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Open vs Closed Minded

by Ron Potter May 28, 2020

Why is it that some people seem to make constant progress in their professional and personal lives, while others appear to be doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over?

While the answer isn’t cut and dry, I’ve noticed an interesting mindset difference between these two groups: they approach obstacles and challenges very differently. It comes down to mindset.

Successful people tend to approach life with an open mindset — an eagerness to learn and a willingness to be wrong. The other group digs their heels in at the first sign of disagreement and would rather die than be wrong.

—Shane Parrish, Farnam Street Blog

Business journalist and television personality, Suzy Welch talks about two qualities necessary to get ahead:

1. Grit
Inevitably you’re going to receive some tedious assignments. Completing them with a positive attitude, Welch says, is something your boss will notice.

“Grit is getting the job done without complaint,” Welch says, “especially in challenging situations.”

To show grit, don’t give up when the simplest solution isn’t an option. Be creative and show resolve in completing the assignments you’re given. Welch says a boss can identify grit in an employee who demonstrates “perseverance, resolve, creativity, and the ability to just figure it out.”

“Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty.” was the definition given to us in last week’s blog by author, Heidi Grant Halvorson.

2. Gravitas
The second trait, gravitas, is all about presence and the way you carry yourself.

Welch describes this elusive characteristic as a mixture of “seriousness, maturity, thoughtfulness, wisdom” — traits that are tough to fake, and that will lead your boss and colleagues to respect you and give your perspective greater consideration.

You can also cultivate gravitas, Welch says, through the behaviors you avoid, like gossiping, being unprepared for meetings, interrupting others, or improvising important presentations.

Grit

Of the two, grit seems to be the one that can be developed over time.

Getting the job done without complaint.
Don’t go with the simplest solution.
Commit to long-term goals
Creativity

The attribute that is more difficult to learn over time is creativity.

Some personality types are more prone to “doing it by the book”. Others feel that creativity requires coming up with complex and completed solutions that no one has thought of. Both are wrong!

Creative Types

One exercise I’ve run with teams has been about creativity. Unbeknownst to the team, I divided them into the personality types that naturally tend to be more by the book and those who tend to be more creative. I give them the same exercise that requires creativity and measure the results. The “creative team”

Shows the most creativity in the first round.
On the second round there may be some creativity but at a much lower scale.
By the third round, the “creative’ types are generally out of ideas.

By the book types

This type performs at a much different cadence.

In the first round, these types often complain that the creative types somehow “broke” the rules. Although most of the rules are in their head.
In round two, once they realize that the rules are more flexible than they imagined, the come up with a substantial about of creativity. However, it is usually less creativity than the other team achieved in the first round.
By round three, the creativity continues at a pace similar to the last round.
And for several subsequent rounds, the pace of creativity continues.

The other issue I see with the “By the Book” types is feeling that a creative solution should be complex and complete. The best and most creative solutions are simple.

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful” – John Maeda

Both types are Creative

It’s simply a matter of pace. Creativity types seem to exhibit the most gain early. But burn out quickly.

“By the Book” types may demonstrate more creativity over time. It just takes more time.

Gravitas

Too me this seems to be the trait that’s harder to develop over time.

It’s dependent on the mindset of Creative vs Victim. I’ve written a few blogs on this concept and it seems to strike a chord with many of my readers.

If you’ve adopted the Victim mindset, there is no way to project Gravitas. Remember that Welch describes these as “seriousness, maturity, thoughtfulness, wisdom.” Being a victim projects none of these traits.

If you’re serious about developing this trait of Gravitas, then it requires a trusted, truthful mentor. This type of mentor tells you the truth, both good and bad. This type of mentor also helps you get to the root of the victim issue rather than simply adjusting the traits that look like gravitas.

Open vs Closed mindset will make all the difference in your career and life. Grit and Gavitas: develop them for your own well being. Others will also notice.

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Blog

Unlucky Loser

by Ron Potter May 21, 2020

Are you a winner or loser or do you consider your lucky or unlucky?

