Reading Time: < 1 min It’s something I’ve never really thought about before, but in many cases it’s difficult to express curiosity without some degree of courage. On a recent episode of “The Long and The Short Of It” podcast, they unpacked this quite a bit. While it can be seen in a handful of different ways, Jen summed it […]
Leadership
A complaint versus a problem
Reading Time: < 1 min Problems can be a great thing. Really, that’s what most companies do — they solve problems for their clients. I’ve shared before that I want people to bring me problems, and I find people that can help uncover problems to be very valuable. On the other hand you have people that complain, which is far […]
Work on development, not performance
Reading Time: < 1 min It can be tempting to focus everything on performance and metrics. Whether I’m talking about myself and what I accomplish, or what I look for from my team. Ultimately, though, a stronger focus on development will lead to far better long-term results. In his book “The Coaching Habit“, author Michael Stanier words it very well: […]
Set them free to do their thing
Reading Time: 2 min When building websites, or really any kind of marketing deliverable, we have to strike an interesting balance. On the one hand, we have a tight scope of work and a clear directive on what needs to happen. On the other hand, we’re not always sure exactly what that looks like. If someone needs a new […]
Keep your issues in the open
Reading Time: < 1 min Similar to the idea of “bring me problems” that I shared last year, having a culture where problems are welcomed can be a great thing. It reminds me of a story I heard about Alan Mulally and his work to turn Ford around in the 2010’s. One big thing that he did was encourage problems […]
Great communication is built on trust
Reading Time: 2 min In his book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things“, author Ben Horowitz shares simple yet powerful way to speed up communication: trust. Ben simply says: “In any human interaction, the required amount of communication is inversely proportional to the level of trust.” The more you trust someone, the easier the communication. If you know their […]
Only one person can change me
Reading Time: < 1 min In recently reading the book “QBQ” (the “Question Before the Question”, which I discussed a bit here), much of it felt similar to some of the ideas in “The Daily Stoic“. The books come from completely different directions, but end up focusing on one idea — you are responsible for yourself. QBQ had a few […]
The pretense of knowledge is our most dangerous vice
Reading Time: < 1 min In his book “Ego Is the Enemy“, author Ryan Holiday spends a good deal of time essentially breaking down the Dunning-Krueger Effect and how overconfidence can be a bad thing. Confidence, in and of itself, is valuable to have. When you become overconfident and your ego creeps in, it can often inhibit your growth. If […]
Fix your weaknesses or enhance your superpowers?
Reading Time: 2 min When you decide that there is something you’d like to better at doing, there are two possible reasons: It’s a weakness of yours that you want to improve. It’s already a strength of yours, but now you want to take it further. Finding the balance can be tricky. If you’re a baseball player who is […]
Kindness is about the recipient
Reading Time: < 1 min For years, I thought that a key to being a good leader was to treat your staff with kindness. That’s not wrong, but research into various personality profiles (such as enneagram and DISC) have shown me that “kind” is different depending on who you’re talking to. An old business coach of ours laid it out […]