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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.”

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more details...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

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."

Text LEARNERS to 44222

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

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...

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

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”

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

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