The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Episode #317: Susan Cain - The Power of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking

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Full Shownotes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com 

Susan Cain is the author of the world-wide bestseller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking, which has been translated into 40 languages, is in its seventh year on the New York Times best seller list, and was named the #1 best book of the year by Fast Company magazine, which also named Cain one of its Most Creative People in Business. LinkedIn named her the 6th Top Influencer in the world.

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • Understand that soft is hard and hard is soft.  Soft skills = essential skills.  They are hard, but essential to develop.
• Leaders in corporate America surprise Susan
  • She expected a lot of resistance from others, but her ideas have been embraced.
• The responsibility Susan feels for making "introverting so hard" a cool thing to say... It wasn't before her book.
  • People would hide the fact they were an introvert prior to Quiet being published and/or lie on personality tests
• The point is not to say that you should want to be an introvert or an extrovert -- We need both.
• Charisma = magic
  • "The wind howls but the mountain remains still."  We moved from being --> To being a culture of personality.
• Susan's roots: A Harvard educated lawyer
  • Building a Negotiation Consulting business after leaving the corporate world
• How can an introvert be a good negotiator?
  • The best negotiators are the ones who do their homework
  • Present in a neutral way, calm, collected, ask questions, try to learn, better understand the other person's position
• Romantic relationships - An extrovert and introvert getting married -- "you must really understand the other person's preferences are legitimate."
• When should you act more extroverted than you are?
  • We should all step outside of our comfort zones, but be intentional about it.  An introvert who is a public speaker (like Susan) must do this to share the message with groups of people. What are your core projects?  When in service of others, do it.
  • Restorative niches --> After a keynote (for an introvert), go to your hotel room and relax alone (to restore energy expended speaking)
• Why is cool overrated?
  • In the Enron scandal, Vince Kaminski was the "uncool introverted nerd."  He was the unsung hero in the scandal.  He figured out what was happening in advance.  They told him, "You're like the police and we don't like that."
• The process to sell the proposal for Quiet:
  • Started writing it in 2005.
  • Agent shopped it an received 12 offers --> A bidding frenzy
  • The importance of writing the "first crappy draft."
    • Take the feedback as a gift
  • Most successful authors have had a lot of help

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#316: Cal Newport - How To Choose A Focused Life In A Noisy World

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University who studies the theory of distributed systems. In addition to his academic work, he writes about the intersection of technology and culture.Cal is the author of six books, including, most recently, the New York Times bestseller, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. 

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Full shownotes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com

"Be unambiguously good at something important. Head's down with an apprenticeship mindset."

Show Notes:

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • They know what matters and get after it
  • They are not easily distracted... They have the ability to be intensely focused on the task at hand at a tactical level
• Train to be so good they can't ignore you
  • Concentrate intently -- Introverts are happier doing this.  But it's also a trainable skill.
• Cal's background: theoretical computer science computation group - Focus and master on a small number of things
• How to be "so good they can't ignore you?"
  • They want a secret formula.  That's not how it works.  It's not about a life hack.  "The reality is simpler... 'Be relentlessly good at something valuable.'
• Deep Work = Focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.  This skill is more valuable.  It's how you learn complicated things and produce at a high level.
  • Culture-wise - We are getting worse at deep work
  • We need to be able to be locked in to produce something valuable for work... Deep work can also be personal development.  There is overlap.
• Digital Minimalism
  • Unexpected consequences of technology = Our attention is captured by glowing screens
  • Phones = Completely banish solitude.  We are never alone with our own thoughts anymore.
  • Do one or two things a day without your phone.  Force solitude.
  • Why do we have a compulsive need to look at our phone?  Social media has been engineered to do this... Junk food is built the same way.  Cal has never had a social media account.
• A 30 day digital declutter:
  • Be away from optional technology for 30 days.
  • Detox -- Give yourself time and space to see what you value outside of work.  Then ask, "What technology do I want in my life?"
• What's the best way to use technology?
  • For someone who loves Twitter (like me) for the gathering of interesting people?
    • Create a curated reading list from Twitter.  Click all the useful links to articles, then block out time to just read those.
• The power of going on walks:
  • "I walk a lot.  That's how I think."
  • Walking with no phone -- It creates reflection, insight, thinking.  Do walking meetings.
  • Get sun - get outside.  It's a form of 'productive meditation.'
  • Focus on a single problem for that walk
• Thoughts on Kliff Kingsbury building in time every 30 minutes for his players to check their phones?
  • "This is not good.  Concentration matters.  Especially in football."
• Use the "Get To Know You Document"
• Why joining The Learning Leader Circle is a good idea

