Kathy Kolbe's Blog

Pitching great, Curt Schilling, isn’t the first guy to find that power in one game doesn’t guarantee success in another. Michael Jordan couldn’t make it work going from NBA player to an owner, coach and general manager. Strengths in one position, even in the same game, don’t assure a good fit in another role. Schilling appears to have struck out big time as a wannabe entrepreneur.

I watched Schilling pitch lots of games for Arizona – and didn’t see a single sign of him having entrepreneurially minded moves at the mound. He relied on throwing the ball hard and fast past hitters, and later charted and logged each pitch in a diary. He was an expert in what he did well.

No surprise that he would hire like-minded experts to put together his dream of building a grandiose online video game, code named Copernicus. It seems like he assembled a cloned team of detail-oriented, statistically driven, strategic planners to do the job. The problem is, that never works.

Not only did Schilling lack the entrepreneurial instincts to have changed it up when the business was in trouble, it looks like he didn’t even bring in go-for-it innovators as relief. He stuck with his roster of high-priced power players with proven records, thinking the most experienced people in the video gaming industry would be just the right team for creating a more powerful version of, yet another, sword-and-sorcery game. No surprise, but apparently they are at least a year behind schedule and the game is unlikely to ever become a reality.

Nothing new here – including the predictable demise of Schilling’s company. Even the $75 million dollar investment by Rhode Island taxpayers and his own apparent $50 million hasn’t overcome the inertia. Without the synergy of different conative or instinctive strengths, teams do not achieve lofty goals or accomplish great things.

Schilling once demanded that the retractable roof at the Arizona Diamondback’s Chase field, paid for by Arizona taxpayers, be closed whenever he pitched. Stats had convinced him that the open air led to more home runs. Management, much like Rhode Island politicians, let him get away with it – until those tax-paying fans demanded the blue skies they had paid for.

Arizona won the World Series when they had a team working together with vastly differing natural, conative strengths. Losing that Synergy is another story.

I have observed over the years that people with illnesses that rob them of their physical strength remain true to their conative selves, yet often need assistance in fighting for the freedom to be themselves. They have a dimming of their mental energy – not a changing of the nature of it. They need people around them who understand and assist them in being their conative selves.

When individuals cannot do things the way they need to do them, they need assistance having things done as they would do them if they could. A case in point is a 9 in Follow Thru, in his last days and unable to speak, who became frustrated when nurses did not put his shaving equipment back in his nightstand according to his custom. Simply opening the drawer and placing the things in it as he would do it calmed him greatly. It was equally important to write his schedule for the week where he could see it, even when there was little to put on it but eating and sleeping.

What can seem a strange behavior in a very ill person, can be his or her fighting for an outlet for a conative need. A mentally active 9 in Quick Start who needed unique, colorful innovations in her life was bedridden for years with debilitating pain. Her doctors upped doses of medications when she showed signs of anger, anxiety and depression. It may have been her way of acting on her conative need that led her to shop for sparkling jewelry on TV. She was joyful when she was strong enough to put on several pieces of her colorful jewelry, which she switched around from day-to-day in innovative combinations.  “It’s one way I can still be me,” she said. 

An 8 in Implementor who was told she had only a couple of days to live, has survived for 18 months with the help of a daughter who enables her mother to interact with nature – to the best of her abilities. It is inspiring to watch the system her daughter helps her use despite being tied to an oxygen tank.  She collects leaves from her garden with Monarch eggs on them (from the special milk weed plants she grows close to the house), feeds them leaves as they go through the caterpillar stage, and finds joy in being able to release them when they transform into butterflies — from her finger to a flower in her garden.  Her sense of purposefulness is fully intact, though she knows each day could be her last. “I may be able to help, but if not, I’m teaching my great grandchildren and neighbors’ children,” she says, “Together, we could release a thousand Monarchs next year.“

Validation is a word that comes up a lot in my life. I’m thrilled to be able to validate the power of individual differences, for instance.  My dyslexia is validated with most everything I say or do – or write. My faith in humankind is validated about 93% of the time. My body validates that there IS an aging process 100% of the time.

Validation comes after you already know something is true – yet it still feels good when it confirms you are right.