I remember a car commercial from a couple of years ago where a dad was walking his son back to the car after a soccer match. The father was proudly examining the trophy his son had just earned when he saw the title on the trophy. The label on the trophy said “Participant.” The son had just been given a trophy for participating. Winning or losing made no difference. Participating was what counted.

Even Video Games

I have a game on my phone and tablet I have used to kill time. About a year ago I noticed a change in the game. The game had always declared me as a winner or a loser depending on whether I beat the computer during the game. But all of a sudden I noticed that it no longer declared me as a “loser” if the computer won. It declared me as being “unlucky”. Now I was either a winner or unlucky, not a winner or loser.

How do you view the world? Do you think of winning and losing or does your mind go to unlucky vs lucky? I believe this can be critical in how you face the world.

Controlling Luck

The winner/loser thinker doesn’t like to lose. If they find themselves on the losing end, they will begin to think about how they can work differently, think differently or use a different frame of reference to cope with losing.

Those lucky/unlucky thinkers don’t like to be unlucky either. But if they are, there doesn’t seem to be much they can do about it. At least that’s their mindset. They can’t control luck, they can only be the recipients or victims of luck.

If the lucky/unlucky mindset rules your life than you can only be a victim. Someone or something beyond yourself is to be blamed or thanked for your plight in life.

One of the more powerful and well-researched instruments in the market place is Life Style Inventory by Human Synergistics.

Passive/Defensive

One of the sections they measure (for individuals, teams, and cultures) is titled Passive/Defensive. This section includes four styles. One, in particular, Dependent, speaks to this issue. Here are the words that Human Synergistics uses to describe the section:

Passive/Defensive styles lead people to subordinate themselves to the organization, stifle creativity and initiative, and allow the organization to stagnate.

Why would a person subordinate themselves to the organization? It’s easy to understand if you live in the lucky/unlucky framework. In this world, it’s not your fault, it’s fate, it’s beyond your control. There’s nothing you can do about it. You’re just unlucky.

If the winner/loser framework is what rules your life, then you don’t subordinate yourself to the organization. You’re a creative human being. You have control. You can make choices.

Don’t misunderstand, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a subordinate in a large organization. People often talk to me about a particular leader or boss that was wonderful. They have high regard for that person and often the teams they were allowed to work with and be a part of. The difference is that they felt they were in those positions because of choices they made and the free will they exercised. They were not victims of being unlucky.

Don’t be a Victim

Being a victim is a terrible way to go through life. Figure out who you are and where you want to go and be responsible for getting there. It may not happen overnight. A person said to me once that they had always viewed me as knowing what I wanted and simply deciding to go that way. I explained that on average it took me about ten years to be prepared and shaft gears with each major life change. And, along the way, I won some and lost some. It was difficult and took a lot of sacrifices. The person who made that observation was a little taken back. They assumed that I simply made a decision, made the change, and got on with my new life.

My observation is that neither framework is without difficulties and challenges. The interesting part to me is while you may face even more difficult situations in the winner/loser framework approach to life, it always leads to a happier life than living in the lucky/unlucky framework.

Be responsible for your own situation. Don’t blame others or the “roll of the dice” assuming it’s random luckiness that separated people in the end. It’s actually your framework and outlook on life that makes the difference.

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Blog Leadership

Performance vs Trust

by Ron Potter May 7, 2020

Those are not my words. Those were spoken by Simon Sinek. If you have not discovered Mr. Sinek, look up his website. I read him and Share Parrish more than any other blog writers out there.

Navy Seals

Simon talks about working with Navy Seals. Navy Seals are probably the highest-performing teams on the planet. In his work with Seals, he asked, “How do you choose the guys that make it to Seal Team 6?” Seal Team 6 is the best of the best. The Seals drew the following graph:

Leader or Teammate

Nobody wanted someone from the lower left: Low Performer and Low Trust.

Everyone wanted someone from the upper right: High Performer and High Trust.

