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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Greg McKeown wrote the New York Times best-seller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.  As well as frequently being the #1 Time Management book on Amazon, this book challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success. His latest book is titled, Effortless: Make It Easier To Do What Matters Most.

Notes:

• Essentialism was about doing the right things; Effortless is about doing them in the right way...
• The best free throw shooter ever is not Michael Jordan or Steph Curry… It’s Elena Delle Donne. 93.4%. “If you keep it simple, less can go wrong.”
• The word NOW comes from the Latin phrase, novus homo, which means “a new man” or “man newly ennobled.” The spirit of this is clear: each new moment is a chance to start over. A chance to make a new choice.”
• “Whatever has happened to you in life. Whatever hardship. Whatever pain. They pale in comparison to the power you have to choose what to do now.”
• The question to ask yourself: "What's something essential that you're under investing in?"
  • The second question is: How can you make that effortless?
• Life changes the day you discover residual results
• How to make it effortless? Create a routine so you don't have to think about it.
• The competition to the South Pole -- The difference between Amundsen versus Scott
  • Amundsen -- 15 miles per day, no matter what. The "15 mile march."
  • Scott -- Push to exhaustion every day.
• Amundsen and four others arrived at the pole on December 14, 1911. Five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Scott and his four companions died on the return journey. Amundsen made it to the South Pole and back to base camp without suffering a death in the party.
  • Consistency day in and day out help Amundsen "achieve the goal without particular effort."
• Effortless is about simplification. Ask, "what if it could be easy?"
• Ask: "Is there an effortless way to do this?
• Highland High School Rugby - Won 19 national championships: Systems were put in place
• Consistent systems are the key
• How to deal with the guilt when we don't work as hard?
  • Give your best to what you're doing, but have an open mind to finding a better way to do something
• This book for Greg grew out of agony... His daughter was living an ideal life... And then had health issues that completely changed their family.
• They had two possible paths to help her:
  • The harder, heavier path of 24/7 always on work... OR
  • Easier path of being grateful. Sharing optimism, and live in the state to help re-wire the brain. "Be grateful for every thing possible."
• They chose the latter and Eve got better... How they chose to respond was everything...

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Suneel Gupta is on faculty at Harvard University. He's the author of Backable - The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take A Chance On You

Notes:

• Let’s start with the obvious -- when lots of people are applying for the same spot, you have to find a way to stand out. You can’t just check a box, you have to leave an impression.  (But backable people “go beyond Google” and dig for insights that other people interviewing for the job may not find. They talk to customers, they attend shareholder meetings, they test-drive the product. (But backable people “go beyond Google” and dig for insights that other people interviewing for the job may not find. They talk to customers, they attend shareholder meetings, they test-drive the product. )
• Suneel comes from a family of highly backable people—including his mother, Damyanti Hingorani, the first woman engineer for Ford Motor Company, and his brother Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN.
• Reid Hoffman recruited Suneel to Mozilla...
  • Name someone early in your life who backed you. Call them and say 'thank you.'
• Hire "high ceiling" leaders:
  • Suneel was a speechwriter in 2004. He was backstage at the Democratic National Convention. There was a State Senator from Illinois. Suneel watched him speak from behind the curtain. "He created an electric wave of energy when he spoke." It was President Barack Obama.
    • After that, Suneel became obsessed with following the work of the State Senator.
    • He studied President Obama's history and learned that he went from a dry speaker to inspiring through preparation and practice. He worked on his skill to communicate and got better.
• The "It" quality -- People get a job because others want to take a chance on them. They're backable.
• Specifics to make this happen:
  • Play exhibition matches -- Prepare, practice, rehearse
  • They develop a level of mastery so that they don't have to think when it's time to perform. Their preparation allows them to flow
  • Ella Fitzgerald performed in Berlin... She forgot the lyrics and improvised the words for the next half of the song. She rehearsed a lot. That allowed her to perform even when she forgot the words.
• Confidence comes from believing something will go wrong and that you've practiced enough to be able to handle it. "Build your recovery muscle."
• Surround yourself with great people - Early adopters need to feel part of the build.
•  Steer Into Objections. Anticipate three key objections to your idea. When pitching, don’t avoid those objections; steer into them.
• Don’t Pitch Prematurely. Instead of sharing an idea before it’s ready, nurture it until you’re ready. It’s not charisma that convinces people, it’s conviction.
• Don’t Overshare. Share what it could be, not how it has to be. Share just enough to get the essence of your idea across, then open up the conversation.
• Build Your Backable Circle. Don’t rely on just one person to help you with your pitch. Surround yourself with a trusted group of people who bring different perspectives.
• Humans are not risk takers - We do whatever we can to avoid a loss. You need to neutralize that fear.
  • "Don't just talk about why it's new, but why it's inevitable."
• "Backable people convince themselves first. It's not charisma that convinces people, it's conviction."
• "Most new ideas are killed inside hallways. We share too early. Before they're ready. Nurture your ideas behind the scenes. They need an incubation time. Write it out. Draw..."
• Quiet time is so important to hone ideas. It's critical to the creative process
• "Ken Robinson was not that charismatic, but you believed everything he was saying." He believed it first. He had conviction.
• Storytelling - "You need to cast a central character."
  • "Re-write the book for on person as the reader... 'I'm writing this book for my daughter to read.'"
  • "Don't talk about the market, talk about one person."
• Life advice:
  • "Figure out what makes you come alive. I left Groupon and created a list of ideas."

