the middle it exists in every
organization large or small public or
private for-profit or nonprofit
it’s where the work gets done it’s the
80 in your 8020 the middle doesn’t
include those folks that are brand-new
to the work world nor does it include
the CEO or whatever title is included by
that singular position at the top of the
organization years ago I was in a
bookstore and I looked down the aisle
and I found all these books to help
people get started in their careers I
looked in another section and I found
all these books about one job the CEO
and I thought what about the rest of us
see the middle is the rest of us it’s
folks like you and I that have been
around long enough to have won and lost
to have experienced victory and endured
defeat but those of us that are new
enough to still have robust hopes dreams
and aspirations see the middle pays
attention the middle sees and hears more
than one might think it thinks more than
one might admit and it’s capable of more
than we can possibly imagine the middle
is as diverse as the world it includes
people from every walk of life every
race creed color gender orientation
background career field or any other
dimension you can imagine there are
folks in the middle that are incredibly
confident there are others that are more
notably competent there are folks that
are capable and others that can barely
get by
there are folks in the middle that
behave well and there’s some that don’t
there are specialists in the middle
those folks that know a lot about a
little there are generalists in the
middle those folks that know a little
bit about a lot there are a little
special few that truly do know a lot
about a lot and I’m guessing we’ve all
met folks that really don’t know much
about anything see the metal is
incredibly diverse it’s a rich tapestry
and those differences create a
tremendous amount of potential but
through all those differences in all
that diversities all that diversity
there are common hopes there are common
dreams there are common thoughts and
there are common themes success and
balance are two themes that I’ve heard
over and over and over and my over 30
years of dealing with folks and living
in and working in the middle success is
an interesting thing because everybody
wants it but we all define it
differently
some of us define success purely in work
terms others define success purely in
terms of their family their social
interest their sports teams their
hobbies or any of any other dimensions
you can imagine some folks define
success by simply getting through the
next minute the next hour or the next
day other folks have grander more global
definitions of success organizations
also have definitions of success some of
them are robust they’re well articulated
and they’re very well communicated
others not so much they’re less formal
may be not communicated at all beyond
the behaviors and norms that are
expected in those organizations for
people and organizations to achieve
their true potential and get to success
there has to be a recognition of all
those definitions and some balancing of
all the factors that impact them there’s
a scientific theorem that says systems
seek equilibrium that state where
opposing forces are in balance people
and organizations always seek balance
whether it’s work-life balance the
balance between short-term returned and
long-term sustainability cost-benefit
risk reward challenge opportunity we all
seek balance so if everybody’s looking
for it how do we find it years ago an
aviator friend of mine talked to me
about the forces that impact flight I’m
not a pilot
I haven’t stated a Holiday Inn Express
recently but I took his word for it and
I hope you will too the forces that
impact flight apparently are lift and
thrust and weight and drag lift and
thrust are those positive forces that
cause an aircraft to gain altitude and
move forward weight and drag are the
opposing forces that hinder altitude and
hold one back from its forward progress
I heard the model I thought wow that’s
pretty cool
and the more I thought about it the more
it resonated with the message that I
keep hearing from the middle we need
balance there’s many factors that impact
the ability to balance there’s three
that I think are worth talking about
today position priority and paying
attention see folks in the middle from
everything I’ve heard understand that
organizations have positions of
authority some more formal than others
folks in the middle they pay attention
these seem oaks that sit in those seats
behave they look to see if they’re just
wearing the title and offering
platitudes in the name of encouragement
and when they abdicate in the name of
empowerment when that happens weight and
drag are introduced to the equation and
it holds people and organizations back
from the success potential that they all
have and the levels of success they all
seek when people in positions of
authority however demonstrate good
leadership they help people understand
the right things to do when they’re good
managers they help people understand and
enable them to do those right things the
right way
amazing lift and thrust is provided to
the people and the organization the
second P is priority to get priority
right you have to have two things
clarity and consistency I imagine we’ve
all been in a circumstance maybe more
than once or we’re just not really sure
what’s important it’s not clear what
we’re supposed to be doing what
direction we’re supposed to go in you
know folks in the middle understand the
difference between being busy and adding
value and if whoever is wearing the
title and in that position of authority
pays attention and sees that folks
really don’t understand the value it’s
incumbent upon them to take time invest
the time to add the clarity help folks
understand where the value is so people
can move forward and do what needs to be
done
consistency is critical while ago a lady
told me about an experience she had she
took a new job and she was really
excited about it she had the opportunity
to work on the project of a lifetime she
tackled that project diligently she
worked hard spent long hours she did all
the right stuff
she was just about ready to deliver that
project and her boss came in and said
sorry we’re not doing that anymore we’re
gonna go do this instead she was shocked
