Leaders Are Readers -- March 2024
APPLIED AI & ANALYTICS
Often the speed of technological advancement significantly outpaces rules and regulations aimed at protecting consumers. This article highlights the same goes for advancing AI. Generally speaking, I'm a laissez faire free-marketeer who thinks there are sound and sensible policies (if not Law) that are good for protecting consumers and citizenry. I do want my data protected and would very much like options and opportunities to either opt-in or opt-out of various data collection efforts. For example, while in the market for a new item (car, watch, whatever), I tend to do a fair amount of research. I am loyal to certain brands where I have found product quality and value to be good. For other consumer items, I'm looking for the best value, thus the research. What is a little frustrating is when I'm using digital technologies?to undertake and understand my research, very quickly my Facebook feed and personal email is filled with like adverts. The volume is distracting, and also a little concerning just how much Google, Microsoft, Google, and others are tracking me, even when using a VPN or opting out of ads. Here, I would like some sound oversight that balances between Draconian and nothing. Of course, that's usually the challenge. I don't need to be protected from seeing car advertisements, I just don't want to have to opt out of every manufacturer (and dealer!) in the US just to more easily see the pet posts on Facebook... :)?I digress. The following piece peeks at some of the ongoing, and emerging legal oversight efforts.?Privacy and AI policies to watch in 2024 - WorkLife
Following is a fairly lengthy piece, which is the first of what will be three connected articles. The interactives help distill what, at least for me, was a little challenging to follow as I'm not a true technophile. At Gartner, we often share the "hype cycle" with our clients to help manage expectations about what, when, and how technology can currently do, and what it is projected to do at some point. Additionally, it addresses the "silver bullet" thinking. If we buy this bright shiny thing, it will solve for all these issues or challenge, or at least that goes the thinking at times. Near the end of this article, we read "Lighthouses?avoid the trap of investing in technology for its own sake, instead ensuring that every use case presents clear business value. Paradoxically, they’ve surged ahead by taking a patient, measured approach—typically between ten and 20 months for use case implementation, with an ROI period of approximately two and a half years. This takes patience and a steady hand, but the returns are worth it. Lighthouses’ 4IR use cases have averaged between two and three times ROI within three years and between four and five times ROI within five years." (emphasis mine). I am an early adopter and know in my own thinking through AI and applications to the Air and Space Forces, I often wanted to lean out and try emerging capabilities to see where we could lead the Department of Defense in the Human Resources environments. Had to temper being enamored with what could be, when what was may have not been quite as advertised.?Adopting AI at speed and scale: The 4IR push to stay competitive | McKinsey
Most of my current clients are pushing hard into Generative AI. Reviewing strategic plans across their respective organizations, AI is everywhere all at once. While leaders are still learning about what AI can actually do now and ongoing development for future application, many are being pressed by boardrooms and other C-suiters to "get some of that working". Just prior to reading this piece, I was meeting with colleagues where AI, of course, came up. The thrust was about finding comparative advantages that may fuel better ROI for companies, and also where can human output either be enhanced (my personal preference) or replaced (a practical reality for the routine and repetitive things a human need not do). As this piece points out, organizations may need a reset or rewiring for how to achieve AI-related value this year. One of the key highlighted areas centers of data quality and making use of unstructured data. Prior to retiring from the Air Force, we were undertaking a full-scale "data clean-up" for the Human Resources area I led. The sheer amount of just the structured data that we needed to clean put?us on a one-year plan and pathway to confirm as valid. Independent of that undertaking, my confidence level in helping the senior most leaders make data- and risk-informed decisions would not have been at my target tolerance level. Then, the unstructured data. Most, probably all, organizations, public or private, have enormous amounts of data structured and unstructured data that isn't being used to inform better decision-making. I'm far from an AI expert, but I think I've learned enough over the past couple years to easily echo those who think the organizations that best analyze and apply their data, win.?A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value in 2024 | McKinsey
The linked report here is from last summer, and we may have reviewed it previously. Provides a quick snapshot of AI's economic potential. Whether or not these prognostications come true remains to be seen, but clearly the economic benefit will be greater than zero and think we have already seen some of the accelerating pace since this piece was published.?Economic potential of generative AI | McKinsey
This last piece in this month's Applied AI & Analytics section is a quick-reading interview that addresses: "For digital and AI transformations to succeed, companies need to understand the problems they want to solve and rewire their organizations for continuous innovation."? One need not be an AI expert or technologist to grasp the details provided herein.?How to succeed in digital and AI transformations | McKinsey
BOOKSHELF
First up is a book that I had the opportunity to read while still in draft last year. The Safety Effect: Empower Yourself. Support Your Team. Inspire Your Organization by David Moerlein. Published just after the first of this year, and with additional and edited material, re-read it and posted my review and recommendations on Amazon. Here's what I shared there and with the author. "As a psychological safety practitioner myself, I found Dave's book well researched and written. He blends deep and deliberate information and insights about what psychological safety is with how it can be applied to any and all organizations. Drawing from more than a decade of appreciating and applying the core concepts to his own leadership engagement at Google, this book shares excellent examples of both what he learned about the subject and how to harness it to achieve greater organizational outcomes.?Dave beautifully blends scholarly analysis with clear illustrations of what this looks like in application. While he writes this is not a "how to guide", the reader cannot help coming away with a deeper understanding of how to actually achieve "the safety effect". From within the pages, Dave writes; "Emotions are like a cold or flu, often accidentally and unknowingly transferring to those around us." That is a very powerful image that gets to the heart of the subject matter.?If we condition ourselves to curate and create a psychologically safe home or work environment, the care contagion will be caught. Highly recommend this to anyone seeking an understanding of this subject and how to, as the sub-title imparts, "empower yourself, support your team, and inspire your organization".?
