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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

IG/Twitter: @RyanHawk12

Notes:

• Sustaining Excellence =
  • Learn constantly
  • Experiment constantly
  • Obsessive about learning the details, not a cookie cutter approach
• Rapid Skill Acquisition:
  • Must be specific
  • Break it down: don't try to do it all at once
  • Do research
  • Practice
  • Deconstruct the skill to its smallest parts
  • Make a pre-commitment - "I'm going to practice this skill for 20 hours no matter what."
• Create fast feedback loops for yourself:
  • Keep a daily log of what you do... Meetings, interactions, what was discussed, how you feel, etc.
• This helps reinforce the importance of paying attention to the small details of what you're trying to learn
• If something happens, you can review your notes later
• Josh has always had "a desire to understand the world around me"
• Teaching is one of the greatest tools in the world for learning
• "Management is the act of coordinating a group of people to achieve a goal. Management is not business. Management is not leadership. Management is a supporting function, not a decision making function."
  • "Leadership = define the goal, account for change."
• "Good management =
  • Recruiting - must get good people
  • Communicating well between teams and decision making parts of the business
  • Must create environment of psychological safety
    • Create a productive working environment
  • Planning - Estimating time lines and schedules
  • Measurement
• Commander's Intent - "When you are a leader, decision making authority, the least effective thing is for you to make all the ground level decisions." Push decision making power to the people closest to the action.
• More quotes from Josh's work:
• “You can't make positive discoveries that make your life better if you never try anything new.”
• “Every successful business (1) creates or provides something of value that (2) other people want or need (3) at a price they're willing to pay, in a way that (4) satisfies the purchaser's needs and expectations and (5) provides the business sufficient revenue to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.
• “If you rely on finding time to do something, it will never be done. If you want to find time, you must make time.”
• “The best thing that can happen to a human being is to find a problem, to fall in love with that problem, and to live trying to solve that problem, unless another problem even more lovable appears.”
• “Every time your customers purchase from you, they’re deciding that they value what you have to offer more than they value anything else their money could buy at that moment.”
• “The trouble comes when we confuse learning with skill acquisition. If you want to acquire a new skill, you must practice it in context. Learning enhances practice, but it doesn’t replace it. If performance matters, learning alone is never enough.”
• "Be positive, force yourself to smile."
• “Improve by 1% a day, and in just 70 days, you’re twice as good.”
• “Ideas are cheap—what counts is the ability to translate an idea into reality, which is much more difficult than recognizing a good idea.”
• “Fear of the unknown will always be with you, no matter what you do. That’s comforting in a way: if there’s nothing you can do to change it, there’s no reason to let it stop you.”

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Jim Collins books include Good to Great, the #1 bestseller, which examines why some companies make the leap and others don’t; the enduring classic Built to Last, which discovers why some companies remain visionary for generations; How the Mighty Fall, which delves into how once-great companies can self-destruct; and Great by Choice, which uncovers the leadership behaviors for thriving in chaos and uncertainty. Jim has also published two monographs that extend the ideas in his primary books: Good to Great and the Social Sectors and Turning the Flywheel. His most recent publication is BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0), an ambitious upgrade of his very first book; it returns Jim to his original focus on small, entrepreneurial companies and honors his coauthor and mentor Bill Lazier.

Notes:

• What Exactly is Leadership?” “True leadership only exists if people follow when they would otherwise have the freedom to not follow.” Many business leaders think they are leading when in fact they’re simply exercising power, and they might discover to their horror that no one would follow them if they had no power. General Colin Powell said, “In my 35 years of service, I don’t ever recall telling anyone, ‘That’s an order.” “Leadership is the art of getting people to want to do what must be done.”
• When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, one of the first people he called was Jim Collins. Jim asked Steve,“what did you first build upon to emerge from the darkness? What gave you hope?” Steve was talking with perhaps the greatest product visionary of our time.. so he expected him to talk about operating systems or the Macintosh computer or other product ideas.  But he didn’t. What did he talk about? People. "It was all about the WHO."
• History is the “study of surprises.” There will be no “new normal,” there will only be a continuous series of “not normal” episodes, defying predictions and unforeseen by most of us until they happen. This is why we double down on the “first who” principle.
• Track the number 1 metric: some say sales or profitability or cash flow or something about products. But there’s one metric that towers above them all that’s rarely spoken about in meetings. And that is: The percentage of key seats on the bus filled with the right people  for those seats.
• How to know when to shift from “develop” to “replace?” Jim has distilled years of reflection down to 7 questions that he offers to stimulate your thinking when you face the “develop or replace” conundrum. 
  • Are you beginning to lose other people by keeping this person in the seat? Do you have a values problem, a will problem, or a skills problem? What’s the person's relationship to the window and the mirror? Does the person see the work as a job or a responsibility? Has your confidence in the person gone up or down in the last year? Do you have a bus problem or a seat problem? How would you feel if the person quit?
• Jim spent time at West Point as the Chair for the Study of Leadership… One of they key things he learned from that time was the importance of focusing on your unit and taking care of your people, not your career…
• “The key to a leader’s impact is sincerity. Before he can inspire with emotion he must be swayed by it himself. Before he can move their tears his own must flow. To convince them he must himself believe.” - Winston Churchill
• Kroger made the leap because they became fanatical about getting the right people in the right seats
• A key position at your company does the following:
  • Has hiring responsibility
  • A failure by them could expose the company to disaster
  • Their performance has an outsized impact on the business as a whole
• The Personal Hedgehog Concept
  • You love to do the work
  • You're doing something you're wired for
  • The market will pay you for it
• Great success in life is when you have people in key seats that fit their hedgehog
• When analyzing if a person should remain on the team, ask, "What is the person's relationship with the window or the mirror?"
• We want people who have a tremendous capacity to grow. Be a growth machine.
• An example of a world-class leader? Wendy Kopp, CEO and Co-Founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent nonprofit organizations working to expand educational opportunity in their own countries and the Founder of Teach For America.
  • "Wendy had no power and not much charisma, and yet she got hundreds of thousands of people to sign up and do work that is not fun." That's leadership.
• "Leadership is the art of getting people to want to do what must be done."
• The #1 responsibility of a leader is to catalyze a clear and shared vision for the company and secure commitment to and vigorous pursuit of that vision.
• From Jim, "I'm more of a teacher than a leader. What's my leadership artistry? Trust."
• Ann Mulcahy saved Xerox. She kept getting promoted... When asked how she earned those promotions, Anne said, "I tried to make my mini-bus a sparkling pocket of greatness." They came to her and said, "We want you to drive the whole bus."

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Jim Collins is a student and teacher of what makes great companies tick, and a Socratic advisor to leaders in the business and social sectors. He has written a series of books that have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. They include Good to Great, the #1 bestseller, which examines why some companies make the leap and others don’t; the enduring classic Built to Last, which discovers why some companies remain visionary for generations; How the Mighty Fall, which delves into how once-great companies can self-destruct; and Great by Choice, which uncovers the leadership behaviors for thriving in chaos and uncertainty. 

Notes:

• Shortly before Jim's 25th birthday, during his second year at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, he got hit with a lightning bolt of WHO luck. The type of luck that comes as a chance meeting with a person who changes your life. That person was Bill Lazier...
• Bill Lazier was the closest thing to a father Jim ever had. Jim's dad died when he was 23.
• Creating a Generosity Flywheel -- “One day, two large wooden crates appeared on your front porch, the address labels indicating they’d be shipped by Bill. He sent you a few dozen bottles of spectacularly good wine. You called and asked him what prompted him to send to you and he said, “Dorothy and I had an inventory problem in our wine cellar, and we needed to make room for some new bottles. We thought you could help us out by taking some of it off our hands.” Bill mastered the art of getting people to accept his generosity, somehow framing it as if you were doing him a favor.
• Jim's question to me: How is quarterbacking a football team similar to quarterbacking a conversation for a podcast?
• Make the Trust Wager - “I choose to assume the best in people and accept that they sometimes disappoint.” (Lead With Trust)
• Build a Meaningful Life by Building Relationships — Life can be a series of transactions or you can build relationships. Transactions can give you success, but inky relationships make for a great life.” —- How do you know if you have a great relationship? “If you were to ask each person in the relationship who benefits more from it, both would answer “I do.” Both feel like they’re getting the better end of the deal.
• Start with Values, Always Values — values aren’t the “soft stuff.” Living to core values is the hard stuff.
• "Prep prep prep so that you don't have to be rote." -- "For me the opening plays are questions. And I know the opening two or three questions to get the session started."
  • "Then the game starts. I have this set up things, but then something really surprising happens. What I found interesting about it, is that you'd think high levels of prep, it's actually being so well prepared that you can adapt. That's the critical thing. It's only because you're super prepared that you can do something surprising."
• The opening question to a company he works with is always the same:
  • "It starts at exactly 8:00am. I have an atomic clock and it's set to the exact atomic time. At 8:00, I open the doors. I walk in and say, "Good morning, I feel a tremendous responsibility to make the most of our time. Everybody take out a blank sheet of paper. I want you to write down the top 5 most brutal facts that face the company today. Go!" -- "We're 12 seconds into the meeting. There are no pleasantries, they're not going to talk about how the flight was, or dinner last night. We are here to make the most of our time. I'm trying to set the tone that we don't have time to waste. I can't waste your time. You're here to have your brain challenged."
  • And then Jim has them allocate 100 points for the 5 most brutal facts.
    • You need to start with an honest account of the brutal facts. This gets the group talking immediately. "The entire thing opens up."
• "Preparation is respect."
• "That previous podcast we did (episode #216) was masterfully done by Ryan. There's some wonderful things he pulled out." How has your style evolved?
  • I'm less robotic, less formulaic, more agile, and able to go with the conversation.
• Bill Lazier -- "Bill went to the Dean at Stanford and put himself on the line for me. He believed in me. He bet big on me. Nothing I've accomplished happens without Bill Lazier."
• Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...