Text LEARNERS to 44222 to learn more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, one of the leading international business schools. Erin conducted an in-depth study with Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix, investigating the underlying principles necessary for building a corporate culture that is inventive, fast, and flexible. The results of that research were published in their book No Rules Rules. In 2019, Erin was listed by the Thinkers50, for the second time, as one of the fifty most impactful business writers in the world and in 2018 she was selected by HR magazine as one of the top 30 most influential HR thinkers of the year. 

Notes:

• “Corporate culture can be a mushy marshland of vague language and incomplete, ambiguous definitions. What’s worse, company values — as articulated — rarely match the way people behave in reality.”
• The Netflix culture deck. 127 slides originally intended for internal use but one that Reed Hastings (CEO) shared online in 2009. Sheryl Sandberg called it “the most important document ever to come out of Silicon Valley.” Erin said "I loved the deck for its honesty. And loathed it for its content.”
• "If you want your culture to come alive, you need to avoid speaking in absolutes."
• Instead, use either or…
  • Security or High Performance?
  • Candor or Comfort?
• Why did the Netflix culture deck go viral?
  • "This is a company that tells the truth. It said what it believed. That is rare."
• On May 31, 2015 you got a cold email from Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix)… Reed told her that he read her book, The Culture Map, loved it, and was having his leadership team at Netflix read it.
• Erin's biggest surprise during her time researching Netflix and writing with Reed?
  • "That management paradigms are hangovers from the industrial era. Previously, the #1 goal was error elimination. That isn't the #1 goal at Netflix. It's innovation."
• Reed Hastings had a company before Netflix called Pure Software. He put in a lot of rules and processes. He realized that "if you dummy proof the system only dummies want to work there." Too many processes can kill flexibility and innovation.
• This is "applicable to any environment where innovation is more important than error prevention."
• "Most rules are put in place to deal with low performers."
• "Instead, create an environment with 'talent density.' Only high performers..."
• Performance is Contagious: Professor Will Felps, of the University of New South Wales in Australia, conducted a study demonstrating contagious behavior in the work environment. He created several teams of 4 college students and asked each to complete a management task in 45 minutes. The teams who did the best work would receive a financial reward of $100. (Bezos: "People are pretty good at learning high standards simply through exposure," writes Bezos. "High standards are contagious. Bring a new person onto a high standards team, and they'll quickly adapt. The opposite is also true)
• The two different types of jobs:
  • Operational - Ice cream scoopers
  • Creative - Rely on your brain
• Pay Top of Market for talent - Matt Thunell (Manager of Original Content) said about Netflix, “We live in a walled-garden of excellence, where everyone is a high performer. You go into these meetings and it’s like the talent and brain power in the room could generate the office electricity. People are challenging one another, building up arguments. That’s why we get so much done at such incredible speed here. It’s because of the crazy high talent density.” With that said, Netflix doesn’t believe in “Pay-Per-Performance” bonuses.
• When you first began to collaborate with Reed to write this book, Erin asked him how he would find the time to collaborate. He said, “Oh, I can give this pretty much whatever time you think it will need.” That surprised Erin... In Reed's mind, the leaders should create a system so that they don't have to be busy, packed with back to back to back meetings...
• Candor -- Giving and receiving feedback
  • Top performers regularly help other top performers get better by giving feedback
  • At Netflix, they do live 360 feedback dinners -- Go around the table giving feedback for each person.
• The 4 A method of feedback:
  • Aim to assist
  • Actionable - It must be clear what could be done
  • Receive the feedback with gratitude
  • Accept it or decline it... It's not always right. Be grateful for it regardless
• Sustain Excellence:
  • Humility
  • Curiosity to Learn - Never stop learning, never feel like you've mastered it
• Life/Career Advice:
  • Get the talent right
  • Create Candor
  • Eat the cake -- Remove rules and processes
• If you create an open vacation policy (meaning that vacation days are not tracked), it is imperative that the senior leaders lead from the front and go on a lot of vacations. The rest of the team will follow... If you never go on vacation, then your team will feel like they have to do the same.

Text LEARNERS to 44222 for more...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12  https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

Brook Cupps is a leadership teacher and the coach of the Centerville High School basketball team. In 2021, he led his team to the first state championship in school history. He is best known as a leader who truly lives his core values. They are: Tough, Passionate, Unified, & Thankful.

