While there are many different diet & exercise plans out there, many fairly extreme, mine was fairly simple. I needed to eat less, eat more balanced, and get more physical activity…the basics. I charted my day, kept track of what I ate, measured the calories (there are great, easy to use tools for this, and they’re free), and tried to get an additional 30 to 45 minutes of physical activity a day.

I wasn’t always consistent, and I definitely had my off days, but I began to get in a rhythm of what to eat and when, and how and where my exercise was going to happen. I could begin to tell what type of a day I was having. I began to understand more fully what foods worked for me and in what portions. My body began to adjust, and my attitudes and activities changed ever so slightly.

So here I am, 25 lbs lighter than I was at the start of the year. As should be expected, my weight didn’t just continue to drop, rather it was a bit more like a roller coaster. However, the overall trend line moved down.

So what does this have to do with business? I’ve read a number of business and learning books over my career. I’ve read about smart business practices, case studies, top companies and their executives, how to “do anything in 30 hours,” and so on. Many of these books can be a help to some and a hinderance to others. I have known individuals during my career who freeze up because of information overload. They cannot make a decision for fear of making the wrong one. They have forgotten the basics of their business and ultimately their success.

You can be successful in business keeping to the basics. One shouldn’t have the expectation that they will sit in their office and have ground breaking, world changing idea after idea. Those moments may come, but making the small course corrections is what keeps things rolling. The details may change from industry to industry, or job to job, however one thing that should be constant is giving an honest effort. I’ve managed thousands of people in my career, and I’ll take a less educated, less experienced person who will give me an honest day’s effort over a more educated and more experienced individual any day. Skills and knowledge can be taught & learned, however true, honest effort comes from a desire to work…to build something. That level of effort comes with integrity. They know when they are giving their best, and they don’t compare their effort to that of others.

The other constant is learning your business. I recently read the autobiography of Larry H. Miller, titled Driven. It’s a very interesting book detailing his work in the auto industry, ownership of the Utah Jazz, and his personal life. Early in his career in the parts side of the auto industry, he was determined to know everything about the parts he sold. He wanted to know how they fit on the car, why one part worked better than another, what the right combination of parts were to fix a problem, where everything was in the store, and how the business was run. He worked tirelessly to know the business.

In order to be great, we have to take one step at a time. We need to know our business, all the little intricacies, and how all the pieces fit together. When we get too comfortable with where we are, we lose sight of where we are trying to go. People, process, technology all pass us by. When we finally do look up we realize that much of what we do is obsolete.

Back to my weight loss for a moment. I had lost that 25 lbs by the end of May. Here we are almost at the end of June and I haven’t lost anymore. As I reflect on the past month I’ve become lazy again. I haven’t been careful with what I eat, and I haven’t been getting my increased physical activity. Thus, I’m stuck. Luckily I haven’t gained it back, but I’m not losing more…and I still have 50 lbs to lose.

A career is the same way. I have found at times in my career where I’m not giving my best effort and have stopped learning about my business. I do the same things every day, and usually fall into the misnomer that I can manage with email and from behind my desk. Usually, some measure of job dissatisfaction creeps in at this time, and I start thinking about the grass on the other side of the fence. However, once I “wake up” and start putting in my honest effort, and trying to see what I can improve, build, who I can develop, etc., the satisfaction returns. I begin to truly contribute to the success of my company, and I typically begin to have one or two of those great ideas to try and implement.

Nibley takes some time at the first part of his address to discuss, of all things, the robes in which he and the gathered graduating students are dressed. He gives a bit of history of how they came to be and what they represent. He then gives this warning as a start to his discussion of leadership versus management:

“What is wrong, then, with the flowing robes? For one thing, they are somewhat theatrical and too easily incline the wearer, beguiled by their splendor, to masquerade and affectation. In the time of Socrates the Sophists were making a big thing of their special manner of dress and delivery. It was all for show, of course, but it was “dressing for success” with a vengeance, for the whole purpose of the rhetorical brand of education which they inaugurated and sold at top prices to the ambitious youth was to make the student successful as a paid advocate in the law courts, a commanding figure in public assemblies, or a successful promoter of daring business enterprises by mastering those irresistible techniques of persuasion and salesmanship which the Sophists had to offer.”