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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

Episode #396 - Scott Galloway: Professor at NYU Stern, best-selling author, entrepreneur (started 9 firms)

Notes:

• Scott and I have the same book agent, Jim Levine. It's the first person Scott thanks in the Acknowledgement section of his latest book... "Jim is someone I can go to for help with any aspect of life. He's much more than just a book agent. You need people in your kitchen cabinet that you can go to."
• Sharing admiration for others? Why did Scott struggle with this when he was younger?
  • "We should do this. It doesn't make you less impressive because you shared your admiration for someone else."
  • "The greatest untapped resource = good intentions, good thoughts. Express them. Verbalize them. Don't let that resource go to waste."
• Leaders should be constantly giving praise to the people on their team. Send the quick email, give the shout out. "People need watering. Give them recognition. Notice others, let them know when they do good work. That's how you recruit and retain great people. That's how you build loyalty."
  • Action step: Call the parents of the young people on your team. Tell them their daughter or son is doing excellent work and are a joy to work with...
• "Be the man your kids think you are." It's motivating to try to live up to those standards. Life is about those moments with your kids.
• The key to excellence?
  • "Success is not my fault. I grew up as a heterosexual white male, born in 1964. We have this problem of conflating luck with talent."
• Commonalities of leaders who sustain excellence?
  • Competence - Must be highly competent in one area. "You must demonstrate excellence. Be outstanding at it."
  • Grit - "As the leader, I wanted to show my team I was willing to pull all nighters when needed. I would never ask my team to do something I wasn't willing to do."
  • Empathy - "You have to want others to win. You have to leverage all your talents to help others be successful. That creates loyalty."
• "People's loyalties are misplaced. Don't be loyal to companies, be loyal to people."
• Why make predictions? "It's not about being right. It's about catalyzing a conversation. I want ideas to have sex."
  • "Plans are useless but planning is invaluable."
  • "Once a prediction happens, it seems obvious."
• When I go to keynote speaking engagements, I'm often asked about Scott Galloway. He's become the person so many men follow? Why?
  • "Most business news is PG13. I'm the rated R version and I speak my mind. There aren't enough people doing that."
  • "Most guys have trouble talking openly about their feelings. We have trouble expressing our emotions. Men want to do it, but don't. That's what I do."
    • "Write as if your kids will read it in 30 years."
• In Chinese the word for crisis… the first character means danger, and the second is translated as a critical juncture
• A Scottish MP George Galloway said “nothing can happen for decades and then decades can happen in weeks”

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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

Ep #395: Dr. Marisa Porges

Notes:

• Keys to a good coffee meeting with someone:
  • Be early
  • Find a quiet spot
  • Know your order before you get there. Don't make it too complex
  • Have a goal for the meeting. Know what you want to get out of it
• "You don’t have to be a feminist to care about these lessons, nor do you need a daughter or a sister. You just have to know a girl or young woman and care about her future."
• The differences for a woman vs. a man in business:
  • Women have fewer mentors and sponsors
    • "You need to seek mentors on a regular basis"
    • "Men need to mentor women" -- "Make room for women mentees"
    • What should the man who is nervous to mentor a woman do?
      • Meet in a public place
      • Talk about business
• Key to excellence: The ability to adapt
  • Marisa joined the Navy after High School. She was inspired by the movie Top Gun
  • She got in a bad car accident and had to be rescued by the jaws of life
  • She had to shave her head in the Navy
  • "Our reality forces us to adapt. We change jobs 4x more than our parents did."
• How to be adaptable?
  • Be open to pushing yourself to new environments
    • Test yourself in a new environment. Don't always set up for the perfect environment
    • Do something differently -- Test your boundaries
• How to be authentically empathetic?
  • The platinum rule -- Treat others as they want to be treated (not how you want to be treated)
  • Be vulnerable, open, and real
  • While interviewing terrorists in Yemen, Marisa got them to open up by authentically opening up first
    • "Be conscious about when and how you're vulnerable. It can't be too often. Monitor your emotions."
• Look for go for it moments... Learn to rebound from failure and understand the key takeaways from them. Be able to deal with uncertainty.
• Marisa shares a story about a parent of one of her students. Marc. His daughter was going through an issue at school. Marc said, “I went into Dad mode and said should I call the school? Talk to a teacher? —- This is a terrible way to respond as the dad of a daughter. A dad needs to "coach from the sideline." Help your daughter practice self advocacy. Ask them questions, be curious. Help your daughter find her voice and speak up. One easy example to practice -- "When you go out to eat, always have your daughter order her food. When you call to order a pizza, have your daughter do it."
• Marisa worked in the White House and needed to become an excellent communicator to prepare for her conversations with The President. How did she do this? "Practice, practice practice."
• Excellence:
  • How we learn from failure and bounce back... What happens next?
  • It's always about the others in your life. Who are you surrounding yourself with?
  • Small things make a big difference

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Full notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter: @RyanHawk12

#394: Todd Henry - The Hidden Forces That Drive Your Best Work

Show notes:

• What is the most valuable land in the world?
  • "The graveyard... All of the stuff we carry with us for our life and never put out into the world... All of that valued is buried in the ground."
• The two words that Todd wrote down after coming to this realization? "Die Empty."
  • “The rough edges they decry you for now… Are the very rough edges they will celebrate you for later.”
• What drives us to unleash our best work?
• Drawing on interviews with over 100,000 working professionals, the answer is no one size fits all. Todd Henry shows, in fact, that there are six unique "motivational archetypes"...
• They are:
  • The Visionary strives to make her mark on the world by building an ideal future, even when others may not see as far ahead.
  • The Achiever relishes a finished product and must conquer whatever obstacle comes his way, no matter how difficult or time-consuming.
  • The Team Player values being part of a group and will go to great lengths to achieve unity and enhance collaboration.
  • The Learner is obsessed with mastering new skills and showing off what she knows--which is often a lot.
  • The Optimizer thrives when systems are running smoothly and finds great satisfaction when things are done the "right way."
  • The Key Contributor shines at the center of the action, especially when others can recognize the value of his work.
• Todd's work teaches us to decode our motivational type so we can structure projects, have conversations, make decisions, and even choose career paths to amp up engagement and achieve fulfillment. Once we know how to activate our inner drivers, we can transform the work we do into the work we love.
• Why should you write?
  • "If you can learn to write, you'll be invited into rooms."
  • "Turn the ineffable into something."
  • Read, comprehend, synthesize, write...
  • "People won't follow you because of your position or title. You have to persuade them. You have to cut through the noise, hone your skills. It's a craft you must work on."
  • Have empathy, uniqueness, precisions. Have empathy for the end user. 
  • Have an intended audience: one person in mind. Ramp up your empathy for the end user...
• "We wait for tasks to motivate us and that's exactly backwards. We need to bring our motivation to what we do. We have to train ourselves to bring our motivation to our work instead of waiting for our tasks to motivate us."
• Because of the motivation code, "I have a language now that I never had a language for previously"
  • A new framework for understanding people. It's created "aha" moments
  • "Self-awareness is the first step to maturity."
    • "It helps use discern areas where we're insecure." 
• What was Todd thinking five minutes prior to going on stage at the Global Leadership Summit? 10,000 in the audience and hundreds of thousands watching worldwide...
  • "I reminded myself how grateful I was to be there..." It was calming.

