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Finding Your Passion

Five years ago, I left the corporate world behind forever. Although I was working my way up the ladder and my skills and experiences were in demand, my passion for working for a paycheck died.

This wasn't the first time I entered the world of entrepreneurialism. In 1983, I ran a small publishing, writing and consulting business, then returned to the corporate arena as an Executive Editor followed by a communications management position at first a large utility and then Starbucks. Unhappy, I left and built a communications consultancy. Again, recruited to fill a VP of Marketing position, I was lured back to the corporate world. That lasted six months.

Today, I am halfway through my fourth year of running L&G Business Solutions, a marketing and communications firm. I am confident knowing that no title or amount of money can lure me back to working for someone else. I am serving small to mid-sized businesses, helping others to succeed and loving every minute of it.

Steven Covey would say that I have finally found my voice. Covey defines voice as "the overlapping of the four parts of our nature: our body, our mind, our heart, and our spirit. These also represent the four intelligences: our IQ for the mind, our EQ for the heart, our SQ for the spirit, and our PQ for the body."

Voice works fine, and I am not about to disagree with Covey. However, I prefer to say  that I have found my passion. How are Covey and I alike yet different in the words we use?

I believe in melding Intelligence Quotient, emotional quotient, spiritual quotient and physical quotient as the four intelligences that we must put in balance. For me personally, that process began in 1996 and continues to evolve. However, just as we must seek balance between body, mind, heart and spirit, we must find our centers. And that is where our passion exists, somewhere in the middle of our nature.

As an example for those of you seeking or wanting to seek your passion, we must ask: What does our passion look like? Using myself as but one tiny and humble human example, my work/life passion can be found within the pages of Lead With Your Heart; the premise that business is the best vehicle for making the world a better place to live and work. The philosophy underpinning that principle moves both my work and life Passion: It is that we must always "put people first," ahead of revenues and profits (self-gain and self-acquisition). (The book describes in detail how to do so while still maximizing revenues and profits. My next book will take a more personal journey into the depths of discovering our passions.

Here is the journey I took to discover mine. I believe the trip to Passion may be short or long (mine was very long), but our paths are similar. The purpose of the following isn't about me; it is about one person's journey to discover balance and passion, which exists entirely within us, in the hope that doing so may be helpful to others.

My journey included:

• A firm foundation rooted in values and ethics as taught by my parents, friend's parents, neighbors and teachers, growing up in a small New Hampshire town, based firmly in Judeo-Christan teachings. (The perfect example of "It Takes A Village," without the political underpinnings.)
• A childhood learning three basic lessons: fairness, hard work, and service. (Although raised Catholic by my mother, my father was a First Baptist. I was raised without religious bias but with a religious and spiritual fervor.)
• Being independent and a Libertarian matters. Question everything (my Sicilian Catholic mother); Trust but verify (my First Baptist Republican father); and vote for freedom, not a political party (the village).
• Fairness: Growing up in the '50s, I was taught to believe that race and ethnicity had nothing to do with goodness or greatness, which could only be found in our hearts, not our exterior finishings or our roots.
• Service: For me, participating in human/civil rights events and spending seven-plus years in the military. In later years, service took the form of serving as a nonviolence trainer and then a grassroots organizer of social justice issues. During that period of life, I also served my parish as a lay minister, my Archdiocese as a lobbyist and my spiritual learnings and inspiration as an Associate with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.
• Hard Work: This was the path that caused me the most difficulty. I didn't understand my options, and even if I had I might not have had the courage to choose the correct one.

For nearly three decades I moved in and out of businesses not my own. I spent 30 years thinking something was wrong with me. And something was: I thought hard work meant reporting to the Man. The last 10 years, however, I spent centering myself through contemplation. It was that daily practice that helped me realize that you and I are the Wo-Man. We own our lives, not a paycheck or a job or what others think we should be.

Raised to be Independent helped. In 1998, I left the corporate world, vowing (knowing) that I would never return. Now I can run a business, earn a living, and do good--all at the same time. Because I never gave up looking for my voice/passion. And that passion is centered around taking the road less traveled, to a place I deeply care about, where the four parts of my nature meet my passion.

