Never too much!

Last week, I sent an email to a colleague that included one word. At the end of the day, I received a reply to that email. My note read, “Thanks!” The reply read, “This was the kindest word I received all day!”

 
In many of my talks, I show a video that ends with two words, “Thank you!” I always remind the audience that we don’t use those two words often enough, that we CAN’T say thanks too much. I read a book once that said saying “thank you” too often was a bad management technique. I agree. Management is about controlling things and saying thank you to things is crazy so managers shouldn’t do that. Leading, on the other hand, is about empowering people. And there is INCREDIBLE power in saying thanks! People will give you much much more when you’re grateful!
 
Nieves, my first granddaughter, was five when we were leaving a restaurant one day. Being a character and leadership teacher, I’d taught Nieves the basics of what character is about and how to practice it. As we exited the building, she held the doors open for some folks who were entering. They walked right past her. You know how a five-year-old can be really loud when she’s not supposed to? She looks back at me and in her outside voice announces, “Opa, those people didn’t say thank you! They don’t have character!” The culprits turned around and immediately started thanking Nieves. TOO LATE! They’d already failed the test, in Nieves’ eyes. As we walked out to the car, Nieves asked me, in all sincerity, “Opa, why don’t people say thank you?” I’m seldom speechless, but I was. I didn’t know. Still don’t. I was brought up, and tried bringing Nieves up, saying thank you when someone does kind. 
 
My first thought every morning is, “Thank you!” I’m so grateful for another day, for my family and the people whom I serve, for this country I live in, for all that I have, and more. I thank the Creator first, then I go about my day. Even the Creator appreciates a word of thanks!
 
We can never thank people enough! For what they do or, more importantly, for who they are. I encourage you to do it as often as you can. Maybe what the cynics who think you CAN be too grateful are saying is that we should express our gratitude for specific behaviors. I suppose saying thanks in general can lose its power, but thanking people for specific behaviors won’t. In fact, it will encourage the recurrence of that behavior. And maybe empower the person to be grateful as well.
 
I don’t know what your day holds for you but there’s a high probability that someone will do something that deserves a “thanks.” Don’t hesitate. Thank them for that specific thing they did. It may make their day!
 
THANK YOU for reading my thoughts. And THANK YOU for being YOU!
 
Until next time, 
 
Be GREAT!
 
You ARE!
 
        ¡HEIRPOWER!
 

                bob vásquez!

Looking for questions

Pablo Picasso once said that “Computers are useless. They can only give answers.” I recently came to a profound realization. I could be wrong, but not completely, I’m sure. Here’s my thought. We cannot conceive a question that people, in particular, young people, can’t answer within seconds. And they can provide thousands upon thousands of answers within those seconds. Give them a minute and it will be millions. They have all the answers, literally, in the palms of their hands. They’re called iPhones or Droids or some other Star Wars-like name. They’re computers. They’re in their hands. And they give answers!
          

While I was growing up, we didn’t have the technology that we now take for granted. We used to go to the library to look for answers. There, they had what we called books! Young folks know what a book is but may not have ever opened one. The library eventually became a popular hangout when the internet came into existence because libraries were the first to have it for free. Libraries still have the internet but now there are plenty of other places where we can get connected for free, even in our cars. Nonetheless, we were looking for answers, and, as Picasso said, computers provided them, so we started to rely on them more and more.

Now, I’m not going to go so far as to agree with Picasso completely, but I do agree with what he was trying to say and that’s another profound thought I had the other day. If people already have answers, what are they now looking for? Questions! The right questions! As my friend, author Seth Godin, says, “Yes, asking questions is often more valued than answering them. (If they're the right questions.)”

I’m almost amazed at the Aha! looks I get when I’m speaking to an audience and ask the right questions. It’s that wow-I-hadn’t-thought-of-that look. My gut tells me that when you have all the answers, or you think you have all the answers, you stop looking for the questions.

The right questions, often, are the heart questions. Sometimes they’re the hard questions. They’re not the questions that will provide you more information but those that will help you think more deeply.  Thinking, itself, is becoming a lost art, like reading books. We have computers that do that for us! The heart questions are “Who am I?” “What’s important, really important?” “Why am I here, what’s my purpose?” There are plenty more, but you can, surely, see where I’m going with this.

Lately, one of my favorite pastimes has become coming up with questions. My favorite pastime is asking those questions and watching audiences ponder them. Interestingly, they’re often the same questions asked in different ways. My sense is that the answers are probably mostly the same as well.

