The Balancing Act

Ahh ...maturity!

The games we played in college have lost all appeal, and the desire for the substantial blooms. Enter the challenge which, for the purposes of this note, we shall label "the quest."
A multi-phase, multi-tiered waltz ...the quest is not to be taken lightly, and is strongly discouraged for the weak & immature. Therefore this note is written for the client, the leader, the entrepreneur, the friend who is successful (or on the way), and realizes that it takes more than just million$ to be happy.

Tier 1: THE AUDIT

1. Who are you? An honest and (here's the hard part) objective look at yourself is required before you can be expected to successfully pursue any venture [objectivity may require conversation with a confidant]. I recognize that some succeed anyway, but only by compartmentalizing (or medicating) away their crap. I am recommending that you confront it head on!
Some of your crap simply needs to be faced for you to grow beyond the hold it has on your life. Other crap needs to be faced, recognized for what it is, and then no more than managed (to ensure that it doesn't become 'out of control').
The good in you is where you want to spend your energy, so dealing with your own mess will minimize the need for anyone else to have to.

2. Love you. Liking or accepting you for who & how you are isn't enough. This is why step one is SO important; it frees you to get back to the real you (who you are at your core). Loving you is a requisite if you are to EVER truly love ANYone else!

3. Prayer and his wife Meditation (the two really shouldn’t be separated). The desires of your heart are as real as anything on Earth, because they are real to you. To abandon or dismiss them out of frustration or discouragement is cowardly; don’t do that.
The purpose of prayer is to tell the God who loves you more than you’ll ever love you about the desires of your heart.
The purpose of meditation (an experience which is enhanced by a relationship with God & the study of the Holy Writ) is to focus solely on God, and your relationship with God …all in order to hear from God a response to your prayer. Spooky? Nope! Simply put, an answer from God will always line up with the Word of God (thus providing you a check & balance for your ‘take away’ from meditating). In other words, God couldn’t possibly tell you to kill someone when the Bible/Qur’an/Torah speaks directly against it.

4. Live your life. The Bible says that the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord. [No, not perfect, holy, or pure …just righteous: one actively engaged in the pursuit of living right (right =according to the morals & precepts of his faith & his God)]
So, being a control freak in some feeble attempt to feel safe is not going to work. You can’t be anything but you; and, for your own sake, you’d better give them all the space they need to be who they are –because who they really are is what you want to know.
In plain English, life is so much simpler when we let the Creator of it all guide us through it [period]

Tier 2: THE MARKET

1. Projecting. The most dangerous thing you can ever do is to look for & hold on to the good in a person. Doing so puts you in a position in which you will assuredly be hurt as the only person living a lie is you!
Allow a person a few months to show you who they are (as they see themselves). This is the person with whom you need to determine what, if any, interpersonal relationship you desire to have.

2. Show up. The flip side of the challenges of Projecting is that of sending a representative versus the real you. Both sexes do it, and it places the other person at a disadvantage as they are forced to waste a minimum of 3-6 months interacting with a façade while the real you (scared & hiding in a corner) watches to see if it’s safe. The problem is, upon your determination that it’s “safe” you enter the picture, forcing the other person to effectively start the process all over as they now have to get to know you (something they thought they were doing all along). NOT COOL/ NOT FAIR

3. Ratios. God, in his infinite wisdom, created us to do exactly what we needed to do to get along so that we can accomplish his will. Specifically? God gave us 2 eyes, 2 ears, and only 1 mouth. Perceived mathematically, that’s five tools for use in general interpersonal situations. Assuming a 100% base, each would receive 20% (40% eyes, 40% ears, and 20% mouth). AFFORD EACH PART IT’S DIVINELY ALLOTED TIME, AND THINGS WILL GO SWIMMINGLY. ;)
Conversation (for the record, a two-party/ two-way experience) is of the greatest importance. It provides us facts about the other person which we desperately desire to know (yet far too often ignore, as we hear no more than angels singing &/or wedding bells at the onset of such encounters).
Conversation is rendered totally useless if the above guidelines applied. Trust me; you really want to hear every word they have to say. You want to see them for who they are (as they are). You want to be sure to be totally honest (but respectful) as you share your thoughts or feelings about the topic of the hour. P.S. Fluff has no place here, as it is of no more interest than drinking poison.

4. Theory + Real World = Risk Management. If it is a truly substantial relationship you seek, the threat of any one of these variables going wrong is ever present. Therefore, it is imperative to deal with each situation independent of any & all baggage from past experiences. The toxicity of past experiences is viral, and if left un-addressed (see Tier 1, Step 1) it will destroy any chance of love that may come your way.
You cannot do this for the other person, which brings us to the key to risk management: STUFF HAPPENS! It is impossible to manage & mitigate any & all risk, and to do so is to approach a potentially beautiful new relationship with a regimen of rules & guidelines likely to strangle the very life out of it. Chill out! Put your trust in God! …and keep your eyes open.

