Category: Leadership

Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People

Innovation is about technology, product features, and profitability. You don’t hear innovators talking about love, empathy, and generosity. That’s where PepsiCo’s Chief Design Officer (CDO) comes in.

Mauro Porcini says innovation is an act of love designed to bring happiness to people. We’re not talking about a family style organization down the block. We’re talking about the CDO of an organization with 309,000 employees, give or take a few.

2 surprising words of innovation:

#1. Empathy:

“Innovation … is a gesture of empathy, respect, generosity, of one human being’s devotion to another.” Mauro Porcini

You must understand what is relevant to people if you want to excel at innovation.

“Once the needs and desires of the individuals we want to innovate for have been understood and a relevant business strategy has been defined, we are ready to prototype, creating the ideal solutions to satisfy these needs and desires.”

#2. Story:

Products are narratives about being rich, creative, artistic, or part of a community. Stories are in the locations of our homes, brand of our cars, and football jerseys we wear. You know a lot about my story when I tell you I live out of town in an average home that doesn’t have a paved driveway.

Innovators write stories. What story does an innovative product enable you to tell?

Innovator questions:

1. Is value for people your ultimate goal?
2. Are you kind to people?
3. Do you embrace people who are different from yourself?

Personal note:

Mauro showed up on the screen dressed in a normal shirt, so I complained. He’s often flashy. He lifted his foot and showed me a shoe with a rose on it. I felt better. (You can see it here.) His lack of inhibition is an indication he might know something about innovation.

Interview:

What makes innovation successful?

Purchase Mauro Pochini’s new book, The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People.

Linkedin: Mauro Porcini

Still curious: 4 Ways to Stop Resisting Breakthrough

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3 Surprising Secrets to Self-Management

Time pressure is more pervasive than Covid.

Your schedule reflects your life. The person who can’t manage time can’t manage life. When you hate your schedule, you hate life.

Time management is self-management.

3 surprising secrets to self-management:

#1. Healthy self-management includes self-inspection.

Choose standards for family time, hobby time, and development time, for example.

Acknowledge self-deception when it comes to self-inspection. You don’t see yourself clearly. Discuss your standards with family, friends, mentors, and or coaches. Include your boss if they are trustworthy.

#2. Heathy self-management includes self-government.

Others attempt to govern your life. At work it’s bosses, colleagues, and employees. At home it’s a spouse or children.

We all submit to others. Unconscious submission degrades you. Conscious submission is service. You submit to laws or the board, for example. When you say yes to someone, they govern your life in small ways.

Self-governing is noticing when you give authority to someone.

Self-governing is maintaining responsibility for life even when serving others.

#3. Healthy self-management requires courage.

Goals, priorities, self-awareness, and boundaries require courage.

Your schedule is out of control for many reasons. You don’t have goals or priorities. You don’t notice that others control your time. You don’t have boundaries.

Others rule your life when you can’t say no.

Develop backbone by setting clear goals. Your report needs to be completed by 5 p.m. You can’t spend all day solving other people’s problems.

Begin small. Perhaps your goal is feeling less frantic during the day. Adopt the 50-minute rule. Hour-long meetings end in 50 minutes. Give yourself time to recalibrate and prepare for the next meeting.

Accept frailty. Don’t imagine you’re Wonder Woman or Superman. You can’t run at full speed all the time.

Humility gives birth to courage. When you accept frailty, courage for self-care isn’t selfish. It’s necessity.

What self-management tips work for you?

More resources:

How to Manage Your Schedule When Your Hair is on Fire

The Importance of Self-Management Skills

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My first day of elementary school was memorable, but not for the reasons you might think.

I didn’t attend Kindergarten. It wasn’t an option in the rural part of Ohio where we lived.

The bus picked me up and I had all the anxiety a six year old might have going to school for the first time. My consolation was my best friend and next door neighbor Jimmy who was riding the bus with me.