When Simon asked them which type of person they want as a leader or teammate, they all said they would prefer someone on the right side of the chart than the best performer who had low trust.

Keep in mind that these are the highest-performing teams in the world. But they would select Trust over Performance when it came to a leader or a teammate.

Corporations Have it Backward

In my thirty-plus years dealing with corporations and corporate reviews, they have all been heavily weighted toward the left side of the chart. They graded and promoted people based on their performance rather than the trust they exhibited or expected. It’s interesting to note that the Navy Seals termed that upper-left leader or teammate as toxic! Regardless of high performance, if the person wasn’t trustworthy, they were toxic.

Performance Reviews

Why do corporate reviews focus so much on high performance rather than high trust? I’m sure there are many reasons but the two that I see as most prevalent are:

Corporations often want high performance (get the job done now) over anything else. Part of the reason is that public corporations have bowed to quarterly reporting. If the return isn’t better that quarter, the leadership is often called on the carpet by Wall Street and the Investors. They don’t want to be in that position. Therefore, they promote people who produce high results, regardless of the internal costs. Remember that the Navy Seals labeled them as toxic.
It’s easier to measure performance than trust. With performance, it’s easy to check the box. Was the goal met or exceeded? Was it done on or ahead of schedule? Easy to measure and identify.
Does the person generate trust within their team? Hard to predict. The results may not show up for a long time. Corporate leaders want results this quarter, not three years from now.

Trust Builds Long-Term Performance

I’ve worked with a few leaders who ranked high on the trust scale. There are more stories, but two that come to mind include one leader who I worked with about a decade ago. Three members of his team are now CEOs of three different companies. He built trust!

Another CEO I worked with started two companies and built leadership teams that now run or are high-ranking leaders in several corporations.

Both of these leaders (and there are a few more) built leadership teams based on trust. That doesn’t mean they ignored performance, but trust ranked higher when it came to evaluations.

Visit Simon Sinek’s youtube talking about Performance vs Trust. Then evaluate what kind of leader or teammate you happen to be. Then think about the type of leader or team you want to be a part of. If you don’t like the answer to either of those questions, make a change! If you’re the kind of person that believes outperforming everyone is what will make a difference in your life, you’re in for a shock. You’ll end up very lonely.

If you’re the kind of person who exudes and promotes trust, you’ll find yourself much loved!

Lonely or loved. You make the choice.

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Blog Culture

The Power of Positive Feedback

by Ron Potter April 30, 2020

I received a note a couple of days ago telling me how one of my posts had positively affected a person’s life. They mentioned a post I had written nine years ago. Was I really writing blog posts nine years ago? That surprised me. My second response was that I didn’t remember that blog. I had to go back and read it.

We were never allowed to be Victims.

That blog ends with a quote from Condoleezza Rice explaining how she made it from being a young girl of color in the South to being Secretary of State of the United States. The headline above is her quote. She was calm, confident and yet very humble. She was an amazing person.

Easy to become Victims

In this pandemic that we’re all experiencing, it’s easy to feel like the victim. It’s interesting to note that we’re already seeing the results of feeling like victims. Our obesity levels and alcohol rates are already climbing. We’re looking for an escape from feeling like victims.

As that blog noted from nearly ten years ago, the opposite of the victim is creativity.

Be Creative

Almost everyone I’ve talked with recently speaks to how lethargic they’re feeling. They just can’t seem to get motivated. I’ve experienced the same issues. But as I mentioned in my last post, deep thought and creativity are the paths to feeling better under trying circumstances. Just like exercise, which has tremendous benefits if you’ll just spend about 30-60 minutes at least three times per week, spending at least an hour in deep thought and reflection three times per week will increase your creativity. You’ll feel so much better and think about your circumstances so differently, you’ll come out the other end being a much better and maybe totally different person.

This pandemic is very victimizing. Don’t let it get you down. Be creative. Spend some time in deep thought and self-reflection every week. View this as an opportunity that seldom happens more than once in anyone’s lifetime.

