All in Leadership
Early in my career, I was staffed on a project with a senior consultant who had developed a stellar reputation as a “real people person”. Someone who was focused entirely on the individual and their needs and, as someone who could blend that perfect balance between what was needed for the client, the project, the firm and the individual.
I had never met this consultant, but given the ‘word on the street’, I was looking forward to it.
The more complex the transaction, the more difficult it is for everyone to emerge with everything on their wish list. That’s just the nature of the beast.
Political negotiations illustrate this perfectly and very publicly. You have dueling parties, fueled by competing ideologies, each proposing what they believe to be in the best interests of their constituents. (Yes, I know that politicians are driven more by what they think their voters will want to hear versus what they need to hear, but humor me for a bit.)
This month's podcasts draw lessons from the world around us, specifically the sports and entertainment arenas. I focus on specific games or movies or entertainers and the lessons we can draw from what they've done or experienced or said.
Today's podcast discusses that day in 1965 when Bob Dylan went electric and changed the course of his career. But he also gave us a lesson in how we need to do what we believe in and be who we want to be, regardless of what anyone else thinks or says.
In 1969, Led Zeppelin released their sophomore album titled Led Zeppelin 2, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. A year later, they followed up that album with Led Zeppelin 3, which diverged from the path that their first two albums took. Where as the first two albums were driving rock albums, this one, while it didn’t lack for driving rock songs, dove pretty heavily into the acoustic realm. The album was panned at first but is now regarded among their best.
When I was in Business School, I was asked to take part - along with another student - in an experiment run by a couple of PhD students. We were given a store of currency and had to decide - over multiple rounds - how much of that currency we would give to the other person. (We might even have been given some rules as to how to do it, but I don’t quite recall.)
This month's podcasts draw lessons from the world around us, specifically the sports and entertainment arenas. I focus on specific games or movies or entertainers and the lessons we can draw from what they've done or experienced or said.
In today's podcast, I dive into a quote from the movie, Ghost In The Shell, which speaks to the importance of letting go of the past - whether we feel as if we've failed in our past endeavors but even if we've succeeded…
There's a trend line that we all live through in any endeavor we’re a part of. That trend line can be positive or negative but it’s a constant - there’s no question that there is no such thing as a ‘permanent’ status quo, that things will inevitably progress in some direction to a redefined (temporary) equilibrium.
Most of the time that trend line is drawn out over some material period of time. If we are on the ascent, that ascent can continue for years, driven by a mix of factors both internally driven and externally influenced.
We tend to give more thought to the competition than we really should - and I say that with the full (and practical) understanding that our competitors can influence a lot of what goes on in the markets we play in and the customers we serve.
We worry about their pricing and their product features. We worry about their sales activities and their breadth of client access. We worry about their last move, and their next move.
This month's podcast draw lessons from the world around us, specifically the sports and entertainment arenas. I focus on specific games or movies or entertainers and the lessons we can draw from what they've done or experienced or said.
In today's podcast, I recount a story from the movie, The Matrix and how it speaks to our need to be ourselves, to not get taken in by someone else's agenda, to create our own reality. It's just a movie, but the messages in it are very much a reflection of ourselves and our reality.
It’s the one question that everyone wants answered.
When are we getting back to normal? When will Business As Usual return? Or, if you're really trying to be thoughtful: When do we get to the New Normal?
Aside from the fact that no one has the answers to those questions, there are two realities that are more relevant, at least to me:
This month's podcast draw lessons from the world around us, specifically the sports and entertainment arenas. I focus on specific games or movies or entertainers and the lessons we can draw from what they've done or experienced or said.
In today's podcast, I go back to Super Bowl 51 and the amazing comeback that the New England Patriots made in that game, and what it can teach us all about perseverance and achievement in the face of the worst possible odds.
You are not the hero.
That’s right, you’re not. And the sooner you get used to that idea, the better.
You’re not the one who’s going to move the customer’s business across the line. You’re not the one who’s going to help them gain extra market share. And you’re certainly not the one who’s going to achieve their vision for them.
There’s a quote I close all of my personal podcasts with that’s always appealed to me. I wrote about it in one of my earliest blog posts and it’s guided almost all of my decisions in life:
“You’re better off scared than bored.”
It isn’t my quote - I first heard it from Harvey Mackay in his book, Beware The Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt. (And, for the record, the exact quote is, “You’re a lot better off being scared than bored”.)
Today’s podcast is about what we do when we’re trying to get ourselves back on our feet, when we’re going through hard times and we need to re-center - as an individual or as a business.
It’s about the value of First Principles and the kinds of things we need to consider, understand and adopt when we're navigating a crisis.
So in recent weeks, I’ve hosted or moderated virtual webinars, panel discussions and happy hours with people all across the world (separate from the countless virtual one-on-ones and small group meetings that have become such a mainstay for us all now).
I approached these events with some trepidation, unsure of the how the back and forth that’s necessary would happen in the virtual world, given the normal back and forth of in-person conversation (versus the sequential nature of videoconference technology) or the pronounced nature of (awkward) silence in such settings, especially ones where not everyone knows each other.
We can’t assume each step forward is permanent. And that’s just a fact.
I know there’s a tendency to view any positive progress with hope, with the earnest desire to see that momentum continue unabated. That’s natural and, frankly, we should maintain that positivity, particularly in difficult times such as these.
But it’s important to also recognize that plans and paths forward aren’t always (ever) straight-line. There will be twists and turns, back and forth on the road to getting to where we want to go.
In today's podcast, I continue this month's riff on uncertainty and risk, and talk about change. It's a topic that we all have to deal with, whether we like it or not.
Change is a critical part of our growth and how we deal with it is make or break. This episode discusses the two key steps that I believe we need to take to tackle the change we see in our lives, head on.
The world has changed! The old order is out! Things will never go back to the way they were!
There’s no shortage of pronouncements about how the coronavirus has fundamentally changed the way we live, work and play. No more cruises, no more constant flying, no more of the large scale social gatherings that we’ve become so accustomed to. It’s (apparently) a whole new world out there.
And so it goes with Working From Home (WFH).
When we went through the Great Recession of 2008/2009, I remember thinking to myself (perhaps consoling myself) that I would never see an economic downturn as bad as that ever again in my lifetime. I mean, the scale of the trouble at the time was such that multiple markets around the world, multiple sectors, multiple categories, all got hit at once, and the resultant economic malaise took years to overcome. Surely, something at that scale could never happen again?
Well, never say never, I guess.
Episode 29 of the podcast is now available. Today’s episode is about the concept of "productive struggle", this idea that our success in life is based on our ability to work through difficult issues and problems without knowing or having the path handed to us.