Tier 3: THE LINCHPIN

To bring it all together, simply keep God first in your life (via a relationship, not the pomp & circumstance most religious folks exercise). This clarity of priorities will afford you a greater capacity to see & accept the person for who they are, who they are to you, and the role they are intended to play in your life.

You have just been subjected to a Profit Strategist's perspective on love.

Coach versus Mentor

At first glimpse, the difference in these two words goes unnoticed...

COACH or MENTOR

For a moment, let's take a trip back to high school where I believe we will gain greater clarity on the subject:

Where do you find a coach? The unanimous answer is organized sports. Looking deeper, who has a coach? Women and men who have decided to compete at the sport of their choice. Why do they need a coach? According to Webster's, a coach is "one who instructs players in the fundamentals of a competitive sport and directs team strategy."

Where do you find a mentor? The unanimous answer is study hall/ the library. Who has a mentor? Women and men who require additional guidance in order to gain a firm grasp of the material being taught in class in order to earn a passing grade. What's the mentor's role? Turning again to Webster's, a mentor is defined as "a trusted counselor or guide."

Realizing that the majority of you reading this have graduated college, I'll do you the courtesy of departing from the high school scenario. So, let's apply this to the real world of business & politics. Which do you require to achieve those dreams bouncing between your synapses? Before you answer, reference the denotations of each. Well, what did you come up with?

While we're waiting for you to develop your answer, here's mine: both. A coach (of which I have two) is an individual who provides objectivity to the development of my personal and corporate success strategies. One is a senior executive who has direct access to, let's just say Washington; and my peer coach is the only woman I know who rivals me in tenacity & creativity. A mentor (of which I have nearly a dozen) is an individual who has a wealth of both knowledge and experience in a specific area which is either the environment in which a tactic for my greater success must take place, is the pathway to that environment, or is the 'gunpowder' which I require to successfully explode said tactic effectively.

I hope that this helps you not only find your path to what you define as SUCCESS, but to properly identify the key elements you require to achieve it.

[This post is dedicated to Anubha, Mark, Kimberly, Joseph, Raechelle, Rhasaan, Mason, and the 2010 PA New Leaders Fellows.]

The 501c3 Dilemma

Sitting in a regional meeting all day on behalf of the Mayor's Office with Pennsylvania community action agencies, I realize the driving force behind the creation of the 22,000 non-profit organizations in Philadelphia -FUNDING. Good men & women with an idea or desire to address a problem in the community run out and start a non-profit. Those in leadership are led, like dogs after a rabbit, by the change in focus of government & private funding sources. Did it occur to these do-gooders that if there focus was on being effective & building capacity ...maybe the money would come to them??

Okay, those of you in non-profit leadership are cursing my name right now. But, before you send me to hell, answer this: why did you get into community service/advocacy? Do you (today) believe that you can be effective? What's stopping you? My professional opinion is that capacity (the ability to effectively provide a service with measurable outcomes) is your greatest challenge due to insufficient funding. Why? Because your organization is one of many claiming to address the same issue. It may be a bit unpleasant to hear, but creating a duplication of an existing service does more harm than good:

• Funding/resources are diluted as they are divided among numerous "service providers," placing them all in a position of being under-capitalized.


• "Service providers" are encouraged to report false information for the sake of maintaining their funding, keeping resources from the effective organizations who need those dollars most.


• The women & men in need of said services are left in their current condition, having received little more than eloquent lip service.

This is exemplified repeatedly throughout the community. In Philadelphia there are dozens of non-profits focused on ending violence, yet there has been no visible turn in the statistics until Commissioner Charles Ramsey went to work. There are even more organizations focused on literacy & education for "at-risk" youth, yet outside of Education Works & Philadelphia Academies who is actually having an impact as the drop-out rate stands at 38%, and the average reading level of our high school graduates is 7th grade. As a strategist, I would like you to journey with me for a moment as we look at this from the business perspective.

A fundamental rule in the venture capital community with regard to the vetting of new concepts is to ask 'what is the need that this concept addresses?' Every successful business is centered on addressing the needs of a specific market. The business plan notes what the market demand is, what percentage of that market the entrepreneur expects to capture as a customer base, what the competitive landscape is, how the business will profit by serving that market, and how the business plans to grow.

Now for the revolutionary idea: the same goes for non-profits. Identify who you wish to serve. Document: map out exactly how you plan to serve this demographic of the community. Identify who is already serving them effectively. Analyze the potential for collaboration of your concept with this effective organization (a Win/Win tactic ~note: this requires humility versus ego). In the absence of a potential collaboration, do your homework on what it would cost, and what the infrastructure needs are for you to be effective at addressing this issue. By then, having worked through these points, you will have a good idea of the funding required to make it happen. You would have freed yourself from the rat race of chasing today's funding source. Instead, you would pursue funding solely on the basis of managing and growing your organization in the aim of effectively serving your market -the community.

The Self Concept

The self concept. ...sounds simple enough.
The concept of self. The way you see yourself. The center from which you operate.

