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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 9
Jul 19, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more details

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Episode #375: Miranda Hawk - How To Cultivate A Loving Relationship. Miranda Hawk is an award winning sales professional, builder of teams, and sits on the board for multiple non-profit organization. Miranda is my wife, and together we are striving to raise our daughters to be kind, strong, hard-working, resilient leaders. Miranda is the former owner of the Dayton Mom Collective, a business that provides a positive voice for motherhood by connecting moms to resources and parenting perspectives unique to their communities. She has worked in the profession of selling since she was 14 and understands the determination and work ethic it takes to sustain excellence. **We recorded this conversation on our Anniversary.**

Notes:

  • The symbolism of a wedding anniversary - The amount of time is not impressive. It's what you do during that time. The type of people you become. Not just that you've made it a certain number of years, but making those years count. The relationship has grown. The love for one another has grown. You’ve accomplished things together and on your own. And both people in the relationship and the world around are better because of the relationship.
  • What was the initial attraction and how that has grown and/or changed over time? (Confidence (shoulders back), beauty, work ethic, your demonstration of excellence at your craft, toughness) --> the blending of a family. Challenges and the joy of it....
    • What is beauty? Is beauty a pretty face, a nice smile, flowing hair, nice skin? Not to me, it's not. To me beauty is living life to higher standards, stronger morals and ethics and believing in them, whether people tell you you're right or wrong. Beauty is not wasting a day. Beauty is noticing life's little intricacies and taking time out of your busy day to really enjoy those little intricacies. Beauty is being real, being genuine, being pure with no facade—what you see is what you get. Beauty is expanding your mind, always seeking knowledge, not being content, always going after something and challenging yourself." -- Jake Plummer (describing Pat Tillman)
  • The pursuit - the importance of being in pursuit of one another -- Love is a verb. It's a constant action. It's a behavior towards one another.
    • Why "happy wife, happy life" is stupid -- In what other world is the focus on only making one person in the relationship happy? You wouldn't do that in a friendship. You wouldn't do that at work. Why would you do that in your marriage?
  • Gratitude -- Saying the words. The power behind words. Being intentional about saying thank you. The importance of specificity.
  • Learning Leader Circle question (Chris G) I'm always fascinated by how things start. As you have started the podcast, what did that look like for your family in starting the venture? Also the dynamic that you have as far as how much you are involved with each other’s careers? i.e. involved and talk about it daily, or primarily keep your conversations centered on the family and personal life.
  • The importance of leading yourself first... It gives you the energy and drive to love others.
  • Conflict resolution - It's critical to have open dialog about the mistakes made and how we rectify them... We strive to have a relationship where we can discuss disagreements, come to a resolution, and move forward.
  • Health and wellness -- Why taking care of ourselves is so important. You're passionate about this and have made our family better because of it. "If you take care of your body, it will take care of you." 
    • "I'm striving to be the best version of myself."
  • I'm attracted to discipline... And the ability to do what's hard
  • Our WHO -- Becoming more intentional about dinner dates/friends/how we spend our time
  • Advice for younger women -
    • Be proactive - Your job responsibilities are the minimum, do more than that
    • Develop a strong work ethic
    • Be positive -- Bring positive energy
  • Learning Leader Circle question from Nick -- What are your key family anchors” for the week or month?  Example:  Sunday dinners, etc.- We invested in a nice area to gather outside on our back porch. Our family dinners together are what we love most... The exercise we do: Each person says something they love about every other person at the table. Get specific!
  • “Your mate will either inspire you to grow into your greatness or they will confine you to complacency. They’ll either be your other half, or they’ll make you half of yourself.” - Nuri Muhammad
  • “Business like life is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple and it’s that hard.  —— Consciously think about how I make you feel.” - Danny Meyer
  • “Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.” - Oscar Wilde
  • Habits/Routines -- Differences and similarities
  • The importance of long walks together...

 

Jul 12, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more details

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Episode #374: Alexandra Carter - How To Ask For More. Alexandra Carter is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Mediation Clinic at Columbia Law School. She has spent the last eleven years helping thousands of people negotiate better, build relationships and reach their goals. In 2019, Alex was awarded the Columbia University Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, Columbia University’s highest teaching honor. She is a world-renowned negotiation trainer for groups and individuals from all over the world

Notes:

  • Excellent leaders have a beginner's mindset
  • What does a mediator do?
    • They are a third person that helps people negotiate. The good ones don't act like the smartest person in the room. They are learners and great listeners.
  • What is negotiation?
    • It is NOT a transaction over money.
    • Negotiation is any conversation where you are steering a relationship Every conversation is like being in a kayak. Approach every conversation differently... With intention.
  • “We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.” - Carl Sagan
  • The ultimate open ended question -- “Tell Me…” Questions - an open question is like fishing with a net. A closed question is fishing with a pole. A great open question doesn’t have a question mark.  “Tell me about your trip to India!”
  • Change your WHY questions to WHAT questions...Rather than ask “Why haven’t I been able to… Turn that around to “What has made this challenging for me?” Move from a place of blame to curiosity.
  • How to handle a PDP (performance development plan) meeting? How to ask for a raise?
    • Recruit your manager to be on your side. Share your goals with them, bring them along with you... Connect with your manager. Talk about the future and how you can work together. Ask open ended questions to learn more about the needs of the business. Tie your money request to your production.
    • Use "I + We" statements - Share how your work benefits the company.
  • Your asks should be:
    • Optimistic
    • Specific
    • Justifiable
  • Research suggests that women hold themselves to perfectionist standards
  • As a boss: Invest in top performers, mentor people, empower them, unleash them
  • What do you need? 2 buckets
    • Tangibles - touch, see, count
    • Intangibles - Values, freedom, acknowledgement
  • Questions to ask yourself:
    • What would progress look like?
    • What do I feel? Grapple with your feelings so that they don't control you
    • How have I handled this successfully in the past? Ask yourself about prior success. Write down your answer. It's a "power prime."
  • Questions to ask:
    • The first 5 questions are for your side- The Mirror: What's the problem I want to solve? What do I need?, What do I feel?, How have I handled this successfully in the past?, What's the first step?
    • Then, the second 5 questions are for your opposite number: The Window: Tell me?, What do you need?, What are your concerns?, How have you handled this successfully in the past? What's the first step?
  • The five, best open-ended questions to ask in each part seek to identify and define the following: (1) the problem/goal; (2) needs; (3) feelings/concerns; (4) previous success; and (5) the first step. And that the answers to these important questions can help steer conversations, relationships, and negotiations that will increase the likelihood of a desired negotiation destination.
  • “The Mirror,” in that knowing oneself by spending the time it takes to honestly ponder, reflect, and journal one’s personal thoughts, feelings, expectations, and dreams to answer those five questions, in an attempt to not only improve one’s skills in formal negotiations, but to also navigate the relationships in life’s journey.

 

Jul 5, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

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

#373: Bill Perkins is a hedge fund manager, film producer, and high stakes poker player. He is the author of Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life. 

Notes:

  • Your life is the sum of your experiences… “The business of life is the acquisition of memories. In the end, that’s all there is.” - The butler from Downtown Abbey...
  • Excellence:
    • Integrity with your word and yourself -- Don't lie to yourself and others. You can't be flippant with yourself.
      • Don't say it unless you mean it (to yourself and others)
  • How to maximize your lifetime memorable moments with “memory dividends”
  • How to get the most experiences in the optimal time with “experience bucketing”
    • In each season, experiences will forever go away. Map out the experiences you want and what you are saving for. There are some experiences that you can only do when you're young and healthy. There is a deterioration of health. You won't always be able to climb a mountain or wake board. Do those now.
  • Follow your "net worth curve" - "Consume money and convert it into experiences."
  • How to navigate whether to invest in or delay a meaningful adventure based on your “personal interest rate” -- "Should I take one trip today or two trips in 10 years?"
  • Bill shares the life changing conversation he had with his boss, Joe Farrell, a partner at the company where he worked --  Bill was making $18,000/year and had saved $1,000. Joe questioned him... "Go spend that money! Why deprive yourself? You don't think you're going to make more money as you get older?!"
  • Jason Ruffo -- Backpacked Europe when he was young and able even though he didn't have any more. He did it while he could instead of waiting to have enough money. He now has an experience dividend for life that Bill doesn't.
  • What are we saving for?
    • Survival
    • Experiences we want - The memory dividend - "This is the stuff of life." It's a compounding dividend
      • "Who am I? The summation of my experiences."
      • "Money is a tool to have the experience."
  • Die With Zero is about choices - What do you choose to do now? What later?
  • Bill and I have the same literary agent, Jim Levine - Bil liked Jim because he told him that his proposal wasn’t good enough to share with publishers when it was first written... Bill appreciated that honest feedback and desire to make it better.
  • "It’s hypocritical and stupid to leave inheritance to your kids." (Give them money when they're young and can use it for cool experiences).
  • Behaviors for hiring:
    • Integrity
    • Intrinsic motivation
    • Problem solvers
  • "Aiming to die with zero is the most thoughtful thing you can do."
Jun 28, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

