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Ron Potter

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Unity Through Diversity

by Ron Potter

Truth, Love, Beauty, Unity.

You’ve heard this several times from me as a saying from Aristotle.  I actually use it for building teams.

  • Truth – be honest with each other and the team
  • Love – Show respect for each and every member of the team.
  • Beauty – Don’t make things complicated, make them simple.  (I’ve talked about the beauty of Einstein’s genius.  It was not his mathematical genius that helped him stand out as a pillar in his field.  It was his ability to simplify things.)
  • Unity – Work as a team.  Build unity.

In one sense we can view these as a progression.  By bringing out the truth, showing respect for individuals, ideas, and opinions, and boiling things down to the simplest of forms: we can then reach unity.  This doesn’t create uniformity; it creates unity through diversity.

Another Ancient Text

Many of us have heard the story about the Tower of Babel.  Most scholars put the writing of this book as much as a thousand years before Aristotle.  Most of us think this story is about the people of earth at that time building a tower so that they could become gods of their universe.  The reason this might have been possible is that the text says they had one language and the same words.  They had uniformity.  Earlier text indicated that the intent was for a diverse language and people.  The children of Noah (after the great flood) spread about the world and created different tribes and languages.  The intent was diversity.

The story of the Tower of Babel was about building a nation with one language.  In the passage from Genesis 11, God once again caused the nation to disperse into different tribes and different languages.  The goal was always diversity!

Uniformity vs Unity

These are close words but they mean different things.

Uniform: The same in all cases and at all times.  Unchanging in form or character.

Unity: The state of being in full agreement: Harmony.

The keyword in uniform is “unchanging.”  Nothing changes.  Beliefs don’t change.  Arguments don’t create change.  Different beliefs and opinions don’t change.  Referring to Aristotle’s statement, there is no need for Love (Respect) because nothing is going to change.  Without respect for other beliefs and opinions, nothing changes.

The keyword in unity is “Harmony.”  Have you ever been part of a choir, quartet, or jazz band/quartet?  I’ve been part of a choir off and on for many years.  I sing bass.  My sound and notes are very different from the altos and other sections of the choir.  But when we join all of our voices together, we create a wonderful and enjoyable harmony.

Have you ever listened to a great jazz quartet?  There is no written music, just great blended sound.  In fact, any instrument may take the lead at any time.  All of the other instruments listen, blend in, and create a great harmony together.  They create unity.

Uniformity or Unity

We’re seeing a great deal of uniformity in our nation at the moment.  Because of the lack of respect, there is no change, there is no listening.  There are only hard stances with an unwillingness to be open (and show respect for) other beliefs and opinions.  There is no ability to build a great nation in unity.

Business Teams have the ability to overcome this uniformity and create unity.  Business teams have the ability to be together because they are smaller and closer—although I worry about virtual teams. Business teams have the ability to share beliefs and opinions and listen to each other to build unity.

Our nation has less of a chance because of the desire to push an agenda to create a uniform belief (at least at a tribe level).

Build Unity

Build unity where you can.  I believe it’s easier at a team level because of the personal connections and a fewer number of members.  But, where ever you can, build unity on a national level.  This means examining your own “unchanging” views and being open to others’ believes and opinions.

Unity can save us from ourselves.

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BlogLeadership

Humility isn’t a Byproduct of Heroism, it’s a Precondition.

by Ron Potter

I recently read an article by Sam Walker in the Wall Street Journal that had an amazing headline.  That headline: “In a Life-or-Death Crisis, Humility is Everything”

In the article Walker writes about:

  • Alfred Haynes, the pilot that brought the DC-10 to a landing after the rear engine blew up and took out all three of the planes independent hydraulic lines
  • Chesley Sullenberger, who ditched a plane in the Hudson River without a single fatality after losing two engines. (Tom Hanks made the movie “Sully” based on the accident.)
  • Luis Urzua, the forman at the Chilean mine cave-in that helped his team survive 10 weeks before a rescue could happen.

Humility was the Common Denominator

The common denominator in each of the cases was the humility of the leaders.

In the first example, Captain Haynes was faced with a hydraulic failure that engineers pegged at roughly a billion to one chance of happening.  When Haynes asked his flight engineer to look up the procedure for steering a DC-10 under these circumstances the flight engineer replied “There isn’t one.”  Haynes didn’t get angry, he just went to the next possible solution.  Capt. Haynes spoke calmly and clearly to ground controllers and even thanked them for their assistance.

Six days later, he was healthy enough to be wheeled not a press conference.  “There is no hero,” he said, “There is just a group of four people who did their job.”

He never took any personal credit.  He placed all the credit on his crew doing their job.  He was humble.

In the second example, Sully, in his first public statement said that after losing both engines and ditching his plane in the Hudson River without a single fatality said, “We were simply doing the jobs we were paid to do.”  He was humble.

In the last example of the Chilean mine cave-in, Luis Urzua, after being trapped below ground for ten weeks insisted on being the last man out when rescue finally came.  He was humble.

Humble Business Leaders

Sam Walker suggests that many of these celebrated leaders have a remarkable mix of courage and humility.  On the surface, these two words seem to be the opposite of each other.  Can you be courageous and humble at the same time?  Can you display courage while being humble?  Yes, you can!

In fact, it’s important that you exhibit and live both.  Most business leaders seldom face situations where they make life or death situations.  At least not in those terms.  But often leaders face situations where the work lives and livelihood of many of their employees lie in the balance.  It takes courage to make and then stick with those kinds of decisions.

