Possessions Not Critical to Our Identity

In a book to be published next year, the author postulates that our possessions define us and are key to our identity. Morewedge points out the trends of ownership in houses, clothes, books, music, art, vehicles, etc. where many things have become products/experiences-as-a-service. He describes how we value our possessions more than we may value “the same thing” sitting on the shelf because it’s now “mine.” Rightly pointing out that the cost of ownership is greater for goods that we infrequently use, e.g. vehicles are not utilized 98% of the time. While the author suggests ownership is part of our identity and it changes us—in our valuation of those things, how we feel about ourselves—he limits his perspective on why we own only to the psychology or the economics of possession. He failed to consider a broader expanse of decision elements, options and comparisons, and especially other aspects of our life that create our identities.

Besides the economics of owning vs renting, including whether tax credits to one class or another are available, home ownership may be more valuable to: pet owners; parents who want their kids to complete their schooling in the same district or school system; security of knowing the rate of occupancy is fairly fixed for decades. These are the intangible decision elements that aren’t covered by identity or self-esteem.

In one example, he suggests that throwing out three shirts is not three times as painful as throwing out one—similar to the diminishing returns of having more pleasurable items/experiences, plateauing at some hypothetical maximum of pleasure. The curve may not plateau with more loss, remaining in the “pain” side of the axis; the curve may be parabolic in that the more we discard the happier we are because we’ve created more capacity and opportunity for more new products/services/experiences. Instead of only replacing one five-year-old shirt and getting one more trendy shirt, within some budget, I can replace more of my out-of-fashion wardrobe and upscale my personal brand. (See Part 3.)

His comparisons, for example, of the declining sales of physical music products (albums, CDs, tapes) over the past decades while streaming has eclipsed those sales is too narrow. People have recognized that we pay for services one way or the other. Remember the 21st century adage: if the product is free, you’re paying for it in another way—such as being inundated with ads. Streaming may cost less than owning thousands of music “records,” as the author once did, but it comes with ads perhaps, less cost of storage and so on. Even if our access to particular songs or artists go away, streaming may be less like owning records and more like listening to the radio, in which we had no control over “access” or variety. At least with streaming we pay for the privilege of an expansive library of global music, whether we choose to sample them or not; they are mostly there. Likewise, we pay to stream shows, movies and sports because on-demand has value compared to broadcasting schedules or limited stacks of VHS tapes, DVDs, etc.

While the comparisons may be incomplete in his book, the author does not look at second-home ownership vs short-term rentals, like Vrbo, given a growing population. Has the number of second-, third- or fourth-homes decreased, or just the percentage of people owning more than one home? How does this relate to the past decade’s K-shaped recovery—where the top tier net worth people are getting richer while the middle- and bottom-tiers are getting poorer?

Vehicles sales may have decreased because of a reconsideration of ownership and/or because cars are more durable and being kept longer and thus, the turnover rate has decreased. Additionally, as urban areas continue to grow, vehicle storage becomes more costly. Perhaps a fairer comparison, which the author ignores, is the rate of ownership of vehicles in exurban and rural areas, where rideshare is less prevalent. Vehicle ownership overall is less with the under-50 urban demographic, but is that true in rural areas?

Morewedge then tries to project what possessions will change—but into a service?—in Part 3: smartphones; our personal brand with its breadth/depth of social networking; valuing experiences more than possessions and becoming more nomadic. Smartphones have changed us; we spend more money and time on them…because their utility is far greater than other communication and pocket research devices. There’s just no comparison. The only reason Steve Jobs agreed to the iPhone project wasn’t because he loved cell phones (he hated them) but because it was described as a computer in the pocket. And its interface was better than BlackBerry’s and Nokia’s—two companies that dominated the cell phone markets and barely exist today. Personal branding socially may be important but personal branding in the sense of credibility, competency, trustworthiness and capacity are important for earning what you need to do the rest. The author seems to take this for granted and has forgotten that employment in the traditional sense has declined and more are involved in the gig economy: freelance, fractional, contractual work. And that’s work that needs to be “re-sold, re-marketed, rebranded” for every “encounter.” Your personal brand in hyperdrive.

And most people don’t have the luxury of flexible schedules for maximizing experiences over possessions. We have jobs, families, volunteer work, friends to see (even if it’s only 15 in a given month), aging parents, etc. These roles and responsibilities have the most influence on our identities.

Morewedge focused on the psychology of possessions but that’s like saying clothes only provide color to our flesh. Clothes have much more function than adornment. Likewise, our possessions do much more for us than make us feel good or bad about ourselves and others. Our circumstances (and our family background and early learnings in our nuclear family) shape how we view ownership, its utility and its perils (obsolescence, risk of loss, cost of maintenance). A comparison book may be considered here: “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel. Housel considers far more aspects of possession, ambition, investment and the roots of how we adopted and developed our core beliefs about money and things. This book’s perspective is too narrow. 

