The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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

#321: Jay Acunzo

Jay Acunzo is the founder of the media company Marketing Showrunners, author of the book Break the Wheel, and the host and producer of more than a dozen docuseries about creativity at work. He's a former digital media strategist at Google, head of content at HubSpot, and Vice President of Content and Community at the VC firm NextView.Jay’s work has been cited in courses at Harvard Business School and by writers at the New York Times, the Washington Post, FastCompany, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and more. Salesforce called him "a creativity savant," while the American City Business Journals named him as one of Boston's "50 On Fire.”

Show notes:

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • Curiosity gets you the ability to constantly reinvent yourself
    • Ex: A basketball player who works on a new part of his/her game every summer (constantly adding to the game)
  • Intrinsic motivation
  • Telic type -- Get to level 1, 2, and going...
  • "When you're curious you're constantly turning it over and over..."
• Be a sensitive skeptic -- Keeping dispirit ideas at the same time
• "You have to be open and at the same time question everything."
  • Anthony Bourdain -- An inspiration -- Why does that inspire me?  What do I bring to the table?  Be open to all, but skeptical
• Bourdain -- He's able to sit with anybody and pull out emotional moments from what seemed a normal day.
  • Parts Unknown is not about geography, but with people and their emotions.  "We experience his work with lots of emotion."
• Best interviewers:
  • 2 types:
    • Conversationalists: Bourdain, Bill Simmons, Conan -- They aren't about the clever question, it's about the environment they create, the trust they build.
    • Questioners: Terry Gross, Kara Swisher - They are genius in the simple questions, and the follow ups...
• How do you feel leading up to a big moment?
  • A specific anticipatory feeling.  Before getting on stage, think, "Wow, I get to do this." Not, I have to do this.
• Process to prepare for a speech:
  • Wind down before the gig
  • Rehearse in the office days before, film it, use it as game tape.  Practice, practice, practice.
  • Create muscle memory -- "Don't memorize it, memorialize it."
• "When I make something, I want to feel something.  I have to put in the reps."
• Thoughts on "best practices?"
  • "The image in my head is, 'that's the way we've always done things.'" 
  • Must rather find the best approach
• How to do this?
  • Don't run a faulty equation for your work
  • Don't build on lagging indicators
  • Don't miss variables... You must know the current context
• "Stop acting like an expert, start acting like an investigator."
• The 3 Psychological Barriers: Why we aren't making great decisions:
  • The Pike Syndrome:  A feeling of powerlessness after repeated failure (named for the experiment of conditioning a pike to not eat minnows by hiding those minnows behind glass).  Solution: "first-principle"insights about customers
  • The Foraging choice: The decision between exploiting your current position or exploring other possibilities (named for the idea that human decisions under high-stress condition often mirror foraging behavior in animals.  Solution: "Aspirational anchors" for you and/or your team
  • Cultural Fluency: Your behavior when the world unfolds according to the expected norm (a concept honed by a man who ran experiments on his friends and family at a picnic).  Solution: "trigger questions" to add cultural disfluency
• How to help people develop intuition?
  • Intuition is not an instant clarity generator -- "The ability to consider the environment." --> Ask great questions about context.
    • Break into knowable parts
      • You -- People doing work
      • Customers -- Stakeholder -- who the work is for
      • Resources -- to make it happen
• Ask useful questions:
  • "Set aside the desire to be right for the desire to get it right."
• Common mistakes new managers make:
  • They "have all the answers."  Ask questions, Remove ego.
  • Emotion based decisions -- Surround self with the right people to help with deficiencies
• Qualities Jay looks for when making hiring decisions:
  • Can you do the work?
  • Can I understand who you are?
  • Skip right to the good stuff -- "What's the best story you've ever written?"
  • Want people with an intrinsic desire to create -- Love side projects like his sports blog
• Advice:
  • Career path is BS -- It's laughable.  Your 20's are about exploration... "Try a lot of stuff."  Do side projects
• Bad advice:
  • "The idea that being the best is a real thing.  It's ridiculous." Focus on your own body of work, not others.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Episode #320: Rick Smith

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

Rick Smith is the founder and CEO of Axon.  Axon currently employs over 1,300 people.  A pioneer of technology with the vision of making the bullet obsolete, Rick founded the original company, TASER, in 1993. As the TASER device became ubiquitous in law enforcement, Rick pushed the company beyond weapons technology and towards a broader purpose of matching technology to public safety needs in order to make the world a safer place. Under his leadership, the company has grown from a garage in Tucson to a NASDAQ-listed global market leader.

