If my kids were voting for the dad of the year today I wouldn’t get their votes.
You’ll understand in a minute. In fact, you will probably be shocked by what I did.
It all started yesterday when my wife and I got an email from one of the teachers at my kids school. He was having a problem with his grades.
I said to my wife, “The problem is that our kids priorities are out of whack. Our kids are all smart enough to get good grades. They are just spending too much time doing the wrong things. Just look at how they spend their time.”
She agreed.
How people spend their time is a reflection of what matters the most to them.
Later that evening we had a family meeting. The kids knew it was serious when we sat at the dining room table rather than in the family room. I didn’t want them to be too comfortable.
My wife and I asked them a simple question. We asked them what their priorities were. Two out of the four lied. One of them said school was important. She was being honest because she puts a lot of effort into her school work. And it pays off with a high GPA and college scholarships. The two that lied when they said school was important to them put little or no effort in school and it often shows. Finally, my youngest son was honest when he said his priorities were his friends and playing games on his computer. Once my wife and I acknowledged his honesty, the other two boys admitted that they really didn’t care about school.
At that point my wife and I agreed with their assessment. We said we could tell what was important to them based on how they spend their time and energy.
What you do speaks volumes about what really matters to you.
At that point I reached out my hand and asked the boys to give me their cell phones. You should’ve seen the panic in their eyes. What you need to understand is that other than when they are sleeping, they are using their phones constantly. I know they are texting and tweeting and watching vines. (Vines are mini 6 second videos that are utterly ridiculous and stupid. In my opinion, they are a way to waste your life 6 seconds at a time).
Funny thing is when I asked for the phones they didn’t put up a fight. They knew their phones were a major distraction. They knew their education is important. They just needed help managing their behaviors.
They had gotten out of control.
Before you ask; yes they are able to use their phones in the evenings for up to 2 hours provided they have completed their other responsibilities.
What you do in your business reflects what matters most to you. Most business owners work like they are in survival mode. Which means their primary focus in making sure the business survives this week or month. Rarely do they focus on activities that set the stage for success a year, 2 or 5 or more in the future.
I explained to my kids the value of getting good grades and a quality education pays off in the future. Big time. It equates to scholarships. It equates to opportunities. It equates to money.
Doing the right work in your business will pay off big time too.
So here is the question of the day: If you asked your employees what seems to matter most to you, what would they say? Would they articulate that based on your actions what matters is building a sustainable, scalable and high performing business. Or would they say your actions reflect simply doing what you can to survive today.