Foundation of Modern Values

 Later this fall, an essential collection of writings by Epicurus and Lucretius—a student of Epicurus’—which shows the amazing thought processes of these early philosophers is being published. As the introduction by Anya Leonard points out, Epicurus is misunderstood for espousing a hedonistic lifestyle. These essays and fragments show that Epicurus, following another philosopher’s work, Democritus’, spent a lot of time positing the composition of matter (atoms) and the triune nature of a human—soul, body, mind—as well as some cosmology.. Epicurus is one of the forefathers of metaphysics, the origin and nature of things, values and time. And by doing so, Epicurus explained the phenomena too often attributed to the capricious and jealous gods—storms, illnesses, etc. His goal was to explain a lot so that we would not fear these kinds of gods. He did marvelously well looking at macro-effects in the world to deduce the micro-nature of our universe.

While pleasure is desired over pain, Epicurus suggests in a way that all things should be taken in moderation. Pleasure is not the be-all and end-all. “It is not possible to live pleasantly without living prudently and honorably and justly….” (Principle Doctrines, V), a sentiment carried forward into the Declaration of Independence with the “pursuit of happiness.” The drafters in the Continental Congress were influenced by the sentiments of Epicurus such that happiness meant tranquility, serenity, “The justice which arises from nature is a pledge of mutual advantage to restrain men from harming one another and save them from being harmed” (Principle…, XXI), i.e. let’s have a society operating on win-win so that we all might live in peace—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Epicurus is a foundational thinker influencing many of our modern values and cultural norms.

What is also clear is that Epicurus’ disciples seem to ramble into strange fringes, such as Lucretius’ advocacy of “schadenfreude” (the pleasure at witnessing someone else’s discomfort or troubles). While this might resonate with some readers, it raises the paradox of empathy/friendship (which Epicurus highly valued) with the avoidance of pain even the contagion of someone else’s dire circumstances. (Some have experienced the loss of friendships concurrently with the loss of a job or a spouse or health.)

Though the ancient writing (and translations) are dense, heavy, repetitive, a reader can glean many important concepts and conundrums. Some of what Epicurus postulates doesn’t synchronize with our modern understandings, but it’s amazing given his era’s lack of scientific investigation. This book is a concise introduction to one of the great Greek philosophers.

I’m appreciative of the publisher for providing an early copy.

Leaping into Entrepreneurship

 Wickman provides tools, assessments, schedules/plans for the entrepreneur who’s in the midst of launching, failing to see it grow or just contemplating launching a business. This book will guide many in what it takes to start and grow. He doesn’t deal with the nuts and bolts—like registering an LLC with the state and federal governments or drafting contracts—but provides written mentoring in the book and on the website.

Self-proclaimed entrepreneurs, like Wickman, try to distinguish themselves from “mere” business owners or the self-employed lifestyle business starters who use subcontractors. He, as well as the author of “The Entrepreneurial Brain,” describe themselves as ADD/ADHD, school dropouts and discontent with the status quo. They disciple themselves after others like Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, et al. When Jeff Hays in “Entrepreneurial Brain” says you need to be wired a certain way, Wickman doesn’t but does describe the passion and drive and other traits he believes are necessary to succeed. 

Contrast this approach to David Sax’s “Soul of an Entrepreneur” which celebrates those who have maintained a business for decades, even generations, sometimes without growth, sometimes launching out of necessity. Where half (or more) business fail in the first five years and most don’t survive the 2nd generation from the founder, Wickman fails to differentiate the ability to launch and grow a business from launching and surviving/thriving of a business beyond expectations. Does that take a different kind of person than an “entrepreneur” or are all people who start businesses or significantly grow an established business entrepreneurs?

This book, like his earlier one “Traction,” is a replete with checklists, worksheets and lists. He summarizes surveys of self-selected entrepreneurs as to what they would do differently and what they did to succeed. While his books are good, it’s a little off-putting to see so many in the recommended reading list. He does provide a nice summary and roadmap of the tools in the back. Unlike “Traction” whose tools and techniques were described in a different order than they would be used, Wickman puts these tools in order. Like “Traction,” the information in this book will not be new or striking for anyone who has been entrepreneurial: for example, one of his pieces of advice is not to only test market your product and service with friends and family—advice given to many entrepreneurs by their mentors.

For those thinking of starting a business, this book is highly recommended and a quick read and you’ll probably refer to it a lot in your entrepreneurial journey.

Hubs, Connectors and Other Plays to Improve Social Capital

 In a forthcoming book, “Social Capital at Work,” Burrows and Rachlin provide compelling examples of when social capital succeeds and a lack of that capital can lead to disaster. Most business books focus on financial capital and intellectual capital—and a person’s physical capital and maybe spiritual capital. But there’s a growing sub-genre of leadership treatises that deal with organizational leadership, dynamics and so on—a corporation’s social capital. Especially in a post-COVID age, when remote work peaked and all employees are struggling with how to be connected remotely, or onsite again or a hybrid of work locations. The plethora of team dynamic apps is also a new element for those generation of workers who are in their second, third or fourth decades of a career..

The authors describe eight “game plays” to grow and capture the benefits of social capital. They start with investing in people (just as you might invest in financial instruments or other capital assets). They end with notes on Artifical Intelligence. Each chapter gives you moves and action items to make for yourself and your team and your organization. It is a playbook. And as such you will learn how to “run” the play of drawing network maps to identify hubs, connectors, your “posse” and so on.

