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I’d bet that there aren’t many cats who hear this accusation, “Kumbaya! You just don’t get it!” That’s because cats get it just fine. I’ll explain.

There’s this neighborhood cat that’s been hanging out on my back deck for the past few evenings. Yesterday evening the cat was there, loosely curled in one of the deck’s far corners. It remained in that position the entire time I made dinner. During dinner, I started watching an episode of Due South, a show from the 90′s about a Mountie and his wolf who find themselves living in Chicago.

Some few minutes into the show, I returned to the kitchen and the cat was still out there, still snoozing happily. After the show was over, I again returned to the kitchen and there was the cat, its head lazily lifted and peering squinty-eyed at me through the door.  I continued with my after dinner cleanup, and the kitty, having decided everything was still okay in its world, put its head back down and continued its restful occupation.

For over an hour at least, that cat was out there resting, happy, and relaxed. The cat was enjoying the here and now, content, and living in the moment.

In stark contrast, many of us humans feel obligated to keep busy for the sake of busyness, to “do! do! do!” every moment of every day, twenty four by seven. We do not slow down to think, to dream, to meditate, or to just be. 

The cats get it. Unfortunately, we don’t.

Earlier this year, I wrote a mini-paper for class about a business model called the Service-Profit Chain. The idea is that if a business starts off strengthening the first link in the chain, internal service quality, and then strengthens each successive link in the chain, then the result will be greater revenue growth and profitability for the business. You can see an exhibit of the Service-Profit Chain model here.

So over the weekend when I was reading John Maxwell’s Thinking for a Change, I read about his idea that if you want to change your life, then you will need to first change your thinking.  He details this change process in a series of six steps that initially seemed to me very similar to the Service-Profit Chain model:

Step 1: Changing your thinking changes your beliefs.
Step 2: Changing your beliefs changes your expectations
Step 3: Changing your expectations changes your attitude.
Step 4: Changing your attitude changes your behavior.
Step 5: Changing your behavior changes your performance.
Step 6: Changing your performance changes your life.

There is a big difference though. With Maxwell’s steps, a person doesn’t need to proceed through each step, consciously changing and strengthening all of these areas. The idea is that if we learn to be a better thinker and improve the way we think, then the rest of these steps will happen automatically and our lives will have positive results.

Those of you who know me pretty well know that I can’t go for even a day without reading something, somewhere, and usually have some sort of book stashed nearby, if not physically attached to my person. Family may remember how I’d bring a book to practically every family event. Some kids had security blankets like Linus Van Pelt. I had my book. I even took one into Walmart on Friday in case I had to wait in line during checkout.

During my coaching appointment on Thursday, Justin mentioned this site called goodreads.com. I checked it out later that evening, and I think I must have spent half of my internet time since then (and I’m on the internet a *lot*) diddling around with that site, playing with the widgets, adding multiple booklists, and looking at other people’s lists. What fun! If you’re like me and love books in all forms, go take a look at this site. If you want to add me as a friend, you can visit my Goodreads profile and send a friend request.

I’ve been continuing my reading in First, Break All The Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, and I was intrigued by the authors’ statement that the best managers break the Golden Rule every day. “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” Matthew 12:7 (NRSV) Most religions have a form of this Golden Rule; the Golden Rule makes sense; it’s practically a commandment, so why would anyone even suggest breaking it? Wouldn’t breaking it be blasphemous anyway and cause a whole lot of karmic repercussions to someone who would dare intentionally do such a thing?

Why would the authors of this book even go there? Wow! Break the Golden Rule…intentionally!

Well let’s calm down a bit and see what’s really going on here. Now the authors aren’t really suggesting that managers should treat their employees disrespectfully, but instead are suggesting that managers shouldn’t treat all employees the same, and shouldn’t assume that all employees have the exact same views and motivations as their managers and co-workers. People are different and aren’t all going to want or need the same things.

The Golden Rule is pretty simple. You want others to treat you well, so treat others well.  It doesn’t need to get as specific as treating other people exactly as if they were perfect clones of you.

So if great managers are treating their employees well by caring about them as individuals, recognizing their unique talents and needs, and helping their employees to use their uniqueness to achieve the highest degrees of excellence for both themselves and their respective organizations, then what rule are these managers really breaking? It certainly isn’t the Golden Rule. Nope, no way!  The rule that these great managers are breaking is Status Quo.

Remember back in the days how you could walk around alternatively mumbling and talking loudly to yourself, waving your arms in the air as you emphasized your points? Do you recall the various reactions you would get from the passersby? The reactions could be anything between long, wondering stares to punctured exclamations of, “That’s crazy! You’re crazy! That’s just crazy, man!” They then would wander off themselves, waving their arms and jabbering in an excited frenzy.

Not anymore.

Now when you do stuff like that, you no longer get all the interesting reactions from people. They just simply assume you’re on the phone.

*sighs*

No fun at all!