Posts tagged ‘steve chandler’

After decades where we increasingly bought in to the idea that “what’s good for Wall Street is good for America,” the financial crisis is causing many people to question the nature of business. Is greed and corruption merely “business as usual?” Or can business be a force for good?

In the bubble, a lot of people got rich gambling with other people’s money. And when those bets turned sour, the losses were paid for, not by the people who made the bets, but by taxpayers and by millions who lost their jobs. When combined with the cases where big businesses have contributed to ecological devastation, Enron-style fraud, and childhood obesity, there’s a lot of anger about the way business is being done.

But here’s the thing. Capitalism is far and away the most powerful system ever developed for creating wealth and raising our standard of living. Over the last 190 years, the real per person income level in the US has increased from $1,200 to $31,000. Our level of wealth has increased so much that we now drive to our protests.

Capitalism creates wealth – enormous wealth – and this wealth pays for our homes, education, health care, social services, and the many non-profits we donate to.

The problem isn’t that business is bad. In its own way, business is already a tremendous force for good.

The problem is that most of this good is being done unconsciously. It’s being done almost by accident, rather than as part of a consciously defined purpose. Relentless, ruthless competition creates profits – lots of profits – but these profits come with a price.

As its most commonly practiced, traditional business has three core problems.

It’s short on purpose.

It’s long on fear.

And it’s unsustainable.

Purpose. A colleague of mine does a lot of work with boards of directors. These men (and yes, they’re almost all older, white men) have lots of grey hair. They’ve risen to the top of their competitive ladders. And yet their biggest question is usually, “is this all there is?” They’ve often sacrificed everything to their careers, only to find a sense of emptiness and a lack of fulfillment.

The reason for this is that traditionally, we’ve compartmentalized money and meaning. For-profits are supposed to make money. Non-profits are supposed to make a difference. And that has left many people in business feeling successful put unfulfilled.

Fear. At its core, traditional business is fueled by scarcity and stress – two polite names for fear. Why do people get corrupt and greedy? Because they’re afraid there’s not enough to go around. In daily life, we don’t get greedy for air. We don’t try to hoard it, or store it away, because we trust that there’s enough for everyone. But capitalism is based on relentless, ruthless competition over scarce goods and services – and that creates fear. Feeling stressed about work isn’t something special. It’s an automatic consequence of being part of this system.

Sustainability. Capitalism’s greatest strength is its unparalleled capacity for economic expansion. And capitalism’s greatest challenge is its addiction to that expansion. Our entire financial system is predicated on the assumption that GDP will always keep increasing. Stock markets, debt and retirement funds all depend on this. So does our monetary supply. But continuous exponential expansion is unsustainable, and we’re rapidly reaching its limits.

Capitalism is a system with tremendous strengths – and with equally tremendous challenges.

So the real question is not “can business be a force for good?” The real question is “how can business be more of a force for good?” How can it provide more purpose, less fear, and more sustainability? And how can it do this more consciously, rather than as something we try to just fit in the cracks?

Now, that’s a question worth investing in.

I received two nuggets this week that were particularly valuable to me. Even though my life is great and business is booming, I’ve felt myself getting pulled into fear this last month, around all the “market” events. As always, I find that I teach what I most need to learn…

Gratitude and Fear
“Notice the abundance of what you do have, right here right now, and let it in, really let it in. You may lose it all later, but for now, while you still have it, can you relax and be still, be comforted in what you do have in this moment? Worry when you have lost it all. Losing it all later is to long for what you have right now. Later you will notice that you didn’t appreciate it when you did have it. It would be nice to think, later, ‘I really appreciated it when I had it, I didn’t waste being grateful for a moment.’ … We could wait gratefully for years to lose it all and notice to the end of our lives that losing it all never happened. To open to what is reality right now is to see options that are unimaginable to the frightened, living-in-the-future, I-know mind.” ~ Byron Katie

Coaching When the Market is Down
“Individuals are eager for coaching…actually, the demand for life coaching goes up in ‘tough’ and scary conditions. People want to learn to depend on THEMSELVES from now on and not some company or their government or an investment gamble. Therefore coaching and training desires go WAY up…I had a field day during the financial plunge right after 9-11…when people are scared, they want coaching…they want to STOP depending on other people and institutions and start depending on themselves…” ~ Steve Chandler

Love and light,
Brian

In the first weekend of an extraordinary one year program on Soul Centered Leadership, a famous author and public speaker named Steve Chandler took the stage. He announced that his intention was to teach us everything he knew about public speaking – in two words. We were dumbfounded. Two words? How could he possibly condense his decades of experience into two words? What two words could they be? And if he was successful, what we were going to spend the rest of the year on?

After a sufficient pause to let this sink in, and after a few minutes spent collecting guesses from the audience, Steve pulled out a thick, black, permanent marker, and slowly drew the following two words on a simple white flip chart.

Only Connect.

He then kept us spellbound for over four hours as he proceeded to model this simple concept. He explained that the default for most public speakers is to talk “at” their audience. The presenter walks confidently up to a large podium on a big stage, is introduced as an important expert, and then literally has to look down on the audience in order to see them. Most presentations are really about the speaker – what does he think is important? What does she want to talk about? Why are they so special that we should listen to them?

In contrast, Steve made each of us feel like we were having an individual conversation with him. He regularly engaged the audience, and deeply listened to everything we had to say. I never saw him make any of us wrong, or talk down to us. His humor was hilarious, without belittling people or going for obscene shock value. He regularly humbled himself, and shared the depths of his experience and many “failures.” He connected.

This nugget is from the soon to be published book, Love Beyond Belief. And by the way, the same thing applies to marketing communications. The goal of most marketing and advertising is to put on a mask – to look professional, credible, sexy, etc. We often think we have to put ourselves above others or look like we’re perfect. But for heart centered businesses, this actually creates distance between you and your clients – exactly the opposite of what you are seeking to achieve.

Love and light,

Brian