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Full show-notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

393: Chris Holtmann - Head Basketball Coach of Ohio State University Buckeyes

Notes:

• Chris played his college basketball at a small Christian school called Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. For a coach named Paul Patterson. Chris said, “I think the core of who I am as a coach comes from him.” 
• Don’t Be Afraid To Pursue Growth -  "As I debated, I realized that I couldn’t blame myself for craving stability – it was only human nature after all. We are drawn by the soft voice of consistency, the allure of a warm blanket of security in our jobs and lives. And while many of us willingly happily give in to living within the status quo, the reality is that the world around us rarely remains motionless. The sun rises and sets, the seasons pass and the world keeps moving and changing. It is only as we grow older and look back at life that we realize all that we have missed, all that we could have accomplished, had we simply pushed ourselves to break free of our fears."
• "As I found myself deliberating once again, I began to think back to the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck on motivation and failure. Dweck drew a distinction between performance orientation and learning orientation. Children that believe that their intelligence is fixed almost always give up on problems quickly, whereas those that believe their intelligence is malleable, conversely, stick with problems longer. Adults are no different. Those who are performance oriented are dissuaded by failure - they favor stability. Whereas those of who are learning oriented embrace opportunity and eschew the status quo."
• Head Coaches To Lead Their Teams To 5 Straight 1st Round Tourney Wins: Chris Holtmann, Mike Krzyzewski, Jay Wright, Mark Few, Bill Self, Roy Williams, John Calipari
• Article: David Brooks - Thick versus Think organizations -- "How To Leave A Mark On People"
• Focus on the process... "Do today well."
  • "Don't compare yourself to others."
• Why is Brad Stevens one of the most effective coaches in the world?
  • "He's an extremely curious learner. He has tremendous EQ and understands how to connect with people."
• Chris got promoted to be the interim head coach at Butler shortly after accepting the job to be an assistant...
  • His boss (athletic director) told him, "You'll be evaluated daily." He came to every practice to watch Chris coach.
    • "It was hard to hear, but it was the reality. I couldn't listen to critiques. I had to coach to my convictions."
• Living your values: You must make a commitment to your values and live them daily.
  • The values of the Ohio State basketball team:
    • Truth
    • Humility
    • Respect
    • Toughness - "Grit is imperative in successful people. Your response to challenging moments says everything to success." Coach Tony Bennett is tremendously tough. "Calm is contagious."
      • Your response to difficult circumstances is what toughness is all about.
    • Accountability
    • Thankful
• "He who would be calm must first put on the appearance of being calm."
• How does one develop composure?
  • "You need people around you to give you honest feedback. We don't realize how reactionary we can be."
  • "Any time you feel upset with a player, wait to talk about it until you can process it. Think it through..."
• Excellence =
  • Consistency
  • Discipline
  • "Your habits need to match your dreams."
  • Be convicted in what you believe
• What Chris looks for in a player:
  • Toughness -- "What's the most challenging thing you've been through? How did you respond?"
  • Selfless
    • "What's your body language on the bench when you aren't playing?"
    • "What's your response to a teammates success?"
  • Honesty
• Advice to leaders:
  • You can't skip steps in the process of being a leader
    • Value the beginning stages
  • Eliminate comparison to others as much as possible
  • Be committed to growing professionally and personally. It's about your daily habits. Your character is put on display.
    • "We write our stories one decision at a time."

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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

Notes:

• Sustaining Excellence =
  • Passion for what they do
  • Persistence - "Life is lumpy." People fall and have to dust themselves off.
  • Character - Must be trustworthy, caring, and sensitive to others
  • Values driven - "When things go wrong, take the pain"
• Bill Gates is an example of sustained excellence - "His persistence, his relationship with his wife Melinda. He's a great example of sustained excellence."
• Bob describes the time early in his career when he made big mistakes and the board fired him.
  • He said, "I needed to learn strategy. You can't blame your followers. You must take 100% ownership."
• Read the book, The Best and The Brightest by David Halberstam
  • "You need humility, you need to learn, you need emotional intelligence."
• How he felt when he got fired?
  • "Unbelievably sad. It hung heavy on my shoulders."
• There are two ways to respond:
  • Be a victim
  • Be introspective
    • "I remember the moment vividly. I was reading The Best and The Brightest. Hubris was the problem. They weren't going to the front lines to understand what was happening. I thought, Oh my God, Halberstam could be talking about me."
    • "Our job is to LISTEN, get feedback, and fix it."
• As a leader, you must have the willingness and ability to define reality, not what you want it to be.
  • Read Max Dupree - The Art of Leadership
• Understand The Stockdale Paradox - “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.” ~ James Stockdale
• Building trust in a crisis:
  • The 4 elements to be trustworthy:
    • Sincerity - "Your public and private conversations should be the same"
    • Competence - It's not the same as never making a mistake.
    • Reliability - "Make promises. Deliver on those promises"
    • Care - "Treat people well. Care for their well being. It's not transactional. Treat them with dignity and respect."
• How Bob stays so sharp at age 82:
  • Lots of exercise - He trains 5 days a week
  • Time with grandchildren
  • Planning - "I still have a lot of gas left in the tank"
• Have a dream -- "Happiness is a mood. You can design a mood."
  • Satisfaction
  • Peace
  • Fulfillment
• The four primary functions of a leader:
  • Strategy - The CEO must shepherd the strategy
  • People - Get the right people in the right jobs
  • Communication - Align all constituencies behind the business. People must understand the mission
  • Evolve - The world changes. Find a small team of experts to identify the issue, and leave the rest of the team alone to do their work
• "You need thrill customers continuously."
• "People will always be evaluating you as a leader. They look at your body language, and see how you respond."
• Hiring qualities Bob looks for in a leader:
  • Crisp thorough about the job assignment.
  • Complementarity - The use Gallup's strengths. Focus on strengths and them filling a gap on the current team.
  • Fit the culture. Need to be able to work with a team and collaborate.

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Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

Episode #391: Jake Wood - CEO of Team Rubicon

Notes:

• Sustaining Excellence =
  • Integrity - "I've been honored to serve with leaders who have high integrity."
  • Initiative - Be proactive, take action
  • Tenacity - The ability to overcome
  • Enthusiasm - Bring energy to your environment
• What Jake learned from his Dad:
  • "I feel lucky. He worked his way up with an untraditional resume. He worked his ass off."
  • "He had this industrious nature and worked so hard."
• Giving the commencement speech at the University of Wisconsin
  • "Our words (as leaders) matter."
  • "None of life experiences went according to plan. And that's okay..."
• Being the point man -- It means, “When you walked a patrol, you walked first. If there was a landmine or booby trap in the road, you would be the first man to step on it. Initially, you walked in perpetual fear… There were intersections you had to cross where you would close your eyes and clench your teeth, but you never stopped pressing on.”
  • "Leadership is about love. You need to have a deep understanding of WHO your team is as people. Always think, 'how can I help them?' When they know they're loved by you, they'll feel safe. When they feel safe, that leads to courage."
• Clay Hunt -- "We went to sniper school together... He was a good Marine. When I got paired up with him, I was told, 'you are nothing without this partner.'" He didn’t kill himself because of what happened to him in Iraq and Afghanistan. He killed himself because of what he lost when he came home: Purpose, Self-Worth, and Community. Since 2012, more service members have died by suicide than in combat. "Purpose is a universal human need."
• The Acceptance of Risk: In Blackjack, there is a correct move for every interaction. When you have 16 and the dealer has a face card, you should hit. There is a 32% chance you win if you hit. There is a 26% chance you win if you stay. And yet, people stay. They haven't come to grips with the risk. They'd rather sit back and try not to lose instead of taking the correct step. As a leader, you have to accept the risk, understand it, and press on.
• The WHO -- "Surround yourself with realists who offer you candid feedback."
  • What does Jake look for when hiring a leader?
    • They must demonstrate they can overcome hardship
    • Ability to persevere
    • Industrious
    • "I'll take passion over talent any day."
• The Haiti Earthquake in 2010. 100,000 people instantly died. 100,000 more died within the next 25 days. Jake felt compelled to go there to help.
  • Thus the beginning of Team Rubicon
• Winning the Pat Tillman award. "It was a huge honor. Pat was why I joined the Marine Corps."
  • His process to deliver the speech... "The producers wanted to take out the part of the speech that resonated most with people... The ending: Know your neighbor, love your neighbor, help you neighbor."
• Speechwriting/Communication skill:
  • "A company is nothing more than a story."
  • Treat your people like characters in the story.
  • READ a lot of books. General Jim Mattis said, "There is a moral responsibility for leaders to read. If you have not read 100's of books, you're functionally illiterate."
  • Vision - You need to convince your team you can take them to places they didn't know they could go.
• Book: ONCE A WARRIOR
  • It's the 10 year anniversary for Team Rubicon... It's time to memorialize it.
  • "America needs to find inspiration. The book finishes with hope. It's life's most essential virtue."

