Going Back to my {B}Roots

The hottest cowboy boots I have ever seen are more than hot, they reminded me of who I am and where I came from.

The boots give me great joy for several reasons. First, they are outrageously comfortable, second they are HOT and every time I wear them I get tons of compliments, third the story of buying them is dear and most importantly they have awoken a stronger sense of my roots then I would have expected.

The first and second point don’t really need any expansion but the story of buying the boots is great.  As a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization I went on a retreat with my group of 8 ‘personal board members’ to one member’s Texas ranch.  As part of our bonding experience the batch of us (all living the big city life) went to buy cowboy hats at a rural outfitters.

That’s when I fell in love with the boots.

I have actually not owned cowboy boots since I moved to Texas 24 years ago.  “I was walking the ‘city’ side of my life now.”  The rest of the weekend was spent 4 wheeling, shooting pool, fishing, drinking wine and having a great time with incredible friends that know me better than almost anyone on the planet.  So my boots were like a souvenir of an incredible weekend.

Then there is the biggie connection to these fanciful leather sweeties.  They don’t just fit my feet, they fit ME.  I grew up in rural Iowa and Missouri.  Now I never had to work a farm at the level of farm kids whose family made their entire living off the farm.  However I have bottle fed calves, slept in fairground barns prior to showing cattle, shoveled snow so that the animals couldn’t walk up and over the pens and spent entire summers cultivating a garden that was nearly an acre.  But I grew up and moved (ran) away to the city as soon as I could.

I moved to the city to leave what I felt was too simple a life. * Sigh* The city life has been very good to me and I have no desire to live on a farm again.  But I am so very proud of what I call my “Midwest Pragmatism.”  I like realism and agree with Grandpa’s opinion that the ONLY way is the way that everybody gains from.  I love my high rise buildings and my high heels.

But my boots make my heart sing a bit.  They somehow remind me of the roots of who I am.  Who we really are, is deeply seated in each of us.  The ideals presented to us when we are little kids and teenagers usually influence us forever.  At times teenagers or young adults may feel we have to spread our wings or diverge from what we feel are our parents ideals, then they might come creeping back in later in life.  My boots remind me that I am proud of the honest way we do business.  Clean living yields better results.

My business twist to Occam’s Razor is the theory that when trying to solve a business problem or make a deal the simplest, most elegant answer is likely the best one.  It’s my roots that makes the fact that I run an international business with my husband completely non-shocking.  I just look at my grandparents and so many other relatives who feed the world as husband and wife teams owning and running farms. No one is shocked that a farm wife works with her husband!

What does this possibly have to do with HR?  Guess why Geoff Smart has been so successful with the TopGrading methodology of interviewing?  You go back to the person’s roots.  What traits have they had and used most of their life?  It is likely they will continue to use those lessons learned early, when they work for you too.  Have they been consistent throughout their life with what they say is important to them. Oh, and you might want to see how comfortable they seem in their ‘boots’.

Comfort is a good thing. It’s sustainable.