Month: April 2020

There are many factors going into why a person is selected for a different role in the same organization, including promotions.  Not all of these are under your control.   It’s tempting but unhelpful to craft a narrative that makes someone else the villain.   

Instead, I encourage you to consider the common characteristics of people who most often are given new and better assignments: 

• High Energy, High Output
• Owner Mindset – takes responsibility for projects and results
• Superior project execution (both small and large)
• Versatile toolbox to generate solutions
• Frame events positively; find path forward around obstacles
• Embraces change and models behavior changes
• Uses feedback to improve performance
• Proactive, frequent and skilled communication about work underway
• Impress people with meeting prep and follow-through
• Broad skill base with specific depth of skill/experience (T-shape)
• Expanding personal networks;  referrals come easily when the question of “Who can ______?” surfaces
• Make the boss and team stronger

You can shape these.  You can consciously work at these each week.  Paint the portrait of what you want to be, then do the necessary work to move in that direction.

Professionals do not assume other people understand the value they bring; they articulate it.  

For example, professionals often serve as linchpins in key conversations, broker alliances of shared values, and work out problems in advance of critical meetings.  It’s a mistake to say, “I coordinated that.”  Instead, describe the result of your coordination effort.  Supporting logistics is honorable and necessary, but you’re executing more than what an entry level admin assistant can do, right?

This might be something like:

• Eliminated all but 2 possibilities for a decision-making meeting to keep them focused on selecting the best outcome
• Tailored the agenda and provided written updates in advance so the quarterly review required 1 hour instead of 3 hours
• Secured verbal commitment for a new contract by introducing 2 people to our VP of Sales
• Suggested a contributor help draft a white paper about a step-change improvement to our manufacturing process
• Provided concise statement of the problem and obtained stakeholder’s approval in advance

Don’t assume people, especially your busy boss, automatically grasps the significance of what you delivered. 

(I served under a VP for several years who forbade anyone from using the word “coordinate” in a goal or a job description.  At first I found this quite irritating, but I did profit from the push for clearer thinking about the value delivered.)

We build playbooks around pre-wiring and designing meetings, and have guidance for how to run a meeting. Professionals know is another whole level of play beyond the mechanics.

Listen for what’s not being said. To the extent you can, sense the body language – who looks comfortable, who doesn’t? Who is exerting dominance, and who submits (it’s not always about positional power)? Is there a rhythm and flow to the energy over the couple of hours? Were you in the hotseat, how would you handle that tough question? What might have happened that didn’t happen?

This may sound woo-woo, but leaders with great potential (that’s you) study the “meta” aspects of meetings. Naïve people believe that a meeting is just a meeting; it’s actually a focal point in a complex thread of human interactions.

You’ve heard the story: “Cortez burned his ships at the shore and told his men, “The only way home is by conquering the Aztecs!  No other option!” to motivate them.

Didn’t happen.

Cortez arrived in Mexico with 12 ships.  He ran 9 ships into the sand – which meant they couldn’t be used against him.  He kept 3 for the return journey, but pressed all the sailors into his invasion force.  He also kept a master shipbuilder on his invasion team.  One reason he ran ships aground was to prevent any of his crew from heading back to Cuba to report to the Spanish authorities that he had launched an unauthorized expedition against Mexico; Cortez had only been authorized for trading, not a military expedition.  (Source: John Coatsworth, director of Harvard’s Center for Latin American studies)

Even had he burned the ships, it would have been crappy leadership.  

Leaders need to take calculated risks, and have backup plans.   A mentor of mine describes a portfolio of business work like this: “One long-shot and three fish in a barrel.”  Don’t bet everything on a single long-shot.  Getting the fish in the barrel is still work, but high probability, and will cover your costs and carry you forward.  Fish-in-the-barrel work can also give you insights and experience that helps you achieve a long-shot.

The long-shot is a desirable objective that is higher risk but much higher payoff.  The most challenging risks are time-oriented; this is why startups are so concerned about cash burn rate – can they make it to a point where they’re bringing in revenue?  Often a long-shot is an exercise in overcoming limiting fears. 

A final comment about the value of long-shot work:  Life is too short to settle for only fish-in-the-barrel work.  You’re made for great things.

We build playbooks around pre-wiring and designing meetings, and have guidance for how to run a meeting.  Professionals know there is another whole level of play beyond the mechanics.

Observe the whole.  Listen for what’s not being said.  To the extent you can, sense the body language – who looks comfortable, who doesn’t?  Who is exerting dominance, and who submits (it’s not always about positional power)? Is there a rhythm and flow to the energy over the couple of hours?  Were you in the hotseat, how would you handle that tough question?  What might have happened that didn’t happen?