This first point is critical, though subtle. Throughout my professional career I have continually come into contact with individuals that “dress the part” in order to cover up their deficiencies in leadership. They use their clothing or title to keep people at a respectful distance, or to inspire awe and mystery in others. These others then learn the lesson that they too, must look the part. Thus begins the cycle, or shift, from leadership to management the Nibley states “…marks the decline and fall of civilizations.”

This statement is very bold, but also humbling. While discussing leadership and management, many of us would talk of the failure of a team or potentially even a business, but we would almost never discuss the fall of our civilization. It caused me to pause and reflect on me, and ask the question, “Am I a leader or a manager?”. Do I contribute to the building up of a strong civilization, or do I participate in the decline and fall?

Nibley describes leaders and managers as follows:

“The leader, for example, has a passion for equality. We think of great generals from David and Alexander on down, sharing their beans or maza with their men, calling them by their first names, marching along with them in the heat, sleeping on the ground, and first over the wall. A famous ode by a long-suffering Greek soldier, Archilochus, reminds us that the men in the ranks are not fooled for an instant by the executive type who thinks he is a leader.”

“For the manager, on the other hand, the idea of equality is repugnant and indeed counterproductive. Where promotion, perks, privilege, and power are the name of the game, awe and reverence for rank is everything, the inspiration and motivation of all good men. Where would management be without the inflexible paper processing, dress standards, attention to proper social, political, and religious affiliation, vigilant watch over habits and attitudes, and so forth, that gratify the stockholders and satisfy security?”

I have found no better definition of leaders and managers than this. All of us can look back on our personal and professional life and find a leader to whom we look. It may be a parent, family member, spiritual advisor, teacher, or mentor. This individual is beloved, has always made us desire to be better, and doesn’t seek to inflate themselves over us.

Many may say that management is needed. The minutia of our daily lives, both professional and personal, require management of things (time, tasks, money). I do not disagree with that. Necessarily, some of the manager must be in every leader. However, the issue comes down to motive. Do I seek to inflate myself, to get gain for me, in my actions? Or am I, as Nibley states, “inspired, caught up in a higher purpose, devoid of personal ambition, idealistic, and incorruptible.”

The problem with management is that it feeds on mediocrity. Nibley states:

“To Parkinson’s Law, which shows how management gobbles up everything else, he added what he calls the “Law of Injelitance”: Managers do not promote individuals whose competence might threaten their own position; and so as the power of management spreads ever wider, the quality deteriorates, if that is possible. In short, while management shuns equality, it feeds on mediocrity.”

All of us have seen this in the workplace. We all know a manager who is incompetent, arrogant, seeks his or her own, and kisses up to the boss. When others are promoted under this manager they seem to be the same sort of person. The bureaucracy then expands in both size and power.

As I look at my professional career (as well as personal life), and the positions that I have held and now hold. I am concerned about my devolution from leader to manager. I have long held that I am a leader, inspiring others to succeed. Lately, however, I’m not so sure. I’m concerned that the mediocrity that management feeds on has seeped into my methods and work. That scares me. I’m not one to be just part of the crowd. Affecting change is what I do best, and where I have been successful. Just like the anecdote of the boiling water and the frog, I’ve been getting comfortable in the increasingly warm/hot water. It’s time I jump out and get back to shaking things up again. I’m sure not everyone around me may be pleased, but isn’t that half the fun.

Again, I would encourage anyone reading this to read the address by Hugh Nibley. It is incredible, and fit for anyone looking to better understand leadership, management, and the need for one over the other. You can view it online here.

