Fear is a reaction, courage is a decision. Perseverance is making the decision to have courage every day, day after day.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself. We should all remember those famous words of FDR in today’s difficult economic times. We would also do well to think about the words of Carlos Castaneda (via his character Don Juan Matus) that fear is a terrible enemy. It’s true. If you give in to paralysis or panic in response to fear, it can cause you more harm than any outside force. Today I’ll share some very practical action steps to confront and conquer fear.

The late M. Scott Peck said that the absence of fear is not courage – the absence of fear is brain damage! No fear requires no courage – big fear requires big courage. In today’s world, a successful life requires the courage to take risks, and the determination to persevere through all difficulties. Today, I’d like to share a dozen ideas for confronting your fears with courage.

Strategy #1:  Recognize the difference between anxiety, fear, and worry. Anxiety is a generalized sense of dread – the black cloud on the horizon. Fear is a reaction to a specific object or event – the raging storm overhead right now. Worry is the projection of fear into the future – a forecast of more raging storms tomorrow. We use those terms interchangeably, but properly diagnosing your emotional state can help you avoid becoming your own worst enemy.

Strategy #3:  Fear is a Fantasized Experience Appearing Real. It is also a Fabulous Excuse for Avoiding Responsibility. Don’t let fantasized dangers prevent you from pursuing your most authentic goals and dreams and from becoming the person you are meant to be.

Strategy #4:  Talk to your fear – what’s it trying to tell you. Are you unprepared for something? Are you on the wrong path?

Strategy #5:  Give fear a name and it becomes just a problem – it’s easier to solve problems than it is to conquer fear. For example, if you are afraid of losing a job, the problem is that you have not made yourself indispensable. Of course, no one is indispensable, but the more you work on making yourself valuable at work, the safer your job will be. And if you lose the job anyway, those efforts will help you land an even better job all the quicker.

Strategy #6:  Talk back to your fear. Fear is a cowardly emotion that will back down when it is confronted with strength and resolve.

Strategy #7:  Caring is the root of courage. When you care enough about something, you will find the courage to do what you must do to conquer your fear. When confronting fear, catalog the things you really care about – there is no more powerful source of motivation.

Strategy #8:  Fear breeds in ignorance. If you’re struggling with your fears, go to the library, pick up the telephone, Google something. When you shine a light on the shadows, you often find that the monster of fear dissolves into a mouse of timidity.

Strategy #9:  Fear can be a prison more confining than any iron bars. Action is an emotional hacksaw that can set you free. It doesn’t have to be a grand sweeping action that resolves all your fears once and for all (in fact, it won’t be), but what can you do right now that will help you confront your fear?

Strategy #10:  Be today, see tomorrow. Here’s what I mean by that. When you are afraid of the future, keep your attention in the present, on the work that’s right in front of you, and let tomorrow take care of itself. But when the source of your fear is right there at the door, keep your vision on that future time when everything has worked out far better than you ever would have imagined.

Strategy #11:  Internalize Wednesday’s Promise of The Self- Empowerment Pledge: “I will do the things I’m afraid to do. Sometimes that will mean asking for help to do that which I cannot do by myself.”  You can download a copy of The Pledge mini-poster at www.Pledge-Power.com.  

If we were starting all over, what values would we choose?
 
An employee values forum last week at Tucson Medical Center(photo by Julia Strange)
 
Values Coach is currently working with three organizational clients to help them review and redefine their statements of values. It’s an exercise that every organization should periodically conduct. Times change and priorities change. The founding fathers made provision for amending the U.S. constitution for precisely that reason.
 
If you were to make a list of every word and phrase that could legitimately be included in a values statement, it would run for many pages.Putting core values down on paper doesn’t mean that those which aren’t listed are not important, but rather that they don’t make the cut for being defined as “core.”As one example, a hospital client has “confidentiality” in its current values statement. Confidentiality is required by the HIPAA law – when one of your values is a legal requirement, that is setting a pretty low bar!
 
