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Ducks in a Row: Why ‘Why’ Itself is Often a Solution

Tuesday, August 9th, 2016

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevepj2009/3321617833/

A post in Forbes / Entrepreneurs by Jane Chen talks about the importance of knowing your ‘why’.

In my personal experience, this “why” is so important because it helps you rally people behind your mission. It gives you purpose and meaning. It helps you make the right decisions. And when things get hard, as they inevitably will as an entrepreneur, the “why” keeps you going – especially in those moments when you want to give up.

‘Why’ isn’t only for entrepreneurs; it’s always been a high priority item to me personally and should be embedded in every company’s culture.

But finding the ‘why’ isn’t exactly a popular pastime; in fact, for many it’s positively uncomfortable.

Of course, many of the things that are good for us are uncomfortable.

‘Why’ not only provides purpose and meaning, it also spurs innovation, solutions and closure.

So, the next time you are faced with a need for motivation/inspiration or  a problem/challenge/angst/confusion find your way past by first identifying the ‘why’.

You may need to go no farther.

Flickr image credit: steve p2008

Expand Your Mind: All Role Models are Not Created Equal

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

People tend to take their role models whole; kind of an all or nothing approach, which isn’t a very smart approach. A few weeks ago I wrote that in some ways Steve Jobs isn’t the greatest role model. Take a look at some others better taken piecemeal or even not at all.

Graham B. Spanier did an amazing job growing Penn State into a powerhouse, but threw up defenses at the first hint of criticism. Says close-to-retiring anthropology professor E. Paul Durrenberger, “If you’re always focused on promoting the brand and there’s no scrutiny, that leads to covering up.”

On the surface Eric Lefkofsky, co-founder and chairman of Groupon, may look like a great role model, but due diligence is as important when assessing role models as investments.

Lefkofsky’s track record, reflecting failures and successes, bears certain hallmarks: rapid revenue growth accompanied by big losses, a penchant to sell stock early on, and lawsuits filed by investors, lenders or customers who feel they have been wronged. … Lefkofsky and his family have already cashed out $382 million from Groupon before the IPO filing.

Successful founders are considered excellent role models, but is there a down side when they stay?

Visionaries are fantastic, but their companies are often notoriously hard to run. Sometimes, these leaders cling to dated visions and stifle innovation. And sometimes, they simply won’t get out of the way. Promising executives with new ideas get fed up and leave.

Many entrepreneurs are known for the size of their egos and none more so than those from Russia, but not all of them buy a sports team, larger yacht or another home. Several years ago Vladimir Kekhman, who made millions in bananas and other fruit, left his company to focus on the local ballet company; he just pulled off another “first” by pirating two premier dancers from the Bolshoi.

And Mr. Kekhman, at age 43, recently gave up all of his day-to-day responsibilities as a major owner of Russia’s biggest fruit company to focus on the Mikhailovsky. “I have a new profession right now,” he said. “And this profession has brought a new life to me.”

Finally, good health role models lurking in a place you would never expect to find any—long-haul truckers.

“I’m being stupid if I don’t lose the weight,” she said, “because I’ll lose my job.” — Jill Garcia, 50, a driver from San Antonio

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

Know Your Assumptions

Friday, July 9th, 2010

road-to-hell

Do you make assumptions? What sort of impact do they have on what you do?

This little exercise is well worth your time.

  1. List the last 5 decisions you made;
  2. list the criteria on which you based your decisions for each one;
  3. think about each criteria and define what percentage of it was grounded in assumptions (you may need to analyze down several layers).

Typically, assumptions underlie most criteria if you drill down far enough.

Knowing that you would do well to remember that assumptions are insidious, sneaky and often masquerade as common sense, logical thinking or general wisdom.

After all, you don’t want your decisions attributed to the first three letters of their actual basis.

Image credit: http://atom.smasher.org/

Seize Your Leadership Day: Coherence, Interviewing And Decisions

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

I only received one response to my query last week and it was positive, so here again are three food-for-thought links. I wouldn’t want you to run out of stuff to do this weekend.

First up is a post from Denis, who starred in my post, A Follower Leads. Denis is a senior software developer who says he isn’t a great follower, but he’s not a manager and doesn’t seem to see what he does as ‘leading’. The other day he wrote about Group Coherence/Common Purpose—one of the best explanation/discussion I’ve seen on the topic. I think Denis a leader, what do you think?

Next is from HBS Conversation Starter, a favorite source of mine, not so much for the posts as for the responses from readers (which are the whole point). This one is by Peter Bregman, CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., who offers up what he considers the ultimate interview question“After you have narrowed the pool of applicants down to those with the skills, experience, and knowledge to do the job, ask each candidate one question: What do you do in your spare time?” I hope that if you join the conversation, you repost your comment here.

Last, but not least, is a link to yet another Harvard offering. It’s the abstract of a paper called Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions. It discusses how “Neuroscience reveals what distorts a leader’s judgment. Here’s how you can keep your own judgment clear.” The teaser is interesting, but you’ll have to decide for yourself whether to buy the entire paper.

OK, that should keep you busy for an hour or so. Have fun the rest of the time!

Your comments—priceless

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