Over the past few days, I spent time clarifying my why. Why is it that I want to do the things I want to do?
I decided to think about this from a company perspective since I’ve done some work in this respect personally.
I’ve defined my personal why as follows.
“I believe that people really connect with visual stories. And that these stories can stay with us our whole life. This is especially true for me and true for so many other people as well. I would love to be a part of people's lives in this capacity and that is why I'm an actor and producer.”
I really think this is true. Hence, why I put it on my website.
But I feel like a company should have more direction.
With that in mind I’ve worked out my company’s mission and vision.
I’ve also outlined the 12 attributes that I want from anyone that I work with, from collaborators and partners to team members. (Thanks Darren Hardy!)
I have no doubt that this will change over time but I feel that it is important to have a guiding principle to make decisions.
I also made a logo. Enjoy!
Mission:
Finfflo Productions, LLC and its team members are dedicated to creating media content by women while respecting gender balance on screen and off.
Vision:
Women’s stories are human stories.
Team Member Attributes:
The following attributes make up the culture at Finfflo Productions, LLC.
The attributes meant to support the company's mission and vision while also encouraging and supporting each team member to achieve their personal best.
Below will outline what these attributes are, what they mean to the team and how they are exercised in every interaction that we have with each other and in our community.
1. Love.
We surround each other with people who care about what we care about. We look for people who can fall in love with what we do and and the impact that we aim to make.
A while back I was hiring for a producer of a specific project. This is someone who would support and lead the project from beginning to end. I was given a referral by somebody I highly respected and somebody that I knew who would know exactly the kind of person that I needed. After a couple of conversations, I met the candidate at a local coffee shop. We had a charming, articulate, professional, personable conversation.
Everything was going well as far as interview performances go. But when looked into the candidates eyes and saw into their heart, I could tell that this was not the kind of person who would fall in love with what we do how we do it. They were very experienced and highly skilled. But, they didn’t want the position for the love of the cause and for the mission. They wanted the position for the money. In the end, we passed.
When we recruit we look into the candidate’s heart because we need to find people who will embrace the struggle for the love of the game and for the love of the mission. So every member of our team needs to love what we do. They need to have a heart for the business and for the mission. We only want to work with people who care deeply about what we all care so deeply about.
2. Growth.
If you are truly a high-performing a player at Finfflo Productions, possessing a growth mindset is a personal philosophy and attitude one must have.
Ask anyone if they have a growth mindset and they will probably say that they do. But, most people confuse being open minded or being positive with having a growth mindset. If you've ever said, “I'm just not good at remembering names” or “I'm always late” or “I'm not good at math” or whatever. That is a fixed mindset. It was fixed when you were born or by some past circumstances. People with a fixed mindset think of intelligence and capability like eye color. You just get what you're born with, just like you can't change your eye color.
A growth mindset person knows that they can learn anything with enough attention time and focus on it.
People with a growth mindset think of intelligence and ability more like a muscle. They understand that while at the moment they might be weak at something, with enough time in the gym, the muscle will grow and they will become stronger, smarter and better.
The reason why it is our number two attribute, next to only having heart for our mission, is because people with a growth mindset simply perform better every time in every area overtime. Growth minded people approach every situation differently than do those with a fixed mindset.
FIXED GROWTH
GOALS LOOK SMART LEARN
EFFORT GIVE UP WORK HARDER
PERFORMANCE LOWER HIGHER
This grid summarizes the differences between someone with a fixed vs. growth mindset.
In every encounter, someone with a fixed mindset wants to show how innately smart or capable they are.
This becomes their objective while also hiding how they may not be smart or capable. So, when things become hard or they encounter a setback, they quit. They think, “If it's hard, then I simply must not be capable" and they simply give up. This results in lower performance and the inability to persist in order to achieve big goals and deliver the results. We don’t want team members like that at Finfflo Production, LLC.
However, someone with a growth mindset is eager to ask questions, to learn, to try, and to discover. A growth mindset views effort as the way the way you learn, the way you grow, the way you become smarter.
They actually like challenges and view them as a new opportunity to learn something new and to grow their intelligence and capabilities further. Given that people with a growth mindset try harder and persist especially in the face of a challenge it's no surprise that they do better in life.
This single mindset difference has massive impact on performance for the team member and for the influence they will have on the rest of the organization.
We use these five ideas to foster a growth mindset.