Here’s a quick test that can be applied to any organization, be it the place where you work or your own family: if all of the members of that organization don’t know what the core values are, and the attitudinal and behavioral expectations created by those values, then it’s time to review those values, and either revise or reaffirm them.One of our longstanding clients is Auto-Owners Insurance, a Fortune 500 company recently recognized by JD Power for having the best claims service of any insurance company in America. Auto-Owners has ten core values, and every associate of the company is expected to know what they are (Click here for a preview: http://auto-owners.com/core_values.aspx).
 
Here are eight great reasons why your organization should go through the exercise of reviewing of reviewing and renewing its values:

Reason #1: Core values define what you stand for and what you won’t stand for – and as the old country song goes, if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.

Reason #2: Core values determine how you set goals, and how you prioritize amongst those goals.

Reason #3: Core values profoundly influence how you recruit, train, and retain people – and the more seriously you take your values, the more likely you are to recruit and retain the type of people for whom values really matter. As shown by the work of the late Roger Herman and colleagues (in their book Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People), there is a strong correlation between how seriously an organization takes values and its ability to retain good people – which are, of course, always your greatest resource.

Reason #4: You can give people a script and a happy face pin, but unless you tap into core values you will never achieve excellent customer service.

Reason #5: Core values shape attitudes about how you manage resources. SSM Health Care banned styrofoam cups because non-biodegradable containers were not compatible with what the organization’s core values meant for environmental stewardship.

Reason #6: Being clear about core values can help people hold each other accountable for their behaviors. If an organization really holds “integrity” as a core value (totally appropriate!), then people should be trained to constructively confront gossip and rumor-mongering, with violates both the integrity of the organization and the dignity of the person being gossiped about.

Reason #7: Being clear about values can help people make the right choice when there is no easy choice. One of the primary reasons that Enron collapsed was that the criminal leadership at the top of the company was aided and abetted by thousands of honest and decent people throughout the organization who certainly knew what was going on, but when forced to choose between the values of loyalty and honesty chose loyalty.

Reason #8: Corporate culture is the only sustainable source of competitive advantage (culture eats strategy for lunch!), and the superstructure of culture rests on a foundation of core values (for more on this, see the Values Coach special report on “The Invisible Architecture of Your Organization” to the right).

More than two-thousand years ago, in feudal China, Confucius was speaking about character, leadership, and personal development in terms that were centuries ahead of his time.  His students collected his sayings in The Analects.  Many of these sayings have to do with the development of personal character.  Confucius used the construct of the superior man and the small man (were he writing today, he would certainly have said “person”).  I’ve adapted the following list from The Analects.  I don’t think anyone has ever more eloquently defined what it means to be a person of strong character, or the essential elements of servant leadership.

[  The superior person works to develop the superior aspects of his character; the small person allows the inferior aspects his of character to flourish.

[  The superior person is easy to serve but difficult to please; the small person is difficult to serve but easy to please.

[  The superior person can see a question from all sides; the small person can see it only from a biased perspective.

[  The superior person calls attention to the good points in others; the small person calls attention to their defects.

[  The superior person can influence those who are above her; the small person can influence only those below her.

[  The demands that the superior person makes are on himself; the demands of the small person are placed upon others.

[  The superior person is slow in word but prompt in deed; the small person is quick to make promises but slow to keep them.

[  The superior person is diligent in ascertaining what is right; the small person is diligent in ascertaining what will pay.

[  The superior person is calm and at ease; the small person is fretful and ill at ease.

[  When things go wrong, the superior person seeks blame in herself; the small person seeks blame in others.

[  The small person thinks he is a superior person; the superior person thinks he is a small person.

[  In the presence of a superior person, think all the time how you might equal him; in the presence of a small person, evaluate your own character to be sure you are not like him.

[  The superior person has the quality of wind.  The small person has the quality of grass.  When the wind blows, the grass cannot help but to bend.

Of course, being a superior person or a small person is not an either-or, it’s where you fall on a continuum.  Heraclitus, roughly a contemporary of Confucius, said that character is destiny.  Where do you fall on the continuum, and what can you do to move yourself in a more positive direction?  Your destiny depends upon it!

