Mind Bytes

Responsible FOR is what we hear about all the time, but upon closer examination, is much better reserved for very specific occasions where there are clear and obvious capacity limitations for other folks involved. Responsible TO, on the other hand, is very different. Here the dynamic is less reactive and instead calls for more autonomy and allows more freedom of action.

Where in your life have you done really well through your own efforts? And more importantly, where do you think you can shift your thinking to open to the possibility of seeing how much better you could be with the benefit of a few lessons?

The smartest paths to doorways that open up to future Leadership OF teams, projects, divisions, etc... is one marked by finding opportunities to “step up” and seize opportunities for embodying qualities of Leadership IN your current team, project, and/or division..

Every profession has its own internal comparisons that separates the true “Pros” out from the “pretty goods,” and this dynamic holds true from Plumbers and Electricians to Politicians and Engineers. It’s the commonality of these internal standards across professions that I want to focus on here.

From the bedroom to the Boardroom, and everywhere in between, interpersonal conflict will inevitably occur from time to time. Minor disagreements at home and petty turf wars at work can be annoying and costly in different ways, in both emotional and energetic capital.

I recently wrote about how unconscious commitments or fears can leak into our decision-making process and really hold us back from our true Leadership potential. These underlying emotional currents are powerful forces that can hold us back, either by slowing us down or by pushing us to look for safer routes forward. On the other hand, these deeper energetic forces can also add energetic oomph into our decision-making. In fact, many times they are required to push us over a hump of indecision or to firm our resolve to commit to a course of action we are otherwise conflicted about.

Sound judgement is one of the most critical ingredients of effective Leadership. At its heart, judgement is simply the comparing and contrasting of options and alternatives, exploring perspectives that yield clear value distinctions between choices.

This pithy expression is thrown around fairly commonly in the Air Force, especially amongst high performers like my wife and her fellow Officers in Executive Service. I say “pithy,” because it is most often heard or used in the context of acknowledging the challenges of bureaucratic inertia, outdated and inefficient processes, or other systemic obstacles that must simply be acknowledged rather than overcome.

Your Leadership Effectiveness Quotient (LEQ) gives you a single numerical score to quantify and measure the effectiveness of your leadership

Is it worth it? How many times have you asked yourself some version of this question, or had it asked of you? A few months into a new relationship, and some red-ish flags start to show up. Do you continue to invest in the relationship? Several weeks with your new hire and they just aren’t getting up to speed. Do you persist in trying to train and develop them?

Finding the optimal ROI on time, money, and energy (TME) expenditures and investments is one of the most important skills of effective leadership, especially when it comes making meaningful progress in more complex goals like improving “efficiency,” “profitability,” or even “office culture.” One helpful tip for finding some balance in the mix is to pause from time to time and Remember the Asymptote.

Pushing for Clarity has long been a cornerstone of my personal learning process. Whether through a lightning flash of insight or the slow creep of a dawning realization, I find great value and satisfaction in seeing finer distinctions and greater resolution emerge in my ideas, thoughts, and concepts.

Goals and guides are big part of our lives these days. Getting clarity around what they are and how we relate to them can be the crucial difference between achieving success or ending in failure. This can be particularly important when embarking on a change or growth trajectory, as often times we have a lot at stake and are marshalling significant resources to apply to our work. A question I often ask my clients here is simply “North what? North Carolina, the North Star, or the North Pole?”

The Big Dipper is probably the most well recognized constellation for us moderns living here in the US. However, other cultures in other times have looked at the exact same chunk of sky and seen instead a bear (Greek), a stretcher (Pawnee), a chariot (Celt), and a coffin (Arabic).

“You need to be more _____!”

I hear this phrase a lot. Most of the time it’s my own voice in my head with the blank being things like “patient with the kids” or “focused during your workouts at the gym.” Other times it’s what my clients are relaying to me from their annual review at work or even just from a casual sidebar conversation with a colleague.