We have plenty of computers. As I write I have four of them on at once. They’re all bombarding me with answers. Sometimes they’re answers to questions I haven’t yet asked. I challenge you to think of the heart questions you think you already may have answers to. If they’re the right answers, seek the right questions.   

 

Until next time, 

Be GREAT! You ARE!

 

                     ¡HEIRPOWER!

 

bob vásquez!

Is it time to lead?

Today’s one of those days that I’m totally bumfoozled! My body is telling me something different than my brain. My body is telling me how I feel. My brain is telling me how I should think. We just switched our clocks forward an hour. Or is it backward? See? I’m so confused! Who made that up? You mean we just told the sun what time to rise? Evidently. It’s amazing how much power we have! Or so it seems when we’re governed by the clock.

 

    The clock is a perspective that leaders use way too often in measuring success. How long have you been a leader? Does that matter? Probably not, but that’s a measure of a leader’s success, isn’t it? Time measures efficiency, not effectiveness. Just because you’ve been a “leader” for a long time doesn’t make you a good one, or one at all, for that matter.

 

    The term the Ancient Greeks used for measuring time by the clock was called Chronos. Chronos is quantitative, it’s easy to measure, as long as you have a clock or a sundial. It’s sequential. One event follows another. Leading isn’t that way, have you noticed? It’s confusing when you expect someone, a follower, to do things a certain way, and she doesn’t. And you’re bumfoozled by why she didn’t do it as you told her to. Maybe there was a better way? Maybe it wasn’t the right time?

 

    The other term the Greeks used for time is Kairos. Kairos means “the right, critical, or opportune moment.” What time do you start leading? When you get to the job or the office? Or when it’s the opportune moment? Do you lead only when you’re on the clock, on duty, or when someone needs your help or support?

 

    My favorite word in the English language is “serendipity.” Serendipity means “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.” I’m constantly aware of serendipitous moments, especially when opportune moments to lead appear. 

 

     Leading effectively can’t be based on a Chronos perspective. It has to be based on a Kairos perspective. When will that opportune moment appear in front of you? You won’t know, but it will happen. Will you step up and lead? If you do, it will be beneficial to you and the person you lead, and it may make both of you happy.

 

      I hope there’s a lot more leading going on than we think. I hope you lead more often than you even know. I hope that you take that opportunity to support someone when THEY need it, when a Kairos moment serendipitously arises. Don’t worry about when. Do it now. Right now’s the moment. It’s time to lead!

 

        Until next time, Be GREAT! You ARE!

 

                     ¡HEIRPOWER!

 

bob vásquez!

Who might know?

 Somewhere, every “leader” has been taught that he/she must “leave their mark” on the organization they lead. In the first place, the organization doesn’t care about you. Sorry. Someone had to tell you. You do NOT lead an organization. If you lead at all, you lead the people who do the work for the organization. 

 

If you’re going to “leave your mark,” it will be on the PEOPLE you lead. One effective way to leave a GOOD mark is to stop reinventing the wheel. Hence, the question, “Who might know?” 

 

I served the same organization for fifty years. I considered making it a career, but, naaawwww…. In all those years, seldom did the person in charge, especially a new “leader,” ask those of us who had been around a while whether we’d ever considered doing it or even had done it before. “It” being the “grand new” idea the new leader was considering implementing. It’s almost amazing how many grand new ideas we’d tried before. Some worked. Some didn’t. But who knows? Back to my question, “Who might know?” 

 

Effectiveness comes when the Leader does the research to find out who might have been around when it was tried before and the results of doing it that way. Were there special causes that led to that outcome? Is there a better way to do a similar thing? Could advances in technology and the smarter employees affect the outcome in a more positive way? Do you see how all of those other powerful questions were generated by the first one, “Who might know?” 

 

My friend, Simon Sinek, says that people just want to be valued and valuable. That question does both. When a Leader asks around about who might know more and better than he or she does, it implies that those who have been there and have a lot of experience, the corporate knowledge, are valued. Those people will become more and more valuable as they realize they’re valued and trusted then, subsequently, they’ll provide more input as to how to succeed. Instead of reinventing the wheel…again…ask, “Who might know?” 

 

Back in my day, leaders were admonished to look around when assuming charge of a new organization. See how things are going before interjecting how you’ll “fix” everything. The world has sped up so much now that leaders want to, maybe think they need to, change everything as quickly as possible. But are those changes effective? Will they make us better? Change is different. Progress is better. Who might know? A powerful question that might lead to greater effectiveness. 

 

Until next time, 

 

Be GREAT! 

 

You ARE!