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#315: Gabriel Weinberg - Using Mental Models To Make Better Decisions

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

Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo, the Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.He co-authored Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth and co-wrote, Super Thinking. Gabriel holds a B.S. with honors from MIT in Physics and an M.S. from the MIT Technology and Policy Program. He has been profiled in The Washington Post and Fast Company, and is routinely quoted in leading print publications such as The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Weinberg is also a frequent TV commentator, appearing on CNN, CNBC, and CBS This Morning, among others.

Notes:

• Commonalities of leaders who have sustained excellence:
  • A desire and openness to grow as a person
  • People want to follow them -- They set up systems for others to succeed
  • They make sure the team is headed in the right direction
• The North Star -- Must always orient yourself towards whatever that is for you
  • Your personal mission statement
  • Maximize impact on the world -- Where do you want to go?  Define what that is for you
• DuckDuckGo is an internet privacy company -- Started in 2008 for private search (a competitor to Google).
  • Gabriel discussed how he was ahead of his time -- The secret is something you know about the world that others don't yet.  Search is the most personal thing on the internet.  Gabriel wanted to create an alternate (private) to Google.
• Mental Model -- A concept for general decision making.  A few hundred concepts that are useful for better decision making
• Become a 'chef' with your thinking -- 1st principles thinking.  Your intuition can be wrong.  Best practices can also be wrong.  You need to focus on being wrong less.
  • 1st Principles = Most intentional way of thinking:  Question assumptions.
• Every project has a scoping template:
  • What is the objective of the project?
  • What is success criteria?
  • What are you trying to solve?
  • Does everyone agree?
    • Discussion with team -- Operationalize 1st principles
• Why the pro/con list is not as helpful as the cost/benefit list:
  • Write down cost over time -- Rate everything vs that
    • Example: Where should we go on vacation?  Rate on a scale 1-10.  Combine cost and benefits.
• Do a post mortem after every project -- It forces critical thinking and analysis
  • What went well?
  • What didn't?
  • Given those things, how can we operationalize to do better?
• Why is it rare to do a "success autopsy?"
  • By default, an after action review will not happen.  It must be built into the process.  Our default setting is to move on to the next project.
• What was it like writing a book with his wife?  Lauren McCann is Gabriel's wife and co-author on Super Thinking
  • "We would walk together every morning and talk about the book."  It became the primary topic of conversation for a long time
• Charlie Munger multi-disciplinary approach:
  • At DuckDuckGo, this is their goal --> Grow people internally.  They work hard to help their team make better decisions
• Structure of DuckDuckGo:
  • 70 team members -- fully distributed all over the world
  • Immense delegation happens daily
• What does Gabriel look when hiring someone to the team?
  • Self starters -- The team is fully distributed.  They have a lot of autonomy and ownership.  People are empowered and must be willing to work without a boss watching them.
  • Question assumptions
  • Great communicator -- There is a lot of written communication when the team is all over the world.  Must be able to write well.
  • Experimental mindset
  • Validate direction -- Run experiments if you have a hunch and then analyze your findings
  • Build trust -- Very key.  There is heavy transparency at DuckDuckGo.  Must be trustworthy.
• How to find candidates who possess these qualities?
  • Do paid projects as part of the hiring process... Get a feel for them actually doing the job before you hire them full time.
• Culture:
  • "We have a 'thank you' culture"
    • "Most respectful interpretation" of every interaction.  Give people the benefit of the doubt.
    • Thoughtful and intentional
• Gabriel's upbringing: His dad was a doctor.  His mom was an artist.
• How to flex your market power?  Combine two particular sets of skills, go deep learning them (eg. be a great finance person  and public speaker.  Look for gaps in the market or within your company, and use your unique skills (like Liam Neeson in Taken) and attack the problem.  Most people just do what they're told.  Don't settle for that.
• Why shouldn't we trust our gut?
  • Availability bias - May not remember all the options
  • Confirmation bias - the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.
  • Use it as a hypothesis generator, then question it.  Don't fully commit until the necessary work is done.
  • "Thinking gray." --> Delay decisions until they absolutely must be made.
    • Jeff Bezos opens a door, but may come back through it.  "We'll do this now, but we may walk it back."
• How to build trust?
  • Vulnerability speeds up the process of building a trusting environment.
  • "Relationships move at the speed of vulnerability."
• Anders Ericsson -- Deliberate practice.
  • Work at the edge of your comfort zone.  Receive coaching in real time.
    • Hire an executive coach
    • Create a board of advisors
    • Day to day -- check your thinking and explain it (write, give speeches)
• Writing is the best form of thinking critically --> "It's the best way to clarify my thinking"
• Overall life advice:  What is your north star?  What areas do you want to pursue?  What are you current skills?
  • Find your highest leverage point, study those areas