CREATIVE COMMENTARY
Liner notes from the linked resource: "As news headlines proliferate about what today’s employees want from work and how much organizations can expect from their people, purpose is emerging as a critical success factor. Purpose in leadership supports improved individual and organizational outcomes.
Purpose-driven leadership means helping employees find personal meaning in their work and fostering a deeply committed workforce that thrives on shared goals and aspirations. Purpose-driven leaders model value-based decision-making, take time to learn what truly matters to their employees, connect work to a greater objective, and help employees understand their organization’s mission and find ways to personally connect to it.?But purpose, just like organizational culture change, doesn’t thrive without intentional effort. To create a sustainable culture of purpose-driven leadership, managers must embody and promote a sense of purpose in their leadership, daily operations, and decision-making."
I think much of this ties to the Employment Value Proposition. Over the past several years, have seen first-hand how much more important EVP is to an employer's overall success, and of course, the sense of support and loyalty coming from employees. About three years ago, I had a conversation with one of the former NASA Administrators. As we were building cultural anchors into the budding US Space Force, I wanted to understand how he moved the culture at NASA into a better "orbit" (pun intended ...). It was a great conversation, and he was fully sharing what and how he drove an updated, and improved, culture. He was a purpose-driven leader. One thing he deliberately did was to weave organizational outcomes, and values, into performance and developmental management. Prior to that, NASA teammates really weren't evaluated on things that connected to the "bigger picture" in clear and connected ways. As this piece points out, one of the two keys to success was, he wove organizational mission, vision, and values into his communications, while also evaluating how teammates were advancing those same areas in daily performance. Not really novel to long-time leaders and leadership practitioners, rather, a powerful reminder of how important these actions and activities are! Walk the Talk, and Measure for Impact!?Purpose in Leadership: Why & How | CCL
ELEVATE
Couple short notes here and both have me in full agreement with Robert. First, yes, choosing seats on airlines has devolved into some sort of frustrating sport, even when one has mileage status. And second, yes, when something small and annoying happens to us, choose to let first feelings move from boiling to simmer to cool before doing or saying something that isn't necessary.?
In The Face of Small Annoyances, Choose Kindness by Robert Glazer (published on 4 Mar 2024)
Last Saturday, my son and I were boarding a flight to Boston at the end of a vacation. During the flight, I was looking forward to continuing a lively discussion we’d had for the previous hour on the way to the airport.?
We had chosen our reserved seats months ago, deciding to each sit on the aisle across from each other. There is an unspoken rule among frequent flyers: you should only ask someone to change seats with you if they are flying alone and you are offering a seat that is better or the same—for example, trading an aisle for an aisle, a window for a window or offering an aisle seat and taking the middle seat in return.?
This unspoken rule has become more relevant in recent years, as paid or premium seat upgrades have made seat trading more complicated. Everyone has their own preferences and can select accordingly as part of their purchase; many discount tickets intentionally exclude preassigned seating. Plane seat selection has become akin to buying tickets to a concert or sporting event, where it would be very awkward to ask to change seats as it’s understood that you purchased a specific seat and paid accordingly.?
On our flight last week this unspoken rule was put to the test. As it happened, there was a family that was separated in the seating process—two young kids were sitting to my son’s left, their mother and another younger child were in the row in front of them, and their father was seated in the window seat two seats over from me.
Upon hearing the father asking my son to switch, I jumped in to clarify that my son and I were traveling together. While the father was very nice about it and said it would be fine either way, he did not withdraw his request upon realizing that he was asking us to separate. I told my son it was his choice—he seemed reluctant, but as a thoughtful kid he did what he felt was right and switched seats with the father.
For my part, I was annoyed that the father even asked; as he was essentially asking us to split up so he could be with his kids. I also couldn’t help but wonder whether he had accepted free upgraded seats to Comfort-Plus knowing that his family would not be together, which he could have declined.
I stewed about this for the first hour of the flight. Eventually, I realized it just wasn’t worth it to stay annoyed.