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

#372: Will Guidara

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence =
    • Everyone has the capacity for excellence
      • Hard work
      • Giving a lot of yourself to something -- A" passion for the thing you're excellent at doing."
      • The nobility of service
      • It requires getting up on a day when you're tired and not feeling it
        • "You need to be on even when you feel off"
  • The "pre-shift" meeting -- "As a leader, you have a responsibility to share what inspires you."
    • "Everyone craves affirmation."
  • Lessons from his Mom:
    • She became a quadriplegic when Will was nine
      • You can talk things into existence - Will's mom said she wanted to stay alive until he graduated college. And she did it by one day. Doctors said she should have died when Will was 12.
        • "What would you attempt to do if you could not fail?"
      • The power of non-verbal communication.
      • Integrity in the face of adversity - Life is not always awesome. There's always ups and downs. Perspective is key.
  • Eleven Madison Park - Setting the goal to be the #1 rated restaurant in the world. In 2010, they were #50.
    • Seven years later, they were #1.
  • "You need to love what you're doing to be great at it."
  • There is power in having extraordinary intention
  • Strategic planning --
    • Be specific and actionable
    • Have endless reinvention
    • Be willing to take risks
  • "Unreasonable Hospitality"
    • You need to decide what you want to embody
  • “Business like life is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple and that hard.” - Danny Meyer
  • Hiring:
    • "We hired dream weavers from art schools, designers..."
    • Experiential design separated them from the rest
  • Be present
    • Listen to what is being said and what's not being said. Engage with people. Serve them. Meet them where they are.
  • "Hospitality is one size meets one" - Have to meet them one at a time
  • What's the secret to a happy marriage?
    • "Never stop pursuing each other"
  • Ruth's Chris - The special calamari strips -- Not on the menu, but available to make an experience exceptional
  • The nobility of service... The four words:
    • Hospitality
    • Excellence
    • Education - "A day you aren't learning isn't a day worth living"
    • Passion - "Our work matters. What we do matters."
  • Meeting at The White House:
    • Restaurants during the pandemic
  • His dad's advice -- "Adversity is a terrible thing to waste"
  • "It's not what happened to you, it's how you respond."
    • "Through crisis comes community"
  • The Welcome Conference
    • "Hospitality is just as much a craft as cooking."
  • Will's dad is his hero
    • "Next level intense responsibility"
    • He never complained
    • "Name what you want to accomplish and do it"
  • "The secret to happiness is always something to look forward to."
  • Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...
  •  
Jun 21, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

Full show notes are at www.LearningLeader.com

#371: Maria Konnikova - Maria Konnikova is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Confidence Game, winner of the 2016 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, an Anthony and Agatha Award finalist. Her new book, The Biggest Bluff, will be out from Penguin Press on June 23, 2020. She is a regularly contributing writer for The New Yorker whose writing has won numerous awards, including the 2019 Excellence in Science Journalism Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. While researching The Biggest Bluff, Maria became an international poker champion and the winner of over $300,000 in tournament earnings—and inadvertently turned into a professional poker player. Maria’s writing has been featured in Best American Science and Nature Writing and has been translated into over twenty languages.

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence =
    • Genuine interest in what they do for a living
    • They follow their curiosity - "It's not about wanting to make a shit load of money."
    • Passionate
    • "They work their asses off" - They work a lot. It doesn't just happen.
  • "Follow your curiosity and obsessions with great rigor." - Brian Koppelman
  • Why write a book about poker when you've never played before?
    • "I wanted to write about chance and the role luck plays in our life."
    • Game theory stemmed from poker
    • Poker is about strategic decision making
    • Why poker? “Poker is a powerful tool to metabolize the luck that surrounds us, and a way to become comfortable with something that is not only all too applicable to our current situation, but extremely difficult for the human mind to process: uncertainty.”
  • Erik Seidel became Maria's personal coach/mentor
    • "There's no one like him." He's stood the test of time. He's been successful at poker for decades... He's evolved with the changes of the game, made adjustments and has won.
    • He's kind and humble.
  • Tips on asking for someone to mentor you:
    • Do your homework - Read everything there is to know about the person before contacting them
    • Be specific with your ask 
    • Make sure you know why this person should be your mentor
    • Figure out what's in it for them
    • Find someone who can help amplify your strengths
    • Don't write a novel in the first email or DM - Get to the point quickly
    • If you can get an in person meeting, do it
    • NEVER say: "Can I pick your brain?"
  • Why playing poker is comparable to writing: Both are deceptively simple on the surface. Anyone can do either, but to do either well in the long term, a certain mastery is needed. Both are subject to the Dunning-Kruger effect, which means that the more someone knows, the more they realize how much they don’t know on a topic, while someone with little knowledge tends to be falsely confident about their understanding of a topic
  • Meta-cognitive process - "I great more aware of my thinking." 
    • You must reflect before reacting. Poker helps you to practice this valuable skill.
    • Make decisions after going through a process of reflection
    • List the things you need to be attentive to
      • What are the relevant factors?
      • What should I be paying attention to?
      • Write it down
  • In order to make better decisions, you must be able to identify your process
  • The ultimate goal of poker and life is to make the optimal decision in that moment
  • The best poker players work incredibly hard: They study hands, they talk hands over with other bros, they watch video, they dissect hands.
    • They build up their self control and their emotional regulation
  • What Maria learned from playing a lot of tournament poker?
    • "It is an extreme sport. You can't take breaks. You're put in a pressure cooker for hours and must make the right decision."
    • "I had internalized gender stereotypes. I was letting myself be bullied. I'd take less active lines because I was scared. I had to overcome that and still need to work on it."
  • Advice: "Work hard. Life gives you nothing. Everything is earned. Life isn't fair. You must work for it. Saying life isn't fair isn't good for you. Think: 'What can I do about it? What can I control?'"
    • Follow your curiosity
    • Read, Read, Read. Read poetry and read fiction
Jun 14, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

For full show notes, go to www.LearningLeader.com

#370: Steve Herz: Don't Take Yes For An Answer

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence =
    • Curiosity - Genuine interest
    • A desire to learn and grow
  • Finding uncommon commonalities:
    • His parents went to Ohio University (which is where I graduated)
    • Do your homework prior to meeting someone (as Steve did on me)
  • Be actionable and intentional
    • Meet someone on their turf. ACKNOWLEDGE them.
  • Turner Smith:
    • "Don't Take Yes For An Answer" -- Beware of the counter-fit yes. They are not helpful.
    • "Don't live in an echo chamber of Yes."
  • Seek feedback - Turner Smith not only didn't give Steve an offer... He gave him specific feedback as to why. Changed his life.
    • Tough love with kindness
    • Read the book: Seabiscuit. Knowing when to use carrots vs. sticks.
  • Taking his shot with Alfred Geller - "I met him in a elevator and only had a few seconds. I asked to work with him... He said, 'meet me in my office at 8:00am tomorrow.'"
    • "I downloaded his brain."
  • "You need to perfect your A. W. E."
    • Authority
    • Warmth
    • Energy
  • John Kasich didn't use his voice properly. "Change your voice, change your life."
  • Mid-level manager advice:
    • "Act like you've been there before (like Barry Sanders)." Internalize it.
    • "When you're walking your dog, who is walking who?"
  • Providing feedback to his clients:
    • "Joe Tessitore couldn't figure out how to modulate his voice."
  • Don't get into the "vortex of mediocrity:"
    • The most painful thing in the world is unfulfilled potential.
    • Find the people who are able to give you critical feedback and listen.
  • When he started his company, he called it IF after Rudyard Kipling’s poem by the same name which says, “If you can dream-- and not make dreams your master… yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”
  • We are ALL in sales: Steven Shapiro, member of the board of overseers of University of Pennsylvania Law School, “We have a saying at the firm: You can buy a pound of brains at the butcher. I walk through the halls of the university, and there are many brilliant future lawyers. But they can’t look you in the eye in the hallway. In 15 years, this person may be writing law on the tax code, but they’re probably not going to have a lot of clients.” You know where lawyers, or salespeople, or consultants go when they don’t bring in business? Neither do I. Because you rarely hear about them ever again."
Jun 7, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

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

#369: Nancy Koehn & Adi Ignatius

Nancy Koehn is a historian at the Harvard Business School. She's the author of multiple books, her most recent: Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times.

Adi Ignatius is the Editor in Chief of the Harvard Business Review. Previously, he was deputy managing editor for Time, where he was responsible for many of its special editions, including the Person of the Year and Time 100 franchises. 