Notes:

• Brook's personal mantras:
  • Wolf - Wolves travel in packs. They are not good by themselves. They need the pack. BC needs people around him. Loves teams. "Wolves are more badass than lions or tigers. You don't see a wolf in a circus."
  • Chop Wood - "I've never viewed myself as talented, but I'm willing to work. We say chop chop. When things are going well, get to work. When things are bad, get to work. The connection is always back to work."
  • The Man In The Arena - "I had to develop this over time. The critics used to bother me and I would listen to them. It affected my confidence. I learned that the most important opinions are the people in the arena with me." Brene Brown - “A lot of cheap seats in the arena are filled with people who never venture onto the floor. They just hurl mean-spirited criticisms and put-downs from a safe distance. The problem is, when we stop caring what people think and stop feeling hurt by cruelty, we lose our ability to connect. But when we’re defined by what people think, we lose the courage to be vulnerable. Therefore, we need to be selective about the feedback we let into our lives. For me, if you’re not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.”
• Purpose - "My purpose is to inspire others to strive for excellence over success."
• Self awareness leads to self confidence - Know who you are. Be comfortable with who you are. "You can't be tough alone. You need others."
• Foxhole Friends - It takes time to build foxhole friend relationships. "With my foxhole friends, I can be completely open. They tell me the truth. They have the freedom to criticize me."
• Coach Z -- Dave Zeller. “He never won a District. He’s the best coach I’ve ever been around. A state championship isn’t success. It’s the impact you have on the kids because nobody’s going to tell me that those guys that won state championships are better coaches than Z was.”
• Core Values: Values become real when you define the behaviors that exemplify the value...
  • Tough - Positive body language leads you to be fight ready
  • Passionate - Choosing extra work leads you to steal inches
  • Unified - Speaking and acting with urgency leads you to not flinching in big moments
  • Thankful - Showing love for one another through touches (help someone off the floor, give them a five after they make a mistake)
• Unified --  You must speak and act with urgency. "If you choose to remain silent when someone has done something wrong, then that is selfish." Choosing the easier path of not saying anything is selfish. The selfless act is having the guts to speak up when it's needed.
• Patch Adams - "Indifference is the greatest disease of all."
• You need to stand for something or you stand for nothing...
• "Your behaviors are the crux to your values." Do your behaviors match the values you claim to be yours?
• Gabe Cupps (Brook's son) entered the conversation for a few minutes...
  • Gabe sent a text to each player on the team before tournament games that simply said, "We're gonna win."
  • Where does that confidence come from? "It's the work put in leading up to the big moments."
  • Gabe originally tried out for the North Coast Blue Chips AAU team... The same team that Bronny James (LeBron James Jr) played on... During a break in the action, he asked Bronny to play 1 on 1... "I didn't know how good I was. I wanted to see."
  • Gabe earned their respect and made the team... Later LeBron noticed Brook's coaching ability when he was helping out at practice and determined he was the best coach to lead the team moving forward.
  • LeBron's superpower as a leader is "gassing up his guys." He has the ability to create more belief in others through his belief in them. A critical leadership action where LeBron excels...
• What did Brook and Gabe say to each other during their long embrace after winning the state championship? "I just told him how much I loved him."
• Goal setting process -- Brook does not set results oriented goals. He sets process oriented goals. They had no goals to win their conference, or regionals, or the state championship (they won all of those this year). Their goal for this season was:
  • Attack every opportunity with purpose
  • Process based versus Results based? In the world of coaching basketball, there is a clear scoreboard. You have a record. If you lose too many games, you get fired. How does Brook manage that? "If I have a group of guys that are tough, passionate, unified, and thankful... And they attack every opportunity with purpose, we'll probably be pretty good and win a lot. The results usually take care of themselves."
• Honoring those who have come before you: "Drink the water, but remember who dug the well."
• Will you take a charge?
  • This is what he looks for in a teammate. Someone who looks for opportunities to sacrifice for the team.
  • There is a physical sacrifice. "It's gonna hurt. It's an unselfish act to take a charge."
  • "To be all in, you need to take charges."
• High Standards - There was a moment in a game earlier in the season when Centerville was winning 60-24 in the third quarter. Brook's team started playing a little sloppy. Turned the ball over a few times. It was uncharacteristic of their usual play. Brook called a time out and yelled at his team. It was obvious they were going to win (by a lot), but that moment showed me that Brook holds his team to higher standards and won’t allow them to lower even when the opponent isn’t posing a challenge...
  • "You get what you accept. That's my standard. If I ignore that, then I'm not living to my values, and that's not ok with me."
• Creating your values -- "I think as the leader, they need to be your values."
  • "If you go to work for someone else, you need to be bought into their values. If you're not, then you probably shouldn't work there."
  • When interviewing for a job to work for a leader, ask them: "What are your values and how do you live them?
• I noticed after big wins that Brook doesn't join in the pictures with his players... Why?
  • "That's their moment. It's about them. I love watching them enjoy those moments."
• Common traits of foxhole friends: "They may not communicate them the same way I do, but we have a shared appreciation for our values."
• “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” -- Teddy Roosevelt