Several years ago one of my clients faced that kind of decision.  They were going to have to terminate the jobs of a large percentage of employees.  It was a gut-wrenching decision.  This company had facilities all over the country.  The employees didn’t work in one location.  Based on that dispersion of employees around the country that would be losing their jobs, they decided to rent jets so that they could visit every location over the span of two days.

In those two days, they sat with the employees that were going to be impacted and listened to their feelings and concerns.  They didn’t explain why the decisions had to be made or the logic behind the decision.  They just listened.  After each meeting, the employees still felt bad about what they were facing but they also felt that had been listened to and understood.  They had experienced humble leaders who were making courageous decisions.  In the end, those employees moved on quicker and felt better about the culture of the company.  They had experienced humble leaders.

Courageous and Humble

It takes both.  Courageous decisions are often without the needed ingredient of humility.  In this case, humility requires listening and empathizing.  It also takes courage to provide both of those.

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Conquering Our Fears

by Ron Potter

It was a beautiful sunny day.  A light breeze was blowing and I was walking along a sidewalk.  What conditions could make it better?

Well for one, it would have been great to have some safety equipment.  My walk wasn’t exactly on a sidewalk.  I was about 140 forty feet in the air (fourteen stories) walking on an 8″ I-beam with no safety equipment.  To further hamper the situation, for those who know me, you already know that I’m extremely knock-kneed.  When my knees are tightly together, the inside of my feet are still 5″ apart.  This makes it even more difficult when you walking on a “sidewalk” that is only 8 inches wide.

I was just out of engineering school and this was in the day prior to safety equipment.  No belt tied off to anything.  No net to catch me if I fell.  If I missed a step, it was 140′ straight down to a concrete slab.

Encouraged to Overcome Fears

At the end of that first day, I went to see the chief engineer and said I just couldn’t do that job.  I spent the whole day terrified.  His come back was “Give it three weeks.  If at the end of that time you still can’t do it I’ll give you another assignment.”

I’m sure he had worked with other “rookies” through his career and had learned about facing your fears and then overcoming them.  Who knows, he may have gone through the same experience in his early career.

Facing my fears

So the next day I was back in the structural steel doing my job the best that I could while dealing with my fears.

While I was up 140′, the Ironworkers were another 20 feet above me continuing to put the entire structure together.  We topped out at about 200 feet.  These Ironworkers ran around grabbing beams being lifted to them by cranes and loosely bolting them together.  They were running around as if they were on that sidewalk on a breezy, sunny day.  I could tell they were watching me with amusement as I carefully picked my way through steel 20 feet below them.

Discipline and Focus to Overcome Fears

I began to learn a technique that worked for me and helped me move across that 8″ I-beam approximately 40′ in distance.  I would stand at one column with my back wedged in as tight as possible so that I felt secure and then I would begin focusing on the column 40′ away that I had to walk to.  As I focused more and more, a flaw or mark in the structural steel began to become visible to me.  It was something I could look at and keep my focus on.

The next move was to step out on the beam, never losing my focus on my spot, and begin walking.  If I looked down I would fall.  If I moved my focus left or right, I would step off the I-beam.

I stayed focused and disciplined to keep walking forward.  Eventually, I reached the other side and the “safety” of another column.

Distractions Throw Off your Focus and Discipline

After a couple of weeks, the Ironworkers thought I had become more than a curiosity to watch and was now something to be played with.

After slowing my breathing, locking in my focus, and stepping out to walk my next I-beam, I was nearly halfway across when an Ironworker slid down the column where my focus spot was and began walking toward me.

One of the first things they teach you before going into the steel was the technique for passing someone in the middle of a beam.  You were to stand toe-to-toe with the other person, grasp each other’s wrists tightly, and then lean back until your weight was balanced.  Then you would slowly swivel 180 degrees, keeping your toes on the beam and your weight balanced.  After the swivel was completed, you turned and continued walking the other way.

After we completed our little dance, the Ironworker turned and walked away from me chuckling.  I was left standing in the middle of the beam trying to settle my brain, my fear, and regain a focus point.  I finally captured a focus point on the column I had just come from and walked to it.  It took me several minutes to calm my heart and breathing to get the fear in my brain to subside while clinging to the column —the one I had just come from.

All the while there was a chorus of laughter coming from the ironworkers overhead.   On the way down in the construction elevator that night one of the Ironworkers said quietly how proud he was of me for handling such a scary situation.

Distractions: Outside and Inside.

Distractions will come at you from anywhere.  The outside world is constantly throwing distractions at you.  I really don’t like the word “busy” because it indicates to me that you’re letting those outside distractions rule your life and are not facing the fears and difficult situations that you need to face to be successful.

The inside distractions are maybe even worse.  They’re excuses!  Seemly valid reasons for not facing your fears or developing the focus and discipline to overcome them.

Fears are natural and they are powerful.  But they are just fears.

One definition says that fear is “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that something is dangerous, likely to cause pain.”  Notice that it’s based on a “belief”.  Just because you fear something doesn’t make it a real threat.

Get focused.  Be disciplined.  Make the decision to face your fears and overcome them.

I was fortunate to have that fearful experience just a few weeks into my work career.  It set the tone for a lifetime of facing my fears directly.  You may not have had that early experience but it doesn’t make any difference.  Starting to face your fears at any point in your life will make the rest of your life much better.

