Expectation

“I hope that you are doing fine.”  That is a common greeting.  But, like many greetings, it is basically an empty statement.  What happens when Taylor says “I hope you are doing fine” and Sydney says “Actually, I have contracted a serious disease”.  If Sydney is sincere the follow-up question will show concern and potential support.  More than likely Taylor will move on to a non-intrusive topic or avoid the issue (and possibly Sydney) all together.

What happens when the same conversation revolves around an expectation.  “I expect that you are doing fine” is almost a challenge.  An expectation commands a response and an interaction.  Like the book by Rick Page says in its title, Hope Is Not a Strategy”.  However, an expectation connects to an outcome.  Outcomes are tactical.  And tactics are better than strategies!  Furthermore, tactics involve work and work implies results.

Connecting expectations and outcomes, professionals regularly talk about expected outcomes.  In statistics, an expected outcome ties into probability.  An expected outcome is the result of identified inputs representing a series of events (ok to find a better statistical definition).  Expected outcomes can be calculated.  Consequently, when expected outcomes transition from the theoretical world to the physical, people can predict them and prepare for them.

An expectation can be achieved once the factors are identified and organized.  The logic of expectation is what makes them so effective in organizations.  When people can predict the outcomes from specific input, processes are at work that can be reasonably replicated and improved.  With customers, students, or individual development, exercising control over the inputs, then the outcomes yield powerful forces  These forces are also known as profits, academic excellence and success.

Customers will pay premium prices to have a degree of certainty that their expectations are fulfilled.  Students will study harder as long as they expect their grades to accurately reflect their efforts.  Employees will overachieve when they believe that they can expect a desired promotion based on their contributions.

An expectation is either achieved or not. An expectation can be pursued, missed and tried again.  But, it is not static.  It is not an end in itself.  Expectations point to a process, then an outcome.  Hope is based on emotion.  Expectations is based on data.  Choose an outcome.  Apply a process.  Achieve your expectation.

-The Voice

Journey

A journey is a process toward achieving a destination.  It is a trip somewhere.  Achieving any goal requires reaching a destination.  A physical journey to a specific location ends with reaching the destination.  Completing a process focused on individual goals results in reaching a destination.  Completing a task within an organization figuratively means that you have reached a destination.  In short, reaching a destination signifies closure for a trip, task or project.  It is the end of the journey.  But what about the process?

A journey is difficult.  It requires planning, monitoring and reporting.  The journey involves details.  Most importantly, the journey is where the learning happens.  If an individual travels from New York to Los Angeles, anyone can notice the arrival in Los Angeles. However, the traveler remembers the details of the trip.  Arriving in Los Angles triggers another set of events, for example beginning a vacation, connecting with business contacts, or preparing for a new life.  But the airline delay, the long drive through the desert, the majesty of the Rocky Mountains will stand out to the traveler.  In the long run these details will impact future travel decisions or be part of the story from the trip.

People learn from the journey.  In many disciplines, individuals emphasize the important process of ongoing learning.  Continuing education is essential for careers in many types of professional services.  Earning the degree or license allows the professional to practice.  Often, a successful career legally requires ongoing learning.  The journey must continue for these professionals to thrive.

Achieving any significant goal requires persistently striving toward the destination.  But, the journey defines success. Plans are essential, but they often require change.  A successful journey is not a result of the plans, but rather the execution.  The journey reflects the work.  Work creates value.  Creating value drives success. 

Individuals who value the journey benefit from meaningful experiences.  These experiences can be captured, shared and replicated.  Progress teaches important lessons.  Continuous learning, launching new experiences, and progressing toward a goal all pave the path to ongoing achievement.  Pay attention to the process.  That is where personal improvement occurs.  People regularly reach destinations that others have reached.  But every journey with its assorted twists and turns is unique.  A unique asset is more valuable than a common good.  Collect unique assets and enjoy the journey!

-The Voice

Endurance

Endurance instantly brings to mind visions of long-distance running.  It requires strength, longevity and mental toughness.  In a race, endurance is a winning characteristic when durability and consistency are most valued.  Similarly, in an organization, endurance is a critical attribute involving steady and unwavering progress.  An explosive sprint, just like corporate hyper-growth, devalues endurance.  However, endurance succeeds when the objective demands a long-term perspective and ongoing high performance.