Embrace flaws. We're all human and imperfect. Stop worrying about mistakes or worrying about what people think of you. Just be real and be honest.
View failure and setbacks as opportunities. Use this time to see if you can overcome the obstacles life gives you. Use the challenge to strengthen your mind, become stronger, and a better person.
See criticism and feedback as constructive. Ask for canid feedback often. Be sincere and serious about improving. Do not take feedback personally but use it to grow our team.
Focus on growth. Make your life a constant never-ending adventure in learning and pursuit for better every day. We believe if you are not growing, you are rotting. And if you are not improving, you are falling behind.
Have grit and be resilient. Believe in yourself during times of success and times of failure. Take ownership of your attitude. Take on difficult tasks, tasks that you're likely to fail at in the beginning. Go for big goals and play full out. In the end it's all part of the fun.
3. Excellence
Our work is our art. We're all creative beings and our work is our creative product. It is the expression of who we are and how we are using our gifts, capabilities and the precious life force that we have. We want to leave an impact and we want that impact to be excellence. We view excellence as a matter of dignity and personal responsibility. Whatever role you have in our company, do it well and do it with excellence. “The quality of a persons life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” - Vince Lombardi.
Excellence isn't doing extraordinary things. It's doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. In life, listen excellently, contribute excellently, deliver excellent value. In your next conflict, take complete responsibility and apologize sincerely. Excellence is in every thing that you do. Be excellent for you, not for everyone else.
Take pride in your work for your own self-esteem. This is our life and life is brief so we don’t a chance to do that many things so whatever we choose to do with our life it should be excellent. If we are going to do something, no matter what it is, we are going to do it well and with excellence.
4. Humility
Humility is one of the greatest strengths of character and enlightenment. Look at the qualities of the truly great people like Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and even Warren Buffett. They all have humility. Humility is misunderstood as meekness, insecurity or self-deprecation. On the contrary, humility is the ultimate strength. A humble person no longer needs to prove themselves at every turn, have the constant need to be right or to attempt to control every situation. Humility asks us to acknowledge our imperfections. It requires that we admit when we are wrong and then change course. It requires putting others first and it requires us to avoid the constant push from the ego. It is having a strong sense of self, a quiet grounded confidence, being completely comfortable in your own skin and your own abilities and who you really are.
We use these eight ideas to help our team members gain humility
Take the spotlight off yourself and shine it on others. Talk as little as possible about yourself. Be so busy seeing, hearing, understanding and giving to others that you no longer need any of that yourself. “It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit and true humility is not thinking less of yourself it is simply simply thinking of yourself less” - Harry Truman.
Lead by example. Demonstrate the behavior you wish modeled because it will be you will be mimicked.
Take personal responsibility for everything. Do the right thing just because it's the right thing to do.
Admit your mistakes. It requires humility to share your mistakes. It also shows that it’s okay for others to share their imperfections. It draws out our empathetic nature and we connect and care about people more.
Ask questions instead of making statements. Approach situations with a question rather than a preconceived answer. If you come believing you already know everything, people close up and things don't get done.
Really listen. Worry less about being understood and more about understanding. If someone shares an opinion or experience, take a moment to digest. Really hear them before you speak. Your humility is wiser and more enlightened after that.
Let people do their jobs instead of trying to control or micromanage them. Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
Have a sense of humor, particularly about yourself. We all need to stop taking ourselves so seriously. When we lighten up, things brighten up and so does everybody else.
5. Hunger
This attribute is the drive behind greatness. Hunger is an unstoppable all-consuming drive, burning desire, appetite to be better, a striving a pursuit. It's more than passion. Your hunger is the only thing you can think about. It occupies every single second of your existence. It dominates all your thoughts and feelings. Nothing else can distract you from your hunger. Hunger is what propels people to great achievement. It allows us to persist despite the odds, difficulties and setbacks. The hungry want more from life than others around them. Those are the kind of people we want on our team. They hunger for achievement, for growth, for greatness.
They only want to work with others with that same fire inside.
People who have hunger are comfortable stepping up and stepping out of the herd of normality. They can't wait until Monday morning to go back to work on the mission. The hungry person’s goal of life is to do their great art and to see what all that they can become with all they have been given. Time off to them is to recharge and refuel their fire inside so that they can get back at it refreshed., not the goal of the work week.