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BlogCulture

Humans Project in Straight Lines

by Ron Potter

“It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” ~ Mark Twain

A friend of mine who recently retired and is now fighting cancer said to me the other day:  You said something to me years ago that has helped me tremendously through these hard times.  I immediately wonder what I might have said years ago that is having that kind of impact today.  He then explained.  You once said to me that the human mind projects in straight lines but nothing in the world runs in a straight line.  I do remember learning and saying that.  If things were going well, my mind assumed they would continue to improve.  If things were going poorly, my mind assumed things would continue to get worse.  It never works out that way.

Straight Line Projections

  • K&E Company (the makers of high-end slide rules) did a visionary study on their hundredth anniversary in 1967.  I was a sophomore in college and did all of my calculations on a K&E slide rule.  Their study missed the coming electronic calculator.  K&E shut down their slide rule engravers in 1976.
  • A late 60″s prediction was cheap energy forever.  The oil embargo happened in 1973.
  • By the late 80’s economic growth based on new industries and discoveries looked dim.  Netscape went public with their internet browser in 1995.
  • People tend to overestimate what they’re experiencing at the moment and undervalue the possibilities in the future.  This reinforces Mark Twain’s quote that it’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.

Straight Lines Tend To Be Short

It’s OK to make predictions and decisions based on how things are going today.  The mistake that most leaders make is assuming that the trajectory they are on (up or down) will last longer than it ever does.

I’ve seen many examples of this during my consulting career.  I’ll have to be careful telling about one example because if people know that industry, they’ll know which company I’m talking about.  In this example, the particular company had been the industry leader for over a hundred years.  They made the best and highest quality product within the industry.  They assumed that trend would continue and made plans and decisions based on the fact that the public would always purchase the highest quality product available.  But the buying public is finicky.  They actually changed their behavior and started purchasing less expensive products in large numbers.

I watched another client struggle with losing customers.  When the leaders asked some of their key employees why they were losing market share, the answer was “customers don’t see us as a nutritious option anymore.”  The leaders discounted their own employees by proclaiming that their products have been seen and promoted as a nutritious project for over a hundred years.  That couldn’t have changed overnight.  But it had changed overnight while the leaders were still projecting in straight lines based on the past.

This last example is not about a particular company but an entire industry.  Many of my clients through the years have been in the pharmaceutical industry.  The pharma industry may be one of the riskiest industries in existence.  They will often take several years and invest nearly a billion dollars bringing a drug to market only to have it fail to pass human trials or FDA approval at the last minute.  I can’t think of any other industry that takes that kind of risk.

I’m going to make a political statement here that I often avoid.  There has been a lot of discussion from our government on price controls.  It’s not a price control issue, it’s a trade issue.  Nearly all other countries in the world do put price controls on drugs.  This leaves the United States carrying the burden of the cost of development.  If the US also puts price controls in place, there will be no further development of new drugs.  Let’s fix the trade issue and have other countries pay their fair share of development.

Once a new drug has been accepted and makes it to the marketplace, there are a limited number of years left on the original patent for the company to earn back the high cost of development.  Once a drug goes off-patent and becomes generic, I’ve seen many companies assume that the brand name drug sales still have a life that will tail off slowly.  It never does.  Once a generic is available, sales of the brand name drug drop to zero almost immediately.  Thinking in straight lines can be deadly.

What’s a Leadership Team To Do?

It can be difficult for leaders and leadership teams to not get caught in the straight line syndrome.  Here are a couple of ways to avoid that issue:

  • Listen to the outlier.  When there is an outlier on the team their opinion is often discounted.  It’s just easier to go with the majority rather than reconcile the outlier’s thoughts.  Don’t do that.  Listen to what they have to say.  Listen with the intent to understand rather than reply.  Don’t try to fit their thinking into your view of the world.  Listen to how they see the world differently.
  • Nurture new and inexperienced employees to look at things differently.  People from different disciplines view things differently.  Listen to how they see the issue.  Inexperienced employees often have the freshest views on things.  They don’t know what they don’t know yet.  They often ask interesting, novel, and surprising questions that experienced people have forgotten.
  • Listen to experts carefully. “Experts”  know the answers they’re looking for and discount new ideas and outliers.  We need our experts.  But don’t just assume that their answers and opinions are right or the final answer.  They know what they’re looking for and discount answers and opinions that don’t agree with their preconceived ideas.
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BlogCulture

Loosing the Forest for the Tree

by Ron Potter

You’ve seen me turn to Shane Parrish many times.  I think he is one of the best “thinkers” around today which makes him my favorite blogger.

Einstein Essentials

In this article, Shane talks about how Albert Einstein sorts the essential from the non-essential.

I can also go back to one of my favorite Aristotle quotes that I use for great teamwork: Truth, Love, Beauty, Unity.  Beauty is what Shane and Einstein are talking about here.

In Aristotle’s terms, he is talking about the simplest, most direct, most essential information.  Sorting out the essential from the non-essential is the key to great success but it’s getting harder every day.  Social media has filled our lives with more and more non-essential information.  Years ago I decided that the daily news was not about the news but about entertainment and sensationalism in an attempt to gain larger marketing numbers.  I stopped watching the evening news nearly twenty years ago because I found it irrelevant.  It was not about wisdom.  It was non-essential!