While they give voice to the importance of trust, they don’t provide a playbook for building trust. Without understanding the dynamics of trust and laying its foundation, all these plays may appear manipulative and backfire on the leader, sabotaging meaningful connections between coworkers. If the leader isn’t trustworthy, this book will not work.

Also, the reader using this book needs to dig deeper into solid corporate communication techniques. Burrows and Rachlin don’t spend time on the need for spaced repetition of aligning, mission-driven messages: repeat a thousand times and just when you’re sick of saying “it” that’s when the team will finally get “it.” Also, audience members singly need to hear different perspectives on the same message: the analytical background for the analyticals, the security and acceptance of failure in attempting change for the amiables, the immediate and intermediate action plan for the activators, and so on. They also need different media and different venues (large group, small group, one-on-one) in order to feel comfortable asking questions and expressing buy=in of the plan.

The book assumes an open door policy, but most leaders investing in social capital need to practice open tours: get out of the office and into your team’s work spaces to be available and to learn what they do, what they know, what successes and obstacles they experience. Perhaps if a social capital leader had practiced “open tour,” the stark, horrifying opening incident could have been avoided. A woman died at work and wasn’t discovered for several days. A team leader should have been making the rounds, or calling family to check on the employee. Besides the woman’s isolation at work, it’s also apparent she didn’t have social capital with anyone outside of work, where a frequency of communications (e.g. texts) and the lack of answer would have alerted a friend or family member that something was wrong. There’s more to this unfortunate accident than a lack of social capital at work. And don’t get me started on the ignorance of undercover bosses suddenly learning what the work is like in their organizations because they’ve never driven with one of their truck drivers, or waited tables in one of the restaurants or stocked shelves in their convenience stores.

For those who need to get new ideas in how to reap the rewards of investing in social capital, this book is helpful. If you’ve built trust, your teams will appreciate the new efforts.

I’m appreciative of the publisher for providing an advanced copy of this book.

Who are the Main Street Millionaires? Extensive Compiled Data

 In a forthcoming book, “The Everywhere Millionaire: Who is Really Rich in America…,” Zidar and Zwick balance data and anecdotes to reveal who the Mainstreet Millionaires are, and how they came to be. It’s an enthralling take on the hidden wealth of business owners, mostly those with S-corporations, LLC or Partnership ownerships: the “pass-through” population of businesses that are not taxed at the corporate level but the income is taxed when it “passes through” to the individual owners. These businesses are in the service industry, car dealerships, restaurant franchises, smaller healthcare operators (dentists, doctors, chiropractors, et al.) and so on. Unless they spend in “conspicuous consumption” (Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class), most millionaires, mega-millionaires and sometimes billionaires from Main Street could be your next door neighbor, driving a mediocre vehicle and living in a regular house (not a mansion). 

The authors had access to enormous income and tax data, which allows them to discuss the business practices, origins, demographics and composition of some of the wealthiest individuals in the US that you’ve never heard of. They also note the policies that accelerated the increase in wealth—tax policies and such—as well as some of the owners’ mechanisms for sharing their wealth with the people who help make them successful: profit sharing, Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOPs) and political candidate support. 

While providing helpful analysis of the data—e.g. just who makes up the top 0.1 percent of wealthiest people in the US—they also show that entrepreneurs are not the Stanford Business School or Harvard Business School grads most of us think it takes to start a successful business. You don’t launch with a brilliant idea and sell out in a year for millions. Along the lines of David Sax’s “The Soul of an Entrepreneur,” Zidar and Zwick emphasize that most start with their own capital (sometimes meager, unless it’s inherited), pour profits back into the business to keep it growing and struggle with having time for family and friends in the initial phases of growing the business. These business owners recognized a need they had or their community had and filled it.

This book is a bit too heavy on the anecdote side. While the numbers reveal financial condition, the anecdotes try to put some stories behind the numbers. The danger is thinking that the anecdotes are guaranteed recipes for success. There may be millions of other entrepreneurs who did the same things and didn’t make it. Most businesses fail in the first five years. Did they do exactly what the featured business owners in this book did? Perhaps, and maybe so, and most likely. So is business success like playing the lottery? Your numbers just have to be randomly selected to win. We won’t know. The authors didn’t track the business owners of “pass through” corporations that disappeared and exactly why they disappeared.

Still this is phenomenal addition to the entrepreneurial studies. I would recommend it as a must-read for any entrepreneurial classes in universities.

I’m appreciative of the publisher for providing an advanced copy.

Ends Justify the Means?

 If you have a good reputation, you can get away with anything…maybe. Depends if you think Machiavelli was being satirical in his writings or serious. Strange that Machiavelli’s writings are meant to be advice when he warns against giving advice. In an upcoming publication, “Machiavelli 4 Everybody” Carol Darr does a masterful job of impersonating Niccolo Machiavelli in this volume summarizing and collating his various writings. What is clear from this is that Machiavelli studied history of power and identified patterns of behavior, decisions and policies that worked and didn’t work in the long run. As the book admits, in Machiavelli’s voice, his writings may appear to be contradictory but in many ways they are sound from this premise: everyone lies, cheats, steals in order to get ahead because we’re selfish, jealous and greedy. So, did Machiavelli do the same in this writing because he too suffers from these vices? The last chapter may give you a few hints and perhaps maintain the mystery. The writings were created after he lost an influential position with a district ruler.