When we arrived at Colebrook Elementary, his older brother Jeff (a third grader) was kind enough to escort us to our classroom. I took a seat and waited while the teacher passed out books and then instructed us to start reading.

What? This was my first day of school! I could make out a few words but I didn’t really know how to read. Tough class! I was embarrassed.

I glanced at my friend Jimmy who held his book up and appeared to be reading. I was even  more ashamed. 

I raised my hand and told the teacher I couldn’t read. She had a look of minimal empathy on her face as she informed me I must be–to use the terminology of the day–a “slow student.”

Just then the first grade teacher Mrs. Wann walked into the what I later learned was the second grade classroom. “Are Jimmy and Mark here?” I shot up my hand. No angel of heaven could have appeared more wonderful than her. She escorted us to the correct classroom where we began our education, including learning to read.

(I later asked Jimmy how he was able to read the book. “I was reading the pictures!” he said.)

It doesn’t matter how motivated a person is if they’re in the wrong room

Might you have a few people on your team like that? They want to do a good job, they try hard, but they ultimately fall short. Maybe you’ve just got them in the wrong place.

Why don’t people perform? It is almost always for one of these reasons:

1. They don’t know what to do.

2. They don’t know how to do it.

3. They don’t want to do it.

4. They can’t do it.

Reason #4 is effectively the same as my situation so many years ago. It wasn’t that I was an underachieving student. I was just in the wrong classroom.

Good leaders have the ability to assess abilities. As my good friend Dr. Nido Qubein has said, “Expectation without education equals frustration.” An effective leader knows both what a person is capable of and what training and the education they need to succeed.

But training and development aren’t a panacea. If you’ve got the right person in the wrong role they won’t succeed.

Specifically, it is a matter of fit. The person fits the role. It isn’t an exact science, an either/or. However, when someone who is conscientious struggles performing even after they’ve receive the necessary training, it is likely a fit problem.

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Anyone Can Learn to Lead

Stop saying, “I’m just not good at that.” If you aren’t good at leadership, learn to lead. Don’t cower behind, “I’m not wired that way.”

Learn to lead from the genetic platform you were given. Wiring isn’t an excuse for apathy, incompetence, or careless mistakes.

A person of average intelligence can learn to lead, regardless of genetic wiring.

Extroverts learn to listen.

Introverts learn to give presentations.

Tender hearts learn to have tough conversations.

Genetic wiring is a starting point, not a cap on potential.

Learn to lead – you’re not a dog:

Pavlov controlled dogs’ saliva by associating a clicking metronome to the arrival of food. Eventually dogs salivated when they heard the metronome, even when food was absent. Yes, people can be conditioned to respond in specific ways. But people aren’t dogs.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Attribution uncertain.

Genetic wiring doesn’t erase personal responsibility. Hot-tempered people can’t say, “I was born with a short fuse.” Control your responses.

Learn to lead – take responsibility:

Our focus on genetic wiring and personality assessments is becoming justification for irresponsibility. People say, “I’m not responsible. That’s the way I’m wired.” I say, “Bull crap.”

Stop acting like Pavlov’s dogs. Life is a combination of genetics, environment, and volition. You can’t control genetics. You can influence environments. You control decisions.

Don’t blame genetic wiring or environments for poor performance. Leaders take responsibility for themselves.

You can’t go far when genetic wiring validates incompetence.

Worry about things you can control.

Accept things you can’t.

Live beyond your wiring.

Introverts can learn to speak up. Extroverts can learn to shut up, for example.

What uncomfortable skills have you learned that strengthen your leadership?

Still curious:

The Best Leaders Know 3 Things Average Leaders Don’t

How to Navigate the Gap Between Responsibility and Ability

Taking Responsibility Is the Highest Mark of Great Leaders

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The Goal of Helping is Enabling, Not More Helping

Ego needs to feel important. A ego-filled leader enjoys dependent relationships.

Helping feels good. It’s destructive when people can’t move forward without you.