While I still believed the father should have withdrawn his request to switch once he realized my son and I were traveling together, it was an opportunity to make a small sacrifice for someone else’s benefit.
And of course, maybe the seating separation wasn’t the father’s fault. For all I know, the airline messed up his seats, or cancelled his flight and moved him onto ours. Plus, my son is 18, and the father’s kids looked much younger—around 8 or 10.
Rather than continuing to feel frustrated, I accepted that my son had done a nice thing that didn’t really cost us that much. This was validated when the father thanked my son again for switching seats as we exited the plane.
In the end, I wasted an hour of my life being annoyed at the end of a great week of quality time with my son. The situation was a reminder that some battles just aren’t worth fighting and most minor annoyances aren’t worth getting worked up over. It’s fine to believe you are right, but that doesn’t mean you need everything to always go your way.
When small annoyances crop up, it’s often best to keep perspective, choose kindness, and move forward.
Quote of The Week:?“Choose your battles wisely. After all, life isn't measured by how many times you stood up to fight. It's not winning battles that makes you happy, but it's how many times you turned away and chose to look into a better direction.” - C Joybell ?
HARVARD YARD
In some respects, this first piece as we walk around the Yard connects to Elevate above. We choose how we respond to small annoyances (well, large ones as well). Understanding these small things, if we allow them to aggregate, become big things. We all face work stresses, even when we are in great environments, doing work we enjoy, and around great teammates. Similar to things in our personal relationships and lives; don't let them build to boiling points. This short piece offers a few recommendations to keep small things small and release them at the right levels and times.
Combat Microstresses at Work by Rob Cross
Microstresses are small stresses from routine interactions—they’re often so brief we barely even register them. Individually, they might seem manageable, but cumulatively they take an enormous toll. How can you combat them??
Start small. Commit to tackling one small, easy-to-address microstress a week for the first two weeks to build confidence, a different mindset, and a sense of agency. Don’t focus on the bigger (and more difficult and entrenched) stressors that can keep you from acting on ones you can control.?
Shift your attention to positive interactions. Having people in your life who provide perspective, envision a path forward, offer help, create space to unplug, or make you laugh can have a dramatic impact on your resilience.?
Pay attention to how your concern for others is affecting you. When people we care about are struggling, it can cause us anxiety, worry, and pain. Think about how you can reshape these interactions in a more positive way.???
Finally, focus on what gives you a sense of purpose. Researchers found that the happiest people put some of their microstress in perspective by making time for meaningful activities outside of their work and family lives.
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As Leaders, we all well know how our communication styles and strategies either fuel or frustrate our teams. Connected to the first walking piece above, our lack of intention can lead to microstresses for our team members. Master of the obvious, one clear way we can avoid adding to others' stressors is being intentional about our voice and how we use it to value them.?
Amid Uncertainty, Communicate with Intention by Liz Fosslien
Times of uncertainty or tension are ripe for miscommunication. To avoid making things worse, you need to be especially thoughtful about how you communicate with your team. Here are some common mistakes to avoid—and what to do instead.
Focusing too much on the future. While you need to direct your team’s attention to the road ahead, don’t forget to recognize small wins along the way. Set aside time in your one-on-ones and team meetings to discuss what went particularly well over the past week, month, or quarter.
Failing to provide context. You can’t always share everything you know with your team. But you can make yourself available, be transparent, and communicate frequently with them. Remember, your silence speaks volumes, especially when the future feels up in the air.
Highlighting only successes and ignoring challenges. Focusing only on your team’s achievements might make them feel better, but this can send the message that the path to success is always error-free. Acknowledge the obstacles along the way by asking questions like, “What difficulties came up during this project?”
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One of our Readers shared a story with me a year or more ago. Won't name him here to protect the innocent because I don't recall the name of the other involved person and don't want to create any microstressors in sharing publicly without them agreeing first! In short, these two leaders were tasked with a couple different, but connected projects. Neither was thrilled about the area they were leading and weren't energized or engaged at what now was just a "task". When I read the following notes about how to share leadership, that story flooded back to me because these two leaders undertook several of the steps shared here. They shared something of themselves, asked for advice from one another, developed a shared ambition (outcome), established responsibilities, and supported one another. By starting with sharing (read -- communicating!) At first, they discovered each was better suited to lead the portion the other had been tapped to lead. They swapped out, followed the other components recommended in this piece and success resulted with satisfaction and happiness for both and the boss!
How to Share a Leadership Position by David Lancefield
Co-leadership can result in creative problem-solving and wise decision-making. But when a leadership position is shared between two people, it can also lead to unhealthy competition. If you’re co-leading a team, department, or organization, how can you set up your partnership for success??
Share something of yourself. Build trust by sharing something from your professional experience, your successes and failures, or your family background to help you get to know each other on a personal level.?
Ask them for advice. This shows vulnerability, your receptiveness to alternative perspectives, and your trust in the other person.?