More Resources:

• Read: Super Thinking 
• Follow Gabriel on Twitter: @yegg
• Be part of "Mindful Monday" -- Text LEARNERS to 44222
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Join our Facebook Group: The Learning Leader Community
• To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

314: John Calipari & Michael Lombardi - Building & Sustaining A Culture Of Excellence

Full show notes found at www.LearningLeader.com

John Calipari has been the head coach of the University of Kentucky basketball team since 2009, with whom he won the NCAA Championship in 2012. He has been named Naismith College Coach of the Year three times (in 1996, 2008 and 2015), and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. Calipari has coached Kentucky to four Final Fours, in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

Michael Lombardi was an assistant to the coaching staff of the New England Patriots (until 2016) and is a former analyst for the NFL Network and sportswriter at NFL.com.  Lombardi also previously served as an NFL executive with the San Francisco 49ers working withBill Walsh, Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles, and Oakland Raiders working with Al Davis. 

This was recorded in front of an audience at an event called the NCAA Final Four Coaching Consortium.  The people in the audience were college basketball coaches and athletic directors.

Notes:

• The "Players First" credo:
  • "When I worked for Larry Brown he told me, if you care about the kids and you really care, you'll always have a job."
  • "Larry was a coaches coach, but a players coach, who wasn't afraid to coach.  Right now, we're moving in a direction where we're afraid to coach.  Correcting in real time is so important."
  • "Everyone said the 1 and done rule would ruin college basketball, they wanted to replace me."
  • "If you're about your kids, whatever happens good for them, will not be a negative for you.  It's about them first.  It's about us second.  If you want them to be servant leaders, they have to see it in you."
  • "If they don't see you getting involved in the community, they won't get involved in the community."  Players first is not just them playing basketball, it's everything.
• "We all should be reading.  The more curious you are, the more curious your players will be.  Read books, give your players books to read."
• Lombardi -- Coach Walsh was all about the players, he was the first to go on fishing tournaments with players.  He bought Bubba Smith a big tv, he made Michael sit and eat all meals with him.
  • Bill Walsh had a book club in San Francisco
  • Bill Belichick is all about the history of the game and the history of our country.  When you go in the cafeteria and you see the great players on the wall, he expects you to know the history and the culture of your team.
  • You should ask all coaches, "who assigns the jersey numbers?"  The coach should assign those numbers, not the equipment manager.  Your player needs to know the history of that number.
• Calipari -- Process on getting guys to want to play as a team:
  • It all starts in recruiting.  "If you promise every kid 25 shots, good luck.  Because at some point, someone will be upset.  If the relationship starts with a lie, you'll never recover."
  • "Whatever you do here is earned.  If you're good enough you'll start, but you'll decide that."
  • "If you want them to be great teammates it starts immediately when you meet them.  They have to earn it."
  • You can't oversell and under deliver.  People will not buy in to that.
  • "Pat Riley gave me one of the best compliments ever, he said, 'Your players are some of the best teammates in the NBA.'"
  • Marcus Camby -- "I said, what position do you want to play?"  he said, "Shooting guard."  I said, "Okay, but we do post up our shooting guards a lot."
• Lombardi -- Putting together a great roster -- Roster construction:
  • The law of 3's
    • Whenever you take over a team you have three groups of people
      • One -- They'll do anything you want them to do
      • Two -- They're unsure
      • Three -- They are never happy
    • Focus on the people in group one and you'll win the whole team.