Do you have that fire inside that pushes you to go for more to be better to grow to persist and discover all that you can do? Do you pursue or pass? What you do when you are called to act? What you do when things become tough? What do you do when you're exhausted but there's still more work to be done? And, when you hit the ceiling of your current skills, do you retreat? Or, do you double down and delight and with excitement because you know that you've broken into uncharted waters and you are discovering a new frontier of your potential?
Yes? Then you are hungry.
6. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence means people smarts or being deeply empathetic, intuitive and aware. This is self awareness and awareness of other people. Emotionally intelligent people can tune into the emotional makeup of people and then treat each person uniquely according to their emotional makeup. This skill is critical for collaborating with people. When dealing with people, you're not dealing with creatures of the logic, you're dealing with creatures of emotion.
To be emotionally intelligent you have to master four other regions of the human system.
Eyes and ears. Being intellectually intelligent is about what you know and then being able to prove it to others with your mouth but being emotionally intelligent is about using your eyes and ears to listen to other’s needs
Heart. Being able to feel and connect with somebody's hopes and fears. To do that you have to listen with your eyes, ears and heart
Gut. Being able to use your intuition. Listen to your gut more. Every major mistake is when you didn’t listen to your gut. Intuition often gets sabotaged by our ego.
Groin. Where we associate our personal and social identity. This is where our pursuit for significance and need for importance.
A high IQ only requires you developing your head. A high EQ requires development and using your whole body.
Here are our three keys to grow EQ in our team.
Ability to handle your impulses, reactions and responses. Learn to control yourself. You are in complete control in how you respond to what happens .
Ability to handle difficulty and setbacks. You need to be reliable and constant.
Ability to handle pressure and stress. This reveals how emotionally intelligent you are. When you get stressed? Do you crack? Or, do you rise and get stronger? On our team, only only the latter will last.
“Don't join that easy crowd. Go where the expectations are high, the challenge great, the demands many… and the victory is sweet” - Jim Rohn.
7. Responsibility
We describe this attribute as having extreme ownership. Taking 100% responsibility for every circumstance and every outcome in your life. We all start out exactly the same. It's not what happens to us that defines us but what we do about it. You are responsible for everything that's going on in your life. If you're low on money, it's your fault. If the relationships with your kids, co-workers, neighbors or friends are tension-filled or less than loving, it's your fault. You get the idea.
You are 100% responsible for your result and your life through one of three factors.
By what you did. Most people know when they have done this. They think, “My bad” or "I did it because so-and-so did it”
By what you didn't do. You know you should have but still didn’t. You know what to do, you just don't do it.
By your response. Are you responsible for the bus hitting you? No, of course not. But, you are responsible for how you respond to what happens to you. Good or bad. Own it and move on from there.
Choose to take extreme ownership over everything. This attribute and philosophy are what separates you from the rest of the world. While everybody else is blaming their problems, their results, their circumstances or unfulfilled dreams on something else, you are the one that rises above. You transform problems into opportunities. You make life happen for you. That's extreme ownership and it is really the reality of life.
8. Urgency
This attribute is a mentality and an action-taking methodology. It means do it now, rapid responsiveness, and quick action. Everything that is important is done now. Do it now, delegate it now, or deny it and delete it now, so it never has to occupy your mental capacity again. Currently, more stuff, people, projects, communications are coming at you. This causes overwhelm and procrastination. You compound the problem by having to remember all the stuff you put off. A list of unfinished tasks turns into a mountain of anxiety, stress, frustration, and self-blame. The American Psychological Association has proven that procrastination is increasing and this is leading to mental and physical illness and overall unhappiness. Also, the farther away we get from something the more energy it takes to return to it. Think of something once and don’t let things stack up on your desk and your brain. Allow incoming things to come in. Then decide to do it now, delegate it or deny it. Then move on.
9. Courage
Aristotle said courage is the first of human virtues because it makes all the others possible. Courage is even more important than confidence because it takes courage to develop confidence. Confidence is something that is gained by doing things outside and beyond your current skill level and comfort. So, it takes using courage to become confident. Then courage becomes unneeded.
Here are the four C's of getting confidence
Commitment. If you're not committed to something there will be nothing to power courage. Something has to incite courage. It all starts with a commitment
Courage. Commitment then incites your courage. You do what's uncomfortable and you step into the unknown.
Capability. This develops a new capability, a new skill and ability that you didn't have before.Confidence. This create value and respect and that gives you confidence.
Courage is a choice and a person only utilizes their potential by their choices and their commitment to them. Being courageous is not the absence of fear. It is choosing to act with courage in the face of fear.
