Developing and Utilizing Intuition Purpose Developing and Utilizing Intuition

What is the purpose of business? “Of course, [a business] has to make money just like my body has to make red blood cells if I’m going to live. But the purpose of my life is not to produce red blood cells. My purpose is more transcendent than that. Similarly, business has that purpose for some type of larger contribution to society”- John Mackey, Co-Founder Whole Foods Market

Capitalism The private ownership of economic resources by individuals rather than by the government.

Theory of Moral Sentiment “Every individual... neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it... he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.” -Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiment, 1759

The Invisible Hand A person who operates a business by focusing on his/her best interest will end up helping society, even if they don’t try to or realize the impact

Conscious Capitalism Win^6 video 4 Principles Businesses should strive to benefit all stakeholders to create not just a win-win between customers and owner, but a win to the 6th power. This is what Mackey calls, “the heroic spirit of Capitalism.” Win^6 video 4 Principles

Value to the non-CEO My Story My Tenants

John’s 5 Tenants of Conscious Leadership Know thyself/ Know thy team Communicate Use your skills/ admit your weaknesses Lead by example (but don’t expect that to replace communication) Conscious Delegation Wise men say, know thyself. A wise leaders also must “know thy team”. Basically, know who you are and what matters to you and know the people on your team and what matters to them. For example, I hate being behind schedule. If I can finish this week’s todo list by Wednesday then I can start on next week’s on Thursday. This keeps me ahead of schedule so I don’t ever get behind. Rose, a cashier I used to work with, was very much a perfectionist. She would take all day on one task when I had 3 different things I wanted her to do as well. I know that I have a tendency to rush tasks in the name of keeping up. I also know that she can’t start her next task until she knows this one is finished. We have a differing viewpoint. Both are valid and I know why she’s still working and that things will look perfect when she’s done, so I don’t get too worried about it. I also know I have a couple other teammates who are more like me that I can get more done, so things balance out. Communication is possibly the most important aspect of leadership. If you don’t talk to your team, you will never earn respect. If you are the manager and you walk in everyday, go straight to your office and never say a word to anyone, they will not feel comfortable coming to you with questions or problems. However, communicate does not just mean talking. Talking is important, but listening and taking verbal and non-verbal feedback is so much more important. If you work with people for 6 months and still don’t know if they like you or not… you probably aren’t listening to them. You can’t know your team if you don’t hear them. In management, there are so many things that you have to be accountable for that it would be very uncommon for you to be great at everything you do from day to day. For example, I’m not a great cleaner. I tend to try to get things done, as I alluded to on the first point, I don’t take the time to make things perfect if I can say, eh, good enough and move on to the next task. That said, a good leader knows to play to his or her own strengths, but what’s more important, is try not to hide your weaknesses. If I work with the same people all of the time and try to hide my shortcomings, you think they’re going to find out anyway. My previous store manager wasn’t a strong communicator and would avoid conflict like the plague. Every time sometime important came up that he needed to address, he would put it off or delegate it. It led to a lot of confusion. He would even tell the supervisor team that he had a conversation with someone but then that person would say they hadn’t seen Mark all day. At first we thought people just didn’t want to talk about it, then we started finding out that was happening among our supervisor teams as well. He would never admit it, but he hated conflict, but, you can’t be a manager and not be able to handle conflict, so he tried to hide it from all of us… and it didn’t work. Everyone knew and no one had much respect for him. First off, I put this little parenthetical with the same manager in mind as above. But Shopko made a very big deal about the idea of “servant leadership” and leading by example. The thought is, if I’m the store manager and my team constantly sees me working hard, and getting down on my hands and knees to clean the floor and make the store look perfect, they will do the same thing. There’s some merit to this idea, but only if your team respects you. My previous store manager used this idea as a cop-out. He thought, if he worked hard and appeared busy at all times, everyone would just go with it. Leading by example is great, and you’re going to have to work hard to make it in management, but it can’t be the only arrow in your quiver. This last one is a phrase that I invented (or more re-purposed) to refer to delegating tasks to employees. The whole point here is that the tasks that you give away need to be given to the right person and, most importantly, you can’t just delegate the stuff you don’t wan to do. Caribou Coffee

Online Research Go to site below to complete worksheet https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/heroes Feel free to Google your CEO if you need more info. Suggested Reading List from Conscious Capitalism https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/bookstore Online Research