Develop a shared ambition. Initiate a conversation about your vision, then address any misalignments and work toward common ground.?
Establish responsibilities—and a process to handle problems or disagreements. Be thorough, even if it’s uncomfortable. Doing this work at the beginning of the relationship will help you avoid a power struggle down the line.?
Lean on trusted people for counsel. Find colleagues and mentors you can approach for guidance on nurturing the relationship and resolving difficult situations.?
Proactively support your co-leader. Speak up in meetings to publicly signal your agreement with your co-leader. This shows others that you’re working as a cohesive unit.
领英推荐
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Think this applies no matter where or how we work. Over many years now, I have blocked time on my calendar to read, to recharge, and to just create some space between meetings or engagements. Starting my Chapter Two career have also carried over the practice of having thinking time on the calendar. While it isn't always used to "be strategic or deeply contemplative", having that time available does afford me space to think when needed, catch-up on things needing more attention, and also help me avoid schedule overload (avoiding microstressors!). At the end of my workdays, I also block 30 minutes to complete administrative tasks. Most days, I use that correctly, other days where my brain is more fatigued, it doesn't get used for that purpose. One thing I appreciate about my new role is that our scheduled client communication time is set for 45 minutes vice 60 minutes. I'm finding this practice pushes our focus more to use the available minutes, and also builds in some time if we tend to schedule things right on top of one another, back-to-back, most days.? Rebecca provides some additional tips below:
Make a Habit of Taking Short Breaks During the Workday by Rebecca Zucker
Productivity is a matter of optimizing your energy, not just your time. And taking regular breaks—even short ones—is an essential way to sustain your capacity to get things done. These strategies can help you be more disciplined about making breaks a habit.?
Block time for communication. It can be tempting to use the spare minutes between meetings to quickly respond to emails or DMs. Instead, try blocking out specific times to respond to messages—and use those spare minutes to take a pause.??
Trim meetings down. Meeting durations tend to be either 30 or 60 minutes. Instead, shift your default to either 15 or 45 minutes. Then use the remaining time before your next meeting to get up from your desk, stretch, or grab a snack.
Enforce hard stops. When you state up front that you have to leave at the end of the booked time period, you set a clear expectation and protect your free time.?
Schedule breaks—and set reminders. Block short breaks on your calendar when you know your energy is at its lowest. Having a reminder pop up on your computer or phone can help you hold yourself accountable.
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Hat tip to one of my Gartner teammates for sharing this next piece (thank you Debbie Lynch!). This directly connected to the first piece in our Walk this month. Many of our clients, maybe all of them, report how sapped and zapped their teammates "all" seem to be. Whether it is Pandemic and post-Pandemic pressures, or the seemingly ever-increasing pace of everything (personal and professional), or something just out there in the atmosphere that seems to be piling pressures on our shoulders, there are ways to help address the accumulating efforts of stresses testing and trying us. From within the piece, the five recommendations are: 1) Start small; 2) Shift your attention to positive interactions that help create resilience; 3) Tackle two bigger microstresses; 4) Pay attention to areas that create anxiety because of your concern for other people; and 5) Finish by pivoting to activities that help you derive a greater sense of purpose. Each area covers ideas for how to effectuate actions under each of the five areas.?5 Ways to Deal with the Microstresses Draining Your Energy (hbr.org)?
MEDIUM MUSINGS
Because "mullet" is in the title, and I'm seeing more and more of them out in public again, I was drawn to this article. So, yes, it doesn't take much to "squirrel" me at times. This piece pours into the cultural importance of our documents. In this ever-present digital age, documents are part of our organizational data and DNA. Interesting concepts I hadn't really considered previously. Documentation, of course, is important in any and all organizations. I know, that is obvious, but do we really think about the cultural implications of our documents? When exploring organizational maturity, it becomes crystal clear just how important documentation really is. Here, I don't mean writing policies for posterity, rather really understanding and acknowledging the importance of records, documents, details. In this regard, how we write things are every bit as important of what we actually write into each of our documents. Policies, standard operating procedures, even informational memos to teammates. They should be organizational outcome focused, with attention paid to tone, tenor, and temper. In short, business in the front (content, context) and party in the back (understanding and incorporating cultural ascpects and anchors).?Documents in a Data Mullet. Why Business Culture has to be part of… | by Steve Jones | Feb, 2024 | Medium (metamirror.io)
One thing I really like about the writer's thoughts here is that the three things shared speak to me. They also highlight, whether he intended this, are things that Leaders must do and do well. These activities are predicates for achieving, and in my view, necessary good habits. The author shares the three as: 1) Reflect and Plan, 2) Communicate and Align, 3) Make Decisions. In another piece, which is referenced and linked within this one, he writes about what he thinks are the six skills needed to be a strategic leader. Note: while he suggests these are for strategic leaders, the same apply to leaders executing daily missions all the way to the C-Suite and back. I may be misreading here, but I don't think he is using "strategic" in the sense this is only Leaders at the top of an organization. Think he means the implementation of one of the definitions of strategic; "carefully designed or planned to serve a particular purpose or advantage." In this application, being strategic is not what many Leaders think of as the layered separations between Strategic, Operational, and Tactical. Rather, he shares this as a way of thinking about how we work, rather than just those overarching "big things" that CEOs, COOs, CFOs, et al, think about and do.?3 Simple Actions Strategic Leaders Take Every Day | by Gaurav Jain | ILLUMINATION | Jan, 2024 | Medium
Absent reviewing relevant research detailing how many people routinely read things longer than screeds or feeds on social media platforms, I have no clue if we are no longer a "reading nation". Of course dear Readers, we read. That's what we do here! My wife did a great job raising kids that read. In practice, my son probably covers more material than I do on a weekly basis. He is truly a voracious reader, doesn't spend all that much time on social media, and self-limits his online time in very good ways. My father gave the same gift to me. I read much more now that I did growing up, and my dad and I usually exchange books for our birthdays and have for many years. Having packed up all my worldly possessions every couple of years until recently, I know our moving crews were always looking at our total number of book boxes thinking, are we moving a library or someone's home?!?