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Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

Notes:

• Sustaining Excellence =
  • The pursuit of WOW... "It's not just meeting spec."
  • Leading is voluntary
  • "Playing covers of yourself is not leadership."
• Leadership vs. Management?
  • Management is about power and a title
  • Leadership is about stepping up. NASCAR... Starbucks closed for a day to train everyone.
• Why does Seth teach people how to juggle?
  • "It's about the throw, not the catch."
• If you want to change your story, change your actions first. We become what we do.
• Lost in all the noise around us is the proven truth that creativity is the result of desire. A Desire to solve an old problem, a desire to serve someone else. It’s not a bolt of lightning from somewhere else...
• The difference between talent and skill: Talent is something we’re born with: it’s in our DNA, a magical alignment of gifts. Skill is earned. It’s learned and practiced and hard-won. It’s insulting to call a professional talented. She’s skill, first and foremost. In the words of Steve Martin, “I had no talent. None.”
• Sculptor Elizabeth King said it beautifully, “process saves us from the poverty of our intentions.”
• Surprising truths that have been hidden by our desire for those perfect outcomes:
  • Hubris is the opposite of trust
  • Professionals produce with intent
  • Creativity is an act of leadership
  • We become creative when we ship the work
  • Passion is a choice
• Practical Empathy -- “We have to be able to say, ‘it’s not for you’ and mean it. The work exists to serve someone, to change someone, to make something better.
• We live in an outcome focused culture. The plumber doesn’t get credit for effort, he gets credit if the faucet stops leaking. Lost in this obsession with outcome is the truth that outcomes are the results of process. Focusing solely on outcomes forces us to make choices that are banal, short term or selfish. It takes our focus away from the journey and encourages us to give up too early.
• The story of Drew Dernavich — he shared a picture of his “no” pile and of his “yes” pile. He’s a cartoonist. “Drew’s not a genius, he just has more paper than we do.”
• Embrace your own temporary discomfort: Art doesn’t seek to create comfort. It creates change. And change requires tension. The same is true for learning. True learning (as opposed to education) is a voluntary experience that requires tension and discomfort (the persistent feeling of incompetence as we get better at a skill).
• Generosity is the most direct way to find the practice. It subverts resistance by focusing the work on someone else. Generosity means that we don’t have to seek reassurance for the self, but can instead concentrate on serving others.
• Selling is Difficult - Amateurs often feel like they’re taking something from the prospect - their time, their attention, ultimately their money. But what if you recast your profession as a chance to actually solve someone’s problem? “Selling is simply a dance with possibility and empathy. It requires you to see the audience you’ve chosen to serve, then to bring them what they need.”
  • Sales is about intentionally creating tension: the tension of “maybe,” the tension of “this might not work,” the tension of “what will I tell my boss…” That’s precisely the tension that we dance with as creators.
• The story of General Magic - Megan Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Marc Porat inventing virtually every element of the modern smartphone. And their first model sold 3,000 units. There were 10 years ahead of their time. The business failed, but the project didn’t.
• Seth’s initial denial to be on my show… “Keep going and write back to me after you’ve recorded 75 episodes and have a big show.” Episode #75 came out November 26, 2015, I emailed you that day and said, “I’m at #75, are you ready to go?” And he was a man of your word. He was episode #86.
• His speaking style is built through visuals. He finds the visuals first and then creates the story and application second.
• Why does Seth fly fish without a hook? "To disconnect with the outcome."
• The story of Thornton May -- He had no sales quota. He went city to city and invited everyone from a specific industry to a meal. Competitors would join and Thornton would be the person to bring everyone together. He became the person they called.

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Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

Notes:

Episode #389: Ed Latimore

• The four life lessons:
  • “Never underestimate the power of being likeable and controlling your emotions.”
    • "Nothing is neutral. People are trying to help you or move ahead of you. In basic training, he was a terrible shot. He failed the shooting test three times (which was the limit), and yet got a fourth chance because he was likable. And then passed. "They saw me working hard, so they helped me."
    • How to be more likable? -- "Don't curry favor. Be you... Have high standards. Treat everyone with respect. Have impeccable manners. Be comfortable with the fact that you're not for everyone."
  • “No one cares what happened to you or what you’ve been through. No one is coming to save you.”
    • "Society is not going to take pity on you if your problems create problems for others." You need to work to through your own issues and ow your actions. Don't take your trauma out on others."
    • How has Ed built the perspective to not be a victim? "It's about delivering value to others. And not subtracting it. That's destructive. Forgiveness is a powerful idea. Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die."
  • “The most powerful belief you can have is that given enough time, you can learn anything. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Hiroshima was wiped out in seconds.”
    • Keep plotting along... Ed did this as a boxer and math and with every aspect of his life. Keep going. "Fall in love with the process."
      • "Make a movement with intention and in pursuit."
  • “A limitation is only as powerful as the energy you give to it. Your dreams also follow this same law.”
    • "You'll only be as successful as your worst habit."
    • "You must recognize the problem and/or the limitation."
• High achievers tend to be a paradox. They have self-confidence combined with insecurity. It creates a fusion reaction. It drives them to continually prove themselves.
• How is money made? "Give people something they want."
• Ed desires to be the most interesting version of himself
• Compartmentalization:
  • You can't approach others with a sense that you're better than them
  • You must be adaptable to a variety of circumstances
• Understand the dichotomy of being confident and humble at the same time

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The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Episode #388: Patrick Lencioni - The 6 Types of Working Genius

Notes:

• What is a "Working Genius?” – There are six different types, and we all have two of them that are natural to us.  We are good at doing them, and we get energy and joy and satisfaction from them.
• What about the other four areas? – Two of them are areas that we really struggle with.  They exhaust us and drain us of our energy and passion, and in many cases, we’re not very good at them.  We call these our areas of Working Frustration. We should doing those things as much as we possibly can, and we certainly shouldn’t do work that calls for us to do them frequently. That is a recipe for frustration, failure, depression. And then there are two other areas that are in between our geniuses and our frustrations, we call these Working Competencies, areas that we can do pretty well, maybe even really well, but that don’t necessarily give us energy or joy. It’s fine to have these things be part of your job, and even the primary part of your job sometimes, but it’s not as good as living and working in your areas of genius.
• What is different about The Six Types of Working Genius and other personal assessments out there? -- This one is quicker to understand, easier to apply, and focused on the work of getting things done.
• What are the six types of working genius?
  • Wonder - People with this genius can’t help but question whether things could be better in the world around them. They are troubled whenever they see unmet potential, and they are constantly curious and on the lookout for the need to change something.
  • Invention - This type of genius is all about creativity. People who have it love to generate new ideas and solutions to problems and are even comfortable coming up with something out of nothing.
  • Discernment - People with this type of genius have a natural ability when it comes to evaluating or assessing a given idea or situation and providing guidance. They have good instincts, gut feel and judgment about the subtleties of making decisions that integrate logic, common sense and human needs.
  • Galvanizing - This type of genius is about bringing energy and movement to an idea or decision. People who have it like to initiate activity by rallying people to act and inspiring them to get involved.
  • Enablement - People with this type of genius are quick to respond to the needs of others by offering their cooperation and assistance with a project, program or effort. They naturally provide the human assistance that is required in any endeavor, and not on their own terms.
  • Tenacity - This type is about ensuring that a given project, program or effort is taken to completion and achieves the desired result. People who have this genius push for required standards of excellence and live to see the impact of their work.
• What are Pat's areas of working genius? "I am naturally good at and drawn to what we call Invention and Discernment, I like to come up with new, original ideas, even when it’s not what’s called for.  And I love to use my intuition to evaluate and assess ideas and plans to see what would be best.  My areas of frustration are Tenacity and Enablement, meaning I struggle to push projects through to completion after the initial excitement wears off, and I have a hard time providing assistance to others on their terms. That doesn’t mean I can’t do those things, because all of us have to do things we don’t like or aren’t good at sometimes. But if I’m in a situation where people are relying on me as their primary source of enablement and tenacity, that’s not good for me or for them in the long run."
• What are my areas of working genius? Discernment and Tenacity. The assessment says: "You are good at and enjoy using your intuition and instincts to evaluate and assess ideas or plans, and pushing projects and tasks through to completion to ensure that the desired results are achieved."
  • Your likely areas of Working Competency are: Invention and Galvanizing. "You are capable of and don’t mind creating original and novel ideas and solutions, and rallying people and inspiring them to take action around a project, task or idea."

