Trust30; day 26: Call to Arms

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What if today, right now, no jokes at all, you were actually in charge, the boss, the Head Honcho. Write the “call to arms” note you’re sending to everyone (staff, customers, suppliers, Board) charting the path ahead for the next 12 months and the next 5 years. Now take this manifesto, print it out somewhere you can see, preferably in big letters you can read from your chair.

You’re just written your own job description. You know what you have to do. Go!

(bonus: send it to the CEO with the title “The things we absolutely have to get right – nothing else matters.”)

I'm going to do something today that should have been done a long time ago.

I call upon the best of you, each and every one that our business touches.

I believe that sometimes in the pursuit of profit, we dehumanize the experience with our people, our partners and our customers. We stress, we grind, we compromise at every turn in attempting to wring every last penny out of any business and financial situation.

I'm not talking about avoiding touch decisions here. Rather, I'm speaking of not utilizing our greatest resource, the spark that cannot be automated, duplicated or economized.

Who knows how to make things "click" like you? Who sees the clear path, the better way that isn't so obvious to those who aren't walking your path, doing your job?

It takes nothing but brilliant small steps to climb great heights. I encourage you to take those steps willingly and with great joy and anticipation.

Here are two items within my power that I can take to show you my sincerity in setting out in this noble direction.

First, any decisions that need be taken in regards to reshaping positions, titles, roles and responsibilities that will have a dramatic impact on your life and livelihood will be discussed with you in advance so that we can enter into these new roles under the best of circumstances. "Hitting the ground running" works far better if one has entered the race willingly. Otherwise, it's more like being dropped out of an airplane at 20,000 feet minus a chute!

Second, I pledge to those souls willing to invest in themselves that I will "double down" on your willingness. Courses will be offered that will aid and assist you in opening your mind and heart to not only do your job better but live a better overall life, be a better person. The seminars and offerings will surprise and delight you and we are also looking for your input as to how they can be improved, made more relevant to you.

There are no edicts being proclaimed here. No one knows better than I that one cannot be forced to do something and then expected to do it well. I will let the "rising tide" of energy and optimism shake out those who do not feel the same. It always does so unfailingly.

Great ideas are wonderful. Great ideas, worked on with deliberate intent, by a team of individuals who enjoy discovering that limits are illusions, become magnificent achievements, brilliant creations that inspire growth in ways heretofore unimaginable.

That's my idea.

Together, we can make it real.