Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Saturday, November 01, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Categories:
Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching,
Miscellaneous
A few years ago I ran across the following story. I hope that you enjoy it.
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.
Let me tell you about it. I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles".
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. "Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital." He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years." "Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part." "It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays."
"I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy." "So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away." "I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."
"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 75 year Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.
Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."
As you may have guessed, I also bought marbles. For almost 4 years I have been taking them out one at a time. I keep them in my pocket throughout the week as a reminder of the many blessings that I have in my life. I hope that this Thanksgiving season has a great impact on your life.
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Sunday, October 12, 2008 at 11:45 PM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Talent Assessments,
Executive Coaching
A big part of what we get to do as a company is to help our clients understand themselves a little better…sometimes a LOT better. This looks different in each situation, but a lot of times it involves administering talent assessments to their leadership team. It is always fun to watch the expressions on people’s faces as they read through their results and then begin to understand the results of their partners’ assessments as well. “Wow, that’s why I am having such a hard time getting along with so and so.” Or “No wonder when I am in such a rush to make a decision that person seems to always drag the process down.”
We have been in some situations where the survival of the company was at risk because of all the mistrust and infighting. I am happy to report that so far we haven’t lost a client because the company disbanded. That is not to say that there haven’t been times when the client discovered that it was probably better if ‘so and so’ moved on to a ‘better opportunity’. But we consistently see companies learn how to get along and work together better because of our efforts and the great assessment tools we have at our disposal.
Being a ‘people watcher’ at heart, this has been particularly rewarding to me as I have been used in situations to help one party gain a clearer perspective on their ‘adversary’ or help a group of people to see each other’s strengths and how they can better work together. And the time that I have spend coaching individuals, seeing them become much clearer about their life’s ‘calling’ has helped to validate my own calling. I have a great job!
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Categories:
Executive Coaching,
Performance
I have a good friend who is a die hard Oregon Duck fan...I think since before his birth! Over the years we have ribbed each other over the UW Husky/Duck rivalry (I am currently taking the brunt of all this). Several months ago we committed to getting tickets to this past week’s game between the Boise State Broncos and his beloved Ducks. It was a great 4 days of renewing our friendship, our love for golf (he got the better of this too!) and taking in 3 glorious hours of football at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. Well, I guess it was only glorious for me. Wearing my blue and orange and surrounded by a sea of green and yellow, I yelled my head off for BSU most of the 4 quarters...and lived to tell (write) about it.
It can be an interesting study to take inventory of where our ‘devotion’ lies. At the beginning of the game Autzen Stadium was so loud that my ears actually hurt. I am happy to report that there were many stretches during the 2nd and 3rd quarters when the decibel level was considerably lower as BSU ran out to a big lead. But it was amazing to watch people’s emotions ebb and flow as the Ducks fell behind, then mounted a furious comeback only to fall just short. Some fans took the whole thing in stride. Many came up to me afterward and, in a gesture of good sportsmanship, congratulated me (as if I had anything to do with it!). Others had their day, week and maybe whole season ruined because of the outcome.
What is it that you find yourself devoted to? What is it that will get you emotional? What (or who) would you die for if push came to shove? Your spouse? Your kids? Your business or job? Your team? Your bowling or golf score?
I have found myself doing a little re-evaluation of my priorities lately. Good thing to do a couple times a year. Doing so brings more perspective and hopefully more real life.
By the way...my friend and I are still friends. Our friendship has survived many years of ribbing and will survive many more. Although, if I have very many more rounds of golf like I did last week playing with him, we may start going to the opera instead!!
Posted by
Ron Price on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 6:53 AM
Categories:
Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching,
Performance
One of my favorite weekend activities is reading. When I allow inquisitiveness to overrule my childish desire to finish one book before starting another, I like to read from several related books simultaneously. This weekend was one of those times. I moved back and forth from several different books exploring something I refer to as “quantum” leadership. It is based on synthesizing and applying much of what has been learned over the past two decades about quantum physics, quantum mechanics, and systems thinking. One of the most important aspects of quantum theory is that the relationship between the parts is more important than the parts. Here is one of the excerpts from my reading that is most stimulating to me in my own exploration of leadership:
“We tried for many years to avoid the messiness and complexity of being human, and now that denial is coming back to haunt us. We keep failing to create the outcomes and changes we need in organizations because we continue to deny that ‘the human element’ is anything but a ‘soft’ and not-to-be-taken-seriously minor distraction. We barely manage to survive the seemingly endless procession of organizational change fads and new ideas, each of which promises to make organizations more effective. CEOs acknowledge that about three-fourths of these efforts have failed. This terrible record of failure is, in my estimation, due to approaches that are predominantly technical and mechanistic. New technology is purchased; new organization charts are drawn; new training classes are offered. But most human dynamics are completely ignored: our need to trust one another, our need for meaningful work, our desire to contribute and be thanked for that contribution, our need to participate in changes that affect us.”
“Beyond the fads that have swept through large organizations, think of all the contemporary leadership problems that are variations on the theme that we don’t know how to work together. We struggle to help teams form quickly and work effectively. We struggle to learn how to work with the uniqueness that we call diversity. We are terrified of the emotions aroused by conflict, loss, love. In all of these struggles, it is being human that creates the problem. We have not yet learned how to be together. I believe we have been kept apart by three primary Western cultural beliefs: individualism, competition, and a mechanistic world view. Western culture, even as it continues to influence people everywhere, has not prepared us to work together in this new world of relationships. And we don’t even know that we lack these skills. In a simple example of the difficulties created by this ignorance, many MBA graduates who’ve been in the field a few years report that they wish they had focused more on organizational behavior and people skills while in school.”
“Leadership and the New Science – Discovering Order in a Chaotic World”, Margaret J. Wheatley
This hits close to the core of why Price Associates exists. We are explorers, along side our clients, to help discover new opportunities in a changing world.
Posted by
Ron Price on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 1:56 PM
Categories:
Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching,
Performance
I met with a great company this morning that is growing by leaps and bounds (who says there is a recession going on?) This company was started close to 10 years ago and they will generate revenue in excess of $100 million this year. The key to their success is also the greatest challenge they now face.
In the beginning stages, most companies succeed or fail based on the vision, passion and will-power of an entrepreneur. If they succeed the early years and grow, this same energy that was the key to survival can easily become the greatest limitation to continued growth. The problem: dynamic entrepreneurs can only carry the company so far and eventually the weight of their success begins to wear them out, or build a prison of their own making. The business depends on their decisions, their active involvement, and their motivation to continue its success. The problem is that growth creates more work and demand for decision making, energy and discipline than one person can provide. Initially, entrepreneurs work to solve this by adding “administrative assistants,” even when they give them titles like Vice President or Operations Manager. The title might sound like a decision maker, but the reality is that important decisions are still made by a solo practitioner at the top.
Smart entrepreneurs recognize this challenge and begin re-thinking their leadership role. They nurture others to take responsibility for performance, they learn to identify and develop leadership talent and they begin shifting their focus toward creating future success through wisdom and talents of others. They empower professional managers to build infrastructure, create systems and develop plans, all while avoiding a new set of organizational dangers; complacency, entitlement and bureaucracy.
It is a challenging journey, but many have successfully navigated this transition to a more professional, stable management style while not losing the energy, passion and uniqueness that brought their early success. The company I visited today is struggling with these realities and carefully laying the foundation for the next generation of success.