Notes:

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • Initiative -- "They see what needs to be done and they do it."
• Rick started the company out of his garage in Arizona in 1993
• More on taking initiative: "Don't wait for people to tell you what to do.  Highlight it and fix it."
  • Luke Larson was an individual contributor when the company had 250 employees.  He challenged Rick on an issue and offered a solution.  He is now the President of a 1,300 person company
• Mindset -- Build a culture that rewards challenging the status quo
  • "Tell the ugly truth"
  • "Anyone can challenge any idea"
• Qualities Rick looks for in hiring:
  • Need to want to be with them
  • Initiative - they need to step up and do work
  • Intellectual curiosity - someone who seeks better answers
  • No time for hierarchical people -- they cannot be threatened by 'up and comers'
• "You want to hire people that are literally better than you.  You have to learn to embrace that."
  • "It's so liberating to know that I don't have to be right."
• Why try to eliminate the bullet?
  • "In 1993, two friends were shot and killed.  I thought, 'why are bullets still a thing?'"
  • "Don't wait until you have the perfect business plan.  Have a simple concept you believe in and get to work."
  • "Focus on solving a big problem"
• The first seven years did not go well.  Rick was fortunate to have his dad fund it... However, it led to a difficult relationship when the business wasn't going well.  He had immense pressure for it to succeed.
  • They fixed their core product and it began catching on with law enforcement agencies
  • They own 100% of the taser market
• "I'm a libertarian guy. I don't want to take anything away from anyone."
  • "But people romanticize guns.  The real world is messy.  We make mistakes."
    • "Why use lethal force instead of a taser?"
  • What about the phrase: "Don't take a knife (or taser) to a gun fight?"
    • "How about, 'Don't get into a gun fight.'"
• The book (End Of Killing): "Our goal is to replace the gun long term.  The book is me sharing what I believe that nobody else believes."
• Have to respect ideas
  • "It's a good sign if people initially think you're crazy"
• Keys to building a team at work that sees a higher mission?
  • "You must have an authentic mission."
  • "Don't say you're changing the world unless you actually are."
  • "My goal is to inspire the right team and then get out of their way."
  • "I'm now the chief storyteller of the business."
• Career advice:
  • "Find a job where you get to feel the impact of what you want to create.  What are the big picture things you want to accomplish."
  • "The people who are most effective see what needs to be done and they go and do it."
• Use the "Get To Know You Document"
• Why joining The Learning Leader Circle is a good idea

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#319: Jim Clifton

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

Personal Excellence 2.0 workshop: www.RyanHawk.me 

Jim Clifton has served as CEO of Gallup, a global leader in consulting and public opinion research and analytics, since 1988. Under his leadership, Gallup has expanded from a predominantly U.S.-based company to a worldwide organization with 30 offices in 20 countries and regions. 

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • They don't set out to get rich, they have a purpose that drives them
  • The mission overpowers everything else
  • They build advantages for themselves through compound learning -- Stack your learning
  • Teach the "story of the day"
• Be part of really hard projects -- the front line war battles
• Advice to someone earlier in their career?
  • Focus and double down on your strengths
• CEO of Gallup -- The beginning...
  
  • Won a big account (Cargill) -- It was huge to create momentum for his new business
  • Don Clifton (Jim's dad) built the StrengthsFinder -- And then bought Gallup in 1988
• The StrengthsFinder was built from 34 themes
  • Don was a scientist.  He went on bombing raids and was a war hero as a lead bomber.  A navigator.
• It's The Manager is the biggest discovery they've made
  • When studying the truly great companies, the commonality is the management 
• How to create a high development culture?
  • People want to be developed -- And then find the role that fits their unique strengths to maximize their potential
• What Jim looks for when making hiring decisions:
  • Drive
  • They love to practice... They like to work
• Where have your most talented people come from?
  • "Stars were recruited by the managers themselves."  Great managers know great people.  
• "Presentations matter.  A manager must get good at it."
• Managers must be great coaches:
  • "Coaching is sitting down and sharing purpose..."
• Shock and Awe visitors that meet at your office:
  • "The entrance to your building show wow them."  Small details are very important.  Landscaping matters.  Pay attention to the feeling you get when you drive up to the building.  It helps with your internal employees as well.
• "People join because of the company and leave because of their boss."
  • Currently, only 34% of works are engaged (according to Gallup poll)
  • India/China are at 6%
• The issue with promoting the top performer at a role (Example: The #1 sales rep becomes the manager)
  • The top individual contributor doesn't always make the best coach.  In fact, often times, they don't.
  • Give superstar individual contributors bigger titles and more money as a way to promote them.  Don't force them to management when they don't show the desire or ability to lead others.
  • "There must be two paths." 
  • "Leaders need to see the future well, and excite others.  The good ones have an unusual relationship with risk."
• The Gender Gap
  • Statistically, women run more engaged teams than men
• How to manage and nurture creativity?
  • Need ideas from teams close to the action (have a front line obsession)
  • You want intrapreneurship and foster an environment for that to pull out the great ideas
• The difference in two teams:
  
  • 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
• When you work for a bad boss, you get cognitive contraction:  You lose levels of intelligence
• When you work for a great boss, you get cognitive expansion: You become smarter, innovate more, and do better work
  •  
  • A boss has incredible power.  And that power needs to be used for good.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Full shownotes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com

#318: Clark Kellogg - How To Take Control Of Your Personal Development

*This episode was recorded live in front of a 200 person audience in Dayton, Ohio at the Sonny Unger Memorial Banquet.