Reject the ego-building intoxication that comes from being needed.

The goal of helping is enabling:

Over-helping makes people weak. People enable themselves. You provide tools, training, and opportunity.

Belief is the beginning of enabling. Ego enjoys the dependency of others. Leaders help people believe in themselves. If people believe in you, help them believe in themselves.

You create dependency when people need permission. Initiative indicates confidence. Permission-asking indicates dependency. The more check-ins you require, the more dependent people become.

You promote insecurity when you hoard information and resources. Build teams that move forward without you. Clarify goals together. Identify resources together. Establish timelines together. Schedule appropriate check-ins and set competent people free.

You perpetuate dependency when you solve problems for people. Never offer a solution until you ask, “What have you tried?” Explore their solutions before offering your own. Never help a competent person who hasn’t tried something already.

You prolong neediness when people are afraid to offer alternative viewpoints. When was the last time someone disagreed with you?

1. When someone asks what you think, ask, “What do you think?”
2. When someone asks for advice, ask, “What would you do?”
3. When someone is hesitant, ask, “What’s the bravest thing you can do?”

You maintain helplessness when you do all the talking. The person who talks the most has the most power. Give power by providing space for others to talk. Shift their talking from things others should do to things they can do.

How can leaders offer help that doesn’t promote dependency?

Added resources:

7 Rules for Overhelpful Leaders

Have you Fallen into the Destructive Practice of Offering Harmful Help

Helping People Achieve Their Goals

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25 Real World Ways to Lower Stress without Medication or Meditation – Leadership Freak {const n=e.match(d);return!(!n||!new RegExp(n[1],n[2]).test(navigator.userAgent))||navigator.userAgent.includes(e)})))return;e.g.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”,(()=>{const e=document.getElementById(“amp-mobile-version-switcher”);if(!e)return;e.hidden=!1;const n=e.querySelector(“a[href]”);n&&n.addEventListener(“click”,(()=>{sessionStorage.removeItem(a)}))}));const g=o&&[“paired-browsing-non-amp”,”paired-browsing-amp”].includes(window.name);if(sessionStorage.getItem(a)||r||g)return;const m=new URL(location.href),h=new URL(t);h.hash=m.hash,m.searchParams.has(s)&&i===m.searchParams.get(s)?sessionStorage.setItem(a,”1″):h.href!==m.href&&(window.stop(),location.replace(h.href))}({“ampUrl”:”https://leadershipfreak.blog/2022/10/27/25-real-world-ways-to-lower-stress-without-medication-or-meditation/?amp=1″,”noampQueryVarName”:”noamp”,”noampQueryVarValue”:”mobile”,”disabledStorageKey”:”amp_mobile_redirect_disabled”,”mobileUserAgents”:[“Mobile”,”Android”,”Silk/”,”Kindle”,”BlackBerry”,”Opera Mini”,”Opera Mobi”],”regexRegex”:”^\/((?:.|n)+)\/([i]*)$”,”isCustomizePreview”:false,”isAmpDevMode”:false})}(); ]]>