As I’ve traveled through Chicago over the past dozen years, I’ve been conducting an informal observational study at O’Hare Airport.  Results so far: for every one person who takes the stairs at each end of the long tunnel between the B and C concourses, more than 10,000 wait in line to have their (often overweight) bodies hauled up on the escalator (many of them, I’m sure, complaining that they never have time to exercise).  You see the same syndrome in any shopping mall parking lot, where people with perfectly good legs drive around and around trying to find the closest parking space so (heaven forbid!) they don’t have to use those legs.

America is facing an energy crisis that’s in some respects even more dangerous than the one caused by our dependence on foreign oil.  It’s a crisis of personal energy.  Unlike petroleum energy, which once used is gone forever, personal energy is self-renewing – the more you use, the more you will have.  The reverse is also true – when you don’t tap into your inner wellspring of energy, it dissipates.  I believe this crisis of personal energy depletion is substantially responsible for the economic problems we’re facing today.  Consider a few facts:

Fact #1:  Americans spend more than twice as much money on lottery tickets as they spend on books; over the past several decades, gambling (including lotteries and casinos) has been one of the fastest growing industries in this country.  Buying lotto tickets and pumping money into slot machines is an insidious prayer that someone will give you money you didn’t earn and don’t deserve because you don’t have the gumption to go out and make it yourself – which might require that you start by reading a few books.

Fact #2:  Between September 2007 and 2008, the average U.S. household spent more than eight hours a day watching television, which is a record high since A.C. Nielsen started conducting surveys in the 1950s.  That is over and above time spent surfing the web, watching DVDs, and playing video games.  Check out this article: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/11/americans-now-w.html

The land of the free and the home of the brave is becoming the nation of the fat and lazy – overfed, over-entertained, and over-relaxed (all the while complaining of being overworked and underpaid).  This is a frightening trend, since there are billions of people in other countries who want what we have and are willing to work hard to get it rather than waiting for someone else to give it to them.

My friend Roger Looyenga is recently-retired chairman and CEO of Auto-Owners Insurance, a Fortune 500 company with headquarters in Lansing Michigan.  I worked with him on a book called Take the Stairs.  He chose that title (suggested by his wife Ann) because in the real world of work, there is no escalator to the top of your mountain – you have to take the stairs.  But if you’re willing to take those stairs, there really is no mountain you can’t climb. 

The frontier spirit isn’t dead
It’s just grown soft  
Scratching for gold
At the lotto machine

– McZen (more at McZen’s website at http://mczenpoems.com/

First and foremost a salesperson, last but not least a janitor.

That is the job description of each and every employee at a small company whose CEO I met at a recent conference. It reminded me of a story told by my former business school professor Jeff Pfeffer (author of some great books on business, including The Human Equation and The Knowing-Doing Gap). In its early days, the Mazda car company hit a severe slump. Rather than laying people off, the company put line workers through a sales course, gave them a briefcase full of promotional brochures, and sent them door-to-door selling cars. It saved the company.

The image of a raft in whitewater is an apt metaphor for the environment in which many organizations – corporate, hospital, nonprofit, and governmental alike – find themselves today. And in such waters, they need every hand on the oars. They can’t afford to have people who are unwilling to be a salesperson or be a janitor if what the organization needs for survival is to sell something, or to clean up something.

It’s really the ultimate win-win. Organizations where people have really bought into the values, vision, and purpose compete most effectively for resources and customers. And people who think and act like they own the work, and not just like they’re renting a job, have more rewarding careers.

Unfortunately, in many organizations there is a circular chicken-and-egg barrier to creating a culture of ownership. Too many workers are not really engaged in their work or their organizations (more than three-quarters of the total, according to Gallup surveys). And too many managers don’t treat people like trusted partners in the enterprise, and not just hired hands filling boxes on the organization chart.

Creating a culture of ownership is, I believe, the most important challenge facing leaders today, because:

People don’t quit a mission; they only quit a job.

People don’t leave a team; they only leave an organization.

People don’t desert a leader; they only desert a boss.

Loyalty is to the organization what gravity is to the solar system.

“Service excellence is created by endowing a workforce with a sense of ownership… Because it is so rare, an organization that is able to create this culture of ownership within its workforce has a high probability of creating a sustainable competitive advantage.”