Clark Kellogg serves as one of the the premier voices in college basketball.  He works for CBS Sports. In 1997, Kellogg joined CBS Sports full-time as a studio/game analyst for college basketball coverage and was one of three in-studio hosts for March Madness.  In March 2010, Kellogg played a game of H.O.R.S.E. against U.S. President Barack Obama. The game, called "P.O.T.U.S." for the occasion, was won by Obama.

Prior to that, Clark was an All-American at Ohio State University. In 1982, Kellogg declared for the NBA draft after his junior year of college and was a 1st round draft pick (8th overall) of the Indiana Pacers. In his first season, he was selected as a member of the NBA All-Rookie Team. Converse signed him to an endorsement deal, to release his own Converse "Special K" sneaker.

Notes:

• Take control of your own development - This is YOUR responsibility.  That's your property.  Be intentional about growing and getting better and improving.  It's not just the big things.  It's the small things.  Who are you associating with?  How are you impacting them?  Who do you want to be?  There are a lot of distractions, there will be bumps, headwinds... Own your development."
• Control the controllables: your attitude, your effort, your faith.
  The most effective leaders are "others centered." This is a distinct and intentional process to help elevate others.
  Mindset: The battlefield for a lot of our challenges is in our own mind. Attitude impacts how we move forward. "Never major in minor things." Most of life's disappointments are not major in the context of the bigger picture. Don't make mountains out of molehills.
• Focusing on just one sport versus playing multiple sports.
• Growing up with a dad who was a policeman in Cleveland, OH.
• Advice to parents -- Expose your children to a variety of opportunities and support their passions
  • Needs to be an interest and a desire on your kids part
  • Having athletically talented kids (son played college basketball and professionally.  A daughter who plays college volleyball).
• Focus on fun and fundamentals:
  • If you have an aptitude to go to the higher levels as you get older, then focus
• Discussed why he went to Ohio State -- Clark was a top three player in America at the time.
• The intensity of the rivalry with Indiana and playing against Bobby Knight
• What it was like getting a show named after him from Converse
• The makeup of a great coach:
  • A passion for the role of leading people
  • A willingness to adapt and adjust to the changes in the game and personalities on the team
  • An effective communicator -- What you desire and what needs to be done
  • Set the tone of humility of accountability
  • Genuine -- They are themselves -- "Players can pick up on phonies quickly"
    • This establishes trust
• "Are they getting better because you've been their coach?" -- That's the question a coach should always ask themselves
• A coach should always be developing their players
• What to look for in a teammate?
  • Consistency of attitude and effort
    • "Don't want the volatile person who is up and down.  I want consistency."
  • Being able to accept criticism and coaching
  • Able to constructively criticize others in a positive way
  • "Who you are should not fluctuate based on where you are.  There should be a consistency in who you are.  That's something that should be worked on and you should be intentional about it.  Authenticity is powerful and impactful."
• The moment of having his career cut short (only 26 years old) because of a knee injury:
  • "It was brutal initially, but came to peace with it after having multiple surgeries and realized I couldn't play anymore."
• Starting the next career -- TV broadcasting
  • Humbling self and starting at Cleveland State as an analyst.  Back to the basics, starting from the bottom
  • "I didn't become good at basketball right away.  If I'm going to do this well, I need to start where I need to start.  I got the reps.  Radio was great training.  You have to be fairly quick."
• The importance of having mentors and being a mentor for others
• "How do I become excellent at this thing I'm interested in?"
• "You need to be unique, but you need to be you."  You must be authentic.
  • "Everyone can relate to food."  Use food analogies in basketball.  Using your personality as part of your craft to be relatable.
• Working with Charles Barkley:
  • "It's exactly as it appears.  Charles is a personality, successful businessman, and very smart."
• Playing basketball at the White House with President Obama -- Losing to him in P.O.T.U.S
• How Larry Bird was the best trash-talker Clark played against
• How Clark prepares for a broadcast:
  • "I'm consistent in the process to be ready in the moments as they unfold."
  • Visit team's practices, review notes from prior year, watch a lot of games on TV, chart each game watched -- "You remember things better when you write it down.  I'm always taking notes when I watch games."
• Who are you associating with? Who do you want to be? What are you doing to be that?
• Live a life of gratitude. Salt water and fresh water can't come from the same spring. You cannot be thankful and hateful at the same time. Be grateful for what you have while striving to improve.
• Excellent leaders = Be "others" centered.  "Others" focused.  They want to help elevate others.
  • Be available and giving of yourself to others.  Help mentor people earlier in their career.
• Good habits are hard to break.  Build good habits.