  • The Four areas of leadership
    • Command of self -- Must be discipline
    • Command of plan
    • Command of meaning/message
    • Command of trust -- You cannot lie.  If you lie, you'll lose the player forever
• Calipari -- Took over UMass -- Terrible team at the time
  • When he left, he got advice from a business man (Pat Nardelli)
  • "You can a have bad deal with good people.  Stuff happens.  But you can never have a good deal with bad people."
  • "The reason I've had success, I've had the best staffs.  Top to bottom.  When you get your job, you surround yourself with great people."
  • "Assistant coaches must be able to work together.  They are each other's PR machine.  Each guy needs to promote the other guy."
  • Was on football field with Bill Parcells -- Could coach all 22 guys on a football field.  He had incredible vision.
• The importance of mentors in your career-- Calipari
  • "Who's your kitchen cabinet?  Who do you go to when things aren't going well?"  Who can you listen to?
    • Ken Blanchard - The One Minute Manager
  • Decision making -- you need to run it by someone.  Don't make big time decisions when you're still emotional.
    • "I'll take the job the grass is greener.... Well you have to cut the grass on both sides."
    • You need people to say, "Stop.  Tell me what you're thinking..."
• Lombardi -- Meeting with George Raveling
  • "This man reads more than any human being alive."
  • Take an hour a day to read
• Calipari -- Look at adversity as a challenge and failure as a learning opportunity
  • "How does someone look when things aren't going well?  That's what I need to know."
  • "The best moments are when things aren't going well.  Give me four games in a row when you lose... Now, I want to see what kind of person are you?"  You're on the stage by yourself, you're looking for friends."
  • "You have issues?  People have their own issues.  They aren't worried about you."  It's about "How do I get restarted?  What's my next step?  Ask an AD, how can I be better?"
  • "When you get fired, make amends with the people who fired you.  The next job you want?  They're going to call those people who fired you."
  • Be a 'pay it forward' person.  The opportunities we have to change lives... And the ripples it causes from it.
• Lombardi -- The Obstacle Is The Way
  • How to bounce back when you're wrong?
    • When you get a new job, figure out why you got the job and why the person before you got fired.  Take the time to understand the mistakes made.
    • "The only way you'll correct them is to learn them."
    • There's two kind of jobs:  Jobs you can grow from and jobs you can make a difference in.
    • Al Davis would ask Mike -- "Do you know why we won today?"  He wanted to know why the team won and lost and put it on paper.
    • Bill Belichick does an autopsy after every game (win or lose).  You need to understand why the outcome happened (good or bad).  Take stock of your career every single day.  Every obstacle needs to be used to your advantage.
• Calipari -- "I will not coach if I'm cheating these kids."
  • He signed a lifetime contact with Kentucky
  • "My leverage has always been the job I've done."
  • Why talk to other teams? "I want to help someone I know.  A player or another coach.  The whole thing we do is about relationships."
• If LeBron James calls you and asks you to coach his team, what will you say?
  • "I'm not doing it.  Pat Riley said Coach Cal coaches and corrects in real time during a game.  He takes a guy out, corrects, puts him back in. You can't do that in the NBA."
• Lombardi -- At college pro days
  • Belichick observed Coach Cal during a game... Watching him coach
    • "It was so impressive, Belichick was admiring how much Cal was coaching."
• What skills should we develop?  The commonalities among the most successful coaches:
  • Curious minds -- not a single playbook.  The sport moves.  Adapt.
  • They are about other people -- Servant leaders
  • Wired and driven to work - they love practice more than the games
  • Smart --
• Lombardi -- Divergent in thought.  Figure out what's needed with that team.  Passion.
  • "The greatest reward for winning is the opportunity to do it more."