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence =
    • Leaders are made, not born
      • "Crisis are great greenhouses to make great leaders"
    • Resilience - It's a muscle built over time
    • A unique combination - The ability to commit, married to that, but flexibility to the means to make it happen
    • Empathy & Emotional awareness - How a leader shows up in service to the mission
      • Convey conviction and confidence
    • A real sense of how much impact a leader has. Humble and own the sense that they have great influence.
      • They use it to help people overcome their own limitations
  • Adi - Understand the long term. Need the ability to shift.
    • Transparency - Direct reports should know where they stand at all times.
  • Emotional discipline:
    • Don't send email when you're mad. Think about the long term impact of what you do.
    • JFK - White House discovered missiles in Cuba.
      • Read: Guns Of August - How WWI Started
        • Slow pace down
        • Imagine what Khrushchev would do - Give him room, hold off...
          • Use "calculated empathy"
  • Standing up to others like Winston Churchill - He stood up to the opposition.
    • Dunkirk - Leadership when everything changes
  • Ernest Shackleton - He took 27 men to Antarctica
    • How did he avoid mutiny in the midst of huge adversity?
      • He had the trust of his men. They believed he cared about them.
      • Emotional awareness - He addressed their fears - "What can I do to address their fears?"
      • Extraordinary ability to toggle seamlessly between little things like the weather and the big picture. Zoom in and zoom out.
  • Pay attention to the mundane - The daily work schedule. Stick to the routine. And also have a plan to solve the problem.
  • How to lead a remote team:
    • It's reassuring to have your leaders step up and speak the truth. "Here's what we're going to do..."
      • False optimism doesn't help. Honesty is critical.
      • Brutal honesty + credible hope... Share the team's capabilities, the history. "Nothing to fear but fear itself."
  • Great leaders 'feed their team.'
  • Leaders in crisis: Shackleton gave duties to each man. They regularly changed duties to stay fresh.
  • Isolation feeds fear. It feeds the 'worst case scenario' in the minds of people.
    • Shackleton combated that by forcing them to socialize. They told stories, had skits, made up games. He empowered his team.
  • It's important to have rituals that bring you back to a good place. For Nancy: 1) Deep breaths 2) Classical music 3) Walks
    • Adi: Meditates daily, 10 minutes of breath work.
      • Connect, Connect, Connect with others. Say thank you. Shift places depending on the type of work.
  • President Lincoln had no plans for winning the way. "I navigated from point to point."
    • "Great careers are build on passion and the dedication to do the work."
    • Gather years in every career. You do not always need to check off boxes.
    • "Life is long. Don't burn bridges."
  • The benefits of teaching:
    • "It keeps you honest. You have to think like a chess player. You must stoke the fires of curiosity."
Jun 3, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

Full notes at www.LearningLeader.com

358: Jim McKelvey - How To Build An Unbeatable Business (One Crazy Idea At A Time)

Jim McKelvey is the co-founder of Square, was chairman of its board until 2010, and still serves on the Board of Directors. In 2011, his iconic card reader design was inducted into the Museum of Modern Art. Jim also founded Invisibly, a project to rewire the economics of online content; LaunchCode, a non-profit that trains people to work in technology; and Third Degree Glass Factory, a publicly accessible glass art studio & education center in St. Louis. In 2017, he was appointed as an Independent Director of the St. Louis Federal Reserve.

  • Sustaining excellence = The people you lead will eventually kick you out... This signifies your ability to hire, train, and develop excellent leaders.
    • "I'm not a good leader. I don't run the business. I build the company and then get out of the way."
    • "I have a weird skill set... I'm comfortable doing things that have never been done before."
  • What it's like working with Jack Dorsey (Jim started Square with Jack): "He has the ability to administer and incrementally improve... That's something I value in a person. Jack is incredibly competent, very quiet, and very capable. He knows the difference between good and excellent."
  • Jim sees himself as a normal guy without any gifts... "Don't disqualify yourself because you think other people are special (or gifted) and you're not."
  • What if the activity had never been done before? The Wright Brothers were no more qualified to build the first ever flying machine than someone else. They made the choice to do it, and put in the work to make it happen.
  • "To be excellent, you need to reach out to others who are."
  • Interview process:
    • "People who lie are not consistent. Ask similar questions in different ways multiple times."
    • Tell people very honestly all the reasons they shouldn't work at your company. Be very honest. Then say, "I can't tell if you're lying to me, I won't be able to catch you now, however I will find out eventually and I will fire you."
  • Jim describes what it's like to be a billionaire...
  • Think of the companies that have done something that had never been done before:
    • Bank of America
    • Ikea
    • Southwest Airlines
    • Square
  • "Commitment can be a great substitute for being qualified."
  • “Admitting you don't know something frees your mind from constraints. To actually do something new requires the humility to admit that your solution may not work, followed by the audacity to try anyway.”
  • How to get people to perform at higher levels?
    • "Go hang out with smarter people and raise their level of performance... Ask questions."
      • Never interrupt
      • Leave pauses in a sentence, give them a chance to keep going...
  • An Innovation Stack = Series of inventions that create a new product. Doing something new.
  • What it was like to prepare for a demo with Steve Jobs: "He can be nasty if he doesn't like you. You had to make it beautiful."
  • Advice: "Consistently do something that makes you slightly uncomfortable." Jim flies planes and gives speeches (both make him uncomfortable) --> This will slowly expand the things that you like. It will create more friends, and you'll develop more respect for people who have differing views.
    • "You'll learn it's possible to function even when you're uncomfortable." Continually do little things to strengthen yourself... It helps you continue to go when others quit.
  • “Customers who trust you are more valuable than customers who love you. There's only one shot at trust, and Square was trustworthy because of its values and mission, and built its Innovation Stack around them.”
  • Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...
May 31, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

Full show notes found at www.LearningLeader.com

#367: Ozan Varol - How To Think Like A Rocket Scientist

  • Sustaining excellence =
    • The ability to learn from failure - "Failure sucks and shouldn't be celebrated. We must learn from it."
    • "Learn fast, don't fail fast. We need to get better with each iteration.
    • Breakthroughs should be evolutionary, not revolutionary
  • How success can lead to failure
    • The Challenger Explosion - A string of successes discounted the role that luck played in the process
    • "Just because you're on a hot streak doesn't mean you'll beat the house."
  • Post mortem - A Latin phrase for "after death." Instead of a post mortem, do an "after action review."
    • Review after all actions whether they succeeded or failed.
  • The "Kill The Company" exercise
    • Ask the people within your company what they would do to compete and beat your company... And then do that.
    • Mark Zuckerberg does this with acquisitions (WhatsApp, Instagram). One of his greatest fears is becoming the next MySpace.
  • As a mid-level manager: Put yourself in the position of your customer. Why are customers justified in buying from our competitions? "They see something we're not seeing."
  • Growing up in Istanbul, Turkey. It was a culture of conformity. Ozan did not fit in. In fact, he was assigned a number in school and that was used to call on him instead of his name.
    • His parents let him choose which school he went to and he remembers feeling so empowered by them for having a choice. He wanted more of that.
      • So he decided to come to the United States for college and attended Cornell.
  • Ozan blindly applied for a job that didn’t exist by emailing Steve Squyres (he was in charge of a NASA funded project to send a river to Mars). And he acted on his dad’s advice, “you can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket.”
  • “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.” - Carl Sagan
  • In the modern world we look for certainty in uncertain places. We search for order in chaos. The right answer in ambiguity. And conviction in the complexity.
  • We should be fueled not by a desire for a quick catharsis but by intrigue. Where certainty ends, progress begins.
  • “The great obstacle to discovering was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. - historian Daniel J Boorstin
  • It takes courage... Often times there is a failure of courage. Have the courage to take action when the rest of the world is standing still.
  • Ask yourself two questions:
    • What's the worst that can happen?
    • What's the best that can happen?
  • Adopt an experimental mindset - Frame your actions as experiments. Don't be afraid to try new things...
  • "The way you figure out what's right is to try to prove it wrong."
  • The goal? "Find what's right, not to be right."
    • Ask people who disagree with you... Why? Have a mindset to learn from them.
    • "Tell me what's wrong with this..." Be a work in progress.
  • "All progress happens in uncertain times."
    • "It's bizarre. People prefer certainty of bad news instead of the fear of the unknown."
    • "Be curious about tomorrow."
  • Think: "What problems can I solve right now?"
    • It is not helpful to try and solve something that you cannot control.
  • Diversify your identity and services -- This allows you to be flexible and not depended on one stream of revenue.
  • "All of our differences are minimized when we zoom out." The Apollo 8 mission gave us an opportunity to look at the Earth from afar (mission to go near the moon). Jim Lovell could cover up the earth with his thumb. It put things in perspective.
  • Rocket science teaches us about our limited role in the cosmos and reminds us to be gentler and kinder to one another.
  •  
May 24, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Episode #366: Laurie Santos - 

Laurie Santos is a cognitive scientist and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She has been a featured TED speaker and has been listed in Popular Science as one of their "Brilliant Ten" young scientists in 2007 as well as in Time magazine as a "Leading Campus Celebrity" in 2013. In January 2018, her course titled Psychology and the Good Life became the most popular course in Yale's history, with approximately one-fourth of Yale's undergraduates enrolled.