- Al Stubblefield: The Baptist Health Care Journey To Excellence: Creating a Culture of WOWs!

If you’re dead serious long enough, you end up seriously dead.

In his book Leadership A-to-Z, James O’Toole asked why so many leaders are reluctant to share their passion, but instead feel the need to be serious and buttoned-down. Corporate America, Healthcare America, Government America, Nonprofit America – managers everywhere are afflicted with what the late C.W. Metcalf (author of Lighten Up) called “terminal professionalism.”

Several years ago, I conducted a series of training programs for a hospital that was in serious financial trouble. They had been through layoffs and more were coming. Morale was in the tank. Patient satisfaction was in the basement. The place was circling the drain.

I asked the senior HR exec – the man who’d invited me in to begin with – how long it would take to turn the situation around if we were to increase the overall level of staff enthusiasm (Core Action Value #10 in our course on The Twelve Core Action Values). He thought for a minute, then replied “about six weeks.” Six weeks! And I think he was right. Just a bit more enthusiasm across the board would have enhanced productivity, customer service, employee morale – all the things that were dragging the place down.

He didn’t have a chance to do anything about the idea. Shortly after that conversation, the board fired the entire leadership team and brought in a slash-and-burn consulting firm to run the place. And run it they did – right into the ground. Several years later, the hospital declared bankruptcy. It was a classic example of applying left-brain solutions to what was essentially a right-brain problem.

I once had lunch with the CEO of what was then the world’s largest producer of corporate training videos. We were talking about the best ways to effectively reach an audience. I’ll never forget when he said, “Joe, if you really want to reach an audience, you have to have sex with them.”

I nearly choked. “All of them?”

He explained that the only way to really reach people is to create a Significant Emotional eXperience. That is, I believe, the ultimate challenge of leadership. It’s astonishing, though, how many managers never take the time to learn how to inspire people, how to tell stories in a way that moves people to take ownership, to take action. Make no mistake, these are learnable skills, not genetic gifts.

Working to strengthen the right side of your organization’s brain isn’t just the right thing to do for people, it’s good for business. And here’s the cherry on top – passionate enthusiasm is a lot more fun than dead seriousness.

For thousands of years, philosophers have written about how we humans are torn by conflicting inner drives. We want to be recognized, but we want to be left alone. We want material possessions, but we want our lives to be uncomplicated. We want to work hard at work that really matters, but we want to spend time sitting on a riverbank with a fishing pole. We are torn between temptation and virtue, almost as if there really is a little devil sitting on one shoulder and a little angel sitting on the other. How we resolve this inner conflict has everything to do with becoming Authentic (Core Action Value #1).

I think of it as a battle between Ego and Soul. Ego wants things, Soul wants time. Ego wants fame, Soul wants friends. Ego is insecure yet arrogant, Soul is centered yet humble. Ego is concerned about what other people think, Soul is concerned about others. When things go wrong, Ego points a finger, Soul looks in the mirror. Ego complains, Soul gives thanks. The voice of Ego is loud and demanding, the voice of Soul is soft and accepting.

Ego and Soul are the Yang and Yin of personality. It’s not that one is bad and the other good; they’re complementary. When I start working on a new book, Ego is motivated by the prospect of fortune and fame; Soul loves the feel of a good pen rolling across a clean sheet of paper and the thought that people I might never meet will be inspired by my words. The combined motivation produced by Ego and Soul together is more powerful than just one would be alone.

There are, of course, times when the two are in conflict. Ego might be secretly pleased to see a perceived rival fall on his face, while Soul wants to help him up, dust him off, and give him a gentle push in the direction of the winners’ circle. Ego might want to go to Disneyland while Soul wants to help build a house with Habitat for Humanity. Ego might want to take a nap while Soul wants to go for a walk.

One thing I’ve found to be helpful when dealing with inner conflict is to ask myself, “who’s talking?”   In those situations, I find that I rarely go wrong if I listen to Soul, whereas listening to Ego has gotten me in all kinds of trouble. I’ve also learned how to distinguish between their voices: Ego is the loud, pushy one; Soul is the soft, quiet one.

