As you return from a lovely long weekend (hopefully all true), notice your good and bad habits perhaps exaggerated by the gift of more free time. The Black Friday sales blew up my inbox and I realized I was scrolling for a very long time each day this weekend. I must admit I bought a new humidifier and a couple of stocking stuffer gifts. Note to self: delete, don’t open. >
Many of us are on a continuous journey to get better. When you have a lot of people who work with you, it can be much more complicated to improve the company. You may be known for rushing in, making suggestions for improvement and rushing on to the next area. Or you may patiently ask for suggestions and the room goes quiet. Start with “what’s bugging you?” Pick one thing and come up with a fix. >
At 5 am, the dog barks at the burros wandering down the street outside our hotel. Again, at 5:20, and every 20 minutes thereafter until we got up. Cindy, the owner of the Atomic Inn in Beatty, NV, (just outside Death Valley National Park) described the burros as a feral invasive species. I called them a very cute nuisance.
In December, I set personal stretch goals including an outrageous BHAG of 40 days of downhill skiing by May 2022. For context, I had never skied more than 20 days in a season before. Why did I bother? To focus my actions and attention to get the results I wanted. >
It made sense when Patrick Lencioni said it, and it made sense when I read it in The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team 20 years ago, but it still is not common business practice. Your executive leadership team – the CEO and your peers, must be your “team one”, not your division or your direct reports. Whew! >
On Friday, I attended a Vistage webinar featuring Patrick Lencioni, the writer of 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, The Ideal Team Player, and The Motive. Lencioni has a new assessment he has developed called “Working Genius“. It is a great tool for assessing the “right seat on the bus*” for your team members. Assessment requires communication with the team member: letting them know regularly whether they are performing to your expectations. Lencioni said one of the biggest failures of many leaders is that they “wuss out.” I burst out laughing.
Floating through my head these days is a Christmas song which starts: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..everywhere I go….”. There is a sense of giddiness as people are past their second vaccine and they are meeting in person. Plans are being made to return to offices, to travel, to resume where we left off last March.
Before we do that, let’s acknowledge those who went above and beyond any reasonable expectations this year. >
“Hey girl, do you want a puff of this? “. “You know, everyone is doing it.” “Just try it once. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it.”
Throwback to middle school….or every parent’s fears about their young kids experimenting with something that turns out to be dangerous, permanent or sends them down a road to addiction. >
When I was developing my brand with the help of the amazing Emily Aiken of the Story Studio, I could not figure out how to structure my blog at Word Press. Neither Emily nor Michelle Sherman*, who were my accountable group, could fathom that I didn’t know how to take this one small step to start the project. They helped me get a website and word press developer and I was on my way. >