Week 21.48 Love Is All There Is

The recent release of Lyrics, the new autobiography by Paul McCartney, edited by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and poet Paul Muldoon is an amazing testament to one of the most significant bodies of work to influence pop culture in modern times. His contributions to, his participation in and his observation of the Beatles experience, as seen through the lyrics of the songs, is a monumental feat. The wonderful interviews that further illuminate this amazing period in world history are extraordinary.

Underneath so much of the McCartney, the story is the power of love. Obviously, love was a big feature of so many of the Beatles songs (far too many to even begin to list). As important was the power of love to bring the band together, hold them together, and ultimately, necessitate them to break up. In interview after interview, you can hear the genuine fondness for McCartney for his former bandmates how they worked their way through the trials and tribulations of unprecedented stardom. How he and Lennon relied so heavily on growing up together, and how important it was to bring the other two band members in with love and respect. And he speaks lovingly if wistfully, of how John Lennon had to leave the band to pursue his interests that were diverging from the Beatles, in large part because of his love for Yoko Ono. In life and leadership success follows the love of the people we have to opportunity to interact with.

Jim Collins, writing about Frances Hesselbein in June of 2002 quotes her "leadership is much less about what you do and much more about who you are... if your leadership flows first and foremost from inner character and integrity of ambition, then you can justly ask people to lend themselves to your organization and its mission." (Hesselbein on Leadership) Alan Mulally, reflected on Frances' inspiring question "what do you see when you look out the window that is visible but not seen by others?" and came up with the following response. "When you discover what is important to you and do that at work and in your actions and you will find that your love is visible to you and to others and you will be on your way to being a leader..." (Work is Love Made Visible)

Garry Ridge, the irradiant leader of WD40 since 1997, has delivered outsized results and the affection of his employees for his leadership and the company. His inspiration comes from the Dalai Lama who said the purpose in life is to make people happy (or at least don't hurt them.) Gary's number one rule for a leader is caring for your employees because from caring comes trust and trust creates an environment of success. "Are you brave enough to love them, applaud them and reward them, and also brave enough to redirect them?" If you love your people enough, if they trust you enough, the hard conversations about what they should be doing are less hard because they come from a place of caring. WD-40 is a culture of 93% employee engagement that bring brilliance, joy, dedication, and fun to work every day. All around the world.

In?The Heart of Business, Hubert Joly shares his philosophy behind the resurgence of Best Buy: pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center of the business, create an environment where every employee can blossom, and treat profit as an outcome, not the goal. He writes that becoming a purposeful leader starts inside, by articulating and remaining connected with what drives us, who we are, and who we aspire to be. The job of a leader is to help the people around them succeed and support them in fulfilling themselves. To accomplish this, leaders have to strive to be the best version of themselves. Helping people was how Joly helped Best Buy outperform all expectations.

When you care about people you work together for mutual success. The question is not people or profits, or even people over profits. The answer is people lead to profits. The days are getting shorter here in New York, and the Christmas songs start to run on endless loops. Any time I have the chance to follow in the footsteps of Hubert Joly, Frances Hesselbein, Alan Mulally, Gary Ridge, and the Beatles, count me in! They are all singing the same song... All You Need Is Love.

Week 52 of 52 Weeks of Giving: The Lifeline Center of Childhood Development

For the past 15 years, I have had the honor of sitting on the board of this amazing institution led by Tanya Simon with Mobin Siddiqui. At Lifeline, children with mental illness, and their families, will find the resources to meet their needs, from early childhood through early adulthood, in a nurturing, progressive, and informed environment focused on their full health and wellness. I am grateful to former board president David Rosegarten (my good friend who opened my heart to the institution) and current board president Andrew Berdon who has deftly navigated the board through difficult times, and fellow board members Michael Clendenin, Richard Wool, Rolando Infante, and Stefanie Wool. And special gratitude to my friend Greg Gilbert who I encouraged onto the board what seems like yesterday but was 10 years ago. The school is currently holding a campaign to provide warm coats for the students. If you are so inclined, please support at https://tinyurl.com/coats4lifeline

The M&M Show: How Obama and Seth Godin Built Their Personal Brands

Join Martin Lindstrom and Marshall Goldsmith LIVE Tuesday, November 30th at 12 pm eastern for the next episode of the M&M Show with our guests Cody Keenan, Former Chief Speechwriter to President Barack Obama, and Seth Godin, Author, Entrepreneur, and Teacher. We will be discussing how Obama and Seth Godin built their personal brands. I can't wait for this one! If you missed it, watch the recording here: https://tinyurl.com/GotBrand

Building a Trustworthy Reputation with Ron Carucci and Alison Taylor (live!)

Ron Carucci will speak at a leadership lunch on?Thursday, December 2nd?at Saksworks at 250 Vesey Street?on?“Building a Trustworthy Reputation.”? Based on a 15-year longitudinal study of more than 3200 leaders, Ron Carucci will share insights from his recent book, “To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice & Purpose” on what it takes to create trustworthy teams and organizations and to personally earn the trust of others. Moderated by the Executive Director Alison Taylor of Ethical Systems at New York University, a recognized expert in the field of ethics, this conversation promises to broaden your definition of honesty and trustworthiness in an inspiring way. Admission is complimentary but registration is required – you can register?here. ?Lunch is also complimentary so if you’re in the city, join Ron for a spirited conversation.?

If You Want To Succeed, Befriend Your Competitors by Ruth Gotian (Forbes article)

Competition can be healthy and can raise the collective bar of success if the spirit of collaborative knowledge sharing and growth trumps envy.?As Dearlove recognized, "We have worked in academia enough to know that it can be a very competitive, and sometimes bruising, environment. The Thinkers50 is different and has its own unique culture. What started as a competitive ranking has become a collaborative community. People are extremely supportive of one another and ideas and are highly collegial. It started as a competition, but it's all about the community now.” The next time you envy someone’s success, ask yourself how you can collaborate with them and improve and amplify everyone’s achievements. https://tinyurl.com/thinkers50friends

And, as always, thank you, Marshall, for making all of this possible.

With love and gratitude

Scott