It didn’t take a fire that rendered the Kolbe executive office building uninhabitable for me to know what an amazing team we have at Kolbe Corp. But it sure feels terrific to have that validated through the actions taken by every single team member.

I was out of town when it happened, close enough to hurry back. What business owner doesn’t cut short her off-site writing time and get back to town when there’s a major fire? One who totally trusts her team to make the right decisions (and knows no one was injured).

Several of our top execs were on the road with clients when all of the exec and IT offices had to be moved into our ops building. None had to cancel or be on the phone giving directions. When all of your team members take responsibility for shared goals, sharing space and accommodating others’ needs is not a dire situation.

The fire rendered our IT center, fondly known as “the cave,” unusable. We’re an Internet-based company. If our servers or services go down, we’re out of business.  With proper back-up and wise planning, a local disaster shouldn’t be felt by your worldwide customers.  None noticed.

Best validation of all: I haven’t received a single note of condolence. Don’t need one. I have proof that the Kolbe team can and will pull together under fire.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those in our state and others who have suffered serious loss due to fires.

Does wearing a clown costume make you a clown?

Does being educated at an excellent clown school make you a better clown?

How many people who go to clown school actually have the conative instincts to be good clowns? (Yes, we’ve found there are some conative characteristics that are consistent with successful clowns).  If it’s not in your nature, but you wanna do it, can you learn to be a great clown?

Of course, we know that wearing a mask doesn’t change your reality.  So, it must be very sad to know what you need to do when you go out there dressed up like a clown, yet don’t have what it takes to do it well. 

Perhaps those clowns who seem so creepy are the conatively inauthentic clowns.

Being trained to act like a clown doesn’t make you any more a clown than being trained to act like a salesperson makes you a good salesperson. Maybe that’s why there are so many sales people who make us want to run away? And lawyers, and carpenters, and bosses.

I only dressed up in a clown outfit once. To entertain kids at a camp I ran. It totally embarrassed my son, David. Of course, I wasn’t an educated clown. I was just me being silly. Mom’s being silly always seem to embarrass their sons. Guess the costume wasn’t good enough.

Valentine’s is a retailers’ day of hope and many individuals’ day of despair. What’s billed as a day for sharing signs of affection is actually a day that tests your conative IQ (how smart you are about another’s MO).

Valentine’s is a day when you’re assessed by how you act, react and interact – making it one of the most conatively stressful days of the year. Turn potential conative calamities into opportunities for extra points with these tips for how to play the day:

Do tell insist Fact Finders exactly why you love them. Words that lack specificity are mere fluff to them.

Don’t worry if resist Fact Finders don’t put sentiments in writing. You know their speaking from their natural instinct if they keep it simple.

Do use lots of superlatives with insist Quick Starts, they’re underwhelmed by anything less.

Do give insist Implementors cards/gifts you made my hand. Even if it doesn’t look pretty, be sure it’s obvious you put lots of time and touchables into it.

Do check out the quality of a hand-made gift from an insist Implementor. If it was thrown together the relationship is likely to be falling apart.

Don’t get the same thing you got last year for a resist Follow Thru – even it went over really well. They read repetition as your being bored with the relationship.

Do give the same thing to insist Follow Thrus – if you got kudos for it — or it seems you didn’t pay attention to what they really like.

Don’t ask insist Quick Starts what they want to do to celebrate Valentine’s. It’s the surprise that counts.

Do not surprise an insist Follow Thru with anything that might interrupt routines or plans. It could actually ruin their day. Ask ahead of time.

Do appreciate whatever original thing insist Quick Starts do for you. It means they tried to do something special even if it didn’t work out well.

Do ditch insist Quick Starts in new relationships who do nothing original for you. They’re showing a lack of involvement in the relationship.

Don’t give up on insist Quick Starts in long-term relationships for showing the same lack of originality on Valentine’s Day. They ought not to think they still need to “sell” you.

Do let insist Follow Thrus who give you whatever was at the check-out counter know that you’ll regift it. No gift from them is better than a clear afterthought.

Don’t be quite so hard on resist Follow Thrus who pick up something impersonal at the last minute. It’s an unfortunate part of their nature. Cut a win/win deal that lets you get your own gift next year.

Do give your Valentine’s the gift of a Kolbe A Index, so you can be sure you’re using the right conative tips. http://kolbe.com/A