Magic Triangles
? Sue Tinnish, PhD
Empowering Leadership & Growth | Executive Coach | Vistage Chair | Peer Group Facilitator
Welcome to the?MAD?newsletter - for C-level Executives who want to?Make?A?Difference - in themselves and their organizations. Highlights this week:? #QuestioningSkills,?#WFH,?#Culture and more.
In this Issue:
A Magic Triangle?
The US Navy Seals have a saying:??“Fast is slow….slow is fast.”?Leaders want success quickly, but in their haste for a short route to a win, they may find that key questions that might have assured victory could not find a footing. Consequently, better opportunities are overlooked, and significant risk factors not identified.?
This short article from Strategy+Business notes that?‘’’…successful leaders love questions: it’s because asking, listening to, and answering other people’s questions makes them better leaders. Indeed, there is a methodology, derived from six ideas from great thinkers, for harnessing the power of questions that can help leaders make better decisions and be more empathetic and purpose driven.?I call it the magical question triangle”
Explore the?“Six Reasons That Successful Leaders Love Questions”?and check out the “Magic Triangle” of questions.
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Easy Listening
I’m a reader but I know many prefer to get their information differently. For example, podcasts. I, too, enjoy podcasts and do devote time to listening especially while commuting, walking, etc.??
Vistage offers a podcast series for business leaders. The latest one just dropped.?JEM Group President & Owner Jessica Meyers shares how increasing diversity has helped her women-led company raise the bar in the construction industry.?
Here’s the list; with a link for?easy listening.??
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Work from Elsewhere: A Deeper Dive
The past two issues have included commentary by WSJ columnist and Reagan Speechwriter Peggy Noonan on?The Great Resignation?and?The Lonely Office(both highly recommended if you missed either).?This week, Dr. Scott Galloway in his “No Mercy, No Malice Blog”?provides a deeper dive with data links on WFH.
He writes ”If you’re an employer,?the office is your primary tool for facilitating culture.?Holiday parties and post-work drinks aren’t sunk costs —?they’re investments in happiness, innovation, and relationships. The greatest driver of retention is if someone has a good friend at their workplace. Without a workplace, your employees have fewer points of contact.?Sixty percent?of remote workers say WFH makes them feel less connected to their colleagues.”
领英推荐
This is a long article, but in my opinion required reading for those who want to manage?the new remote reality.??There are also a number of links in the article to some interesting research on remote work.
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Tails, You Win
“Venture capital is a tail-driven business. Make 100 investments, and almost all of your return will come from five of them; most of your return from one or two.”?So begins a brief but profound posting on Morgan Housel’s “Collaborative Fund” site.?Turns out that “long tails” characterize a lot of other things in life besides venture capital.?
Take a moment for this short article?Tails, You Win?and the wisdom of “failing well” plus some links to other interesting articles for every C-Level executive.?A takeaway from that is that no matter what you’re doing, you should be comfortable with a lot of stuff not working.??
Housel’s book??“The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed and happiness” is a must read for anyone about the “what and why” of your financial life, which will help you make better choices on the “who and how” of a financial plan.
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Where are the Kids?
At the end of World War II,?a grateful America offered returning members of the armed forces free or subsidized college education under the GI Bill and ever since, parents have urged their children to pursue a college education and mostly the kids went….until now.?There are now 4 million fewer college students than t0 years ago.?This is an alarming demographic and economic metric…plus, as discussed on CNN’s “Smerconish” this past Saturday,?
I honestly don’t think college is the only avenue (see JEM’s CEO’s comments on how she pitches her company to young people).?However, depending on your business and employee base, this trend may be worth understanding.?Check out this executive summary:?Alarming Decline in H.S. Grads going to College.
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Econ Recon
GDP versus the Economy:???We hear that 2 quarter of GDP means a recession.?What does this really mean and what should you do about?.??ITR Economics’ Brian Beaulieu has a few suggestions;
Major Layoffs at Major Companies:??One of the characteristics of the economy during the past two years has been supply chain disruptions in goods, services and people.?Many companies stocked up on inventory due to fear of supply chain issues. Numerous companies, especially large ones, hired as many employees as they could, resulting in record low unemployment.?These same companies have now found themselves over-stocked and over-hired.??This graphic from Visual Capitalist highlights major layoffs at major companies?with a few comments from CEOs of these firms.?(This doesn’t necessarily imply a recession, but it may help middle market companies, like those in Vistage, a more hopeful perspective.)
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Sue Tinnish, PhD,?Vistage Chair & Executive Coach, 847.404.7325,?[email protected], Twitter:??@STinnish, LinkedIn:??www.dhirubhai.net/in/suetinnish, Website:??https://vistage.com/chairs/sue.tinnish
Founder & CEO at ProCFO Partners
2 年Sue Tinnish, PhD, the questions article reminded me of the Voltaire quote: "Judge a man by his questions, rather than his answers." A great reminder of the impact and importance of questions and a framework to think about their effectiveness.
Vistage Master Chair | Executive Coach | CEO Peer Advisory Board Facilitator | Helping CEOs become significantly more successful while working fewer hours so that they can enjoy their lives, businesses, and families.
2 年So much great information. Love the question triangle and Einstein "Questioning makes us better problem solvers"...Spot on!
Helping high-ticket B2B service businesses close MORE deals FASTER at HIGHER PRICES using First-Time Offers that will break your cash register. ?? Podcast Host ?? Multi Best-Selling Author
2 年"Leaders want success quickly, but in their haste for a short route to a win" - I have a mentor that calls these types of folks Twitchy Little Bastards. And he doesn't work with them.
>> Leadership and the Art of Possibility | The Momentum Framework
2 年I went deep on the "Question Triangle" ??? Some of my top takeaways: >> Develop an inquiry driven culture. >> Only humans ask questions. Empathy is crucial. >> No questions, no change. Thank you for some mental nutrition this morning Sue Tinnish, PhD
Story Strategist | Showing leaders how to persuade with power through the art of strategic storytelling | Workshops for CEOs, VPs, and sales professionals
2 年”If you’re an employer,?the office is your primary tool for facilitating culture.?Holiday parties and post-work drinks aren’t sunk costs —?they’re investments in happiness, innovation, and relationships. The greatest driver of retention is if someone has a good friend at their workplace. Without a workplace, your employees have fewer points of contact.?Sixty percent?of remote workers say WFH makes them feel less connected to their colleagues.” That's a really good point, Sue Tinnish, PhD, and a challenge that leaders will need to be creative with for quite some time. 100% WFH, hybrid model, or forced 100% in office. It's been an interesting few years and will continue to be.