Einstein’s greatest gift

In Shanes’s observation of Einstein, he notes that a great mathematical mind was not his greatest gift.  It was not.  His greatest gift was the ability to sift the essential from the inessential, to grasp simplicity when everyone else was lost in the clutter.  Too many people today are considered experts on a particular topic and work hard at making it more complicated.  Real genius works hard at simplification.  In Einstein’s biography, it points out that it wasn’t that Einstein understood more about complicated things that made him impressive.  It was that he understood the value of simplicity.

In working with several corporate leadership teams through the years I would often observe those leaders who always wanted more information before they could or would make a decision.  My reaction was they didn’t understand the problem or issue and therefore they wanted more information in an effort to understand.  It seemed to me that the best leaders, investors, and advisors always simplified the situation to a few essentials that would make the decision clear and understandable.

We were talking with our own financial advisor recently.  It seemed to me that the market had been in a wild gyration over the last few weeks with the Dow going up and down several hundred points per day.  When I asked how they dealt with such volatility his answer was “It’s just noise.”  To him, it was non-essential information.

Filtering Skills

Shane closes his article by listing the skills to better filter and process:

  • Focus on understanding basic, timeless, general principles of the world and use them to help filter people, ideas, and projects.  The italics are mine.  The news is not timeless, it’s daily.  Timeless principles are the ones that last and ones we should be focused on.
  • Take time to think about what we’re trying to achieve and the two or three variables that will most help us get there.  Three variables lead to six options.  Four variables lead to 24 options.  The human brain can only deal with about seven options at a time.  Keep your variables to three or less.  Otherwise, the brain cannot process it.
  • Remove the inessential clutter from our lives.  This can be the things we think about, the number of balls we try to keep in the air, and even stuff.  The stuff you collect over time only creates clutter in the long run.  Sort it out.  Get rid of the inessential.
  • Think backward about what we want to avoid.  Start with the end in mind.
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BlogLeadership

Papa by the Pond

by Ron Potter

The Essay

This was an essay written by my granddaughter:

“Bend your knees,  watch the ball, steady swing.  Good Job, you hit the green.”  A very influential person in my life has been my grandfather.  He has taught me so many things.  Through all the ups and downs of life, he has been the same Papa Bear who is always cheering me on and making me feel special.  I want him to know I appreciate everything he has done in my life and even the small acts of kindness don’t go unnoticed.

My grandpa is the most kind-hearted person I know.  He is always asking how I’m doing, my opinion on things, and what I’m interested in.  He always wants to know about what I’ve been up to and he never gets bored when we talk.  My grandpa asked me what my favorite TV show was.  I said The Flash.  That night he went home and started watching it.  The next time I saw him he had all these questions for me about the show.  He made me feel really special and like someone cared about my opinion.  My grandpa has so much kindness in his heart and he shows it to everyone.  He has shown me there is always a reason to be kind to someone and strive to live that way every day.

Papa Potter has had many health problems but he never lets them keep him from still investing in my life or playing golf with his friends.  He takes time with everyone he cares about and makes sure they know he loves them and they are important.  My grandpa makes me feel so special even with all the things going on in his life and being super tired all the time.  He still takes the time to teach me to golf or just talk.  He takes his time every summer to take all the grandchildren to the golf course.  He lets all of us hit as many as we want and gives us pointers so we can get better. My grandpa has taught me that even with everything going on in this world, I can’t let it take up my whole life.  Even if I am stressed and have multiple things going, it doesn’t need to control my life.  I have to keep living and loving.

Last year, my grandpa received the Alumni of the Year award from his high school.  He had to make a speech for the event and he never talked about himself.  He only talked about all the people who influenced him.  He always cares about others before himself.  He has shown me it is really important to be humble and care for others and not be so consumed with one’s self.  No one will get anywhere in life if all they care about is themselves.  They won’t make life-long friends that will help them grow to become a better person.  Being humble is the most important thing my grandpa has taught me.

My grandpa is an engineer and he comes up with the coolest things to do with his grandchildren.  He makes the activities fun while still teaching us something important.  One summer, my family and I were up north at our cabin.  It is right by a little creek that we can float down.  He took us to the beginning of the creek and we would stop every 50 feet and then draw the shape of the creek and write down what we saw.  After we made it all the way to our cabin, we put all of our drawings together and made a map of the creek with all the bends and bridges.  It was the highlight of my summer.  My grandpa has a very innovative mind and puts so much energy into creating something fun for everyone.

I want to tell my grandpa I love him and thank him for everything he has done for me.  He has been the most influential person in my life and I don’t know what I would do without him.  He is such a kind and amazing human being.  I want him to know his grandchildren appreciate everything he has done because I know we don’t tell him enough. If I could tell him anything I would tell him I love him and he is my favorite person in the world.

My grandpa has taught me too many things to count.  The way he gives kindness, his drive, and his humility have all been very influential attributes in my life.  He is my favorite person.

I admit I cried when I read her essay.

Mentor

However, I immediately thought about being a mentor.  Many of the people that my granddaughter talks about in the alumni speech I would consider mentors.  They influenced my life.  They added directions to my thoughts and in many ways guided me.

Many of the things my granddaughter talks about in the essay should be considered mentoring—

  • Cheering another on.
  • Making another feel special.
  • Asking “How are you doing?”
  • Wondering “What’s your opinion on this topic?”

That is mentoring— building people up, helping them feel good about themselves and how they view the world.

