The Sanford Berenberg Experience

502-533-9336

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Message of the Day - Being Bold is Never Old

Good Morning,

Another bit of wisdom I gleaned from ‘Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership’ by James M. Strock, is this: “When leaders and enterprises cease to take bold actions as a matter of course, they may have become dangerously comfortable or more attuned to their own concerns than the needs of those they would serve”.

But wait, this is a tough economy; we must all be like turtles and shrink into our shells and not spend another penny for five years or take any chances whatsoever. Or at least that seems to be the messages we hear on the TV, Radio and internet these days.

Bold actions still apply in tough economies. I am not talking about reckless, but strong, well planned and intelligent actions.

You know why it is good to be bold? Because it is often the bold actions of leaders DURING these tough times often determine whose company survives and whose organization thrives. Those who hole up and wait for the crisis to pass tend to miss out on the opportunities which present themselves during rough times. How is that helping their teams and organizations?

And remember, in rough times, there are ALWAYS opportunities. No matter how bad something is, there is usually someone or group who is benefitting from it. On some levels that is sad or morbid, and on others, it is people who are being bold and making decisions to capitalize on the bad situation rather than crawl up into a fetal position and expect the worst that end up in the best shape after the smoke clears.

Sure it is rough out there and there are people losing jobs and the economy is doing poorly and all of these things are true. But it is also true that America has had nearly a dozen spells with the economy in the tank and each time has pulled out of it. We may only remember the Great Depression, but there were numerous other times where the economy was bad.

How did we get out of those periods? Faith and perseverance was one way we recovered. Another was bold actions. Companies like Nordstrom’s, IBM, General Electric have all weathered rough economic times, and have continued to survive. Sure, some of these companies may falter going forward, but that is not the point.

The point is that they continue and those that make bold moves keep themselves alive. Does that mean that everyone who makes bold moves will succeed? Unfortunately no.

Those who hunker down and take care of their own needs rather than lead with bold moves are more at risk, though will most certainly find themselves behind those who dare to be bold.

So, get those thinking caps on and dare to be bold.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Message of the Day - Too Stubborn For My Own Good

Good Morning,

Some folks may not realize this, but I can get really focused on achieving a goal and develop tunnel vision. Everything I do or think then turns to achieving that goal. When problems arise, I resolve them and keep moving toward the goal. This ability to focus with laser precision is a true asset, but like all assets it is a great liability at the same time. Sometimes I get so focused that I miss the blatant signs that I am going the wrong direction. In other words, I get so boneheaded I ignore reality.

I know, some of you are saying it’s not true Sanford; you’re not like that at all. And others, well, hush, and never mind Karen standing behind me laughing. She earned that after what I put her through this past Saturday.

Last week we saw an ad for a large annual book sale. You know my eyes perked up. ‘Book sale’ hmm, sounds good, let’s go. It was to be on Saturday from 10 AM to 4:30 PM. I checked the website and got the time and downloaded address to my phone. We planned on being there at 10 AM.

So far so good!

Then we found out that one of our daughters who was to stay with her Dad this weekend had a scheduling mishap. It was something she was planning for over a month and really, really wanted to happen. How could we say no? (Book sale, please wait for me). So Karen and I would keep Samantha Friday night and would drop her off with a friend Saturday morning, but after we went to the book sale.

Problem fixed!

Then on Friday afternoon, Karen noticed a rash on Samantha’s back and called the Dr. They said come in Saturday morning.

Dang!

So we brought Samantha to the Dr. and found it is nothing major (thank you Lord!) then we went to drop Samantha off at the skating rink with her friend at 11 AM. There is still time to hit the book sale (which is completely on the other side of the city)! I powered up the map on my iPhone and it won’t take the route from our current location! Dang iPhone!! I rebooted it twice and still couldn’t get it to work. So I set up directions from my home to the sale and get the map, and that worked. The GPS showed where we were and the map showed where we were going to. All was good (the iPhone and I were friends again).

Then I received a call on my phone and I put on my new Bluetooth headset. Next thing you know the GPS went nuts, saying we are miles away from where we were. HUH?!? After the call, we kept heading onward, after turning off the headset, and finally made it the location of the book sale. And there was practically no one there, something was wrong.

Maybe it was the sign outside the location saying the sale was to be NEXT week. The ad we originally saw had a misprint.

All those signs not to go to sale were there. Only one problem, I completely ignored them because I was focused on the goal. Okay, you can say it now, ‘BONEHEAD!’

Sorry about the long story to get to the point.