Be wise and seek wise advice is one of the dicta. But if you distrust everyone, why would you? As one executive told Marshall Goldsmith after being advised to seek the input of his staff, “I got here without listening to them. Why should I start now?” And while the writings purport to be honorable and seek agreement, all the advice seems to be framed from the objective of self-service. There is no room for altruism or morality. Yet, of the five ways to solve a conflict, agreement is preferred for family, neighbors, allies and other people close to you; a fight should be the last resort and reserved for enemies or distant connections. This seems to make sense in a practical way but, idiomatically, all government forms work if everyone is an angel, and none work if everyone is a devil. If Machiavelli’s world, who would you really trust—except to believe that everyone is out for themselves? Then the normal appear weird and the weird appear normal in this slanted perspective, one that Darr summarizes as the “author’s” perspective.

If you want to dispel some Machiavellian myths or understand what Machiavelli really wrote, Darr’s book is an enlightening and amusing read as the author has made sense of some disparate advice and rhetorical conundrums in the original writings.

I’m appreciative of the publisher for providing an advanced copy.

Fingers in the Dike Against Ransomware Attacks

 In an upcoming book, “Dark Screens, the author Anja Shortland gives us a compelling history and detailed autopsies of the biggest most recent cybersecurity failures. While breaking down ransomware escapades, we also get an insight into how hacking cartels work, get created and get dismantled. We learn about collaborative efforts to reduce ransomware instances and the costs associated with recovery. Since 2021, the number of incidences has decreased: global efforts have occurred to find and shut down hack-farms; corporations have tightened up security e.g. requiring multi-factor authentication method(s) for all users; identification of risky penetrations—phishing, etc.—has increased. In fact, a Sophos cybersecurity survey—cited by government task forces—shows a decrease in the ransoms awarded to reclaim data and acces, and the number of instances. The leading reason for breaches are holes in IT security systems; for example, one major incident described in the book happened because registered users could access the system by only entering their user ID and no password was required. 

While the recommendations in the book can be found in several task force reports and many cyber security white papers, this seems to be a thorough narrative of how we got here, from the start of personal computers, and the internet to just last year. For anyone who wants to know what’s happening on a global scale to combat this, and read about some successes, this is a must read.

Publishing Ins and Outs and Shortcuts?

 If an aspiring writer of nonfiction wanted to get published, that person needs to read Alia Habib’s forthcoming book, "Take It From Me." She not only provides her own experienced agent’s perspective but those of many other professionals from the conception, dipping-the-toes essay articles through editing to pub day—the day the book is finally released to the public. From the outside, publishing looks daunting: so many manuscripts aren’t even read by editors and fewer are accepted. But if the writer wants to break through into the “real” publishing world, and not remain in self-publication, Habib provides the do’s and don't’s of submission, marketing, etc.

There are helpful summaries at the end of each chapter: key takeaways. So if the reader is re-reading, or trying to know which pitfalls to avoid in the next stage of launching a book, these are really helpful. Also, helpful because a few chapters can be too long.

The book itself is very readable, as if the author is in a conversation with you. Also, there are moments when the author pulls back the veil on the process for this book. But being in the publishing world and having shepherded many authors’ books onto bookstore shelves, there are plenty of anecdotes to back up her advice. And a few moments of vulnerability as well when describing the stumbles by the author when negotiating on her clients’ behalf. 

If I was interested in publishing (again), I would definitely refer to Habib’s book many times for guidance.

I’m appreciative of the publisher for providing an advanced copy.

Regenerative Performance, not Peak Performance

 Earlier this year at the Global Leadership Summit, James Hewitt, author of "Regenerative Performance," described how to avoid the trap of peak performance. Peak performance is not sustainable, because it's based on effort and optimism. Regenerative Performance, on the other hand, relies on cycles of effort. Anyone who has lifted weights knows rest periods and days off are important.

According to his reported statistics, 73% of people are disengaged, checked out, looking to bail out from their current jobs. 50% are burned out. 90% report that work-life balance, if there is such a thing, is getting worse. So how do we help people tame the push solely for peak performance?

We need to recognize that we have different cognitive "gears": low, medium and high. 

High gear is not multi-tasking. Multi-tasking entails a 40% drop in productivity. Instead we need to know when we're most productive. This was recently described in Daniel Pink's book "When." We might be an early chronotype: early bird, dawn patrol, etc. Or a late chronotype: night owl, red-eye, etc. Most of us don't pay attention to when we should be in high gear, our most focused and productive time.

Medium gear is used for routine tasks and unfortunately it's where we spend most of our time: in-person meetings, emails, videoconferences, etc. Tame the Inbox and the Meeting Schedule. How much has the email, agenda been thought through before we distribute and invite? How much do I/we need outside input? How much does this issue require real-time interaction, such as an in-person meeting or videoconference? What form of communication of the issue or recommendation is best for the recipient(s)?

Low gear is when we can coast, recover, imagine...nap! 45% are sleep-deprived leading to lower IQ, lower EQ and less physically and emotionally safe environments. When low gear time is allowed, burnout drops to 2%, a 96% reduction.