Corporate Mentoring Programs

I’ve never been much of a fan of the structured mentoring programs I’ve seen at various corporations.  They too often seem about the older person parceling out their “wisdom” to the younger person.  They seem to be about tasks and projects, not about the value and worth of the employee.  They aren’t really mentoring programs, they’re more about training programs and telling the person what and how to do things.

True mentoring programs are powerful.  Pseudo mentor programs are somewhat demeaning.

Full Story

Just to give the full story here, when I told my granddaughter that I cried when I read her essay.  She said “Oh good.  When I tell my teacher that it will probably get me some extra credit.”

Oh well, so much for being a good mentor!

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BlogCulture

Four Tools of Discipline

by Ron Potter

Shane Parrish (my favorite blogger) wrote an article titled “The Four Tools of Discipline”.  The four he lists are:

  1. Delaying Gratification
  2. Accepting Responsibility
  3. Dedication to Reality
  4. Balancing

Dealing with Difficulties

Shane sets up the article with a few quotes from other well-known people.

Scott Peck from “The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth”.  This has been one of my favorite books through the years.

Peck points out that most of us want to avoid problems.  They’re painful, frustrating, sad, and lonely.  All things that we would prefer to avoid.  But he also points out that the whole process of facing, dealing with, and solving problems is what gives meaning to our lives.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Those things that hurt, instruct.”  He said that fearing the pain involved we attempt to avoid them.  We procrastinate, ignore, forget, and pretend they don’t exist.  We attempt to get out of the pain rather than suffer through it.

Avoiding problems avoids the opportunity for growth!  Shane lists the four disciplines needed to face and deal with the problems.

Delaying Gratification

We’ve all seen this play out in our lives.  I’ve been desiring a new watch.  Do I need one?  Not really.  Do I need one right now?  Definitely not!  What would delayed gratification tell me to do?  Wait?  The price will likely come down.  I have a watch that meets my needs right now?  Will I put off the purchase of the new watch?  Probably not.  Why?  Because I want it and I want it right now.

You can see the difference in children who have learned to delay their gratification.  If they haven’t, they want something now and will raise all kinds of calamity so that the parents will stop trying to delay their gratification and just give them what they want in order to shut them up.  The child has learned that if they just throw a new and louder tantrum, they’ll eventually get what they want.  They never learn delayed gratification.  Unfortunately, that leads to difficulties as young adults and even into their adult lives.

Accepting Responsibility

Shane says that accepting responsibility is emotionally uncomfortable.  He’s right.  It’s easier to say

  • traffic delayed me
  • someone else did the wrong thing, it wasn’t my fault
  • no one told me about the bigger picture or what was at stake
  • It wasn’t my fault.  It wasn’t my fault.  It wasn’t my fault.

The list goes on and on.  Shane closes that section with the following statement

Whenever we seek to avoid responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual, organization, or entity.

Dedication to Reality

My blog last week was titled “Reality is Constructed by Our Brain”.  In that blog, I quoted Brian Resnick who said “Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong.  Knowing that you might be wrong should drive you to be curious about how others see their “reality”.  If it doesn’t create that curiosity, it causes us to dig in our heels about what we believe to be true and our own version of what reality is.

Scott Peck says “Truth or reality is avoided when it is painful.  We can revise our maps only when we have the discipline to overcome that pain.”

Shane says “The only way we can ensure our map is correct and accurate is to expose it to the criticism of others.”

If we believe our view of the world is the one and only correct view, we remain closed to the view of others.

Balancing

Shane says that “Balancing is the discipline that gives us flexibility.  Extraordinary flexibility is required for successful living in all spheres of activity.”

A few blogs back I talked about Simone Biles and the balance she exhibits in her gymnastic routines.  There are only a handful of people in the world who can come close to the physical balance she exhibits.  But many of us can work at and accomplish that kind of balance in our mental thinking.

Delaying gratification.
Accepting responsibility.
Dedication to reality.
Balancing.

Let’s close with the last one, “Balancing”.  Think about balancing the other three.  If the first three get too far out of balance with each other, problems arise.

Too much-delayed gratification without a dedication to reality will lead to frustration.  Eventually, the question will arise, delayed gratification to what end?  If there is nothing at the end of the tunnel, the delayed gratification is for nothing, it only leads to frustration.

As I was about to write the next statement about “Accepting Responsibility”, I found myself looking over at a picture of my father.  He had lost a leg during WWII.  I never heard him talk about how the Germans were responsible.  I never heard him talk about how the generals and leadership were responsible.  While he may not have accepted responsibility, he did accept reality.  He came home from the war, married, started a business, and had four children.

The picture I found myself looking at was dad (with his cane) and all four kids out on a frozen pond with a hatched while he taught us to cut a hole in the ice for ice fishing.  Looking at that picture reminded me why he has been one of the most influential in my life.

Balance.  Balance.  Balance.

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Reality Is Constructed By Our Brain

by Ron Potter

Neuroscientist Patrick Cavanagh says that “It’s really important to understand we’re not seeing reality, we’re seeing a story being created for us.”

Brain Stories

What actually creates these stories?  It’s our backgrounds, beliefs, assumptions that have been formed throughout our lifetime.  Dr. Cavanagh says that “Our brains bend our perception of reality to meet our desires or expectations.  They fill the gaps using our past experiences.”

