I recently hired a travel agent to work on my dream holiday that is coming to my family and friends later this year. Stinkin’ AWESOME. I’m engaging with a person that was referred to me the only way I will take a referral. She was referred to me when asking one of my clients to describe someone he knew that is pursuing their OPUS.
Opus, by way of reminder, is a Latin word that translates literally to the English word work. Opus is work that the worker LOVES. I only hire individuals, or companies where I smell Opus. Back to the story…
My client described his wife. Her Opus, he said, was running her travel agency. After asking him to tell me more, I was convinced. Very cool.
You might want to remember this as you seek to work with others. Ask them why they work. Tune in with all your senses. Study their words and their bodies. Study their face and specifically their eyes and their smile. Someone that is sharing their opus with you may not be the most articulate, may not look the part, may not come with the most recommendations, and may not have graduated from the right circles. They may, and then again, they may not…
They will, however, regardless of their words do one thing extraordinarily well. They will pierce your heart.
They will possess “shoot” in their eyes. AND, when they smile, it will most definitely be a Duchenne smile. Yea, baby.
One of the coolest things about the BTL Band is that every single builder in the band, every last one of them, was a client first. They were NOT recruited here. They chose to come here. They pursued me or another builder in the band. They fell in love with our work and developed an “eye problem.” They couldn’t “see” themselves laboring any longer. They became a former client without a firing. They became a builder full of fire.
Sooooo, anytime you engage the band you are engaging with someone that is living their opus. AND you are working with someone that will help you discover yours.
Isn’t that the berries?
Of course, we just made my statement a couple paragraphs back untrue in a sense. We recently added a new builder to the band that had NOT been a client. Her name is Kitty Allen. She hails from Dublin, Ohio and will be an AWESOME builder soon enough. She’s in the early phases of her 18 month training program. BTW, all of the band goes through the same 18 month apprenticeship. Isn’t that cool. Her builder for the first 12 months is a guy named Larry. He’s one of our stud builders and was the first builder to ask me, years ago, if he could join the team. Larry is a master builder and has brought structure and order to my very artistic approach. We’re a good team, I guess.
Oh, I almost forgot. Larry is not only Kitty’s builder, he’s also her husband of 26 years. Soooo, I guess that Kitty really was kinda like a client first too. She was married to one! Now how cool is that.
Have you EVER heard of a team that is comprised completely of former clients?
Why would you EVER hire anybody that doesn’t LOVE their work?
Why? Why? Why?
BUILT TO LEAD 