What is your “Why”?

We conducted our Quarterly Sales Meeting, or what we at Campus Management refer to as “QSM”, last week in Deerfield Beach, FL. It was a fitting location as it's where Campus Management was formed 30 years ago. QSM includes sales, all other customer facing departments, marketing, product management, and leadership from across the company. Our fiscal year is July 1 - June 30 so this iteration of QSM serves as our annual kickoff meeting. It’s our opportunity to celebrate the successes of the previous year, discuss the upcoming year’s goals and objectives, get an external view of ourselves and the marketplace, and most importantly, learn some new skills.

Our first quest speaker was John Geraci from CISquared. I worked for John twenty-five years ago when he was the president of Information Associates. He was an amazing leader that strongly believed in developing his team to the fullest. Looking back, I think I participated in more leadership development activities during John’s tenure than at any other time in my career. John went on to lead other firms after IA, but eventually followed his passion for developing leaders with the formation of CISquared with Christine Miles. John & Christine have developed a unique story-based communication/leadership framework called The Art of The Nudge (TATN) based on the latest research in neuroscience and economic behavioral science. Here’s a link to their book if you are interested in learning more. 

One segment of John’s workshop focused on understanding the difference between your “What” vs. your “Why”. The following video explains this much better than I ever could in words. Do yourself a big favor by taking a few moments to watch it. Trust me, you’ll be all smiles!

I was deeply taken by this given the soul searching I had recently done to determine my next “career” move after I decided I wasn’t quite ready to retire.  I didn’t want a “job” nor was I looking for a “career”. I wanted to make a difference in my beloved field of Higher Education.

As a result, my “Why” has never been clearer to me. Why did I eschew retirement and go back to work? I want to help Campus Management and the CampusNexus product suite become a credible, high quality, affordable cloud ERP/CRM alternative for the Higher Education marketplace. It will increase competition across the entire ERP/CRM space which in turn will hopefully improve the quality of service and affordability of these solutions. This will enable institutions to focus more resources on students. The end result will hopefully be greater student success. Do I control all of this? Hardly... But, I think the logic is solid.

An interesting side effect of this has been that my “What” has become a whole lot less important. I don’t particularly care “What” I do if it supports my “Why”. I’m open to any assignment in any area of the business!

John’s session introduced “What vs. Why” early in our multi-day agenda so the concept was firmly cemented in my mind for the rest of the week. With this filter front & center, I was amazed by how easy it was to surmise the “Why” of the vast majority of our subsequent internal & external QSM speakers.

For example...

Team success is the primary focus of Jim Brigadier, Campus Management’s SVP of Field Operations and my direct manager. As I’ve said in a previous blog entry, once a Marine, always a Marine. Jim would literally sacrifice his life if it meant his team would succeed. I’m in constant awe...

Continuing the survival theme, Craig Handijan of Marymount California University, came on board to help Marymount avoid an undesirable future state. He joined the institution amidst serious internal/external challenges with the "Why" of getting the institution’s technology and systems on a modern, sustainable path thereby reducing costs and improving the student experience.

Dr. Ronnie Booth, the President of Tri-County Technical College was the ultimate story teller. His stories took all of us back to less structured times of our youths where we learned by personal experimentation and risk taking. Did we fail? You bet we did! (I still have a scar from when a hammer fell on my head from 20 ft above where buddies were building a tree house in the nearby woods.) But, we also learned valuable lessons. (Like don't rest under a tree when there are hammers above...) We dusted ourselves off, adjusted, and moved forward.  His “Why” was an insatiable desire to embed this "Fail Forward" learning style into our overly structured K-20 educational systems of today.

Jim Milton, the CEO of Campus Management, broadcasted our worldwide Quarterly All-Hands meeting live from our Deerfield Beach QSM conference room. As someone that considers himself an accomplished presenter, I pay attention to the details. An accepted rule of thumb is that you present your most important messages first, and last. What did Jim present first?  A bevy of customer successes stories concluding with the stellar results of our most recent customer satisfaction survey. What did he conclude with? An impeccable presentation of our internal employee STARS awards. He was literally giddy during both segments. Where were the requisite sales/financial results?  They were in middle of the presentation. In fact, even though they were record breaking, Jim did not present the company sales results. He turned that segment over to the responsible VPs. Think you know Jim Milton’s “Why”?

But, my favorite presentation of the week was by Dr. Michael Moore, COO of eVersity. If you’ve read my previous blog entries, you know I love what Michael and his team are doing at eVersity. Read my previous blog entry here.  Michael wears his “Why” on his sleeve. He’s totally committed to enabling adult learners improve their lives via obtaining a Higher Education credential.

I feel blessed to be surrounded by co-workers and institutional colleagues that share the fundamentals of my “Why”. Yes, like any other organization and any marketplace, we have challenges to overcome. But, I have complete confidence in our ability to prevail because so many of us share the same basic “Why”. I couldn’t be happier!

So, what’s the big deal of understanding your personal “Why”, the “Why” of those you work with, or the “Why” of the individuals you do business with? Isn’t it obvious? Maybe it isn’t... Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, and while you are at it, tell us your “Why”!