Our brains see what we expect them to see.  I’ve talked before about how our backgrounds and experiences form our belief systems so that we see what we want or expect to see.  Remember the professor in Florida who had his class write down everything they could remember about the shuttle explosion that had occurred the day before? He collected all of their handwritten reports and then tracked down as many of them as he could several years later.  Not one of them agreed with what they had written because their memory was different.

One student actually read his 14 written pages very carefully and then totally rejected it.  He said the report was not correct then proceeded to tell the professor what “really” happened that day.  His mind had created its own reality in spite of what he had written down at the moment.

Curious About Our Brain Stories

If we know that our brain tends to make up stories so that we see and hear what we desire, shouldn’t we be curious enough to explore what the reality is compared to our brain story?

It’s when we don’t have that curiosity about our brain story and simply accept our perception as the reality that creates problems as leaders and team members.

Intellectual Humility

In a Vox article, Brian Resnick said “Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong.”

This is a great statement: knowing that you might be wrong.

The first part of that statement is “knowing”.  We all assume that our view of the world and circumstances is “correct”.  However, if we mature in our thinking we begin to understand that our view or opinion is firmly rooted in the experiences and history that we have lived.  Having respect for others indicates that we’re beginning to learn that their view or opinion is also firmly rooted in their experiences and history.  And just like snowflakes, no two human beings have exactly the same experiences.

The second part of the statement is knowing that we might be wrong.  I don’t believe that one set of experiences is right and one is wrong.  I simply believe they are each unique.  Building great teams starts with this premise.  With full respect, we start sharing the different opinions and beliefs that we each hold.  Once we’ve shared and understood, it’s then possible for the team to develop a unique response to the situation that belongs to the team.  Not an individual.

Team Unity

It’s when a team reaches this unity that they really begin to become a team.  They made the decision together.  They each had a different view coming into the discussion.  But they come out with a decision that the entire team supports.  Even when others remind us that we had a very different opinion going into the team discussion we can honestly say, “that’s true, I did have a different opinion but as I heard each of the different opinions and listened with respect, we were able to make a team decision that I completely support.”

Team decisions that are made after each person has been listened to, understood, and respected for their opinions are the strongest types of decisions.  Team members all support the decision and people around the team can easily see the commitment to the decision and the trust and respect they have for each other.  This kind of team can lead a company to new heights.

Try it.  It really works!

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BlogLeadership

Are You the Smartest or the Hardest Working?

by Ron Potter

Jamie Dimon has been a very successful leader of JPMorgan Chase for many years.  He talked of the traits to succeed that I found very interesting.

Traits of Successful Leaders

Mr. Dimon’s list of successful leadership traits included:

  • Humility
  • Openness
  • Fairness
  • Authenticity

He also included a shortlist of traits that don’t lead to being a successful leader.

  • Smartest person in the room
  • Hardest working person in the room

Later in the article, he enhanced these traits even further by distinguishing between management and leadership.

He identifies Management as

  • Get it done
  • Follow-up
  • Discipline
  • Planning
  • Analysis
  • Facts, facts, facts

This is a great list and is much needed to run a business.  But these are management traits, not leadership traits.

Dimon goes on to say that the key to leadership is not just doing the management thing but having respect for people. (Italics mine)

Elements of Leadership

Humility.  This is the number one trait of great leadership that I list in my book Trust Me.  The understanding of humility has taken a wrong turn since the original definition.  Humility is not being a doormat or turning the other cheek.

The original definition of humility meant tremendous power under complete control.   Notice that there is tremendous power.  Much of that power is identified in Dimon’s management list above.  But leadership has this strong element of humility.  One of the key elements of humility is having a deep respect for every individual.  If that respect is not there, it leaves untethered power.

Humility is the number one issue of great leadership.  Humility doesn’t happen without a deep respect for each individual.

Openness.  Some of the words related to openness include accessible, lack of secrecy, and frankness.  Being open means that you’re accessible.  Being accessible in general, people can talk with you at any time about anything.

Being accessible in meetings—because people feel and experience the respect you have for them, they are completely at ease talking about any issue.  And because you’re frank, they also know they can state their beliefs and assumptions and they’ll hear the same from you.  They also know that your frank opinion is not the final say but another point of view to be considered in the “team” decision.

Fairness.  Once again, a dictionary definition is very helpful:  “Impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination.”  Can you see the equal respect for each individual in that statement?  Being fair with your team means taking each and every opinion and belief as equally valid.

Great teams understand that their individual beliefs and assumptions may not be the final answer but if they feel listened to with great respect, then they believe a great team decision will result.

Authenticity.  Authentic people are the same no matter what the circumstances.  There’s no question that you’ll hear the same thing from an authentic person regardless of who they’re speaking to.  They’ll say the same thing to an employee as they will to their boss.  There is no doubt in anyone’s mind.  They are simply themselves regardless of the situation or person they’re speaking with.

Be authentic.  Not being authentic is clearly and immediately noticeable by anyone and everyone.

Are You a Great Leader?

Or do you hope to become a great leader?  Yes, you’ll need to be a good manager but “good” managers begin to let their leadership traits come through even when they’re in a management position.  Even if you’re just a manager you can let the traits of a leader—Humility, Openness, Fairness, Authenticity—come through.

Great leadership traits always shine brighter than great management abilities.

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BlogLeadership

The Good Ole Days

by Ron Potter

Notice anything unusual about these medieval castle ruins?  You wouldn’t unless you knew it was built in the 18th century to resemble a medieval castle constructed in the mid-five hundreds.

Why do we have this fascination with the “good ole days”?