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence:
    • Good habits: Form consistent routines
    • Healthy: Exercise regularly
    • Socialize with others
    • They "offload dumb decisions"
  • Create a morning routine - Limit the wardrobe (limit mental energy spent on trivial things).
  • Harness the power of habits - "Set you exercise clothes out the night before."
    • Do it at a consistent time each day no matter what. This decreases anxiety.
    • For writing: Stop in the middle of a sentence. This will help you get started the next day (and avoid seeing the blank screen)
  • Laurie is the head of a college at Yale. She lives and eats with the students in the dining hall.
    • She built her class based upon hearing the complaints of students daily (they were unhappy)
  • Important behaviors:
    • Gratitude
    • Social connection
    • Random acts of kindness
  • Students didn't realize their misconceptions about happiness
    • It's not about your job, house, or money.
  • Happy people are:
    1. Socially connected - They spend a lot of time with others. They prioritize connecting with others.
    2. They don't focus on themselves - "Others oriented." They do more for others.
    3. Grateful - They look for the good. They have a mindset of gratitude. They write down 3-5 things they are grateful for everyday. They are mindful.
  • The GI Fallacy - It's more than just knowing... "You must DO IT."
  • Be deliberate about connecting with others. Hang out with people you care about. Set up Skype calls with others.
  • Do NOT complain - It's awful.
  • Laurie's class has become the most popular class in the history of Yale...
    • Her lectures have been filmed for the Today Show
    • Created The Happiness Lab
    • It's given more meaning to life
  • Advice for mid-level managers:
    • Doctors find happier workers use less than 15 sick days a year
    • Work with your employees to do what they're best at
    • Find out what they're getting out of the job
    • "Your emotions can be contagious. If you embody calm, they will be calm."
    • Affective spirals - The leader can turn emotions positive
  • How to run excellent meetings:
    • Infuse it with gratitude - Say what you're grateful for. Grateful team members are more productive.
    • Regulate your emotion. Don't transmit negative energy to your team.
  • At home: Regulate emotion. Take time to pay attention to your emotion. What are you bringing home?
    • Be present. Express gratitude to your family. Shift from complaining to being grateful.
    • Say what you love about each other at your family dinner table
  • The best way to learn is to teach it.
May 17, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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#365: James Altucher - How To Become An Idea Machine

  • "Vulnerability equals freedom."
    • "You need to say something interesting. You need to step outside of your comfort zone."
  • James started writing in 1990 after a girl he liked chose to date a writer instead of him.
    • He wrote 3,000 words a day and yet didn't publish anything for 12 years.
  • Why write about your flaws?
    • Watch the movie 8 mile... "Eminem shares all of the negative aspects of himself. He left his competition with nothing to say about him. He beat him to the punch."
    • "I don't hit publish unless I'm worried. Am I afraid? If yes, then publish."
    • "All good writing has to have a story."
  • Commonalities of people who sustain excellence:
    • Physically healthy - They are in shape
    • Emotionally healthy - They have good relationships
    • They are extremely curious - "Ken Langone came in my comedy club and asked tons of questions. He's so curious."
    • They are very creative
    • They have a "ready, fire, aim" approach - Sara Blakely started Spanx and got a $300K order and hadn't figured out how to manufacture her product yet.
  • Creativity/Idea generation is a muscle - If you don't work it, it atrophies.
    • Write 10 ideas a day.
    • Quantity is more important than quality. "He who has the most ideas wins."
      • You'll have a lot of bad ideas. You have to get through those to get to the good ones. Quantity is important.
      • "Writing 10 ideas a day changed my life. I wasn't depressed anymore."
  • Write ideas for companies and share with them... They might call you.
  • Being an "intrapreneur" within your company - Think of ideas that can help your company and share with the CEO.
    • "Success is always on the other side of can't."
  • Great entrepreneurs focus on reducing risk
  • How to speak to powerful people?
    • Realize they are just people
    • Humor is key. "Laughter is the way to level the playing field."
  • Developing a skill - Deliberate practice
    • The "10,000 Experiment" rule
    • The key to getting good is to experiment
    • Be in the top 1% of doing experiments
  • Work your idea muscle every single day - The neurons will be re-wired
    • Share your ideas to help other companies
  • Over-promise AND over-deliver. Do both. Everyone else under-promise with the hope to over-deliver. Don't do that. Overpromise upfront and over-deliver.
May 10, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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#364: Derek Sivers: Derek Sivers is a writer, musician, programmer, and entrepreneur best known for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians. A professional musician since 1987, Sivers started CD Baby by accident in 1997 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby went on to become the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients. 

Notes:

  • The similarities between becoming a Dad and starting a business:
    • The transition from being "me" focused to becoming focused on others first. "That happened when I started a business... Long before I became a dad."
    • "As a dad, I learned to be fully present with him. To shut everything else down and focus on him."
  • "Adults are always looking for amazing superlatives. Kids are happy with tiny details."
    • "Stop wasting hours... Learn to have a blast where you are."
  • Making big decisions:
    • There is a difference between theory and in practice
      • "Don't consider anything decided until you've tried it."
  • Why you should keep your goals to yourself:
    • An identity goal makes you a different person. If you announce it to others and they give you social satisfaction, that feedback you receive gives you internal satisfaction. That could lead to you already feeling satisfaction and thus less likely to achieve the goal... Receiving the satisfaction from others before you've done it is not helpful.
    • (NOTE - There is additional information to read about this nuanced topic. THIS is helpful.)
  • Sustaining excellence:
    • They hold themselves to high standards. They set high stakes.
    • They have amazing self-control
    • "Excellence is setting high standards and living up to them."
  • Excellent leadership is being selfless... Doing what's in the best long-term interest of the people you're leading.
  • Selling CDBaby for $22m and giving the proceeds away to charity.
  • The power of writing:
    • "I journal my ass off."
    • Documenting your daily thoughts is a very useful exercise -- It's fascinating to look back on how you felt at that specific time.
  • Create "Per Topic" Journals
    • Journals that focus on a specific topic (Singapore, Interviews, Language Learning)
  • Values = Learning... Remaining flexible and creative. Answering the questions, "What did I really want from that?"
    • Derek's values evolve and change over time
  • Being a monomaniac - Obsessed with one thing at a time
    • Currently: Writing a book called How To Live
  • The stress of replying to 7,000 emails vs making a genuine connection with each person...
    • Being a longterm thinker
  • Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...

 

May 3, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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#363: Admiral William McRaven - 363: Admiral William McRaven - The Bin Laden Raid, Saving Captain Phillips, & Leadership Lessons For Life

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence:
    • Great listeners - They value the opinions of others and listen
    • Decisive - The leader must take responsibility and make the call
    • Measured - Calm. Staying cool under pressure is vital
  • Importance of coaching in Admiral McRaven's life… and being pushed by them. He pushed himself  to his physical limits to set the school record for the mile with the help of a phone call from a coach. (Jerry Turnbow).
    • Write letters to the parents/spouse/kids of the people you want to recognize. "Love on the people who love them."
  • Failure can make you stronger —- Being assigned to “The Circus” in SEAL training helped him build resilience and a "never quit" attitude.
  • Writing ­– He was a journalism major at Texas. Admiral McRaven has consistently worked to become a great writer. It is critical for leaders to be exceptional communicators... Both of the written AND spoken word.
  • In July 1983, he was fired as a SEAL squadron leader for trying to change the way his squadron was organized, trained, and conducted missions. His response was the difference between a long, successful career, and quitting. Georgeann (his wife) offered him encouragement and said, ‘you’ve never quit at anything in your life and don’t start now’. 
  • Admiral McRaven has always had great respect for the British Special Air Service: the famed SAS. The SAS motto was “Who Dares Wins.”  He said that even moments before the Bin Laden raid, his command sergeant major Chris Faris, quoted it to the SEALs preparing for the mission.
    • To him that motto was more than just how special forces operated. It’s about how each of us should approach our lives… Life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present…
  • Admiral McRaven walked us through the strategy development and the decision making process for the bin Laden raid:
    • It was a team effort - Leon Panetta could have done it only as a CIA mission, but he reached out to Admiral McRaven because the mission was what was most important, not getting credit.  Great leaders recognize that it’s never about them. If you think it’s about you you’re probably not a good leader.
    • It was still an extraordinarily difficult decision to green light the mission. Admiral McRaven described that conversations he had with President Obama. "If we got there and the guy on the third floor was just a tall Pakistani man, then President Obama would have been a 1 term president."
    • The SEALs on the mission rehearsed and practiced  A LOT. No matter how much experience you have, you ALWAYS need to practice.
    • The night of the bin Laden raid, Admiral McRaven was in charge of 10 other missions! He didn't have time to celebrate, he was focused on identifying the body, telling the President, and then paying close attention to the other missions he had going on that night.
  • Courage — “without courage, men will be ruled by tyrants and despots. Without courage,  no great society can flourish. Without courage, the bullies of the world rise up.”  Over the course of a month he visited Saddam Hussein in the jail where they were holding him, he would rise to meet Admiral McRaven. McRaven would motion for him to go back to his cot. The message was clear, “you are no longer important.”
  • Rise to the occasion.  Be your very best in the darkest moments – Think about the moment we are in right now. Great leaders rise to the occasion in the midst of a pandemic
  • Books Admiral McRaven recommends- The Speed of Trust- Stephen M.R. Covey, It’s Your Ship - Michael Abrashoff
  • No plan survives first contact with the enemy- things will go wrong and you need to plan accordingly. Be prepared, think through worst case. "Have a plan, work the plan, plan for the unexpected."
  • Get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward. Don’t ever say “that’s not fair.”  The story of Moki Martin - bike accident that left him paralyzed
Apr 26, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Episode #362: Chris McChesney - How to Achieve Your Wildly Important Goals

