Filters

Filters

Sometimes people just don’t believe it. It’s because they see from their filter. Years ago I realized the impact that 23 flavors (Dr. Pepper) had on waistline and I had to make a change. However, bad coffee was not the answer. Then one day I tasted the glory of great coffee and my whole perspective shifted. Now - during a training, I try to let people know about great coffee (French Press) as well as how to be great leaders. Pam put out a challenge to me. She said - “next session make us French Press coffee”. Challenge accepted. The picture above is Laura doing her first ever press. Then … it happened … they realized what they hadn’t ever before. They realized French Press is the greatest way to brew coffee.

Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. I think it’s important to remember that we don’t know what we don’t know.

Obviously, it’s easy to see that a French Press, Keurig, drip, and pour over are all different ways to brew coffee. Different filters give you different ways to taste the same type of coffee.

Well .. I have my own filter for communicating and making decisions. Just like you have yours. The SDI 2.0 helps us see everyone’s filter in a data-driven way. We map out the filters of everyone you work with and put that information at the tip of your fingers. This is a game changer for anyone wanting to improve their communication and leadership. Great leaders can see from the filters of everyone they work with and then tailor their communication so others can understand them.

Who knows … when you learn to see from someone else’s perspective and filter you might realize they were right. It’s hard to admit, but if Pam and Laura can admit it - so can you!

Learn to see from someone’s filter today.

Go enjoy a great French Press coffee today.

Remember What's Important

Remember what’s important

Last night I was watching Secretariat with my 13-year-old son. He's captivated by pretty much any movie that has to do with anything sports-related.

About half-way through the movie, everything seems to be falling apart. Red, the horse, is not eating or running. The owner leveraged everything she had on the horse winning the triple crown. In those moments it seemed like everything was falling apart after everything had been going so well.

As I was watching that section of the movie, I felt like those 4 minutes summed up my day. It was the kind of day when nothing was going right. Proposals weren't signed, friends were getting divorced, and the list goes on.

All of a sudden, what they thought was a life-changing issue was not a big deal.

It seems that way in life. We put so much stock into what happens today that we can forget what can happen tomorrow. A few years ago if I had a day that didn't go as planned, I would have stayed up all night working because of my short-sighted view of the big picture. I would have justified skipping:

• story time with my four kids (3 boys and 1 little girl)

• watching a movie with my son

• sipping wine with my wife

Let's be honest, a few years ago that happened often!

My business is much healthier now than when I started, but my ability to remember what's important and not let bad moments ruin my day and shift my focus has improved as well.

I hope to dominate life at work. But if some days I miss out on dominating life at work - that's no excuse for missing out on loving life at home.

Let's remember that there is more to life than what happens today. While what happens today is essential it shouldn't ruin our ability to engage with who and what is most important. We can always rest, wake up tomorrow and get back after it.

How do you keep yourself from forgetting what's important in life when life doesn't go your way?

Why SDI 2.0?

Three Reasons To Bring SDI 2.0 To Your Team

There are a four things that we often hear when working with new teams and clients.

1) We have a great people.

2) Our great people don’t know how to communicate.

3) I (managers) am nervous to bring direct feedback to the great people because of a fear of conflict.

4) Drama drains the team and damages the ability to get great work done.

All of these statements point towards why we leverage the SDI 2.0 instead of other tools.

Here’s the deal, there are plenty of tools on the market and some of them are pretty good. Here are three core reasons we use this one.

1) Stickiness | The concepts and language around when things are going well, when we are in conflict, strengths and overdone strengths are simple and easy to bring into every day work life. If a tool can’t be integrated into your work, it probably isn’t the right tool to invest in.

2) Awareness | Myers Briggs, Birkman, DiSC, Enneogram can all help us become more self-aware of our norms (some better than others), however the SDI 2.0 hits the nail on the head to help us find our voice when we are at our best and navigate conflict to get back to our best when things aren’t going our way.

3) Scalable | My wife will tell you … I don’t like to spend money, but when I do buy something I want to buy something that will last. This assessment will last and can continue to scale throughout your organization. It’s not a one and done tool for a fun training, it’s a tool that drives healthy relational results in your organization and helps each leader take the next step with their development.

Here’s the fourth personal reason. For years I worked with other tools and always felt like they were okay, but not great. This was first tool that helped me realize what I did to make a mess. The first tool that nailed my conflict sequence on the head and caused me to apologize to my wife and realize how to be a better husband. The first tool that caused to me realize why I could get the right results and tick so many people off in the process. The first tool to help me see how I could continue to get great results, but with healthy relationships. I wanted to help people, but it wasn’t always evident. Now … it’s evident more often than it was before.

We hope this helps you think through which tool to use. We loved bringing it to the Walton Arts Center Team in 2019!

Build-A-Bike

Build-A-Bike Leadership Training

We were at the Gaylord Golf Club in Nashville, Tennessee on a beautiful summer day. I’ve been plenty of places for training and keynotes, but today was a different kind of day.

I’ll never forget the moment at the top of the stairs. The management trainees were just informed that the bikes they built during the training were going to be delivered to inner city kids who have never had a bike and most of them didn’t know how to ride a bike.

Immediately the tears started streaming and then laughter, disbelief and joy. The Cintas Team Members took the kids into the parking lot, gave them a helmet and taught them how to ride. About 15 minutes into riding around a parking lot (dodging the latest Mercedes Benz now dangerously parked) a kid turned and asked, how much longer he was going to be able to ride. He couldn’t believe the bike was his.

Then my wife rolled in with Chick-Fil-A for the kids and the plush golf club let us all eat with the kids in the club house, overlooking a golf course most will never see again.

It was a good day. A powerful day. A day of effective training.

Find the Eddy

Rest

I was a cocky 15 year old about to experience the cold Colorado River for the first time after convincing a half-way sober guide to let me go it alone in a kayak. We are heading down the river and he said, “you need to know how to find an eddy in case you need to rest in the rapids”. After learning what an eddy was the hard way, I found myself heaving for air from the cold river.

We’ve all been there. The painful feeling of nothing going right when you are simply trying to rest.

We focus on helping leaders learn to find the eddy so that we can navigate the rapids rather than letting the rapids control us.

If you need to learn how to rest to get back to being you, then give us a call.