Avail

The other day as I slathered my Justin’s all-natural Honey Peanut Butter on some crackers, I noticed that Justin took a moment to script on the label of the jar a few words about how he feels about his product.  He says, “Some people may consider my single-minded obsession with nut butters to be a waste of time, but I disagree.”  Amen, Justin.  I’m with you. 

This is a man who has found a way to do what he loves, and he’s pulled out all the stops.  This is what we are supposed to do when we hit on our passion.   If Justin had worried that by pouring all of his energy into peanut butter people would be thinking he was some kind of oddball, or nut (who could resist the obvious pun?), he may not have moved forward to realize his dream.  The world would be deprived of his tasty creation, and Justin would be deprived of the satisfaction and pure joy that come from bringing his passion to life.

Think about the potential if every person in this world was able to hone in on the art or science that she or he absolutely loves to do and find both the courage and means to pursue it.  The world would be filled with individuals capitalizing on the gifts they’ve been given.  The quality of everything produced, every job done would be improved exponentially.  The world would be overcrowded with happy and fulfilled people.

This is what happens when we encourage and support others to embrace their differences, those qualities that make them unique, the single-minded obsession. 

How many times have you found yourself telling someone to approach a task the way you would do it, dictating without even considering there’s another way, supplying the answers instead of asking the questions?   Every time we impart our own methods on another, we take a little away from the uniqueness of what she has to offer, watering down her essence, slowly chipping away at her pride and confidence, adding another degree of separation between passion and peanut butter.

It’s like doing your kid’s science fair project for her. 

We’re conditioned as leaders to have our direction accepted and followed without question.  We count on the power of a reporting structure to ensure our troops fall in line.  In fact, lots of us believe it’s our job to tell people what to do, not coach them to the answer that’s within.  And it’s easier this way.  It’s easy to get lazy and forget to ask for differing perspectives, especially when our teams are filled with people who see things the way we do.

When we surround ourselves with like-minded individuals we don’t need to work as hard.  The ideas we gently lob out are caught immediately and enthusiastically by followers who admire our success, and coveting it for themselves, eagerly jump on our bandwagons.  Our orders are so happily followed to the letter of the law, those around us can actually fail to realize they haven’t really had a say.

When you find yourself faced with overseeing a diverse team sanitizing the product with your own personal mandate becomes a real challenge. This applies whether you’re leading employees who approach tasks dramatically differently than you do or leading your children who seem so diametrically opposed to you that you need to keep reminding yourself they did in fact come out of your womb.  If you don’t accommodate different ideas or ways of doing things, the environment decays into disappointment, defeat, or dissention.  

I can’t continue without saying that, in my opinion,  diversity and inclusion is really in its infancy in Corporate America, and maybe even in life itself.  I think we set our expectations extremely low in this area.  If organizations truly understood the power of creating deliberately diverse teams and how that can’t help but translate into increased productivity which is the natural output of confident and empowered people who feel valued, instead of pleading for tolerance, we would be complaining about the “unfair” advantage diversity brings.

Diverse personalities initially confound us.  We’re so conditioned to acquiescence in our cookie-cutter worlds that we’re taken aback momentarily, forced to retreat to consider how we respond when a foreign position or concept is now on the table. We can get caught up in attempting to coerce others to see things our way, instead of listening to understand their way.   

If you take the time to really listen, you’ll find out there is in fact another way, room for a different approach.  And if you take a risk by allowing someone else the freedom to take her own risk, you just might change the way this individual feels about herself, infusing her with the confidence she needs to go after her own single-minded obsession.

Justin differentiates himself further by distributing his peanut butter not only in jars, but in 1.5 ounce packets, perfectly sized to stuff in a pair of running shorts, an accessible and tasty energy boost when you find yourself wilting in the middle of a half marathon.  His niche packaging is how I found him in the first place.

I’m an unwitting beneficiary of the generous person who launched Justin in pursuit of his dreams.  Who knows, without his product I may have passed out 8 miles into my race.

Justin makes Almond Butter, too.  I’m just saying.