Chris McChesney is a Wall Street Journal #1 Best-Selling Author – The 4 Disciplines of Execution. In his current role of Global Practice Leader of Execution for FranklinCovey, Chris is one of the primary developers of The 4 Disciplines of Execution. For more than a decade, he has led FranklinCovey’s design and development of these principles, as well as the consulting organization that has become the fastest growing area of the company.

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence = They execute on the strategy that's been launched...
    • They have amazing drive
    • High expectations - They expect a lot of everyone and do it in a positive way
    • They "radiate love." Warmth...
  • Strategy to execution -- It's an art and a science
  • "Execution doesn't like complexity..."
    • Great leaders develop pattern recognition over time. An experienced quarterback has more repetitions and the game "slows down" which creates a situation he recognizes
  • Three components to any strategy to execution process:
    • Lower the blood pressure -- "Stroke of the pen."
    • Take life support measurements
    • Break through
  • What is a 'stroke of the pen' action as a mid level manager?
    • Modify the portfolio, work within the limited budget, figure out incentives, hiring decisions, combining territories
  • "Sometimes in life our challenges are really hidden opportunities."
    • Chris did an unpaid internship.  He warned that with Stephen Covey by continuing to show up and add value to the lives of the people at the company.
  • Advice: "Work outside of your job description but within your influence."
    • "Don't fall in love with a solution, fall in love with a problem."
  • "I have never gotten a job from a standard interview process... I've gotten seduced by a problem... And then worked to solve it."
    • This is how Chris created a company within a company. He identified that execution was a problem, and worked to solve it.
  • Useful feedback Chris received earlier in his career from a mentor: "Chris, when you come to headquarters, people like you, but you aren't fun to work with."
    • The power of honest, specific, feedback.  Paul Walker (President) - "It's never about him. He's always interested in understanding what's going on around him and with others."
  • Pat Lencioni - Not everyone should be a leader... "I don't like the term 'servant leadership.' It makes it sound like there's any other way."
  • The 4 Disciplines of Execution:
    • Focus on the Wildly Important -- Exceptional execution starts with narrowing the focus— clearly identifying what must be done, or nothing else you achieve really matters much.
    • Act on the 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.
    • 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 -- Great performers thrive in a culture of accountability that is frequent, positive, and self-directed. Each team engages in a simple weekly process that highlights successes, analyzes failures, and course-corrects as necessary, creating the ultimate performance-management system.
  • “As legendary Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt put it, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
  • “People who try to push many goals at once usually wind up doing a mediocre job on all of them. You can ignore the principle of focus, but it won’t ignore you.”
  • “If you ignore the urgent, it can kill you today. It’s also true, however, that if you ignore the important, it can kill you tomorrow”
  • “Managing a company by looking at financial data (lag measures) is the equivalent of “driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror.”
  • Optimization - Consistency is wildly important. Lock down elements of the process. Anchor the process at two points. Rule - "If we can meet the lead measure for 14 weeks, we're calling it a habit."
Apr 19, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Episode #361: John C. Maxwell - The Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace

Notes:

  • Adaptability: “Good leaders adapt. They shift. They don’t remain static because they know the world around them does not remain static.”
  • 3 questions to ask yourself every day:
    • How will this crisis make me better?
    • How will I use this crisis to help others?
    • What action will I take to improve my situation?
  • Leaders get paid to deal with uncertainty. They must relish it because it comes with the territory. Betty Bender, former president of the Library Administration and Management Association, explains, “Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death.”
  • "Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but from playing a bad hand well." - Warren Lester
  • Leaders become invigorated with problems.
  • “Doing the right thing daily, compounds over time.”
  • Ask what you can do to add value to others during this time.
  • “Leaders don’t rise to the pinnacle of success without developing the right set of attitudes and habits; they make every day a masterpiece.”
  • It’s okay to be uncertain but it’s not okay for a leader to be unclear.
  • If you prepare today you don’t have to repair tomorrow.
  • The opposite of distraction is traction.
    • Crisis moves us
    • You help people gain traction by helping them gain perspective.
  • Fear is a negative emotion, feeding fear is like putting fertilizer on weeds.
  • The question is what is going to dominate between fear an faith and the dominant emotion will win the day.
  • What gains your attention and focus only grows whether that's fear or faith.
  • “A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose, a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.”
  • Great coaches make adjustments during a game.
  • Action is where all transformation takes place.
  • The most overrated English phrase is good intentions.
  • “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” 
  • A crisis doesn’t make a person, a crisis reveals a person.
  • “The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.”
  • "Decision making is easy when you know what your values are."
  • Right now the people come first, the company second, yourself last.
  • Respect is learned and earned on difficult ground.
  • "No one ever coasted their way to greatness."
  • People don’t want perfect leaders, they want authentic leaders.
  • Experience is not the best teacher. Evaluated learning from experience is the best teacher.
  • The first step to great communication is to get over yourself. It’s not about you. Focus on others and adding value.
Apr 12, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Episode #360: Kirk Herbstreit - How To Prepare Like The Best Broadcaster In The Business

Notes:

  • "Because of what you have to do to be part of that program... You do things you didn't think you would ever fathom you could get through. It develops you as a person." -- Kirk on what it's like to play football at Centerville High School.
    • "Nothing has impacted me more than the time and what I learned from Bob Gregg and Ron Ullery. It's with me every single day. That's why we take so much pride in it. Because of the impact it has on our entire life."
  • Learning resilience and how to persevere, and how to prepare for big moments.
  • Kirk's preparation process: There's nobody more prepared than Kirk each week.
    • "It's the only thing I know. It's not an option for me to not be prepared."
    • "Nobody knew who I was back in 1996 when I first started. Instead of hiding from that, I said 'I'm going to be the hardest working analyst in sports. That became my calling card. I had to earn people's respect. The only way I knew how to do that was through my work ethic and preparation. It's the only way I know how."
  • The importance of relationships - "I've never in 25 years burned a coach. I never will. They are a lifeline for me. It's one thing to read an article. For you to really get information, you have to go directly to the sources... The coaches."
  • "I feel I'm the most prepared person covering the sport every week when I do Gameday and when I go into the booth Saturday night."
    • "If I'm awake I'm either with my kids or I'm preparing for the games."
  • Building relationships with powerful people... How?
    • "Trust. That's the most important thing. In my job, you sometimes have to be critical. What I've always said to myself is, if this person was sitting next to me, he might disagree, but he's not going to be offended."
    • "I'll call them the next week to make sure they understood what I said. I go out of my way to promote people."
  • Sustaining Excellence -- "I look at it like... I don't do this for money, I don't do this for fame, I do this for love, for passion. There's nothing that makes me more happy than watching football. I love it. It never gets old, I'm constantly trying to improve, to get better. I feel like here I am 25 years into this business and I'm just scratching the surface..."
    • "You gotta keep working, you gotta keep learning."
  • "It's such a fun challenge to broadcast games now with how much has changed..."
  • Working with a partner (for him it is Chris Fowler)... The keys to working well with a partner:
    • Developing a relationship with that person - Make sure you go to dinners, do things away from work. Get to know that person. Become friends. Then earn your stripe through your preparation and your work.
  • Working with a broadcasting team - It takes amazing, constant, communication.
  • Keys to great quarterback play and how that translate to being a great leader in the business world:
    • The ability to process a lot of information and make sense of it quickly (Joe Burrow is the best he's seen)
    • Accuracy - Throw the ball where you want it to go
    • Make great decisions
    • Mental toughness
  • Being the type of person that others want to follow... How to do that?
    • Play-making ability is a must - people are drawn to you because they believe in you
    • You can do it differently, but "it's very hard to think of successful quarterbacks that aren't well liked by all members of the team."
      • People are drawn to them.  -- Cannot be selfish. The quarterback gets a lot of attention. Need to deflect that and talk about the linemen, the defense, your teammates.
  • Would Kirk take the Monday Night Football broadcasting job?
    • "I've talked with my agent about it. That's in play. It's being talked about. It would have to be in addition. I'll never leave college."
      • "I love watching the NFL... Watching guys that I've covered. The college game is leaking more and more into the NFL. The prep would be pretty extreme, but I could do it."
  • Life advice: "I was raised to be an unselfish person. I've never felt like I was more important than anyone else. I'll never put myself above anybody in any regard." -- Be the hardest working person, have an awareness about you to help others, never think you're more important than others."
Apr 5, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Episode #359: Pat Lencioni