This may sound woo-woo, but leaders with great potential (that’s you 😊) study the “meta” aspects of meetings.  Naïve people believe that a meeting is just a meeting; it’s actually a focal point in a complex thread of human interactions. 

Ice is slippery.  Nearly everyone forced to cross an icy patch unconsciously pulls their shoulders up and stomach in, tentatively stepping forward, often holding their breath. 

This is precisely the wrong thing to do.  First, you’re lifting your center of gravity, making you more likely to topple.  Second, you’re starting to limit the contact of your soles with the ice – which is all that matters.

You’re much more stable on icy surfaces if you think and act “down” rather than “up.”  Imagine there is a heavy weight attached to your hips, pulling you downward.  Relax your shoulders.  Let your stomach settle.  Breathe in and out slowly.  The common advice “walk like a penguin” gets people to imitate this “thinking down” approach.

Martial artists and some yogis take this even further, consciously “sending” their energy down through the ice.  They focus on the solid ground beneath the ice, not on the surface layer. This gives them strong rootedness and stability even in uncertain situations. 

“Thinking down” applies to leadership, as well.  Act counter to your instincts when it helps you move more safely.  Press into difficulties rather than pulling up and away from them.  Choose your focus beyond the hazardous slickness.   Pause a moment and strengthen your rootedness before you go into that difficult conversation. 

“Thinking down” requires some practice, because it feels quite unnatural at first.  Try it. Feel the experience of the greater connectedness and confidence.  You’ll find many situations to apply this strategy.  

I’m here to set you on the path to solving hard problems.  (Sorry, the easy problems have already been solved.)

The primary strategy to solving many complex challenges we face today is to assume an “outsider” view to discover the deep lever points.  Let me unpack this idea.

An insider view only sees the deep rabbit holes and complicated interactions that were built over time.  The insider view despairs at seeing a solution, in part because inevitably the solution will require breaking something about the current systems.  Breaking something means someone loses, therefore the insider view unconsciously shies away from those ideas.  The insider view defaults to saying, “It’s so complicated it can’t be fixed.”  Therefore, the insider view cannot imagine enough of a necessary change.

The nature of systems is 80/20; small factors have disproportionately large effects in what the system produces.  It takes careful digging and deep thinking to find the true levers at the heart of complex systems.  Only the dispassionately detached can execute the thorough examination.  (This is a good time for me to again recommend Peter Senge’s book, “The Fifth Discipline.”)  This is a hunt for root causes and assumptions so deep that people have forgotten to question them.

If there were a specific formula, I wouldn’t give it to you; I’d charge big $$ for a limited license!  In short, there is no precise formula or protocol.  I’m inviting you to the adventure of the hard work. 

Let’s look at an example:  The US health insurance system.  Horribly complex.  Many participants, many stakeholders, massive cash flow, inequities, regulations, sincere workers, desperate patients, political angles, a black hole which absorbs efforts to improve it. 

About thirty years ago, an outsider to the system named Paul Zane Pilzer proposed a solution:

Give individual citizens the same tax break on health care costs that corporations get. 

Today only groups can purchase health insurance cheaply, because they get a tax break do so.  The insurance companies get between the health care providers and the patients, with the full regulatory power of the government backing the system – this distorts any hope of transparent costs, undermines every incentive for efficiency, and makes free-market competition nearly impossible.

When you give an individual citizen a tax break for health insurance, then the insurance market would rapidly respond to offer whatever package individuals would be willing to purchase.  It’s not hard to imagine Walmart and Amazon getting into the insurance business.  You would see rapid downward pressure on pricing and incentives for quality that kept customers from switching to another provider.  Though not guaranteed to provide health care for everyone, inevitably health care would be like technology, getting simultaneously better and cheaper every year. 

I acknowledge that many of the existing jobs associated with health insurance would disappear, or no longer pay well.  Existing companies would either transform or go out of business.  A powerful deep lever like tax breaks for individuals would be catastrophic for some in the first few years.  These stakeholders are well-connected, have deep lobbying capabilities, and would resist the change.

Therefore, learn from this example.  Identifying a deep lever to solve a hard problem is the entry point to the next hard problem: Implementation.

The purpose of a well is to provide consistent access to clean water.  A dry well is worthless.  No one favors muddy water.

People dug wells in the clay bottoms of West Virginia. You only needed to dig down 30-40 feet to get to the permanent water table, just below layers of sandstone.  They lined the soft clay walls of the well with blocks of sandstone for two reasons.  The stone structure kept the red clay walls from collapsing in.  The sandstone also filtered the water and kept it clean. 

This well design paradigm is a good model: A structure which provides access and preserves the essential quality.