I hear these two words being used interchangeably quite often, but the differences between them are very stark and important to keep in mind in any kind of strategic thinking situation. No more so than when facing important choices in our VUCA world that have real consequences in your life and those who depend on you.

Last week in Tackling Debt, pt 1 we did a walk through exercise using Fundamental vs Significant in planning out an approach to Debt Management. We walk through the first 3 steps of tracking our spending, building out a budget, and getting into a stable place that reliably yields a good sum of “extra money” to dedicate each month to our Debt Management plan. We are now ready to begin Step 4 with our resulting extra $500 per month in hand. Obviously this is a simplified scenario, but the general principles will hold true for any complex priority landscape.

Last week I wrote about Fundamental vs Significant, but only gave a simplified example of how that distinction can clarify a complex information landscape. Let’s examine this more deeply with a peek into our everyday lives to a place where you likely have your own experiences of complex prioritization – Debt Management.

Where do you start when attempting to make significant changes in your life? Or when facing the maelstrom of our VUCA world with pending decisions that need to be made, how do you identify the most important factors that need to be considered? Or once you’ve identified multiple important factors, how do you further prioritize among them? This points to the real question underneath it all – what do I need to be doing today to achieve the desired outcomes of tomorrow?

“It’s crazy out there!” tops the list as the most common sentiment I’ve been hearing from my clients for the last few years. Now I am adding “It’s crazy IN HERE!” to that list, as even our inner circles of colleagues, friends, and family are shaking up more and more.

“Is this the right way?” “Where does my left foot go?” “Now what?” These are the kinds of questions that come up every day, across the entire landscape of sports, dance, martial arts, and pretty much any movement-based activity. The heart of many of these disciplines is “formal training,” with a constant focus on learning the proper forms.

I can say with 99% certainty that if you are reading this blog then you are WEIRD. First, let’s simply acknowledge the fact that you must be pretty WEIRD when compared to most people if you are looking to take more ownership of your life, are curious about ways to do so, and have found this blog in your searches for helpful information on the topic. But I mean WEIRD in an even more fundamental way.

How many times have you heard that phrase when trying to explore an idea or advance a line of reasoning with a friend or colleague? Or even worse, perhaps you’ve recently used it yourself in an attempt to relativize or discredit somebody else’s perspective?

You are the Agent. Your environment is the Arena. Which do you think is easier to change? Which is the proper focus of your limited time, energy, and money? Where are you going to have the most success in your efforts and get the most bang for your buck?

How much more data do you need to see? What unknown is still pending? What additional pieces of the puzzle are necessary for you to move forward? How much information do you need before you act?

Or is there another factor in play, one that is probably playing a much bigger role in your “not yet” stance than you may realize? It’s worth checking in with yourself a little deeper here.

I suggest my clients use the concept of bandwidth to measure the real cost involved in the asks they receive because it explicitly measures energy across time.

Some say “Iterate” is another fancy word for “practice,” but “iterate” has a very different wrinkle in the definition that makes it far more relevant in the business and professional world. While both words focus on repetition, improvement, and applied intention and effort, what moves “iterate” above “practice” for me and my work is that “iterate” enfolds more complexity, more dynamism, and more engagement with real time factors.

We all know about The Rules. From a certain perspective, they can be seen to largely define our lives. Speed limits, term limits, time limits – everywhere we look we can see how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are shaped by The Rules.

How frequently have you heard the following, or something very much like it? “Sorry, I didn’t have the time to finish that.” “I’d love to, but I don’t have time to take that on.” “I don’t have the time to put that on my plate right now.” Perhaps the better question is to ask yourself how often are you the one saying it?

I’ve never really liked the word “cooperate,” usually because I’ve heard it being enforced onto people who are having trouble finding a way to work together. From the elementary school playground behind my house all the way to the corporate boardroom, and everywhere in between. Think about it for a second. Where have you used the word, or had it used on you, in a situation where you were thriving? Where you and your team, coworkers, or colleagues were all humming along nicely in a symphony of success?