We can get so focused in what we are doing in life that we completely miss the signs franticly waving in our face trying to get our attention. When you see the sign, instead of going the bonehead route like me, stop and ask yourself, ‘why is this happening?’ is there something I missed?

If I had done that and actually READ the website, I would have seen that there was a misprint in the first ad we read. Hopefully by embarrassing myself I will learn from my own lesson.

And next week, we are going to the book sale, of course there are more signs saying not to….

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Friday, March 6, 2009

Message of the Day - Trust is the Foundation

Good Morning,

There are many factors in leadership which are important. Having direction of where the team is going, knowing how to inspire the team members to accept the goal as their own and to work toward that goal are all imperative for success. The leader has to care about the team members and nurture them and help them grow. Ultimately, leaders are there to create future leaders through training, experience, guidance and growth. While teams can and do exist without these facets and factors, their success is reduced without them.

The lynchpin in all of this is trust.

Without trust, there is no real team. A group of people will not fully follow someone they do not trust. A leader will not inspire or nurture someone as effectively if they do not trust them. Would you follow a guide/leader into an unknown path where you have a vague idea of the goal, but cannot see it if you do not trust them? As a leader, would you take a team of people you knew who were not physically fit through a military obstacle course?

Trust takes a long time to build up and only a few seconds to destroy. The build up of trust a second time takes even longer.

To build trust, we can start by simply giving our team trust that they can do a job, and give them all opportunities to succeed. Let them do their job and trust in them to succeed or call us for help.

When we continually infuse trust into our team, trusting them to be who they are and to do their job and to help, nurture and inspire them, the magic of the team comes alive.

That magic can also vanish in a heartbeat with single act of distrust. Some leaders have thrown their teams under the bus to save their own hide when addressing deficits in team activity. As a Captain goes down with their ship, the Leader goes down with the team. A leader who abandons their team to save themselves does not trust their team, and will lose the trust of their team members.

In this example above, a leader should stand up for their team, and share with management all of the gains made and the plans to improve further. If management agrees, then all is good, the team can continue. If management does not agree, then the leader has not lost the trust of their team because they stood up for them.

Trust is the glue that holds a team together. If you cannot trust your teammates, then you have doubts about them, and the doubts can impact your work and that of the teams.

Don’t trust blindly, but look for ways you can trust, and start with the small things and work you way up.

Trust starts when people do what they say they will do. Build on that.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Message of the Day - History Remembers Action Not Critics

Good Morning,

My current read is “Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership: Executive Lessons from the Bully Pulpit” by James M. Strock (http://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Roosevelt-Leadership-Executive-Lessons/dp/0761515399). Folks who know Theodore or Teddy Roosevelt know he was a strong man, both physically, mentally and spiritually. He was the king of firebrands and would push hard to do whatever job was in front of him as best as he could, no matter how ‘menial’ the position. He took leadership of to a whole new level during his tenure in government. Many folks feared him for what he would do next, and others were happy to sit on his coattails and enjoy the ride.

One of the best Theodore Roosevelt quotes mentioned in this book bears repeating due to its power and significance in my life, and hopefully in yours as well:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt.

What President Roosevelt is saying, in other words, is the Monday morning quarterback does not know the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat on the field. It is those of us who actually stand up and DO that Theodore Roosevelt is praising, and his praise is for a good reason. It is hard to stand up. We have to overcome many challenges, there is peer pressure, there is fear of the unknown, there is fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of well, being afraid.

Nitpickers have their place in life, and they are helpful to find errors, but the purpose of finding errors is not to belittle someone or undermine them, rather give them the fuel and direction to make course corrections and try again. Nitpickers who continue nitpicking instead of ever getting up and actually doing something are pretty much a waste of our time. Also, if we listen to them too often, it could cause us more problems and challenge or faith in ourselves and our goals.

When you listen to critics, and yes, they are your friends because they care enough to say something, understand who they are and their background and knowledge. If you are a golf pro with decades of experience, and you nitpick a rookie golfer, your advice will probably be better than the critic who has never played the game, but watched a lot of golf on TV from his command chair.

In the end, as Theodore Roosevelt says, the credit belongs to the person in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. It is not the critic who nitpicker how solely looks to criticize, who deserves the credit.

History will bare this out. For example:

Who built one of the first automobiles? Henry Ford. Who were his critics? ……. I hear crickets.

Who invented the light bulb? Thomas Edison. Who were his critics?........ crickets again.

Who flew the first powered airplane? The Wright Brothers. Who were their critics?........crickets.

Who designed the first suspension bridge? Roebling. Who were his critics?........... crickets.

