Urgent Vs Important | Lessons From a Funeral

We sat in a hotel lobby in rural Illinois with a poorly taxidermy mounted cross eyed coyote looking at everyone in the foyer. The family is pouring in from all over the country during COVID 19, masked up, ready to bury our grandfather. He had passed on Friday morning and we were all gathering on Saturday and Sunday.

As we pour into the only hotel in Princeton, Illinois, it’s clear how tired we all are. We dropped our work, changed our plans and either drove or flew too many hours to count.

It makes me wonder. How come we can we all drop our “work” in a moment to gather for a funeral, but we can’t drop our work in a moment to kick the ball in the yard with our kids, or take our spouse on a date, or mountain bike with a friend. (wondering for myself) When I’m stressed and overwhelmed, I drop the important and focus on the work.

I seem to make time for the urgently important, but not the important.

Why does it take so much to bring family together? How come we can’t make time for the important? Why does the urgent take precedence?

Maybe this week … begin focusing on the important … so we don’t get to the urgent and realize we’ve lost out all along.

We let the urgent take precedence in our families too often. What about at work?

How many of us focus on the fires instead of consistency? How many of us focus on the "crisis" instead of the plan? Then we wonder why the plans don't move forward as we planned? 

We are all trying to do our best, focus on what's important, but sometimes we let the urgent become the priority instead of letting what's most important remain the priority. 

I think it's important to remember that not everything is a crisis. Not everything is urgent. If we stick to the plan, maybe we have less urgency to worry about.

My Wife Wants A Garden The Size Of. A Swimming Pool

My wife has been planning a garden and so she asked me to prep it. She’s from Nebraska … so it’s going to be a big garden. (Think swimming pool size …)

My wife wants a garden, so after a week of praying that she would change her mind, I got on board when she had a friend drop off his tiller. Here are my steps:

Step 1: Get out the mower for the inaugural mow of the season

• Result: The belt popped off the mower 3 times. The swimming pool area is mowed, but that’s it…

Step 2: Learn to use the tiller my buddy dropped off

• Result: The ground still looks like I mowed … She called her dad who shared that there is a setting to adjust the tiller depth. Try #2 is coming tonight. On a positive note, I introduced my 14-year-old son to a pick ax as secondary option to tilling and gaining man muscles.

Step 3: Visit an essential business

• Result: Supporting the local economy

Am I frustrated? Yes. Today was the day it was going to happen. We fired up the Hustler and 90 seconds later the belt popped off. We put the belt back on. 64.2 seconds later the belt popped off.

Today was not much different than any other day during the past few weeks. Goals, ideas, and strategies are interrupted by something unplanned and frustrating.

We’re tired of it. What should take one hour is taking 4 hours and two nights.

I’m not sure how to avoid the gardening frustration (unless I knew how to use a tiller…)

However, I do know how we can make sure that the daily interruptions and frustrations don’t get the best of us. The mower will be fixed. The garden bed will be tilled. The goal will be accomplished. Life will go on.

You see - Meg (my wife) has a clear vision for the garden of what goes where and family and friends enlisted to help with it. So, I’m in. I love the idea. No matter what happens, we will adjust and overcome because I share in the vision.

We can’t avoid daily interruptions and uncertainty getting in the way, but when we have a clear shared vision (that is more than a trite statement), we can overcome and continue on. That’s the key…having a clear shared vision with clear priorities. We need to know and be committed to the daily steps that are necessary to move forward towards the dream.

When we have a clear vision, with clear direction, we can rest. We call it Finding The Eddy.

If you are tired of uncertainty and disruption getting in the way of your vision, change it up. Find The Eddy. Join our coaching group that begins April 15th and we will get there together.

Performance Management | The 201° Story

It was the summer of 2019. Our family was officially growing from 3 boys to 3 boys and little girl. So our house size needed to grow as well. We found the perfect house in the woods. Sure … it had what Meg needed inside, but it also has what I need outside. A massive, custom-built, Texas-style smoker.

Okay. Here’s how I fed my family and friends all summer. Here’s when it clicked.

Great management is like smoking a pork shoulder. Don’t roll your eyes - get ready to go eat and become a better manager. Management is not just telling people what to do and making sure it’s done. Management should truly be helping your people achieve their fullest potential and then celebrating when it happens! That doesn’t happen organically, naturally or easily. It takes a process. (just like it takes a process to get to 201°!)

Step 1 | Preparation

The Food: Preparation is key. The right cut of meat, the right spices, the right temp on the fire. If you don’t prepare, there’s a good chance you won’t enjoy the end result.

The Backyard Smoker

The Manager: Onboarding the team member properly makes a drastic impact on the success of that team member. Build a relationship with them, find their strengths, discover their communication style and bring clarity to how they can succeed. We leverage the SDI 2.0 to help shorten the learning curve in new relationships and enhance those that already exist.

Step 2 | Maintain Consistency

The Food: The pork shoulder is on the grate. It’s cooking. There are three responsibilities I have during this step of the process.

a) Monitor the smoker temperature

b) Monitor the meat temperature

c) Continue to add the proper amount of logs to the fire to maintain the temperature

The goal is consistency. It takes effort, checking, knowing the right size of the log to put in the fire box. The meat can keep improving with consistency.

The Manager: Maintaining a consistently healthy work environment is key to developing a direct report to reach their potential. Our check-in process helps the team member take ownership of their development and gives you the opportunity to provide steady feedback so they can keep improving. The goal is growth and moving towards 201°. If you don’t keep the fire going or if you let it go for too long the temp can drop. That’s when you need to lean in even more to get back on track.

Step 3 | The Wrap

Time To Wrap!

The Food: The pork is edible at 145°, but it would be horrible. It’s like giving a direct report a task and they complete it, but they do such a bad job that you will never ask them to do it again. Well - that could be on you for asking them too soon. (maybe). Back to the food. When the pork shoulder reaches 180° you pull it out and wrap it in foil. The foil increases the temp faster and gets it to 201° in half the time. If you wrap too soon the pork can cook but will lose out on the flavor and burnt ends. You have to do the wrap at the right time, which is clear to you since you are checking it on a regular basis to maintain consistency.

The Manager: When the team member is ready for next-level coaching you need to provide it. You have been maintaining consistency and development for them, but you and I both know that some comments they need to hear they won’t hear until they are ready. We don’t want to break them, we want to develop them. Picture a team member at 180° and you are almost to 201°. It’s time to have a conversation about their growth, development and how they can hit the next level. Then you maintain consistency at a faster pace to help them get there.

Step 4 | The Celebration and Rest

The Food: When the temperature gauge on the meat hits 201° it’s a party for all. Hard work is going to pay off soon. You pull the pork shoulder off gently because it’s falling apart already. After you pull it off the smoker it’s time to let it rest for an hour. It’s still cooking. It’s 201° degrees! Let it rest for an hour and finish prepping the rest of the meal. If you don’t let it rest you will not experience the full potential of what you spent so much time working on.

The Manager: When the team member pushes through a challenging project with success and hits 201° you celebrate! When we Hustle and Grind we need to remember to Rest! If we don’t give them a moment to rest we will miss out on the team member truly hitting their full potential.

Well … that’s the 201° Performance Management Story. It’s time for you to experience your own 201° stories. Give us a shout to bring 201° to you soon.