This was recorded with hundreds of fans/friends on Zoom on April 2, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notes:

  • Three actions for leaders in a perilous time:
    • be exceedingly human. By that, I mean that you should demonstrate your concern for the very real fears and anxieties that your people are experiencing, not only professionally and economically, but socially and personally. Even though you don’t have definitive answers to all of their questions, don’t let that keep you from listening to them and empathizing with their fears. And, contrary to conventional wisdom, you should not be hesitant to share your own concerns with your people. They want to know that they can relate to you and that they are not alone in their concerns.
    • be persistent. This is not a time to hold back. Send people updates and regular communication, even if there is not a lot of new information and the message is largely personal. No one will look back at this time and say, “my manager was so annoying with all the encouraging emails checking in on me.” When people are isolated, over-communication is more important than ever.
    • be creative. Try new things. Call semi-regular video-conference meetings that allow employees to not only talk about work, but to share their experiences dealing with this situation. Have them share movies and games and other tools that they are finding to be helpful with their families and invite them to tell stories about what is going on in their worlds. Crises provide an opportunity for people to come to know one another and establish bonds that will endure long after the crisis is over.
  • This is not a time to be efficient. It’s a time to be present with people.  Once they get that new sense of trust, then you can move on.
  • Every company/family needs to be intentional about their thematic goal/rallying cry.
    • Cohesiveness and innovation are the themes for The Table Group
  • What we do during this time is going to be what people remember.  This is the window of opportunity.
  • People would rather be criticized than ignored.
    • The opposite of love is not hate. It's indifference.
  • Pat is looking for that sense of “peace” that no matter what happens, we will be okay. (He tells a story about an NYC priest the night before he died “I”m not afraid.")
  • When you help others, your fears go down.
  • Idle time and worry is what makes fear rise.
  • Advice for parenting teenagers right now -- "It's a time for grace, not discipline."
  • How to establish a safe environment?
    • Empower people to take risks.  When they stumble, it's okay. Failure = learning moment
  • 2 biggest red flags of a bad teammate - what are the symptoms/ hardest things to overcome?
    • Insecurity and selfishness
  • Good teammates?
    • "They take ownership of their mistakes and work to correct them." Must take ownership of it to improve.
  • The Ideal Team Player -- Humble, Hungry, Smart.
  • Download for free: “The three questions to ask your family" on Pat's website The Table Group
  • Does Love have a place in leadership?  You need to love your players even if you don’t like them. You have to do what is in their best interest.
  • Pat's next book?
    • "The Heroic Manager"
  • The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team:
    • Absence of trust - unwilling to be vulnerable within the group
    • Fear of conflict - seeking artificial harmony over constructive passionate debate
    • Lack of commitment - feigning buy-in for group decisions creates ambiguity throughout the organization
    • Avoidance of accountability - ducking the responsibility to call peers on counterproductive behavior which sets low standards
    • Inattention to results - focusing on personal success, status and ego before team success
Mar 29, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Episode #358: Stephen Covey - The One Thing That Changes Everything (Trust)

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence = They get results in a way that inspires trust. If you cut costs for profits, you won't earn trust long term. You won't win long term.
    • "You must think... There always is a next time."
  • Build a culture of character and competence.  Those are the components of trust.
  • Taking shortcuts, cutting corners will get your short term results, but you will not sustain it. "Beware of the shortcuts."
    • Make expectations clear. Hitting the number is a commitment.
  • For the mid-level manager: The middle is the key leverage point. You always need to be building trust and delivering results.  Leaders go first.
    • "Be trustworthy. Be trusting." Give trust to others, lead with trust.
    • If you have a bad boss? "Create an island of excellence in a sea of mediocrity."
  • "If we think the problem is everyone else, we disempower ourselves." --> Look in the mirror: 'Here's what I can do..." Self trust. It starts inside of you.
  • Neuroscience on trust - When there is low trust on a tea, it saps the energy and joy. It's not fun.
    • High trust = energizing. How can I be that type of leader?
  • For the person that doesn't trust anyone else, they are really saying, "I don't trust myself." They know they lie.
  • How to build trust with yourself?
    • Learn to make and keep commitments with yourself and others.
      • "Make, keep, repeat. Make, keep, repeat."
      • "Trust is doing what you say you're going to do."
      • "Saying it builds hope. Doing it builds trust."
  • Trust = Character + Competence.
  • Admiral McRaven - "If you wan to change the world, start with making your bed."
    • "Private victories precede public victories."
  • Warren Buffett does deals based on trust. Trust impacts speed and cost.  "Trust decrease transaction costs." --> When you don't have trust, there is a tax on that.
  • When trust goes time, costs go up. When trust goes up, costs go down.
  • Focus on your credibility. Your character and your competence. Build your reputation. Start with your behavior. Behave in a way to garner trust.
  • Distrusts is exhausting. It's not sustainable in relationships.
  • How to handle a non-trusting boss?
    • "You can't change the conditions or change them. If you must stay, focus on YOUR credibility. The starting place is on increasing your credibility, it will create more clout, courage, and permission in your organization.  Always start with yourself."
  • The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People
    • #1 - Be proactive. You're responsible. "You're not a program. You're a programmer." Between the stimulus and response, there is a space. I choose my response and take responsibility."
      • What's it like having Covey as his last name - "The power is in the principles."
    • #5 - Seek first to understand, then to be understood. A doctor diagnoses before they prescribe. It builds trust when the other person feels understood.
    • #7 - Sharpen the saw - Getting better.  "The Learning Leader has never arrived..."
  • His Dad's ethos:
    • To Live
    • To Love
    • To Learn
    • To Leave a Legacy
  • Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...
Mar 22, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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For full notes go to www.LearningLeader.com

