September 4, 2024

Labor Day weekend has passed. Today, we know it as the weekend when the pools close and "summer is over."?

Like most holidays, it's easy to forget the reason for the celebration. Why did our country decide to celebrate Labor Day??

It was borne from strife. In the late 1800s, it seems there was a strike by workers in the railroad industry that resulted in workers being killed by Federal agents. There was a sense that Big Business was exploiting workers, enlisting them at low wages, unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and generally, harshly ruling over them. President Cleveland signed into law to quiet the upheaval that the first Monday in September would be a day to honor our nation's workers and recognize their contributions.?

In just a dozen decades, watermelon, parades, and a trip to the beach have mainly replaced that original intent.?

Our country is built on disagreement—and even chaos. One side is winning, and the other feels like it is losing. That's been the case since Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.?

It would do leaders well to think about the original inspiration of Labor Day.?

My grandfather was a staunch "union man." He had three pictures in his Appalachian home—Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy, and John L. Lewis (the leader of the United Mine Workers). I'm thankful that when the coal miners unionized, it helped people like him live better lives. He suffered from black lung and was able to receive disability payments later in his life. Before the UMWA, that didn't happen.?

My dad was not a fan of the union. He worked his way up the ranks of the coal mines and became a section boss. He was a company man, as they say. He'd say that the Union incentivized not working.?

Regardless of how you or I feel about these things, this weekend is a great time to reflect on our employees' contributions to our businesses. The legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, "It takes ten hands to score a basket." He told the story of a hot-shot player who scored many points but never realized he had a team around him that was getting rebounds, passing the ball to him, and doing all the little things outside the limelight.?

It's a good time to reflect on the contributions of our team members who do the little things; the things that don't show up in the annual report, who aren't front-and-center, but who contribute to making it all possible.?

I hope you had a good Labor Day weekend!?

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The Huddle?is a weekly newsletter that is designed for leaders. Leaders must be learners. There is never a?moment?when leaders arrive. It's a never-ending growth process. I hope this can be a resource that you can use to stay sharp and share with your team.

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With that, here are some things I ran across this week.?

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How Special Could You Be?-?What are you really, really good at? For too many, it's nothing. We have a tendency to start strong, then level off into a life of comfort zones. We choose a career and set our sights on working at a good company and having a good job. We are striving to grow and build the skills we need to be successful.?

Then it happens.?

We realize that we are "good enough." We settle in. We start stacking decades of "same 'ol, same 'ol." Studies show that surgeons improve dramatically for the first ten years of their career...and then they level off and their skills start to atrophy over time.?

I once had a client in his fifties who announced he was taking up the guitar. Why? I asked. "Because I'm not good at it, and I struggle, and it helps me see that I can do difficult things," he responded.?

I love this article.? It challenges us to pick a thing and try to master it. The author says that pursuing excellence may not lead to excellence— what matters is its commitment.?

Common Placebook -?If you read?The Huddle, you are likely a reader, someone who prioritizes self-development, seeks to learn new things, and has learned that there is Pixie Dust in books or ideas. It takes application.

I've been a lifelong reader. From my first book,?Petey the Peanut Man?(the first book I could read by myself!), to?Julius Caesar?(the book I'm reading now), I've gained countless lessons and been exposed to amazing ideas.

If I could only remember them.

I have notebooks with reading notes, Apple Notes, Evernote files, Notion sections, and scrap pieces of paper with notes. They are scattered everywhere and usually unretrievable when I need them.

I wish I had started this habit a long time ago. I've read about commonplace books but never adopted the habit.?

There are two good times to plant a tree. Twenty years ago...and today!?

Not Quite the Last Call -?We aren't ready to close things down, but we are getting close. I'm running two "sprint" sessions in October. One is our popular?Building Better Bosses?program. We are in our fourth cohort, and it's only getting better. Also, in October, I'm doing a four-week?Prospecting series for sales professionals?who want to learn to be more effective at building a pipeline with ideal prospects.?

Related to my comments above on not allowing our skills to degrade, these are two areas where I see a lot of "less than excellent" performance. Often, it's not because of drive or initiative. Instead, it's professionals who have grown stale, and they could use some new ideas or better ways.?

If interested, you should contact us via the information form and save your spot. Early bird pricing for the?Building Better Bosses?course ends next week.?

The Family Business?-?The family business is the most common kind. Those of you who work in a family business know that some aspects of the business are unmatched. Typically, there is an environment of care and "do the right thing" as leaders don't answer to shareholders and often don't have a board watching over their shoulders.?

I've noticed that family businesses can also have an Achilles heel. Hard decisions are even harder. There is an emotional component that often is involved in every decision. After all, this thing that we are doing will affect my accounting department and by the way, my daughter heads that up. That can be tricky.?

I found this post to be informative.?If you are a part of the leadership team at a family business, it's worth a read.?

A quote to leave you with

Have a great week!