Whether describing a foot race or the rat race, endurance results from proper conditioning and preparation.  Longevity is not an accident. It requires focus and concentration.  Too often races emphasize speed.  But, superior performance is not limited to short increments.  The 100 meter dash world record holder is often called the fastest man in the world.  Business accolades are routinely awarded to the fastest growing enterprise in a given year.  However marathon runners earn medals, also.  Steady, sustained profitability wins corporations favor with bankers and stock analysts.  The reward for that prize is often more capital!  Endurance may not benefit from flashy headlines or gaudy titles.  But make no mistake, winners who emphasize endurance and resultant long-term excellence also receive their rewards.

Culturally, Americans are enamored with immediate gratification. The corporate landscape is littered with high-flying stars who delivered dazzling results only to crash in an equally spectacular fashion.  Careers flourish when professionals consistently earn victories that reflect long-term value.  Furthermore, organizations can withstand crash and burn executives as long as the organization reclaims an emphasis on continued wealth creation.  Long-term, high performance is the essential, enduring characteristic of winners.

Interestingly, children’s early lessons regarding endurance is the fable of the tortoise and the hare.  The story features a consistent and focused tortoise defeating an arrogant and undisciplined hare in a race.  The moral is slow and steady wins the race.  In today’s environment a better story is the proverb of the gazelle and the lion .  “Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” 

In this scenario endurance does not lead to simply surviving the day; that is the short-term.  Endurance represents the preparation, mental toughness and consistency to perform to the best of your natural ability every day as a matter of survival.

-The Voice

Resilience

“Fall down seven times, get up eight!”  Resilience is not how many times that you get knocked down, it’s that you get up one more time. Achievement is impossible without resilience.  Gifts are received without resilience.  Treasure is found without resilience.  Wealth is enjoyed without resilience.  But, achievement is impossible without resilience!

High school seniors spend their winters submitting their college applications and awaiting responses.  Identifying the college that they plan to attend is a critical decision.  Many seniors believe that their future is predicated on the result of this exercise.  Unfortunately, it is a decision where they have little control over the process.  Worse yet, the decision is a result of years of activity and accomplishment.  However, the last amount of time before sending the applications is tremendously stressful.  With few exceptions the achievement is not who accepts you, but rather how do you start the mysterious journey toward your destiny.

The achievement of starting the journey, simply buying a ticket for the trip, is a test of one’s resilience.  The process will knock you down.  Young people will succeed in finding schools, or fail to get sufficient financial aid, or engage inflexible bureaucracy for the first time, or be frightened by the process and quit.  Achievement comes from resilience in accepting life’s blows and getting back up.

On the other end of the personal growth spectrum, gray-haired professionals are terrified that their careers are in jeopardy and they are not prepared for retirement.  They may have done a poor job saving, had their retirement fund destroyed by an unforgiving market, or remain a few years short of completing their retirement plan, or still have unmet professional goals to achieve.  Facing the loss of their job, gray-haired professionals must confront watching dreams shatter or alternatively prepare for a resilient recovery to a momentary stumble.  Often, the answer is locked inside their attitude.

So, “You may not be responsible for being knocked down, but you are responsible for getting back up.”  If you intend to achieve, then prepare to be knocked to the ground.  Then, prepare to rise again.  Resilience and achievement march together in lockstep.  Your attitude determines how far you will march.  Keeping getting up!

-The Voice

Fast

Fast describes high levels of speed and energy.  Fast can be attributed to the speed of physical events, business progress, or even career progress.  As legendary men’s collegiate basketball coach and prolific leadership author, John Wooden, famously states, “Be quick, but don’t hurry”.  In his various roles Coach Wooden accurately applies this statement to basketball, business and leadership. 

From a business perspective, fast growth is important, speed to market is important, rapid career ascension is important, but none are singularly important.  Fast equates with speed.  Quickness implies speed with deliberate, purposeful bursts.  Successfully deploying deliberate, purposeful bursts leads to predictable, consistent excellence.  On the other hand, hurry refers to speed, but implies recklessness.
 
Organizations often want to grow quickly.  Rapid growth makes headlines, it feeds egos, it makes money.  However, fast sales growth must beware of reckless behaviors which may hide exorbitant expenses or poor operating fundamentals that erode profits.  Regarding careers, young professionals often want fast starts, a lucrative first job, early promotions.  With a goal of making a lot of money, a fast start with a healthy salary helps.  With a goal to change the world, a fast start toward engaging the specific mission is good.  But, without proper discipline and consistency, the gains may be short-lived.

