Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right...

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com 

Twitter/IG @RyanHawk12    

https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

My guest: Charlie Baker is Governor of Massachusetts. He has also served as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a top-performing healthcare insurance provider. According to a Morning Consult poll, he has a 74% approval rating which makes him the most popular Governor in America. He is the author of the new book, Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done.

Notes:

• Your receiver is more important than your transmitter.” “You have two ears and one mouth.” Charlie learned at a young age the importance of being a good listener.
• What he learned when he lost his first race: “Charlie, you spend too much time with your customers and not enough time with your prospects.” We all would benefit from talking with people who disagree with us…
• In the fall of 2014, Charlie was struggling to find a secretary of transportation… This is a huge job within an administration. Charlie said he was looking for a 50% player – someone who thought you had real issues and wasn’t interested in making things just 5% better, but dramatically better. A friend recommended “Stephanie Pollack.” She was a well-known, well-respected liberal Democrat…
• Charlie's work embraces openness and accountability. In the words, again, of John F. Kennedy, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
• He grew up the son of a moderate Republican father (who worked in the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan administrations) and a liberal Democrat mother (a fierce advocate for education and services to support the most vulnerable in your community). His parents expected him and his brothers to participate in dinner table conversations about the issues of the day…
  • The model his parents set led Charlie to never approach this work thinking that one side or the other was evil– or harbors bad intent.
• “Wedge issues may be great for making headlines, but they do not move us forward. Success is measured by what we accomplish together. Our obligation to the people we serve is too important to place politics and partisanship before progress and results.”
• People Are Policy – “Steve and I start here because you need to get this right or all else founders. This so-called soft stuff is in fact the hard stuff of governing,” the authors write. In many organizations, and especially in the public sector, more work is just piled upon existing staff and managers. Instead, building the team is synonymous with building the necessary people capacity, which may mean adding specific expertise in short bursts.
• Follow The Facts - Facts define the problem and provide points of navigation for a response. In addition to gathering data evidence, interviewing people and identifying points of pain brings the abstract down to the personal. Stories demonstrate real-world impact and establish concrete information that data alone cannot reveal.
• Focus On How – “How” is the bridge between the problems that emerge from the data evidence and the points of pain and meaningful impact. This two-part step—what to do and how to do it—ensures that proposed actions align with targeted results.
• Push For Results - Results are not an endpoint; they encompass objective evaluation. Once underway, the repetition of a particular cycle (measure, evaluate, adjust, repeat) leads to steady, sustainable results that can drive further progress.
• Charlie is not only about getting things done but about renewing people’s faith in public service.

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." You, along with 10,000+ learners will receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right.

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

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

Brent Beshore is the Founder and CEO of Permanent Equity, a Midwestern-based private equity firm. They take a long-term approach to private equity, investing "permanent equity" in small to midsize privately held companies throughout North America. He’s also the best-selling author of The Messy Marketplace.

Notes:

• Growth without goals – Listed as one of Brent's foundations. “We believe the best path to sturdy growth is not a plan, but a posture.” It’s a belief in continuous improvement, optimism shining through some thick scars, and a healthy dose of humility.
• Growth comes from what you know you don't know. (which feels terrible). The harm comes from what you think you know or what you don't know you don't know. (which feels great or oblivious)
• Progress isn't made by sweeping proclamation or grand strategy. It's built by unglamorous daily activities that are often overlooked and under-appreciated. 
• In March 2016, Brent wrote a medium post about how to sell… “Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.” — Zig Ziglar
• You have 30 minutes one-on-one with someone you know nothing about other than they are wildly successful personally and professionally. What questions do you ask to understand their life, tease out their life philosophy, and get advice?
• Great questions are the key that unlocks everything. Stop talking about yourself and be a student of others.
• No matter how important you think relationships are, they’re more important.
• Reliability is a superpower. Do what you say you would when you said you’d do it, for the price you said you’d do it for. Every single time.
• If you’re ever more focused on other people’s shortcomings than your own, you’re the problem.
• Important Qualities:
  • High intellectual honesty
  • Humility
  • Optimism
• Life as a dad: "You will never be happier than your least happy child."
• "Culture is nothing more than what you reward and punish."
• Buffett and Munger" - "Both are thoughtful, kind, and generous."
• Enjoy life:
  • "I didn't enjoy it in my 20's... Try to have an inner temperature of joy."
• It's important to sit down with sages... Older people: Ask, "How do you mark your days?"
• "We all have time for things we prioritize."
• Sales is a dirty word for a lot... It doesn't need to be.
  • The best salespeople Brent knows aren't selling. They share what they know and how it could potentially help others. "Invite people into your world. Share a vision. Help them understand the cause. Give them an invitation to go along with you."
• Capital Camp - Shock people with hospitality. Help create meaningful relationships. Surround them with care and excellence.
• Writing - Use humor. Write like you talk. Brent chooses to be light-hearted because that's how he is in real life.
• Keys to being a great Dad:
  • Love them unconditionally because of who they are
    • We have confused what love is
  • Show them love by what you don't tolerate

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of Mindful Monday. Receive a carefully curated email each Monday morning to help you start your week off right.

