My Top 7 Inputs of 2020

What a year!

Something-something Zoom fatigue.

Is it 2021 yet?

Unprecedented.

And now, having scratched the itch of Obligatory Buzzwords and Phrases to Write About in a Year Like This, I’d like to participate in another key end-of-the-year ritual: the items that led to personal discovery and paths of growth.

So as per tradition, here are my favorite inputs of 2020: “The year that…was.”

Let’s go!

1. A Good Apology: Four Steps to Making Things Right

by Molly Howes, PhD

Why does saying “I’m sorry” never work on its own? Why do we see apologizing as a sign of weakness? How can we go beyond “I'm sorry” to truly heal wounds, and most importantly, ourselves?

In our society, and particularly in the workplace, apologies rarely happen, and when they do, they're often not done well. This is because we don't always see the value in apologizing, it's hard, and we lack a proper framework for it. 

Enter: this book. From many years of counseling and seeing what does and doesn’t work, Molly presents a strong framework for apologies, fitted with examples of things to say in each step. With sensitive situations, it’s incredibly helpful to know what to say and what not to. (I saved a lot of these examples for later use.) Also, I love how she explains that you don’t always need to take the blame in order to apologize, which is something I've always wrestled with.

Read it here.

2. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

by Cal Newport

"There aren't many silver bullets in life, but time-blocking is definitely pretty close." —Tim Mackie

Have you ever read a book that actually (and immediately) changed everything about the way you work? Me, neither — until this one. 

After reading Digital Minimalism last year, I was excited to dig into Cal's findings on how to get away from the low-value, shallow work of responding quickly to endless emails, Slack, etc., and getting realigned to producing more thoughtful work of real value.

This led me to implement time-blocking, shutdown rituals, and tallying deep work hours into my schedule — all of which have been a massive game-changer.

The Principle of Least Resistance: “In a business setting, without clear feedback on the impact of various behaviors to the bottom line, we will tend toward behaviors that are easiest in the moment." —Cal Newport

Read it here.

3. Ann Handley's Newsletter: Total Ann-archy

I have likely subscribed to hundreds of marketing newsletters. While I’ve truly hoped for the best, I typically end up with low-value content inbox clutter, until Gmail one day tells me, "You have never opened an email from this email, shall we unsubscribe, hmm?”

But having said that, I’ve been following the phenomenal Ann Handley since I attended the Confab Content Strategy Conference back in 2014. I’m pretty certain we share the same sense of humor, and I love her passion for helping others escape writing and marketing mediocrity. I strongly believe her book "Everybody Writes" should be required reading for any marketer.

Her newsletter drops every other Sunday, and I always look forward to seeing what writing tips, killer marketing/writing frameworks, and insightful articles she's included. It helps me get excited about the work week ahead and it offers me great suggestions to share and test with my team. You can tell Ann truly cares and invests deeply in this newsletter — each installment usually includes a personal story or reflection that authentically connects to marketing or writing strategies.

Subscribe to her newsletter here.

4. Robinhood Snacks Daily Podcast

by Nick Martell and Jack Kramer

Often, we hear the same recycled stories across our choice of daily newsletter/podcasts — but Daily Snacks heads off in a different direction, doing their own digging on investment-oriented content and making it extremely understandable and millennial-friendly.

Robinhood Snacks is one of my most impactful daily knowledge investments. For about the length of your morning walk/run/phone scroll, you can listen to a well-orchestrated (and clever) podcast from two incredibly smart guys about business and financial news. And you'll probably laugh…a lot.

Remember: Guac is always extra, Chicago does logistics, Debra always has two pumps, and the best metric of financial measurement is a Lyft. (If you know, you know.)

Listen here.

5. At the Table Podcast

by Patrick Lencioni and the Table Group

When I first heard what it cost to hire a leadership consultant, my jaw dropped — and stayed ajar for hours. As I've grown in my own leadership role, I’ve quickly learned that 80% of the situations I face as a leader require nuanced thought more than quick, easy answers — making it incredibly important to have strong guiding and decision-making principles. And it’s an intuition that takes years to develop and hone.

My leadership team at work read The Advantage by Pat, and soon after I started following him and his team's weekly leadership podcast. Each episode is only around 20-30 minutes and is very conversational in tone. 

I really can't get over how incredibly helpful this podcast is—it is like having coffee with a table of leadership gurus, all for free. And it has helped me navigate loads of conversations and has inspired me to action in a few different areas.

Some of my favorite episodes:

• Don't Make Me Repeat Myself
• Politics Suck
• Don't Be A Cowardly Manager
• Let the Haters Hate
• Why Your CEO Doesn't Get It

Listen here.

6. Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

by Danny Meyer

"Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel. Service is a monologue - we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on a guest's side requires listening to that person with every sense, and following up with a thoughtful, gracious, and appropriate response. It takes both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top." —Danny Meyer

After listening to Danny Meyer (founder of Shake Shack and an amazing restaurateur) on the How I Built This podcast (link here), I immediately shared it with my co-worker Mike McDonald, who has started and run dozens of restaurants across the U.S. and Canada. He recommended Danny's book, which he gave as required reading to all of his employees when he was in the industry. 

This isn't your normal get-to-business book — there are no comprehensive surveys, expert quotes, or case studies. It's simply a story about how Danny accomplished what he did, how his childhood and influences shaped his guiding principles, and what he learned along the way.

Another key quote from Danny: "The smartest people in business don’t have the least amount of problems - they have an endless amount of problems, but they surround themselves with amazing, intelligently curious people to solve them with.”

Read it here.

7. You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life

by Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Rebecca Gladding 

A co-worker reaches out to you in the middle of the day, seeking your help on a medium-sized work issue that doesn't seem time-sensitive, but a task they’re intent on completing quickly. Do you drop everything you're doing in order to help them, or do you take a step back after hearing it's not deadline-driven? Would you succumb to the urgency, or do you reply with a more realistic timeline on when you can complete the task, and get back to your previous work?

Before I read this book, this self-identified Enneagram 2 (also known as The Helper, in all its people-pleasing glory) would’ve given in to these demands. I knew this was killing my productivity, but that was the only approach I was familiar with, and this particular instinct would kick in whenever someone asked for assistance.

After reading this book, I took active steps to "starve" these particular deceptive brain messages and conquer the cognitive biases that held me back from succeeding in a few areas, including impulsive work notification checking. Everything in the book comes down to four steps:

Relabel: Identify your deceptive brain messages and the uncomfortable sensations; call them what they really are.

Reframe: Change your perception of the importance of the deceptive brain messages; say why these thoughts, urges, and impulses keep bothering you: they are false brain messages.

Refocus: Direct your attention toward an activity or mental process that is wholesome and productive -- even while the deceptive brain messages are still bothering you.

Revalue: Clearly see the thoughts, images, and impulses for what they are — simply sensations caused by deceptive brain messages that aren't true and have little to no value.

To summarize: the key to making life changes is consciously choosing to deprive the unhealthy brain circuits of attention, thereby decreasing their influence and strength, i.e. self-directed neuroplasticity.

Read it here.

That’s a wrap for this year’s inputs — only terribly remixed Christmas tunes and Elf from this moment out. 

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Also, let me know if you end up checking any of these out — I’d love to know your big takeaway.