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#313 - Listener Supported (Q & A) Episode -- Build Confidence Like Beyonce, How To Ask The Right Questions, & When To Make A Job Change

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

Notes:

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • Have a mindset of growth
    • They assume they have so much to learn
• Question from Ed Arnston -- Lt. Col in The United States Army -- "All of your guests are excellent and offer a lot of wisdom, but as you've done more than 300, what are the top 5 in power rankings of guests on your show?
  • Kat Cole - Courage & Confidence + Curiosity & Humility
  • George Raveling - The curiosity of a 5 year old, he is a learning machine
  • Brian Koppelman - Follow your curiosity and obsessions with great rigor
  • Jim Collins - Who is YOUR WHO?
  • General Stan McChrystal - “Your character is something you can control.  You can decide what your character is.  Nobody can take it from you.”
• Questions from CaSaundra Garber -- Technical Project Manager, Portland, Oregon -- Who have you always wanted to have on your podcast that you haven't made happen yet?  Reading The Alliance, what are your thoughts on it?
  • Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Oprah, a panel with Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady
  • "You are the sum of your experiences."  A lot of the learnings of my life have come from the great coaches I've played for in my life.
  • One of the biggest parts of The Alliance is the idea of doing "a tour of duty."  Changing jobs and learning new skills and the benefits of it.  Tour of duty = What do you want to learn and gain in this specific area of business?  Don't get a job just to have a job, take a job that will give you a tour where you come out of it in a planed time frame and you've learned something new. --> David Epstein writes about this in Range and on THIS episode.  People that earn roles in the C-suite have a variety of roles on their way to that position.  Open your mind more to take on a role that is currently completely outside of what you do.  This also helps you walk a mile in the shoes of others and creates compassion/empathy.
• Question from Daniel Jellings -- Manager Local Government, Adelaide, Australia -- Career has been linear, regular promotions along the way, became a manager about five years ago.  What are your thoughts on proactively exploring other roles that are outside of my current skill set (that could be a side step) in order to eventually become a General Manager?
  • Learn as much as possible about the people you may go work with... Try as best you can to simulate what it will be like to work with those people. "You have to mow the grass in both places."  There are a lot of advantages to seeking opportunities that force you to stretch and learn.  They are initially uncomfortable.  "If you want something extraordinary to happen to you, you're going to have to take a an uncomfortable risk in every dimension of your life." -- Scott Galloway
• Question from Ryan Ogle -- Championship Director for PGA of America, Bend Harbor, Michigan -- What is your current morning and evening routine?  What is your process for utilizing a daily journal?
  • Wake up at 4:45 -- Drink water, stretch, read, journal, workout, breakfast with family, drive daughters to school, work.  When finishing manuscript, I wrote a lot during the early hours of the day.  At night, I like to read out of books (Kindle in the morning and at the gym).
  • Discussed my preparation process for a podcast.
  • A daily journal is helpful to remind yourself of your mindset at that particular time of your life.  It helps you remember what it was really like at that time.  And why I use technology (instead of paper and pencil) to write in my journal.
  • Why I'm fascinated by The Wright Brothers... -- "If you're trying to do something of significance, you will have people who question you, who may think you're nuts."
• Question from Andrew (Opie) Brodbeck -- Former professional baseball player, Clearwater, Florida  -- What skills from playing football helped you in your business life off the field?  Took a personality test and didn't pass it based on the company feedback?  How to deal with that and develop confidence in yourself in something off the field?  How to lead a dysfunctional team that lacks trust (Chelsea)?
  • It's important to properly set your expectations and realize you'll never get the rush of playing in front of 105,000 people again.