SEED KORN
Didn't get much out of this piece, at least not what the title implies the Reader might ingest as insightful or interesting. The rules being "broken" here, seems to me, are routinely being broken in the most successful organizations, and have been for some time. Sure, the Return to Office piece is ubiquitous now because so many organizations are trying to figure out how to get teammates back into the office without them quitting. Offering a simple thought here, it is almost always acceptable to ask questions about "rules" or "norms" that seem dated, dull, or otherwise without much determinable sense. Leaders should encourage people to break things. Here, what I mean is, grant authorities for smart or calculated risk-taking. Now, I do not want pilots breaking rules that would negatively impact flight safety, so yes, not everything should be on the risk-taking or rule-breaking table. Rather, like encouraging play at the office, Leaders who open opportunities to break things, at least in my experience leading teams for decades, are often (not always) met with greater success. Why? Giving people permission to explore, experiment, and engage things from different positions very often leads to finding more effective ways of doing things. Breaking the "we've always done it" rule is the first highlighted in this piece. That one for certain is a rule organizations have been breaking for years upon years. What might be a little new or novel is ensuring you have replacement recommendations rather than simply questioning "why" One of my old commanders was fond of saying, "what got us here, won't get us there". Rules, again when they aren't about life, health, and safety, may have served an organization well for a time, but they aren't timeless in usefulness. What rules might you consider breaking to make your organizations better? I would love to hear shared thoughts.?5 Workplace ‘Rules’ to Consider Breaking—Now (kornferry.com)
When I was working through my military retirement, preparing for interviews in the private industry was one area of specific focus. I hadn't interviewed for a job since prior to entering the military. While I had "interviews" for a few Air Force and Department of Defense positions, the reality is, they were more perfunctory than purposeful for netting those positions. All the questions were in military context, and none of those interviewers asked the kinds of questions shared in this piece, let alone the "tell me your strengths and weaknesses". Frankly, I think those two questions are the most trite and terrible still being regularly asked. They are uninventive, and often don't result in useful responses. Instead, I like to ask "tell me what skills and competencies you?most command" and "on what skills and competencies are you working to improve and why are those important to you?" Yes, it is wise to be prepared for those strength and weakness questions, particularly the latter where people often respond with thoughtless things like "I work too hard" or "care too much". Not all that certain the six questions advanced here are "grueling", but they are good, and I can confirm these kinds of questions are being asked of my young adult, college-educated, daughter as she's been interviewed a fair amount in recent days as she pursues other opportunities. The Great Resignation-related question has been asked of her because like so many of her graduation class classmates, their last two undergraduate years occurred during the pandemic. Internships were very hard to come by in those formative years where they otherwise would have been available, and also graduating into poor economic and available position conditions, she and many of her classmates are "delayed" in their experiences. She's been prepared for those kinds of questions not blaming COVID as an excuse, rather turning it on its head sharing, "I cobbled a series of positions together during a challenging period, moving from one opportunity to another as they would help me gain experience applicable to this position for which I applied...". I plan on not interviewing for a new position anytime soon but know the importance of practice and purposeful preparation for interviews.?6 Grueling Job-Interview Questions to Get Through (kornferry.com)
I love this! Not the new Oscar being mentioned here. Don't really care about them and haven't watched the Academy Awards in decades. I love the premise here that Human Resource professionals who do much, if not most, of the heavy lifting for finding and filling our organizational vacancies, get "blamed" when those hires take too long, don't fit the bill, or are the wrong person. When are they celebrated for finding good and great hires?! One of the very, very best I've ever seen at hiring the right people is my old Space Force teammates, and one of our Readers, Ms. Christina "Chris" Parrett.?(3) Chris Parrett, PHR | LinkedIn. Except for one hire and recommendation of the many she both hired herself and recommended, only one wasn't good. If she were in the movie industry, she would win this Oscar!?And the Oscar Goes to: The CHRO! (kornferry.com)
STUDYING STOICISM
The opening line of the following piece is an understatement. Think I could write a volume, as all of our Readers could, about the past few years. Let's be real, maybe even raw; the COVID pandemic revealed the worst and the best in the people around us. Whether politicians, physicians, preachers and on, we went through some very trying times. I think I am at least a slightly improved version of myself as a result. I learned a lot about what I was actually capable of doing during those often?extraordinary (good and bad!) days. Longer time Readers read me revealing much about how we built the United States Space Force through the pandemic. It is an amazing story in any era, let alone one with the compounding challenges of a global pandemic which fundamentally affected how our work was, and still is being, accomplished. I have often shared that we build the Space Force largely on MS Teams or other digitally-enabled interfaces. Sometimes shared that the "first truly digital military Service, was in fact, built via digital communications and networks". We had incredible, insightful, and intelligent people doing that work. We believed in one another, and, by extension, we believed in our own capacity and capabilities.
