It's All Happening at the Fair

Friday night at the Howard County Fair was fun and spectacular again this year. The price was right ($5) and going with Nicole and the boys made it all the more fun. Ethan had his face painted to look like a tiger and he was cute. Jackson was all about the sights and the sounds of the fair.

We checked out the livestock to get in touch with our farming roots. I admit, I love the smells of the cow barns as they remind me of growing up in rural Central New York near a lot of dairy farms. It's not a nice smell--just familiar and reminds me of a time in my life when I really didn't worry about tomorrow--I was more in the moment and concerned about the day. But that's the way kids are supposed to be.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Chris return to her childhood by riding all of the kiddie rides with Ethan. I've been warned that when Ethan is ready for the wild rides that involve hanging upside down or rocketing through the universe at warp speed that he will be my ride-along responsibility--but until then she is happy to do the more tranquil rides. Just don't do a lot of spinning as the chum starts soon after.

Jax though--now that is where the fun will be. He is just itching to be mobile to run circles around his big brother--and big brother doesn't have a clue. Jax watches everything--and figures it out all on his own. He is going to be fast when he finally gets mobile. Look out!

All-in-all it was an enjoyable fair--the Maryland State Fair should be equally as fun.

Friday of a week of recovery

Well it was one of those weeks. I have been on the mend all week and haven't really strayed much outside the home in an effort to recover from my hospitalization last weekend.  Even my doctor told me not to play racquetball this week--so I have been pretty sedate--and it seems the more sedate I am, the more sedate I want to be. In fact, I could curl up right now and take a nap!

But the weekend activity schedule is looking up--Howard County Fair tonight, dinner for our anniversary (yes it is number 33) tomorrow night on the bay at Yellowfin Steak and Fish House and Sunday should be fun with the family again as schedules return full-bore to normalcy.

The weekend weather promises to be excellent--so we should have a lot of fun.

Last night was nice--we did Friday Night Happy Hour and Dinner on Thursday because some of our group is headed off to Canada today. We had an 11 year-old bottle of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon which was extremely smooth and really lived up to its age. I'm not going to review it because, well, it's not available anymore so why rub your nose in it? But, I was reminded that when a good wine ages, it really does get very smooth and enjoyable.

I think I finally settled up with my insurance company on the vandalism from early June. That was no small task. I have a sense their job is to let me do all the work and for them to sit back and tell me what they are not going to cover. Actually, when it is all said and done they did pretty good by me. It was just a lot of leg work and research.

OK--I'm ready for the weekend, how about you? Why wait for 5 o'clock? I know it's 4 o'clock already somewhere!

Cannonball 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

This is a very interesting wine--not your traditional Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine is bottled by Cannonball Wine Company of Middletown, CA.

This is a very complex, fruit forward Cab which starts with a strong and pleasant nose and lingers on the palate. The wine is 89% cabernet sauvignon and 11% syrah.

The label describes the wine as: "Exploding with black cherry, wild berry fruit and notes of chocolate and oak, the rich texture lingers long with a bright fresh finish."

I enjoyed this wine. It is one of those wines which allow you to enjoy each aspect of the wine to then appreciate the whole wine as a package. In addition to the tasting notes on the label, I tasted a hint of black pepper.

The syrah adds the zing and excitement to the cabernet sauvignon, and being a huge fan of syrah/shiraz anyway, it really added to my tasting experience with this wine.

This is a stand alone and wine and cheese kind of wine. It is a bit too fruity for heavy meals.

Recommendation: A solid house wine for treating friends. At about $15 (or less) this is a very enjoyable wine and will be an ice breaker for discussion.

Team Leader Feedback - Use It!

A strong leader always seeks feedback. And not just from the traditional sources. 

Leaders expect to get feedback from their superiors--it is part of the process. Really good leaders find ways to get unvarnished feedback from their team and even from their peers--whether through formalized 360 degree assessments or through informal actions. Really exceptional leaders also geet feedback from outsiders and customers and then do a remarkable thing--they use it to their advantage.

The key is getting the feedback and making it useful.

Feedback often is not "nice" and may not make us feel too good about ourselves--especially the informal kind that comes from non-traditional sources. It often leaves us saying: that's not me, or  looking for reasons why the view presented is skewed or does not match with reality. Our nature is to discard feedback inconsistent with our view of the team or ourselves.

I recently received feedback from a promotion cycle which was not consistent with independent feedback I had received from two other sources. It was painful to read (as it was all distilled down) that I was considered qualified in the only area the other two sources noted as my weakest area and that I was not considered qualified in areas considered my strongest--and in which I had received validation only months before from another official government process that I was considered fully qualified in all areas.