Speed is exciting.  Fast growth provides immediate gratification of being successful.  But, what about consequences?  Hurrying toward stratospheric growth and excessive profits in financial institutions created the recklessness that birthed the financial crisis that currently lives in America.  Similarly, the explosive, high-tech fueled business cycle that rewarded mediocre business models at the beginning of the last decade, created fast dollars followed by economic weakness and spectacular failures in corporate integrity.  Being in a hurry does not sustain lasting value.

Being fast, as in first to market, is a huge business advantage.  To surpass the competition, win the next promotion, pursue academic endeavors, or build an organization, using speed is important.  Quick bursts as it relates to consistent focus, ongoing discipline and a long-term view must be at the core.  Then, being fast can create enduring wealth, maintain fulfilling careers, and make legends.

Being fast is an advantage,  but being reckless forsakes longevity.  To be a timeless champion, sustain a legacy and produce others leaders, “be quick, but don’t hurry“.  In other words, be fast with a focus on purpose, longevity and enduring value.

– The Voice

Encouragement

Dear Abby, the advice columnist, once described sex by saying that “the getting is in the giving”.  The concept  of reciprocal, mutual benefit resurfaces in one version of the golden rule, “It is better to give than receive”.  Both examples directly relate to encouragement.  Many people enjoy telling others that they can do it.  Furthermore, people love receiving encouragement.  It strengthens individual resolve.  It validates specific efforts.  It makes people feel good.

The giver contributes encouragement for personal reasons.  The giver extends particular attributes through another channel, the receiver, which in turn increase the receiver’s capability.  The encouragement can be a kind word, positive feedback, constructive criticism, sage advice, a timely introduction, seed funding, a ringing endorsement or a casual reference to the right audience.  Look closely at high achievers and often crucial encouragement came from an early teacher, a demanding mentor, or a well-connected advisor.  The right word or action at a key time in any individual’s development can make the difference between success or failure.

Fundamentally, encouragement provides the receiver with validation to purposefully persevere toward their current goal.  Whether pursuing a passion, launching a career, building an organization or changing the world, the right encouragement motivates an individual to achieve.  Proper encouragement inspires a young person to continue their education and it convinces a fallen leader to resume a career with more character and integrity.

Once again concerning encouragement, the getting is in the giving.  The giver channels expertise or a positive perceptions through another individual to impact a broader audience.  The receiver accepts validation that their objectives are worthy pursuits.  Encouragement may be intentional, extravagant and tangible, like an invitation to the executive retreat on the CEO’s plane.  Or it may be more subtle, like an “A” from a respected teacher with a tough reputation in your field of study.  Regardless, the desired outcome is consistent:  recognition that you are on the path toward your goal.

Individuals deliver encouragement to contribute their knowledge and insight into areas beyond their immediate sphere of influence.  Action-oriented dreamers accept encouragement as acknowledgment that their aspiration is equipped to create value individually and for others.  People with a vision must seek encouragement and then embrace the change that it creates.  Use encouragement to propel a vision to desired heights.  Then, take the lessons and encourage someone else.

– The Voice

Transition

Transition is movement from one state of existence to another.  At a minimum it is change.  At its best, transition is progress!  In the business arena, a transition is changing from one set of decision makers to another set of decision makers.  Regarding the workforce, a transition is moving from unemployed (or underemployed) to fully employed.  In personal relationships, a transition shifts an individual’s status from married to divorced.  Among the elderly, a transition is proceeding from here to the hereafter.  A transition results in an organization, group or individual acting differently than it acted previously.

A transition requires a change of direction. If the movement is from a standing state to a moving state, that is not a transition.  That is a launch.  Transitions are different because the initial state of existence must involve activity.  Then, there is redirection.  Acquiring a business, finding employment, leaving a relationship all require activity, and optimally, progress.  Thomas Watson, Sr, an early CEO of IBM, who transitioned a gadget maker into a technological titan said “if you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today.  As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”  Now that is a transition!  Who is up for that challenge?

