Memorial Day: A Prosperous Journey…

On this Memorial Day 2022 in the United States, we mourn all those brave and patriotic American men and women who have served our country and are now on watch in heaven.

Raising our Red, White and Blue American flag today brings tears to our eyes. It reminds us of all that have raised their hand to volunteer and all those who we have lost, to insure our flag is a beacon to the rest of the world.

If you have ever attended a funeral in Arlington National Cemetery...you know what feeling comes over you.

Standing there, when you read the birth dates in Section 60 and you realize how young they were and all those before them. 

Defending our own country and all those others who are unable to defend themselves, from perpetual evil forces.

You see, only people who have served and perhaps even their own close family members, truly understand.

Standing there, on a glorious sunny afternoon in Virginia, watching a tearful Mother as she is handed the U.S. Flag carefully folded into a triangle, is an image one shall never forget.

You see, until you have been there, how could you understand what our Memorial Day is truly about.

The Dedication. The Service. The Sweat and Tears. The Courage. The Pride. The Ultimate Sacrifice.

Godspeed…

Noun: a prosperous journey

Rapport: Risk of Relationships...

As you travel the world on business or around your particular county neighborhood, do you ever experience true “Rapport”?

You know it when you hear it, see it or you feel it.

When you encounter an employee working at the desk of your favorite airline, at your grocery store and your local banking branch, do you ever experience true rapport?

rapport

Noun rap· port | \ ra-ˈpȯr

Definition of rapport

: a friendly, harmonious relationship

especially : a relationship characterized by agreement, mutual understanding, or empathy that makes communication possible or easy

Is it the persons own words, their actions or their behavior that this particular person caught your attention?  One might find themselves wanting to revisit this establishment, business or professional service instead of one of the competition.

Brand loyalty or repeat business or the ability to get one customer or client to tell someone else about that customer encounter is what rapport is really all about.

It is all about building long lasting relationships. It is about using true rapport.

How excellent are you as a Senior Leader in your organization at using rapport with employees or new potential clients?

You may have heard some of the classic lines utilized in the past, depending on the business. If you heard: “What brings you in here today?” You might think you just walked into a Ford dealer.

If you heard: “Did you find everything you were looking for”? You might think you were in the aisle at a Gelson’s market.

If you heard: "How might we exceed your expectations today"? You might think you were working with someone who really cares about your needs, your individual requirements.

The entire brand experience with you and your organization from the first phone call, the first web site visit or E-mail inquiry or the first in-person meeting is at stake.

Building rapport shall begin on the first encounter with another person and it shall continue throughout the entire lifecycle of the relationship.

How might you start any initial meeting with another person to give them that feeling of rapport on your 2nd visit, a 3rd encounter, or every encounter by phone, e-mail or in person going forward?

The shareholder, stakeholders or owners of your organization are counting on your Senior Leaders in the business enterprise, to build the brand and grow the numbers.

The 20% at the top of your organization are most likely to be excellent at the Art and Science of rapport. Leadership really is about making everyone else better.

Remember, "Operational Risks" in your business or organization includes People, Processes, Systems and External events.

What are you doing to utilize the 20% of your people to reduce risk in your business, as your next generation of "Senior Leaders" model the true power of Rapport…

Metadata: What, Who, Correlate...

As you scrolled through your digital feed today on your favorite Social Media App, what did your finger stop and pause upon?

Was it a particular person you were connected with, who was posting a question Poll?  Why this person?

Was it a specific topic of political interest with a headline that caught your attention? Why this topic?

Was it a picture of your favorite place in the city you live in?  Why this picture?

Maybe it was a combination of all, so you then took the time to do some more research, some background, to try to satisfy a curious state of mind that took over your thinking.

What questions did you seek answers to, in your journey to satisfy your own curiosity?

You are exactly the kind of person the state or private entity is watching and measuring.

Cookies and metadata are their tools:

 

Metadata means "data about data". Although the "meta" prefix means "after" or "beyond", it is used to mean "about" in epistemology. Metadata is defined as the data providing information about one or more aspects of the data; it is used to summarize basic information about data that can make tracking and working with specific data easier.

So what?

The person on this web page or in this rental vehicle, or this retail store has this “name associated” with the user name or mobile device they have carried within 5 feet of the digital sensor:  John Doe’s iPhone 11.