What about the guy or gal running a 5 person operation that really needs email and calendaring for their team. Or the small accountant’s office that is trying to figure out a proper backup solution for their client files. What of the small construction team that needs to share details of their projects. In a world of increasingly expanding technology, many of the “really” small businesses could be left behind. They don’t always keep up on what is happening, and may not understand that they don’t need to purchase a server with software and hire an IT guy to keep it all running. With a computer and internet connectivity, they can have access to some pretty powerful tools for little to no cost. They just need someone to point them in the right direction and help them when they get stuck. I wonder how I can help…

One of my problems, I’ve come to realize, is that the more experience I get under my belt the quicker I want things to come. Let me give you the perfect example. I’ve long wanted to learn how to code. I’m not interested in changing careers or spending time coding into the wee hours of the morning. However, I’m responsible for managing technology and all the people & process that comes with that. Earlier in my career I was “closer” to the day to day coding. I would occasionally write my own queries to pull raw data, I would examine the code of a page to figure out what was going on. I used the knowledge to better converse with my developers and DBAs in determining the feasibility of solutions. As my career has advanced, I’ve had to deal with more administration functions, management work, etc., and therefore have lost some of my skillset regarding coding, understanding what is possible, and ultimately my ability to critically think about what my team tells me. Hence my desire to dive into coding.

I’ve spent/wasted a decent amount of time deciding what language to learn. Something that truly is a waste as I’ve learned (and probably already knew). I’ve downloaded, watched, and interacted with tutorials on iOS, Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails, and others. I briefly read about object oriented principles, agile development methods, and the development lifecycle. Basically, I’ve skimmed over the surface of coding and never actually taken the plunge. I spent the weekend doing a bit of a “self-assessment” trying to understand why I can’t just get this going. The answer that I get is…wait for it…I want it to be easier. Not really profound, but true. I’ve spent a lot of hours in the classroom and in the real world amassing, what I would call, a wealth of knowledge. In my day to day job, I am occasionally challenged and need to pull from my past experience to put together a solution. However, it is all within an area in which I am COMFORTABLE.

I think that descriptive word is the key. Things are comfortable. When I have to step outside that comfort zone and learn things I tend to let things slide. I think part of my brain says, “You should understand this better…don’t you manage people who do this?” I need to dive in and get started.

With that said, I am going to start learning how to program in PHP. Again, back to what I said before, I’m not looking to change careers and lock myself in a room with a screen. (Yes, I know that all coders don’t do that…but it is quite the stereotype isn’t it?) However, I need to stretch outside of my comfort zone, in fact I think it is more important that I am occasionally uncomfortable than that I learn PHP. I think all of us need to push outside of our comfort zones. It’s good to be uncomfortable every so often…it reminds us to grow and develop. Hopefully in a few months I’ll be able to report back that I’ve made some progress.

A QR code, or quick response code, is a bar code. Better said, it is a 2D bar code. Most people have seen them in advertising or on some items you may purchase. The interesting thing about them is the ability to tie them back to a set of information. For example, I recent switched to the Droid X from my iPhone. The app purchase/download process is a bit different, with the main difference being the use of QR codes for downloading apps on android. Many websites advertise their application for download, whether by a link you can browse to on your phone, or more simply opening your bar code scanning application on your phone and scanning a QR code on the screen which prompts you to download the application.

This got me thinking, what about using QR codes to inventory technology.  I’m talking more about a simple set of QR code stickers and a database of information, what about being able to inventory an office or a cubicle? In my current corporate environment we have approximately 250 workstations, 20 offices, a few conference rooms, reception areas, etc…  What about utilizing a QR code that tied to all the technology equipment in the office, cubicle, or conference room.  You may pull up a list of the hardware, versions, model numbers, IP addresses, phone extensions, last service, etc. What makes this powerful is that my entire IT support staff have smartphones (iphones or android).  A simple bar code scanner could read the code, pull up a URL or some other link to an application that houses all that information.  No longer do they need to run around with a laptop and spreadsheets to know the details, but rather they could scan and go. It would be interesting to see the cost savings in terms of productivity.  Maybe we’ll try that out.

