Just Cause > Your Current Mission Statement: The Infinite Game

Let’s just start by saying that I’m a huge fan of Simon Sinek. I use his YouTube videos in my business classes and I’ve worked some of his processes into my own client work. I’m a big fan of the research he does and how he gets his ideas out into the world. It shouldn’t be a surprise when I share that I really loved his new book “The Infinite Game”. Not because I wholeheartedly identify with his “just cause” but, at this book’s core it’s about helping people make better decisions. It’s a framework that will help those better serve the people to which they are responsible because they know that every growth metric in every business starts with someone (employee, customer, prospect, audience) making a choice. The icing on the cake for me is seeing him frame concepts like game theory, opportunity cost, and a bunch of fun behavioral economics stuff in a you-don’t-need-to-be-an-economist-to-use-this-everyday kind of way.

Plus, I am all about helping make people better business and organizational decisions.

This post isn’t just a love letter to this book. (It’s definitely not hard for me to keep gushing about it though!) I wanted to challenge you to think about how the work you’re doing in your business supports your vision for the future.

Vision for the future? You might not have one right now but it’s important. When you’re connecting what you do, what you’re building, and who you’re cultivating to a future you want to see things get interesting. Interesting because the choices you make from that mindset is going to be very different, way more sustainable, than those made from just optimizing your business in 90-day sprints or worse just focusing on the next transaction.

To help you think through finding your vision I’ll share a bit about his first practice and include the video he created to accompany the concept in his framework - identifying your “just cause”. The broad stroke is getting to a cause and communicating it so that your employees, or the people that support you, would be willing to sacrifice their own interests to advance that cause?

That’s a bigger deal than most people think. In order for someone to trade their dollars earned, their time, their knowledge, or their attention for what you’re working on they have to believe it’s going to make a difference in their lives. Sure, there’s the instant utility of getting a solution to a today problem but consumption now is more than just a vote for maximizing utility.

Building a business that will last demands that you do more than just quickly cobble together mission or vision statements full of vague business platitudes. In the past, I’ve written that one of my biggest business-owner pet peeves is when they put things like “best customer service” or “highest quality product” in the middle of their mission statements. I’ll save the rant for now and offer a link to one of those posts titled, How to W.I.N. Everyday.

This time of year is great for doing a bit of reflection and working out the things that are really important to you and to your business. So important that you either created or are supporting a business that shares those values and ideas about what a better future looks like. Then go back to your mission, vision, and values and audit them against the value rubric you’ve just created. How does it hold up? I’m willing to bet that, for most of you, it could use a little work. Here’s an Amazon link to his book The Infinite Game if after you watch the video you decide that you need more Simon Sinek in your life.

Which, of course, you will.

Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe

“You know, in the military, they give medals to people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may gain. In business, we give bonuses to people who are willing to sacrifice others so that we may gain. We have it backwards. Right?”

In today’s post, I want to cover leadership through the wisdom of Simon Sinek. In this TED Talk Simon talks about the importance of fostering the feelings of safety as a leader. I believe this applies to those of us building businesses with internal stakeholders like employees as well as the solopreneurs and small businesses that only have external stakeholders like vendors and customers/clients. 

Why? 

To paraphrase from Simon; when people feel safe there’s a natural tendency to cooperate. It’s cooperation that drives success. I don’t necessarily mean the play nice in the sandbox kind of cooperation, that counts too, but it’s the cooperation we earn when we ask of someone. The safety in knowing that your audience isn’t wasting their time or consuming bad content when you ask for your audience’s attention or better to spend their discretionary dollars on you. Being a good leader means creating an environment where the people around you feel safe enough to let their guards down so that there’s an opportunity to get to know, like and trust you. 

Getting people to know, like, and trust you are the foundational pillars for growing a business that lasts. 

Business development isn’t just a quantity game, it’s about developing yourself as a leader, regardless of your perceived position in life, professional experience, or technical knowledge. Leadership is also a choice you have to actively make every day. You know what’s also a choice? Investing about twelve minutes of your time today to help you think about how you’re doing your part to make the people around you feel safe so that you can authentically grow your business.

You choose. 

What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it's someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety - especially in an uneven economy - means taking on big responsibility.

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