Whether he is on the browser visiting the web page or has the small radio frequency (RF) device in his pocket, it is being measured.  It is being correlated.  It is being shared.

You see, John/Jane Q. Public for the most part does not care.  He does not think about it.  She is unaware of the implications of the ip, location or metadata they are sharing in their own home, in public locations, or the workplace.

With whom?  The answer to this question depends…

Mother’s Day: Our Journey Together…

As a toddler child, the 2nd Sunday morning of May in the United States you could always find us as kids, starting our Mother’s Day celebration at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

It was a wonderful day of celebrating our faith and family gatherings to honor our Mothers.

Once as a young First Grader, you know you certainly appreciated your Mother for all kinds of tasks in daily life. Helping you get dressed for school, making your breakfast, packing a lunch in a brown paper bag and taking you or walking with you to the bus stop, a quarter mile away.

At this stage of your own youth, there is little thought about all the challenges your own parents endured, now that you alone are growing up so fast, since the day you were born.

Decades later, after you are married and you have become a parent, your own “Mother’s Day” celebration takes on a whole new perspective.

As young parents with our own elementary age kids, our Mother's Day always started at McLean Bible Church and then perhaps a picnic afterwards at our local Great Falls Park, along the Potomac River with all the Spring wild flowers in bloom.

Reflecting back, when you achieve the parental milestone of your own personal 2nd or 3rd Mother’s Day holiday, you discover you are now much more focused on your child, through a whole different “Mother’s Day” cognitive lens.

You think, how will I teach them? When will I have the means and ability to prepare them for all of the challenges of life on their own?

Their own first losing soccer match or striking out in the little league baseball game. Their 3rd Grade report card. Their own first romantic crush and break up.  The future “Sorry to Inform You” letter(s) from an anticipated college or service application.

"Who will they become? Now as a parent, you will ask yourself this question many times, as a Mother and/or Father in your lifetime."

As you grow older yourself in life as a parent with teenagers, you begin to reflect back on your own life and what your Mom and Dad experienced, as you grew up as their Son or Daughter.

Mother’s Day is about the endless journey of life, being a responsible parent. It is not a flat and easy trail to navigate.

The parenting experience will be long and full of challenging ascents, curves and also so many exciting descents.

As a Parent and a Mother, you know all about responsibility. Pure Joy. Faith. Dedication. Sleepless nights. Fear. Courage. And most of all, “Love” no matter what…

Character: Professional Experience Metrics...

What does having professional experience mean to you? At what point do you go from being someone without experience, to a person that has professional experience?

The category or area of profession has all to do with making the rules and setting the bar higher or lower for people to say they are experienced.

Some work professions simply ask you to take a long examination and achieve a passing score in order to say you have professional experience.

Other professionals realize that no matter how many tests you take, it will never prepare you for all of the challenges you will encounter ahead.

Yes, first you may have to go to some kind of skills building and educational courses to gain the fundamentals. Yet it is the hours and days of time in the actual performance of the work that is measured in many professions:

• What about a Pilot? How do they measure their experience?
• What about a Fireman? How do they measure their experience?
• What about a Surgeon? How do they measure their experience?
• What about an Investment Advisor? How do they measure their experience?
• What about an Instructor? How do they measure their experience?
• What about a Baseball player? How do they measure their experience?

Every category of industry, work professions and individuals placed in charge of the production responsibility, the successful outcomes, and the safety and security of others is especially measured on their levels of professional experience.

How many Hours or how many Incidents or how many Encounters or closed Deals or Games Played?

You see, experience is really about how many hours and other metrics you have practiced and tested your own abilities in the actual work. Good days and bad days. Yet there is so much more.

It is also about the Positive outcomes of the work performed. It is also about the Negative outcomes of the work performed.

Being experienced in a profession means exactly what is widely measured in that particular role or position.

So how do you make a decision on who to select as your next (name a position or role in an organization or group)?

A persons “Character” is also a key factor and measurement on total professional experience. The noun, not the adjective or verb.

CHARACTER noun

: one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual.

: the complex of mental and ethical traits marking and often individualizing a person, group, or nation.

What is most complex about humans working in so many different professions, is the Experience to Character ratio.

How much Operational Risk will you accept, with the Experience:Character ratio in your organization or team? E100:C100.  E75:C50.  E100:C0?

How will you perform in your professional life? Who will you Trust?