How to make a New Year's Resolution you can stick with.

It's that time of year when you think about making a New Year's Resolution.

Most people make resolutions like stop smoking or eat healthier or exercise more.

These are all activities and for many people, they are actual negative experiences.

To make resolutions that you can stick to, make them about positive outcomes like, I want to be able to live long enough to see my grandkids grow up, or I want to be fit enough to take long hikes in the mountains that you love so much.

By making a resolution about a positive outcome vs a specific activity that you dread and have to force yourself to do, two things can happen.  1.  You're not locked into a specific activity and throughout the year you can potentially find other ways to achieve your goal, and 2.  If you do have to do an activity that you hate or dread, then by having a positive outcome as the goal, you focus on that positive experience and not the negative task.

So for example, let's say you are out at dinner with some friends and everyone wants to order dessert, don't focus on the negative and think, I'll deny myself this piece of cake and thereby making that a negative experience.  Instead, I want to lose weight so I can have the stamina to enjoy more outdoor activities with my friends and family so I'll forgo the cake but I can still enjoy the time at dinner with my friends.

Same for exercising.  I personally hate the monotony of exercising.  I had to learn to tell myself that I didn't have to drag myself off the couch a few times a week and do some very monotonous exercise, but rather, remind myself that I'd like to be healthy enough to continue to enjoy traveling well into my retirement.  And secondly, exercising 5 days  a week wasn't the only solution to my goal.  A combination of eating a little healthier and exercising maybe just 2-3 times a week would allow me to accomplish my goal.

So, if you've struggled with sticking to your New Year's resolution, instead of resolving to doing some behavior that you hate, but instead resolve to some positive outcome.  Then think of numerous ways you can achieve that resolution.  And even when you have to do that behavior that you hate, don't think about it as a negative experience, but focus on the positive outcome you are working toward.

Have a less stressful Holiday by living Pura Vida!

The Holidays can be a stressful time of the tear.  You might be able to have a less stressful holiday if you adopt an attitude of "Pura Vida".

Simply translated, Pura Vida means “pure life” or "simple life", but in Costa Rica, it is more than just a saying... It is a way of life. 

Costa Ricans (or Ticos) use this term to say hello, to say goodbye, to say everything's great, to say everything's cool.  Similar to how Jamaicans say Irie or No problem.

Pura Vida is the way Ticos live. Not surprisingly, Costa Rica has been named one of the happiest countries in the world, mostly because its inhabitants don’t stress about things the way many people in the rest of the world do. 

Ticos have a very relaxed, simple way of looking at life. No worries, no fuss, no stress.  To them, Pura Vida means being thankful for what they have and not dwelling on the negative.

Most recently, I was scheduled to be on a call with a friend who is a Tico living in Costa Rica.  Our call was scheduled for 11am.  The day before the call, my wife asked me to go to the airport to pick up her brother, so I emailed my friend and asked her if she could reschedule.  She suggested 1pm that same day and I agreed thinking I would have enough time to get back from the airport.  

On the morning of the call, I checked the flight status and the flight was delayed and was now coming in at 12:30 so given that we rescheduled the call, to 1pm, I would not have enough time to get back.  So I promptly emailed my friend and asked her if she could move the call back to the original time of 11am.  

About 30 minutes later, I checked the flight status and it was updated and the plane apparently was now coming in at 11:30 so rescheduling to 11am would no longer work and requested she just leave the rescheduled time of 1pm.

I told her in my email that was sorry for all the back and forth and all the emails, and in her response she said she understood, and ended her email with "Pura Vida!".

When we finally spoke I thanked her for reminding me to not stress about small things like that and just maintain an attitude of Pura Vida!  

