Autumn Newsletter | October 2024

When you receive this Q4 2024 newsletter issue I will be in Montreal. That’s after a memory lane visit recreating our 10 years of living and great friendships made in and around Boston. Yes, it does include a Red Sox game, a team doing worse than the Mariners this year, but whose fans love them unconditionally! Then, a drive through Vermont “leaf peeping” as it’s called by east coasters. After Montreal, on to Quebec so I can steep myself in Louise Penny and her Armand Gamache character’s surroundings (I’ve read all the books). We end the trip driving up the coast of Maine staying in the adorable Camden/Rockport area with dear friends of ours who reside in retirement on the Delaware shore. This trip is about connecting with friends and special places. As humans, we crave connection. I wonder how many of you honor connecting and take time to do enough of it? I find these important connections reduce my stress, calm my mind, provide me with extra stores of energy, and increase my resilience.

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An Appeal for Self-care

We all need resilience and stress relief heading into what is going to be a battleground nation in October and November. And given that so many rights are being challenged at the Global? (democracy) and US (women’s rights and DEI) levels, I encourage each of you to fight for what you believe in AND do the self-care needed to not get stuck in your head over the negativity?unleashed.

McKinsey and Lean In just published their 2024 Women in the Workplace 10th Anniversary Report

Company commitment to diversity is declining just when companies should be doubling down on their efforts. Thanks to the Supreme Court for giving those corporate executives who wavered on DEI support a reason to pull back. Here’s a great HBR article arguing why that doesn’t merit the air cover. We are still being challenged with fewer women being hired at the entry level, then those women are far less likely to be promoted to the manager level (“the broken rung”), which makes it nearly impossible for companies to show sustained progress at more senior levels. While gains at the top look good, the systemic challenges are there and the progress is masking the real problem perpetuated by males hiring people like themselves and not being advocates for diverse workforces. There’s not sufficient training in helping create diverse hiring practices, mentoring women to ask for their earned places, creating incentives by which diversity is measured and rewarded, etc. Frankly, I was disappointed to see the data after 10 years. We can do better and you each have a role to play in helping your organization do better in some way. Diversity is everyone’s job both in diversity of thought, gender, race, etc.

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?PQ Has a Fresh Approach

I will be launching a Positive Intelligence program pod in mid to late October to provide the ultimate antidote to our negative voices and to help you learn how to shift from a negative to a positive mindset. This will be using a new version of the program just launching. I was a beta participant. It's better than I imagined!?

I will be offering the best deal ever to inaugural V2 PQ Program pod members.?Email me at?[email protected]?with the subject line "Send Me PQ V2 Details" to get more information!

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Growth Mindset Can Become a Growth Culture

Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset is well known and understood by now. Here’s a quick look at what we achieve when we adopt a growth mindset:

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Clients often want to know how they can become more growth mindset-oriented or how they can help a team member develop a growth mindset. Positive Intelligence (https://positiveintelligence.com) is the first step, learning how to shift from the negative to the positive part of our brains. But here’s a quick list of additional ways to go on the growth mindset journey:

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In her new book, Cultures of Growth, Marcy C. Murphy offers?a way to create and sustain a growth mindset in any organization’s culture. Mary is a protégé of Carol’s and in her 10 years of research on this new concept, she found that teams more geared to growth inspire deeper learning, spark collaborations, spur innovation, and build trust that’s necessary for risk-taking and inclusion. These teams are more likely to achieve top results and great ideas come from all backgrounds and levels as a result. I have seen this firsthand with teams I’ve taken through the PQ work but have not seen the research data expressed in such a way. Mary has great case studies and proof that a culture of growth has such profound benefits and provides a path to get there.

I mentioned in my last newsletter that AI is going to upend so much as we transform systems and mindsets around how work gets done. Because of all the change coming at us, I believe Mary Murphy’s work will be seminal for corporations.

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Artificial Intelligence in Human Resources

Akos Janza?is?Head of Enterprise Transformation and Global Head of Offices for MSCI, Inc.?MSCI has provided research-based data and tools that power better investment decisions?for the world's most important financial institutions. Akos recently developed a?comprehensive AI strategy for their global people organization. Based on his considerable?depth and breadth in technology, he dived deep into where AI is going, what's real and what's?hype, what's possible now, and what can be put off until it's more proven. He brings a business?executive lens to the complicated decisions?of strategy informing tactics and build versus buy.

Here's the presentation he recently?gave?to a group of HR executives who are working to?see what their organizations should be doing and how to achieve the best outcomes by leveraging?AI. Akos is a pragmatic visionary who sees what's possible against what's doable in a corporate?environment where tradeoffs are always between internal spending and external/product-driven?spending. Carol Olsby, thank you for bringing Akos to your HR roundtable members since it afforded?him the time to craft a broader presentation I can share with my clients as well! And, of course, a huge thank you to Akos for sharing his considerable wisdom with my clients, former clients, and colleagues!

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Productivity Not From AI, From Joy

There are a myriad of books and technologies focusing on productivity as so many people search for ways to reduce their overwhelm, overwork, reduce their to-do list, and/or try to solve for their Avoider saboteur. I’ve long been a fan of James Clear’s Atomic Habits as a go-to for clients muscling through these challenges. My best friend from high school, who is already highly productive, not an Avoider, is highly organized, and has systems for many aspects of her life was raving about this new guy she discovered, and boy was she right. His name is Ali Abdaal and his book is Feel Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You. His basic concept is brilliant. Productivity isn’t about hard work or grinding it out, it's about feeling good. If you can make your work feel good, then productivity takes care of itself. The secret to productivity isn’t discipline, it’s joy. Once we find the joy in how we do something or what we are doing then we flip the script and everything flows from there because we feel better and achieve more as a result. This is yet another shift from a negative mindset to a positive mindset and seeing the glass as half full versus half empty thinking.

Here's his YouTube page with loads of great videos and his website is https://aliabdaal.com.?

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Technology Industry Professional Peer Groups

For a long time, I have sought a place to refer clients to a peer group with other Chief Product Officers, COOs, Chief Revenue Officers, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, VPs of Sales, Heads of Data Science/Analytics, and the list goes on. Director-level people also seek peer groups. Sidebar (https://www.sidebar.com)?offers it all! They match people to the right peer group for their needs and based on the video testimonials it looks to be working. I love the diversity and geographic breadth. Love the concept but have no personal client experience with it yet. If anyone knows of people who’ve experienced Sidebar I’d love to hear about it.

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Stay Connected: You’ll Live Longer

I hope you smoothly ride the waves of ups and downs we will experience in October and November, maybe through to the end of January.

Find the time to connect with friends and family, people who matter. When we are in Boston we will be seeing friends and former business colleagues we have not seen in over 30 years yet we’ve stayed connected via holiday cards, Facebook, email, LinkedIn, business connection opportunities, etc. Just by scheduling these coffees, lunches, dinners, and outings, we’ve had such great memory lane moments with laughter and joy. We get to meet the “kids” who were toddlers and even their kids’ kids.

Maybe we will even find our way to Three Pines, the little town in Quebec (Knowlton) where everyone knows one another’s business! I do believe we now live in a place rather like that, far from the madding crowd. Come visit sometime! We love visitors and are always open to retreats and client sessions here in Whidbey Island.

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Wishing You Joy-

Janis Machala

Executive Coach, Business Coach

Cell: (425) 260-5354

janis@ janismachala.com/????

https://janismachala.com/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/janismachala/