Positive Feedback

So what does this have to do with positive feedback? Reading that comment about how my blog made a positive difference in one person’s life motivates me! I was having difficulty keeping up with my blog. I just couldn’t find the motivation. And then that comment arrived. I’ve been writing blogs almost every day since that feedback.

Positive feedback made a difference. It only takes one. In the nine years since I wrote that blog, I’ve written somewhere between 400 and 500 blog posts. Did they all make a difference? Probably not. Did I hear some positive feedback on many of them? No. Did positive feedback on less than one percent of the bogs I’ve written make a difference? Absolutely!

Pass on some positive feedback today. It may be to that neighbor who just happened to wave “hi”. It may be to someone at work where you’re trying to conduct virtual business.

Just give some positive feedback. It makes a difference.

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Blog Leadership

Deep Work in Isolation

by Ron Potter April 23, 2020

I seldom do a quick follow up after a recent blog but the next couple of blogs have been triggered by reader feedback.

Recently many readers commented on the blog post titled “Coronavirus and Deep Work”. In that post, I recommended that you not waste this forced time at home. Use some of it to sit quietly and think deep thoughts. We seldom get a chance to do that during our former work life even though it is much needed. I referred to Cal Newton’s book Deep Work where he goes into much more detail.

Isolation Advice

Then today—April 17—I was reading a Wall Street Journal article titled “Coronavirus Lockdown Lessons from Antarctica.” The article looks at many of the scientific teams that populate Antarctica during the wintertime and are completely isolated. They focus on one team in particular from Norway that works at the Troll station.

“On a recent evening, Troll’s six-person team put together a list of advice for those struggling with extended lockdowns.

- Give people space…folks have to be allowed time on their own to read books, listen to music, watch television.
- Don’t let problems linger and get bigger—talk about it from the start.
- Stay active, and even if you are in a small place, move furniture and get fit.
- Take a deep breath, this is a time to be curious”

Curiosity

I think curiosity is the foundation piece to deep work. Wikipedia says

Curiosity is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans and other animals. Curiosity is heavily associated with all aspects of human development, in which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill.”

Development and Learning

Notice that curiosity is heavily associated with development and learning. I once had a friend who was fond of saying “as long as you’re like the little kid pulling his wagon up the hill, you’re doing fine. But as soon as you stop exerting the effort to get up that hill and you sit down in your wagon to rest, you’ll find yourself at the bottom of the hill”

Reflection

I think the first thing to be curious about is yourself. Socrates is quoted as saying “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” I’ll give Socrates a pass because he was alive about 400 years before Jesus but the Bible says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Even if you don’t hold to the Christian faith, let’s put those two concepts together. What they are really saying is that you must know who you are and how you fit into this life and humanity as a whole. That doesn’t come easily. A complete lack of this reflection is a sign of Psychopathy. Just a few of the symptoms of Psychopathy include: Grandiose sense of self-worth, lack of remorse, guilt, or empathy. Lack of long-term goals. None of these symptoms show signs of self-reflection. Start with yourself.

Notice that not having long-term goals is one of the signs associated with lack of self-reflection. Where are you going? What does the end of your journey look like? What do you want to be remembered for? These issues and others are not part of our busy lives, they are reached only by deep, reflective thought.

Opportunity

You’ve been handed an opportunity. Don’t waste it!

What kind of person do you want to be?
How will you become a great leader?
What will make you an outstanding team member?
What is that thing inside you that you always wanted to learn or explore?

Build it into your routine. Find a quiet place and a quiet time at least several times per week. Force yourself to go quiet and think about these things. You’ll come out the other end a better person.

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Blog Culture

We’re not in Kansas anymore

by Ron Potter April 16, 2020

I’ve just started reading a book titled Epidemics and Society. This book makes the point that epidemics have done more to shape society and the course of human history than wars. This book was written before our current battle with COVID-19 was even on the radar.

What will our Future Look Like?

