MH3 Living Life, Opinion

Old Man Winter

You’re not going to like me for this, but I have no desire to see winter over.

Correction, I have no desire to see it end right now. Maybe in a few weeks. But not now. I want a bit more winter. Remarkably I love winter and I am tired of going from meeting to meeting listening to people bemoan the white season. In Orillia right now, the thirty-six families I used to have as newspaper customers are hysterically mocking me. If you could have seen me in 1976, delivering papers at an abominably slow pace while shedding shivery tears you would understand the irony of that statement.

But as I have aged, my frosty enthusiasm has picked up.

So I prepare this blog as an offering to the weather gods, requesting a bit more snow, frost, and ice. Winter is really, really nice. You just need to understand it.

Winter refreshes. I find the cool weather sparks my senses and gets my brain revving.

Winter rejuvenates. The holidays, New Years, March Break, all contribute to an emotional season of inspiration.

Winter restores. The long days give you time to get things done, projects organized, life put in order.

Today I had a taxi driver who moved here from Nigeria 19 years ago. He too loves Winter he told me. He goes home to Africa every year and explains to his family that because of Winter, Spring is the most wonderful season a person could experience. I agree.

So give me a wee wee wee bit more winter. I like shoveling my driveway (only did it twice this year FYI). I hate cutting my lawn (hence the crew that shows up every Tuesday). I like my dog not getting muddy. I like jogging in the cold. Toronto heat is a deathtrap for summer runners. I like the streetlights strobes made by falling snowflakes. I like the cleanness of it all. I like the stuff that makes us Canadian.

In the name of Bill Murray, let me awaken to Groundhog Day just a few more times.

MH3 Business, Living Life, TrojanOne, Work

Executive Education

Summer is over.

At this point my kids would shout, “Well, THANK-YOU Captain Obvious!”

But it is.

I know cause I froze my arse off last night at football practice for my youngest. I am talking at 7:00 PM I was freezing.

Of course maybe my arse was cold due to the fact that I had a colonoscopy yesterday. It certainly was empty! Okay too much information, but if you doubt me just Google Dulcolax and Picolax….
I also know that summer is over because nothing got done this week. Or at least it felt that way. Something about the Labour Day long weekend. Amazing how one final Monday off (with due apologies to Thanksgiving) can create a psychological wall in people’s minds. Somehow this is a slack week. Of course the people working this week won’t agree with me. But trust me, September is tomorrow… not in a week.

Continue reading “Executive Education” →

MH3 Business Lessons, Life Lessons, TrojanOne, Work

Practice What I Preach

Lately Reverend Harrison has been monopolizing the pulpit.

With religious fervor, I have been sharing lengthy sermons to whatever congregational victim is within earshot. In some cases the congregation has been made up of my staff, my kids, their friends, my neighbours, my clients, my suppliers, my peers, my twitterverse, my conference audiences and my volunteer charity council colleagues.

Oh, and you.

These collective discourses have covered a wide variety of topics. I like to jump on the bandwagon of various management, marketing and leadership trends. Want to preview my next leap? Clean out my recycling bin and see what magazine I just read. Scroll through my Firefox history and track the sites and discussion groups I have visited. Hijack my iPhone and see the tweets consumed.

Or you can just sit back and listen to the rabble babble that comes out of my mouth. I consider myself a great parrot. I read everything. Distill it into a few
short sounds. Then squawk like mad in a convincing enough manner that perhaps some people feel I’m an expert.

If you followed my flight pattern over the course of this week, you would have heard me encouraging my team to release their entrepreneurial talents on every project they tackle. Then you would have heard me urging a charity I volunteer for to push its brand revitalization project to the utmost limit to be able to play in today’s highly competitive world of cause marketing. You would have witnessed me telling another charity CEO who I support that social media can drive business results. In between, I was providing feedback to a team member about the value of keeping and reviewing a daily and weekly task list. Especially the magic of evaluating yourself and actually grading your own performance. Later with a blue chip client, my pontificating reached a high point as I talked about the need for us to make all program decisions based on the OGSM (email me if you don’t know what that stands for) priorities and strategies. Tomorrow, I will be sharing best practices in developing sponsorship proposals for sport tourism and sports event rights holders.

This is a pretty typical week for me. I’m a talking head.

But lately the shadow of doubt has crept into my head. In my mind, I’ve been tearing apart how our business works and – more importantly – how I work. Faced with a little adversity, I think this is a natural tendency for humans to follow.
I’m not too worried about our business. But I am not sure that I personally always earn a passing grade. For example, I used to be crazy anal about my daily priorities and following a TO DO list.

Then for about three months, I just spent all day reacting to email and phone calls. Candidly, I got nothing done! Nothing of real value anyway.

I’m constantly telling my clients to keep their digital assets up to date. Then I checked out my website. Hello 2009!

If I want you to keep score, I need to keep score.

If I want you to work more effectively, I need to eliminate the goop that gets in the way.

If I am preaching to you that the power of your brand is your highest equity, I better invest in my own brand.

The guilt is slipping away. Quietly replaced by the thrill of a challenge. This shoemaker’s kids are not going to wear worn shoes. I am going to turn my lens inward. Fix me and my brand. Then my work habits. Then my interpersonal habits.

Then, keep striving to improve our company. Our process. Our product. Our performance.

Then I can come see you.