Half-Fullism

I haven’t blogged in a few days,  because I recently came down with some kind of cold/flu that has really knocked me for a loop.

I actually had to leave work early yesterday, which I can’t recall doing in the last 15 years.

After some needed rest, I’m back in the office but still pretty far from 100%.

Of course, once my head cleared a little bit and the joint pain subsided, “the question” popped into my head:

“Hey, I’ve been taking better care of myself now than in any other time of my life . I eat well, I don’t drink, I don’t eat gluten, I don’t smoke (never did), I practice yoga 4-5 times a week -  how on earth could I have caught something like this???”

I need to be careful with that question, because if I dwell on it too long, I’d start feeling sorry for myself and all of a sudden my glass would be half-empty.

So, I need a half-full perspective - and thankfully, my dear wife is always happy to oblige me with one.

Her take - I’m actually lucky.  These bugs are really knocking people down for the count this winter.  People are in bed for days.   My healthy lifestyle is keeping me from getting much worse.

OK, I think I can buy that.

(cough, cough……)

At least for the next couple of days……. 

In a well worth reading profile of J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler today in the NY Times by Joe Nocera, I found one of the best “tells” a Half-Fuller could ever find about whether or not he or she is working in the right place.

Earlier in Drexler’s career he worked for a big department store, and he ultimately knew that job wasn’t for him when he observed:

“They look at you funny when you show too much passion”

Think about that one the next time you make a big pitch in front of your bosses, or try to exhort your teammates to greater heights.

Passion is the magic elixir that separates good companies from great. It needs to be prevalent with nearly everyone in the organization, especially at the top.

Mickey Drexler’s passion for “anticipating what clothes people would want to wear before they even knew it themselves” is paying off in a big way for J. Crew (they are growing nicely in a down economy), and his teammates are all the better for it, because they sure aren’t getting any “funny looks” from him.

And their men’s shirts ain’t half bad either……

This week I’ve been on the road discussing our 2008 goals and objectives with my teammates in the field – those who have daily interactions with customers.

I’ve had an invisible companion to guide me this go-round – Don Quixote (picture courtesy of Picasso)

I have been making the case that by becoming a business that is supremely focused on the customer and on each other, something more than just profit can result.

Happiness can happen. For all.

Every teammate happy to get up in the morning and go to work, filled with the joy of knowing that they are doing something meaningful and fulfilling.

That’s what I want for these folks, and I believe it can happen.

I suppose the cynics and those who prefer to see the glass as half-empty would call this a foolish and unattainable goal – there are too many variables, too many outside influences, too many differing personalities and attitudes, and too many of a lot of other things to get in the way of unanimous joy.

But try I must- and that’s where the Man of La Mancha comes in. He was on a quest, a desire (quoting from the Broadway musical) to “add some measure of grace to the world”.

By adding grace, we honor the labor and effort that’s such a big part of our daily lives. By that honor we put the achievement of satisfying customers and supporting our teammates in a new light – a brighter and more fulfilling one.

So his quest is my quest. For as Quixote sings in the signature song “The Impossible Dream”:

“This is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!”

Happy teammates is my heavenly cause. And I (and Don) won’t stop trying to get everyone to the top of that mountain until the job is done.

This past week our operations group conducted a series of management meetings where there were presentations from various divisions, preparing us for the new year’s challenges. As the group’s leader I essentially served as the host, moderator, and keynote speaker.

My topic was Leadership – for I believe it is one of our 4 key elements to greatness as a company.

While I’ll be discussing those 4 elements in a post next week (and how they apply to all service companies), I wanted to write today about how my experience with these meetings caused me to think about the “Happy Place”.

How could a business meeting generate those kind of thoughts? And what is the Happy Place?

Here’s how it happened. Before the meetings started I was bound and determined to have a positive tone throughout – I’ve been through too many of these things that turned sour, with disjointed and irrelevant topics, a lack of participation (i.e. too much “talking at”), and negative influences getting the upper hand.

My mind set was “up, up, up”, and I knew I needed to be the catalyst. I also knew that in order to really make progress there had to be some “back and forth” going on with certain topics where I knew there was going to be disagreement – where the land mines of negativity usually are found.