Episode #357: General Stanley McChrystal - Leadership In Uncertain Times

  • “As we lead through this time of crisis, leaders are more important than ever:
    • 1) Communicate relentlessly
    • 2) Match your internal operating pace with that of your external environment
    • 3) Continue to reiterate what ‘winning’ looks like to your organization.”
  • Foreword from his book Team of Teams, legendary author Walter Isaacson wrote: “Whether in business or in war, the ability to react quickly and adapt is critical, and it’s becoming even more so as technology and disruptive forces increase the pace of change. That requires new ways to communicate and work together. In today’s world, creativity is a collaborative endeavor. Innovation is a team effort.”
  • Stockdale Paradox - (named for Admiral James Stockdale - the highest ranking POW of the Vietnam War who described how leaders survive terrible ordeals) "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
  • From page 104 in my book, Welcome To Management -- General McChrystal extended a gracious invitation for me to tour the hallowed grounds at the Battle of Gettysburg alongside the students he teaches in his leadership class at Yale. We learned a lot about the history of the battle over the course of two days with General McChrystal and some of his friends as tour guides. However, one teaching point that I specifically remembered was this, “The real lesson is . . . it’s not tactics, not strategy; it’s always about the people.”
  • Uncertainty -- What’s most scary for people.  While you can’t predict the future, you can be that sense of calm, cool, composed (QB in the huddle in tense moments).  General at war. The quarterback at Yale (where Stan teaches) said, "When you throw an interception, don't say 'My bad.' The guys know it's your bad. Say, 'here's what we're going to do next.'"
  • Recent events:  “These observations remind us of our early months fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq: We struggled to keep up with the pace of events, needed to unlearn conventional management rules and had to learn to lead in a totally new way.”
  • From James Clear - “The most useful form of patience is persistence. Patience implies waiting for things to improve on their own. Persistence implies keeping your head down and continuing to work when things take longer than you expect.”
  • "You have to navigate from where you are, not where you wish you were."
  • From Stan -- The German Army had a say, "feel the cloth." They were referencing when the men were walking so close to one another they could literally feel the cloth on the person next to them. Right now, we don't have that luxury with our co-workers, and it's a challenge. But what we do have and what we need to utilize are communication platforms to stay connected to our teammates. This is our new normal and it's our time to be a leader and help our team get the job done.
    • Communicate -- Losing these in person interactions in a remote-work environment means leaders need to start communicating with more regularity and breadth to their organization.
    • Set Realistic Goals - This is not business as usual, but you can still succeed. Your role as a leader is to be brutally honest about what is achievable in the coming weeks and months as this disruption continues to ripple across the economy.
    • Be Patient - Many of your employees, especially the younger ones, have not experienced turmoil like this in their careers. Be patient, but start communicating now. It is your responsibility as a leader to be a source of calm and steady for them. (from CNN)
  • Questions from members of my Leadership CircleNicci Bosco --What values can we hold in our mind/should we be thinking about/allowing to guide our own actions with when speaking to a group/leading a group/etc in uncertain times? What can we do to re-fill our own reservoir when we notice we're depleted? If we don't know the answer to something, but still want to provide guidance and a response, what are some options? Tom Carvelli -- If you had to sum up your leadership principles into a single unified concept, what would that be?  What does your your daily fitness routine look like in times like these when resources and activities are curtailed? Matt Spitz -- In a world that is incredibly uncertain is there anything in his life that never changes?  Matt Mullins -- In times of adversity and uncertainty how do leaders ensure that their people are prepared and confident to thrive and maintain character through those moments?  How does one develop the ability to maintain composure in stressful situations? How?
  • Stan's daily routine - It always starts with a workout in the early morning hours. "Always start the day lifting. Do a lot of Abs. Work on your core." That discipline creates consistency and that creates confidence. Stan weighs exactly the same today as he did when he was 17! He's only eaten one meal per day for 40 years.
  • If you have to fire someone (or lay them off) -- "Explain it, be honest, do it with grace."
  • Roosevelt during Pearl Harbor - "We are going to do whatever it takes to prevail. It's an unthinkable time, but we will get through it."
  • "You exist for the team... To give them what they need."
  • People are watching what you (the leader) is doing at every moment. How do you respond to good news? Bad news? What is you facial expression on that video conference call? The "Say-Do" gap. As a leader there should not be a gap between what you say and what you do. You must LIVE your values.
  • Building a committed team -- Top CIA agent said to Stan when they were overseas... "I don't know what the Ranger way is, but I will commit to YOU as a person."
  • A two-thousand-year-old Stoic phrase (from Ryan Holiday's Daily Stoic): What is up to us, what is not up to us? And what is up to us? Our emotions. Our judgments. Our creativity. Our attitude. Our perspective. Our desires. Our decisions. Our determination.
  • Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...
Mar 15, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for details

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

356: Stewart Friedman - How To Parent With Purpose & Fuel Your Career

Notes:

  • Sustaining excellence = "they take seriously the idea that it's not just about work. It's about life." --> Know what you care about... "It takes courage to look inside yourself."
    • Ask yourself, "What am I here to do?"  For Stew, "I'm here to help people grow as leaders and make an impact on the world."
  • What Stew learned from his time as a cab driver: Patience... Everyone is unique. You see how people treat others.  "It created a love of geography."
  • There is a lot of perspective to be gained from working in the service industry.
  • Stew was hired to run the leadership development program at Ford
    • It was important to connect with everyone around him
      • "Be respectful of all people you interact."
      • Humbled -- "I realized I knew nothing when I went to Ford."
        • "I get up there and devise what the next 10 years will look like... And talked about myself the whole time. A key leader pulled me aside and said, 'What the F are you doing?'"
  • Be WHOLE - It's about you as a whole person both at work and at home.
  • "Firms that fully embrace the needs and interests of the whole person will win today's competition for the best talent."
  • "Leading is about mobilizing people toward valued goals."
  • Learn how to talk with others and show them that you truly value you... LISTEN
    • "Ryan, you're one of the most important people to me in my life..."
  • What does the team need from the leader?
    • values, vision, an understanding of the stakeholders
  • The leadership leap:
    • You must care about people
    • Understand the specific priorities
    • Ask, "What am I missing?"
  • Total Leadership:
    • Projection - "If you had control, what would you be doing?"
    • "What's distinctive about you?"
      • Get clarity on what you care about right now
    • Identify the most important people in your life
  • Be innovative -- Constantly experimenting
  • Create 4 way wins:
    • Business
    • Family
    • Community
    • Personal
  • Take initiative - "What's a win for your company? Your boss?"
  • "At the individual level, you need to examine what you truly value, share this with key stakeholders in various life domains both to get feedback and support, and then to experiment with new ways of doing things so that - over the arc of a life - you can achieve harmony and have more of what it is that you uniquely want out of life."
  • Work life integration is a more useful term than work life balance. "Balance is the wrong metaphor."
  • The four elements, where do you devote your attention?
    • Do an assessment - Take 100 points... Divy up how important each of the following are based on your actions:
      • Work
      • Home
      • Community
      • Self
  • Do you find yourself saying, "I'm not paying enough attention to the things that matter to me."
    • "It's like a jazz quartet. Four people paying attention to each other, improvise, respond, make something beautiful over time."
  • "The only failure is the failure to learn from conscious and deliberate efforts to make things better, even if those attempts fall short of the mark."
  • Writing Parents Who Lead -  Crafting a collective vision. "What does our life look like?"
  • The question to ask: "How do you be you?"
    • "The courageous ones are able to bring that question forward..."
Mar 8, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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

The Learning Leader Academy: http://bit.ly/thelearningleaderacademy

Episode #355: Ramit Sethi - How To Live A Rich Life

Notes:

  • Ramit's book buying rule - If you are even thinking about buying the book, don't deliberate, just buy it.  You could invest $17 and it could change your life.  Even one idea makes it worth it.
  • Excellence - "Consistently do the work."
    • Put it on the calendar
    • Seek out people who are successful and then ask them for advice
    • In motion - Refuse to be stuck or paralyzed -- Take action
  • "Show me your spending and your calendar and I'll show you your priorities."
    • What are the 3-4 most important things in your life? Does your spending and your calendar reflect that?
  • Ramit starting learning how money worked while he was in college at Stanford... "The basic, boring truth. Consistency..."
  • Starting your blog can be your experimental laboratory
  • What is the future of online courses?
  • The trajectory of hiring as you're growing a business:
    • Part time assistant --> Researcher --> Full time
  • What do you look for when choosing who to add to your team?
    • Excellent at the task of doing the work
    • Curious - They ask great questions
    • Likable - They are someone you want to spend time with
  • Start your business on the side:
    • It's practical... Going from zero to 1 is very hard: Start this part while you have a job and don't need the money from your new endeavor
  • The psychology of pricing:  There is a profound difference in customers who get it for free vs. those who pay for it
    • You need to create "skin in the game."  People value it more if they have a financial stake in it.
    • "In business, you're not looking for the most people, you're looking for the right people."
      • "If you're a cheapskate, you'll attract cheapskates."
  • The power of mentors: They can be massively helpful, but you need to do the work to be a valuable mentee.  Show up to your meetings prepared and with a purpose.  Don't wander through life.
  • Atul Gawande - A coach in the operating room -- EVERYONE needs a coach.
  • Automate your finances - It's the crown jewel.  Set up your system so you don't need to think about it after it's created.
    • Create auto saving behaviors
  • "People are so busy asking $3 questions instead of $30K questions."
    • "How do I use my money to live a rich life?"
    • "What does rich mean to you?"
Mar 2, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

For full show notes, go to www.LearningLeader.com

Episode #354: WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT Book Launch Party With Doug Meyer

This is the recording from the conversation I had with Co-Founder/President of Brixey & Meyer, Doug Meyer, in front of many of our friends, clients, and colleagues at the Dayton office of Brixey & Meyer.

In WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT, I provide practical, actionable advice to help new managers build and lead committed teams in the face of daunting, unanticipated challenges. He presents a three-part framework outlining best practices distilled from interviews with more than 350 of the most forward-thinking leaders in the world, as well as his own professional experience transitioning from individual producer to new leader.

Through compelling stories and data-backed case studies, the book helps high performers make the leap from individual contributor to manager with greater ease, grace, courage, and effectiveness.