25 Real World Ways to Lower Stress without Medication or Meditation

1. Show up curious. Pressure to know solutions increases stress.
2. Adopt a 50-minute hour. Take a short break between meetings. Tip: Make back-to-back meetings illegal.
3. Stop being such a control freak. Create a list of things you can’t control. Read it when you feel stressed. Refusing to accept reality increases stress.
4. Design a schedule that reflects the life you aspire to enjoy. The way you use time determines the quality of your life. When your calendar frustrates you, life is dismal. (This will take lots of time.)
5. Surround yourself with competent trustworthy people. Don’t trust incompetent people.
6. Compliment someone you don’t like. Be sure to smile when you do.
7. Give something on your to-do list to someone.
8. Stroll. (Add whistling or humming for deeper effect.)
9. Do something physical. 10 pushups. Sweep the floor. Anything will do.
10. Say what you really think. Always speak with kindness and forward-facing vision. Backward-facing language reflects powerless thinking. You can’t change the past.
11. Walk out of the office with empty hands.
12. Send a thank you email. Surprise someone with a kind act.
13. Practice saying no with kindness. Establish boundaries.
14. Do something you’re putting off. Procrastination increases stress.
15. Do something you dread doing. Tip: Stop thinking about things you can’t do. Go do something.
16. Pat dogs and cats. Hug a person.
17. Cut back on caffeine.
18. Turn off the TV.
19. Throw stuff away.
20. Don’t rush to the next thing. Finish something and reward yourself.
21. Delete all emails that are 30 days old or older. Tip: Don’t respond to emails when you’re in the CC line.
22. Turn off email notifications. Tip: Turn off your phone for an hour and store it out of sight.
23. Stop trying to convince people you’re right. See #4 above.
24. Question urgencies. Will this matter in a week, month, or year?
25. Hang with people you like.

How do you lower stress?

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7 Questions You Can Use to Help Anyone Develop, Even the Boss

Leadership is more than getting things done. Leaders bring out the best in people.

Successful leaders ask questions that help others develop.

7 questions that help anyone develop:

#1. What do people admire about you?

Listen for traits and behaviors. Affirm their response. Come up with at least three responses.

#2. Why do you think they admire those traits and behaviors?

This question may feel awkward. Don’t push too hard. Move to the next question.

#3. What value do those traits and behaviors bring others?

Use the word others. Leadership is about others. If the person initially listed qualities and behaviors that were self-serving, ask #1 again using the lens of “value to others”.

Don’t rush to question #3. It might be enlightening to gently shift the conversation from self-serving to other-serving.

#4. If you were asked how to develop those admirable traits and behaviors, what practices would you suggest?

Come up with observable actions. Take time to develop a list. Ask, “And what else comes to mind?”

#5. Which one of those traits has most contributed to your success? What makes you say that?

#6. What is the potential downside your admirable traits and behaviors? How might they hold you back?

#7. If you were to get better at one of your admirable traits or behaviors, what could you try?

Suggestions:

Genuine curiosity is essential. Don’t use questions to manipulate. Questions #3 provides an opportunity to shift perspective, but you can’t force it.

Always have the best interest of others at heart. When you help people develop, do it for them.

Gently probe after first responses. Ask, “I wonder if you could come up with at least three things?” Or, “What else comes to mind?”

Soften questions with phrases like, “I’m curious,” or “I wonder.”

How would you adapt the above set of questions?

How do you develop people, even the boss?

Still curious:

15 Questions that Change the Way People Think

10 Questions You Need to Ask to Develop Employees

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The Best Leaders Ask Questions That Work

A question asked at the wrong time is a dumb question. Questions that work fit the situation.

Questions have direction. Questions that work have the right destination.

Tip: Determine where you want to go before you ask a question.

Questions that work:

Questions that clarify goals:

A month from now things are going perfectly. What are you doing? What are others doing? What aren’t you doing?

Frustration tells you what you don’t want. What do you want?

Questions that establish processes:

What’s the next step? Tip: Don’t ask about next steps before you clarify goals.

If things were going perfectly, what would be true on a day-to-day basis?

A month from now, this problem has vanished. What happened? What isn’t happening?

Questions that enable self-reflection:

What are you doing that makes you proud?

How do you want your clients to think of you?

What makes this important to you?

Your eyes just lit up. What’s going on for you?

Questions that overcome reluctance:

What do you get if you do nothing?

What’s the bravest thing you could do today? Short timelines narrow focus and lower anxiety.

What needs to be true for you to take action on this?

One a scale of 0 to 10 how ready are you to act? Why didn’t you choose a lower number? This set of questions helps people find reasons to act.

What small thing could you do this morning to move forward?

Questions that establish accountability:

Use ‘you’ when establishing accountability. Don’t say ‘we’ when you mean ‘you’.