The Good Ole Days

I was born in the late nineteen forties.  So for me, the good ole days were probably the decade of the ’50s.  I have fond memories of lying in the front yard at night, looking at the stars, and listening to the Tigers play baseball on my portable radio.

We lived in the country about 3 miles from town.  I remember getting on my bike and riding to town and anywhere else I wanted to go.

We also lived on a piece of property with a wonderful stream running through it.  I remember leaving the house with my Red Rider BB gun.  On every occasion, my mother would say “don’t get wet!”  And on every occasion, I would come home wet.

To me, those were the good ole days.

But they weren’t all good.  I remember doing nuclear bomb drills at my school where we got under our desks.  Seems ridiculous now but that was all we had at the time.  My dad who had lost a leg in WWII built a new house in the early ’50s.  Off one corner of the basement, he built what we knew as the “storm shelter” but as I look back today, it may have been his attempt to build a bomb shelter.

Those “good ole days” were not all good.  But my memories of the good parts seem to outweigh the bad parts.  Research demonstrates that our mind enhances those good moments to the point of fantasy.  They were good but not as good as we remember.

The Good Ole Days were short-lived

For me, those good ole days were pretty much the 50’s.  The 60’s brought the sexual and drug revolution.  I didn’t understand or get involved with either.  I had a family member who dropped out of college in his senior year and moved to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco.  That made no sense to me at all.

By the 70’s, I had graduated from Engineering School and was working.  I enjoyed it but it was work.  Not like the good ole days of being carefree.

In the ’80s I started a software company.  It was a new technology and it was exciting.  But still not like the good ole days.

From the ’90s on I had moved into Leadership and Team consulting and coaching.  Probably the most satisfying work I could imagine but I also had to sit in an airplane seat for 4 million miles to accomplish it.  Still not the good ole days.

So I began to wonder, are everyone’s “good ole days” short-lived and from an earlier part of their lives?  I imagine they could come from any portion of our lives but I believe they are probably short-lived.  So why this yearning for the good ole days when it was such a small portion of our lives?  A Wall Street Journal article indicated that 41% of Americans believe life is worse today than 50 years ago.

Placing our Identity in the past can be both natural and useful

I must admit that much of my identity is based on my life during the ’50s.  Life seemed to be simpler.  Life seemed to be more about community.  Life seemed to be more carefree.  I would head out the back door and jump on my bike and head in almost any direction I wished.  My grandchildren don’t have that kind of freedom today.  It’s sad to me but I also need to remind myself that every generation has probably experienced very changes.

Leaders and Team Members

I think the lesson here is to not get too stuck in our own “good ole days”, no matter how recent or distant.  I entered the workforce in the early seventies.  That was less than 30 years after the end of WWII.  America was rebuilding and the management approach of the day was built on a military model that many of the leaders had experienced first hand.  But that model was already beginning to chafe on the young generation (me) who wanted to be more entrepreneurial and innovative and not just do what we were told to do.

After starting in traditional engineering work, I saw my first microcomputer.  This was new and exciting and I wanted to be a part of it.  When I told my boss that I wanted to shift out of engineering and into microcomputers his response was “what’s a microcomputer?” I said hang on, you’ll find out.  In a few years, we had shifted the work that we had been doing on an IBM370 which we leased for tens of thousands of dollars per month to microcomputers that cost almost nothing in comparison.

Millennials

As I was wrapping up my 50 years in the business world, almost every leader I was working with was complaining about the millennial generation and their lack of a good work ethic.  I watched that generation get excited about things and put in many hours and a lot of brainpower.  They were working through something entirely new and exciting and different than any company had seen before.  It’s not that they didn’t have a work ethic (good ole day thinking) but they liked tackling things in new and innovative ways.  They were doing things differently, just like every generation before them.

As a leader, you need to keep an open mind and watch with curiosity and interest how the next generation is tackling things.  Mentor them.  Guide them.  Don’t tell them they need to do things as it has always been done in the good ole days.

Learn from them.  One of your jobs as a leader is to keep learning.

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BlogCulture

Belonging

by Ron Potter

A recent EY study looked at the power of belonging at work.  Human beings have a great need to be part of a group.  We can look all the way back to ancient tribes to see this need to belong.  We all want to belong to a family, a community, a place of worship, a team.

Whatever the group is, we want to belong and be accepted.

Virtual World

In today’s virtual world, this has become more difficult.  Almost every client I’m working with is asking about how we feel more connected in this virtual world.  Our virtual meetings tend to be focused on the task at hand with little time for socializing or getting to know each other on a personal level.

One of my clients was recently struggling with this issue because he was part of a global team that had no opportunity to be together face-to-face.  In fact, he was gaining the reputation of being a hard charger who needed to be in control of the situation and the project.

Then recently the global team had the opportunity to be personally together at a team meeting in Europe.  He was thrilled with the opportunity and the outcome.  Because they were all face-to-face he had the opportunity to shake hands, look others in the eye, and socialize after work getting to know each other personally.

When the meeting was over he felt much more connected and had an increased sense of belonging that he had not experienced during the virtual meetings over the last year or two.

The Art of the Check-in

The EY study suggested several tips for building relationships regularly.