Some religious traditions encourage sabbaths and sabbaticals. Maybe there's a way to incorporate an accumulated hour of low gear "work" for every 7 hours.

A Lot of Examples of Corporate Crises

 In many ways, a recently published book, "The Crisis Casebook" by Edward Segal, is a quick read on how to respond to crises. Segal conveniently summarizes key points from his previous book at the beginning and the end of this book. The bulk is alphabetically arranged summaries of recent crises by different organizations starting with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and ending with [Jeff] Zucker of CNN. (Why this was under Z for Zucker and not C for CNN, I don’t know.) With each scenario, the author describes the crisis, the initial reaction, any later reaction and often advice from different crisis professionals in PR, HR, safety, law, etc. 

The author makes several key points. One is that an organization’s leadership most often doesn’t have the experience, skills or list of resources to deal with a crisis. They’re not hired because they deal with crises; they’re hired because, more often than not, their previous employment stints had avoided crises. Thus, this book is a handy quick guidebook to get a leadership team on its feet in a situation that could affect an organization’s survival, reputation or ability to grow.

If there’s a fault in this book, it’s the over abundance of real-life situations to absorb. How much overlap is there? What distinguishes this example from all others? In some ways, the author seemed to want to highlight situations he or his friends consulted on; it’s not evident Segal did, but the plethora of scenarios seems indulgent.

The last chapter—the 10 R’s of Crisis Management—may be worth the price of the book. And is a useful guide for anyone creating a crisis handbook or contingency plan, which every organization should have. I once had to wing it with regards to what should be covered in such a plan by reference to several publications. This is a handy single reference.

It’s also helpful for property, casualty, cybersecurity and employment practices insurers to use as a checklist for their clients.

I’m appreciative that the publisher provided an advanced copy to review back in May.

The Unfair Disadvantage of Black-Owned Businesses

Black bookstores and Black-owned bookstores struggle, like many other small businesses, but also in different ways. In a new book, "Black-Owned," Char Adams walks us through the decades and hints a bit at the morphing edge of future outlook for these businesses in his book. (Black bookstores are not only Black-owned but also focus on works about Black culture, roots, history, systemic racism and the like.) The book clearly gives you a sense of the bookstores, the owners, their dreams, visions for their businesses and the neighborhoods they inhabited and served. Some were rallying points and educational centers for their communities. Some got more involved in movements towards more equity, liberation (freedom from oppression and prejudice—my definition). 

So, we learn that in the 1940s through and into the 1980s, as Black bookstores tried to counter prevailing dominant culture thinking, law enforcement often got nervous and took actions that created hindrances for profitable operations. It’s hard enough to operate a small business, watching costs, trying to increase sales through marketing in a broad sense, as well as having dependable, good employees. Black-owned bookstores also had to deal with a lack of culturally relevant product. The author documents the paucity and then the growth in published works and printing houses. And the continued struggle even into the 2020s from the business-operations standpoint. There is no immunity to the retail trends in the last two decades. But there have been some successes.

This is not just story-telling about people and places. There are some statistics, though the author acknowledges (frequently) that there is no single database to determine how many bookstores, when they were launched and when they ceased operating. But you still get a good feel that, relative to the larger publishing and selling industry, there are many but still a sliver of the overall pie.

This book is not a recitation of all the systemic obstacles. There are other books that would describe the environment in which these bookstores operated. The same cultural inertia that affects all Black businesses and Black life are documented very well in other books. Adams spends some time noting that Black-owned bookstores are susceptible to the same apathy and antagonism that infuses the dominant culture.

But here in this book: Come meet the movers and shakers in this business sector. Cheer them on. Empathize with their business struggle. Moan as cultural warfare tries to just ignore the racial issues and flow around these businesses isolating them like islands in a retail river. But most of all try to pay attention to what has worked and what hasn’t as the decades go on. There are lessons here for entrepreneurs and activists. 

I'm appreciative of the publisher for providing an advanced copy.

High Road Leaders = Givers, Level 5 Leaders

 John Maxwell has kept us on the high road for most of his leadership coaching and teaching career. But I’m not sure why he wrote his latest book, “High Road Leadership” except out of frustration for the divisiveness and conflict happening in the world, particularly the US, today. 

The Middle Road is traveled by Adam Grant’s Matchers: those operating from quid pro quo. I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine.

The Low Road travelers are only in it for themselves. Low Road Leader: ‘What have you done for me today?” They don’t care about how well the team does or the organization as long as they look good. Low Road leaders move from company to company trying to get better deals and often leaving behind a mess.

High Road leaders act in a way that ensures the team succeeds. They’ll take the blame and give the credit to others. They are the Givers in Adam Grant’s lingo. They are Level 5 leaders in Jim Collins’ “Good to Great.” They are servant leaders. They are ALLY leaders (Stephanie Chung). They are Multipliers (Weisman). They have the highest level of engagement because they provide choice (autonomy), content (mastery) and collaboration (purpose) in Kohn’s “Punished by Rewards” (and Daniel Pink’s “Drive”).

Maxwell frames his leadership challenge in ways to build trust, paying attention to different aspects of trust: vulnerability (openness), acceptance, authenticity, integrity… And courage and accountability/responsibility (including admitting your own mistakes), perseverance. And keeping the team aligned and focused on the goal. 

