January 2024 - rules for leading, questions worth answering, and a definition of success
Issue #60
Welcome to 2024!
I moved yesterday. The planning, wrapping, and packing took up a fair amount of time this month. So this will be a short issue.
Seth Godin suggests that every member of a team should answer these questions:
Do you care enough to do great work?
Can we agree on what great work looks like?
When the world changes, do we have a process to redefine great work?
Do you have the tools you need to reach your goals?
How could we create a system where great work is easier to do?
My suggestion for implementation:
Have your team members answer the questions individually before the meeting;
The facilitation of the meeting is having people answer a question and explain how they came to that answer;
Once everyone has offered their take on a specific question have them reflect on the different routes they have taken to get to their answer.
Apple Mac turns 40
An interesting case of percentages versus real numbers:
Computers are now only 8% of Apple’s revenues;
Those revenues constitute $29 billion in sales.
Tara VanDerveer is the most successful college basketball coach of all time. She was asked to identify her own rules for leading a winning team. Here is what she answered:
Hire right. As my dad said, “You can’t win the Kentucky Derby on a donkey.” And not just players but staff. Be sure they complement you more than compliment you.
Have a vision for your players, and give them the tools. Maximize people’s strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
Don’t be the center of attention. Don’t micromanage, and seek input.
Outwork the players on your team. Take care of yourself — eat and sleep right, and exercise — so you can take care of one another. If you can’t swim, you can’t rescue the other swimmer, and you’ll both go down.
You can’t have 15 personalities, one for each player. But you can recognize everyone’s different, and get to know them and understand where they’re at.
Every behavior is communication — not just words but also eye contact and body language.
Know that if your senior leaders are unhappy, your whole team will be.
Learn the art of the controlled meltdown.1
Plenty of wisdom from someone who has been at it for almost fifty years… and is still coaching!
Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication…
In the long run—in the long run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.
— Viktor Frankl
I hope you had a good start to the year.
See you in February!
“I try to be even-keeled — not get too high or too low. I am intense, but I am not a screamer who gets technical fouls. I want to set a good example for my players by demonstrating self-control.“