Reading Time: < 1 minSimilar to the idea of “bring me problems” that I shared last year, having a culture where problems are welcomed can be a great thing. It reminds me of a story I heard about Alan Mulally and his work to turn Ford around in the 2010’s. One big thing that he did was encourage problems […]
Leadership
Great communication is built on trust
Reading Time: 2 minIn his book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things“, author Ben Horowitz shares simple yet powerful way to speed up communication: trust. Ben simply says: “In any human interaction, the required amount of communication is inversely proportional to the level of trust.” The more you trust someone, the easier the communication. If you know their […]
Only one person can change me
Reading Time: < 1 minIn recently reading the book “QBQ” (the “Question Before the Question”, which I discussed a bit here), much of it felt similar to some of the ideas in “The Daily Stoic“. The books come from completely different directions, but end up focusing on one idea — you are responsible for yourself. QBQ had a few […]
The pretense of knowledge is our most dangerous vice
Reading Time: < 1 minIn his book “Ego Is the Enemy“, author Ryan Holiday spends a good deal of time essentially breaking down the Dunning-Krueger Effect and how overconfidence can be a bad thing. Confidence, in and of itself, is valuable to have. When you become overconfident and your ego creeps in, it can often inhibit your growth. If […]
Fix your weaknesses or enhance your superpowers?
Reading Time: 2 minWhen you decide that there is something you’d like to better at doing, there are two possible reasons: Finding the balance can be tricky. If you’re a baseball player who is a good hitter but a poor fielder, which one should you work more on? Should you try to become an excellent hitter, or work […]
Kindness is about the recipient
Reading Time: < 1 minFor years, I thought that a key to being a good leader was to treat your staff with kindness. That’s not wrong, but research into various personality profiles (such as enneagram and DISC) have shown me that “kind” is different depending on who you’re talking to. An old business coach of ours laid it out […]
Being kind doesn’t mean you’re a pushover
Reading Time: < 1 minWe could all stand to see a bit more kindness in the world but I think it’s often seen as the opposite of “toughness”, even though the two can go hand-in-hand. You can be strong and relentless in all you do, while still being kind while you do it. If you think you need to […]
Clear is kind
Reading Time: < 1 minIf you follow Gary Vaynerchuk very much, you’ve probably noticed that his big push lately is for “kind candor“. In his earlier years he did well with the “kind” part, but hid from the “candor”, which was a big disservice to those on his team. You don’t need to hide from the truth, but don’t […]
Reliability makes work easier
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve long said that the level of trust that I have in my team helps make my life much easier. Among other things, I know that if I send an email to one of them to get something taken care of, I don’t need to remind myself to follow-up — it gets done. However, a […]
Calm is contagious
Reading Time: < 1 minIf you’re in a suddenly stressful situation, freaking out is likely to make things worse. It can be hard to control, but staying calm, particularly if you’re in a position of leadership during the event, can make a huge difference. From Ryan Holiday’s excellent book “The Daily Stoic“, he shares: There is a maxim that […]