  • Seize the small opportunities to connect
  • Check bias at the door
  • Assume positive intent
  • It’s OK to be vulnerable
  • Be consistent and accountable

Seize the Small Opportunities to Connect

Connection is much more difficult in the virtual world so it must be accomplished intentionally.  It’s really impossible to accomplish this during team meetings. I have found that you must be intentional about expecting people to get together one-on-one (even virtually) and spend the time getting to know each other as human beings.  These meetings are not intended to work on tasks but simply to build relationships.

Ask questions like:

  • How are you doing?
  • How can I support you?”

You must genuinely be interested in their answers which means that you must listen with the intent to understand.  Truly understand.  Ask clarifying questions that help you understand where the other person is coming from and the perspective they’re using to view the world.

Years ago there was an elderly woman in our church.  If you asked her how she was doing her answer was “I’m doing fine unless you’re really interested”.

Be Interested!  Get to know who they are and what makes them tick.  No judgment.  Just understanding.

Check Bias at the Door

We each carry our own biases.  We just don’t always see them.

By listening to the other person we can often discover our own biases.  It’s natural.  We all have biases.  But the more you are aware of what they are, the easier it is to understand the other person.

Assume Positive Intent

This one is more difficult than it sounds.  Even though we have biases, we tend to accept them as natural and overlook their impact.  But we often assume that the other person is speaking from their own bias and because it’s different than our own, we can easily fall into the trap of assuming they are not speaking with positive intent.

Again, the best way to overcome this issue is to listen with the intent to understand.  When the other person assumes we are truly trying to understand them and where they are coming from, they’ll begin to drop or admit their own biases and start speaking with positive intent.

It’s OK to be Vulnerable

It’s not just OK to be vulnerable, it’s a must.  If we are not vulnerable with the other person, our biases begin to take over and we are not speaking with positive intent.

If we want the other person to take on a positive intent role, we must do it first.  Be vulnerable.

Be Consistent and Accountable

We’ve all heard the old saying “Do as I say, not as I do.”  Once again it becomes a “you first” approach.

We must first be consistent.  People should see a consistent approach and demeanor no matter what the circumstances or who we are talking with.

Then be accountable.  People are often looking to shift the blame to another person or circumstance.  Don’t be that person.  Admit where you failed or made the wrong decision and be accountable for the results.  It’s the only way to be a great leader or a great teammate.

People Want to Belong

Every human being has the built-in desire to belong.  Belong to a tribe.  Belong to a community.  Belong to a team.

Humans without these positive options for belonging turn to belonging to a gang or a cult or a social media crowd.  None of these are positive in the long run and will eventually lead to destructive behavior for either the person themselves or society in general.

Help people belong.

Help them be welcome.

Help them feel listened to and understood.

It will be the best thing you can do for yourself, the other person, society as a whole.

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BlogCulture

BS Indicator

by Ron Potter

I’ve started reading a book titled The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit.  I started reading it just because it sounded like a fun read (my warped sense of humor, I guess).  However, once I started to read the research and science behind it, the topic is fascinating.

The Causes and Consequences of B.S.

John Petrocelli is a social psychologist and professor of psychology at Wake Forest University, who actually studies this issue.  How fun would that be?

He finds that people tend to spread B.S. when they feel obligated to have an opinion about something they know little about—and when they feel they aren’t going to be challenged.  The Wall Street Journal did a fascinating interview with Dr. Potrocelli.  A couple of findings I found interesting were:

  • B.S. is when someone communicates something with little regard for the truth, genuine evidence, or established knowledge.
  • Liars actually know and care about the truth. They need to know the truth so they can distract you from it. The BS’er not only doesn’t know the truth, they don’t care about it.
  • One reason people BS is simply the obligation to have an opinion. People feel they have to have an opinion about everything.  They tell each other what they want to hear to avoid conflict or hurt feelings.

Obligation to Have an Opinion

Why do we feel we need to have an opinion?  We could just as easily remain silent or openly indicate that we don’t have an opinion on a particular.  Even better, if we were to indicate that we haven’t formed an opinion because we don’t know all the facts and haven’t yet figured out the truth.

The WSJ indicates that the main reason people BS is to promote one’s status—to get ahead, appear knowledgeable, competent, skilled, or admired.  Unless these BS’ers are challenged, it can lead to some of these consequences but when challenged properly, their BS is quickly exposed and leads to the failure of accomplishing any of those goals.

Detecting BS

Our ability to detect BS has been dulled through this time of isolation.  We’ve lost some of our natural ability to detect.  The WSJ article points out a couple of great questions that we can ask to retune our BS detector.

  • Ask people to clarify, they’ll often take a step back and think. And a lot of times, they’ll dial back their claim. So the first question is: “What? What are you saying?”
  • “How? How do you know that’s true? How did you come to that conclusion?”  We have often been taught to ask the “Why” question first.  However, Dr. Petrocelli suggests that the “Why” is not a good question to ask. That leads people into the abstract, to talk about their values and the heady stuff. The “how” question gets them down to the concrete, real-world, practical things that we would call evidence.
  • The other question should be: “Have you ever considered any alternatives?” The reason for this question is that if they say no, you know they probably haven’t thought through the thing very well.

The Power of Detecting BS

Something on your radar just pinged and you’re not sure if this person is telling you the truth or just BSing.  Or you might simply be ignorant of the situation, the facts, and the truth.  In either case, asking the questions above will help you, your team, and your leadership be better at what you’re trying to accomplish.  Become a good BS detector simply by keeping your radar up and asking the right questions.

You’ll be thought of as a solid citizen and a critical thinker.  Don’t accept or spew BS.

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