Monday Memes Ch 3: Baby Yoda & Burn Out

Baby Yoda is the best. I don’t think I’ve seen a bad one of these memes yet! Before I get sucked into another Baby Yoda meme image search let’s just jump right into this week’s Monday Meme. 

Piggybacking on last week’s post, I want to see if you’re playing Simon Sinek’s Infinite Game when it comes to how choose to work every day? 

If you haven’t read his book yet or watched the video I posted about Sinek’s Infinite Game approach (it’s absolutely worth it), the gist of it is moving away from trying to “win” business and towards making choices that will keep the business going as long as possible. The emphasis is on creating a business that truly centers on people, culture, and mission instead of trading resources or encouraging environments that reward short term gains. It’s so good! 

The Baby Yoda memes and new Simon Sinek book have a lot in common this time of year. December is the perfect time of year for a little reflection and more importantly, it’s a time to look at what you’re going to do next. Is how you got to where you are now going to be right for helping you get to where you want your business to go in 202? It forces you to really look at how you’re showing up every day and honestly assessing the things that are motivating the choices you’re making in your business. 

Big picture, a year isn’t all that long when it comes to building a business. If you started in January and feel like Old Yoda now then you’re exactly who should be taking time to think about what 2020 is going to look like for you. I would challenge you to think about the following things: 

1. How do you decide which tasks or goals get priority over others in your business? 

2. Is the work you’re doing still aligned with why you started doing the work in the first place? 

3. How did you set your goals for next year? Have you even set them yet? 

4. Are the metrics you track daily/weekly/monthly/yearly supporting why you’re doing this work or some arbitrary short term financial or vanity goal? 

I’m not saying that you’re not going to be burnt out or have seasons of work that feel like they are aging your horribly from time to time. I want to challenge you to look at how and why you’re working to make sure that you aren’t creating an environment or expectations that are unsustainable from the start. When you burn out for the last time at work, everyone loses. 

Long term success means making choices that put people first - from keeping up with the changing tastes and expectations of your consumers to you making sure the work you’re doing every day is still aligned with why you wanted to do it when you started.

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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