Have you found your voice/passion?

P.S. Thank you to Tom Clifford, Corporate Moviemaker, for inspiring this post.

The Best Hope to Save the World

In business, I call for always putting people first, ahead of profits and margins and revenues. It always is about the "who," not the "what." No business that strategizes around making people happy by giving them a voice will experience less wealth, if leaders lead by walking the talk and by eliminating manager and management from their vocabulary. Instead of managing, invest all employees with the responsibility to be held accountable for success around putting customers and communities ahead of all else. In the simplest sense we are talking about building relationships and communities around our employees and the products and services they produce. When business works on this model, it becomes the best hope to save the world.

I introduce this business model in my newest book, Lead With Your Heart. Through case studies and practical applications over the past three decades, I came to believe that this model results in business success as measured by business growth, revenues and profits. Furthermore, it represents our best hope to create a better world in which to do business, to work and to live. Of course, for any model to work, you must believe, you must be passionate in that belief and you must work hard to make the business achieve its goals and objectives.

Governments are ineffective when it comes to creating positive and long-lasting change. Businesses, on  the other hand, prepare for change and they usually embrace it because they expect it and realize that they must be prepared for it. They have in place the best practices and innovative thinking to use change as a means to improve themselves. Business is where we spend at least a third of our lives. Businesses, then, present the perfect launching pad from which to make the world a better place, while at the same time producing great products and services as well as enough profit to pay fair wages and provide needed benefits.

In this Sunday's Boston Globe (February 17, 2008), Matthew Battles posits this very same theory in "How Business Can Save the World." Here's Battles' 2nd graph:

"All have tended to agree, however, that the effects of business are primarily driven by economics: nations that are trading partners are unlikely to risk wealth by waging war on one another; rising salaries offer workers welfare and security; increased profits lead to flourishing philanthropy."

Amen, brother. Business--I believe, write and speak--is the best hope to be the change we wish to see in the world. We must place trust in business to raise the far reaches of the earth out of poverty but we must not do so blindly. We should instead hold ourselves responsible and accountable for every action we take and remind ourselves frequently that business is first and foremost about Main Street, not Wall Street.

Recent research indicates the power of business to do good and inversely to do harm. Although the research results published by Gretchen Spreitzer in the November 2007 issue of the "Journal of Organizational Behavior" are preliminary, they suggest a link between workplace changes and societal changes. A professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, Spreitzer reports that "satisfied employees tend to live in open, peaceful societies--and that improvements in workplace empowerment often precede social changes." Why? Because employees transfer lessons learned in the workplace to their social and political lives.

Let me leave this argument with a quote from John Mackey as it appeared in a 2005 "Reason" magazine debate. The Whole Foods founder and CEO wrote in referring to business virtue and social responsibility:

"Human nature isn't just about self-interest. It also includes sympathy, empathy, friendship, love and the desire for social approval. As motives for human behavior, these are at least as important as self-interest. For many people, they are more important."

He was correct, even though he might not always practice virtue in his life or his business. None of us do. The idea behind leading with your heart isn't to achieve perfection; it is to be the best we can be and work as hard as possible to affect positive change.

P.S. A colleague responded to this post by sharing a white paper about People-Centered Economic Development, P-CED. Click here to read this important document: http://www.p-ced.com/History/tabid/57/Default.aspx.

Relationships Formed are Priceless

Yesterday, Cam Beck submitted the 2000th comment here. He asked me how I would celebrate. I replied, "in small ways." My thinking being that milestones are often celebrated and within this new media, perhaps too often celebrated. I decided to practice humility, a challenging task at best.

Today, however, after giving this more thought, an epiphany of sorts occurred. Recognizing that I react negatively to some posts honoring milestones, I realized that my negative reaction comes more from misunderstanding than humility. For when we celebrate milestones, we aren't celebrating our accomplishments. Not at all. Instead, we celebrate and honor our customers and clients, our peers and friends, our readers and commentors. Without them, there are no milestones.