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Episode #387: Arthur Blank - Owner of The Atlanta Falcons

Notes:

• His Dad died when he was 44 years young, leaving his business to Arthur's mother. Arthur's mom took over and built a successful company. He learned to be principled and values driven from his mom. His mom always told him, "Principle matters."
• Arthur got fired from his job at Handy Dan in 1978. He didn't take it personally and founded The Home Depot with Bernie Marcus.
• At the original Home Depot headquarters, he and Bernie Marcus shared a bathroom between their offices. In the hallway outside the bathroom, they hang up press clippings. Not the accolades, or the awards won, but the negative stories and criticism. Why? You cannot have complacency or believe you are beyond reproach. Must always keep striving to get better.
• How did they duplicate the original Home Depot culture when they expanded beyond their first four stores?
  • "You must always promote people based on them living the values of the company. Ahead of everything else."
    • "The culture is critical."
    • Ask, "Can they lead using our values?" --> Read the book, The War For Talent
• How did they maintained the culture as they acquired nine additional stores? Originally, it was an issue. "It was like changing the tires on a car as it was driving 30 miles per hour."
  • "We had to self impose slowing down the growth."
  • Must train the team on the culture
• "We didn't have money for training, but we did it anyway." To build a long term, sustainable business, you must focus on training.
• "You have to have a caring mentality. It takes time. I'm only interested in relationships. It's all about building long term relationships."
• Arthur tells the story of when he came to an agreement to buy the Falcons from Taylor Smith -- He booked a nice hotel suite, had dinner/wine, etc… He wrote on a napkin, “For Atlanta and the Falcons, $545 million. To the heritage and the tradition, in the past and the future.” ---> Taylor asked what you were doing and Arthur said “This is a bond between the two of us.” And further, “Important deals don’t get done on paper napkins, it had to be a cloth one.” → That napkin is displayed at the training facility of the Falcons and the team is now worth 5 times what he paid. "It was a win-win negotiation."
• In the lobby of your Atlanta offices, stands a custom bronze statue of a Sioux warrior in full battle regalia. He cannot move from his position on the battlefield -- he will stand his ground until victory or death. His chin proudly lifted and eyes scanning the horizon, he raises his bow, an arrow poised on the string. It’s entitled, Point of No Return. It depicts a time-honored tradition of Sioux Leadership.
  • "You have to lead from the front."
• Arthur names all of your conference rooms after personal heroes (Kurt Hahn is one of them, he is the founder of Outward Bound) -- “To strive, to serve, and not to yield.”
• When he was the new owner of the Falcons, he walked to the back of the plane where the players were sitting and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to coach you, but I need to know, what can I do for you? What do you need?” (“The Best Think Tank Any Company Could Ask For) -- “That one hour flight was worth a dozen strategy meetings with the team’s executives or coaching staff.” (You need to have a front line obsession, Chris Zook -- Get to the people who really know. The ones closest to the action)
• Innovate Continuously -- Need non stop reinvention. Leaders need to ensure that the road is cleared of unnecessary speed bumps and overly stringent traffic rules. Too much bureaucracy will kill innovation before it has even begun. Top down management structure will always constrain people’s entrepreneurial spirit. --- The “Invisible Fence” style of management.
• “Hire people who are overqualified.” -- Arthur had lunch with Charles Lazarus one day, the founder of Toys R Us, and he said, “the hardest moments are when you have to look at a person who helped you get to $1 Billion and realize that person can’t help you get to $10 Billion.”
• “Treat every team member as a free agent” -- Never take people for granted. "They should be committed because of the culture, not the contract."

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Notes:

The Learning Leader Show

• "Life is on the wire. The rest is just waiting." -- Karl Wallenda (Nik's grandfather)
•  “Fear of Feathers” -- One of the greatest fears of our current age: uncertainty.
• On March 4, 2020, Nik completed his greatest accomplishment to date, walking over the lava lake of the active Masaya Volcano. 
• On June 4, 2011, Nik Wallenda successfully completed the high wire walk in San Juan that took his grandfather’s life -- a 135-foot-long high-wire crossing between the two towers of the ten-story Condado Plaza Hotel.
• John Maxwell saw Nik speak at an event and encouraged him to write a book.
• Nik shares how his worst fear came true when five family members fell while doing a stunt.
  • He thought, should I get back up on the wire?
  • He learned from his family that they always fulfill their contracts.
    • "I get goosebumps telling this story... My dad said, 'I'll always be there for you.'"
• "It's my job as the leader to figure out who's shaky and be there for them."
• Work to counter negativity with positivity and preparation.
• Nik's mother walked the wire when she was six months pregnant with him.
  • "This is the way I came into the world. This is the way I want to go out."
• "One day you eat the chicken. The next day, you eat the feathers."
• "What you would call fear, I would call respect."
• "The worst thing you can do for a wild animal is show it fear. Show respect instead."
• "I never wear a harness unless my network partner makes me."
• The preparation process for a big event is meticulous and intense.
  • He wears an oxygen deprivation mask to feel what it's like to not have a lot of oxygen.
    • "It's all about building mental confidence."
    • Make training much harder than the event
    • "You cannot ever train enough."
    • "If you think you should practice 5 times, do it 50 times."
• Excellence =
  • A passion about being good at what you do
  • Too many people are miserable at what they do. It's fear.
    • "Even if you hate your job, do it with excellence."
  • "You have to show up at work every single day."
  • "Be positive, force yourself to smile."
• What is Nik thinking while walking over an active volcano?
  • "I'm free, I'm excited, I have every emotion you can imagine."
• Alex Honold and David Blaine have become great friends and are very helpful.

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Notes:

• Community — In Rome, Panaetius met a fellow student of Diogenes named Gaius Laelius, and later in a naval contingent, met and served with Scipio Aemilianus, one of Rome’s great Generals. These three men formed a kind of philosophical club — known to historians today as the Scipionic Club (like Ben Franklin’s Junto’s) — they would meet you discuss and debate the stoic philosophy they all pursued.
  • Plutarch wrote in Moralia: Precepts of Stagecraft “it is a fine thing also, when we gain advantage from the friendship of great men, to turn welfare of our community, as Polybius and Panaetius, thru Scipio’s goodwill towards them, conferred great benefits upon their native states”
  • Ryan participates in off site adventures with other top authors in the world like James Clear and Mark Manson. They go there to share ideas and help one another.
    • He experienced another example of this as he was asked to speak to a group of the top athletic directors in collegiate sports. All of them are very competitive with each other, yet they still meet regularly to share ideas and help one another.
• Zeno had little patience for idlers or big egos on his porch -- "Stoa is the Greek word for porch."
  • Zeno said “better to trip with the feet than with the tongue”
• He was the first to express the four virtues of stoicism
  • Courage
  • Temperance/Moderation
  • Justice
  • Wisdom
• Consistency -- “His work was not defined by some single epiphany or discovery but instead by hard work. He inched his way there, through years of study and training as we all must.”
• Zeno said “well being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.”
• Cleanthes — he not only continued his labors but actively turned down large financial gifts to help him retire to his studies — to him labor and philosophy were not rivals. They were pursuits that furthered and enabled each other.
  • The ancients used to describe his industriousness: philoponia - a love of work.
• Chrysippus, the third Leader is the stoic school. He was introduced to running and it changed his life. The same is true for Ryan...
  • "A marathon doesn't care that you're tired at mile 20. You have to get to 26.2 to be done. Your mind wants to quit much earlier than your body has to."
  • "When you think you're done, you're at 40%." - David Goggins
• The stoic idea of Oikeiosis - that we share something and our interests are naturally connected to those of our fellow humans — is as pressing in the ancient world as it is today.
• “Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more.” Seneca
• Stay a Student -- The Maxim For Every Successful Person; ‘Always Stay A Student’ -- “Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson. Genghis Khan one of the greatest military minds who ever lived, he was a perpetual student.
• How to find stillness?
  • Stop watching the news
  • Journal - Anne Frank wrote when she struggled: “Paper,” she said, “has more patience than people.”
  • Go for a walk or run
  • Seek solitude -- Bill Gates “think weeks”
• How to balance temperance and justice?
  • Start by being better ourselves
  • As a citizen, where do you draw the line? Particularly when it's not in your interest to do so...
  • What are you willing to sacrifice to insist on your standard?
•  
• Epictetus’ instructions:
  • Separate things into what you control and what you don’t
  • Choose not to be complicit in getting offended
  • Prep for adversity in advance
  • Realize every situation has 2 handles—grab the right one
  • Memento Mori—let death put everything in perspective
• “Writer’s block is a phony, made up BS excuse for not doing your work.” Jerry Seinfeld
• Life advice -- "Don't send me an email asking if you can ask me a question. Just ask the question." -- Ryan Holiday
• Be worthy of a great mentor... Do work that impresses them. Gets their attention.
• "Writing forces you to clarify your thinking..."