During this time of self-containment, I’ve had many thoughts about what our future will look like when we finally emerge for the worldwide pandemic. My thoughts have taken me from movie theaters to the workplace and topics in between. We’re not in Kansas anymore!

Video Connected Teams

One of the things that I believe will happen during this time is employers and employees will realize that much can be accomplished over the Internet. While we’ve been moving this way already, this forced telecommuting may help us finally pull the trigger to use technology more broadly.

All of the collaboration software such as Microsoft Teams, WebEx for Teams, Zoom, and others are seeing this as an opportunity to push their technology farther and faster then they would have before we left Kansas. We’re not in Kansas anymore!

Art of Teamwork

We’ve heard “Art of Teamwork” used to show that collaboration is needed as much as simply getting things done by groups of people. In other words, there is an Art to building great teams with collaboration platforms.

A few years ago, a small group of my colleagues gathered to talk about creating an app that would help leaders form better teams. We believe it’s more than simply adding the “art” of great teams.

We called our app GPS4Leaders (You can see more on our webpage). In doing so, we were expressing that teams, like a good GPS system, is more than just functioning well at the moment.

Think about what a GPS system does for you:

Clearly identifies where you are now.
Helps you locate your desired destination.
Maps out the best route to reach that desired destination.

Where are you now?

Knowing where you are now means knowing who you are as a team. GPS4Leaders uses four modules to help you assess your team and guide you toward the desired future.

GPS4Leaders is made up of four modules:

Interact (available now)
Teams (available now)
Leadership (coming next)
Culture (in the near future)

Knowing where you are now requires the first two modules.

Interact helps the team identify who they are as individuals and what the make-up of the team looks like when you put all the pieces together. This is accomplished by a self-assessment looking at personality types. You can think of these similar to the familiar DICS or Myers-Briggs. We’re not trying to build the best assessment; we’re trying to make whatever assessment you use more visible and useful.

Teams looks at the dynamics within the team. GPS4Teams has two assessments built-in. But again, we’re not trying to become the best assessment in the world. Our goal is to help you assess how your doing so that you know where you are now and your progress toward a better future team.

Leadership will be built in the near future. This will allow teams to assess their leaders. It will provide the same advantages as Team but be focused on the leader.

Culture will be coming in the future. This will look at the company as a whole and determine the extent to which leaders and leadership teams are being successful in pushing positive behavior throughout the organization.

We’re not in Kansas anymore

Just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we are now in a very different place. The rules and patterns of our old way of working together have disappeared. How are we to function now?

Please visit our website today and experience how this new app will help you navigate this brave new world.

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Blog Team

The Illusory Truth Effect

by Ron Potter April 9, 2020

Not everything we believe is true. We may act like it is and it may be uncomfortable to think otherwise, but it’s inevitable that we all hold a substantial number of beliefs that aren’t objectively true. It’s not about opinions or different perspectives. We can pick up false beliefs for the simple reason that we’ve heard them a lot.”

This is a quote by Shane Parrish, blogger at Farnam Street. Shane was the first blogger that I followed and one reason I turned to him is his focus on critical thinking. What I mean by critical thinking is his ability to examine where his own thoughts start and progress.

Illusory truth effect

Shane points out reasons. “The illusory truth effect is the reason why advertising works and why propaganda is one of the most powerful tools for controlling how people think. It’s why the speech of politicians can be bizarre and multiple-choice tests can cause students problems later on. It’s why fake news spreads and retractions of misinformation don’t work.” I don’t intend to turn this blog into a political statement but his point is a good one. We can get caught up in the belief of the day very easily.

Why does the effect exist?

“As with other cognitive shortcuts, the typical explanation is that it’s a way our brains save energy. Thinking is hard work—remember that the human brain uses up about 20% of an individual’s energy, despite accounting for just 2% of their body weight.

The illusory truth effect comes down to processing fluency. When a thought is easier to process, it requires our brains to use less energy, which leads us to prefer it. That means that processing them was easier for their brains.”

