It's Always the Team

There's a grip of things to talk about - but man I'm having a hard time finding the motivation, and if I keep putting it off then it will be such old news no one will really care (I typed that a week ago...so now it is all REALLY old new. Also, the more I think about it, the more I think I want to go a completely different way.  So - I think I'll just throw some pics up with very brief descriptions and hit topics largely unrelated to any of the weeks happenings.

Grant got married - 10 minute ceremony and hours of party...perfect.  Carnaval happened.  That was a wikked cool experience!  Bought clothes just to destroy them.  Went to a party with Captain Jack Sparrow as an official rum taster for an world famous blogger.  My official review - "the rum was...liquidy". Actual I had more to say, check it out on the tacogirl.com site - //tacogirl.com/tiburon-rum-white-a-night-of-flavorful-fun/.
Went on the best Sunset Sail of all time in celebration of Niles (you know him as "Jake from State Farm") and Parker (you know him as the dude I mouth shared a muffin with).  Killer Sail, no other words to describe the fun times had that day.

Roan - Dive Master, Charter Chef
Speared Lion Fish and served it up!

But after the last couple weeks I need to acknowledge that the fun can be had only because of the work.  I owe a great debt to my parents for educating me in my youth that work leads to fun if done right.  So I do my best to do work right; and I am most blessed to have a team that does the same.  Even today (now a couple days ago...I'm a slaker) our General Manager and I were talking about how amazing each and every one on our team truly is.

Charlie - Dive Master, Charter Captain,
Cooking at staff BBQ

We have a crew that comes in and works 6 days a week as a standard.  During busy season it can easily become 7 days a week, and a few of those 12 hours a day (anytime we sail).  The guests at the start of the day express the same amazement as those getting off the sails 12 hours later - utter amazement that each team member is bouncing all over the boat, smiling, cleaning,

Greg - What doesn't this guy do!
Amazing all around Tour Guide

feeding, whatever to take care of the guest...all while truly enjoying the experience.

Janel - Life of the shop!

As part of my job I try to expand our guest base, draw in business from new sources, etc.  I've been working on a tough nut to crack just down the beach that has strictly patronized a local "mega shop" that shall remain nameless.  They sent us 3 divers for a week; one of which was a student.  The 2 experienced divers have been to Belize several times, stayed at the "Tough Nut" and dove with the "Mega Shop" each time.  They left today feeling like our family; and minutes later that "Tough Nut" called me to set up a meeting for next week (now this week!) to send us more divers and set up packages for the future...win...courtesy of the little things this team does daily that no one else delivers...no one.

Shorty - Dive Master, Charter Captain
doing his best to cuddle Pops on a cold ride

I realize I need more picks!  I don't have any good shots a few team members...

As a leader it is always important to remember that you are your team.  Their performance opens the doors.  Their dedication lifts the operations.  I do nothing but help facilitate their greatness.

My bit of managerial advice for the day - don't worry about your guests, don't worry about your potential sources of business; but worry about only one thing.  As a manager (or owner) your focus should be singularly on your team.  Treat them better than they deserve, and let them then live up to that expectation.  Chances are they will.  If you treat your team better than your family - they will shine that to your guests, that word gets out, success will follow.

Thank you to each and every member of the Ecologic team.

Growth doesn't happen with the same ingredients used to create.

What if I told you that passion is also a source of destruction?  That I argued mis-guided passion is a corrosive agent, slowly eating away the core of what that same passion built?  

There are many things that lend to great companies sinking into mediocrity, and eventual collapse. One cause often overlooked is passion; perhaps more accurately, unbridled passion.  Sure I'm aware that the same passion builds amazing things, creates countries, develops ways of life...but not tempering that passion at the right times can have be quiet the corrosive agent - slowly eating away the foundation that it built.  One element is needed for creation, while another is needed for growth.

A key to acknowledge at this point is my belief that passion is a key ingredient, and shared trait, in everyone's favorite person - the micro manager.  At this point I introduce you to my highly technical and completely proprietary chart; The Micro-Management Curve chart (---->).  I hope you read that in a boisterous tone; if not please go back and do so.  As a leader of people, all fall somewhere on this chart.  The passionate micro-manager falls on the right side of the curve.  In the interest of full disclosure I fall on the left side - sure, I wish I was that perfect leader that hit the peak of the curve and rocked it all the time - but I'm not.  I can be a little to absent, and thus be detrimental to my team.    

While hard to hit, we should all be aiming for the sweet spot there.  Side note - iTunes radio is pissing me off...I so badly miss Pandora and I Heart Radio (neither available in Belize...ug. Anyway.  The same passion that creates is what lands managers on the right side of the chart, slipping downwards.  At times a good amount can be accomplished with that overly passionate management style; however the opposite is most often the case.  The more direct management oversight you give (micro management) the less productive your team becomes.  

The team stops contributing their thoughts, motivations, and passions.  Hint - you need your team's passion to create new things.  As a manager you've gone and created; don't let your passion be what hinders your teams passion!  If you do, then you are essentially taking your entire team, and throwing them away in favor of yourself - this is NOT a sustainable practice, and it certainly won't lead to further creation and growth of your enterprise.  Most micro-managers that I've known truly do realize the value of their team, and they want the ideas and passion of those team members...they REALLY do.  What they never seem to realize is that the more you "tell them" the less it happens.  Law of diminishing returns I suppose.

I could write chapters on this...hmmm...maybe I will?!  One last thing to consider is your team.  Are you hiring well?  Do you make the right decision in hiring, or the easy decision, maybe the quick decision?  As a manager you must hire the right person, every time, in every situation.  Obviously we don't; I pride myself on great hires (I have made mistakes, but fewer than most).  I take pride (too much likely) in looking back at my hires over the decades; how many have become managers, and now lead teams of their own.  I better stop here - I feel another book coming on... 

Invest in People

Being an entrepreneur that has failed more times than I've succeeded, I know the pain in loss and the joys in victory.  The craziness of of entrepreneurial victory is that it doesn't exist in the sense that ones usually considers a "victory", but it exists only in the ability to struggle toward your dream another day - and that is my victory.  Ever failure is a learning opportunity, every victory the same. So based on the Reflective Property of Mathematics - failure is victory.

The above is pretty accurate - but people need to know the mark of a true entrepreneur is that they are willing to hit the ground, and do it all over again, until the plane actually flies.  I fully believe the best investment you can make is an investment in people, and their dreams.

We have a notion that the world of investment works like Shark Tank - that TV show.  But to the vast majority of the world it is nothing like that.  In so many emerging markets $25 goes a long way and can start a person or family on a path to staining themselves and their families; and more importantly feeding their passion for creation, developing industry, and creating additional opportunities.

Kiva.org - check it out.  There are other organizations like this, Kick Starter is the popular one these days I suppose.  Charity is great and all; but it's the whole "feed a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish" in my mind.  I like to teach a man to fish, and help him build an opportunity to create life from it.