The book is focused on self-help for leaders. A check for whether you have the emotional stamina, empathy and confidence to release your own agenda and empower others to do their best, make appropriate decisions and receive recognition for their own excellence. This may be the best reason to breeze through the book.

Grant’s research has shown that Givers (High Road Leaders) succeed more than Matchers or Takers. In fact, if Takers are promoted into top positions, they don’t last long. Other Takers try to sabotage them. Also, Matchers…because there’s no quid for the quo coming back from the Takers. So if you need more encouragement to be a High Road Leader, understand Adam Grant’s take on this as well. 

Drift 1, off by 60

 A key lesson Stephanie Chung learned from her pilots in the private aviation company she ran was the 1 in 60 rule: drift off course by 1 degree, fly 60 miles and you’ll be off your mark by 1 mile. Pilots frequently check their course and correct little-by-little, rather than wait till they miss LAX by 40 miles. Similarly, in “Ally Leadership: How to Lead People Who Are Not Like You” she encourages leaders to check their team for alignment and collaborative spirit, for inclusion/belonging and bringing their best to the organization. When course adjustments are needed, better to catch them early and not wait till key people have left, the company has not met goals, or worse. 

Ally leadership comes from ALLY: Ask, Listen, Learn, You [take action]. And that you have to EARN your leadership spot in the eyes of your team: Ensure a safe environment, Assure alignment, Rally the troops (the hardest aspect for me who hates “rah, rah” stuff), Navigate the narrows (do the difficult things, stay on a new course rather than revert to old leadership habits…)

The author learned this leadership style from many people, made a few mistakes but worked hard at leading teams/companies made of people not like her (an African American female). She describes a time she resisted taking an assignment to lead a sales team in Texas (too damn hot!) composed of white men, who definitely didn’t want her there let alone be led by her. They’d never hit their sales targets until the year she worked with them. 

If you need to some excellent tips for leading people who are not like you—socioeconomically, generationally, ethnically, ethically, geographically, culturally, experientially and so on—you would do well to read Chong’s book. It reminds me a lot of Covey’s seven habits and Collins’ level 5 leadership. Leadership is not about you; it’s about your team. Help them succeed.

Fishing for Tuna or Scooping Up Krill?

 Juliet Funt, author of "A Minute to Think," described how she sometimes likes to go for tuna, and often really likes scooping up the krill when trying to create space and focus on the big things. She suggests you can go for the big wins, the tuna, if you do the "easy" work of generating and evaluating your work processes & schedules, such as canceling big events or unnecessary projects. Or keep picking up small wins, the krill, if you just go about your normal routines and a different perspective on everyday tasks--e.g. cutting 5+ minutes from meetings, shifting work/changing the battle rhythm from daily to weekly, weekly to monthly, etc. to dig deep. Scooping up the krill can also starve other time-wasting tuna, and reduces energy sharks. (My analogy)

Her Spin Launcher describes a team process to:

• Generate a bunch of ideas, brainstorming, no good or bad ideas (but as Craig Groeschel might suggest every small good/bad decision does matter).
• Separate into categories: types, schedules, etc.; Can and Can't Control
• Evaluate and determine if it's necessary or just wanted by someone. How much "mission proximity"does it have? I've known many research queries and issued reports "just in case" the question comes up or needs to be referenced but most of the time, they're don't.
• Eliminate
• Repeat (because this is like having a haircut; waste, blurred scope, etc. tend to grow back)
• Liberate, capturing the extra time for more productive, profitable efforts. I once eliminated a Perfect Attendance award (half-day PTO each quarter), by replacing it with two personal holidays, because it was causing supervisors to spend 40% of their time on attendance issues instead of personnel development and process improvements.

Krill scooping can be as simple as making sure you have "only" the right people in a meeting that lasts "only" as long as needed to share information and assign tasks. Funt also suggests subtask reduction, such as often design engineers do to reduce number of parts in an assembly. And conducting a survey which you can turn into a Hate Map with most intense RED color meaning the most hated activities or aspects of corporate life.

To help she asserts 4 R's of High-Value work: Revenue, Reputation, Reward, Readiness. (Maybe these are legitimate foci, but sometimes they are outcomes of other high-value work.) Most of the time we find ourselves, according to Juliet Funt, in the 4 P's: panicking, pandering, procedure and padding.

Global Leadership Conundrums

 Recently attending the Global Leadership Summit, I was wishing for a big of debate or rebuttal talks. Sometimes speakers gave us a formula for leadership success that contradicts others' talks in previous years or were counter to other good advice.