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The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#384: Les Brown - You've Got To Be Hungry

Notes:

• "If you want to be successful in life, do these three things..."
  • Change your mindset - “You don’t get in life what you want, you get in life what you are.”
  • Practice OQP - “Only Quality People”
  • Develop your communication skills - “Once you open your mouth, you tell the world who you are.
• Sidney Poitier wrote a book called The Measure of a Man and she said, “When you go for a walk with someone, something happens without being spoken. He said, “either you adjust to their pace or they adjust to your pace.” Think “Whose pace have you adjusted to?
• Les needed to disrupt the vision he had of himself in order to change...
  • Distract
  • Dispute
  • Inspire
    • Expand the vision of what's possible for life
• Mike Williams -- "The Road To Your Best Stuff"
  • Keys to growth: Hire a coach
• Use your story to create an experience for your audience
  • "Be transformed by the renewing of their minds."
  • "You can't fit a big dream into a small mind."
• "We are here to live a life that will out live us."
• "The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why." - Mark Twain
• Les has battled cancer for 27 years...
• The beginning: When Les's mom worked for a white family, they would make her clap her hands regularly when she was alone in a different room to ensure she wasn't stealing anything. When Les learned why his mom always had to clap her hands together, he made it his mission to ensure that he would buy her a house one day... And eventually that's exactly what he did.
• Negative thoughts are like weeds. They'll keep coming back. You have to keep at it and have a positive mind.
• Every morning, Les takes the following action:
  • Has a verbal (positive) affirmation
  • Writes seven things he wants to do that day
  • Reads 20-30 pages
• "There is power in pursuit... Set goals beyond your comfort zone."
• Have a perpetual plan of action
  • "You're never too old to learn"
  • "You're never too young to teach"
• "Don't ever stop raising the bar on yourself."
• There are three kinds of people: Millionaires, Billionaires, and Witnesses
  • "You gotta be hungry."
• Thoreau - "Go where there's no path and leave a trail."
• What does Les think immediately before going on stage with 80,000 people in the crowd?
  • "More of THE, less of ME."
• "When you wax a floor, you need to strip it first. The same is true with coaching."
• "Cancer Conquerors" -- "I don't have time to die, I've got too much work to do."
• Excellence: Durable, sustainable advantage. "I will not fail." All accomplishments happen in the mind first... And then in practice.

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The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#383: Guy Raz - How I Built This

• Excellence =
  • Ambition
  • Desire to produce for the sake of personal fulfillment -- "It's oxygen"
  • Bill Gates is constantly challenging himself... Having a growth mindset. "To survive means to grow."
• How has Guy become one of the greatest interviewers in the world?
  • "I've been shooting free throws for 25 years. I've gotten a lot of reps." To be great, you have to be bad at the beginning... And keep going.
• How to connect with others? "I interpret the non-verbal feedback."
• Purposeful Practice:
  • It's a team effort -- "I've worked with my team for twenty years. There is a strong bond and connection. They are very honest with their feedback. Constructive criticism is essential. We need outsiders to assess us."
• Guy thanks his mom and dad in the acknowledgement section of his book:
  • They came to America in the 1970's. "Being courageous requires resilience."
  • Guy has covered four wars, but he still doesn't feel he's as courageous as his parents.
  • "Without taking a risk there is no reward."
  • When Guy is afraid to take a risk, he thinks of his parents.
• How his fellowship year at Harvard impacted him: They teach through case studies and stories. It helped him understand business and storytelling.
• Guy is inspired by Joseph Campbell's hero's journey...
• His 'Must-Have' qualities to get hired to work on his team:
  • Kindness - "We filter for kindness"
  • They have to "want to improve"
• How Guy prepares to interview someone for one of his shows:
  • Contact them well ahead of the interview date
  • Do a deep dive on them and people around them (read, watch videos, listen to podcasts)
  • Do a background check
  • "All of us are imperfect... That's what make someone relatable. We all have flaws. You need to hear the failures."
    • "The interviewee must be generous with their emotions.
  • "The idea that I can learn from someone excites me."
  • "I love transmitting the story."
• The idea for How I Built This came to him in 2008 when he took a class at Harvard Business School during a sabbatical year as a Nieman journalism fellow after nearly eight years as a foreign correspondent.
• Guy demands that those who sit for an interview with him are completely open. “I ask them, ‘Are you willing to come to this interview and surrender?’”
• Guy stared as an NPR intern and didn't get the initial jobs he wanted...
• I asked... "How much of your success can be attributed to luck and how much skill/hard work?"
• Life advice:
  • Get a job in sales -- All jobs have a selling component. Learn this crucial skill.
  • Be methodical about your experiences.
  • Keep your eyes open for problems all around you... Look for problems to solve. All businesses are built on solving a problem.

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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#382: Morgan Housel - Timeless Lessons On Wealth, Greed, & Happiness

Notes:

• "Writing helps crystallize vague thoughts in your mind."
  • It helps clarify your thoughts.
  • Writing is an art.
  • When you publish your own work, you own the success or failure.
• Public speaking is a great tool to learn how to communicate succinctly. It's a skill worth building.
• The Psychology of Money is a study in understanding why people do what they do...
  • "Use money to control your time. That's the highest dividend money can do for you."
• Why work with Collaboration Fund:
  • You need more than just a check: values, philosophies, get your thoughts out into the world.
• Stories are more powerful than statistics. And most statistics are incomplete props to justify a story. Stories are easier to remember, easier to relate to, and emotionally persuasive.
• "Stop telling kids they can be whatever they want to be. You can be whatever you're good at, as long as they're hiring. And even then it helps to know someone." -- Chris Rock
• Excellence =
  • Patience - Stick with it. Continue to go during down periods. That's how compounding works.
• Success Laws -- "Strong beliefs, weakly held."
• Storytelling: "The prize goes to the person who can explain something well... Stories move the needle. You convince someone something is true through stories."
  • How to become a better storyteller? READ a lot. And practice.
• "If you’re going to try to predict the future — whether it’s where the market is heading, or what the economy is going to do, or whether you’ll be promoted — think in terms of probabilities, not certainties. Death and taxes, as they say, are the only exceptions to this rule."
• Some quotes (thanks to RightAttitudes.com) "Two things make an economy grow: population growth and productivity growth. Everything else is a function of one of those two drivers."
• "Changing your mind is one of the most difficult things we do. It is far easier to fool yourself into believing a falsehood than admit a mistake."
• "Study successful investors, and you’ll notice a common denominator: they are masters of psychology. They can’t control the market, but they have complete control over the gray matter between their ears."
• "There’s a strong correlation between knowledge and humility. People who spend 10 minutes on Google studying monetary policy think they have it all figured out, while people with PhD's and decades of experience throw up their hands in frustration. The more you study economics, the more you realize how little we know about it."
• "When you think you have a great idea, go out of your way to talk with someone who disagrees with it. At worst, you continue to disagree with them. More often, you’ll gain valuable perspective. Fight confirmation bias like the plague."
• "Short-term thinking is at the root of most of our problems, whether it’s in business, politics, investing, or work."