1. The new government Copyright Treaty.  This article from Wired sums it up very well. The Obama administration has been so obsessively secretive about the drafting of this legislation, and the leaked memo shows why.  It’s as if all the RIAA lawyers have teamed up with the Department of Justice to determine how much they can screw the internet companies.  Now, I don’t advocate for piracy and copyright infringement, but give me a break.  The treaty would require ISPs to actively employ policies to “combat the flow of unauthorized copyrighted material through their pipes”, and the implement a “graduated response program.”  At issue here is the ability to remain in business.  In case you didn’t know, piracy exists, and there is a ton of pirated material out there.  Further, there is a large amount of infringing content that is unintended.  So when you place the responsibility on the ISP to check all material flowing through their system, you are placing an undue burden on a company and will likely drive them out of business.  Innovation, as usual in Government regulate, will be stifled, and we, the consumer, will be harmed.  The problem here is that the RIAA spends more money that I can comprehend fighting to keep the world of technology status quo, rather than adopt new technologies that would lead to a larger revenue stream for them.  And the US government gladly becomes their lackey because of the money they spend.

2. Net Neutrality has been in the news a lot quite recently.  I won’t spend a lot of time here talking about it, but check out savetheinternet.com.  John McCain has recently introduced legislation titled the “Internet Freedom Act”.  Wow! Definitely can’t vote against freedom, right? Wrong! McCain has received more money than any other Congressman from the telecommunication industry.  Just over $900k.  His bill would take the regulation of the internet from the FCC and allow large telecommunication companies to deem what we, the consumer, should have access to.  The problem here is that it isn’t in their, the large telecommunication companies, best interest to allow me to make calls of Skype (free) or have access to podcasts (free) or use the internet for gaming or bit torrent.  Rather, they want to control which content I receive (theirs) and charge me if I want more.  The internet has been the largest technological innovation and has had more impact on freedom and democracy that any technology I can think of.  It is an open architecture that is agnostic to the type of content shared.  People around the world can learn in a heartbeat what is happening in the news.  Ideas are shared instantly.  Learning and growth is fostered.  But yet, our all-knowing government believes that we should allow the internet to be controlled by entities that have a vested interest in limiting our access to content.  Seriously?!? Please visit savetheinternet.com and let your voice be heard.  This is a fight we cannot let go, or all the innovation and flow of ideas will be negatively impacted.

This week, however, I went back to work.  Like the next guy, there always is a bit of time to spin up the engines again, and get re-engaged in the day to day grind of work.  However, this time was a bit different.  I’ve spent the week thinking about what is different, why I feel different, and most importantly how to keep it.  I think it boils down to perspective.  You see, I’m what you (and definitely my wife) would call a work-a-holic.  I’ve always got my iPhone with me, checking email, making calls, checking up on things.  I have a very hard time detaching myself from work, and tend to run around with the complex that the world will probably end if I don’t make that call or send that email.  However, this past week, I was forced to “unplug” as many of the places we went I couldn’t get a signal, and what I discovered was that the world kept on going.  Yes, I know, it’s quite the novel concept.  However, I think it was enough of a nudge to put things into a different perspective.  I like it.  I think I’ll try to keep it. 

The most important things are my wife, my boys, my faith, my friends, and how I treat them all.  Getting wrapped up in revenue, gross margin, efficiency, call volume, projections, EBITDA, etc. is important and a necessary part of life (unless you just happen to be independently wealthy).  However, it shouldn’t come at the expense of those things most important.  I should have the energy and desire to spend time with my loved ones and not allow any job to suck that out of me like a vampire.  So I won’t.  I’m still passionate about being successful, and affecting outcomes such that those around me are also successful.  I love solving problems, and creating long-lasting, innovative solutions.  But if that is going to interfere with a little league game, date night with my wife, chilling with my boys playing XBOX, or developing a stronger relationship with my God, then that price is too high and I won’t pay it.

Just thought I’d share…