Craig Groeschel started out with a leadership formula: (Consistency + Faithfulness)xTime = Lasting Impact. And his talk mostly focused on some "atomic habits" (James Clear's work). In 2023, Groeschel gave us Consistency + Empathy + Transparency = Trust. That's a lot of work for consistency. However, in business, while consistency is good, it's in danger of keeping us in an unsuccessful rut. What if innovation is needed? What if breaking a routine leads to new insights, new efficiencies, captures new markets? We shouldn't rest on our laurels--as some other speakers this year also encouraged--and we should: 

  • Evaluate whether some practices are “waste” (Lean/Six Sigma)

 • Evaluate whether some practices are medium gear performance [James Hewitt categorized some practices as low gear (rest, recuperate), medium gear (emails, mtgs) or high gear (deliberate focus, productivity)]

• Strategize reduction of extraneous efforts, instead of prioritizing or improving non-mission-critical efforts. For example, move daily actions to weekly/weekly to monthly and so on for "nice" but not necessary efforts to create space for focusing on the important things. One well-known company has 184 items on a "dashboard" including how many people interact with the dashboard! Too many! (Juliet Funt's Reductive Mindset)
• Ensure that we are really helping team members make progress on a project/performance improvement, or creating "busy work". High motivation happens when people are making forward progress, while managers fail to recognize this aspect (Teresa Amabile's "Progress Principle")

Similarly, Groeschel asserted that consistency keeps the heat going till 210 deg turns into 212 and boiling point success. But what if your efforts remain at "simmer." How do you determine a necessary ending (Dr. Henry Cloud)? There are times to quit when the rut is only getting deeper. 

Tasha Eurich talked about going beyond resilience and what factors take us forward, and not stopping at "bouncing back." Most people bounce back. Only a few get better after a disaster. We have a resilience ceiling. But we can call on confidence, making choices and strong connections to thrive. She mentioned how there's so much "grit gaslighting" and I wanted to have Angela Duckworth (author of "Grit") come out in rebuttal. 

John Maxwell was touted as doing a multitude of great things. My rebuttal is that if we change the vector of someone's life, we have done a great thing for that person and the generations to follow. And we won't know the total impact of one word of encouragement, one challenge, one hand-up, one promotion, one bit of support in one person's life until we get to heaven.

We are all capable of great leadership things if we serve and love one another. 

 

Leadership Problems: Ten Toughest?

 In a soon-to-be published book, Ten Toughest Leadership Problems, Dr. Best provides a good framework for analyzing common leadership problems. Though the list is not extensive, many other problems can be categorized with the ten on which she expounds here: personal effectiveness, decision-making, influence, engagement, etc. The framework she lays out is similar to others like OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and other variants, Kepner Tregoe techniques and so on. The author uses SOLVE (S = State the problem…). The framework can be applied to many situations, especially if they follow Dr. Best’s practice of asking open-ended questions about it.

The chapter on Influence may be worth the price of the book alone. How much are we trying to influence others based on our preferred style or ways we want others to approach us?

While I found many of the chapters helpful, I found them to be limited in scope. Decision-making, for example, has other elements and perhaps should start with the question: “Do I even need to make this decision or to whom can I delegate it?” Often we catch ourselves in the trap of telling and selling the decision, which limits engagement, instead of consulting and joining others to provide more input and ownership in the decision. While she talks about discerning the need for quick decisions or the possibility of slowing it down, she refrains from putting that choice in terms of risk (capital, social, competitive, environmental, etc.). Likewise, she deals with trust in another chapter, but not in the engagement chapter and has ignored some other research noting other critical elements: trust, making progress/performance improvements, more autonomy for two. However, though she has not encompassed all the aspects of the ten leadership issues, the author does encourage more learning (E = Elevate your learning).

Too many times, as she has observed, leaders are left to chart their own development path, perhaps with a book here and there, a seminar every year or five, and so on. Dr. Best’s book is practical and provides ongoing guidance with her framework for dealing with leadership problems.

I’m appreciative for the publisher providing an advanced copy.

The Art—and Psychology—of Money

 Perhaps a followup to Morgan Housel’s bestselling Psychology of Money, this book covers some of the same material but has some new takes as well. Everyone who has ever been tempted to “keep up with the Joneses” should read this book. Housel first describes why it’s titled “the art” and not the science because the best way to spend money may be different for everyone. Some need to buy the Ferrari and some shouldn’t because they would only do it for the wrong reasons. But it’s not just Ferraris, mansions, yachts and so on, we can be careful about how we spend on the little things as well. 

The author starts with a distinction between rich (easily measured income and assets/net worth) and wealthy which is wisely using riches for your goals and purposes and not being “owned” by your wealth and things. So the main advice is to ask why you’re spending the money the way you are: to gain admiration, seek approval, garner influence and power, satisfy an appetite or itch, overcome some past hurt or snubbing, succumb to the familial or peer expectations, and so on. For example, he writes about the Vanderbilts, once one of the richest if not the richest families in the world. Within a few generations, the family was bankrupt because grandchildren and great-grandchildren followed an expressed dictum of “spending no matter the pleasure” whereas other socialites were seeking pleasure no matter the expense. So we need to be aware of some hidden social, emotional and expectation costs to how we spend our money. What are we telling others about us by how we decide to buy or not buy? 

It’s not a new idea but it’s valuable that Housel puts here. Don’t look up at others and figure out what you don’t have; be content. In another research study, silver Olympic medal winners are more unhappy than bronze medal winners. Silver medal achievers seem to only look at how close they were to gold while bronze winners are delighted they weren’t fourth or fifth. Similarly, people (especially CEOs) can get trapped into believing their and their organization’s successes are due to their own efforts, without acknowledging that “luck” may have had a part in it, while poor results or disasters (loss of job, e.g.) are caused by others and so people often end up with victim mentality. People can often fail to recognize when a behavior or decision has stopped providing positive results because something has changed. And vice versa, something has changed and what was giving you less than satisfactory results now starts working. Housel counsels against this hubris of believing you’re the champion or the victim.

