Over time you sometimes get known for a few things that you keep either looking for in narratives and business success or points you hope are helpful to pass on to others looking for advice. Some of the ones I tend to dwell on are…
The value of storytelling
The importance of listening…aka “Two ears one mouth”
The much-needed skill to be able to GSD…Get Stuff Done
The need for volunteering…giving when it’s not about dollars.
The need for empathy and inclusion in all aspects of your life.
The continued search for learning…never assume you are the smartest person in the room.
The skill of building consensus…. surrounding yourself with different points of view to better understand an issue of an opportunity.
And the ongoing essential question of “How Does It make money?”
One that I have used over the years that isn’t on the list is the value of people and places over things. We are an industry of experience, and who you experience those things with, at least for me, has so much more value than the it. Showing up, has always been the thing…if you aren’t in the room where it happens, you miss out.
That is why over the past few months it has become increasingly bittersweet to look back through Facebook at the daily “Memories” collection. It has given us all an appreciation of what we are missing, and probably what more we can be valuing when the tide starts to shift back. This past week I have spoken to a growing number of friends and colleagues from around the world…Japan to Israel, Spain and Germany to Australia, and across North America…who seem to be all feeling the same thing; we have adapted to what we have been doing since early March…we have seen the light of remote learning, teaching and meeting…we have become better at time management and evaluation…and for those with kids of a certain age who have been home we have been able to re-engage and in many cases have a better understanding of who they are as people by listening to them at dinner and other places…the old fashioned way.
But it’s the people and places I am missing the most lately. July always brought a trip our west for work or for school visits, a concert or two, sandwiched around things like All-Star Games and summer high school teaching. All of that has evaporated this year. I noticed the other day that an envelope usually filled with expenses this time of year had not many receipts, and I have mentioned the lack of new business cards that have come in. I usually spend a few hours in July culling all the credentials garnered from games and events for the year into a neater stack…this year no credentials can be had from Zoom events…so the little box for the quarter is somehow empty.
What all this has done as we look ahead is to rejig priorities again and remind us that it is so important for a relationship business to actually keep developing new relationships and keep learning. It is becoming more and more difficult to focus for long periods of time on Zoom conferences…I have taken to watching ones with people I think are interesting in short 15 minute bites, and then pulling one tidbit out of it that I can use later on…and writing down all those notes in a trusty notebook will help for when the mind numbingness of video is more valuable down the line. I can’t replace the places I haven’t been, but I can try and make sure to touch the people far and wide every day so that not every day is lost.
We can’t show up in body, but today showing in spirit is just as important, as we collectively continue to navigate the choppy waters ahead. We certainly aren’t out yet, but keeping the positive focus doesn’t just help oneself, it helps those on the other end of the screen or the line.