"It’s been a rough couple years. Not just in the world, but for each of us. We’ve been dealing with projects that went sideways. We’ve been dumped.?We’ve been working nights and weekends. We’ve been sick. We’ve been screwed over. We’ve been trying everything to turn things around.
The regular person in us is frustrated by all this. But the Stoic in us knows that this is leading us, teaching us, shaping us. Seneca said that misfortune?toughens us up, forges us the way that fire tests gold. Epictetus said that life pairs us with these sparring partners for a reason—to turn us into Olympic-class material. And the Book of Romans says that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
The hope is really our sense of our capacity. It’s the confidence?that comes from being tested?and?passing?that test. It’s knowing that we really can wrestle with the toughest stuff that life can throw at us. Pandemics, the whiplash of the market, extreme weather events, political unrest, personal disasters, tragedy, heartbreak. We’ve been through it. We’re still here. We’ve suffered and that?suffering has produced character, character that gives us hope, gives us faith, gives us strength.
The?obstacles have been the way. They have produced something good. Something we can count on. Something we can believe in…our own capacity."
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Here, we again visit the concept of mental plasticity. We will, in fact, endure all manner of demands, difficulties, and dangers in life. The vast majority will never find themselves in jail, let alone enduring physical (or mental) torture. But, as we are all human, our experiences with others and in differing situations and stations, are going to be unpleasant. They may well wound us in a number of ways. How we respond is everything! The Stoics often share that while we cannot control what happens to us, how we respond is wholly up to us. In the following notes, we are reminded that our minds are the most powerful "muscle" we have, and we can remain in control of our minds in and under any condition.?
"The Stoics were thrown in jail.?They were exiled. They were sold as slaves and tortured. They were sent to prison camps. They were condemned to painful deaths.
This was because Rome was a cruel place. It’s also because the Stoics were not just active in war and political life but active dissidents—in one era of terrible emperors, a group of them was known as “The Stoic Opposition.” And this tradition of warrior Stoics continued up through and past Admiral Stockdale, who would test Epictetus’s doctrines in the prison camps of Vietnam (his book?Courage Under Fire?is a must read for any modern Stoic).
Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, all but predicted this would be the fate of the Stoics. “If you lay violent hands on me,” he said in 3rd century Greece, “you’ll have my body, but my mind will remain with Stilpo.” Stilpo was a Greek philosopher, meaning that you could torture Zeno, you could possess his body, but?you could never control his mind. He was saying a version of what we said recently—that the idea of Stoicism is?to?surrender but not give yourself away.
Isn’t that what Stockdale was doing? He submitted to his imprisonment because it was a physical fact of his existence. He accepted, perhaps a bit more realistically than the Stoics, that under torture, no man was fully unbreakable, that you would ultimately have to give some information up under duress. (We talked to one of his fellow POWs, Dave Carey, on the podcast?about just this idea.) But Stockdale still asserted that he had ultimate control of his thoughts, of his character, his sense of self. No one could take that from him and more important, he would never give it up.
The same is true for us here in our much cushier and thankfully, less cruel, world. Stuff can happen to us. Threats—or maybe incentives—can be leveled. We can find ourselves in places or positions we’d rather not be. Yet our minds remain our own,?we can remain fully focused?and committed to philosophy, to our values.
We can remain with Stilpo."