Another example...  If any of you have driven in any of the urban areas of Costa Rica, you know that traffic is a nightmare.  So one day, several colleagues and I were commuting from the hotel to the office.  On this particular morning, it was the usual bumper to bumper traffic.  As we approached the office after being in the van for about 25 minutes, right when we were about to make the turn on the street just 200 yards from the office a man on a motorcycle starts to have a conversation with another man on foot.  They both stand in the intersection long enough to block all traffic and they just go about their morning talking as all the drivers seem to just wait.  My colleague who was in the front seat of the van starts to get very animated waving her hands as to suggest they move out of the way and she starts to yell that accordingly.  She pleads with them to simply step 5' off the road so we could all pass.  Eventually after a few minutes the two men conclude their conversation and the traffic starts moving.  At this time my colleague is livid and looks at the driver and says, "I don't know how you drive in this traffic all day?"  The driver turned and looked at her and shrugged his shoulders and simply said "Pura Vida"

While many people use the saying ‘pura vida’, until you’ve been to Costa Rica, you will not truly know what pura vida feels like. 

It’s an emotion and an attitude, that embodies joy and happiness, and it’s a way of life.  Once you’ve visited, you will understand the true meaning of pura vida.

But until then, during the Holidays when so many things can get you stressed out, remember the things that really matter in life, and try to embrace the emotion and attitude of a more pure and simple life as embodied in the saying, Pura Vida!

A lesson in Emotional Intelligence

The CEO of better.com laid off 900 employees over a zoom call.  It's a lesson in Emotional Intelligence, but it's not what you might think.

CEO of Better.com, Vishal Garg, summoned employees onto a Zoom call the afternoon of Dec. 1, and announced they were being let go. The layoffs—impacting approximately 9% of the company's staff, about 900 people—would be effective immediately. Then the affected employees’ corporate accounts promptly went dark.

He said "If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off.  Your employment here is terminated immediately", adding that he does “not want to do this.”

"This is the second time in my career I'm doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried," Garg said on the call.

The CEO has been involved in controversy before, as evidenced by an email he sent to his staff that was obtained by Forbes.

It read, "You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS... SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME," he wrote.

CFO Kevin Ryan said in a statement to CNN Business.  "Having to conduct layoffs is gut wrenching, especially this time of year" 

Let's go over the framework of Emotional Intelligence to see specifically where he went wrong.

1. Self-awareness – You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.  With all the I statements, I just can't believe he is focused on how his emotions or feelings impact others.    

2. Self-management – You’re able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.   From a self-management perspective, in his email, with all caps screaming at his staff, he was out of control. 

3. Social awareness – You have empathy. You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.  The time of year that he timed the layoffs, the fact that other than informing people they were laid off all he talked about was how it impacted him.  No where does he recognize the hardship on them, no where does he thank them for helping to build his company.

4. Relationship management – You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.  The remaining employees will remember how their colleagues were treated and any future employees will also know. 

It is clear the real audience for this talk was the street.  He was pandering to the investment community.  Okay, I'm not saying you don't need to do that, but compassionately laying off 900 people and then having an Investor Relations or industry analyst call to give the investment community the confidence that you have a sound strategy are two different meetings.  If I were an investor, I'd definitely take queues about how he treats his team.

How I was able to retire at 55

1. Get a professional advisor
2. Think about investing for retirement as a marathon not a sprint
3. Start investing as early as possible
4. Setup retirement goals based on a time horizon
5. Focus on saving a percentage of your income
6. Pay off your credit card debt
7. Understand your risk tolerance
8. Diversify your portfolio
9. Be a tax-efficient investor
10. Work with a fee-only fiduciary advisor

The Magnolia Group at Morgan Stanley

Don Whitehead - Managing Director (713) 965-5060

Surviving those dreaded Thanksgiving conversations

The key to having a civilized conversation about politics or religion or any controversial subject is to not go into the conversation with the goal of convincing the other side you are right

Fact is, those people you dread talking to almost always think they are completely right and everyone else who doesn't think like they do are completely wrong.  And you're no different.  So their goal is to convince you.  To win the argument.

The technique most of them use is called aggressive assertion where they aggressively assert their "position".  This is called a positional argument.  Positional arguments rarely succeed because if the other side doesn't believe in their position, all the aggressive assertion of all the facts and beliefs they have won't convince you.  You have to remember that they came to these beliefs from a lifetime of experiences and thoughts based on a strong confirmation bias.