There are deeper, more intrinsic facets of the self concept which are vital to the true success of the entrepreneur, community activist, even the politician. These facets are the focus of this dialogue you and I are about to have.

Let us begin with "what you believe about yourself."
Generally, the way the world sees us has both a direct, and an indirect effect on how we see ourselves. Direct in that we too often adopt the way we are seen by others as a measure of how successfully we are portraying the persona we wish them to see. Indrectly because while rarely stated, the perceptions of others often create in our own minds questions of our identity. Why?
From birth we begin to learn how to act and react to certain stimuli. More importantly, we begin to develop our definitions of self, family, friends, enemies, and most importantly love.

Love, how we define it, perceive it, and interpret the presentation of it by others is all centered on if & how much of it we have for ourselves. If I don't love me, then much like a house of cards, any and all relationships (clients, contractors, employees, collegues, friends, etc.) will be just as void. The love of one's self allows us to interact and operate in our daily lives from a place of power & positive energy: the source of character. It is important to note that personality may afford you an opportunity, yet a lack of character is sure to lose you the long-term relationship.

Character: the ability to consistently live life based on your core values [proactiveness defined]. The question has long been asked: "is character developed or displayed by the trials of life?" It is my position that character is displayed, not developed by challenges. This is verified by the focus of this conversation. It is from the self concept that you and I address every situation in our lives. If we love & respect ourselves (a natural outgrowth of living a value driven/ principled life) then our foundation is secure, and our means of addressing challenging situations is clear. An understanding of self and your true position in said situation (Point A) affords you the ability to plot a direct line to Point B: the solution.
In the absence of character we find the individual void. Life becomes a zero sum game, where everything is a competition and everyone is seen as an adversary. Such is not the case.

As a strategist, it pains me to see women and men with passion & drive to succeed in lack of the key element required to do so: vision. It is the one thing that cannot be taught. Vision is the ability to, recognizing the goal as Point B, clearly describe (in detail) said goal. Yet, in the absence of a positive self concept the ability to do so is greatly impaired. While it is clear that there are anomalies in every paradigm (Ted Turner being the anamolie in this one), an individual is more likely to experience success when they have a healthy self concept, are clear on their Point A, and are passionate about reaching Point B (a good strategist can assist them in connecting the two).

The paradigm shift.

Okay.

This is neither my thesis, nor a discussion of the inner workings of some new Star Trek episode. Instead, this is a discussion on the importance of flexibility as my clients navigate the ever changing world of business.

The paradigm shift is essential to successfully navigating the daily tasks required to achieve your long term success. Allow me to begin with the clarification of the term as to avoid any misunderstanding: Paradigm -the position from which you view & deal with your current environment.

In order to effectively deal with each interaction (with bankers, partners, employees, invoicing problems, or unforeseen challenges) the entrepreneur must first have a full and clear understanding of her / his current position. Having a clear understanding of your identity, your strengths, weaknesses, passions, and dislikes will afford you the ability to be more objective. How? Simple. If a situation presents itself as an obstacle to the success of your revenue model, yet happens to require a skill you know you lack, you have three options:

1. Go buy "Skills I Lack for Dummies" from the bookstore, and hope you get it right.



2. Allow your ego to take the lead; filing bankruptcy later is just what that ego needs.



3. Seek help.

Without going into nuclear physics, we can all agree that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

It goes without saying that if you are not clear on "Point A" (where you stand, skills you possess, resources you require...), it is not likely that you will successfully reach "Point B."

So why are we talking about paradigm shifting? There is a major misconception with the Point A to Point B conversation. A large number of individuals see themselves as Point A, and their goals as Point B. This is incorrect. Point A is the position which your reality demands that you take as you discern the desired outcome of the situation (whether your 10 year goals, or collecting a 45 day old accounts receivable). The "this is me" defense has no place in a world where the value assigned to who you are is a product of the context you find yourself in at the time (client, employer, mother, son, etc.).

The ability to be flexible in your approach and honest about your capacity is vital if long term success is of interest to you.

Methods of adjustment: Personality versus Character; a concept I welcome you to read further into via Stephen Covey's work "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."

Personality is the method of adjusting to our environment which you are surely familiar with as self help books pushing quick fixes to issues that reside in your core are peddled by every bookstore, and self-appointed motivational speaker in town. Smile. Eye contact. Listen for the objection before responding. These tactics may work in the short term, but long term success requires long term relationships which you're not going to build by throwing around a fake smile.

Character is the method of adjusting to our environment by dealing with people and situations by the unbreakable values which define who we truly are. When you smile, mean it. When you give eye contact, do it because you care enough to pay attention to what they have to say. When you listen, hear every word they say and ask questions to gain understanding.

It is from our core/ our character, that we find ourselves at Point A, and in a much better position to discern where Point B is, and more importantly how to get there. Paradigm shifting, when operating from your core, is simplified (as you have chosen to elevate above the plane of the zero-sum game).