WINNERS WISDOM
Some of our Readers may remember me sharing about my own public speaking journey. While I am novice at best compared to Jim (we first met at a conference I attended where he was keynoting nearly two decades ago), and am neither a National Speakers Association member, or headlining anything of late, the person who most impacted how I deliver speeches, panel inputs, or podcasts I've done over the past 15+ years is my wife. Following a keynote I gave at a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony in Naples, FL (actually, was in Sep 2009), she said to me "I never want to see you do that again". It hurt as I put a lot into the research, the writing, the practice and preparation. I thought she was disappointed in what I had just delivered. Not at all. The content, the tone, the theme were good, she shared, the "problem" was, I essentially read it. From that day on, I have never again used notes during my time on a stage. Her point was, because you write all your own material and pour so much into it, you know the material, the meter, and the delivery method. You don't need to read them, just deliver what you already know! I don't memorize my writing verbatim, rather, I focus on key phrases, numbers, quotes, or other smooth transitional details to keep me on target. When I finish, only I know where I had mistakes and missed something I intended to cover. Usually, these are a few words here or there, or something with little to no impact to the resonance of my messaging. I am my own worst critic. Regardless, since that 2009 speech, I have been on stages dozens of times, delivering short- to long-speeches, commentaries, and other like engagements. It is all in the preparation and not reading allows me to engage the audience much more fulsomely and naturally. One day, I would like to be paid for public addresses. Perhaps sooner than later as I'm working on that!
Will Power by Jim Stovall
Approximately 35 years ago,?in 1988, I decided to pursue my passion for public speaking and become a professional convention and arena speaker. To accelerate my progress in this area, I became a member of the National Speakers Association, which is an organization designed to help professional speakers perfect their craft and learn the business. The NSA was founded in the early 1970s by a wonderful speaker named Cavett Robert,?who had been on the circuit for several decades. I learned much from Cavett Robert and all the speakers who were a part of the professional organization.?
Recently, one of my book publishers sent me an article written by Cavett Robert for?Success Unlimited Magazine?almost 50 years ago. I was interested because of my association with him, but I was especially interested when I discovered the title of the article was?Will Rogers’ Formula for Success.?Will Rogers was the focal point of my novel?Will to Win,?which is currently being turned into a major motion picture. I was fascinated to learn what one of my greatest mentors, Cavett Robert, had to say about one of his most significant influences, Will Rogers.?
In the article, Cavett Robert described his experience as a very young man attending a business luncheon in the mid-1930s and how excited he was to learn that the speaker that day would be Will Rogers. Cavett Robert was a wise man and an eloquent speaker. Will Rogers was also a wise man but a plain speaker. As reported by Cavett Robert, Will Rogers’s entire formula for success boiled down to a simple recipe:?“Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.”?
It is often easy to dismiss profound wisdom if it is delivered in a plain wrapper, but cutting-edge thought leaders like Will Rogers don’t need to sugarcoat the truth. Obviously, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can’t even begin. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you will be competing against people who do, and they will outperform you. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, you will quit when the going gets tough. These thoughts are as true now as they were a century ago when Will Rogers applied them to his own life,?enabling him to become one of the most accomplished and influential figures of the 20th?century.
It's good to seek wisdom from people you admire, but it is often even more powerful to seek the wisdom from those that others admire.?
As you go through your day today, experience the power of a simple message.
Today's the day!
WORKLIFE WISDOM
We have explored many articles about skills-based hiring, development, promotion, future placement on other talent management life-cycle considerations here. No apologies coming as we will continue consuming like content because it is so important. My opinion, I want to be clear, this isn't some peer-reviewed research rather my own observations and applied analysis based on deep experience, is that we've not only inflated degree requirements, we've conflated a piece of paper with ability (at least at times). Please allow me to elaborate before anyone's disagreement ire is unleashed! Somewhere along the way, our professional society decided that everyone needed to go to college. While there are any number of analyses that have shown, generally speaking, people with college degrees out-earn those without them over a lifetime, as with anything, context and appropriate comparison matters. Will a medical doctor likely earn far more over a working lifetime than an automobile mechanic? Yes. Does that negate the need for great mechanics, who will earn a fine living doing things we all need skilled people to do? Of course not. I have grown increasingly concerned about what I call "degree-flation". Having an undergraduate is no longer enough. One "must" have a graduate degree, or even a doctorate now, to be career competitive. Like medical physicians, I want my doctor to not only have the required educational and clinical experience before caring for me, I want them to have been best or near best in their class! The point I'm driving here, as someone with a graduate degree and additional graduate-level credentials, is that chasing paper doesn't make one actually good at things in application. I've encountered many people with advanced degrees who are, in practice, actually no better at their respective roles and responsibilities as teammates with fewer conferred degrees,?certifications, or other "important" credentials. This is the heart of skills-based hiring. Find people with the best skills, or develop them, instead of using degrees as proxies for actual abilities. I think college degrees are good things. But, not everyone needs one, not all degrees truly have applicable use or merit in the real world, and people often have far more capability and capacity than the framed degree, or lack thereof, actually imparts or indicates.?