Are there reasons for not making a transition?  Of course, there are.  The kids are still in school.  We are in too much debt.  Our vice president of sales is incompetent.  Education is too expensive.  The board will never approve it.  Face it, transition is change.  Change is painful.  If change does not fit your priorities, then don’t.  Don’t make the transition.  Watch others do it, fall behind and get mad.

Regardless, change is happening.  Organizations regularly are in states of transition.  A key individual leaves.  A competitor delivers superior services and the marketplace perceives you less favorably.  A market leader has massive layoffs indicating changes in the economics of your industry and now your career is in transition.  Nevertheless, boldly embrace the change, then redirect your activity.

Make the transition to the state of existence that improves your current situation.  Launch a new product.  Educate yourself.  Circulate your resume.  If the transition does not work out as planned, make another transition.  Transitions are dynamic processes. Staying the same is really only one decision.  And you can only hold on to that one decision until you make your transition from here to the hereafter.  Look at your current state.  Make a change. Pursue progress.  Transition to the sate of existence that you desire!

-The Voice

Purpose

A purpose is a principle-driven process directed toward an explicit result.  On the other hand, in common conversation purpose implies an activity that is done intentionally.  It often appears in the phrase, “on purpose”.  The opposite of doing something “on purpose” is to say that that something happened “by accident”.  The clear contrast is activity that occurs actively or passively.  Both uses of purpose, a principle-driven versus intentional, involve subtle differences but they consistently tie to accomplishing a predetermined result.

With regards to individual development, a purpose refers to a destination.  It is not necessarily a physical destination., but rather a destination that implies achievement.  Logically, the more clear the purpose, then the better the ability to reach the destination.  As Lewis Carroll famously wrote in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”  For any individual seeking to accomplish a goal, a clear purpose is essential.

Upon pursuing a purpose toward its logical conclusion, its ultimate accomplishment is fulfilling a destiny.  Reaching one’s destiny transcends accomplishing a specific goal, it features a culmination of several pursuits.  Recognizing that accomplishing predetermined goals requires a purpose, then the pursuit must be done with purpose.  Again, the purpose is a principle-driven process that leads to an explicit result.  But before the pursuit, an intentional, conscious decision must be made.  Consequently, from conception to execution, a purpose is a primary requirement for achieving an explicit outcome.

In conclusion, what is the reason behind a purpose?  First of all, positive actions have purpose; that is, someone does them intentionally.  The planned series of activities represent the path.  An explicit outcome is the destination.  The entire process reflects a destiny.  Without purpose a cause has no direction, nor desired outcome.  However, once a purpose is introduced, actions have a path and accomplishment has a destination.  In essence to accomplish your final destiny, should life be lived on purpose, or with purpose?  I submit that the answer is both!

-The Voice

Beginnings

“A good beginning is half the battle.”  – Unknown.  Now is the beginning of “A Word from the Voice”.  Starting as an idea, a beginning comes alive when it sparks activity.  A business person decides to start a new venture based on their idea that they have a better offering for the marketplace.  A musician writes a new song, based on a sound that has comes alive in her mind.  A writer launches a blog because he has an idea that an audience wants to hear his voice.

The excitement of beginnings is the action that follows.  Genesis is another word denoting a beginning.  The Book of Genesis describes something coming from nothing, light coming from darkness, life exploding from emptiness.  Beginnings can be huge!  “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step“, according to the old proverb.  An idea, a step, and a thousand miles later, there is achievement.  Similarly, this beginning has taken its first step.

Every individual has beginnings that they encounter.  But, who really chooses to act?  A respected confidant likes to say, ‘every day I have an opportunity to start over again”.  This thought captures the power of beginnings.  A person who wants to improve simply has to start improving.  Get an idea, take a step.  If the person falls, then begin again.  Consequently, beginning is not a singular act.  Likewise, achievement is not a singular act.  Most high-level performance involves repeatedly accomplishing several assorted activities.  But all achievement requires a beginning.

Fundamentally, a beginning is necessary before progress along any path.  The journey and destination are dependent on the beginning, then become entirely different matters.  So in order to achieve, start something today!  A huge step toward your million dollar idea, your completed novel, your education, your debt reduction, your connection with a lost loved one, your search for a new loved one, or all of the above is only one decision away.  Get an idea.  Have your own personal Genesis.  Create a spark that produces life and love it. 

-The Voice