The following contains excerpts from the book, Three Simple Things (Leading During Chaos) (Thom Shea).
At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. When dealing with the subject of leadership, relationships matter. And relationship with self is at the crux of all other relationships. In other words, principles of conscience affect every other part of our lives.
“There are five areas in each of your lives that demand simplicity and abhor complexity: Spiritual, Relationship, Wealth, Physical, and Intellectual. To win, you need only do three simple things in each…My intent for you is to achieve a six-hour baseline during your day-to-day life.”
The author discusses and demonstrates the value of perseverance, in the face of extraordinary challenges. Shea, a former Navy Seal, advocates creating scenarios in which the human condition is challenged, to the point of breaking, to reveal weaknesses of process, character, and paradigms of thought. He does this in the five areas listed above. Although until reading this book, I was not familiar with Shea’s exact formula, I understand the pillars of a well-structured life and the value of having the discipline to challenge myself beyond the comforts of life in each of these areas. The book confirmed much of what I already believed to be true about life and leadership.
The main points of this book are as follows:
- “I consider recruiting the number one indication of success in any endeavor in life. You are either fighting to recruit new business or fighting to bring new people into your organization or you are barricaded inside of your effort, lying to yourself and your partners that the organization will endure forever. Not only do great leaders have this in their DNA but also the whole organization needs to reflect this desire to recruit. Recruiting means growth and new ideas.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we are constantly adding new students and developing new teachers who add fresh ideas and backgrounds to what we have to offer.
- “If you are not willing to train at an exercise by doing the same thing for 10,000 iterations, you will never know if you could succeed. Training the fundamentals is everything regarding success…Great training programs have these three properties: learnable, iterative and gradable, and intentionally tested against real life…Training is really the key to success of a company, team, or even an individual striving to excel. Detailed and difficult training is required to not do damage to the organization and new hire.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we help the student see the value of practicing their artistic discipline by providing them with achievable goals that are learnable, iterative and gradable.
- “Culture is leadership’s capacity to articulate a clear vision, maintain a measurable mission, and compensate people for actions that contribute to the company’s mission. Culture is working on a team with a specific target in sight and coordinating all activity around that target. Culture is the distinction of recruiting and selecting the right people for the right job on the best team. Culture is solidified by training and passing on what works and ensuring everyone in the organization proves capability and improves themselves every day…The wise leaders who realize that not only does taking care of the employee at work do well, but also simultaneously training and leading in efforts to ensure physical health and employee key relationships at home are being addressed win the long game. The leaders win through creating, demonstrating, and ensuring the overall culture is really what they lead. That culture is employee health, employee key relationships, and ultimately, employee work satisfaction. The ultimate truth in the chaos of leadership is that everything counts.”
We believe that it is important for students at our music school in Midland, Texas see our teachers demonstrate artistic excellence as well as moral and ethical excellence.
- The author encourages to actually pay yourself money to do the three simple things in each category each day. If you miss a day, the money comes out of the jar for the same amount. “Self-discipline literally means to pay no attention to excuses and reasons and honor your word no matter what comes up. A nonnegotiable life of three simple things in all five pyramids a day makes life quite extraordinary.”
- “Success by definition is how to deal with multilayered chaos by executing simple actions…Chaos in combat cannot be avoided, it must be embraced. The only things to embrace are simple, tangible things in your life. You embrace your health, your family, and your team; you embrace learning and your job; and you embrace your human spirit. You make promises and keep them…even though you may die in the process.”
One of the aspects of the performing art that may surprise people sometimes is that performance situations are never ‘perfect.’ And the artist’s only foundation to leverage these situations for success is in the depth of his preparation. At our music school in Midland, Texas we value deep and thorough preparation at all levels.
- Regarding American businesses: “Somewhere along the way, everyone, and I mean everyone, bought into the notion that priority can be spelled priorities…Priority means nonnegotiable. Priorities mean negotiable.
- “The primary excuse in an organization centers around self-growth as being self-serving. Little does the organization or leadership truly realize that the growth of the individual must happen within the culture of the organization. Once culture of individual growth occurs, then the organization explodes.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we teach students the life lesson that personal growth precedes leadership growth. The first rule of leadership is to lead one’s self well.
- “The two platforms of mentorship are full incorporation and inspiration. Mentoring someone else to use the formula and three simple things means you must test and evaluate the three simple things by incorporating each into a day of your life. In effect, to be a mentor, you will have to fully incorporate your mentees with three simple things in your life to see if they are effective. The second aspect of mentoring is inspiration. The person you mentor must move you and inspire you. You must not see them as a problem to fix. Few people have the ability to view the world through the lens of inspiration and be moved by what they see around them. Great mentorship requires you to see the people around you as great, beautiful, inspiring, and worthy of greatness even when they don’t often present that way of being.”
- “Passion and inspiration arise from inside of you and no other place. You must fire yourself up by your own actions and own your life…in order to find inspiration, look within! You must constantly live inspired and acknowledge others who inspire you.”
- “The reality of mentorship is to help them live their life, not to push them in a direction you perceive would make them better or happier. You have to see greatness in the person you mentor, then they must explore their own greatness…Most people are prone to telling others what to do and how to do it. Yet that is management; it will get results in the short run but will always fail in the long run when you leave the team or when you lose inspiration…Instead, you must allow the mentee to stretch, to break down, to stumble, to lose heart, and to learn. Now you see why inspiration is the vital link between you and the mentee. Your job is to keep them in the fight. Their job is to do the fighting.”
- “The secret of success rests solely on the ability of the mentor to incorporate the exact three simple things the mentee will be doing each day into his or her life. The mentor must practice what the mentee is doing to resolve the effectiveness. You must own the entire formula you are asking the mentee to use…The practice of mentoring another person toward his or her own successes always causes temporary stagnation in the mentor’s own success. The phenomenon is real for me each time, yet the day after the mentee succeeds, my own five pyramids take a leap forward with new skills and new tactics. Mentoring always adds measurable value to both the mentor and the mentee but requires temporarily loss for the mentor.”
- When mentoring, the author looks for three areas of weakness to emerge in the mentee. “Physical weaknesses are the easiest to determine and the easiest to make stronger…The second weakness I look for is the emotional attachment people have to a choice they have previously made…The third weakness, which creates the biggest conflict, is when the people in the client’s life who are not helpful get exposed…Emotions are very practical when used as keys that open locks to predetermined outcomes. The question to always ask is this: is that the emotional response you are having and what is the predetermined outcome?”
- “Never negotiate even when the future seems bleak…Winning blows up basic actions. Winning inflates ego. Winning strains relationships. Losing makes people disregard every fundamental principle in their life. Losing causes emotional negativity. Losing destroys relationships…warriors never negotiate…I ask you to consider never negotiating with your baseline.