Interestingly, he does not give advice but suggest aspects to decide for yourself if your current habits are working or not. Additionally, Housel writes about some paradoxes of finances and wealth. One example: paying attention to the bigger expenses will help you save money and you should ignore smaller expenses; yet, paying attention to the small things can lead to big savings over time. While he highlights some of the super-wealthy and their mistakes and regrets, he also illustrates principles with ordinary, everyday middle income examples. In every case, spend with purpose. This book will help you determine what that purpose is (or purposes are) and how content you are with that goal.

The book reminded me of Thorstein Veblen’s hundred year classic, “The Theory of the Leisure Class” and its corollary that the upper socioeconomic caste is obsessed with “conspicuous consumption.” Some of Housel’s ideas are not new but he has pulled a lot of financial threads together.. Also, I found the author’s perspective helpful in reminding me of some past experiences. I had a friend, an executive, who continued to drive a 20-year-old, rusty Corolla because “it still gets me to work, no worse than a new car.” Meanwhile, as a fellow executive, I was advised to upgrade my vehicle—not to any ostentatious or excessively luxurious model—to show my staff that desiring to be in my position was capable of providing the means for improving their lifestyle. Again, there can be hidden social, emotional and expectation costs to our decisions. 

If you’re struggling to maintain a budget, this book will be helpful. If you have financial peace, this book might help you redirect some spending to areas that do provide pleasure. Or satisfaction. 

I’m appreciative of the publisher providing an advanced copy.

Fighting Back Against Tech Bully Techniques

 A new book, Robin Hood Math, gives practical examples and… What a fun and helpful read! If you’ve paid attention to many of the social media and online search/buying scandals, you’ll be familiar with what Giansiracusa details in this book. If you’ve thought about better ways to spend time on (or avoid) social media apps, many of the recommendations will feel like common sense to you. But you will learn more about how to shop better, scroll better and be less anxious by what’s being “fed” to you because of some choices and actions you’ve made. Similarly, you’ll learn more about finances and how to interpret other people’s analyses—and do your own perhaps to calm some medical scares. Polling may make sense. Risk assessments will make more sense. And the author teaches you how to do a lot of this on your own if you want.

Very helpful suggestions in each chapter come after example stories and a breakdown of what’s happening “behind the scenes.” While the stories are illustrative, many are long—which you can skim if you want to accelerate to the gist of the chapters—and some concepts/points in the argument are repetitive. The repetition isn’t all bad as most of us need repetition for lessons to sink in. 

While this book describes the state of the art “today,” tech-related scenarios will change as companies continue to adapt their algorithms to altered priorities and regulations. This book, however, will give you some ways to look for the changes, take stock of the changes and adapt your usages and decision-making as well.

I’m appreciative of the publisher providing an advanced copy.

Cultural Communication and Trust in the Workplace

 A new book, Talk to Me Nice, has some interesting insights. This book reads as a conversation between you and the author, Minda Harts, as she outlines and describes the aspects and obstacles to building trust in the workplace. Yes, trust is important; it’s the foundation for all other efforts, especially engagement/motivation, personnel development, strategic buy-in and so on. Without it, many efforts are just viewed as manipulative.

Harts describes her advice as trust languages; sensitivity, security, transparency, feedback, authenticity, acknowledgement, etc. This framework might be slightly different than what you may have seen as dimensions of trust; competency, integrity, openness, vulnerability, reliability/dependability are the main ones. As the author goes through her aspects, she gives multiple examples and provides survey questions, self-reflection points, checklists, practical steps in order to build trust. If you’re looking for a way to augment or improve mutual trust, trustworthiness in your teams and organizations, there are some guides in this book.

While the languages are helpful and necessary in every workplace, I believe, I’m not sure if they are the stimuli for trust-building or the result of having built trust and then working on keeping the team aligned and motivated. Harts admits there are values such as mutual respect, maintaining dignity and such that start trust. Each person needs to start with a choice of believing the other person(s) is trustworthy or not. If they start with the stance that the other has to prove themselves trustworthy, no amount of trust language will convince them otherwise. Any slip, error, unfiltered moment will sabotage any trust built. Any “compliance” with sensitivity and so on will be viewed as just being politically correct (PC) or inauthentic obedience to the corporate “law.” Whereas, if the choice is believing the other is trustworthy, these languages will enforce that belief. 

Likewise, while Harts shows different people with different wants/needs (such as how they want to be recognized), it seems the assumption that each person wants all of these languages “spoken” in equal amounts. Often on teams, you have to learn and discern who needs you to be reliable, who needs you to exhibit strong integrity, who needs you to be open and vulnerable, who needs to feel accepted… In the framework of this book, some may want more security while others want more sensitivity or acknowledgement. This might need a whole chapter in the book: how to balance competing needs with a team, department, organization.

This is not a bad place to start if you’ve haven’t thought about how to raise trust in your organization from a 4 to a 6, or an 8 to a 9.

I’m appreciative of the publisher sharing an advance copy of this book.