Cause of misinformation

This can become a harsh reality on business teams that must be guarded against. Why does it happen in the first place, especially when team members are smart and well-intended? “It’s the result of people being overworked or in a hurry and unable to do due diligence. The signal to noise ratio is so skewed that we have a hard time figuring out what to pay attention to and what we should ignore. No one has time to verify everything.”

Cure for misinformation

As a business that must make decisions based on the truth, how do we sort it out and make sure we’re making good decisions?

SHARE!

First, understand that this susceptibility to illusory truth is very natural. It happens to everyone. Agree that no one is above the siren call and all are susceptible. There is no one (except GOD) who knows it all!

Second, share your illusory truth and label it as such. It’s not that any person on the team knows the truth and all others are working with a handicap, even the boss. It’s that we all work with our illusory truths.

Once the illusory truth is shared by each member we can

Begin to understand where that person is coming from
Begin to form the truth (or at least a team illusory truth)
Make some action plans

While it’s natural that every person has their illusory truth, it’s also natural that every team has their illusory truth as well. You may make a team decision or commitment to an illusory truth and that’s OK. As long as you know it’s based on illusory truth and not what’s true or false.

Get all the illusory truth on the table by sharing. Make a team decision and commitment. This may be based on real or illusory truth. Make sure it’s identified properly. And no matter which type of truth the decision is made upon, make sure there is a team commitment to the decision. Commitment is what’s important.

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Blog Leadership

“Soft” Skills Win

by Ron Potter April 2, 2020

Start with skills

An article in the Wall Street Journal was written with and about Bob Funk, founder of Express Employment Professionals and former chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. Mr. Funk makes his living by matching people who want jobs with employers who need good employees.

When Mr. Fund talks about the interview process he starts with what most employees think of as the Hard Skills.

Hard skills and experience, he says, are only half the equation, and not the important half. “So many people do not realize how important the soft skills are to unlocking job opportunity,”

Mr. Funk offers a quote from a boss he had over 50 years ago. “There’s a person for every job and a job for every person. That’s still true.”

Try before you buy

Most of the companies he works for are small and medium-size companies with fewer than 250 employees and he places most of his workers in part-time positions. But over 60% of them go on to be full-time employees.

Hard skills and experience are only half of the equation and not the important half. (Italics are mine). Soft skills are the important part of unlocking job opportunities!

Soft skills rule

Mr. Funk found that the top five skills that employers look for are:

While Mr. Funk concedes that education is vital, the most important thing for most people is the ability to be trained. And while I agree with Mr. Funk on this issue I don’t believe he gives enough credit to that ability to be trained with people of education.

Higher Education

So many of today’s graduates from major universities have been convinced that their degree from that particular institute has taught them everything they need to know to be successful. I’m a graduate of the University of Michigan Engineering school and for a period of time recruited new hires from that institute. What I discovered was that it didn’t make any difference which university the candidate graduated from. What made the difference was number 5 on the list above, the ability to think critically that made the biggest difference between potential employees.

Learning is what’s important

As a consultant, I once ran an old exercise that didn’t produce any results. When I asked my client why the effort fell flat they said they got the most out of sessions where I was sharing what I was learning. My own learning produced the best results for my clients. I believe that a college education gives you the opportunity to start learning. Showing up to work every day assuming you’re there to share what you already know will get you nowhere. Showing up to work every day ready to learn will show an eagerness to learn, which will carry you a long way.

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Blog

Coronavirus and Deep Work

by Ron Potter March 26, 2020

I know, I know, enough of the Coronavirus already. We’ve been self-isolated and at this point have no idea what to believe is true and what is hype. What I do know is the interesting journey I’ve been on in relation to Deep Work.

Deep Work

The COVID-19 virus may be offering the opportunity that you’ve been looking for to stand-out in a crowded world. In his book Deep Work by Cal Newton he makes some great points about Deep Work and the lack of it.