Sally and I have a fridge magnet that says “Happiness is being married to your best friend.”  We’ve been best friends for the entire 30 years that we’ve been married.  And we’re at our happiest when we’re doing things with our kids (now grown and off getting higher education), when we’re doing work we love to do, and when we’re hiking together in our favorite place in the world – the Grand Canyon.  This photo was taken last week by Alex Peraza, one of the many friends we’ve made in The Canyon, after we hiked together to the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers (yes, the LCR really is that beautiful sapphire blue that you see behind us).

One of the most difficult concepts for many people to grasp is the distinction between “having fun” and “being happy.”  The high school quarterback and cheerleader whose best years were in high school have become tired clichés, but it’s a cliché that captures the paradox: the more time and money you devote to “having fun” today, the less likely you are to lay the foundation for a life of “being happy” in the future.  The proverbial quarterback and cheerleader had lots of fun at games and parties, but as adults might have been much happier had they spent more time in the library.

True happiness consists of intangibles like having rewarding work to do, cultivating meaningful relationships, having a reasonable degree of control over your time, and (for Sally and me) periodically spending time in some of the world’s most beautiful places.

True misery, on the other hand, is caused by spending beyond your means and ending up with a life of debt (still paying for that big trip to Vegas?), knowing that you’re not making the highest and best use of your time (how many hours of your precious life burned up in the ashtray of cable TV in the past month?), and devoting yourself to acquiring things rather than building relationships.

What makes you happy?  I submit to you this simple formula: happiness is created by knowing and living your deepest values.  If you’re not clear about what those values are, and about the behavioral expectations they should create, I’ll encourage you to review The Twelve Core Action Values and the 48 cornerstones that put action into those values at http://www.joetye.com/twelve-core-action-values.html.  I think you will agree that this is a great place for you to start.

Eight Essential Characteristics of a Culture of Ownership

One of the key leadership imperatives today is fostering a culture of ownership.  In my brand new book The Florence Prescription: From Accountability to Ownership (with my colleague Dick Schwab) I describe eight essential characteristics of a culture of ownership.  The book is available through the Values Coach bookstore at http://sparkstore.com/ and you can download a mini-poster with the eight characteristics of a culture of ownership at eight-essential-characteristics-of-a-culture-of-ownership.

Read these brief descriptions of the eight essential characteristics of a culture of ownership, then ask yourself to what extent they are reflected in the organization where you work.  Then ask yourself to what extent they are reflected in the way you work.  If your answer to both questions is not “a lot,” then you have work to do.

Commitment:  People who think like owners are committed to the values, vision and mission of their organization, and are committed to their own development in their professional roles.  More than any other factor, the heroes we look up to and the organizations that make the now-proverbial leap from good to great are characterized by commitment.

Engagement:  People who think like owners are actively engaged in their work and feel a sense of connection with their coworkers and with their organization.  At one of my speaking engagements, a CEO from the audience told me that everyone at his company has the same job description: “First and foremost a salesperson, last but not least a janitor.”  To the extent that his people fulfill that job description, the company will foster a culture of ownership. 

Passion:  People who think like owners believe their work is important, and they do it with great enthusiasm.  Southwest Airlines is a great example of a company that has fostered a culture of ownership with their hiring mantra of “hire for attitude, train for skill” (hopefully not for pilots!), and by expecting that people will have fun on the job. 

Initiative:  People who think like owners anticipate problems and seek opportunities, then have the gumption to take action and seek help if they need it.  In my book The Florence Prescription, I call this the “Proceed Until Apprehended” principle. 

Stewardship:  In a culture of ownership, people are as careful with the organization’s resources as they are with their own, in part because they know that the organization’s leaders are concerned with helping them optimize their own resources.  Real stewardship, though, is more than just being judicious with existing resources – it is also thinking creatively about how to create value. 

Belonging:  People who think like owners are given the inside story regarding operations and finance; hired hands are told only what they need to know to get their own jobs done.  Jack Stack and his team at Springfield ReManufacturing (a company that rebuilds diesel truck engines) invented “open book management” to assure that every line worker understands the company’s finances in detail, including how their own work impacts the bottom line – and their paychecks.   