Notes:

  • The book writing process: How long did it take to write? What was the proposal writing process like? What led you to sell the book rights to McGraw-Hill?
  • Curiosity? Always natural or a learned skill? -- For me, this was something I learned to do... As I learned more, I realized there was so much more to learn.
  • The Cycle of Learning -- Operating Framework
    • Consume/Learn - The intake engine (read, listen to podcasts, speak with mentors)
    • Test - Experiment with what's been learned (You can't just be a learner, you have to be a doer) - "We learn who we are in practice, not in theory."
    • Reflect - Analyze results, make adjustments
    • Teach - Reinforce learning through sharing with others
  • Mentors vs. coaches. Interesting comparison and need throughout life. We discussed the difference and importance of each...
  • “Build the skills to do the job, not to get the job.” -- The act of putting your high potential employees in position to actually do the job, not just prepare for an interview.
  • Developing self-awareness -- It's important to regularly hold a mirror up to ourselves and surround self with people who will be brutally honest and caring of you and your development.
  • WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT  will teach you
    • Where the real work of leadership begins
    • The greatest medicine for fear and how to put it into practice
    • Why you need an “Operating Framework” and how to create one
    • The 3 key elements to creating a performance culture
    • The opportunity that many managers miss after they achieve success
    • The seven keys to earning respect
  • The quickest way to build trust is through vulnerability
  • Managing a team you inherit -- The instant you sign for the job, those are YOUR players.  Don't use terms like 'they' or 'them.'  It is US and WE.
  • The difference between leadership, management, coaching
    • Leadership:
      • The act of leading is about providing purpose, direction, aligning expectations, and inspiring the team.
    • Management:
      • Figuring out how to work within the current constraints of the system you are in... It is the administration and stewardship of resources.
    • Coaching:
      • The two types of coaching:
        • Coaching for performance - The 'right now' actions... Behaviors.
        • Coaching for development - Longer term
  • Dustyn Kim is a fantastic model for humility, vulnerability, and intelligence -- That's what she's the type of leader that I committed to doing everything I could to help her be successful.
  • Nobody is 'self-made.'  We are are built from communities of people who care about us, help us, and show love and support.
Feb 24, 2020

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk

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For full show notes go to www.LearningLeader.com

Episode #353: Jeni Britton Bauer - How To Create A 'Craveable' Reason To Return

Jeni Britton Bauer is an American ice cream maker and entrepreneur. Jeni opened her first ice cream shop, Scream, in 1996, then founded Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in 2002. Her first cookbook, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller and won a coveted James Beard Award in 2012. Jeni is a 2017 Henry Crown Fellow and has been recognized by Fast Company as "one of the most creative companies in the world."

Notes:

  • Leaders who sustain excellence =
    • "The main thing is you show up every day.  You show up and lead by example. You have to be IN IT daily."
    • That develops trusts.  Trusts leads to it the rest...
  • Jeni is a subject matter expert on the topics that matter to her: ice cream, leadership, curiosity, creativity...
  • "It’s not a genius idea then lots of funding, then success.  It’s really more subtle than that. Blazing a slow path through a tangled jungle, learning as you go over many years.  It takes time."
  • "I find my discipline when I find my passion.  And that passion starts with curiosity. And finding the place of what I want to do is needed in the world."
  • How to know what your passion is?
    • "There's a cross road of what you want to explore and what other people want." -- "That's entrepreneurial thinking.  It's about community and creativity."
  • "We don't know what's possible... You've got to be out exploring and be open to new ideas."
  • Create time for yourself and your team to follow your curiosity...
  • Entrepreneurship is about a 2 way communication with customers. 
  • One pint of ice cream tested positive for listeria but there was never an outbreak. -- They recalled 6 months worth of ice cream, destroying 535,000 pounds (or 265 tons) of ice cream, costing the company more than $2.5 million!  It almost put them out of business.
  • “You want to say you've got talent, hustle, and guts. You want to tell that to the world, but you don't really know until you prove it."
  • "If we create a community, everything falls into place.  Put your values front and center and merge with the community.  When the community sees your business as vital, they will help you when times are tough."
  • “There’s nothing more important whether in the financial industry or ice cream, than trust.”
  • "Create a craveable reason to return" - Why would a customer come back to you? Why would someone follow you? What are you doing as a leader that makes someone want to follow you?
Feb 17, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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

Episode #352: Patrick Lencioni - The Five Key Actions Of Excellent Leaders

Notes:

  • Leaders who sustain excellence =
    • Humility - They don't feel they are more important than others, but they realize that their words and actions carry more weight.
  • "Leadership is a privilege... It's about serving others. A lot of leaders lead because they think it looks cool."
  • "Leadership has to be about what you can give, not what you can get."
  • Exploring the two leadership motives:
    • Reward-centered leadership: the belief that being a leader is the reward for hard work, and therefore, that the experience of being a leader should be pleasant and enjoyable, avoiding anything mundane, unpleasant or uncomfortable.
    • Responsibility-centered leadership: the belief that being a leader is a responsibility, and therefore that the experience of leading should be difficult and challenging (though certainly not without elements of personal gratification).
  • One of the questions to ask yourself:
    • “How do you see your job in terms of verbs?” — what do you do to really help the business?
  • The leader must be a constant, incessant reminder of the company’s purpose, strategy, values, & priorities.  You’re not only the CEO, you’re the CRO.” Chief Reminding Officer
  • The actions of great leaders:
    • Running great meetings
    • Managing the executive team
    • Managing the executives as individuals
    • Having difficult conversations with people
    • Constantly communicating and repeating key messages to employees
  • "The CEO should have the most painful job in the company."
  • For the mid-level manager -- "Am I waking up with the right rationale to do this job?"
  • Love is a verb:
    • Time
    • Affection
    • Discipline
  • "Leadership is not a noun, it's a verb."
  • Running great meetings:
    • "Meetings are the central activity of leadership.  Bad leaders have other people run their meetings."
      • Good meetings have debate and conflict.  People are able to be passionate without consequence.  The leader prioritizes what will be talked about.
  • CEO's are responsible to build teams.  Your job is to build teams based on trust
  • When receiving a message from a cynical leader who says "You don't understand."  Our response? "No, we're not going to be that way.  The ones who do the hard work change the world."
  • Micro-managing vs. Accountability:
    • "There is an abdication of management.  You should know what your team is doing."
  • Parenting: "The great news about being a parent is it's humbling."
  • The leader must be the chief reminding officer:
    • "Constant, incessant, reminder of the company's purpose, strategy, values, and priorities. You must over-communicate."
  • Marriage advice:
    • "Be completely humble, vulnerable, especially in front of the kids.  Engage in healthy conflict.  When people can't argue, that's a problem."
Feb 10, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

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

Episode #351: John Maxwell - The Laws Of Leadership (Follow Them & People Will Follow You)

John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, coach, and author who has sold over 20 million books. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books which have each sold more than one million copies: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.

Notes:

  • "Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better." - Pat Riley
  • The difference between 'best' and 'better'
    • "Whatever is best for now... Tomorrow has got to get better. I always look at 'best' for a moment."
    • "If you're not growing today, I have to talk about yesterday. I don't want to talk about yesterday."
  • The great leaders:
    • Listen
    • Learn
    • Lead
  • The importance of listening and asking questions:
    • "I began to ask questions, invite people to sit down and talk."  Shared learning and growing together...
  • What John learned from Angela Ahrendts:
    • "I aim to always give 60 and take 40.  Always give more than you take."
    • "Add more value to people than you take."
  • Working with your team:
    • "I put an idea in front of my team and say, 'make it better,' and they always do."
  • Proactive: "If you're not proactive, you're reactive.  I've never met a great leader who wasn't proactive."
    • "Be unforgettable.  Always be the first person to help."
  • Action Attraction
    • "The moment I move, I attract all resources because I'm moving."
    • "I never draw people to me when I sit still."
      • "Action shows intention"
  • Keynote speaking preparation:
    • "When I'm in the green room preparing, I'm thinking about the people in the audience. I begin to envision the people leaning in, taking notes, engaged.  It helps me."
    • The content you have will alone will not cut it -- "Connecting the content to the people carries the day. I want them to say, 'oh my gosh, he's talking to me.'"
      • "The response of the people charges me up."
  • Layered learning:
    • Is your fence facing out or facing in?  Are you growing?  Or shrinking?
  • Building a company?  "I wasn't trying to build a company.  It started in a garage.  Each company was created just to help solve problems for people. --> Find a need, start a company, find a need, start a company."
    • There are now over 30,000 John Maxwell coaches
  • "I've always had the ability to take a problem and develop a resource for it."
  • "I can smell an opportunity... And I can see it in people.  I've always been quick to spot this."
    • How to develop this skill? --> "You must seize the opportunities. Act quickly."
  • Adaptability - "A person that lacks flexibility will mist a lot of opportunities."
    • Peter Drucker did not make long range plans.  He focused on seizing the moment.
    • John's long range plan: "What I want for people is for them to do well and I want to help them do that."
  • Life advice:
    • Value people
    • Continually grow
    • Live very intentionally
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