The age of our business, our blog, our marriage, our friendships, and most important milestones in our lives are possible because of relationships formed, whether in business or in our personal lives. Without others support and friendship, milestones would mean little. Without relationships there is no business, there are no friendships, there are no peers, there's not even much of a family. So to celebrate this epiphany, I offer these relationship-building recommendations for your business and your life:

• Serving others is our greatest honor and doing so reaps huge rewards for the giver and the receiver. Be a giver, be a gracious receiver, and don't be a taker.
• Don't satisfy customers. Embrace their being with great generosity, caring, honesty and integrity. Say yes, not no.
• Charge a fair price and provide outstanding value.
• Embrace "and", reject "or."
• Put people first in everything you do.
• Create happiness within yourself and share it abundantly with others.
• Say please and thank you.
• Welcome criticism and disagreement, and learn from it.
• Don't hold grudges, they are heavy to bear and bring you down.
• Lead With Your Heart.
• Love your friends.
• Cherish your family.
• Find relationship opportunities wherever you are.
• Always tell the truth. That doesn't mean you need let facts get in the way of a good story. Just be sure listeners know it's a story.
• Be ever on the search for truth, knowing you may never find it.
• Be responsible but have fun.

Feel free to add your own or to question mine. And thank you for being.

Lead With Passion or Get Out of the Way

The foundation of success is a mixture of values, ethics, and a great passion to grow your business in  ways that make the world a better place. If money is your first priority, the only way you will succeed is if your only measure of success comes in the form of government-issued paper. For any business model or plan to work, you must believe, you must be passionate in that belief and you must work hard to make the business achieve its goals and objectives.

Ask yourself this: If I don't believe passionately in what we do, in what I do, in our business, in our products and services, and in our authenticity, trustworthiness and credibility, how can I expect anyone to believe in me or our business?

We know that without sales and marketing, their can be no business. It is also true that without passion, there will be no business. At the very least, there will be no business that maximizes success, productivity, profits, revenues and potential. And a business without passionate leaders, employees and customers is a business that likely will not be missed if it goes away tomorrow.

On page 138 of Pour Your Heart Into It, Starbucks Howard Schultz writes: "Ultimately, Starbucks can't flourish and win customers' hearts without the passionate devotion of our employees. In business, that passion comes from ownership, trust and loyalty. If you undermine any of those, employees will view their work as just another company."

I know Howard Schultz and he believes that. So do I, and I take it one step further: If you undermine passion, trust and loyalty, customers also will see you as just another company.

So, what kind of leader do you want to be? What kind of business do you want to create or work for? What kind of business do customers want to frequent? One that is driven by passion? Or one that is driven by something else?

The Power of Starbucks When It Leads with the Heart

Starbucks is one of the models I used in Lead With Your Heart to show what a business might look like when they put people first and strive to create happiness. But that model as defined by Starbucks has been falling apart since Howard Schultz stepped away from guiding the company's day-to-day decisions. Good news for us Starbuckians: Schultz is back.

He replaced CEO Jim Donald, and said in taking the reins said that Starbucks would slow an aggressive U.S. expansion in a shake-up that sent its battered shares up nearly 9 percent. Instead, it plans to speed up expansion abroad, and increase the profitability of those stores by redeploying capital earmarked for U.S. store growth to the international business.

You may remember that in a leaked memo last February, "Schultz warned Donald and other executives that automatic espresso machines, bagged coffee and cookie cutter store designs had led to a sterility at the chain that had invited competition from fast-food companies and others.

"We have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have (led) to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand," Schultz wrote in the memo.

To me, however, the key to Schultz return is that he leads with his heart. He understands and was the guru along with Howard Behar, former International President now retired, who strategized and operated on the principle that Starbucks doesn't sell coffee, it sells a great experience (and coffee) one cup at a time. Schultz understands that employees represent Starbucks ability to sell happiness and to exceed customer's expectations. He also believes that Starbucks must run on its values to succeed. He believes that people come first. We will have to wait and see if Schultz still has the heart to return Starbucks to greatness.