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

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

Ryan Holiday is the best selling author of 11 books including The Obstacle Is the Way, The Daily Stoic, Ego Is the Enemy, and Stillness is the Key which has sold millions of copies and been translated into thirty languages. His latest book is called Discipline is Destiny - The Power of Self Control.

Notes:

• We must be in command of ourselves. We have to conquer ourselves before others.
• Self Discipline - Freedom is the opportunity for self-discipline.
• The trivial - The people who sustain excellence fall in love with the process. They don't cheat it.
• Choose to see obstacles as opportunities.
• Dr. Drew recommended to Ryan that he should read books about stoicism when he was 19. This was a pivotal moment.
• Carry The Load For Others  – General Jim Mattis. "The privilege of command is command. You don’t get a bigger tent. “Being the boss is a job. Being a leader is something you earn.”
• Seek Discomfort – Seneca was a rich man. He inherited estates from his father. He invested well. Yet every so often, for a few days, he would eat only the scantest fare and wear his coarest clothing. He would actively seek out discomfort, mimicking abject poverty and harsher life conditions. 
• Having a full calendar - "That doesn't seem like a rich life."
• Just show up — Consistency. Thomas Edison said “I’ve got no imagination. Thank never dream. I’ve created nothing.” The genius hangs around his laboratory day and night.”
• Your Why must be intrinsic.
• Just work - in Ancient Greece, there was a word to describe a ceaseless work ethic — philoponia  (about the author Joyce Carol Oates). She published a ton over the course of decades.
• Work out -- “Obviously the philosopher's life should be well prepared for physical activity.” — the Stoic Gaius Musonius Rufus explained, “because often the virtues make use of this as a necessary instrument for the affairs of low.” The strenuous life is the best life — exercise. You must take care of your body. And eat well.
• Endure - Shackelton’s family motto — “Fortitude Vincimus” — “By endurance we conquer.”
• George Washington — When he was 26, he watched a play about the Stoics and started repeating the phrase “in the calm light of mild philosophy.”
• Focus Focus Focus — In Yogic tradition they call this Ekagrata — intense focus on a singular point.
• Do the hard thing first — Mark Twain - “the idea is that if we eat the frog at the beginning of the day, it will be next to impossible for the day to get any worse.”
• Can you get back up? “Losing is not always up to us, but being a loser is. Being a quitter is.”
• Silence is Strength — The Spartans' “laconic” style. Never use 2 words when 1 will do. Archimedes once explained at a Spartan dinner, “An expert on speaking also knows when not to do so.”
• When Ryan speaks to NFL teams: "I try to give them one or two practical things to implement."
• Be Your Best - "Conquering the world is rather easy after we have fully conquered ourselves. Certainly fewer people have done the latter than the former.”
• Taking a stand - How successful are you really if you can't be yourself?"
• Lou Gehrig -  “When you love the work, you don’t cheat it or the demands it makes of you. You respect even the most trivial aspects of the pursuit.”

Text Hawk to 66866 to receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right!

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

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

Bill George is a senior fellow at Harvard Business School, where he has taught leadership since 2004. He is the author of Discover Your True North, Authentic Leadership, and 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis. Bill is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic.  He joined Medtronic in 1989 as president and chief operating officer, was the CEO from 1991-2001, and board chair from 1996-2002.  Earlier in his career, he was a senior executive with Honeywell and Litton Industries and served in the U.S. Department of Defense.

• Sustained excellence =
  • Authentic, real, and vulnerable
  • They know how to bring people together and inspire them
  • They challenge, help, and coach people
• People do not want the Jack Welch style today. 
• How did Bill earn the CEO role at Medtronic?
  • Team building - "I continued to develop leaders."
  • "Do your current job exceptionally well, develop others, and don't think about your promotion."
  • Give people an opportunity and a sense of purpose
• Your True North
  • Make the shift from what you are to who you are
  • Process your life story and the significant events
  • The difficult times make you who you are
    • What do you want them to say at your funeral?
• The "Coach" Acronym
  • Care
  • Organize
  • Align
  • Challenge
  • Help
• "You must be a constant learner if you want to be a leader."
• Leadership Crucibles:
  • Leadership is about relationships
• What Bill has learned teaching at Harvard
  • It's a mistake to chase external expectations
  • You need to be fulfilled by your work
• Keys to a great marriage:
  • Communicate all the time
  • You need to grow together
• Keys to being a great dad:
  • Be there, be present
  • Listen
• Bill shares what it's like leading through today’s challenges, creating inclusive cultures, and how to lead through crises.
• Bill shares the dangers of leading without True North, including case studies of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, WeWork’s Adam Neumann, Uber’s Travis Kalanick, and Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes
• “Pursuing purpose with passion
  • Practicing solid values
  • Leading with heart
  • Establishing enduring relationships
  • Demonstrating self-discipline”
• “You need to be who you are, not try to emulate somebody else.”
• “The hardest person you will ever have to lead is yourself.”
• “The reality is that no one can be authentic by trying to be like someone else. There is no doubt you can learn from their experiences, but there is no way you can be successful trying to be like them. People trust you when you are genuine and authentic, not an imitation.”
• “The role of leaders is not to get other people to follow them but to empower others to lead.”