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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

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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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12

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.