So come back around to how you can have a conversation with this type of person.

Step #1. As I said before, change your goal from "winning the argument" to just having a conversation.  Remember, what you were dreading was spending time with tis person because you know they just want to argue.  You probably wouldn't be at Thanksgiving dinner with them if they are not someone you'd care to get to know better.  So your goal is to have an enjoyable conversation and get to know someone better.

Step #2.  Instead of ramming your views down their throat, start by trying to find common ground.  Most likely, you can find common ground in what you both value.

Step #3.  Once you find out what values you have in common, (I call that the "what" you both care about, then your next question is to ask them why they believe what they believe.  Your goal at this point is to really listen with an intent to understand why they believe what they do vs you jumping in and telling them why they are wrong.

Step #4.  Once you have established that you both have common values, and that you are disagreeing on beliefs, after you have given them the time in step 3 to share their beliefs, and you have listened with the intent to understand and empathize, then your response is a technique called "assertive inquiry".

An example of that response is, "I've heard what you had to say about why you believe the way you do.  I can now see why you feel the way you do. I have a different belief that I think is worth hearing.".

Ask them if they would like to hear it.  They will most likely say yes.  Then you now have a chance to communicate your beliefs.  You may want to remind them that you're not trying to convince them they are wrong, you are simply stating your beliefs.  Now you need to know they will most likely cut you off and jump in and start aggressive assertion again, it's the only way they know how to have these types of conversations.

Politely remind them of the things you have already talked about (a) your common values (b) You listened to their beliefs patiently and understand and empathize with them, and now it's your turn for them to listen and empathize with your beliefs.  At this point it is really hard for someone to deny you the opportunity to talk.

But, if they do, then let them come back to asserting their beliefs, and when they are finished try to repeat step 4 again.  If they still don't give you the opportunity to be heard, then it's probably time to go talk to someone else.  You'll at least have the comfort in knowing that you know a little more about this person's values and beliefs and they know little about yours.  That always puts you in a stronger position in the next conversation.

Pride vs humility based leadership

1. Humility gives a leader the capacity to lead out of a position of strength. ​When you choose to be humble, you are choosing not to think less of yourself, but to think of yourself less and others more.​

2. Humility makes a leader more persuasive.​  A leader’s most powerful tools is his ability to cast a vision to his followers, and to persuade them to unite to make that vision a reality.  Humility engenders trust, loyalty, buy-in, and enthusiasm far better and more purely than fear, manipulation, or even people-pleasing will ever do.​

3. Humility gives a leader the courage to set aside personal gain for the good of others.​  A humble person sees others as inherently valuable while prideful leaders focused on themselves.​

4. Humility gives a leader the candor to be honest with their followers and change course if necessary.​  A humble person separates himself or herself from their accomplishments. When their accomplishments receive criticism, they don’t take it personally, but constructively. Prideful leaders, on the other hand, lash out due to fear, anger, or self-entitlement.​

5. Humility gives a leader the character to respond charitably when attacked.​  Because a humble leader doesn’t derive his or her identity from their accomplishments, they are able to deal with criticism.  The humble leader simply owns the truth of the criticism—if there is any—and discards the rest

7 things I wish I knew earlier in my career

• The importance of having a Growth Mindset
• What it means to have courage
• Why having passion is so important
• The importance of being humble
• It's not about not having enough time, it's that I didn't have clear priorities
• The importance of having structure and discipline and rigor in my work
• How to make decisions
• Practicing trust

Leadership lessons from Colin Powell

Colin Powell was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American secretary of state. He served as the 16th United States national security advisor from 1987 to 1989 and as the 12th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.

In this chat I read Colin Powell Lessons in Leadership.

How to design your organization for success

When designing your org, there are some guidelines you should consider.