Rather than just leave the Reader with the last piece and no, "what now", providing this piece to address how to think and go about recruiting if college degrees aren't the floor to consider candidates. For example, if seeking opportunities in the IT field, a computer science degree isn't sought on resumes, rather, what related certifications does the applicant have? Did they apprentice somewhere? Consider using an application-based interview. When going through the process to get hired into my current role, my fourth and final interview included a role-play, demonstrating and displaying at least some of the attributes Gartner sought in me.?If hiring candidates with no degrees, what should recruiters look for? - WorkLife
Many of our Readers shared, or warned, about how life was going to change after I retired from the Air Force and rejoined the private sector. One of the most notable areas was around health and being more deliberate about my physical fitness. During my last few years at the Pentagon, I was easily averaging 3 walking miles per day. On aerobic exercise days, that step count usually went double or more. Given how big the Pentagon is (17.5 miles of interior corridors) and the average round trip between the parking lot and my office being about 3/4 of a mile, it was easy to have really good step counts. Also used a standing desk and consumed a good amount of water every day as I walked past our water cooler at least six times every day. The encouragement to stay hydrated was unspoken as most everyone around me was carrying around a water container and sipping during meetings. Fitness is also part of the working requirements for uniformed members, so to say it was "easier" to maintain that part of a healthy lifestyle is an understatement. Also, given I was leading people during most of my 30-year career, there was a need to walk the talk. Now, working from home, and not walking nearly as much, I have been more deliberate not just about my scheduled time at the gym, I also usually take 20–30-minute walks at least once daily when it isn't an aerobic day. Part of my regime and routine is also being mindful about my water consumption. I seldom drink soda (or pop, depending on where you're from). Fruit juice is often just loaded with sugars, so I avoid those (excepting for whole fruits and veggies in my smoothies), and I don't do energy drinks, bottled coffees, or other off the shelf beverages. I do enjoy my adult BEvERages, but limit those as well. I rarely drink caffeine after noon; lunch is usually my "biggest" meal, I like using the daily fasting routine to help me be more thoughtful about when (and what) I'm eating, and since retiring from the military, getting 7-8 of sleep every night is way easier! Please don't think I'm the total example of health, rather this piece reminds me just like any other discipline in life, focusing on our health does pay dividends from our investment in it.?Nutrition experts advise how to plan a healthier work day - WorkLife?Sharing this additional piece about daily water consumption because I have read a number of things indicating that 8-12 glasses of water per day may not actually be as beneficial as we think. Too much water is a thing. Understanding our own body signals will help regulate staying hydrating and maintaining other health considerations.?How much water should I drink a day? - Harvard Health
Last month, Gartner hosted a Federal Roundtable, where I had the opportunity to engage senior HR leaders from across the Federal Government. One of the key areas we discussed was the additional pressures being placed on managers at many if not all levels. As the following piece details, in the past year, 64 percent of the people surveyed shared they have been tasked with more responsibilities. This tracks with Gartner research on the same subject. Not only are managers taking on more roles and responsibilities, many, if not most, receive them with no additional skilling support. As "job jars" get bigger, attending learning and development is often overlooked, or made too simple for appropriate application to these new-found responsibilities. During the aforementioned Roundtable, three specific skills were highlighted, Emotional Intelligence, Mindfulness (mental resilience pillar), and de facto Counselors. The latter may have long been there as teammates do confide in trusted managers quite often. In this specific context, it is that the number of teammates now seeking some manner of "coaching or counseling" from their managers is growing, and in some situations, significantly. I've read a good amount of research and analysis over the past several months imparting the same. Managers are doing more than in bygone days, development hasn't kept pace, and managerial burdens are burgeoning. Organizations best focused on upskilling and also finding ways to share these additional responsibilities, are much more likely to achieve more (lasting) success.?RTO, team conflicts, layoffs, mental health: more tough conversations are falling on middle managers - WorkLife. This piece also highlights some of that same Gartner research. Leaders at all levels should not only provide important developmental feedback (assuming they know how!) AND connect teammates to developmental resources and opportunities.?'Being a leader, I learned, is not easy': The employees who left middle management - WorkLife
Suppose this "contract" has long existed, though it wasn't known as a "psychological contract". Regardless of actual advent or new definitional emergence, the heart of this contract is essential to achieving best outcomes both for the organization and the people comprising it. Yes, it is of course the case that very few people in the current workforce, and those joining in the years to come, will not find the same bargain my parents' generation experienced. Meaning, my young adult children are highly unlikely to stay with the same employer for decades. Those kinds of places do still exist, but they are the outlier, no longer the norm. This isn't an indictment of today's environment at all, rather, organizations must live up to their Value Propositions. It is the leaders and managers who fail at this. I know many younger workers who are being managed by people who are terrible at holding up their end of this contract. It appears to me this breach is the norm rather than the exception. There are some great organizations living up to this, like where I currently work. I know that is a blessing and part of what I do is try to help organizations live up this contract. What does hearten me is that every one of my clients is working to maintain (or make) this contract valid, viable, and valuable in both directions.?WTF is a psychological contract with your employer? - WorkLife
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Lead and Lead On!
Shawn