Am I going to discard the feedback because it is inconsistent? No. I'm trying to understand the differences and use the feedback to make me more competative the next time around. The feedback is valid, but was unexpected. I need to use the feedback to improve myself and to ensure my qualifications more clearly match the standards.

Team leaders need to do the same type of assessment. When seemingly inconsistent feedback is received (good or bad--the key is inconsistent) consider it valid and take action. There is something of value which will make the team stronger by working on it.

The easy way out is to say, well we know this isn't valid because of (and then begin listing everything that says the feedback is not valid). But in fact, for the person or agency which provided the feedback, the feedback is valid and it is our job as leaders to figure it out and find the nuggets which will make the team (and ourselves as leaders) stronger.

Sometimes it's not pretty!  It is definitely not fun.  But leaders have to ask: Why is this true? What can I do about it? Do I need to do anything about it?

Seek feedback on yourself, your team, your product, your processes and then use it to make a positive difference.

Looking Out of the Hospital Room Window

It was a wild ride from Tuesday to Sunday. Friday night I was looking out of a window from the fourth floor of Howard County General Hospital. It was my first (and thankfully as it turned out, only) overnight in a hospital as a patient for other than an elective procedure. I was hooked to an IV pumping antibiotics into my arm to kill some then unknown bug that had gotten into my blood--I knew the medical terms for what the doctors thought we were fighting, but frankly it was all making my head swim. I was in, as it was explained to me--for the weekend until they were sure that the treatment plan would work against the infection raging in me.

My family had surrounded me with an inspiring amount of love. And when I say my family, I mean my whole, large extended family. With my wife leading the charge--and each of my children and their families, and my parents and each of my siblings and their families, friends and coworkers--I was surrounded and encouraged with love and prayer from an army of prayer warriors.

Looking out of the window it was a surreal. I actually felt better Friday when the doctors admitted me than I had in about three days. I had been to the emergency room Wednesday night--being released from there about 3AM Thursday morning. And Thursday I was a mess and really felt bad--but the treatment began to take hold and Friday as I was admitted to the hospital about 7AM, I actually felt much better and almost normal.

By Friday night--after my family gathered for Chipolte dinners around my hospital bed, I was feeling really good--but also, based upon some preliminary internet research we knew that this was a very real concern from a medical standpoint. If the treatment plan was not correct, I could be in a lot of trouble very quickly. Sometimes the internet can tell you more than you really want to know. And it is interesting that as each one searched (because of course I didn't have internet access in the hospital) some new piece of information emerged to help us grasp the strategic understanding of the fight we had been engaged in at the tactical level.

The staff of the hospital was fantastic. They provided information and assistance at every juncture and went out of their ways to help us through the long day Friday while we were in the ER waiting for a bed on the floor. We even secured a couple of hall passes to roam a bit--always with the promise of returning in about 5 minutes.

As I was looking out of the window Friday night, I wondered how long and was thinking it could be till Monday. I tried to figure out what may have caused the condition--still don't know and that becomes the subject of probably a number of tests over the next couple weeks. There were a lot of unknowns--but although I felt a bit trapped, I knew there were a lot of things I was sure of. Chief among them was love from everyone--family, friends, coworkers.

As it turned out, the doctors chose the right course of treatment from the start (at least as of this writing) and through no small miracle, I was released Saturday afternoon to continue treatment at home with the promise that I would stay at home and be quiet until Monday when I was cleared to return to work.

The fight is not over--but right now the tide has turned and the bug is on the run. The medicine, the prayers, and the grace of God are winning. My job is to continue to let those flow through me and not do something stupid which will cause a set-back.

Thank you everyone for your love, prayers, and concern.

The Dark Knight Movie Review

It took me two weeks, but I finally went to see The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie. We went to an afternoon showing in a large theater with about 20 of our new best friends--actually people we didn't know. I was amazed at how empty the theater was and how cold it was as well.

The movie continues the restarted saga of Batman as he faces crime and corruption in Gotham City. When he is not dealing with the mob, or crooked cops, he has interaction with now arch nemesis: The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger.

A synopsis of the movie: Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) continues to eliminate crime in Gotham City with the help of Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). The Dark Knight wants to finally get rid of organized crime for good and be free of their corruption. Batman soon finds that a new psychopathic mastermind known as the Joker (Heath Ledger) has taken over organized crime. After the fall of Carmine Falcone, the remaining crime bosses try to pick up the pieces. However, the Joker is killing them off one by one. The Joker's plan is to terrify the citizens and throw the city into chaos, and then kill Batman. Batman takes the fight with the Joker personal, which makes him confront his own beliefs. The Joker is the most dangerous criminal that Batman has encountered, and he will need all his strength and vigilance to defeat him. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)

OK--but how was the movie? Was it the greatest movie of all time as some (in my family) would suggest? Let's break it down.

Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker is something special and truly troubling. It is without a doubt an Oscar-winning performance that will be talked about in the same vein as Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" (1954). As troubling as his performance was, it was downright believable.

The other actors were good, some strong, but not spectacular. Yes, The Joker makes the movie--but if you take Heath Ledger's performance out of the equation you have an above average movie with solid but not sterling performances and which runs about a half-hour too long.

Christian Bale makes a great Batman, but a not so believable Bruce Wayne. He just didn't come off as a real person and even the scripting for Bruce Wayne was weak and trite. The acting didn't make me care about Bruce Wayne and his personal conflicts about right and wrong and good and evil. And his love life in the movie reflected this dissonance.

Gary Oldman, Lt Jim Gordon (and later the iconic Commissioner Gordon) is a strong character. The impact of being in his position in the police department on his personal life is clearly evident and believable. But--for a man in his position to be ignorant of so many dirty cops in his own unit--well it just baffled me. Again--an above average performance on a so-so script.

Aaron Eckhart as DA Harvey Dent was another good, but not great performance tied to so-so script writing. The character was over done and his internal conflict between good and evil almost became comical as I couldn't tell which coin he was going to flip before taking actions. Although he was supposed to be the "best of us" and The Joker brought him down--the movie made it clear that he never really was the best. He was idealistic--but he was a politician. And in the end the darkness that we see in politicians won.

Some of the other supporting actors in the movie--Michael Caine (Alfred), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Danes) give strong, but too brief performances. The best of the other actors was actually Chin Han (Lau) who played a Chinese businessman/crook. He was excellent in his role as a smug businessman who takes the mob for a ride and almost gets away with it. There is an aerial extraction scene associated with this character which is fun to watch.

So--what about the movie as a body of work. Definitely above average. Probably on the best 100 movies of all time--but only for Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker. Without his performance, the movie is just another "comic book" movie which is fun to watch--once. The movie is too long and drags in the middle and it doesn't transition well from situation to situation internally. The scenes are a bit disconnected and the movie lacks a fluidity of transition. At one point I even though--here come the clowns again for comic relief. There are a lot of loose ends--like what happened to The Joker? What happened to the people on the ferries in the middle of the river?

Does this movie make a great social statement about the course of U.S. national policy as some would suggest? Nope. It's another movie which documents the continuing struggle of good versus evil. The movie is not even helped along by the technology--in contrast to Iron Man where the technology both provided substance and comic relief. There are some good one liners though.

Rating: A must see--just so you can be in the know when everyone around you is talking about the movie and Ledger's performance. There is a lot of violence, good car chase scenes, a bit of destruction. The movie is definitely NOT SUITABLE for young (under 10) children. They WILL have nightmares. I looked at my watch to see how much time was left with about an hour to go in the movie--so there are slow spots.

So What Are You Going to do About it?

We would never get on an aircraft or a train without knowing what the destination was, would we? As a society we spend a lot of time worrying about destinations and end games and what the final outcome is supposed to be.

It is important to have a vision about the end state. What is the deliverable? Where we are going? Maybe even knowing why we are going there. How does it help the team or meet an objective?

Leading teams requires the leader to look out ahead and see the objective as well as the obstacles. Foresee the dangers that need to be overcome.

In church this Sunday, the message was based on Proverbs 22:3.

A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. (NIV)

And it struck me--leaders need to be able to see into the future, recognize the danger AND take action. Three very important things.

Most of us can tell the difference between the light at the end of the tunnel and the headlamp of the oncoming train--but the critical aspect is: so what are we going to do about it?

Asking the "what are we going to do about it?" question is what separates successful from unsuccessful leaders.

The successful leader sees the danger or the obstacle AND develops mitigation strategies and plans for the impending activity. At the same time, the leader keeps the team informed of the activity—both the obstacle/danger and the mitigation strategy. This is a critical aspect of transparency—which leaders need to minimize panic and rumors.

Leaders who are "heads-down" and just worrying about the day-to-day operations may see the danger/obstacle, but like the simple person in the Proverb, don't take action until it is upon them. Then they pay the price for not thinking into the future. Usually that price is very high and could be failure or at a minimum a serious delay in achieving the desired end state.

One of the traits that separates adults from children is the ability to foresee consequences, the future ramifications of an action or an inaction. Children, like the simple, tend to be in the moment and unaware of the consequences of their actions or inaction. They are willing to let life come at them and have the love and comfort of their parents to bail them out of the scrapes and to protect them from dire consequences which occur from their inability to see into the future.