We build courage on our team using these four tips.
Be foolish. The thing people are most afraid of is looking foolish. The ego is fragile. True personal growth only happens when we stretch beyond our current limits, beyond our current comfort zone to grow. True courage is risking being uncomfortable and looking foolish.
Be a legend in your own mind. Practice courageousness in your mind by seeing yourself acting with confidence and courage in every exchange.
Most of what you fear is not life-threatening so when you feel fear don't hesitate step forward step into the fear. The only way to overcome fear is to go through it.
Attack fear. The more you attack it the weaker it gets. If you repeatedly force yourself to face which you are afraid of, it will lose power over you and eventually you will defeat it entirely.
10. Reliable
Being reliable is being someone others can count on always. When you say you're gonna do something it will be done. It’s not letting items fall through the cracks. It's being responsible and following through without follow up. When you have a team with this attribute it's a dream. Normally, when you're working with people, an assignment is made, then you don't hear anything or the deadline comes and goes. Now you have to follow up with them to see what's going on. That person now has to go into the unreliable bucket. Now, every time they say they're going to do something, you have to keep track of it in your head too. People who are unreliable only compound your problems instead of relieving them. Being reliable is when somebody doesn't even need to be told what to do. They are anticipating your needs and acting ahead of you. Being reliable someone everyone can count on every time 100% whatever you sign up for or whatever it is that you are assigned.
Our four tips to become more reliable
Don't B.S. Don't say sure to something just to be agreeable. If you can't do it, say no and explain if necessary.
Proactively communicate. If you make a promise that you can't meet because of unforeseen circumstances let the person know as soon as possible before they start wondering about it.
Start and Finish. The best way to finish strong is to start strong. Keeping your word is rarely convenient. Reliable people let their actions rise above their excuses.
Bring your best every day. Success is never final. You have to be reliable every day.Have pride. Honor your word. Do it because you said you would. Be that person we want to have on our team.
11. Resourceful
Change is happening so fast that everything is new to everyone all the time. The way you did something yesterday is obsolete. There are probably new and better resources to do it faster, easier and cheaper. On our team being resourceful means figure it out . Never present a problem without a thoughtful well researched choice of proposed solutions. This goes back to the many of the other attributes, extreme ownership and being reliable. But what if you run into a problem? Figure it out, fix it, google it, discover it, learn it, solve it. There's a whole world of answer solutions and resources. Bottom line is figure it out
Our five tips of resourcefulness
Think on your feet. Think about how you can bring creativity and ingenuity into your daily life and work and use whatever materials you have.
Use your network. Ask someone you know that is dealt with something similar. Or, who do you know who might know someone that is dealt with something similar.
Research for ideas. You can use ideas from everywhere. Collect ideas and resources so you have an archive of stuff that has already struck you.
Have many plans. Increased the odds of success by having contingencies. Don't leave things up to chance. Have many plans going simultaneously so you are sure to have the right solution.
Break the rules. Don't just go along with how things have always been. We're always pushing so hard, so fast that the rules only slow us down. We're out to accomplish things.
12. Consistent
The lack of consistency is why most people don't achieve their goals. The stop and start process kills progress. Humanity's fatal flaw is inconsistency and we lack ability to sustain commitment over a long period of time. Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do long after the mood that you originally set it in has left you. When you start something it is easy to be committed but soon that mood will leave you. Then there is the real test of commitment which most humans fail.
Inconsistent people work like this. In the beginning, they are excited and start working like crazy. It is really hard to keep a sustained pace but they do. And then after two weeks, when the excitement has worn off and there are no results, many quit. The smarter person knows that two weeks isn’t enough time to accomplish big goals. Keeping the faith, they pound the pavement and keep working. At this point they have made sacrifices and adjusted their lives around this work. After six weeks, they have only made a small dent in this huge goal. This is where everyone left quits.
But the consistent person will keep going and going. They won’t let up on their pace. They won’t quit. It is only after a long period of time that they start to see the results from their aggressive effort. This is the sweet spot. Because once the results reveal themselves, only an easy consistent effort is required to keep it going. This, of course, is no problem for the consistent person.
Progress is easy if you stay consistent. That is why consistency is one of the most important attributes of success. It is not how you start, it's how you continue. If you stay consistent, even slowly, ultimately you will beat the most talented of competitors. Consistency is why the tortoise beats the hare every time.