The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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#372: Will Guidara

Notes:

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

Text LEARNERS to 44222

Full show notes are at www.LearningLeader.com

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

Notes:

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

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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

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

Notes:

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

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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

#369: Nancy Koehn & Adi Ignatius

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

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

Notes:

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

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text LEARNERS to 44222

Full notes at www.LearningLeader.com

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

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

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