Clearview® Performance Systems brings you ... ® ... a Culture of Results & Engagement®
Here's the next in our series of weekly managerial TIPS (Techniques, Insights, and Practical Solutions)
to help you better engage your team in the activities that lead to higher performance.
CORE Bites Issue #89
(August 25, 2020)
“Neil, I'd like to speak with you. Now.”
Every one of us has someone in our past who had a significant impact on the direction we end up taking in our life journey. However, some of us didn't necessarily appreciate the life-changing message at the time it was delivered. In my case, this message came when I was a Junior—and it came from my Home Room teacher. Now, when I went to high school, a Home Room teacher was simply there to take attendance first thing in the morning before we all departed to meet the obligations of our respective class schedules. But, Mr. Sturm saw it differently ...
On that day he sent the rest of the students on their way but asked me to stay back. He then sat on the corner of his desk and described the fact that my demonstrable lack of motivation; my do-just-enough-to-get-by attitude; and my acceptance of mediocrity, as it pertained to my education, was going to define a very limited set of options for me in life. The examples he used—as difficult as they were to hear—made it obvious that I must have been the subject of conversation in the Staff Room. [Ouch!]
This is when I first recognized that life is about Choices ... not Chances.
While it varies in different parts of the world, this is the time when many students are preparing for, or heading back, to whatever the new version of school will be for them. I was pondering this week how many of them haven't yet had a "Mr. Sturm Conversation" and will miss out on some of the key elements of school that aren't listed as 'subjects' or graded on the report card. Yes, learning the Pythagorean Theory and knowing that the mitochondria is the power plant of the cell is important stuff, but many of the key learnings are only discovered when someone who's been there points the way.
The HVAs this week won't be new for most—but they are timeless. Use them as a reminder (and/or refresher) within your own life; use them to help coach/mentor members of your team who may need to learn these lessons; or, just maybe, you can use them to have a "Mr. Sturm Conversation" with your own children as they go back to school.
[On a personal note, here is what I wrote about Mr. Sturm in the Acknowledgments section of my PhD Dissertation: "To Mr. Sturm who, as a teacher in my junior year in high school took this immature, bad-actor with a 'tude and provided him with a firm wake-up call that resulted in some much better life choices. Thank you!" ]
This week (starting today), look for situations where you would benefit from re-thinking or re-framing or re-executing the HVAs listed below:
I'd love to hear how these HVAs work for you!
Neil Dempster, PhD, MBA
RESULTant™ and Behavioral Engineer
"If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse."
— Jim Rohn —