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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#381: John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods

Notes:

• Excellence:
  • Energy - Vitality -- "You cannot be lazy"
  • "You need a strong desire to be excellent"
    • Excellent leaders strive for excellence in everything they choose to do
  • Good physical and mental health
  • Honor - "Hold yourself to high standards"
• John and Rene Lawson raised $45,000 from family and friends and borrowed $10,000 in 1978 to open a small natural foods store called SaferWay in Austin, Texas. When the couple were evicted from their apartment for storing food products in it, they decided to live at the store. Because it was zoned for commercial use, there was no shower stall, so they bathed using a water hose attached to their dishwasher.  Two years later they brought on partners who owned another grocery store and formed Whole Foods Markets.
• Having high expectations: As a younger person in his early 20's, John was curious about learning... He loved organic, natural food before it was popular.
• Revolutions:
  • The running revolution happened in the 1970's - He got into that. The long runs made him feel fantastic.
  • He became a vegetarian. It helped him feel better, be more alive. He is now a vegan.
• In 1981, they had to deal with a 100 year flood in Austin. "Renee had to swim out of the store that day."
  • "Whole Foods should have died that day. That was when I learned about stakeholders." --> Many people helped them stay in business.
  • "A banker co-signed on the loan without approval because he trusted me. I didn't find out until later."
• He moved to Boulder in 1999 to run WholePeople.com -- Then the internet bubble popped and it failed.
  • When he moved back to Austin, TX, a coup was afoot... One of his trusted senior leaders was trying to get John fired.
  • John walked through the nearest Whole Foods while preparing to tell the board why he should keep his job... "I get a super high touring that store." Touring the stores helps you feel the pulse of the company. John thought, "Oh my God, this is the love of my life. This is my purpose."
    • That's what he told the board and senior execs and convinced them to let him keep his job.
    • He learned to cultivate and build relationships with his board through that...
• A "Conscious Leader" =
  • Vision & Virtue – Put purpose first, lead with love
  • Mindset & Strategy – Find win-win solutions. Innovate and create value
  • People & Culture – Constantly evolve the team. Regularly revitalize, continually learn and grow
• John has elected to take a $1 yearly salary and to forgo any bonus or stock grants since 2007.
• Hiring: "You're no better than your team."
• "Excellence is continued growth."
• "When you stop growing you begin to die."
• You need to constantly revitalize yourself:
  • Sleep well
  • Eat healthy food
  • Exercise
• People are addicted to bad food... But you can change this habit if you're willing to go through some pain for a month or two. You can teach yourself to enjoy healthy foods. It needs to become a habit.
• Hiring:
  • Do group interviews - Don't rely on just one person
  • Looks for:
    • Intelligence ('that's the ante to get in')
    • Emotional Intelligence -- "Steve Jobs would not have gotten hired at Whole Foods"
    • Need to work well with others
    • Take responsibility
    • High integrity
    • Chemistry with others and high character
    • Ask, "Who have you helped get promoted?" "Who have you developed?" "How?"
• The sale to Amazon
  • "We took a plane up to Seattle and met in Jeff's (Bezos) house. It was very secretive. There was a lot of security around."
  • "The conversation was like falling in love. They were just regular guys who were very smart."
  • "Jeff (Bezos) is unpretentious, has a great sense of humor, and is a genius. He's brilliant."
• “It’s like marriage, I love them 98% of the time.”
• Advice:
  • "Life is an adventure. Go for it."

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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

#380: Jay Hennessey - How To Build A Learning Organization

• Shared Adversity - "That's what creates the foundation for teams. It's the glue that builds trust."
  • MOFO - Mandatory Optional Fitness Opportunity
  • SEAL training - The shared adversity among trainees creates camaraderie. Evolutions are team based.
• "Lock arms laying the surf"
• "Great teams aren't created by happenstance" -- You must be intentional and deliberate.
• What is the culture you want to create? - "You must be deliberate about that up front."
  • "The language you use is so important."
• Dan Coyle is the ultimate connector
• "When people are asking you questions, it's super energizing" -- Approach each conversation with a curious mind
• Foster "Organization Humility"
• The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge:
  • The discipline of team learning starts with ‘dialogue’, the capacity of members of a team to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine ‘thinking together’. To the Greeks dia-logos meant a free-flowing of meaning through a group, allowing the group to discover insights not attainable individually…. [It] also involves learning how to recognize the patterns of interaction in teams that undermine learning.
  • Dialog vs. Discussion
    • Dialog = Strong convictions loosely held. Starting with, "I may be wrong..."
    • Discussion = Trying to convince others you're right
• The Learning Organization
  • Get reps - Read with someone else and share
  • Engage the learner:
    • Just in time
    • Just for you
    • Just in case
• Building a learning organization creates a competitive advantage:
  • Great teams are always learning, evolving, and changing. What you know now will be extinct in five years. Must keep learning.
  • "Nobody that we hire wants to be stagnant."
  • There is no mandatory compliance.
• Book: Practice Perfect -- "Whoever is doing the talking is doing the learning." When building a learning organization, stress that it's about active participation. Not passively watching lectures, but actively participating in them.
• Being a "Yes, And..." leader -- Build off the ideas of others. Lift them up. A "Yes, And..." leader doesn't need the credit. They bring energy to the group.
  • "Leadership is about making something better than it was when you found it and doing so by developing people along the way. Leaders cannot be energy neutral. They are either adding energy or taking energy." - Tom Ogburn
  • Don't be a "Mr. Poopy Pants" -- "Oh, well that will never work." Nobody wants to work with Mr. Poopy Pants.
• How to develop awareness:
  • Started as the second youngest guy on the seam when he went to SEAL team 5. He was 2nd in charge of his platoon.
    • "Show up with humility and think, 'where can I add value?'
    • Ask for help from mentors -- Hitch yourself to a strong chief.
    • "Have a strong burden to add value"
• A stay ready mindset -- Have a 'never peak' attitude. Always ready to go. No excuses. "In every aspect of your life, no one cares what you used to be able to do, they care what you can do today."
• What type of leader do you want to be? -- Write it down. Leaders need to think deeply. Writing forces that to happen.
  • Write your command philosophy
  • Be deliberate
• Be a connector:
  • What is the difference between Connecting and Networking – Networking is looking for people who you can help; networking is looking for people who can help you. Be a connector.
• How to build comfort in your own skin?
  • Do hard things -- Progress turns into confidence
  • It's a self-efficacy model -- It's okay to fail. Overcome it and keep going. Be part of something bigger than you.
• Excellence -- "Humility is the enabler for curiosity."
• Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...
• Jay's “Leadership Philosophy”
  • Mission: To execute at my fullest potential and to serve as a resource to help my Family and Teammates continuously improve at every stage of their personal and professional development.
  • Vision:  to lead a healthy and happy family where we all strive to become the best version of ourselves. Professionally, my vision is to be a contributing member of a learning organization with a culture that encourages learning and development at every level.
  • Core Attributes: Humility, curiosity, empathy, trust, followership, generosity, competition, health & fitness, gratitude
  • Guiding Leadership Principles: Exude positivity, communicate effectively, learn and adapt in all areas of personal and professional life, be creative, iterate & execute quickly, be aggressive, have fun, show initiative toward opportunities and problems, challenge self, solitude/mindfulness, be deliberate (set goals, reflect)
  • Leadership Statement: Make the most of everything I do – be positive, have fun, learn, adapt, and push / pull / drag or chase my teammates toward our goals.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

#379: Jack Butcher - Founder of Visualize Value

Notes:

• Excellence:
  • Humility - "People who don't think they're very good."
    • The willingness to "put yourself in situations where you don't have a clue."
  • No Plateau - Need to put yourself in scenarios where you are inexperienced... To learn and build resilience.
• Why Jack shoots "one take" videos and doesn't edit --There is a focus on "getting things out there." Ship it. Publish. Take action.
  • "The ability to publish is prioritized."
  • You can build a bond with a teacher through their authenticity.
• Create and share what you're building in real time... People want to go on that journey with you (when it's real)
• How Jack has built such a high level of confidence in himself -- Had a great mentor who was a polymath.
  • It was six months into being a designer... Jack was preparing to show some of his work. He framed it as "I'm not sure if this is any good..." His mentor told him, "Never discount what you're doing prior to showing it to them." Frame it right. KNOW YOUR WORK. Own the full interaction of your story. Explain how you got the answer. DO the necessary work to understand it at its fundamental level.
  • Think as if you are going to defend your work as you present it -- "What would the worst critic say about this work?" How would I respond to that? Do your research and be prepared. That's how confidence is built. Be consciously competent about your work.
• Visualize Value -- Jack is a designer by trade. He has built his skills based on his previous decade working with some of the world's largest brands.
  • He most enjoyed the strategic component of the process -- The articulation of the strategy through the use of compelling visual images.
  • Think: How can I make this argument more visual?
  • He helps businesses understand their value proposition
    • He takes the same principle to consumers now with Visualize Value
• Leadership Development - Understand the individual components to transformation
  • Curriculum - Organize it to a sequence of principles that build on one another.
  • Share myths - What's incorrect
  • Don't skip the foundation
  • Share the problem - Don't just focus on the symptom
    • Prescriptions can mask the symptom
  • Help with transformation -- "Debug the code"
• "Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better." - Pat Riley
• As a leader, it's important to constantly set a new baseline.
• Consistency - "We're bad at understanding the compounding function."
• Resistance - Progress is a force you're pushing against. Your ability to continually push forward against the resistance is critical in your long term success.
• Sales - There's no scenario where sales isn't important.
  • Sales is always a component to what you're doing whether you like it or not.