The organization needs to be designed to be:

Simple - Easy to communicate the components and the relationships with other organizations

Flexible - Able to quickly adapt to changing conditions

Accountable - A consistent predictable output with clear accountability

Economical - The benefit must outweigh the cost

Acceptable - Must offer a differentiated benefit and be accepted by employees and key stakeholders as a good fit

With these as guidelines, here are the steps to designing an organization for success.

1. Define your team’s purpose, mission, winning aspiration and how you measure success. 
2. Define the functions or strategy that are needed to achieve the above goal.  Ideally you can measure these functions. 
3. Define the services and value-add to be provided.  What do the functions do? 
4. Describe the processes needed to offer these services and calculate total workload for required tasks. 
5. Outline handoffs and connecting mechanisms to other organizations. 
6. Define the organization (leveling, headcount, skill mix, etc.) needed to deliver these services. 
7. Plan and execute the creation of the organization, sequencing communications and aligning talent to roles.  This is where you will know what HC or skillset gaps you have.  

How to attract and retain top talent and get rid of low performers

In this chat I talk about how to attract and retain top talent and how to get rid of low performers.

Low performers - Have objective performance standards; make them aware of their development areas; work with them on a development plan; if despite your and their best efforts they are simply not the right fit for the role, then help them to find a role more suited to their capabilities and desires.

Retaining top talent - Ensure you have an organization that is designed for success.  Have a clear mission and purpose; align functions to support the team mission so their is a clear connection to the team on how their work supports to overall organization and how they are adding value; have a career path in your organization and if that is not possible help individuals find next level roles outside of your organization; execute on a comprehensive, robust, and actively managed talent management process that calibrates the team and their capabilities and what skills they need and when they are ready for the next level role.  A robust and actively managed personal development plan is a must.  Be a sponsor for your top talent, advocating for them and making their successes known.  Make sure they feel valued and that key stakeholders know the value they are adding.

Attracting top talent - Strive to be a Level 5 leader where your personal desire is to help your team members and your organization to grow and be successful rather than your own success.  Build your reputation on that.

The key lessons I learned throughout my career

I started my working life in 1980 right out of High School.  Over the next 4 decades, I worked in numerous companies and roles, not always with increasing responsibility.

These are some of the more important lessons I picked up along the way.

• The benefits of learning discipline and rigor early in your career.
• Being flexible but doing what makes sense.
• It's not enough to work hard and do the job, you have to differentiate yourself against your peers.
• Sometimes you may not be the most knowledgeable, but never underestimate passion and desire.  It's easy to acquire job knowledge.  It's much harder to be passionate.
• Take your career into your own hands.  Don't wait or expect someone else to manage your career for you.
• Build a great network early and continuously.
• Build your credibility, but make sure other people know how good you are too.
• Find things that motivate you, but don't let them define you.  Be open to new possibilities.
• Become known as the "go-to" person who can get anything done.  A broad set of transferable skills really helps.
• Have the courage to take bold career moves.  But manage your stakeholders each and every day.  If you wait till "evaluation day", it's too late.
• Things are not always as bad as they seem​.
• Never play a bad hand​.
• As a Senior Leader, you are expected to change the status-quo​.
• The need to be resilient in the face of challenge and difficulty.
• The value of partnering with a great leader​.
• The value of great leadership skills​.
• The value of a high trust relationship​.
• An upward career path may not be the most important thing.  Why you come to work is the most important thing.
• Know why you come to work​.  It's probably because of that project or analysis that needs to get done.
• Know what makes you happy at work.

#leadership

Leadership Lessons from Ted Lasso

Leadership lessons from Ted Lasso. Leadership means having courage

• You don't have to be a subject matter expert to be a great leader
• Recognize that everyone on the team is valuable
• Never take things personally
• Believe
• Embrace change
• Success is not always about winning
• Be curious, not judgmental
• Lead with empathy
• Be a Goldfish

#tedlasso

How to minimize your strongest social threats and maximize your strongest social rewards

The STRONGEST threats and rewards are actually SOCIAL

There is a model based on neuroscience to understand how the brain’s processing of threats and rewards can influence engagement, teamwork and inclusion.

This model explains what is happening in anyone’s (and everyone’s) brains. It’s a simple acronym to help us think through ways to identify and mitigate social threats.

How it helps is by gaining a basic understanding of the neuroscience of inclusion you can then make and support intentional choices that cultivate a sense of belonging for yourself and everyone around you.

The main organizing principle of the brain is to see things as either a threat or reward.​

If the brain perceives a threat, it will send signals to you to get away from it.​

If the brain perceives a reward, it will send signals to you to move toward it.​

The SCARF model describes the five primary triggers of threat and reward in the social brain. ​

What motivates and de-motivates us with regard to our SCARF domains is very personal and unique to each one of us. ​

Knowing what can cause a threat response enables us to create interactions to minimize threats.  ​

Conversely, knowing about drivers that can activate a reward response, enables us to influence others by tapping into internal rewards​

Being aware of your own drivers of threats and rewards will also help you to 

• Status is about wanting to feel valued, esteemed, the reward message is “I am valuable and valued”​
• Certainty is about wanting clarity and context, the reward message is “I know where I stand”​
• Autonomy is about wanting to be able to do my own thing, the reward message is “I have a choice”​
• Relatedness is about wanting to connect with the group, the reward message is “I belong”​
• Fairness is about wanting things to go along relatively impartially, the reward message is “I am treated fairy and with respect”​

A negative/threat response heightens momentary alertness, but decreases wider perception, cognition, creativity and collaboration. ​

We lessen our ability to clearly see issues, solve problems and work with others. 

In everyday language, this means we get tunnel vision, can’t think as well, our creativity and ability to solve problems decreases and we aren’t as good at working with others. A threat reaction can have big implication on performance. In short: We get dumber.​

A positive/reward response can increase our field of view, cognition, creative insights and collaboration.​

These are attributes and actions that are important to effective teamwork.​

If people feel reward within at least some or all of their SCARF domains, they are more likely to work well with others, develop creative insights, hold a broader perspective and access more of their working memory. They are more likely to be a strong performing teammate.​

So to wrap up, think of a variety of scenarios where you can:​

• Identify the most likely SCARF threat​ for example Autonomy
• Identify the domain to offset with reward​ for example Certainty
• Identify a specific action to take ​

There is often more than one SCARF threat (focus on the biggest one)​

There is often more than one option for offsetting the threat with reward – again select the one that will give you the biggest shift towards reward​

The most important thing is to be really specific about the ACTION to take (otherwise it just stays as an idea)

Improve the success rate of your projects significantly by doing this one thing

Having a proper project charter is the single most important thing you can do to improve the success of your projects.

Purpose​ - Gain authorization to move forward with the project – so that’s all the information you need to provide

Outcome​ - You and your team are aligned with your Executive Sponsor and Key Stakeholders.  No questions on your part and you are ready to plan and then execute.

Key Elements of the charter

• Strategic Alignment to organizations strategy - How does this help to accomplish the overall organizational strategy
• ​Problem Statement​ - What problem are you trying to solve?​  Why are we working on this, how do we know this is the right thing to work on above all others?​
• ​Objective - What are you trying to achieve; what does success look like?​  If we solve the problem, what is the outcome?  What is the vision of the future state?​  It’s the team’s “common purpose” or “rallying cry”​
• ​Goal​ - How do you measure that success of reaching the objective?​ Usually an X to Y by when statement​.
• ​Identification of key stakeholders - Ensure key dependent groups are committed to support the project​.

How to respond to your critics

Being a leader is tough.  There is always someone who thinks it's their job to point out everything you are doing wrong, and not in a constructive way, but in a destructive manner.  Think of our current and former President.  They certainly have their critics and probably so do you.  On those days when you feel as though you can do no right, here is something to think about.

On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt gave what would become one of the most widely quoted speeches of his career.  After he left office in 1909, he spent time hunting in Central Africa before embarking on a tour of Norther Africa and Europe in 1910.  He stopped in Paris on April 23rd and delivered a speech called "Citizenship in a Republic", which, among some, would come to be known as "The Man in The Arena".

In that speech, Roosevelt railed against cynics who looked down at men who were trying to make the world a better place.  Then he delivered an inspirational and impassioned message that drew huge applause.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

How to create a career plan

1. Start a career conversation with a long term view.  The “strategic” view if you will that will guide the tactical moves.

2. Define a career milestone goals (achievable in 1-2 years) – tactical moves

3. Review and calibrate on the industry Management Levels standards

4. Assess industry Leadership Standards or other competency and skills assessments

5. Select the top 2-3 areas from the Management level and Leadership Standards or skill set that need development that supports achieving the career milestone goals from step 1

6. Define the objective for each of the top 2-3 areas

7. Define the skill sets that are required to achieve the objective

8. Define a 70/20/10 action plan that develops the skills

Building Trust

This is a summary of 13 behaviors that build trust from the book Speed of Trust by Stephen R. Covey.

Behavior #1        Talk Straight

Be honest and tell the truth. Let people know where you stand. Use simple language. Don’t manipulate people or distort facts. Don’t spin the truth. Don’t leave false impressions.

Behavior #2        Demonstrate Respect

Genuinely care for others. Show you care. Respect the dignity of every person and every role. Show kindness and little things.

Behavior #3        Create Transparency

Tell the truth in a way people can verify. Declare your intent. Get real and be genuine. 

Behavior #4        Right Wrongs

Make things right when you are wrong. Apologize quickly. Make restitution where possible.

Behavior #5        Show Loyalty

Give credit to others. Speak about people as if they were present. Represent others who are there to speak for themselves.

Behavior #6        Deliver Results

Establish a track record of results. Get the right things done. Make things happen. Accomplish what you’re hired to do. Be on time and within budget.

Behavior #7        Get Better

Continuously improve. Increase your capabilities. Be a constant learner. Develop feedback systems, both formal and informal. Act on the feedback you receive. Thank people for feedback. Don’t consider yourself above feedback.

Behavior #8        Confront Reality

Take issues head on. Address the rough stuff directly. Acknowledge the unsaid. Confront issues before they turn into major problems. Confront the reality, not the person. Lead out courageously in conversation. Don’t skirt the real issues. 

Behavior #9        Clarify Expectations

Disclose and reveal expectations. Discuss them. Validate them. 

Behavior #10     Practice Accountability

Hold yourself accountable first; hold others accountable second. Take responsibility for results, good or bad. 

Behavior #11     Listen First

Listen before you speak. Understand. Listen with your ears, your eyes and your heart. 

Behavior #12     Keep Commitments

Say what you were going to do, and then do it. 

Behavior #13     Extend Trust

Demonstrate a propensity to trust. Extend trust abundantly to those who have earned your trust. 

Storytelling in Business

In this chat I talk about the importance of Storytelling in Business.

By telling better stories, you keep your audience engaged and help them to better understand.  You create emotional connections, transfer values and beliefs, and are more effective at influencing.

All great stories have:

• A beginning that sets the context, the characters (who), and the conflict (problem)
• A middle where the protagonist learns and grows to handle the conflict
• The end where the resolution to the story is told.

When delivering your story in a presentation, resist the urge to tell an exploratory story especially if your presentation is about data and numbers.  Instead tell an explanatory story about what you found in the data.

You've probably hear about the Why, What and How of presentations and these align with great storytelling.

• The Why (why should your audience care) is the context, the characters, and the conflict
• The What is your big idea.  It's your high level strategy on how you will resolve the conflict
• The How is the details (again, gauged for your audience) about how you implement you big idea

Confirmation Bias

Where do your beliefs and opinions come from? If you're like most people, you feel that your convictions are rational, logical, and impartial, based on the result of years of experience and objective analysis of the information you have available.

In reality, all of us are susceptible to a problem known as a confirmation bias. Our beliefs are often based on paying attention to the information that upholds them—while at the same time tending to ignore the information that challenges them.

So what's the definition of confirmation bias.  A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias and that makes you have a tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with your existing beliefs.

Here is how it works.

1. You tend to not seeking out objective facts.

2. You Interpreting information to support your existing beliefs

3. You only remembering details that uphold your beliefs.

4. You ignore or try to discredit information that challenges your beliefs.  i.e. see #1

The problem with confirmation bias is that it impacts how we gather information, but they also influence how we interpret and recall information. For example, people who support or oppose a particular issue will not only seek information to support it, they will also interpret news stories in a way that upholds their existing ideas. They will also remember details in a way that reinforces these attitudes.

For example, during an election season, people may tend to seek positive information that paints their favored candidates in a good light. They will also look for information that casts the opposing candidate in a negative light

By not seeking out objective facts, interpreting information in a way that only supports their existing beliefs, and only remembering details that uphold these beliefs, they often miss important information. These details and facts might have otherwise influenced their decision on which candidate to support.

Unfortunately, we all have confirmation bias. Even if you believe you are very open-minded and only observe the facts before coming to conclusions, it's very likely that some bias will shape your opinion in the end. It's very difficult to combat this natural tendency.

That said, if we know about confirmation bias and accept the fact that it does exist, we can make an effort to recognize it by working to be curious about opposing views and really listening to what others have to say and why. This can help us better see issues and beliefs from another perspective, though we still need to be very conscious of wading past our confirmation bias.

How to deal with ambiguity

How to deal with ambiguity

Let's start with what exactly is ambiguity.  The dictionary defines ambiguity as the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.  

• Ambiguity is characterized by a significant doubt about cause and effect relationships.
• It is impossible to diagnose from a singular perspective.
• It’s second- and third-order effects are capable of making an organization completely ineffective.

Two symptoms are frequently associated with ambiguity:

• The inability to accurately conceptualize threats and opportunities before they become lethal,
• Increasing frustration that compartmentalized accomplishments don’t add up to comprehensive and enduring success. 

Why can something be ambiguous to someone.  The environment is unfamiliar or outside of your expertise.  It can also be because there is lack of clarity about the meaning of an event.

What you can do:

If you are the one that is often causing ambiguity:

• Be Understandable .  
• Ensure there is clarity in purpose, direction, responsibilities, and expected outcomes will empower others.  Do not dismiss questions from your team like “What are we doing?” and “What is our goal?”.  

If you are on the receiving end of ambiguity:

• Listen well.  There is a difference between listening and waiting to speak.  
• Think divergently.  
• Openness to new ideas is a leadership characteristic highly correlated with effectiveness.  This means seeing past your own ideas.  
• Setup incremental dividends.
• When the way ahead is not clear, it is reassuring to have tangible proof that we are moving I the right direction.
• Make a cultural shift towards experimentation.

By learning how to deal with ambiguity you will be able to effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; you'll get less upset when things are up in the air; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.

How to ruthlessly defend your time

This chat is not about effective meetings - that's a different podcast.  Nor is this a chat about  managing emails.

It's about how you can ruthlessly defend your time so you have the time do do what is important to you.

1. Know what is important to you.

2. Do an audit to see how you are spending your time.

3. Put big important things on your calendar, be specific, and don't underestimate how long it will take.

4. Decide what your overarching "No's" are up front.

5. Learn to say No politely.

6. Be consistent in prioritize your core values and what is important to you above everything else.

7. Do things on your calendar when you have the right energy and demeanor to do them.

8. Have a sacred time of day.

9. Vet EVERY meeting invite to ensure you are adding or receiving value (aligned to what is important to you).

10. Communicate concisely, efficiently, and effectively.

We have evolved into a world where it has become acceptable for people to steal your time.  But it is YOUR time, so it's up to you to defend it.

Improve your communication significantly by doing this one thing

Start with your Desired Outcome.

Be specific about what you want.  Make it time bound if necessary. Set the context about why they should care - Problem:  Situation; who is involved; pain point Your solution/proposal - What you plan to do about it Close with a Desired Outcome check.  Directly ask for whatever your desired outcome is.  "Can you commit "X" many people for "Y" period of time?, "Will you fund the effort with $10,000.

Are you a Level 5 Leader?

In his book Good to Great, author Jim Collins talks about the 5 levels of leadership.  Before we jump into what those levels are, a brief summary of the book.

Good To Great examines what it takes for ordinary companies to become great and outperform their competitors by analyzing 28 companies over 30 years, who managed to make the transition or fell prey to their bad habits.

In his book, Jim talks about 4 stages to developing great companies.

Stage 1 is having Disciplined people (this is where he identified the 5 levels of leadership Stage 2 is having Disciplined Thought. Stage 3 is having Disciplined Action. And Stage 4 is Building enduring and sustainable greatness that lasts.

Let's take a look at the 5 levels of leadership

Level 1: Highly Capable Individual

At this level, you make high quality contributions with your work. You possess useful levels of knowledge; and you have the talent and skills needed to do a good job.

Level 2: Contributing Team Member

At Level 2, you use your knowledge and skills to help your team succeed. You work effectively, productively and successfully with other people in your group.

Level 3: Competent Manager

Here, you're able to organize a group effectively to achieve specific goals and objectives.

Level 4: Effective Leader

Level 4 is the category that most top leaders fall into. Here, you're able to galvanize a department or organization to meet performance objectives and achieve a vision.

Level 5: Great Leader

At Level 5, you have all of the abilities needed for the other four levels, plus you have the unique blend of humility and will that's required for true greatness. They were the first to own up to mistakes, and the last to take credit for success.

So how can you become a Level 5 leader?

Develop humility.

Level 5 Leaders are humble people. So, learn why humility is important, and make sure that you understand – at a deep, emotional level – why arrogance is so destructive. 

Ask for help.

Level 5 Leaders are sometimes mistakenly thought of as "weak," because they ask for help when they need it.

However, learning how to ask for help  is a genuine strength, because it lets you call upon the expertise of someone stronger in an area than you are. 

Take responsibility.

A top attribute of Level 5 Leaders is that they take responsibility for their team's mistakes or failings.

Develop discipline.

Level 5 Leaders are incredibly disciplined  in their work. When they commit to a course of action, no matter how difficult it is, they stick to their resolve.

Find the right people.

Level 5 Leaders depend on the people around them. They spend time finding the right people , and helping them reach their full potential.

Lead with passion.

Level 5 Leaders are passionate about what they do, and they're not afraid to show it.

Research has shown that leaders who have brought the ‘Good to Great’ transformation are not the ones who are charismatic or big personalities but are rather quiet, shy, and deliberate. They are the ones who have the combination of humility and professional will. Organizations that strive to become great need to have a Level 5 leader.

What level of leader are you?

Executive Presentations

In this chat we cover how to present to Executives.

We start by understanding what executives think and care about.

We then talk about 6 tips that can help you to put together and then deliver your your presentation.

Use TAPS to be a better Coach and Mentor

In short, coaching is helping someone else to reach their full potential.  By coaching, you are helping them to learn how to think instead of teaching them something.  Coaching is a good tool to use when their problems are personal, emotional, or complex.

Mentoring on the other hand is a good tool to teach something linear or procedural.

The TAPS model is a 2x2 with a vertical axis that on the bottom has TELL, and on the top has ASK.  On the horizontal axis, on the left it has PROBLEM, and an the right it has SOLUTION.  The first letter of these words spells TAPS.

• In the bottom left quadrant you have TELL/PROBLEM - Consulting / Managing
• In the bottom right quadrant you have TELL SOLUTION - Mentoring
• In the top left you have ASK/PROBLEM - Counseling
• In the top right you have ASK/SOLUTION - Coaching

In this chat I also cover several examples of each of these quadrants and share some coaching questions.