One of the things that Cal says is:

To remain valuable in our economy you must master the art of quickly learning complicated things. This task requires deep work. If you don’t cultivate this ability, you’re likely to fall behind as technology advances.”

“A McKinsey study found that the average knowledge worker now spends more than 60 percent of the workweek engaged in electronic communication and Internet searching, with close to 30 percent of a worker’s time dedicated to reading and answering e-mail alone.

This state of fragmented attention cannot accommodate deep work, which requires long periods of uninterrupted thinking. At the same time, however, modern knowledge workers are not loafing. In fact, they report that they are as busy as ever. What explains the discrepancy? A lot can be explained by another type of effort, which provides a counterpart to the idea of deep work:
Shallow Work: Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”

How not to be replaced by a computer

The “easy to replicate” emphasis is my note. Why did I highlight that particular statement? Because when something is easy to replicate it means that a person who makes less wages can easily to the same work. More importantly, a computer can be taught to do easily replicable work. Your job is in danger of becoming computerized if you don’t shift from shallow work to deep work!

How do you counter this danger of being replaced by either cheaper labor or a computer? You learn, practice, and become good at and known for your deep work and deep thinking.

Cultivate Deep Work (Thinking)

You can pick up almost any article, magazine, podcast or post that will tell you how to survive working from home. These sources talk about

Get started early (don’t let your day get away from you before it starts)
Act like you’re going to the office (wrong, take advantage of doing things differently)
Have a dedicated workspace (good idea, but focus on making it a non-interruptable workspace)
Go to coffee shops, libraries, public lounges (may not be a bad idea but discipline must tag along as well. You can’t go to a coffee shop just so you can enjoy your favorite drink) And during the pandemic, many of these public places are not even available to us.
Stay off the public media! (Great suggestion.) Regardless of where you’re working from, stay off public media.

What you really need is the discipline and focus for deep work.

Living a life of Deep Work and Thought

As Cal Newton closes his book he says

Deep work is way more powerful than most people understand. To leave the distracted masses to join the focused few, I’m arguing, is a transformative experience.
The deep life requires hard work and drastic changes to your habits. For many, there’s a comfort in the artificial busyness of rapid e-mail messaging and social media posturing, while the deep life demands that you leave much of that behind.”

Take advantage of the opportunity being offered

We’re all looking for a silver lining to the isolation caused by our current pandemic. Take advantage of the forced isolation to become a deep worker and deep thinker. It will pay rewards that you can’t even think of at the moment.

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Blog Leadership

Optimism Leads to Success

by Ron Potter March 5, 2020

A recent quote about Warren Buffet said:

Your success didn’t lead to optimism, your optimism lead to your success.”

Optimism

Wikipedia defines optimism as “A mental attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcomes of some specific endeavor will be positive, favorable, and desirable.”

Notice that it says a mental attitude. In simple terms, pilots are interested in altitude and attitude. Altitude refers to how high you are. How much you have achieved. Some measure of success (money, position, title).

Attitude is a reference to the natural horizon. Are you pointed up, down, left-leaning or right-leaning?

Success to Optimism

If your optimism depends on success, you’ll soon realize that success is fickle. One change regardless of the cause can change your success overnight.

Markets change – talk to Polaroid or VHS producers.
Appetites change – ask package food companies
Fashion changes – ask Henry Ford about auto colors. He is reported to have said, “They can have any color they want as long as it’s black.”
Disruption– ask companies about competitors coming out with new products that eat into margins of successful products

The point here is that “success” can change very rapidly and have nothing to do with your actions. If your optimism depends on success, it will change as rapidly.

Optimism to Success

On the other hand, if you tend to be an optimistic person, that seems to withstand external success and failure. I’ve had three different successful careers. Upon graduation from engineering school, I had a “successful” career working with wonderful teams building large projects. Some of them approaching a billion dollars in their construction budget.

Then one day I was introduced to my first pc. This was before Microsoft, IBM, and Apple. And yet I felt that this little box was about to change our lives. I spent the next ten years with a “successful” career in the software development business.