but she jumped on that other priority
with the same fervor and not too
terribly long thereafter someone said
guess what we’re not doing that we’re
gonna go do this instead it exhausted
her she shared with me that she just
felt she was playing whack-a-mole I
haven’t talked to her in a while but I
understand she stayed with the company
but what she told me is from that
experience
she never again gave a hundred percent
to any priority because she knew she had
to save some energy for that next thing
that was going to surely pop up out of
nowhere consistency is important to
priorities of the three P’s here I would
suggest that simply paying attention has
the most potential positive impact and
the most potential for damage the
gentleman shared a story with me where
he started a new job and he was excited
he goes in on the first day and finds
out his boss had to leave for a business
trip the person that was orienting him
onboarding him taken make sure she had
all the paperwork done kind of took a
haphazard approach to it didn’t really
seem to care much that this gentleman
was there when all the administrivia was
concluded she walked the gentleman over
showed him where the time clock was then
parked him in his cube and had him
handed him a whole bunch of papers he
had been ignored he had been dismissed a
day or two later the boss came back from
his business trip and he’s excited to
meet his new employee and he was shocked
that this employee wasn’t doing
cartwheels of joy to be there the person
had been ignored the weight and the drag
of that initial experience set him so
far back
that he never recovered he left the
company he went on to another company
that valued him that paid attention that
listened it’s important when you’re
paying attention to folks to understand
where they are on the overload limit
everybody here works hard I imagine now
sometimes your load gets heavy it’s
important that folks pay attention to
each other and if you’re a person in a
position of authority you’re paying
attention to the load level of all our
people we’ve often heard it said that
work here is kind of like a sprint you
got to run fast we sometimes hear that
no no it’s a marathon the unfortunate
reality is in way too many cases people
are being asked to sprint the entire
length of a marathon look at the heads
going up and down it oh yeah that
happens I’d like to offer a different
approach the road march method I’ll call
it those of you that have rode March you
know what I’m about to say those of you
that have backpacked with the heavy load
or hiked with a heavy load you know
roughly what I’m about to say seeing a
well-done Road March you start from a
known point you prepare well you carry a
heavy load you have a known course
challenging though it may be you have a
known destination and you move out
smartly you got to walk quickly because
there’s work to be done but the key
differentiator here is in every
well-done Road March you build in a
break a break to check your feet and
change your socks when you’re sprinting
a marathon it’s impossible to stop and
check your feet and change socks you’ve
got to pay attention to your people
you’ve got to understand where they are
in their level of overload and you’ve
got to build in those brakes let them
check their feet and change their socks
paying attention also means remembering
that people have a life outside of work
we talk to work-life balance earlier see
folks in the middle by-and-large love
their iPhones or androids their tablets
or their iPads the laptops we today have
more technological ability to do things
in new and unique and interesting ways
than any generation before us and that’s
awesome right up until the point where
those tools become anchors when your
work world starts interrupting you at
10:30 on Friday night hey I was just
thinking about whatever can you help me
with or 2:30 Saturday afternoon you get
the email blasts or the dreaded 7:00
a.m. Sunday morning message from the
bosses hey I was just thinking about the
last week and I’d like to plan for next
week give me a call see when that starts
to happen you’re not paying attention to
people you just focused on the results
in the business need and that does not
provide lift and thrust it doesn’t help
motivate people to achieve their
potential years ago I was you know
relatively tough spot was 1992 I was
with the army and their hurricane and
relief operations through a set of
circumstances I wound up being
responsible for three pretty big jobs my
boss at the time demonstrated all the
very best of what we just talked about
here he paid attention
he knew his position and he was able to
prioritize
pretty much every morning he’d wake me
up we were we’re living in the remnants
of a blown down subdivision in South
Dade County
we’ve lived and worked out of tents
pretty much every morning he’d walked by
and kicked my cot way too early and he’d
be standing there with two cups of
coffee
he’d say come on young captain let’s go
okay so we got up and we went and we
went to the canal that abutted the
subdivision and when the alligators
weren’t there we take a seat and hang
out for a while and we spend 20-30
minutes talking and he always started by
asking about me
how you doing you okay I know you got a
heavy load have you talked to your
family recently everything okay with
them Wow that provided lift and thrust
then we talked about our priorities our
overall mission what are we here to do
what’s our current status what are the
right things to do today and how are we
going to go about doing them right he
played his position he prioritized but
most importantly he paid attention he
paid attention to a guy who was in a
tough spot who was clearly overloaded
and he caused me to be successful
successful for my terms
successful to help the organization
achieve its mission and thus successful
in being able to provide the assistance
that so many people needed as we leave
here today I’d ask you to think about
how you can help folks achieve success
and balance what are those factors that
are influencing success and balance in
your world and in the world of the
people around you how can you influence
the circumstance to help and when doing
that I’ll suggest the very first thing
to do is listen
just listen to the messages from the
middle thank you
[Applause]
