the significance of the outcome you could achieve. Is it
weighty? Is it right? Will it make a difference? If the answer is YES, then
go for it!
3. Let truth strengthen your resolve. When we fight for what we believe
is true, when we stand for what we believe is right, the pilot light of passion
is lit, a sense of duty and honor flow, and the flames of courage and resolve
are unleashed.
Could have, would have, should have! Your spouse, your children, your
boss, your co-worker and your customers don’t care about what you intend-
ed to do. They care about what you do. So stop getting ready, do some-
thing now, move, push through the fear that is holding you back!
AN INVITATION
If you accept our call to arms and join this revolution, at least three things will
happen: you will expand your influence, you will become a positive force for
change, and you will live with fewer regrets.
Time is a tyrant. It takes no prisoners, and it never stands still. The moments
of opportunity you miss at work and in life can never be regained.
Your life is not a dress rehearsal. Your life is now. Time is ticking. Guess
what?