Then I took on the career that I felt I had been headed for all my life. I became an external coach focused on Teams, Leadership and Culture. I spent nearly thirty wonderful years in that career.

You were just lucky

Along the way, many people would tell me that I was just lucky. I guess they just chose to ignore those times when I went broke pursuing those careers. They seem to ignore the hard work and difficulties that I overcame to achieve my “success.” But there were those few that understood the hard work and heartaches that I was going through during those tough times. One colleague whom I had not seen in person for many years asked me how I was doing. When I answered with a simple “OK”, his reaction was that I must be really down. He explained that I had always been one of the most optimistic persons he had ever known so if I was simply doing “OK” I must really be down.

Your success didn’t lead to optimism, your optimism lead to your success

Times were indeed difficult. But I was always optimistic. It may just be me but I’ve noticed through the years that I don’t even care to be around people who are pessimistic. They’re just downers in my mind. Times were always difficult in one way or another. But being optimistic vs pessimistic is a choice. Chose Optimistic. It makes life much easier along the way.

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Blog Culture

Consequences

by Ron Potter March 2, 2020

Great Teams and Great Cultures require Consequences

I was talking with a colleague this week about lasting cultures. He mentioned that the Mayo brothers died over 80 years ago but the culture they built is still in place. Meanwhile, we’ve been associated with several companies where the culture deteriorated quickly.

One of the reasons for a lasting culture is clear and immediate consequences when team rules and cultural norms are violated. And it doesn’t matter who violates the rule.

Immediate Consequences

I graduated from Michigan and was a fan of the Fab Five. When Michigan hired Juwan Howard as the new basketball coach last year, I was thrilled. Juwan also seemed to be thrilled to tears that he was “coming home” to Michigan.

But, it wasn’t long before his first test as a new college coach would come front and center.

Star player violates the team code

The Big Ten schedule was not yet a month old in his first year as a coach when something happened. Michigan’s star point guard violated team rules. After a hot start to the season, Michigan was now struggling and needed all of the players more than ever.

Coach Howard didn’t hesitate, he suspended the Star Player.

No delay
No leniency
No privileges

Coach Howard said the player had been suspended for “violation of team policies. We have team rules and unfortunately he broke one of them.”

It didn’t make any difference that the team desperately needed it’s starting point guard right now. He broke team rules and he was suspended!

Team and Corporate Rules

Do you have team rules? Is everyone aware of those rules?

More importantly, does everyone know the consequences of violating those rules? Will anyone and everyone be punished according to those consequences regardless of who they are, what position they hold, or how “indispensable” they are?

Are there consequences to breaking the rules, team or culture?

Without the consequence of rule violation, no team or culture will sustain itself.

Know what the rules are! Know what the consequences are!

Rules must be clear. Teams and cultures must be committed to those rules. Without them, teams and cultures will never last!

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Blog Team

GPS4Leaders

by Ron Potter February 20, 2020

Over the last couple of years, I have been working with a team of people to bring some of our (myself and other coaches on the team) experiences to users in an app. I would like to share a video with you about that journey.

GPS4Leaders

Good GPS devices perform three functions:

Show you where you are
Show you where you’re going
Give you the best route to get there.

GPS4Leaders performs the same functions. It will show you where you are as a team through

Personal Assessments
Team Dynamic Assessments

It will show you where you’re going through

Models of great teams, leaders, and cultures

It will give you the best route to get there

By talking team dynamic assessment, showing you where to focus and progress towards becoming great teams, leaders, and culture

Cost-Effective

GPS4Teams (including two of the four modules of GPS4Leaders) is very cost-effective. At $150/year/person it will cost only a fraction of a good executive or team coach. However, our goal is not to replace the good executive or team coach, it’s to help them be much more effective by focusing their work and requiring less of their time to help you grow teams, leaders, and cultures.

Visit GPS4Leaders.com

Join us today to help grow your organization.

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