Week 22.34 You Got The Power

Last week during our meeting in Nashville, I was acutely aware that each time I saw someone and they smiled at me, I felt great. Not a big thing, not even a special recognition, just a simple smile. I was still feeling so good when I returned to New York that I was smiling at people who caught my eye on the street. I could tell that a simple smile, a nod of the head, or perhaps "hello" delivered a moment of meaning in most of the people who received the acknowledgment. And I felt good having given them the smallest of gifts. I have watched my daughter Lily Osman do this for years. She sees and acknowledges each person she interacts with. There are innumerable ways to describe this energy. I'd like to start with three: the energy of recognition, appreciation, and connection.

Simply recognizing another person is one of the most basic ways we validate them. Smiling at the person we are interacting with, or perhaps some brief acknowledgment through eye contact conveys the recognition of them as a person - not simply a worker, a driver, or a laborer. The act of recognition is a powerful way of expressing that you see the other person, and in so doing, you validate your own humanity. In experiments this week, I have tried to make it a point to say hello to people I pass. Each time, I notice how they respond and how I feel. Invariably, they smile, I smile back, and we both feel a little more human.

Appreciation is the next level. I have noticed that expressing gratitude when someone does something for me elevates our interaction. My world depends on the systemic cooperation of many other worlds working together. Thanking the taxi driver for taking me to the airport, the waiter for bringing my food, or the sanitation workers who clear the trash from the street is an expression of my appreciation for their contribution. I am grateful for the sanitation worker doing their job so that I live with clean streets. By expressing my appreciation, I can elevate the work of the people who make my life possible and enhance my awareness of my place in a complicated ecosystem.

Connection is the final energy level I am considering. Connection is our understanding that we are each part of a complicated system and interdependent on one another. We can go beyond recognition and appreciation to communicate a sense of connection with other people. With connection, we have embraced the notion of partnership in our ecosystem, a feeling that each person is essential and valued. Using there energy of connection, we can move beyond seeing others as existing or contributing and seeing them in a human partnership.

In life and leadership, we have the opportunity to enhance the lives of the people we love and lead by using the energy of recognition, appreciation, and connection generously. Leaders have amplified energy due to their temporary authority and have the potential to have an even more significant impact. There was a time when leaders felt that by being stingy with their energy, they could reward people with small gestures. But we can now recognize that this behavior yields a diminishing return. Real leaders understand that their energy contributes to the system and makes them even more valuable. Each of us can enhance the lives of everyone we meet at no cost to ourselves. If you want the world to be a better, more livable place, there is no better way to start than by using your energy to power the world.

Radically Reimagine, Recreate, Repurpose, Reignite the Future through the Joys of Leadership by Terry Jackson, Ph.D.

The only constant in life is change. Even before the world was forced to change the way we live, work and learn due to the pandemic, we were living in a time of more change than humanity has ever seen. Just think about how much the world has changed since the internet age began. It has already changed everything, and we’ve only just started to scratch the surface of possibilities. So, where it once might have been acceptable to settle for the status quo and just keep doing things the way they’ve always been done, those days are over. This also means that one of the most critical responsibilities of leadership is to reimagine their business and their vision, repurpose, repackage and recreate their products and services, and reignite passion and performance in their team. In this article Terry looks at some of the ways the world is changing and how you can make that change part of your leadership strategy.

Allies Helped Batman Be Batman by Morag Barrett

The Batman character was introduced to the public in a 1939 comic book. Batman (spoiler alert! secretly he’s wealthy industrialist Bruce Wayne) dedicated his life to fighting crime in Gotham City, driven by the brutal killing of his parents by a mugger. And he did just that—solo, all by himself, spectacularly. The comic book’s writers quickly realized, however, that something was missing in the Batman story, and they took steps to fix it. Just one year later—in 1940—they introduced a new character to the Batman universe: Robin, the Boy Wonder. Robin was more than a sidekick to Batman; he was his closest ally and best friend at work. He was a sounding board off which Batman could bounce ideas. He was an extra set of fists when the going got tough. He was the rock that Batman knew he could count on—always and forever. Robin had Batman’s back, and vice versa. Not only that, but Robin injected a bit of humor into the proceedings. Robin was Batman’s ally—he had his back, and in doing so, he allowed Batman to be Batman. And that’s what being an ally is. Our allies allow us to be who we are, and they help keep us grounded when we go off-track. Excerpt from Morag's upcoming book YOU ME WE available for preorder

Yes, there are enough hours in a day—if you manage your time better by Jenny Fernandez, MBA, 费 珍妮 and Luis Velasquez MBA, PhD.

We’ve all, at some point, have exclaimed that in exasperation. But guess what: it doesn’t have to be true. Time is one of the most significant professional considerations leaders have as they look to do more and amplify their impact. Cracking the code on time is especially relevant to professionals at a crossroads, those ready for their next promotion, looking to join the C-suite, or scale up their leadership or business. The idea that working longer hours is a way to demonstrate value has two unintended negative outcomes. First, if you don’t succeed, you build the narrative in your mind that perhaps you didn’t work hard enough. And you may associate how busy you are with how much impact you are making. So letting go of the idea that working more makes you more valuable and productive is the first step on your journey to change your relationship with time. As you advance in your career, your goal is not to “do more” but to do more through others. At the end of the day, as you scale your leadership and reframe your relationship with time, you will realize that your impact is multiplied by how many people you can enable and empower. It is not what you do but how you do it. When you make that mental shift, you will be on your way to managing your focus and attention to what truly matters.??