As we got started and the first session unfolded I laid out our objectives and expectations, and added a request that popped into my head at that moment – to stay in the “Happy Place” throughout.

It came out as a kind of a funny way to say “keep it positive”, and it got laughs and knowing smiles. I immediately sensed that the attendees “got” it, and that I now had a virtual code phrase that I could use whenever levity (and the underlying message) was needed.

Use it I did, and it kept the mood in just the right place, and as the meetings continued, the positive energy increased. And then I entered a Happy Place of my own. As I started my keynote, I felt an exhilaration and joy that was indescribable. I realized I was doing something I absolutely loved to do, in the absolutely perfect environment for doing it – speaking to a receptive and engaged group.

I had to let that sink in – I wanted to not only experience happiness, but also acknowledge and embrace it. But as can typically happen, something in me was resisting. It was like actually admitting to myself that I was happy would somehow “jinx” it.

I was only visiting the Happy Place, and something was not letting me stay there. I finished the presentation and was quite satisfied with the response, but I continued to think about my struggle into the evening.

As I prepared for sleep that night I tried to relive the day in my head and re-enter the Happy Place, at least for a little while longer. I tried to consciously let go of what I could only describe as a fear of true bliss.

I got back in as I fell asleep, but in the morning I was back out again, as the expectations and uncertainties of the next day crept in. Another day of meetings went very well, and I continued to use the metaphorical Happy Place as a great tool.

As for the real Happy Place, I realized I had some work left to do, but that was OK. I like challenges, and this week presented me with a doozy. It’s the challenge of piecing together all the things that put us in a good place and weaving them into a constant and unwavering state of happiness and joy, unencumbered by the fear of losing it forever, or being “too happy”.

I’ll keep at it, and writing about it, because I’ve found it to be an invaluable part of the process.

Have a great weekend!

As evidenced by my scarcity of posts of late I’ve been in one of those periods of my life when everything is going 100 miles an hour. I affectionately call these times “stumbling towards nirvana“.

Since I recently became a yoga fan, this expression has taken on even greater meaning, because of the underpinnings of this practice and its quest for internal harmony and balance. The funny thing is, while I’ve gotten greater clarity on how I should get to this place, I’ve also gotten a much better awareness of when I am indeed stumbling towards it.

Fall is typically the time in the business world where you take stock of where you are and figure out where you want to go next, a process otherwise known as budgeting. I’ve never really fully embraced this yearly ritual, since I’m usually much more engaged with what I’m doing right now. When I’m in the thick of budgets I always recall a great quote by the CEO of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher:

“Some years ago……Wall Street and the airline analysts became very fascinated with plans - you know, what kinds of plans did you have - and would corner me about that, and I said, We have a very special plan, it’s called doing things”

Yep, I much prefer to be doing things, so thinking about doing things more or less grinds my mental gears - or in nirvana terms, causes a stumble.

On top of that, I continue to travel a lot, and I also had to deal with one of those “house of cards” issues that I posted about a couple of weeks ago. A couple more stumbles.

Then, for the first time in my life I’ve had trouble sleeping lately - now that’s certainly a signal of stumbling too.

OK, so I’ve recognized the signs, so what do I do about it? The Half-Fuller in me knows that eventually the stumbling will cease, but what can I do to speed it up?

It helps to have good advice in these situations, and I’m blessed with friends and family that can provide it in abundance.

The people that know me best noticed something different, and the most perceptive ones even coined a phrase to describe it - “you are too far off the ground - come back down”.

I was “rising” up out of myself to take on all these challenges (the “stumbles”) and by doing so was losing my grounding, my balance, and my internal connection.

The solution was to consciously sink back down, “pulling back” all the stuff floating around outside of me and by doing so calming everything down.

I know it sounds otherworldly, but this mental image really helped me. In the last few days, while in my quiet moments at home and on the yoga mat, I’ve imagined that “pull” back into myself, and literally felt myself getting heavier, and more grounded.

It may just be a glorified way of just simply “chilling out” and getting a better focus on things, but it has really helped to turn the stumble into a leisurely walk.

And that’s a much better pace towards nirvana. Enjoying the journey.