Recognize that life’s most rewarding pursuits are often challenging, and consciously choose to engage in ‘meaningful hard’ work or activities over ‘meaningless hard’ ones for greater fulfillment.
Pay attention to your body’s primal responses to situations and choices, as these intuitive feelings can be a valuable guide for what feels right and brings genuine joy.
As a leader, create clear structures and boundaries (like a coloring book) within which individuals have the freedom to express creativity and autonomy, preventing chaos and providing guidance.
Openly share company financials with your team, teach financial literacy, and engage everyone in improving key numbers, then share the resulting success to foster collaboration and collective ownership.
Employ a stakeholder analysis framework for decision-making by evaluating how choices benefit customers/community, employees, and the company, aiming to maximize positive overlap for all parties.
Prioritize the actual impact of your actions and communications over your intentions, acknowledging that even good intentions can have negative outcomes, and adjust behavior accordingly.
When addressing misbehavior, focus on understanding the harm caused and asking ‘what are you going to do to make it right?’, empowering individuals to take responsibility and creatively resolve issues.
Establish a clear, color-coded system (e.g., Yellow, Orange, Red) for staff to report and managers to respond to customer harassment, ensuring consistent action and preventing escalation.
Actively use and encourage the use of appropriate professional titles for yourself and your team, as this positively influences external perception and internal self-identity, expanding opportunities and pride.
Consciously choose and internalize aspirational self-identities (e.g., ‘I am a runner’ instead of ‘casual jogger’) to influence behavior, motivation, and commitment towards personal goals.
Dedicate consistent time (e.g., weekly) to activities that are solely for yourself, engage your senses, and bring personal joy, as this can be a meditative outlet and profoundly improve your life.
Actively avoid jobs or tasks you genuinely dislike, as it is difficult to excel in them, and spending precious time on unfulfilling work can lead to regret and a lack of passion.
When creating a new role or business, envision and build the kind of workplace you wish you had, one that fosters passion, offers a future, and excites you and others daily.
Before taking a significant risk, clearly define your worst-case scenario; if it’s no worse than your current undesirable situation, it provides a valuable safety net for bold action.
Set clear, measurable customer service expectations (e.g., make five customers’ days magical per shift) while granting employees complete creative freedom within that boundary to foster individuality and exceptional experiences.
Conduct weekly financial review meetings that are open to all staff (and paid for their attendance), fostering financial literacy and broad engagement in the company’s performance.
Regularly track and report on non-traditional metrics like employee happiness (daily or weekly), engaging staff in discussions about the underlying reasons for fluctuations to identify areas for improvement.
Distribute a weekly newsletter summarizing company trends, employee suggestions, planned improvements, and decisions not to act on certain ideas, keeping all staff informed and engaged.
For small businesses implementing open book management, select a dynamic number employees can impact, measure its improvement, and share a portion of the financial gains with the team.
When discussing problems or suggestions, engage in open reasoning with your team, walking through the issue together instead of simply giving a yes/no answer, to foster understanding and collaborative solutions.
Shift away from an adversarial, destructive mindset (common in some professions) towards a creative, generative approach in business, focusing on building and collaborating with others.
Integrate paid practice shifts or projects into your hiring process to assess candidates’ real-world job performance and cultural fit more effectively and efficiently than traditional interviews.
Identify and avoid hiring candidates who speak negatively about former employers, as this often indicates a red flag for future workplace dynamics and loyalty.
Make company values a central criterion for hiring, promotion, and evaluation, ensuring that candidates not only meet performance metrics but also align with and demonstrate core organizational principles.
When giving positive feedback, focus on complimenting an individual’s work, contributions, or achievements rather than their physical appearance, ensuring a professional and universally positive impact.
Frame your personal definition of success around cultivating meaningful relationships in both your professional and personal life, and actively work to enable others to achieve the same.