What have you tried?

When will this be done?

Who is responsible to get this done?

When will you take the next step?

What do you want me to ask you when we meet next week?

Enter conversations with more questions than answers.

What questions that work might you add to the above lists?

Added resources:

15 Questions that Change the Way People Think

Leadership Questions to Ask

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Chasing the Red Dot

Spunky, our miniature dachshund, is long gone. I wasn’t glad to see him go, but in his absence, I regained my status. When he arrived, he replaced me as king of the domain.

He was brown like lightly roasted coffee beans and just as alert. He guarded the queen of the house like secret service agents guard presidents. But there’s nothing secret about secret service agents. They’re so obvious. That’s how Spunky was. His smug authority put me in my place.

Spunky was bred to hunt but the only things he hunted were flies, bugs, mice that ran from under the wood pile, and red dots. He hated red dots like democrats hate republicans, maybe more.

I bought a laser pointer when I taught classes at one of the local colleges. The red dot was my revenge. It enflamed him. For a few moments I drove my antagonist crazy. Spunky saw the devil’s eye in the frantic dot on the floor. The only thing that excited him more was scraps of beef.

Spunky chased his antagonist around and under couches, beds, and tables. He persecuted the red dot back and forth in the hallway tirelessly. I laughed when he kept looking for the devil’s eye after I turned it off. Oh! the power. I’m smarter than a dog.

I thought of Spunky this morning when I wondered what I might post today. We love chasing red dots. Someone shows up with an issue and the hunt is on. The hair on our necks comes to attention. Fixing is in our blood.

Chasing other people’s red dots destroys you. Let people fix their own problems.

Before you chase the next red dot, ask, “Whose dot is this?” Never chase a red dot that belongs to someone else.

What’s seductive about solving other people’s problems?

How might you avoid the distraction of red dots?

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Saturday Sage: Kris Wants to Be a Sage

Dear Kris,

Your interest in becoming a sage is honorable.  However, it takes longer than you expect. You don’t take a class in sagacity. Becoming a sage happens like seasons change, unnoticed at first.

What’s surprising about a sage? They have made peace with failure.

“Failures, repeated failures are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”  Attribution Uncertain

You become a sage by building one good decision on top of another. But know that mistakes give birth to good decisions, mistakes that are costly and humbling. A sage has said forgive me more frequently than you expect.

If you want to become a sage, model wise decision-making in your own life.

A sage looks at life like a question and inspires others to wrestle with life choices. You won’t make decisions for people. You will help people make their own decisions.

“The way of the sage is to act but not to compete”. Laozi

A sage doesn’t:

1. Tell people what they need to be successful.
2. Claim to have complete certainty.
3. Talk more than listen.
4. Suggest you live cautiously.
5. Speak critically of others.
6. Act unsympathetically.
7. Violate a confidence by telling other people’s stories to persuade you.
8. Struggle to convince.
9. Flaunt sagacity.
10. Hide their mistakes.

Are you still interested?

10 things a sage does:

1. Models values that last.
2. Knows how to live skillfully.
3. Reminds you not to sabotage your life.
4. Helps you recover from bad decisions.
5. Wipes fog from the mirror.
6. Brings you to a fork in the road and lets you decide.
7. Points the way without telling you what to do. 
8. Explains options.         
9. Leads you toward your best options.
10. Reminds you to walk with great people.

Of all the things you aspire to, sagacity guarantees you will not live life alone. When the future is fuzzy and decisions matter, we all want to sit with a sage.

Sages come disguised as experts, scientists, doctors, philosophers, and entrepreneurs. More importantly, they are mechanics, bus drivers, plumbers, moms, dads, and grandparents.

Are you humble enough to continue?

Reflections:

What are the top three things a sage brings to someone’s life?

Have you ever met a sage? Describe that person.

Who are ten famous people who aren’t likely to become a sage? Why?

What…

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