Leaders must depend upon themselves and their teams to foresee consequences and to take action.

Another aspect of leadership based upon this Proverb to consider is the idea: Is what the team doing today working towards the desired end state or what the team needs to be doing in the future?

Good leaders know where the team is supposed to be headed and what the desired end state is. If the team is spending a lot of energy and not making progress to achieving the end state, then the leadership needs to intervene and get the forward momentum moving again. The cost for spinning wheels too long is failure.

This is a lot like life--I have a dream about what I want my retirement to be like. Unless I take action to align my current and future actions to achieve that dream it will be nothing more than that. But, if I take positive action and evaluate today and tomorrow in terms of my desired end state--then my dream will become my reality!

It is hard to take control of a out of control situation--but that is the call of leadership. Leaders who are unhappy about what the team is doing are not leading. They are following or have become victims. Leaders lead. Leaders need vision. Leaders need to implement the means to achieve the vision and to overcome the dangers/obstacles on the along the way.

See the future, develop mitigation strategies, take action.

Gloomy Sunday complete with Thunderstorms

Half-way through mowing the lawn--the rains came. The lightening came and with it thunder. Of course, it didn't help that I ran out of gas and had to go to the station for more.

But I had help. And this is his self-portrait with my camera--yes it is Ethan.

Ethan and his family (Mommy and baby Jax) joined us for church and came over to do some work after church.

Ethan and I had fun mowing the lawn and then going out for a coconut and gas. The coconut is a story in itself that is pretty funny. Ethan wanted the coconut milk--but once he got it he wasn't so keen on it. But, hey--it is a new experience.

Well--Sundays are afterall family day and even though the pool was closed due to the thunder storms, there was still a lot of fun to be had.

A racquetball morning after the night before

Ugh! It was hard to get up this morning. I went with Jeremy to the O's game last night and we sat through about a two-hour delay before they suspended the game with the score 2-1 in the top of the 6th inning. Since the score was 1-1 at the end of the 5th, it could not be considered a game--so they are playing today to complete the game.

But that is where the trouble started--I didn't get home till after 11 PM and by the time I went to sleep it was like, midnight. And I was hungry because as it turned out we forgot to buy food.

But having a racquetball match this morning, I got up at 0450--and you know what the "0" stands for: OMG it's early!

So by the time I stumbled onto the court at 0530--I really didn't feel too chipper. In fact I was downright fried.

And the outcome of the first game showed it-- I lost 2-15.

But I turned it around and won two close games 15-10 and 15-14. As it wasn't a league match we played all three games to 15 (instead of the tiebreaker to 11). I twisted my ankle pretty bad in the corner during the last game--but persevered.

So what did I learn--I'm not superhuman and actually do need to sleep sometimes. But, I really enjoyed going to the game with Jeremy, even though it rained. It was actually raining too hard for us to want to go to the car to go home--else I would have left about 10 PM.

Next time--wait, there isn't going to be a next time, see, I did learn something!

Pool Magic

I realized that I was doing it yesterday--waiting for the end of the workday to come so I could get home and fall into the pool. And I did.

What was it about that thought that held so much promise for me? The cool water? Sleeping on a floatie in the sun? A cold drink poolside? Doing nothing except putting my mind into neutral?

I wondered.

For a stress release and for conditioning I played a racquetball match at 5:30 am. After two weeks of vacation I wasn't very sharp, but it did the trick. I got fully moving (and some of my muscles are complaining as I write this)

So as I drove home yesterday I decided to really try to figure out what the therapeutic effect of the pool came from.

So there I was--standing on the edge of the failing diving board, looking at the warm, inviting water. I thought that this was going to be great--and that this was a close to the beach as I was going to get for a while.

I dove in.

And then I realized what it was--as the waters of the pool enveloped me, they washed away the trials and cares of the day replacing them with an enveloping sense of freedom and support. It happened as I passed through the boundary which separates air from water--and at the same time I passed through a mental boundary separating the workday from the rest of my life.

And it was good.

In that moment, the work day dissolved into a memory--the drive, the email battles, the short notice tasks, the meetings, the work. All were for an instant gone. And I was refreshed and renewed.

I stayed underwater for a long moment enjoying the freedom and support and renewed freedom. I enjoy the water of the late-July and August pool because it is warm. It does not jolt the senses, but it soothes them. And when I finally surfaced--I was mentally new. Ready for the evening (or so I thought).

Now I think I know the magic of the pool--it is in the passing through the boundary from air to water.