organization large or small public or
private for-profit or nonprofit
it’s where the work gets done it’s the
80 in your 8020 the middle doesn’t
include those folks that are brand-new
to the work world nor does it include
the CEO or whatever title is included by
that singular position at the top of the
organization years ago I was in a
bookstore and I looked down the aisle
and I found all these books to help
people get started in their careers I
looked in another section and I found
all these books about one job the CEO
and I thought what about the rest of us
see the middle is the rest of us it’s
folks like you and I that have been
around long enough to have won and lost
to have experienced victory and endured
defeat but those of us that are new
enough to still have robust hopes dreams
and aspirations see the middle pays
attention the middle sees and hears more
than one might think it thinks more than
one might admit and it’s capable of more
than we can possibly imagine the middle
is as diverse as the world it includes
people from every walk of life every
race creed color gender orientation
background career field or any other
dimension you can imagine there are
folks in the middle that are incredibly
confident there are others that are more
notably competent there are folks that
are capable and others that can barely
get by
there are folks in the middle that
behave well and there’s some that don’t
there are specialists in the middle
those folks that know a lot about a
little there are generalists in the
middle those folks that know a little
bit about a lot there are a little
special few that truly do know a lot
about a lot and I’m guessing we’ve all
met folks that really don’t know much
about anything see the metal is
incredibly diverse it’s a rich tapestry
and those differences create a
tremendous amount of potential but
through all those differences in all
that diversities all that diversity
there are common hopes there are common
dreams there are common thoughts and
there are common themes success and
balance are two themes that I’ve heard
over and over and over and my over 30
years of dealing with folks and living
in and working in the middle success is
an interesting thing because everybody
wants it but we all define it
differently
some of us define success purely in work
terms others define success purely in
terms of their family their social
interest their sports teams their
hobbies or any of any other dimensions
you can imagine some folks define
success by simply getting through the
next minute the next hour or the next
day other folks have grander more global
definitions of success organizations
also have definitions of success some of
them are robust they’re well articulated
and they’re very well communicated
others not so much they’re less formal
may be not communicated at all beyond
the behaviors and norms that are
expected in those organizations for
people and organizations to achieve
their true potential and get to success
there has to be a recognition of all
those definitions and some balancing of
all the factors that impact them there’s
a scientific theorem that says systems
seek equilibrium that state where
opposing forces are in balance people
and organizations always seek balance
whether it’s work-life balance the
balance between short-term returned and
long-term sustainability cost-benefit
risk reward challenge opportunity we all
seek balance so if everybody’s looking
for it how do we find it years ago an
aviator friend of mine talked to me
about the forces that impact flight I’m
not a pilot
I haven’t stated a Holiday Inn Express
recently but I took his word for it and
I hope you will too the forces that
impact flight apparently are lift and
thrust and weight and drag lift and
thrust are those positive forces that
cause an aircraft to gain altitude and
move forward weight and drag are the
opposing forces that hinder altitude and
hold one back from its forward progress
I heard the model I thought wow that’s
pretty cool
and the more I thought about it the more
it resonated with the message that I
keep hearing from the middle we need
balance there’s many factors that impact
the ability to balance there’s three
that I think are worth talking about
today position priority and paying
attention see folks in the middle from
everything I’ve heard understand that
organizations have positions of
authority some more formal than others
folks in the middle they pay attention
these seem oaks that sit in those seats
behave they look to see if they’re just
wearing the title and offering
platitudes in the name of encouragement
and when they abdicate in the name of
empowerment when that happens weight and
drag are introduced to the equation and
it holds people and organizations back
from the success potential that they all
have and the levels of success they all
seek when people in positions of
authority however demonstrate good
leadership they help people understand
the right things to do when they’re good
managers they help people understand and
enable them to do those right things the
right way
amazing lift and thrust is provided to
the people and the organization the
second P is priority to get priority
right you have to have two things
clarity and consistency I imagine we’ve
all been in a circumstance maybe more
than once or we’re just not really sure
what’s important it’s not clear what
we’re supposed to be doing what
direction we’re supposed to go in you
know folks in the middle understand the
difference between being busy and adding
value and if whoever is wearing the
title and in that position of authority
pays attention and sees that folks
really don’t understand the value it’s
incumbent upon them to take time invest
the time to add the clarity help folks
understand where the value is so people
can move forward and do what needs to be
done
consistency is critical while ago a lady
told me about an experience she had she
took a new job and she was really
excited about it she had the opportunity
to work on the project of a lifetime she
tackled that project diligently she
worked hard spent long hours she did all
the right stuff
she was just about ready to deliver that
project and her boss came in and said
sorry we’re not doing that anymore we’re
gonna go do this instead she was shocked
but she jumped on that other priority