10 Steps to Happiness Today

In Lead With Your Heart, we measure success with a happiness stick: What has your business done or what is it doing to make your customers, employees and communities happy by making lives and the planet better? In today's post, I offer 10 easy steps that you can take today in your life and in your business to make yourself and others happier. Please add your own. I encourage you to share these and your ideas with others:

Business Life

1. Pick up the phone, call a customer and thank them for their business. Let them know how much you care about their business.
2. Take a fellow worker out to lunch.
3. Volunteer to take on a new challenge and do all you can to create a huge success.
4. Reward a good worker by giving them the afternoon off.
5. Use social media to share information others can use to better their business or their life.

Personal Life

1. Hug yourself and say I love you.
2. Surprise a family member or a friend with a gift not tied to an occasion.
3. Don't worry about things that you have no control over.
4. Smile and say hi to strangers you pass.
5. Mentor a student.

Bonus Tip

1. Forgive someone's mistake, error in judgment or hurtful action.

To spread happiness and to get others to think about it and to share happiness with others, I am tagging the following people who lead with their heart. Please be a leader of this grassroots move focused on happiness and leading with your heart. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to write one post about happiness--what it means to you, your customers or your fellow workers in the context of business or to recommend a way or two people can be happier in their own lives. In either place--business or personal-- how can we together make the world a better place to live and or work, while growing prosperity in however you choose to define prosperous?

1. CK
2. Drew McLellan
3. David Reich
4. Mack Collier
5. Toby Bloomberg
6. Sean Howard
7. Ryan Karpeles
8. Karen Hegmann
9. Valeria Maltoni
10. Gavin Heaton

Stand Up and Cheer for Doing the Right Thing

This isn't a college story, although it is about West Virginia University (WVU). This isn't a football story, although it is about the hiring of a football coach. This is a human story. A story about a person who succeeded because he was loyal; showed courage; stepped up when he was need; demonstrated all the capacities of a leader; and expected nothing in return. Today, that man, Bill Stewart was named the head coach of West Virginia, just hours after his team upset Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

Upsets happen all the time, but this one is spacial, because the former head coach, Rich Rodriguez, bolted for Michigan after the regular season, leaving his team without its leader and mentor.Into the vacuum stepped Stewart. Stewart's previous head coaching experiences included VMI from 1994-96, compiling an 8-25 record. Before being asked to take the temporary position of head coach for the bowl game, the 55-year-old Stewart coach tight ends and fullbacks and was the special teams coordinator. He came to West Virginia as quarterbacks coach in January 2000.

Here's what makes the a human story, a story about always putting people first. WVU fields a football team that can attract a big name to be its next coach. A star in this arena. And it can afford to pay a star's salary. Instead, it rewarded this humble figure, whose agent is his wife and whose previous claim to fame, in his words, was, "I'm West Virginia born, West Virginia bred, a West Virginian all my life, really." And his players both honored and respected him. And he cares for them as people first, and as players who run a 4.0 40 (40 years in 4 seconds) or can bench press 400 pounds second.

"At this university, loyalty and trust are important," WVU president Mike Garrison said. "We know we now have a coach who truly values the opportunity to work as the head football coach at West Virginia University."

I think this is a story that teaches us something important: honor, loyalty, caring and integrity matter.

Happiness Is...

Note: The following post is inspired by Janine Dupont Dit Duponis, who posted a wonderful video at Facebook. At the end of this post, find a different version set to "Happiness" from "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown!".

As many of you know, the subtitle of Lead With Your Heart is Sell Happiness and You and Your Business Will Flourish. For the past three years, I have been living with those ideas and focusing on what happiness can look like and sometimes does. Here in no particular order is my take on happiness, from the perspective of our work and personal lives.