• A business develops processes with operational excellence to ensure quality and quantity of output at a profit
• Family relationships establish rules and disciplined behavior to produce generations of new children and adults
• A city operates under laws to protect liberty
• A church relies on the authority of Scripture to help people experience God without veering into error

We need structures to ensure the best of life is available to others and to preserve it.  

A vital, strong Christian needs both devotional time and study time. They are distinct.

The purpose of a morning devotion time is to reconnect with the living God, the Author and Perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). You must discover what practices are helpful to you in this. For myself, the most reliable approach is this sequence:

A moment of deep breathing, laying aside the things of the coming day that worry or excite me.
I open my Bible to my “daily” bookmark and begin reading where I left off yesterday.
I read until something “grabs” my attention and I sense a connection, something meant for me today. That’s usually a few verses; there are mornings where I might read several pages.
I stop there and pray over that word, phrase, or verse.
I express my gratitude to God for his power, truth, provision, and care.
I pull up my lists of people and issues for intercession, asking God to work, seeking the good of others.

Another helpful practice for me is singing a few verses from a memorized hymn or praise song.

The purpose of study is to deeply understand with your mind. This is the work of preparing your mind for action (1 Peter 1:13) that we might better love the Lord and love our neighbors and fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Your devotional time should always come before your study time, because you need the Living Teacher to instruct you. (John 14:26))

Separate devotion practices from Bible study. When doing both in the morning I’ll actually get up from my seat, walk out of the room, and then re-enter the room with “Now I am studying” as my mindset.

The foundation of all Bible study is a systematic, daily reading approach.

I’m occasionally asked what Bible reading plan I recommend. Any plan you follow which brings you to the Bible daily is helpful! When you’re ready for a larger systematic reading challenge, try either Professor Horner’s plan (10 chapters a day) or M’Cheyne’s plan (4 chapters a day).

The best challenge is to read the whole Bible in 30 days. You’ll see and grasp things you won’t catch by reading a little bit here and another bit there. I published my 30 day reading plan.

Some tips for this 30 day challenge:
1. Use a Bible without footnotes and study aids; focus on the actual text.
2. Don’t get stuck in details. Read for the big picture. If something catches your attention, make a note to come back another time.
3. This is about 50 pages a day in many Bibles. Create the time to read this much by suspending other reading, TV watching, etc. Most often you’ll need 2 or 3 reading times each day.
4. Identify a theme or set of questions that are in the back of your mind. This gives you the framework for considering what the Bible says about Redemption, Anger, Relationships, Wisdom, Praying, Serving, Ethical work practices, etc.
5. Doing this challenge with a friend is helpful. Encourage one another and share what you are learning.
6. If you fall behind, just begin again. Finishing in 40-50 days is still an excellent accomplishment.

You should also tackle specific studies to be better equipped for ministry. This might be a detailed study of one book of the Bible. Prayerfully read it over and over again — seek to understand its structure, its themes, the context (e.g., audience and timing). Read aloud to slow you down and “hear” things in the text you would otherwise miss.

You might do a theme or topic study of part or all of the Bible. Pick something that is significant to you, or to people you care deeply about. You might do a character study, looking at the biography of a major or minor figure in the Bible.

Most people jump too quickly to study helps. Struggle with the text. Think hard and pray for insight. You’ll be blessed as you do.

Specific recommended study helps:

Thompson’s Chain Reference Bible
Nave’s Topical Bible
A Bible atlas for maps
Commentaries on books of the Bible
Online searching tools like biblegateway.com or blueletterbible.org

The overall rhythm becomes:

Daily:
Devotion time to reconnect with God
Systematic reading plan

Several days each week:
Study project work

Occasionally:
Reading challenges like going through the whole Bible in 30 days

I hope you find these practices helpful as they have been to many thousands of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Fact: You must be cool and decisive, even in the most difficult situations, to be an effective leader.

Fact: Being human, you’ll have swirls of emotion, doubt, even fear. 

The way to become a leader who is outwardly cool and decisive under fire is to privately, systematically battle with your messy heart and mind. 

Study biographies on this theme.  People have extensively journaled their thoughts and emotions.  They take long walks in natural settings to sort out their messy minds.  They meditate.  They pray.  They study the biographies of others.  They have a close circle of people for private conversations.   All these things are practices which will help you.  This crucial interior work strengthens your ability to manage your exterior.

One of the curious things that shows up in some biographies – Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are two examples – is that they consciously wrote journals and notes and letters that others would read and study in the decades to come.  They kept their inner lives largely unwritten, uncaptured, because they saw themselves as persons of historic destiny. 

My counsel: do NOT imitate this. 

Journal freely.  Write and record thoughts, emotions, dreams, concerns.  Correspond privately with others.  Write and share as a means of becoming better. Use the practices to explore your internals, perhaps the greatest adventure for any human.