Why Do You Think?

I attended a meeting this week where the speaker made a case to a group of top producing people against thinking. "Just do it" was his message. More specifically, the message was "just do what I tell you to do". Thinking was being discussed as a detriment to productivity. Don't think? Somehow, there seemed to be something significantly contrary about the message. Something Hitlerish. But, then again, Hitler was pretty productive in a horrible, disgusting, inhumane sort of way. So what do we do?


To begin with, never give up your responsibility for thinking. Thinking is a freedom you never surrender. It is a power that is a fundamental gift we have as human beings. However, undisciplined thinking can become its own kind of bondage. People can use thinking as a means of constant escape. Thinking can be an expression of arrogance which is really an outworking of insecurity. So, in a very real sense, thinking can be a detriment to productivity when it is undisciplined.


So, maybe the message is to discipline what you think. Think less, on purpose. Choose a system to follow. Choose a coach to follow. Choose a message to believe in and move forward in faith. That doesn't sound like not thinking. It sounds like thinking well. It sounds like thinking with conviction. It sounds like thinking as a professional.


I do believe top producing people have to make choices. What to think is one of those choices. Once those choices are made then we don't have to think about it anymore. It's done. There is the context where thinking is out of order. Once you have chosen then don't think. Just do it. Think about it. Do well, my friends.

New Game!

Welcome to Tappe Talk, a Purposed Connection podcast by the Tappe Group. Are you showing up to play the game set before you? Is it time for you to get some new eyes? Allen shares a few thoughts with us on how we can have a new beginning in 2009.

• Play Hard Every Day!
• Overcome Complacency!
• Love and Master Selling!
• Increase Commitment!
• Make Changes in Business, Now!
• Get a Coach!
• Create and Improve Presentation!
• Prepare and Practice!

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What About this Downturn?

I have been reading Geoff Colvin's new book, The Upside of the Downturn. It really is a good read. In some ways, I believe it is a timely and maybe even an important read. It provides both perspective and insight that has been valuable for me and I believe it will be valuable for most people.

The most significant insight I quickly gained in reading Colvin's little book was this. The "downturn" we are experiencing is simply a chapter in a much longer story. This recession isn't a story in itself. It is simply a part of a story. I think that is really important. Here is why.

If we are not careful, we will pay it too much respect. While it is certainly dramatic and it is clearly consequential. It is not our whole story. We simply cannot afford to hang our heads as though we are now people who have been victimized and changed by forces outside of our control. We are not without power to respond. We must accept the challenge as we always have and respond.

Secondly, we need some context. We are part of a world community. As a country, we may have paid lip service to this membership over the years and now it is coming home to rest. Colvin does a great job of reminding us of some much needed historical reference. Our relationship to the economic conditions of the world community is a matter of delicate balance and responsibility. We may have occupied a powerful leadership role for a number of years but it hasn't always been that way and it is in the process of change as we speak. How we relate to the world in the future will be the product of diplomacy, relationship and creativity.

Finally, we need to learn from what we have experienced. If we don't fully understand what happened when all of the capital of the world came our way with confidence in our consumer power then we won't grasp how greed and arrogance destroyed the very fiber of our free enterprise system. If we ever hope to restore even a semblance of it in the future, then we have to take sage advice and learn from our history.

So, take some time and get some much needed perspective. There really is "upside to this downturn" as Colvin suggests. It only takes response. Do well my friends.

Managing Performance

Welcome to Tappe Talk, a Purposed Connection podcast by the Tappe Group. Performance is ultimately about talent and ability working within a committed system of discipline. This week Allen discussing the importance of performance in today's business community.

1. Get your mind right!

• Stay encouraged
• Stay inspired
• Stay equipped

2. Get your Xs Crossed!

• Clarify expectations!
• Coach execution!
• Check examination!

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How Is Your Smart Working For You?

I sometimes wonder just how smart I really am. It may be the world around me is moving more quickly and I am missing a step or it may be a fitness piece I need to become a little more serious about in my life.

I remember reading years ago about studies that were showing people with higher IQs outperforming people with average IQs 20% of the time while people with average IQs were outperforming those with higher IQs 70% of the time. I heard the term "emotional intelligence" for the first time in Daniel Goleman's great book by that title. Since that time, emotional intelligence" has become a more familiar conversation but I wonder how seriously it is really being taken.

Recently, I have become aware all over again of the widening generational gaps in which we find ourselves. We have people who are generation "Yer's". Others who are straddling Y and X. Some who are pure generation "Xer's". And, there are those who are between generatons X and "Boomers". Of course there are those who are pure Boomers and then there are those like me who are somewhere between being boomers and death. It really is complicated. There are different languages. Differerent cultures. Entirely different propensities toward technology. And, interestingly different approaches to relationships.