with the same fervor and not too
terribly long thereafter someone said
guess what we’re not doing that we’re
gonna go do this instead it exhausted
her she shared with me that she just
felt she was playing whack-a-mole I
haven’t talked to her in a while but I
understand she stayed with the company
but what she told me is from that
experience
she never again gave a hundred percent
to any priority because she knew she had
to save some energy for that next thing
that was going to surely pop up out of
nowhere consistency is important to
priorities of the three P’s here I would
suggest that simply paying attention has
the most potential positive impact and
the most potential for damage the
gentleman shared a story with me where
he started a new job and he was excited
he goes in on the first day and finds
out his boss had to leave for a business
trip the person that was orienting him
onboarding him taken make sure she had
all the paperwork done kind of took a
haphazard approach to it didn’t really
seem to care much that this gentleman
was there when all the administrivia was
concluded she walked the gentleman over
showed him where the time clock was then
parked him in his cube and had him
handed him a whole bunch of papers he
had been ignored he had been dismissed a
day or two later the boss came back from
his business trip and he’s excited to
meet his new employee and he was shocked
that this employee wasn’t doing
cartwheels of joy to be there the person
had been ignored the weight and the drag
of that initial experience set him so
far back
that he never recovered he left the
company he went on to another company
that valued him that paid attention that
listened it’s important when you’re
paying attention to folks to understand
where they are on the overload limit
everybody here works hard I imagine now
sometimes your load gets heavy it’s
important that folks pay attention to
each other and if you’re a person in a
position of authority you’re paying
attention to the load level of all our
people we’ve often heard it said that
work here is kind of like a sprint you
got to run fast we sometimes hear that
no no it’s a marathon the unfortunate
reality is in way too many cases people
are being asked to sprint the entire
length of a marathon look at the heads
going up and down it oh yeah that
happens I’d like to offer a different
approach the road march method I’ll call
it those of you that have rode March you
know what I’m about to say those of you
that have backpacked with the heavy load
or hiked with a heavy load you know
roughly what I’m about to say seeing a
well-done Road March you start from a
known point you prepare well you carry a
heavy load you have a known course
challenging though it may be you have a
known destination and you move out
smartly you got to walk quickly because
there’s work to be done but the key
differentiator here is in every
well-done Road March you build in a
break a break to check your feet and
change your socks when you’re sprinting
a marathon it’s impossible to stop and
check your feet and change socks you’ve
got to pay attention to your people
you’ve got to understand where they are
in their level of overload and you’ve
got to build in those brakes let them
check their feet and change their socks
paying attention also means remembering
that people have a life outside of work
we talk to work-life balance earlier see
folks in the middle by-and-large love
their iPhones or androids their tablets
or their iPads the laptops we today have
more technological ability to do things
in new and unique and interesting ways
than any generation before us and that’s
awesome right up until the point where
those tools become anchors when your
work world starts interrupting you at
10:30 on Friday night hey I was just
thinking about whatever can you help me
with or 2:30 Saturday afternoon you get
the email blasts or the dreaded 7:00
a.m. Sunday morning message from the
bosses hey I was just thinking about the
last week and I’d like to plan for next
week give me a call see when that starts
to happen you’re not paying attention to
people you just focused on the results
in the business need and that does not
provide lift and thrust it doesn’t help
motivate people to achieve their
potential years ago I was you know
relatively tough spot was 1992 I was
with the army and their hurricane and
relief operations through a set of
circumstances I wound up being
responsible for three pretty big jobs my
boss at the time demonstrated all the
very best of what we just talked about
here he paid attention
he knew his position and he was able to
prioritize
pretty much every morning he’d wake me
up we were we’re living in the remnants
of a blown down subdivision in South
Dade County
we’ve lived and worked out of tents
pretty much every morning he’d walked by
and kicked my cot way too early and he’d
be standing there with two cups of
coffee
he’d say come on young captain let’s go
okay so we got up and we went and we
went to the canal that abutted the
subdivision and when the alligators
weren’t there we take a seat and hang
out for a while and we spend 20-30
minutes talking and he always started by
asking about me
how you doing you okay I know you got a
heavy load have you talked to your
family recently everything okay with
them Wow that provided lift and thrust
then we talked about our priorities our
overall mission what are we here to do
what’s our current status what are the
right things to do today and how are we
going to go about doing them right he
played his position he prioritized but
most importantly he paid attention he
paid attention to a guy who was in a
tough spot who was clearly overloaded
and he caused me to be successful
successful for my terms
successful to help the organization
achieve its mission and thus successful
in being able to provide the assistance
that so many people needed as we leave
here today I’d ask you to think about
how you can help folks achieve success
and balance what are those factors that
are influencing success and balance in
your world and in the world of the
people around you how can you influence
the circumstance to help and when doing
that I’ll suggest the very first thing
to do is listen
just listen to the messages from the
middle thank you
[Applause]
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