• Happiness is a family that we love and that loves us back.
• Happiness is a spouse who forgives and and supports us even when we are doing something crazy.
• Happiness is letting go of grudges and hurt feelings and opening our hearts to those who hurt us.
• Happiness is a bowl of pasta and Sicilian wine.
• Happiness is blogging and building relationships in the blogging community.
• Happiness is a blogger's social coming soon.
• Happiness is sharing ideas, thoughts and feeelings.
• Happiness is creating an integrated marketing/communications plan that works.
• Happiness is doing the small things to help our planet (think green, like an energy-efficient light bulb)
• Happiness is having a vision of a better world and working to make a difference.
• Happiness is creating products and services that customers and clients want and need.
• Happiness is keeping it simple and communicating from the heart, not our egos.
• Happiness is treating employees as if they are the most important parts of our business (because they are).
• Happiness is saying yes to customers and clients.
• Happiness is never lying or being lied to.
• Happiness is a brook running through the back yard.
• Happiness is a cup of coffee.
• Happiness is a reader who gets you.
• Happiness is a friend of many decades.
• Happiness is saying or hearing the words "I love you."
• Happiness is a business that always puts people ahead of profits.
• Happiness is a business that uses its power to do good.
• Happiness is a reader who leaves a comment below sharing what happiness means to them.

Prayers and Hopes for Christmas and 2008

I happen to be Christian, Catholic to be specific. But one does not need to be a Christian or subscribe to  religion to be spiritual and to have faith. So on this Christmas eve post, I share with you my prayers and hopes for 2008. Please join me in leading with your heart and to opening your heart to others.

We must be the change we wish to see in the world--Mahatma Gandhi

• Peace through justice, that we will work to understand each other better, to appreciate cultural differences, to build a world where all can enjoy it fruits and to strive to never have to send another young man or woman into battle.
• Faith and hope, that we will always see the positive side of human kind and look to our God, our values and our ethics for guidance.
• Friendships new and old, that we will build new relationships and reach out to those we currently call friend.
• Clean air and water, that we will do all we can to refresh and revitalize our planet.
• Family, that we will hug and tell our families every day that we love them.
• Business, that we will always put people ahead of strategies, tactics and profits to make a difference in their lives and their work.

There are many more prayers that I could send heavenward, but please join me in adding your own.

Blessings of Peace,

Lewis

P.S. David Reich posted a nice review of Lead With Your Heart. Check it out here.

Love Hurts

In reality, it is lack of love or a perception that we are not loved that hurts, not being or feeling loved.

I'm not talking about the kind of love that makes our hearts skip a beat or brings a tear of joy to our eyes when we are with someone we love so deeply they are part of us. That kind of love is easier to understand and deal with than the love that we all seem to crave from strangers, friends and childhood family members.

The question I raise today is about the need we feel from somewhere deep inside us that makes us human; the feeling that calls upon us to be loved or, if you prefer, liked intensely.

When we feel loved, we smile a lot, move about with great confidence, focus on whatever is at hand, reach out to others, share and give whenever and whatever we can. When we don't feel loved, we are a mess. We may focus on another person with great intensity. One we thought cared about us, and ask ourselves why they haven't called or written or reached out to us lately. To bring it forward to this medium, we wonder why they no longer visit our blog and comment. And without any evidence, we assume they no longer care about us, and we ask: What did we do to hurt the relationship? We over-analyze and we become depressed--not clinically but we know that happiness has leaked out of us like water behind a dam that has developed a tiny leak. If we are not careful, the dam will burst.

So what is it about us that requires self-substantiation? Why do we need others to show their love for us? It is not only typical for these feelings to arise within close relationships but as I said earlier, we yearn for the attention (love) of strangers. Those strangers might be readers, clients, customers, virtual acquaintances, blog meet-up acquaintances, or just about anyone who enters our lives in the tiniest or largest of ways, from mom and dad to the kid who sat two desks over decades past or the reader/blogger from another continent.

If it weren't for these feelings, I doubt social media would have a future. I question whether loyal customers would exist. And would brand evangelism be a business goal? Finally, would any of us ever reach out to strangers or even distant friends? And if the loss of those feelings hurts because we perceive at any given moment unloved by a person or a group of persons, is the hurt a message from within calling us to reach out or is it a sign of a breakdown in self-respect or confidence or is it a necessary pain in order for us to feel the opposite, which is love when it surrounds us and touches our deepest centers?