Here's the point. There has never been a time when "emotional intelligence" has been more in play. I just know I am not nearly as fit as I need to be. I have been reading the new book by Bradberry and Greaves, Emotional Intelligence 2.0. They have done a wonderful job of reminding us that while we can do nothing about changing our IQ or our basic personalities we can change our emotional intellingence. They provide a test for benchmarking purposes as you work on the emotional growth process. I learned I have a lot of work to do.

So, here is the bad news. No matter how smart you think you are you probably are not nearly as smart as you need to be in order to truly stay relationally connected to the world around you. The good news is the key is available. "Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships". Check out their book for the rest of the story. I believe the emotional dimension is the fitness piece that will be getting alot of my personal attention. How about you? Do well.

Who Sees Your Vision?

Welcome to Tappe Talk, a Purposed Connection by the Tappe Group. How does your "vision" impact your performance. Allen ask some thought provoking questions to help us reflect on during the week.

1. How clear is your vision?
2. How fresh is your vision?
3. How passionate are you about your vision?
4. Who shares your vision?
5. How are you sharing your vision?
6. Who benefits from your vision?
7. Who casts your vision?

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Freedom?

This past week, we celebrated freedom. I wonder what everyone was thinking. It really is a matter of perspective, isn’t it? For the person who escaped to this country from the tyranny of dictatorship and worse, freedom represents liberation in a dramatic sense. To the person who escaped from a physically or an emotionally abusive relationship then freedom means release from the nightmare of control and domination. To the person who has been set free from the harsh reality of financial debt then the sense of release is palpable. And on, and on, the freedom stories could go.


But, what is freedom in its purest form? It seems to me that freedom in its purest form is “opportunity”. Freedom really is the “opportunity to choose”. Certainly, when my choice limits, inhibits, or eliminates someone else’s opportunity to choose then issues are raised. Laws have to be created to protect the innocent in those cases. It is so easy for government itself to move beyond protection into inhibition, if not interference, with regard to freedom.


The question for me, however, involves my relationship to freedom. How committed am I to keeping freedom alive in my world? It is vital for me to remember that I have the responsibility to the people in my world to stand for freedom in giving them the best opportunity to choose in their lives. I also need to recognize that I need to work hard to keep that same freedom alive in my own life. Freedom without discipline is just bondage in disguise. I wrote that a long time ago. It would do me well to remember it. How about you?

How Are We Handling Freedom?

Welcome to Tappe Talk, a Purposed Connection podcast by The Tappe Group. This past week we celebrated freedom as a country. A freedom that was birthed over 230 years ago. How are you handling your freedom? Allen shares a few thoughts on how we need to look at our freedom, personally.

1. Do you recognize freedom for the opportunity it really is and are you making the most of it?
2. Are you as thankful for the gift of freedom on a regular basis as you need to be?
3. Are you doing your part to keep us free?


4. Are you doing your part to keep you free?
5. Do you live life as though you are free?
6. Do you look like your free?
7. What disciplines hav e you chosen to embrace in your life to insure your freedom?
8. Do you celebrate your freedom more than once a year?

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Rethinking an Old Thought

Years ago, I wrote something I thought I believed. I wrote that "all negative people in an organization need to be fired". Over the years, I have not had one particular thought that has gotten more attention from my writing than that comment. Most people have weighed in with agreement. People in human resource roles have communicated appropriate concern about application of the principle in the workplace. But, the one person who has given me cause to rethink it has been my wife, Barbara.


Barbara believes, in the spirit of purposed performance, which is the operating system I authored, that I need to rephrase the thought to suggest that "all negative people need to be given the opportunity to choose" and then leaders need to follow their lead. If they don't want to be part of a positive outcome, if they don't want to be part of the team, then they need to be allowed to follow their choice to leave. I thought she was right. So, in presentations and in subsequent writings I have made that adjustment. But, now I am not so sure. In fact, I am pretty sure I am right back to my original thought.


It seems to me that leadership of organizations have the responsibility to protect their people from the disease negativity represents. I have witnessed in several situations recently the negative, if not tragic, results of people whose destructive presence have dealt critical blows to organizations. They simply have to be recognized earlier and eliminated. If they refuse to choose, then we must choose for them. The risk is too great for the people they impact.


So, I have rethought the thought that I chose to rethink. I think Barbara was right. We do need to give people the opportunity to choose. We just need to give them the opportunity to recognize the choice they are making earlier. And, they need to recognize the consequence of their choice more personally. Then, we need to escort them to the door with a letter of recommendation for future employers that says "we hope this person has the same impact on your organization that they have had on ours". Good luck. I mean, do well!