  • Some of the skills that translated: How to prepare, how to deal with adversity, how to be resilient, how to develop the willingness to work... I was able to share what I learned from the best coaches.  Showing that you're coachable.  you must be coachable to learn something new.  Being comfortable with a daily scoreboard (which we had in a sales environment).  On the first day of employment, I asked the VP, "who's the best?"  And then shadowed that person.
  • Confidence -- How to build it like Beyonce?  "Confidence is built through a series of successful events in your life."  Those successful events were built through preparation.  Run a success autopsy -- Why did we win?  Why did it go well?  Create momentum in your life.  Create success in multiple life categories -- Those people take their framework wherever they go to create success.  No only means "not yet."
  • Read Pat Lencioni's work on the dysfunction of a team
• Question from Lizzie Merritt-- Manager/Leader, Jacksonville, Florida. (and member of my Leadership Circle)  --The quality of your leadership depends on the quality of your questions. I imagine there are plenty of examples of massive failures that can be traced back to a leader not asking the right questions.While this concept is simple on the surface, it gets tougher in practice.  As a leader, how do you respond with questions instead of answers?  How do you know the right questions to ask?
  • Leading with questions -- As a new manager, you may have the need to "always have the answers."  As you develop more wisdom and confidence, you'll stop doing this.  The greatest mentors in our lives are the ones who don't give the answers, they are the ones who help me figure out the answers.  They ask the poignant questions to help me figure it out.  The first questions are good, but the best questions are the follow ups.  Listen, distill, synthesize, ask more, then go deeper....  Don't script questions, but prepare with notes on that person and what they're doing, be an active listener (think like a trampoline)...
  • Write down the qualities of leaders you admire, like, look up to, and write down the qualities of the leaders you feel the opposite about.  Review it regularly...
  • Dealing in uncomfortable conversations -- Crucial Conversations (book).  It should never be a surprised when giving someone bad news about their performance.  The feedback should be happening on a regular basis.  "It is in our best interest for you to improve."  Kim Scott's book Radical Candor 
  • "It's a lot harder when you care" -- "Because I care about you, I need to tell you something difficult."
• Question from Eric Liddic-- Print broker, Dayton, Ohio -- What advice would you give to someone who hasn't sold in the past, but needs to sell now?
  • Great sales people: are fantastic listeners, they care, and they try to help. 
  • Read Dan Pink's book To Sell Is Human
  • Analyze why you've won each deal in the past.  Understand how you can replicate that.
  • Create a reason for people to call you (put useful material out in the world: podcast, blog, do a project for free)
  • Why Joe Girard was the greatest car sales professional of all time -- "If you get a lemon, it gives me the opportunity to show off."
• Question from Marietta Sanders -- Lt. Colonel, Squadron Commander, US Air Force, stationed in United Arab Emirates -- What are the common areas you see the best leaders focus on within their businesses?
  • The WHO -- Who will you surround yourself with?  The WHO is the biggest determining factor in your long term success.  Consistently surround yourself by people who are smarter than you.
  • Great leaders have an ability to help "see around the corners."  They share their vision to make their followers feel better about where they're going.  They have vision.
  • Great communication skill -- You have regular moments where you need to share the vision with vivid clarity.  
  • How to attract and retain top talent -- When someone is looking outside of your organization for another job is because those people don't have clarity of their future within your organization.  The leader's job is to provide clarity for the people that they lead. 
  • Great leaders are always on the look out for compelling stories... Then taking the story, distilling it to it's essence (the core themes), and then relating it to my specific role (the "what's in it for me?" OR "why should I care?")