Who…….. Crickets.

See the point. The pressure from critics and nitpickers today may be overwhelming, but history honors those who push through while the critics are mostly forgotten.

So, go and do!

Enjoy

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Message of the Day - Relaxed Power

Good Morning,

Sunday, I finished Norman Vincent Peale’s ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ and really enjoyed it. I am sorry I waited so long to read it. It was a bit rough to get through at first, but it became easier and easier to read as I continued through it.

One section of the book that caught my attention talked about pushing too hard in the trying to get the things that we want and the problems this over-pushing causes us. Folks who steamroll their way through life end up getting what they want more often than not, but also find themselves overly tired and worn out more often than not. Not to mention the frustration and anguish it can also cause them and those who get ‘steamrolled’.

It seems the harder we push for what we want, the greater the amount of resistance to our efforts pushes back at us. It is as if we put on ankle, wrist and other weights as we run a race. The faster we run, the more weights we seem to wear. The more effort we put into the race, the better our chances of winning, and at the same time, the more energy we spend getting there.

Also, the harder we push, the more damage to relationships can result. In the end, after putting our nose to the grindstone and pushing through to the end and celebrating victory in achieving our goal could be tempered slightly by the smell of burning ruins from all the damage created in our quest for our goal at all costs.

There is an easier way to go about it. It is called a relaxed power.

We can win the race with the same if not more efficiency and skill and with using less energy. We can also get what we want without crushing those around us at the same time.

How can that be?

We can do this by planning ahead and mentally running and winning the race. Mentally doing the task and clearly visualizing ourselves getting the job done before we even hear the starting gun can remove obstacles before they even appear.

Then, when we have planned and mentally prepared, the race is easier to run, our minds, both conscious and subconscious know what is necessary to get the job done and they go about doing it. Like the message from Timothy Gallwey’s “Inner Game of Tennis” where we practice mentally and let our subconscious drive the bus rather than our ego, we can get the job done more efficiently with less energy going into the task.

The more prepared we are, the less push we need. The more we visualize our goal, the more life seems to clear a path for us. More efficiency, less destruction.

Numerous experiments have been run showing the greater results from people who mentally prepared for a task and those who just went at it. Can someone say ‘Law of Attraction’?

Being hard driving and determined is fine, but don’t do that alone, employ the other tools in our toolkit, like our subconscious mind, by mentally preparing and performing the task prior to even starting.

The results can be impressive and the energy we save can open up some more time in our day and week to do things we often never get to do.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Monday, March 2, 2009

Message of the Day - Becoming Desensitized to the world around us.

Good Morning,

We have a door in our kitchen which my daughter Stephanie and I replaced last year. The door we replaced was falling off the hinges and had to be lifted up to close. The new door works great, but has not been painted yet. The rest of the room is a near white with a slight tint of blue in it. The door is still the original wood color. It stands out like a sore thumb.

Well, it did stand out like a sore thumb a few months ago. Now it has faded into part of the scenery. It is as if a new person has to come into the room and do a double-take on the door for us to realize that we have not painted it yet.

Funny how that works.

This principal also works in other areas of our lives. As we come into more frequent contact with different behaviors, we become used to them. Even behaviors which we abhor, we can slowly tolerate as we get used to them. It could be violent movies or video games. It could be a foul-mouthed coworker who offends for fun, who goes from office bully to ‘that’s just so-and-so’ and folks write it off as their normal behavior. The next new person comes in and then gets an earful of so-and-so’s mouth and they are astonished at what they hear, and in addition, that everyone around them is seemingly ‘okay’ with it.

It makes you wonder about those people who tolerate such behavior. Some may realize that it is desensitization of a bad situation, others may look at it as the people there are all like that, and to be ready for the next volley coming at them.

This is not a situation that I would like to be in, and I do want the door painted, but we have to wait for warmer weather (it was 15 degrees this morning, so painting is not looking promising for another few weeks).

So, how do we get out of this rut?

First we must make ourselves aware of what we have become desensitized to.

We then must decide if it is something that we agree with or not. And then we must be courageous and make a decision as to what to do about the situation, and then follow through.

It could be turning off the violent TV shows so your kids do not watch them. It could me stop talking to the abusive person who offends those around them or not laughing at their crude jokes. It could mean praying about what to do. It could mean a lot of things, but at least you are back in control and you are deciding what to do.

There is a lot going on in this world that is troubling, but that does not mean that we should put on blinders and forget about it. It also means that we do not have to become reactionary in how we respond to these situations, rather, just know what is going on, and make a decision for yourself.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg