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The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

As Kobe Bryant once said, “There is power in understanding the journey of others to help create your own.” That’s why the Learning Leader Show exists—to understand the journeys of other leaders so that we can better understand our own. This show is full of learnings taught by world-class leaders—personal stories of successes, failures, and lessons learned along the way. Our guests come from diverse backgrounds—CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies, best-selling authors, Navy SEALs, and professional athletes. My role in this endeavor is to talk to the smartest, most creative, always-learning leaders in the world so that we can learn from them as we each create our own journeys.
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Now displaying: Page 7
Jun 27, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Jon Gordon is the author of 23 books including 10 best sellers. His books include the timeless classic The Energy Bus which has sold over 2 million copies, The Carpenter which was a top 5 business book of the year, Training Camp, The Power of Positive Leadership, The Power of a Positive Team, The Coffee Bean, Stay Positive, and The Garden.

  • How to be a great teammate:
    • Put the team first
    • "We not me"
    • Superstars make the people around them better
  • Get tactical (be a great teammate):
    • Look for opportunities for the betterment of the team
    • Work hard, build a foundation of trust, communicate well, connect with each team member, CARE about them
    • Encourage means to "put courage into them."
  • "Leadership is a transfer of belief."
  • Use 'positive discontent." "Love tough instead of tough love."
    • "Trust is the currency of leadership."
  • Change Management (learned from Dabo Sweeney)
    • Know what the culture stands for
    • Know what you value
    • Set standards (non-negotiables)
    • Create your vision and purpose -- WHY are you doing it?
    • Get buy-in
    • Optimism and belief are vital
    • Must develop relationships
      • "People follow the leader first and the vision second."
  • Ask: "Are they connected and committed?"
    • A great leader wants their team members to get promoted
  • Culture is not static. It's dynamic. It must be built every day. "It's not one thing. It's everything."
  • Jon wrote The Energy Bus in three weeks. And it changed the trajectory of his life.
  • Don't be carrots or eggs... Be coffee beans. Be able to "transform the environment."
  • 10 Life Rules of Row The Boat:
    • #2: Trained behavior creates boring habits, boring habits create elite instincts.
    • #3 You win with people, not just players--- people who make their life about others.
    • #5 The hardest part about being the standard is that you are the standard all the time.
Jun 20, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Notes:

Bert Bean is the CEO of Insight Global. Insight Global is a 3.3 Billion Dollar staffing company that focuses on living its shared values and empowering people. started with Insight Global in 2005 as a Recruiter and has since worked his way up within the company, exemplifying Insight Global’s “promote from within” culture. Bert was announced as Insight Global’s CEO on January 13, 2018. According to Comparably, Insight Global and its executive team (led by Bert and Sam) have been rated as an A+ by their employees.

Sam Kaufman is the Chief Revenue Officer of Insight Global. Sam began his career at Insight Global as an Entry Level Recruiter in 2004, and he has earned many promotions throughout his career. Sam’s mission day in and day out is to improve and grow as a leader in sales so that he can help his people develop personally and professionally.

Notes:

  • Don't Bury The Lede -- The purpose of this episode is to announce that we (Insight Global + The Learning Leader) are formally working together. Insight Global will be the presenting sponsor of all episodes moving forward and I will work with the leaders at Insight Global.
  • Changing the culture -- In 2017, employee turnover was 40%. Bert took over as CEO in January 2018. The current turnover is 14%.
  • Fortune Magazine ranked Insight Global as one of the best workplaces for both millennials and women.
    • 70% of leadership promotions in 2019 were for women
  • The impact of episode #242 with Daniel Coyle
    • "A leader at a Private Equity conference told me to listen to your episode with Dan Coyle. I did and it changed the trajectory of our company."
  • Why Bert is a great CEO (according to Sam):
    • "Bert gives everything to his people. He wakes up at 4:00 am every day to handwrite notes to people. He cares so much about developing people."
  • Why Sam is a great leader (according to Bert):
    • "Sam is super driven. Extremely hard worker... And cares about his people. He's also willing to take a risk and bet on himself."
  • Insight Global has a "promote from within" culture.
    • "We are the ultimate growth mindset business."
  • "We must invest in training and developing our people." I will be helping with Insight Global University, Leadership Academy, and providing feedback for leaders within the business.
  • Bert -- "I love aligning with grinders."
    • The "Bert voicemail" -- "When I see something I want, I love being a bad negotiator and just telling them."
    • "I believe in first WHO, then what. That's why I want to work with you."
    • "We want you to remain independent and out in the market giving speeches and learning from leaders outside of Insight Global. We value you having fresh eyes to help us."
  • The Utah Offsite retreat:
    • Rented a big house with 28 leaders and rebuilt the value system and the culture
      • "We all got in a big circle and shared our lowest moment and highest moment. There were a lot of tears... And we came together in the moment."
    • Legendary leader -- "Kirby was dying from cancer. He couldn't walk. The cancer was eating his bones and he flew out there to be with us. He means everything to us. He is the ultimate example of grit." Kirby died a few months after that off-site meeting.
  • Leadership "must-haves"
    • Sam - Three things.
      • You have to care - You won't follow someone who doesn't care about you.
      • High character - Must earn the respect of your peers. Do the right thing all of the time.
      • You're there to serve - "Don't think of leadership as power. Think of it as a burden. A massive responsibility."
    • Bert - "You can't be a bullshit leader. Must be authentic. Not a phony. People see through that. You must take care of and develop people in your charge."
  • The Insight Global shared values:
    • Everyone matters
    • We Take Care of Each Other
    • Leadership is Here to Serve
    • High Character and Hard Work
    • Always Know Where You Stand
  • Purpose - “Our purpose is to develop our people personally, professionally, and financially; so they can be the light to the world around them.” - Bert Bean
Jun 13, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Julia Galef is co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality. She is the author of The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't.

Notes:

  • What is the scout mindset? “The motivation to see things as they are, not as you wish them to be.”
  • The Scout Mindset allows you to recognize when you were wrong, to seek out your blind spots, to test your assumptions and change course. It’s what prompts you to honestly ask yourself questions like “Was I at fault in that argument?” or “Is this risk really worth it?” As the physicist Richard Feynman said: “The first rule is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.”
  • The three prongs:
    • Realize that trust isn't in conflict with your other goals
    • Learn tools that make it easier to see clearly
    • Appreciate the emotional rewards of scout mindset
  • She closes her TED talk with this quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery: "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
    • "The biggest bottleneck is not knowledge. It's motivation. You need to cultivate the motivation to see things clearly."
  • “Julia Galef is an intellectual leader of the rationalist community, and in The Scout Mindset you will find an engaging, clearly written distillation of her very important accumulated wisdom on these topics.” -- Tyler Cowen
  • We should assume that we are wrong. We need to build the skill to change our mind. "Our goal should be to be less wrong over time."
  • How do you work on this?
    • The key principle is the way you think about being wrong. "Don't accept the premise that being wrong means you screwed up."
  • Jeff Bezos left his job on Wall Street to start Amazon and acknowledged the uncertainty. He estimated that his idea had about a 30% chance to work.
  • The Scout versus Soldier mindset:
    • A lot of times, humans are in a soldier mindset - "Belief was strong, unshakeable, opposed argument. A soldier is having to defend."
    • Scout mindset - survey and see what's true. Form an accurate map.
  • Practical application: Be cognizant how you seek out and respond to criticism.
    • Don't ask leading questions. Recognize the tendency to describe the conflict accurately.
  • Also... Not all arguments are worth having. Show signals of good faith.
  • Distinguish between two kinds of confidence:
    • Social - Poised, charismatic, relaxed body language, be worth listening to
    • Epistemic - How much certainty that you have in your views
  • Persuade while still expressing uncertainty:
    • "I think there's a 70% chance this won't work."
  • Lyndon Johnson - Need to understand why someone wouldn't agree with you...
  • We are all the sum of our experiences... Approach people, places, and things with curiosity
  • Life/Career advice:
    • You're creating a brand - Be conscious of the type of people you're attracting. Work to attract those that make you a better version of yourself.
    • Make the choice to attract people who like intellectual honesty like Vitalik Buterin (founder of Ethereum)
Jun 6, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Dr. Ron Friedman is an award-winning psychologist who has served on the faculty of the University of Rochester and has consulted for political leaders, nonprofits, and many of the world’s most recognized brands. His first book, The Best Place to Work, was selected as an Inc. Magazine Best Business Book of the Year. His most recent book is called, Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Succes.

Notes:

 

  • When Michael Dell was 16 years old, his parents bought him an Apple Computer. And they were horrified by what he did next... He took it apart to learn how to build it. He was curious. Excellent performers don't passively observe. They take action.
  • When you encounter an awesome memo or speech, try to identify why it was remarkable... And then see how you can implement what you've learned to do the same.
  • Nature vs. Nurture? "It's both."
  • The stories we've been told are wrong: That it takes talent + practice. That's only part of the story.
    • It's thinking in formulas and becoming a collector.
  • "Identify what works and turn it into a template for yourself."
  • A presidential speechwriter like Jon Favreau (President Obama's speechwriter) would study the greatest presidential speeches in history as he wrote...
    • Reverse outlining - Take a finished product and reduce it to small paragraphs. Read the transcript and identify the emotion.
  • There are six main narratives for main characters...
  • The analysis comes after collection. Identify what's extraordinary... And then create a template. Create metrics and rate your work.
    • "Measurement begets improvement."
  • This requires a mindset of curiosity (like Michael Dell)
  • Think in "blueprints."
    • How does this work?
    • How do I recreate it?
  • President Obama initially was not a good politician... He observed pastors at churches. He started using repetition and pausing for effect to improve his ability to give compelling speeches.
  • How are Chipotle and Starbucks similar?
    • "They think in blueprints." The creators of Chipotle knew that people love burritos, but there wasn't a fast way to get great ones. They created a blueprint. The leaders at Starbucks modeled their buildings after Italian coffee bars. It's "pattern-thinking."
  • Tom Petty didn't watch Bruce Springsteen because he felt they were too similar. He didn't want to outright copy him.
  • Ron reads fiction to help him become a better storyteller and use cliffhangers in his non-fiction writing.
  • Visualization - Why does it not work? "It can give you temporary satisfaction and lead to you not working as hard for the goal. You feel as if you already achieved it." "Visualize the process instead of the outcome."
  • The UCLA Study:
    • Visualize the process
    • Practice in the past - Be reflective, use a journal, look back at previous entries
    • Deliberate practice - It needs to be hard and you need feedback from an expert. Practice in different locations. Novelty is important.
  • This allows you to be more present in the moment...
  • Sign up for improv classes
  • Find a hobby that has an overlap with what you do (if you're a manager, join toastmasters to become a better public speaker)
  • Tinder algorithms - They predict who you'll find attractive. It looks for commonalities... The takeaway?
    • Start a collection intake engine. Curate what that contains and what you exclude.
  • Ritz Carlton obsesses over metrics. They understand that what gets measured gets managed. They optimize for their net promoter score (NPS).
  • The links that are drivers to outcomes... For Ron, he needs to do cardio to get into creative mode. To do great cardio, he needs great sleep. To get great sleep, he needs regular massages. It's a chain of events to get the optimal outcome. Figure out what that is for you.
  • How to give a great Ted Talk? Ron reverse engineered the most watched talk... Here is what he found:
    • Ken Robinson used one fact
    • He had lots of anecdotes
    • There were LOTS of jokes (and they were funny)
    • The storytelling drives the whole talk
  • Taking risks -- Ron learned this from his grandmother and dedicates his work to her. He was born in Israel and moved to New York when he was 7. His grandmother would go door to door selling the services of her husband (he was a dentist).
  • "The more risks we take, the more likely we are to succeed."
  • Life/Career advice:
    • Take more risks
    • Optimize for your relationships... And your spouse is the most important relationship
  • Apply to be part of my Leadership Circle
May 30, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of THE PERFECT STORM, FIRE, A DEATH IN BELMONT, WAR, TRIBE, and FREEDOM. As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world and has received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film "Restrepo", a feature-length documentary (co-directed with Tim Hetherington), was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Notes:

  • Human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives, and they need to feel connected to others.
  • Definition of Freedom: “We walked 400 miles, and most nights we were the only people who knew where we were. There are many definitions of freedom, but surely that’s one of them.”
  • Running a company versus LEADING a company -- “You can run a company or lead a company. If you want to lead a company, you have to make sure that when things take a downturn, as the leader you’ll be the first to experience the downside. Before jobs get cut, you’ll take a pay cut, you will suffer with the people you lead.” One great example of this is Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya. All employees are part owners of the company. He comes from a family of Nomadic Sheep farmers from the Turkish mountains. He learned a collective approach to life and work where he grew up.
  • “When people are actively engaged in a cause their lives have more purpose... with a resulting improvement in mental health."
  • How becoming a dad (at age 55) changed his life: "they are the point of life."
  • Sebastian's dad was a refugee from two wars... War has had a significant impact on his life.
  • As Sebastian grew up, he decided he wanted to be a journalist and cover wars. He went to the Civil war in Bosnia.
  • Guts - "Most scary things are more frightening before you go. I have a formidable capacity for denial."
  • People want to feel like they have agency. They're more scared when they feel that they don't have it.
    • Front line vs backline soldiers - The backline soldiers are scared because they feel like they don't have as much agency as the front line (even though the front line is more dangerous). Uncertainty is scary.
  • To help with fear, go in front of your mirror and make the "fear grimace" face...
  • When Sebastian was competing in track events for the 1500m race, he would yawn in the faces of his opponents to intimidate them
  • Freedom - We aren't subject to the whims of the largest male in a group anymore... You remain free by being mobile
  • He organized his new book, Freedom, in three parts: Run -- Fight -- Think
  • Sebastian went on a walking trip and called it, "The Last Patrol." - They walked on a railroad from Washington DC to Philadelphia and then Pittsburgh
    • "Met America from inside-out"
  • What did he think about at night when he went to sleep outside during "The Last Patrol?"
    • "Always thought safety first." "The most meaningful experiences happen when I'm physically dirty and security wasn't guaranteed."
  • How to help your children push their edges?
    • "We traveled to Liberia with our daughter."
    • "The core value children value is closeness. We sleep on a mattress on the floor with our daughters. They want to be close."
  • Collaboration/Working together -- Football and the military. The football locker room is a beautiful place. It’s democratic. People join from diverse backgrounds. And create a common goal. A theme of collaboration. A “we can’t win games without each other.” And when it comes together it’s a magical feeling. 
    • There must be a core commitment to the group. "Being ego-driven is an emotional burden."
  • Commonalities of leaders who sustain excellence:
    • Principle driven - In politics, democracy should be #1
    • Sacrifice own interest for the group
  • Life/Career Advice -- FAIL. If you’re only doing things you know you can do then you’re never near your limits. In order to grow, you have to push those limits. And sometimes that means you’ll fail. That’s ok.
May 23, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Sean Covey is President of FranklinCovey Education. He is a New York Times best-selling author and has written several books, including The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make, The 7 Habits of Happy Kids, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, which has been translated into 20 languages and sold over 4 million copies worldwide. Sean's dad is Stephen R. Covey, the author of one of the most sold books of all time (more than 30 million copies), The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Notes:

  • Sean played Quarterback at BYU -- Led the team to two bowl games and twice selected as ESPN’s Most Valuable Player of the Game.
    • What he learned from his time as a QB:
      • How to prepare
      • How to "do hard things" - "Your zone of comfort expands because the hard things aren't as hard anymore."
      • Importance of a system - Rigorous practice, filming of the practice, reviewing of the work. Daily.
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People came out in 1989... It had a tepid release and then exploded. It changed the lives of the Covey family. Sean said his dad Stephen (the author of The 7 Habits) was "very genuine... A better husband and dad than a writer. H was very congruent. He had the power of principles. There was no hypocrisy."
  • How do you handle yourself when talking to a person who has a powerful position?
    • "Treat the garbage collector and the CEO with an equal amount of respect."
  • 4 Disciplines of Execution:
    • Focusing On The Wildly Important Goals (WIG) - Exceptional execution starts with narrowing the focus— clearly identifying what must be done, or nothing else you achieve really matters much.  -- Example: JFK has one of the best examples ever: "Send a man to the moon and return him home safely by the end of the decade." It was one goal. There was a starting line and a finish line.
    • Act on Lead Measures – Golden rule of execution: Identify lead measures. Twenty percent of activities produce eighty percent of results. The highest predictors of goal achievement are the 80/20 activities that are identified and codified into individual actions and tracked fanatically. Lag Measures are the end goal.
    • Keep A Compelling Scoreboard -People and teams play differently when they are keeping score, and the right kind of scoreboards motivate the players to win.
    • Create A Cadence of Accountability -Each team engages in a simple weekly process that highlights successes, analyzes failures, and course-corrects as necessary, creating the ultimate performance-management system.
  • Goal setting - There are two kinds of strategies:
    • Deliberate strategies
    • Emergent strategies - "Be ready for waves that might hit you... And knock you in a better position."
  • With goal setting, remember the phrase "No Involvement, No Commitment." Involve your team to set their own goals. Don't set the goals for them.
  • Advice to parents with teenagers:
    • Have a purpose as a family
      • Set values
      • Write a mission statement
    • Have 1:1 time with kids
  • Career/Life advice:
    • Have a plan... But be flexible
    • Live according to your principles, values, and mission statement
    • Create a credo of your own
May 16, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

The 3 things Scott told his daughter Kiraat a YPO event...

  • Family, Family, Family
  • It will always be ok. Things will go bad. It will be ok.
  • Anything, anytime - "you can always call, text, FaceTime, no matter what. I am here for you."
  • Scott's 4-part process to become more present:
    • Find perspective
    • Seek authentic feedback
    • Cultivate reflective strength
    • Love your leadership constitution
  • Public failure: Scott started a business with Seth Berger, founder of AND1, basketball shoes. HoopsTV. Raised $14 million from investors… Eventually failed, had to lay off 50 people, including his own brother(!)
  • The good old days are today (scene from the office (Ed Helms)  Andy Bernard: “I wish there was a way to know you're in "the good old days" before you've actually left them.”
  • Scott got fired from his role as President of Madison Square Garden. He says it was because he was "too busy being right instead of being effective."
  • Scott is a change agent and values performance more than experience
  • Watch the Battle at Kruger video (Scott shared this with the team)
  • "To do great things, you have to be confident"
  • Need to focus on "WMI." What's Most Important
  • "Work-life balance does not exist. Beware of the mediocre middle."
    • "Life is about tradeoffs"
  • The most effective leaders seek authentic feedback and are able to hear it.
  • Ask yourself, "Who have you connected to in the last month?"
  • Behaviors of Excellence:
    • Be your authentic self - "Be you. People follow authenticity."
    • Work unreasonably hard.
    • Intellectually curious - "The world is changing so fast."
    • Passionate - "Fall in love with it."
  • All executives at the Philadelphia 76ers are challenged to declare who they are at their core in the form of a leadership constitution. Anyone can—and should—create one by answering the following two questions: 1. I declare that I am... and 2. You can count on me to...
  • Scott's leadership constitution:
    • I declare that I am a passionate and authentic leader of leaders who feels a gravitational pull towards talent and character. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I love people and being part of a team. I get energy from helping others and would give the shirt off my back to a stranger and anything, anytime to a friend. I am family first, high integrity, and surprisingly sensitive change agent who is confident, caring, and intellectually curious. This fuels a competitive drive that at times feels like a chip on my shoulder.
    • You can count on me to bring positive energy into my space. Exude urgency and push you, challenge you, nudge you and raise the bar beyond your expectations, and sometimes what you think reasonable. Laugh with you, cry with you, love you even when you won’t laugh, haven’t cried, and don’t feel loved. Root for you today, every day, and always. Share the most personal of thoughts, emotions, stories, highs, and lows because I am okay with it and who I am. Enjoy the rollercoaster of life, whether we are going forward, backwards and upside down. Drive hard to reach the summit and then quickly start on another mountain. Share wins and take hits for losses
May 9, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Mark Scharenbroich is an Emmy award winner, best-selling author, and hall of fame keynote speaker. He is known for his authentic delivery, his talent for delivering unique stories, and his comedic timing. He's the author of Nice Bike: Making Meaningful Connections on The Road of Life.

Notes:

  • Nice Bike. It’s not a technique, it’s a genuine interest in others and the willingness to acknowledge the talents and accomplishments of everyone.
  • The three parts to story-telling: Stories need to be unpredictable, they need to have a hook, and they have to have a cast of characters.
  • While in college at St Cloud State, Mark toured high schools and colleges with a comedy troupe called Mom’s Apple Pie which helped him develop his comedic timing and ability to improv.
  • While on a trip to Washington DC with his dad, Mark witnessed his dad walking up to a couple of Vietnam veterans and saying, "Thank ya fellas. Welcome home." The moment was unforgettable to Mark as he witnessed what it meant to be grateful for others and to connect with them.
  • The "dark chocolate" that Mark's daughter gave to a struggling stranger at the airport. "We don't have to fix all the problems, but acknowledge others, see them, and try to connect with them."
  • The CEO of Cargill said it's not a secret what leaders need to do:
    • State where we're going
    • State how we're going to get there
    • Show that you have your team's back
    • Show that you care about your team as people
  • Leaders must always be in the trenches and learning... And work to create memorable experiences for the people they are leading
  • How to give a great toast at a wedding or eulogy at a funeral?
    • Remember it's not about you, it's about the bride and groom
    • Be story-driven
    • The power of three - "She's about faith, family, and friends" and then tell a short story about each of the three
  • What Mark learned from a "meat raffle"
    • You have to buy a ticket for a shot to win
    • You must be present to win
  • The same is true for leadership. You have to be engaged and take the chance to do it. You must be present with your team.
  • Be a "day-maker." Instead of just being a barber or a stylist, work to make your client's day by giving them an amazing haircut.
  • BWCA - Leave the area better than you found it... A great rule for life.
  • Core values - "When your core values are clear, decisions are easier."
  • Comparison - Compare yourself to your previous self. Be grateful for what you have. Someone else will always have more crayons. Focus on your crayons.
  • Advice to those who think they aren't creative. You are... You have to find the stories. Focus on four columns
    • People you've had experiences with
    • Experiences you've had
    • Lessons learned
    • Application to the lives of others
  • Roberta Jordan: "It's more important to be interested than interesting."
  • Life advice -- "Leave a tip for the staff who cleans your hotel room."

 

May 2, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Hubert Joly is a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School and the former Chairman and CEO of Best Buy.
He is the author of the upcoming book “The Heart of Business – Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism.”

Notes:

  • In May 2012. Jim Citrin, the leader of the CEO practice at Spencer Stuart, the global executive search company, asked Hubert, “Would you be interested in being the next CEO of Best Buy
  • Issues at Best Buy were all self-inflicted. Hubert realized there was an opportunity to fix it...
  • Hubert's "5 Be's" of leadership are purpose, values, clarity, authenticity, and service.
  • "My purpose in life is to make a positive difference on people around me." - Hubert Joly
  • "If you cannot go outside, go inside. Leadership starts from within."
    • Work to be the best version of yourself
  • Ask your people, "What is your dream?" -- "My job as a leader is to help you achieve your dreams."
  • "We're the captains of our lives."
  • "Profit should be an outcome, not a goal."
  • The 3 imperatives in sequential order:
    • Great people
    • Great customers
    • Make money
  • Remember that 98% of questions that are either/or should be AND's...
  • Key Philosophy:
    • Pursue a noble purpose
    • Put people at the center
    • Embrace all stakeholders
    • Leaders must create the environment to unleash the magic
  • What Hubert learned at McKinsey:
    • The emphasis in the early years was on solving problems.
  • In 2012, when Hubert joined Best Buy, he hired an executive coach. Why? "100% of the top 100 tennis players have a coach." We all need a coach.
  • "It sends a powerful message when the CEO has a coach." It shows that he understands he needs help. We all do.
  • Must-Have leadership qualities:
    • Knowing people... Who are they? What drives them? How do they want to be remembered?
    • "Tell me about your soul" --
  • Accept imperfections of self and others
  • How to turn around a business by putting people first and reducing headcount as a last resort.
  • How to unleash “human magic” for outcomes that defy logic. This includes an actionable commitment to diversity and inclusion, such as the “reverse” mentor program that pairs Best Buy executives with employees who help broaden their understanding of differences and issues they face.
  • How to become a purposeful leader focused on creating an environment in which others can flourish and perform at their best, and who inspires by showing vulnerability and embracing their and your humanity.
  • How to place a noble purpose as the cornerstone of a company’s strategy and concretely embrace and align all stakeholders around that purpose. For Best Buy, that purpose is enriching people’s lives through technology. And it allowed them to form genuine partnerships with the world’s foremost companies, including unlikely allies like Amazon, to the benefit of all. Jeff Bezos, founder, and CEO of Amazon: “Best Buy’s turnaround under Hubert Joly’s leadership was remarkable—a case study that should and will be taught in business schools around the world. Bold and thoughtful—he has a lot to teach.
Apr 25, 2021

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Greg McKeown wrote the New York Times best-seller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.  As well as frequently being the #1 Time Management book on Amazon, this book challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success. His latest book is titled, Effortless: Make It Easier To Do What Matters Most.

Notes:

  • Essentialism was about doing the right things; Effortless is about doing them in the right way...
  • The best free throw shooter ever is not Michael Jordan or Steph Curry… It’s Elena Delle Donne. 93.4%. “If you keep it simple, less can go wrong.”
  • The word NOW comes from the Latin phrase, novus homo, which means “a new man” or “man newly ennobled.” The spirit of this is clear: each new moment is a chance to start over. A chance to make a new choice.”
  • “Whatever has happened to you in life. Whatever hardship. Whatever pain. They pale in comparison to the power you have to choose what to do now.”
  • The question to ask yourself: "What's something essential that you're under investing in?"
    • The second question is: How can you make that effortless?
  • Life changes the day you discover residual results
  • How to make it effortless? Create a routine so you don't have to think about it.
  • The competition to the South Pole -- The difference between Amundsen versus Scott
    • Amundsen -- 15 miles per day, no matter what. The "15 mile march."
    • Scott -- Push to exhaustion every day.
  • Amundsen and four others arrived at the pole on December 14, 1911. Five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Scott and his four companions died on the return journey. Amundsen made it to the South Pole and back to base camp without suffering a death in the party.
    • Consistency day in and day out help Amundsen "achieve the goal without particular effort."
  • Effortless is about simplification. Ask, "what if it could be easy?"
  • Ask: "Is there an effortless way to do this?
  • Highland High School Rugby - Won 19 national championships: Systems were put in place
  • Consistent systems are the key
  • How to deal with the guilt when we don't work as hard?
    • Give your best to what you're doing, but have an open mind to finding a better way to do something
  • This book for Greg grew out of agony... His daughter was living an ideal life... And then had health issues that completely changed their family.
  • They had two possible paths to help her:
    • The harder, heavier path of 24/7 always on work... OR
    • Easier path of being grateful. Sharing optimism, and live in the state to help re-wire the brain. "Be grateful for every thing possible."
  • They chose the latter and Eve got better... How they chose to respond was everything...
Apr 18, 2021

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Suneel Gupta is on faculty at Harvard University. He's the author of Backable - The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take A Chance On You

Notes:

  • Let’s start with the obvious -- when lots of people are applying for the same spot, you have to find a way to stand out. You can’t just check a box, you have to leave an impression.  (But backable people “go beyond Google” and dig for insights that other people interviewing for the job may not find. They talk to customers, they attend shareholder meetings, they test-drive the product. (But backable people “go beyond Google” and dig for insights that other people interviewing for the job may not find. They talk to customers, they attend shareholder meetings, they test-drive the product. )
  • Suneel comes from a family of highly backable people—including his mother, Damyanti Hingorani, the first woman engineer for Ford Motor Company, and his brother Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN.
  • Reid Hoffman recruited Suneel to Mozilla...
    • Name someone early in your life who backed you. Call them and say 'thank you.'
  • Hire "high ceiling" leaders:
    • Suneel was a speechwriter in 2004. He was backstage at the Democratic National Convention. There was a State Senator from Illinois. Suneel watched him speak from behind the curtain. "He created an electric wave of energy when he spoke." It was President Barack Obama.
      • After that, Suneel became obsessed with following the work of the State Senator.
      • He studied President Obama's history and learned that he went from a dry speaker to inspiring through preparation and practice. He worked on his skill to communicate and got better.
  • The "It" quality -- People get a job because others want to take a chance on them. They're backable.
  • Specifics to make this happen:
    • Play exhibition matches -- Prepare, practice, rehearse
    • They develop a level of mastery so that they don't have to think when it's time to perform. Their preparation allows them to flow
    • Ella Fitzgerald performed in Berlin... She forgot the lyrics and improvised the words for the next half of the song. She rehearsed a lot. That allowed her to perform even when she forgot the words.
  • Confidence comes from believing something will go wrong and that you've practiced enough to be able to handle it. "Build your recovery muscle."
  • Surround yourself with great people - Early adopters need to feel part of the build.
  •  Steer Into Objections. Anticipate three key objections to your idea. When pitching, don’t avoid those objections; steer into them.
  • Don’t Pitch Prematurely. Instead of sharing an idea before it’s ready, nurture it until you’re ready. It’s not charisma that convinces people, it’s conviction.
  • Don’t Overshare. Share what it could be, not how it has to be. Share just enough to get the essence of your idea across, then open up the conversation.
  • Build Your Backable Circle. Don’t rely on just one person to help you with your pitch. Surround yourself with a trusted group of people who bring different perspectives.
  • Humans are not risk takers - We do whatever we can to avoid a loss. You need to neutralize that fear.
    • "Don't just talk about why it's new, but why it's inevitable."
  • "Backable people convince themselves first. It's not charisma that convinces people, it's conviction."
  • "Most new ideas are killed inside hallways. We share too early. Before they're ready. Nurture your ideas behind the scenes. They need an incubation time. Write it out. Draw..."
  • Quiet time is so important to hone ideas. It's critical to the creative process
  • "Ken Robinson was not that charismatic, but you believed everything he was saying." He believed it first. He had conviction.
  • Storytelling - "You need to cast a central character."
    • "Re-write the book for on person as the reader... 'I'm writing this book for my daughter to read.'"
    • "Don't talk about the market, talk about one person."
  • Life advice:
    • "Figure out what makes you come alive. I left Groupon and created a list of ideas."
Apr 11, 2021

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Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, one of the leading international business schools. Erin conducted an in-depth study with Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix, investigating the underlying principles necessary for building a corporate culture that is inventive, fast, and flexible. The results of that research were published in their book No Rules Rules. In 2019, Erin was listed by the Thinkers50, for the second time, as one of the fifty most impactful business writers in the world and in 2018 she was selected by HR magazine as one of the top 30 most influential HR thinkers of the year. 

Notes:

  • “Corporate culture can be a mushy marshland of vague language and incomplete, ambiguous definitions. What’s worse, company values — as articulated — rarely match the way people behave in reality.”
  • The Netflix culture deck. 127 slides originally intended for internal use but one that Reed Hastings (CEO) shared online in 2009. Sheryl Sandberg called it “the most important document ever to come out of Silicon Valley.” Erin said "I loved the deck for its honesty. And loathed it for its content.”
  • "If you want your culture to come alive, you need to avoid speaking in absolutes."
  • Instead, use either or…
    • Security or High Performance?
    • Candor or Comfort?
  • Why did the Netflix culture deck go viral?
    • "This is a company that tells the truth. It said what it believed. That is rare."
  • On May 31, 2015 you got a cold email from Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix)… Reed told her that he read her book, The Culture Map, loved it, and was having his leadership team at Netflix read it.
  • Erin's biggest surprise during her time researching Netflix and writing with Reed?
    • "That management paradigms are hangovers from the industrial era. Previously, the #1 goal was error elimination. That isn't the #1 goal at Netflix. It's innovation."
  • Reed Hastings had a company before Netflix called Pure Software. He put in a lot of rules and processes. He realized that "if you dummy proof the system only dummies want to work there." Too many processes can kill flexibility and innovation.
  • This is "applicable to any environment where innovation is more important than error prevention."
  • "Most rules are put in place to deal with low performers."
  • "Instead, create an environment with 'talent density.' Only high performers..."
  • Performance is Contagious: Professor Will Felps, of the University of New South Wales in Australia, conducted a study demonstrating contagious behavior in the work environment. He created several teams of 4 college students and asked each to complete a management task in 45 minutes. The teams who did the best work would receive a financial reward of $100. (Bezos: "People are pretty good at learning high standards simply through exposure," writes Bezos. "High standards are contagious. Bring a new person onto a high standards team, and they'll quickly adapt. The opposite is also true)
  • The two different types of jobs:
    • Operational - Ice cream scoopers
    • Creative - Rely on your brain
  • Pay Top of Market for talent - Matt Thunell (Manager of Original Content) said about Netflix, “We live in a walled-garden of excellence, where everyone is a high performer. You go into these meetings and it’s like the talent and brain power in the room could generate the office electricity. People are challenging one another, building up arguments. That’s why we get so much done at such incredible speed here. It’s because of the crazy high talent density.” With that said, Netflix doesn’t believe in “Pay-Per-Performance” bonuses.
  • When you first began to collaborate with Reed to write this book, Erin asked him how he would find the time to collaborate. He said, “Oh, I can give this pretty much whatever time you think it will need.” That surprised Erin... In Reed's mind, the leaders should create a system so that they don't have to be busy, packed with back to back to back meetings...
  • Candor -- Giving and receiving feedback
    • Top performers regularly help other top performers get better by giving feedback
    • At Netflix, they do live 360 feedback dinners -- Go around the table giving feedback for each person.
  • The 4 A method of feedback:
    • Aim to assist
    • Actionable - It must be clear what could be done
    • Receive the feedback with gratitude
    • Accept it or decline it... It's not always right. Be grateful for it regardless
  • Sustain Excellence:
    • Humility
    • Curiosity to Learn - Never stop learning, never feel like you've mastered it
  • Life/Career Advice:
    • Get the talent right
    • Create Candor
    • Eat the cake -- Remove rules and processes
  • If you create an open vacation policy (meaning that vacation days are not tracked), it is imperative that the senior leaders lead from the front and go on a lot of vacations. The rest of the team will follow... If you never go on vacation, then your team will feel like they have to do the same.
Apr 4, 2021

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Brook Cupps is a leadership teacher and the coach of the Centerville High School basketball team. In 2021, he led his team to the first state championship in school history. He is best known as a leader who truly lives his core values. They are: Tough, Passionate, Unified, & Thankful.

Notes:

  • Brook's personal mantras:
    • Wolf - Wolves travel in packs. They are not good by themselves. They need the pack. BC needs people around him. Loves teams. "Wolves are more badass than lions or tigers. You don't see a wolf in a circus."
    • Chop Wood - "I've never viewed myself as talented, but I'm willing to work. We say chop chop. When things are going well, get to work. When things are bad, get to work. The connection is always back to work."
    • The Man In The Arena - "I had to develop this over time. The critics used to bother me and I would listen to them. It affected my confidence. I learned that the most important opinions are the people in the arena with me." Brene Brown - “A lot of cheap seats in the arena are filled with people who never venture onto the floor. They just hurl mean-spirited criticisms and put-downs from a safe distance. The problem is, when we stop caring what people think and stop feeling hurt by cruelty, we lose our ability to connect. But when we’re defined by what people think, we lose the courage to be vulnerable. Therefore, we need to be selective about the feedback we let into our lives. For me, if you’re not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.”
  • Purpose - "My purpose is to inspire others to strive for excellence over success."
  • Self awareness leads to self confidence - Know who you are. Be comfortable with who you are. "You can't be tough alone. You need others."
  • Foxhole Friends - It takes time to build foxhole friend relationships. "With my foxhole friends, I can be completely open. They tell me the truth. They have the freedom to criticize me."
  • Coach Z -- Dave Zeller. “He never won a District. He’s the best coach I’ve ever been around. A state championship isn’t success. It’s the impact you have on the kids because nobody’s going to tell me that those guys that won state championships are better coaches than Z was.”
  • Core Values: Values become real when you define the behaviors that exemplify the value...
    • Tough - Positive body language leads you to be fight ready
    • Passionate - Choosing extra work leads you to steal inches
    • Unified - Speaking and acting with urgency leads you to not flinching in big moments
    • Thankful - Showing love for one another through touches (help someone off the floor, give them a five after they make a mistake)
  • Unified --  You must speak and act with urgency. "If you choose to remain silent when someone has done something wrong, then that is selfish." Choosing the easier path of not saying anything is selfish. The selfless act is having the guts to speak up when it's needed.
  • Patch Adams - "Indifference is the greatest disease of all."
  • You need to stand for something or you stand for nothing...
  • "Your behaviors are the crux to your values." Do your behaviors match the values you claim to be yours?
  • Gabe Cupps (Brook's son) entered the conversation for a few minutes...
    • Gabe sent a text to each player on the team before tournament games that simply said, "We're gonna win."
    • Where does that confidence come from? "It's the work put in leading up to the big moments."
    • Gabe originally tried out for the North Coast Blue Chips AAU team... The same team that Bronny James (LeBron James Jr) played on... During a break in the action, he asked Bronny to play 1 on 1... "I didn't know how good I was. I wanted to see."
    • Gabe earned their respect and made the team... Later LeBron noticed Brook's coaching ability when he was helping out at practice and determined he was the best coach to lead the team moving forward.
    • LeBron's superpower as a leader is "gassing up his guys." He has the ability to create more belief in others through his belief in them. A critical leadership action where LeBron excels...
  • What did Brook and Gabe say to each other during their long embrace after winning the state championship? "I just told him how much I loved him."
  • Goal setting process -- Brook does not set results oriented goals. He sets process oriented goals. They had no goals to win their conference, or regionals, or the state championship (they won all of those this year). Their goal for this season was:
    • Attack every opportunity with purpose
    • Process based versus Results based? In the world of coaching basketball, there is a clear scoreboard. You have a record. If you lose too many games, you get fired. How does Brook manage that? "If I have a group of guys that are tough, passionate, unified, and thankful... And they attack every opportunity with purpose, we'll probably be pretty good and win a lot. The results usually take care of themselves."
  • Honoring those who have come before you: "Drink the water, but remember who dug the well."
  • Will you take a charge?
    • This is what he looks for in a teammate. Someone who looks for opportunities to sacrifice for the team.
    • There is a physical sacrifice. "It's gonna hurt. It's an unselfish act to take a charge."
    • "To be all in, you need to take charges."
  • High Standards - There was a moment in a game earlier in the season when Centerville was winning 60-24 in the third quarter. Brook's team started playing a little sloppy. Turned the ball over a few times. It was uncharacteristic of their usual play. Brook called a time out and yelled at his team. It was obvious they were going to win (by a lot), but that moment showed me that Brook holds his team to higher standards and won’t allow them to lower even when the opponent isn’t posing a challenge...
    • "You get what you accept. That's my standard. If I ignore that, then I'm not living to my values, and that's not ok with me."
  • Creating your values -- "I think as the leader, they need to be your values."
    • "If you go to work for someone else, you need to be bought into their values. If you're not, then you probably shouldn't work there."
    • When interviewing for a job to work for a leader, ask them: "What are your values and how do you live them?
  • I noticed after big wins that Brook doesn't join in the pictures with his players... Why?
    • "That's their moment. It's about them. I love watching them enjoy those moments."
  • Common traits of foxhole friends: "They may not communicate them the same way I do, but we have a shared appreciation for our values."
  • 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.” -- Teddy Roosevelt
Mar 28, 2021

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Kevin Sharer has a distinguished career as a successful CEO and Board Member. He is currently a senior lecturer at Harvard University Business School and continues to mentor a select number of senior executives. Either as a Chairman, independent director, or mentor, Sharer has been a part of more than 20 successful CEO-successor transitions. Kevin led Amgen for 20 years, first as President and then as CEO for 12 years. Under Sharer’s leadership, the company achieved annual revenue of $16 billion with operations in 55 countries. 

Notes:

  • "What Operational Excellence Looks Like"
    • Must know the details
    • Must have a listening system to know where problems brew
    • The leaders have a clear agreement with the team on what success is
    • A cadence of clear communication
    • The leader must embody the behavior... They are the model
    • Must have real empathy for people and care about them
  • The leader needs to assess when things go wrong so that they don't make the same mistake twice...
  • Kevin spent 110 days underwater in a submarine...
  • When he left the Navy, he knew he wanted to be a manager. He joined a program at AT&T to become one...
    • He had an ambition to rise high in an organization
  • Kevin's dad - A military aviator. His hero and role model. his dad cared a lot about leadership...
  • How did Kevin earn the CEO role at Amgen?
    • Spent 8 years as the President of the company. And "made it pretty obvious" to hire him for the CEO role
    • He consistently delivered results and formed a strong partnership with the CEO
  • How to sustain what's special about a company as it grows?
    • The book Built to Last by Jim Collins was very helpful....
  • How to create and live your values?
    • They are not defined by what's written down, it's the behavior of the people. And that starts at the top...
    • Understand what your real values are. If you don't believe in the values, you shouldn't work there...
    • You "have to have social data to know that the values are real." Ask others in the organization: "Are the values you experience consistent with the values stated by the company?"
  • How he got hired as the President at Amgen?
    • "I first decided that I wanted to be a General Manager and not a functional specialists." Kevin pursued that through General Electric and got great experience...They hired him in part because of his broad range of experience.
    • It was a multi-step interview process. Kevin interviewed with 20 people at the company before getting the offer...
  • Listening ability: Kevin went from bad to great... "On the way up in my career, I had the view that I was so fast, so smart... It was working. I thought I was being helpful by telling others what I thought, but I was cutting off the full picture."
  • Kevin had an eye opening moment when he asked the CEO of IBM to talk about leadership with his team...
    • "I learned to listen for comprehension. Listen to understand first."
    • "You need to listen to the entire eco-system."
  • Big idea: Pick 10 CEOs who didn't make it: "Seven of them weren't situationally aware."
  • What are some "must-have" hiring qualities?
    • A record of good knowledge
    • Great communication skill
    • Comfort in their own skin
    • Curious - they must ask questions
    • Answer the question, "what are your goals?"
    • Answer the question, "what have you learned from failure?"
    • "If five people were asked about you, what would they say?"
    • Their accomplishments speak for themselves. They don't have to overly sell themselves
    • They need to "clearly want the job."
    • A good sense of humor
  • Hiring trap: "There is a bias for us to hire people like us. It's overwhelming. We're wired to think, "other is dangerous." We must be aware of that."
Mar 21, 2021

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Ryan Petersen is the CEO and Founder of Flexport. Prior to starting Flexport to fix the user experience in global trade, Ryan was co-founder and CEO of ImportGenius.com, a data-as-a-service business for global shipping. Flexport hit a $3.2 Billion valuation after $1 billion investment led by SoftBank.

Notes:

  • Excellence =
    • Curiosity - "It's a more fun way to live."
    • Learners
    • Appreciative
    • Have fun
    • "It doesn't have to be boring."
  • The importance of writing as a leader:
    • "I write a lot of essays. Some are published. Some aren't."
  • Communication:
    • "It's a huge part of the job of a leader."
    • For investor updates... "It's good practice."
      • Try to use humor, learn something new, don't be boring, get people "pumped up"
  • Raising money from investors:
    • "It's like your love life. You have to earn it. There are no shortcuts. You need to have a business that doesn't need them."
      • "We built a track record over the 15 years prior to raising money."
    • Masayoshi Son is the CEO of Softbank. He is a Japanese billionaire technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Ryan met with him and earned a $1 Billion investment... Making Flexport worth $3.2 Billion.
    • Flexport became the fastest growing company in Silicon Valley.
    • Ryan wrote an essay about raising a lot of money so that they could ride out a "100 year storm."
    • How was he able to raise so much?
      • "Don't do an auction. I said, 'I'm only talking to you.' Create a win-win. See the world through their eyes."
    • Masa had written a 300 year vision. Ryan said, "The audacity to have a 300 year vision, it just resonated with me."
      • "One of our core values is to play the long game."
  • Flexport enables all parties to move large product around the world. It was born out of Ryan discovering the pain of shipping.
  • There is a lack of technology with freight forwarders. There was no culture of customer satisfaction.
    • There was high friction - "We counted 984 steps to get a product shipped."
  • Paul Graham, one of the greatest investors of all time and founder of Y-Combinator said this about Ryan Petersen:
    • Ryan is what I call an armor-piercing shell: a founder who keeps going through obstacles that would make other people give up. But he's not just determined. He sees things other people don't see. The freight business is both huge and very backward, and yet who of all the thousands of people starting startups noticed? Ryan Petersen."
  • By 2016, Flexport was serving 700 clients across 64 countries. Tech Crunch described it as the unsexiest trillion-dollar startup.
    • Flexport has grown to 1,800 employees across 14 offices and 6 warehouses, and 10,000 clients.
  • His goal:
    • "Drive velocity: You need speed in the right direction. Velocity is the key to success. That's culture ultimately."
  • The two forms of bureaucracy:
    • Too many rules, order
    • No rules, no process, chaos
  • Need to find the balance between the two
  • "Transparency helps get people aligned."
  • Doing an open Slack Q&A with all employees -- Helps with transparency.
  • What Ryan looks for when hiring a leader? And why Ryan admires Parker Conrad from Zenefits:
    • He's "hungry, curious, has a chip on his shoulder, determined, ambitious, and solves complex problems."
  • The profession of sales:
    • It's "one of the most misunderstood professions. It's part of all jobs. You have to persuade, create value."
    • "Sales is about creating value for others. Create win-wins. So much is repeat games. Almost nothing is a one time transaction."
  • Obsession with company culture:
    • "When I reach out to top execs, they always take the call if I'm asking about culture."
  • The secret to the tech industry:
    • Everyone is willing to share tools, mindset, and lessons learned with one another. It's "normal to pick up the phone and ask."
  • How did becoming a dad change him?
    • "It's exhausting. Babies are fragile."
  • Generalists vs. Specialists?
    • The world needs more generalists. "Generalists are under-valued. Leaders need to be well-rounded and cross over into multiple disciplines."
  • Has has Ryan learned to speak 6 languages?
    • Read books, make flash cards, read the newspaper, hire a tutor... "You have to experience pain to learn. You have to like the pain."
  • Life/Career Advice:
    • Get out of student debt
    • Read books. Your life will be different in 5 years based on the books you read. "Most people don't read books."
    • Success compounds - Add up a lot of little wins
Mar 14, 2021

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Dustyn Kim is the Chief Revenue Officer at Artsy. Artsy is used by art lovers and collectors to discover, learn about, and buy art. Prior to working at Artsy, Dustyn was a senior executive at LexisNexis. While at LexisNexis, she was my boss! She is a rare combination of highly respected, extremely well-liked, and typically the smartest person of every room she walks in. I loved working for her.

Notes:

  • Excellence = Authenticity and team building. "A leader should be focused on building great teams."
  • What Dustyn learned from one of her favorite bosses, Kumsal Bayazit (the CEO of Elsevier)
    • "She was inspiring and very human. Work and life go hand in hand."
  • "When I got a senior leadership role, I didn't want a command and control organization."
  • What she learned from Sebastian at Artsy:
    • "He said to me, 'I advise, you decide.' That empowered me and gave me ownership of my decisions."
    • It's critical to empower others
  • What are must-have qualities in a leader?
    • Empathy - EQ + IQ
    • Communication skill - Set the vision and communicate that effectively to you team
    • Collaboration - Lead through influence. Cross team collaboration is key to getting things done.
  • How to collaborate better?
    • "Map out the key people you need to know and understand their goals."
  • Starting early:
    • "When I was 15, my dad woke me up and told me he was taking me to Wall Street for my first internship."
  • How to lead as a parent for you children?
    • "I try to introduce them to as much as possible."
    • "My job is to help you figure out what you love doing, but you have to show up and do the work."
  • Advice for women leaders?
    • "I don't love the advice from Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In." It's really hard to have a full time job and travel a lot if you want to build a family. It's okay to slow down at times for your family.
    • "Kumsal wanted me to go for a big promotion when I had just given birth to Mason. I didn't want to travel the world and be gone all the time. It's okay to not go for the big job all the time."
  • Advice for new managers:
    • Avoid the desire to micro manage
    • Know that there are lots of different paths to success
    • Don't expect to know everything
    • A lot of new managers are too nice
      • You need to give feedback
  • How to be both respected and liked?
    • Focus on the challenge at hand - "What's the plan? What's the goal?"
    • "Then build the narrative and ask the team, what do you think?"
  • "It didn't work for me to try and act like a guy. I had to be myself."
  • Confidence is very important. That comes from being prepared and knowing your stuff.
  • A tangible takeaway for how to find your voice in a meeting:
    • "In meetings, when I was younger, I would turn bright red when speaking. A trick I had to implement was, 'say something very early in the meeting.' Just so that too much time passes without me saying anything."
  • Career/Life Advice:
    • Stand out -- Be excellent at your current role. Make sure others know they can count on you to do great work.
    • Speak up -- Don't expect others to read your mind. TELL THEM what you want in your career. Make sure people know what you want to do. Give them the opportunity to help you get there...
    • Have a goal, but be flexible on your path to achieving it
Mar 8, 2021

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Adam Bryant interviewed more than 500 CEOs for “Corner Office,” a series on leadership that he created in 2009. Adam is the author of three books based on the themes that have emerged from his interviews and consulting work. His new book is THE CEO Test: Master the Challenges that Make or Break All Leaders.

Notes:

  • Interview style - Instead of asking them about strategies and industry trends, Adam focuses on timeless questions (how they were influenced by parents, lessons from early years in their careers, what they look for when making bets on people to invest in) about the important leadership lessons that CEOs had learned…
  • Some questions he likes to ask:
    • How do you hire? What questions do you ask?
    • Describe yourself in one word...
    • Work to get around the polished façade
    • What animal would you be and why?
    • Tony Hsieh would ask, "On a scale of 1-10, how weird are you?"
  • Some additional interviewing tactics:
    • The CEO has the interviewee drive his or her car. Monitors how they react in a different vehicle, in a new city
    • Sharing meals
    • "Put the mosaic of what a person is like as a human being" -- not just interviewing for a job
  • The Dinner Party game:
    • "If you could only ask a job candidate one question, what would you ask?"
  • Learn about failure - Id you desire humility, learn about their failures, learnings, and lessons of life
  • Ownership - The 3 most beautiful words: "I'm on it."
  • Every employee needs to write a playbook to how they'd do the job... They need to take ownership.
  • If you were an animal, what would you be?
    • Adam: "A Hawk. Hover at high altitude, when they figure out what they want, they go get it."
  • Question: What qualities of your parents do you like the most and the least?
    • Ask that if you really want to go deep -- This forces the candidate to get real. "We're fooling ourselves if we think we can escape our parents."
  • Process to ask questions:
    • Think, "I want to cut a record with you." -- Have the desire to make something new with the person.
  • His premise at the New York Times: "What if I sat down with CEOs and never asked them about their companies?"
  • Questions: What were you like as a kid? What were your parents like? How have your parents impacted your leadership style? What drives you?
    • "I like to see them in the moment of learning about themselves."
    • "Eye contact is the 5 G of communication."
  • Two tracking - Know where to go next AND listen intently
  • Sustaining Excellence:
    • Feedback look must be strong - They must be open to it
    • Recognize patterns
    • Take action
    • Learn new things
    • Be self-aware
    • Be humble
    • Need to ask, "What does this moment need?"
  • "What is the gooey center of that candy?" A leader needs to know that about their business.
  • Life advice:
    • "Play in traffic." You have to get out there and meet people and do things. Build relationships. Those help with the pivot points of your career and life.
    • Always be prepared to learn the most important lesson of your life...
Mar 1, 2021

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Jeff Immelt served as CEO of GE for 16 years. He has been named one of the “World’s Best CEOs” three times by Barron’s. During his tenure as CEO, GE was named “America’s Most Admired Company” by Fortune magazine and one of “The World’s Most Respected Companies” in polls by Barron’s and the Financial Times. 

Notes:

  • Raised in Cincinnati, OH by his father Joe and mother Donna. Both of his parents grew up in the depression. Growing up Jeff said, “I remember when my dad had a great boss, he was motivated, and when he had a lousy boss, he was neither challenged nor happy. The worst kind of boss he always used to say, was one who criticized all day long but never offered solutions.”
  • GE was founded on April 15, 1892, by one of the greatest inventors in history, Thomas Edison. For most of the 20th century, GE had more patents than any other corporation.
  • Jack Welch, deemphasized technology and innovation, and instead focused on management techniques like six sigma. Six Sigma is a data-driven methodology invented by a Motorola engineer named Bill Smith in 1980. It trains managers to be experts (called Black Belts) in improving business processes to reduce product defects.
  • Jeff's first day as CEO of GE was September 10, 2001. On his first day, he introduced himself, via simulcast, to GE’s 300,000 employees.
  • His second day as CEO was 9/11/2001. "Good leaders absorb fear. They give people a plan. You have to hold two thoughts at the same time."
  • By the end of his first week as CEO, GE’s shares had dropped 20%, decreasing the company’s market capitalization by $80 billion.
  • Leaders learn everyday — “I’ve always believed an important determinant of success could be found in how one answered 3 questions:
    • How fast can you learn?
    • How much can you take?
    • What will you give to those around to you?”
  • The trifecta: “In your career, you meet only a handful of leaders who have the trifecta of being able to innovate, execute, and develop talent. Omar Ishrak had that."
  • Jeff was the ultimate grinder, a true believer of GE, he got the “meatball” (the GE logo) tattooed on the left hip. The GE story is extremely personal for Jeff. 
  • Why the "Success Theater" story about Jeff is wrong. "For seven years, 10 times per year, I had a leader from GE flown to my house with their spouse. We'd serve them dinner and then I'd spend 6+ hours with the leader asking them questions, learning about them, and saying, 'Tell me something I don't know.'"
  • What Jeff learned from playing football in college at Dartmouth:
    • "When the best player is not caring about the team, nobody will get in line." The story of Harry Wilson (Russell Wilson's father, Jeff's teammate in college) and Reggie Williams.
    • "Football teams are self policing. It's a series of peer relationships. Failure is not definitive. You have to always think about the next play."
  • "The best people get 100% of the work done in 80% of the time. That leaves them more time to push boundaries."
  • How did Jeff get picked to be Jack Welch's successor?
    • "I was a good peer. Your peers are who promote you. Those relationships have to be earned."
  • What was a Jack Welch Quarterly Business Review like?
    • "Jack was a screamer. He was spontaneous. He would like at page 7 and then jump to page 17 and ask questions."
  • Front line obsession - "You have to have a passion for understanding how people work."
  • Front line managers - "I told them they are more important than me. That have direct access to the customer."
  • The profession of sales: why it's noble
    • Amazing sense of urgency - Never waste a minute or let it pass
    • See the company through the customers eyes - "The salesforce sets the culture... I was persistent, dogged..."
  • Good leaders are systems thinkers:
    • Keep your head up and stay engaged at the same time
    • Read books, ask question... "You must be curious."
  • Sustain excellence: Must be a learner. "Fred Smith (CEO of FedEX) is my leadership hero."
  • Heart broken over GE: "You can still progress as a human being even when you have a broken heart. You have to keep trying. Even when the efforts don't seem to be working for you."
    • "There's value in a human being in just keep moving. Don't hide. Don't disappear."
  • When you are on top, it is easy to be long on friends. When you hit bottom, there are a select few who reach out. For me, those standouts included American Express’s Ken Chenault, Delta Airlines' Richard Anderson, and especially Cisco’s John Chambers.
  • Apply to be part of my Leadership Circle
Feb 22, 2021

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Ryan Serhant is a real estate broker, CEO, and founder of SERHANT. He's a bestselling author, producer, and star of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing New York and Sell It Like Serhant. He led the #1 ranked (in sales volume) real estate team in New York City in 2019 with just under $1.45 Billion in sales.

Notes:

  • His mantra is: "Expansion. Always in all ways."
    • It's about growth.
  • Work to find your own brand and mantra -- It must be honest and genuine for you.
  • A learning exercise for you to do: A "self-audit." Ask your friends and colleagues, "When I'm not around and you're describing me to others, what do you say?"
    • Find friends who are willing to be honest with you to better understand what you're known for... If you don't like it, work to change it.
    • Ryan Serhant was known as the guy who kept his hands in his pockets and couldn't look you in the eye. He needed to change that.
  • "Your perception to others is your reputation and your brand."
  • "Fake it til you make it" is not useful...
    • Instead, Ryan sold the TV producers at Bravo the person and the real estate broker he would become...
    • "When Tom Brady got drafted in the 6th round, he told the owner, 'That's the best decision you've ever made.' Tom Brady truly believed that. I believed I would become the best real estate agent in the world."
    • "I didn't show them who I was in the moment, I showed them who I could become."
  • Pivotal moment - Ryan went to the top selling agent in his office and said, "Man, how are you doing this, can you teach me?" And the agent said to Ryan, "Na man, I ain't telling you shit." Ryan thought, "Wow. I'm going to have to figure this out on my own. This guy is threatened by me."
  • The New York City market - "It's cut throat. I went there for theater school, and stayed because, 'I would rather regret the things I did, than what I thought about doing and didn't do."
  • Ryan depends on a routine to be productive. It is:
    • "I wake up at 4:00am. In the gym by 5:00. 6:00 shower. Baby time at 7:00. First meeting at 7:30. I figure I wake up three hours earlier than most people. If you multiple that 3 hours times 365 days, I get on average 30 more days per year than others. I like my odds with 30 extra days."
  • Discipline is critical - "Of course I'm tired in the morning, but I get up and do it anyway. People need to do more things that could better their lives. Do the things within your control." It's harder, but worth it.
  • How has becoming a dad changed Ryan?
    • "My wife says it's being a male nester. I worked harder and worked more while she was pregnant. I want to be the provider for my family. My daughter has made everything bigger."
    • What about balance? "I have no balance. I'm lucky I found a partner who understands my drive and work ethic."
  • What to say to those who don't like him because of the self-promotion?
    • "I'm a real estate broker. I'm a salesman. The difference with me is I don't hide it. Our job is to promote our success so that we can get the next listing."
  • Building confidence:
    • "People who spend millions on real estate don't lack confidence. They want a broker who is confident too."
  • Big Money Energy:
    • "It's a unique set of qualities that every successful, confident person has..."
    • Code #1: "When you can't change your circumstance, there's one thing you can change. Your energy. I sell a transfer of energy. Of excitement."
  • Energy
    • "Develop magnetism so others want to be around you. How? Ask questions, be interested in them, listen to their responses, create friendships instead of clients."
    • "Shift your mindset -- What is your why? What's the wall you're fighting against? -- "I had no money and no connections in NYC. I rode the Subway crying that I couldn't even get a rental listing... That's my why."
  • Commonality among excellence real estate brokers:
    • Must be very organized
    • Follow up is critical
    • Disciplined
    • Relentless work ethic
    • Empathetic - The ability to be excited or sad with a client.
  • There are 3 types of sales people:
    • Car sales - pushes, thinks short term
    • Tour guide - Just points to stuff, never closes deals
    • Push & Pull - They work to get the deal done
Feb 15, 2021

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John Chambers served as Cisco’s CEO from 1995-2015 and Executive Chairman from 2015-2017. Cisco went from $70 million to $40 billion in annual revenue during his time.

Notes:

  • When John was six years old, he went fishing with his Dad in Elk River, WV. He was told, "Don't get too close to the water, the current is strong and could pull you under."
    • John's curiosity got the best of him. He went too close and slipped, falling into the water. His dad ran towards the current as it was pulling John and yelled, "Just hold on to the fishing pole."
  • Fortunately, John survived and was eventually pulled out of the water by his dad. His dad said, "Do you know why I told you to hold on to the fishing pole?
    • "Don't let panic set in. Focus on what you can control. Work your way to calmer waters." It's a great metaphor for life.
  • When dealing with stress, hold on to the fishing pole.
  • How to deal with fear and uncertainty?
    • "I had two parents that were doctors. They helped me a lot."
    • "They taught me not to waste cycles on things you cannot change. Focus on the future, deal with the world as it is, not as you wish it was."
  • This is why John deliberately puts the leaders he leads in stressful situations.
    • "Under stress you learn who people are."
    • "With that said, I only coach leaders that want to be coached." -- If you don't want to be coached, you probably won't work with John Chambers.
  • How did he earn the job as CEO of Cisco?
    • "My parents taught me that education is the equalizer in life. I was a professional student. I got three degrees. And was trained very well at IBM, even as an entry level employee."
    • "I decided to leave my job at Wang for the same reason that most people leave their jobs. My manager."
    • "I left prior to even discussing another job with someone else. I didn't feel it was right to be laying people off while looking for another job."
    • "I thought the job offers would roll in. They didn't. I initially had no job offers... And then I reached out to my friends and network and asked for help... I had 22 offers in 90 days. 21 of them from friends of mine. I learned that the golden rule is true. Treat others how you'd like to be treated and it will come back to you when you need it."
    • "How you treat people determines your brand."
  • Relationships -- "I'm usually the best prepared for every meeting I'm in. That way, I can move with speed."
    • "The emotional part of relationships comes from my mom. She taught me how to connect with people."
    • "I love building extended family teams. My team at Cisco was my family. We had only 5% turnover while the market rate was 15%.
  • How is John different from Jack Welch?
    • "I learned a lot of lessons from Jack. He sent his team from GE to benchmark us at Cisco. They took 22 ideas from us."
    • "Jack was great at quarterly business reviews, but he was very tough on his people."
    • "I tried not to embarrass the people on my team in front of one another. I like to praise in public and criticize in private. That was different from Jack."
  • How did they successfully acquire 180 companies?
    • They developed great playbooks and implemented them.
  • What John looks for in a company:
    • Do they have an excellent CEO who wants to be coached?
    • Can the company be #1 or #2 in their market?
    • Talk with customers and get a feel for the company from that vantage point
    • What is their culture?
  • What John looks for in a leader:
    • A track record of overachieving
    • "I look at their leadership team. Can they build a great team? That speaks volumes about them."
    • Cultural match - "Our values need to match."
    • They understand the industry they're in
  • Culture must be owned at the top:
    • "The CEO must own the culture. In every meeting, the CEO should point out an example of how someone is living their values."
  • Why are off site leadership retreats so important?
    • "It allows you to develop relationships outside of the office environment. You can build in depth relationships, built on trust."
    • "The off sites helped us learn much more about one another."
    • Gustavo (a leader John works with) saw a grizzly bear. Later he said, "I've never been more scared or more alive."
    • "In the evenings, I ask for each person to give a toast and share a key learning."
      • "I look for teaching moments."
  • Sales - A noble profession:
    • "We are all in sales. It's about connecting with people. I was with the King of Jordan and his wife (the Queen) was pregnant, I asked, "So King will you be in the room while your wife gives birth?" This was not something that was typically asked of the King. John did it as a way to connect and offer advice. "You need to be in that room. It's the most amazing moment." This is how John connects with others.
    • Sales is part of everything we do. You get rejected, have to bounce back, and keep going. "I once asked Steph Curry, 'do you think you're going to make every shot? Even if you've missed your last five?' 'Yes, he said.' Sales is like that, you have to believe in yourself to make the next one."
  • Advice:
    • Never compromise your values
    • How you handle your setbacks with determine your life
    • Treat people like you want to be treated. Be kind.
    • Focus, but also relax. Don't be so uptight.
Feb 8, 2021

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Ryan Deiss is a best selling author, founder of multiple companies collectively employing hundreds around the globe. He is the founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com and Founder and Managing Partner of RivalBrands.com and plattr.com. Ryan is the creator of the “Customer Value Optimization” methodology and have introduced and popularized many of the digital selling strategies. He is also the founder and host of the Traffic & Conversion Summit, the largest digital marketing conversion conference in North America.

Notes:

  • Commonalities of excellence:
    • They understand why they've made mistakes - they learn why they've failed.
    • They are purposeful about their decision making
  • Appetite for risk:
    • "I have a very low appetite for risk."
    • "I value security."
  • Must have qualities in a leader to hire on his team?
    • "I want them to not be like me." Need to have skills that compliment his...
      • Early on he hired people just like him. It was a mistake.
    • Consistency - Must show up.
    • A big heart - People who care about others and their work.
  • Why writing is so important as a leader:
    • Like academics being peer reviewed. "It forces you to crystalize your own ideas."
      • "You need to say something new that hasn't been said before. And be willing to be criticized."
  • Eugene Schwartz
    • Breakthrough Advertising =  one of the best books ever written on marketing
  • The Awareness Levels:
    • Completely Unaware - They don't know they have a problem worth solving
    • Problem Aware - They sense they have a problem, but don't know there's a solution
    • Solution Aware - Know the results they want, but don't know your product provides it
    • Product Aware - Know what you sell, but aren't sure it's right for them
    • Most Aware - Repeat buyers and loyal customers who refer you to their friends
  • How to make your leadership training better?
    • Acknowledge their problem is real. Make them feel heard...
    • Sell the soft. Speak into someone's reality.
    • Acknowledge the pain, offer a solution... "Outsourced Leadership Development"
  • "Your service is a vehicle to a more desired result."
  • Be the "transportation to transformation."
  • Scaling beyond a personality driven business:
    • Get off the field, get in the owner's box. Productize yourself.
    • Build an asset.
    • Create ideas that travel - Have your version of 10 commandments on one single piece of paper
  • Ryan has his "customer value journey" - The Customer Value Journey is about turning strangers into super-fans.
    • Redirect it into the artifact
    • Say "We" instead of "I"
    • Give it a name - The genius is in the artifact
  • The Goal is a book on manufacturing about assembly lines. They identified weakest link and fixed it.
  • The value of creating of having a big event like Traffic & Conversion Summit:
    • Create the place for others to go - It helps with branding, earning media, and the gathering spot for great people. It draws others to it.
    • You become the connector. The host of the party.
  • Story is the leverage of persuasion:
    • Don't talk about yourself
    • Help others change the story they tell about themselves
  • Marketing shouldn't stop at the order - Marketing should own the entirety of the customer journey.
    • Career wise - Get as close to the revenue as possible.
  • Advice: Study old, rich, happy people.
Feb 1, 2021

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Wendy Kopp is CEO and Co-founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent organizations that are developing collective leadership to ensure all children have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. Today, more than 6,000 Teach For America corps members—outstanding recent college graduates and professionals of all academic disciplines—are in the midst of two-year teaching commitments in over 50 urban and rural regions.

Notes:

  • Jim Collins called Wendy “my entrepreneur for this decade.” He continued, “Her organization is truly an entrepreneurial creation that is out to utterly transform education. It’s taking an entrepreneurial, let’s-do-something approach to tackling a massive social problem.”
  • Goal setting: It’s all about setting a goal that’s at the right intersection of ambitious and feasible.
  • The #1 responsibility of a leader is to catalyze a clear and shared vision for the company and secure commitment to and vigorous pursuit of that vision.
  • The differentiator is the “first WHO” principle. It’s what she’s learned. What is it that drives system change in education? “Jim thinks it’s the answer in corporate America, I think it is the difference in social change.”
  • Wendy grew up in a bubble in Texas. She didn't realize the inequity and disadvantages to children born in different situations.
  • At the end of her college years at Princeton, she wrote a 100+ page thesis. She narrowed down to 30 pages... And created a four page plan.
  • She mailed her thesis to 30 executives in an effort to spread awareness and raise money
  •  Everywhere she went, people said, "This is a great idea but college kids won't do this." Wendy was steadfast in her belief that they would...
  • After the first year, Wendy found herself on stage speaking to 500 "Teach For America" teachers...
  • The benefit of naivete:
    • "The world needs you before you become jaded by your experience."
  •  "We need leaders to channel their energy in marginalized communities."
  • What was the key to the first year growth? "It helped writing a plan. I sent 100 letters to potential donors and got rejected or ignored by 98 of them."
  • You have to persevere and have conviction for the idea.
  • Leadership - An idea that magnetizes people. People were drawn to Wendy's mission and purpose.
  • Strategic Framework - What is your core purpose? The core values are what brings people together.
  • Create a sense of mission - "You need to enable a diverse group of people. Articulate it and make it possible for others to engage."
    • Recruit people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Diversity is very important.
  • Why did Wendy do this instead of take a job that would pay well?
    • "I knew myself well. I knew that whatever I did, I would throw myself at it 24/7. I wanted to have a bigger impact on the world."
  • "What keeps me at it? I started gaining the sense of responsibility for so many others."
  • How Teach For America helped Washington D.C.
    • "I met with so many civic leaders who said, 'We've tried everything and it won't work.' DC was 2 years behind Harlem from an educational perspective with their public schools." Washington DC was completely transformed by Teach For America and now has one of the better public school districts in America.
  • How is she so humble?
    • "I realize we're going to get so much wrong."
    • Must learn from what goes wrong and improve moving forward
  • What are some "must-have" leadership qualities?
    • Look at what people have accomplished
    • How have you managed through challenges?
    • People who are passionate about the purpose
    • People who live into the values
    • Optimism
    • Commitment to diversity and inclusiveness
  • What's currently exciting?
    • Seeing the leadership effects in others from Pakistan to Peru
    • The power of locally rooted leadership
  • Commonalities of leader who sustain excellence:
    • Put impact first... Ahead of career ambitions
    • Solve problems
    • Perseverance
    • Optimism
    • Humility - Constantly learning
    • Act on conviction
  • What does Wendy do for fun?
  • Life advice:
    • "Solve as early as possible."
    • "Do not put off your passion until after you've had a job for a few years."
    • "Don't think you have to start something new." Look for others who are doing it and join them...
Jan 25, 2021

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Rich Diviney Rich Diviney draws upon 20+ years of experience as a Navy SEAL Officer – with 11 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was the Commanding Officer of a Navy SEAL Command. Rich is is the author of The Attributes - 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance.

Notes:

  • The process to select Navy SEALs:
    • Rich created a program to effectively articulate why someone made it through SEAL training.
    • "It's not about training to be a Navy SEAL, it's about proving if you can be one."
    • "Skills are not inherent to our nature. They are learned."
  • Attributes are wired into our internal circuitry, always running in the background, dictating how we behave and react and perform. Attributes should not be confused with personality traits. A personality is built from patterns of behavior that emerge over an extended period of time. It’s an outward expression of all the things that make you you - your skills, habits, emotions, perspectives, and attributes all blended together.
  • What is optimal performance? "It's not a peak. It's doing the best you can, with what you have, in the moment."
  • What are some of the surprising attributes that helped or didn't?
    • Drive - Some of the most driven people weren't necessarily cut out to be a SEAL
    • The difference between Self-Discipline and Discipline:
      • Self-discipline is about controlling those things that the outside world has no say in.
      • Discipline is the ability to move through the challenges of the world.
    • Narcissism - Some of the benefits of it? From Rich: "Why did I want to be a Navy SEAL? I wanted to see if I could be a badass. I desired to standout and be admired. That's a little narcissism."
      • "However, extreme narcissism is awful. Excessive narcissists are rarely loyal-- loyalty requires trust and a sense of safety-- so their tribes are inherently unstable: Healthy members tend not to stay long, and new ones are let in only when they show the requisite deference. Those who do leave usually suffer a disproportionate amount of wrath from the person to whom they once deferred-- because defectors are considered enemies. The energy and effort of the highly narcissistic person will be used to prop up their fragile egos rather than to achieve shared objectives or serve a common purpose.”
  • Did he ever think about quitting during Hell week? "The training trains you to compartmentalize. You can't ever entertain that thought. You have to chunk things down to the moment. You're running around and saying, 'this sucks!' But you have to focus on just getting to the next berm. And then the next one. Think, 'what can I control right now?' And focus on your three foot world."
  • The highest performing people ask better questions:
    • Think: "What's the better question to ask right now?"
    • "What can I control right now?"
  • Introspection is vital. Why aren't we better at being introspective?
    • "Because we escape too much." We have devices to ensure we're never bored. Never lost in thought. On long car rides, children never have to look out the window anymore to pass the time. They have a device or a screen to watch.
      • You need to allow your brain space... Need to spend more time in our heads.
  • "Knowledge is not power. Applied knowledge is power."
  • Be decisive. Take action. "Decisions are final, but not permanent."
  • Be adaptable like a frog. Frogs have survived five extinction level events. "If you don't adapt you will become a dinosaur."
  • Rich has narrowed it down to 5 segments of attributes. They are: Grit, Mental Acuity, Drive, Leadership, and Teamability.
    • Grit - Beware of the fearless leader (Courage), Fall 7 times get up 8 (Perseverance), Be Like the frog (Adaptability), The Benefits of Little Tragedies (Resilience)
    • Mental Acuity -- The art of Vigilance (Situational Awareness), Wired for Efficiency (Compartmentalization), The Multitasking Myth (Task Switching), Forged in Plastic (Learnability)
    • Drive -- Mastering the Pivot (Self-Efficacy), The Self-Disciplined Loser (Discipline), A Fish Is the Last to Discover Water (Open-Mindedness), The Princess and the Dragon (Cunning), It’s All about Me (Narcissism)
    • Leadership -- No One Cares How You Feel (Empathy), If it Doesn’t Hurt, You’re Doing it Wrong (Selflessness), You Can’t Hide You (Authenticity), Many A False Step Is Made by Standing Still (Decisiveness), Don’t Be A Mediator (Accountability)
    • Teamability -- The Subjectivity of Right and Wrong (Integrity), There’s Always Something to Do (Conscientiousness), Play Black, Not Red (Humility), Honor The Class Clown (Humor)
Jan 18, 2021

Text LEARNERS to 44222 to join thousands of leaders of leaders from all over the world and read "Mindful Monday." A carefully curated email of the most useful leadership articles/books/video.

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

#402: Donald Miller - CEO of Business Made Simple

Notes:

  • The Characteristics of a Value Driven Professional:
    • “Value driven successful people see themselves as an economic product on the open market. They are obsessed with getting people a strong return on the investment made in them. People who are obsessed with being a good investment attract further investment and get to enjoy more personal economic value. When you offer greater economic value within the economic ecosystem, you are paid more, given more responsibility and promotions, and are sought after by customers looking for value. In business, your boss may really like you, but in large part, they see you as an economic investment. There is nothing wrong with that. So how do we become ridiculously successful? By making other people absurdly successful.”
      • "If you know how to make people money, you will make a lot of money."
    • They have a bias towards action - “There is one thing every successful person has in common: They have a bias towards action.” They don’t let ideas die on the vine. They take action to make those ideas happen. While others may have terrific ideas or be able to see an important issue from many angles, action-oriented people are good at getting things done.”
    • They see themselves as a hero, not a victim. Ask, “How often do you position yourself as a victim?” How often do you talk about yourself as though you are not in control of your life? Do you believe other people are responsible for your failures? Don was born in Texas and grew up poor. His dad left and never came back. His mom had to work long hours just to keep him and his sister alive. He told me, “The biggest transformation in my life happened when I stopped thinking of myself as a victim and started thinking of myself as the hero. I lost 150 pounds and became more in control of my life. If you’re always the victim, you’ll find that people get tired of carrying your load.”
    • They know feedback is a gift. They create an established routine in which they get feedback from their peers.
    • They are relentlessly optimistic - Staying optimistic, you dramatically increase the chances that at some point you will succeed. The more optimistic you are, the more willing you will be willing to try. Successful people fail all the time. The difference is their willingness to keep trying.
  • A story has four characters:
    • Victim - The victim is rescued by the hero. The victim makes the hero look good. It's a bit part.
    • Villian - A backstory of pain. The villian seeks vengeance.
    • Hero - Faces challenges, is focused, overcomes obstacles.
    • Guide - Older, sage, wise. Helps others win
  • "I remember when my biggest transformation happened. I realized that girls wanted to be with the hero, not the victim. I lost 150 pounds."
  • Taking action: "The magic is not in the thinking, it's in the doing."
  • Be a "delusional optimist." It's scientifically proven that people who believe they can do something accomplish more than those who don't.
  • What is a story?
    • "A character that overcomes conflict to try to accomplish something."
    • "Invite people to overcome an obstacle and solve a problem."
  • One piece of advice: "Be known for solving a problem." One problem.
  • We are all in sales. What is sales? "Clear articulation of how you can solve someone's problem."
  • How To Create a Mission Statement and Guiding Principles:
    • “The #1 job of a leader is to wake up every morning, point to the horizon, and let everybody on the team know where the organization is going.”
    • “The #2 job of a leader is to explain, in clear and simple terms, why the story of going to and arriving at that specific destination matters.”
    • "The #3 job of a leader is to analyze the skills and abilities of each team member and find them an important role to play in that story.”
  • In Don's personal guiding principles, his repeatable critical actions are: "get up early, you write, and you say, “after you.”  -- Those 3 critical actions establish a way of life that if repeated day in and day out ensures success.
  • Know how to attract people to your mission by telling your story. How do we do this? What’s the biggest mistake made? (Biggest mistake is telling their history, complete with bullet points and boring asides). Your history is not your story.
  • Here is a formula for a good, short mission statement: “We will accomplish ____________ by ___________ because of _________.
  • How To Be Productive -- Make Wise Daily Decisions - Every morning you ask yourself a simple question: “If this were the second time I were living this day, what would I do differently?”
  • Bill Gates is never late to a meeting. How does he ensure he’s always on time? He blocks his time
  • The StoryBrand methodology:
    • A character that wants something
    • The character encounters a problem
    • The character meets the guide
    • The guide gives the hero a plan
    • The guide calls the hero to action
  • When clarifying your marketing message, never position yourself as the hero. Always position yourself as the guide.
  • The Core Competencies that will immediately make or save the company money:
    • They are a clear and compelling leader - Align & inspire a team. Create a mission statement & guiding principles
    • They are personally productive - Mastered a specific system
    • They know how to clarify a message
    • They can sell - introduce products to qualified leads
    • They are great communicators - Give a speech that informs & inspires a team
    • They know how to run an execution system
Jan 11, 2021

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For full show notes go to www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

David M. Rubenstein is a Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest and most successful private investment firms. Mr. Rubenstein co-founded the firm in 1987. Since then, Carlyle has grown into a firm managing $217 billion from 32 offices around the world.

Notes:

  • David is most interested in continuing to learn... He reads six newspapers per day and 100 books per year.
  • Your commencement is the beginning, not the end. "Keep your brain active, it's a muscle. It will atrophy without use."
  • David would give all of his money away to be one year younger...
  • Keys to happiness:
    • Thomas Jefferson said we all have the right to be in pursuit of happiness
    • "It's the most elusive thing in life."
    • Happiness is all about building meaningful relationships
  • The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis -- "JFK showed tremendous leadership to avert disaster. He strategically ignored Khrushchev's second letter and responded to the first one when making a deal to avoid nuclear war. David was in 9th grade at the time and that moment of leadership impacted him in a big way.
  • He worked in the White House for Jimmy Carter. "When I worked in the White House, everyone thought I was the smartest person in the world. When we lost and I didn't have a job anymore, nobody called, and nobody offered me a job."
  • Why leave his job as part of a big law firm?
    • "If you don't love what you do you can't be great at it."
  • Launching The Carlyle Group:
    • Raised $5m
    • Hired incredibly competent people
    • New idea: "I wanted to create a private equity one stop shop."
  • How did he hire well?
    • "I went after the best people I knew and sold them on why they should join me." What was said?
      • Convince them they will have responsibility
      • They will learn a lot
      • They will make more money
      • It will be enjoyable
  • What does David ask in interviews with candidates to hire?
    • "I want to learn mostly about what motivates them."
  • Must have qualities to work at The Carlyle Group:
    • Intelligent
    • Hard working
    • Get along well with others
    • Share credit
    • Effective communicator (both written and the spoken word)
    • Help others
    • Honest/High Integrity
  • Why start The Carlyle Group?
    • "I wanted to prove that my idea could work."
  • What created the success of the company?
    • "It was the luck of meeting great people... Like Bill Conway."
    • "Prior preparation prevents poor performance."
  • What are the keys to being a great interviewer?
    • Good listener
    • Enjoy it
    • Sublimate your ego - It's about the guest, not the interviewer proving how smart they are
  • Why does David like to interview so many people?
    • "My mother said it's because I'm a 'yenta.' I want to know everything."
  • Why own so many of our countries historical documents? (Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence)
    • "I want to remind people of our history."
  • He's one of the first 40 members of the giving pledge and plans to give ALL of his money away to charity.
  • Advice to a young college graduate:
    • Experiment, find things you enjoy
    • Share credit
    • Read a lot... Learn to speak in public
    • Become a skilled writer
    • Retain humility
  • What do most people say on their deathbed? They don't say, 'I wish I'd made more money.' What they say is, 'I wish I'd spent more time with my family and done more for society or my community.'
  • "Anybody who gives away money is mostly looking at things where they think they can make a difference. I'm trying to help people who helped me, educational institutions that helped me with scholarships, or organizations that were very useful to me in growing up."
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