Fellowship:  The Gallup study mentioned above showed that a leading indicator of employee engagement is whether people have good friends at work.  A culture of ownership, where people are truly engaged in the work, is characterized by a spirit of fellowship that encourages friendly collegiality.  The Pickle Challenge is one of the exercises we prescribe to diagnose the level of toxic emotional negativity in an organization, which is the first step toward eradicating it.  A spirit of fellowship cannot grow in an emotionally toxic workplace environment.

Pride:  People who think like owners take pride in their jobs, in their professions, and in their organizations.   One of the exercises I often conduct in my workshops is challenging people with having a great answer for the universal icebreaker question “what do you do?”  The ideal answer will convey this: I love what I do, I’m good at what I do, and I’m proud of what I do.

Spark Plugs: Gallup projects that about one-quarter of employees are actively engaged in their work, meaning that they work with real passion and have a strong sense of connection with the mission and with their coworkers. Think of these people as Spark Plugs – the people who take pride of ownership in their work and in their organization. When a Spark Plug walks into a room, they “spark” others with their energy and their enthusiasm. They don’t sit around waiting for someone to tell them what to do – they see problems and they fix them, they seek opportunities and pursue them. A critical mass of Spark Plugs is vital to a culture of ownership. In our training initiatives on The Twelve Core Action Values, we call participants Spark Plugs because that’s what we expect them to do – bring a spark to their own lives and to their organizations. Attachment 1 includes a typical example of the “job description” that we expect course participants to agree to. Spark Plugs buy-in; they think and act like partners in the enterprise, not just hired hands.

Zombies: According to Gallup, about 60% of today’s employees are not engaged with the work, with their coworkers, or with the mission of their organizations – meaning that they’re just putting in their time. They are “sleepwalking” through the workday without much enthusiasm, and without a strong sense of connection with the work they do or pride in the organization that pays their wages. They are hired hands, not partners, and make little or no contribution to innovation and improvement. Think of these people as workplace Zombies. In our experience, many of these so-called Zombies really want to be (and might already see themselves as) Spark Plugs. Unfortunately, they are often under the influence of Vampires, whether or not they themselves recognize or acknowledge that fact.

Vampires: Finally, Gallup says that about 15% of employees are actively disengaged, meaning that their lack of enthusiasm and commitment are on open display, and that they exert negative peer pressure on others to join them in the swamp of toxic emotional negativity. Think of these people as Vampires. They suck the energy out of the people around them, and they suck the life out of their workplace. They sabotage productivity, customer service, and the brand image of the organization that is giving them a paycheck. Vampires often have domineering personalities, which means that they exert undue negative peer pressure in their work units, and disproportionately influence the perception that customers and community have of the organization. In order for there to ever be a culture of ownership, it is imperative that the organization’s leadership have the courage to confront these Vampires and demand appropriate attitudes and behaviors, and discharge them if they do not comply.

Gallup research suggests that people do not see the workplace as it is, they see the workplace as they are. People with a positive attitude are predisposed toward being intrinsically motivated and engaged; people with a negative attitude are predisposed toward rumor-mongering, finger-pointing, and avoiding real work. Positive employees are far more likely to focus on challenges than they are frustrations, while pickle-suckers (people who are so toxically negative that they look like they were born with a dill pickle stuck in their mouth) actively seek out things to complain and gossip about.

Positive and engaged employees are far more likely to perceive their relationships with supervisors and coworkers in a positive light, while for disengaged workers the reverse is true. Furthermore, Gallup findings show that engaged workers are far more likely to be happy with their lives overall than are unengaged and actively disengaged workers; a culture of ownership is not only good for people’s careers, it’s also good for them and their families. Though it is perhaps difficult to ascertain which is the chicken and which is the egg, the overwhelming disparity in responses strongly indicates that disengagement leads to a negative perception of the workplace and coworkers, and not that a bad workplace environment and unpleasant coworkers leads to disengagement.

People who are renting their spot on the organization chart see the job description as a ceiling – a limit on what they are expected to do. People who own their jobs and take pride in their organizations see the job description as a floor – the minimum they expect of themselves, and to which they add their own individual efforts to make a difference in the lives of customers and coworkers.