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IG/Twitter: @RyanHawk12 

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

#378: Brad Feld

Notes:

• Excellence:
  • Honesty - Clear view of what's going on with self and others
    • Transparency/Authenticity is overused
  • Confirmed process of learning - Hypothesis, clarity of though around experimentation
• Advice to a new manager:
  • Ask a lot of questions
  • REALLY LISTEN - Engage in conversations... Don't just try to get the right answer
  • We have endless biases
    • "People defend their biases instead of questioning their biases." --> Have a curious mind.
• Curiosity:
  • His parents gave him positive feedback for being inquisitive... An exploration of new ideas. Brad loves to read and takes a digital sabbath every Saturday.
  • Approach new ideas with a Buddhist philosophy --> Let go of assumptions. Approach each topic with a beginner's mind.
• A founder who is an explorer -- "Don't get stuck as an investor by constantly asking questions. You need to want to deeply understand someone. It goes both ways. Literal answers aren't enough."
• The role of the founder is “to collect people.” → Mentor side, peer side, employee side, customer side.
  • Engage with people. Create a 'bi-directional' connection. This has shifted over time for Brad. Think #GiveFirst
• Life partner - Amy... They are equals. It's important to acknowledge that. They almost split up after 10 years because Brad's words were not matching his actions.
  • "YOUR WORDS MUST MATCH YOUR ACTIONS.'
  • Prioritize what's important and then follow through. If it's important to you to spend time with your spouse, then do it.
  • Brad and Amy had to learn how to fight...
  • When their 13 year old dog died, it was devastating. Amy and Brad deal with tragedy differently. It's important to understand that it's OK for your spouse to deal with grief differently than you do.
• Key Parts to building community:
  • The people in charge must be leaders
  • Must have a long term commitment --> 20 years+
  • Inclusive of anyone who wants to engage
  • Have events that engage people
• Complex systems to how communities evolve --Complicated systems has more steps.
• Goal setting - They tend to be too rigid. The time component can be a problem.
  • Brad prefers raid iteration. Better to have a hypothesis. If the hypothesis fails, learn it.
  • Eric Ries - Lean Startup
    • Rapid experimentation - Rapid learning is better
  • Vast majority of goals you set are not right in the future
• Writing - "When I write, I learn." Force yourself to write it down. Put it in public. Have an open mind to feedback.
  • "People get stuck in dogma when they don't write things down. They don't know why they believe in it."
  • You can't do this quickly. People don't feel like they have time to think. That's a problem.
• The role of selling: Selling is crucial. You are selling all the time. Sales is a noble profession. Acknowledge it. Develop the skills to do it well. Everyone works in sales.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Episode #377: Casper Ter Kuile - How To Turn Everyday Activities Into Soulful Practices

Notes:

• Excellence:
  • Always learning
  • Commitment - Willingness to go deep
  • Generosity
  • Patience
• Casper spent his 30th birthday with nuns. He's not very religious but realized he had a lot in common with them. They care about the same things. They're very honest.
• What he learned from his mother and father:
  • Father - Do well when you follow the rules. Be detail oriented. Honest. Trustworthy.
  • Mother - She has a more "cheeky side." She breaks the rules.
• Deep connection isn’t just about relationships with other people. It’s about feeling the fullness of being alive. It’s about being enveloped in multiple layers of belonging within, between, and around us.
  • Four Levels of connection:
    • Connecting with yourself
    • Connecting with the people around you
    • Connecting with the natural world
    • Connecting with the transcendent
• Tradition -- "We mistake tradition for convention. Tradition is the beating heart, convention is the outer expression."
  • A college football team can change their uniforms and not lose tradition. The uniforms are a form of outer expression.
    • You change symbols as you grow.
• Preaching at its best is a conversation with the congregation. Ancient texts are so valuable. The Bible is a description of how life is...
• Casper shares what it was like growing up in England and not fitting in...
  • His home life was great. His school life was awful.
• Connection:
  • Willing to change
  • Forged in flames
  • Honesty & commitment to each other
• Science is stable - we value being in tribes. There's less of a connection to places and family. There is a decline in religious communities.
• Why has there been a decrease?
  • Productivity has become so important. To be productive, relationships are sacrificed. Priorities have shifted.
    • We are missing opportunities to go deep with people
• At work: Younger people show up at a job for the meaning of the company...
• The military: Soldiers care about the people they are shoulder to shoulder with... They honor their culture.
• As a manager: Replicate water cooler moments (virtually). 30 minutes snippets on zoom. Invite people to go deeper.
  • Use question prompts - create safe spaces. It's an interesting time for relationship design.
• He's created "The Confession Group"
  • The leader needs to model vulnerability but hold the boundaries.
  • Have a place where people can go to admit they screwed up -- 10 minutes to share, 10 minutes to ask questions
• Discipline:
  • Take a tech sabbath -- Each Friday, Casper hides his phone and computer. It's rest time. Sabbath - "The apex of life."
• What we practice is what we become
  • "We all worship something. We just don't know what we're worshiping."
    • The paradigm of how we see ourselves in the world.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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@RyanHawk12

Full notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Episode #376: David Perell - Why You Should Write

Notes:

• The importance of writing -- Why everyone should write… “Having a website with articles you've published is like having a personal agent who finds career opportunities for you 24/7."
• “Writing crystallizes ideas in ways thinking on its own will never accomplish.” — Morgan Housel
• "The person who writes sets the strategy. If you want to lead, write."
• "Writing is a 'proof of work' mechanism"
  • It shows the world that you've thought deeply about a topic
• Networking - The old way vs the new way
  • Old -- Go to conferences, happy hours, networking events
  • New -- Publish your work online. You attract the type of people you want...
• Bill James analytical approach. His book only sold 550 copies, but one of them was to Billy Beane (General Manager of the Oakland A's). And the "Moneyball" revolution was created...
• The Venn Diagram of Specificity
  • Learn how to create this for your business
• How to built a career? Do things that are unique, in demand, but the world doesn't have yet
• Your first draft is what is top of mind -- "Rewriting is rethinking." It's the process to make our ideas better. Writing and re-writing will make you a more thoughtful person and will create clarity.
• Writing is an element of teaching.
  • Expertise is like a ladder -- Be like an investigative reporter about a topic that fascinates you
• The benefits of learning in public: "It is the best way to build a network." It's a forcing function. It forces your brain to always be on.
• "Want a great spouse? Deserve one." - Charlie Munger
• Publishing your work online (podcast, essays, book) is the greatest networking tool in the world. I’ve met amazing people because they’ve benefitted from my work (head coach Atlanta Falcons, Brooklyn Nets, Ohio State basketball coach, SVP of Fortune 50 companies).
• Community and connection —- community becomes the byproduct when you’re going through something challenging together (ie: Navy SEALs).
  • “The strength of a community is hard to quantify, which makes it hard to advertise. But like good music, you measure it by how it moves your spirits and how you feel in its presence.”
• Competition is for Losers: Avoid competition. Stop copying what everybody else is doing. If you work at a for-profit company, work on problems that would not otherwise be solved. If you’re at a non-profit, fix unpopular problems. Life is easier when you don’t compete. (Hint: don’t start another bottled water company).
• Personal Monopoly: Corporations reward conformity, but the Internet rewards people who are unique. If you work in a creative field, strive to be the only person who does what you do. Find your own style, then run with it. Create intellectual real estate for yourself. (Jerry Garcia -- Be the only person who does what you do)
• The Map Is Not the Territory: Reality will never match the elegance of theory. All models have inconsistencies, but some are still useful. Some maps are useful because they’re inaccurate. If you want to find an edge, look for what the map leaves out.
• There are two kinds of companies:
  • 1) Product-First Audiences: Build a product, then an audience. Attract customers with paid advertisements.
  • 2) Audience-First Products: Build an audience, then a product. Attract customers with differentiated content.
• Take Action -- "Taking action will teach you more about yourself in a month than years of contemplation ever will."
• Making something easier expands the market... But making it harder gets you the clients you really want.
• Twitter is the town-square of the internet. It can be the best learning tool in the world if you use it right:
  • Mute politics
  • Unfollow people who make you angry
  • Understand your opponent's opinion better than they do
  • Production: Make tweets useful. It forces you to focus on ideas that are timeless. It forces you to have constant epiphanies.
  • Have "spiky" ideas -- They pierce society.
  • Have a point of view
• Sustained excellence =
  • Obsession - Doing great work is hard. You need to love it. "I can't live without creating."
  • Vision - Set a goal that scares you and march toward it. Have ambition
  • A keen understanding of what one is good at - Self-awareness.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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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...