Author: nathancepercygmailcom

I spend an hour every morning, meditating and journaling before I start my day. I’ve done this without fail for the past 3 years. It was a challenge initially but now, I absolutely love my hour of solitude. It’s by far the best habit that I’ve implemented and it makes me a better human. And here’s the best part:

I’m not the only crazy one.

Who else has a similar routine?

• Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon. He makes his executives write a 6 page mock press release, before any new idea is proposed. Why? He wants his executives to think deeply about the problem and proposed the solution. You can’t just cobble together bits and pieces to make a 6 page report. You have to spend the time thinking and writing. Usually alone. It’s an effective way to get his employees to think more.
• Sir Winston Churchill, Former Prime Minister of Great Britain. During the war, he took time out of his day to take a nap and paint. If he could find the time, then surely you can find some solitude time.
• Abraham Lincoln, Former US President during the Civil War. He constantly wrote letters and took walks to think. He once wrote a letter to an enemy, disparaging him and tearing him to shreds. Then he put it in his drawer and left it there. He wrote it to vent and cool his emotions.
• Cal Newport, author of 5 NYTimes bestselling books, a husband and father of 2 children and a tenured computer science professor at Georgetown, advocates carving out time to do “deep work” – time spent alone working on cognitively challenging problems. He spends about 15-20 hours a week in this state of deep work.

I could go on, but you get the point. It’s what the best in the world have done for years. It’s what true leaders do.

When do you think? When do you reflect on your day? When do you plan the strategy before going on the offensive?

If you’re not carving out the time and space to think, you’re falling behind. You’re doing your team a disservice. You’re failing to reach your full potential.

Maybe you should make the time to think?

 

In the novel, A Bell for Adano, Major Joppolo is sent to Adano to lead the town’s recovery. The town was previously occupied by Fascist dictators, who had zero respect for the citizens.

One of the first objectives he sets is to understand the people in the town. He makes it a rule to speak Italian to all Italians he works with. He asks the town what they want to have fixed. He also goes to meet with each person individually. He even talks with the lowly fishermen of the town.

He knows that he can’t lead the town unless they feel understood. And the simplest way to do that is to speak their language.

Now, how well do you speak your team’s language? Who, in your team, is a painter? Who loves to bake? Who is a coach of their children’s sports team?

As a leader, you must speak their language if you want to make change happen. The simplest way is to have a regular one on one conversation with each teammate. To learn about them. Their hopes. Their fears. Their hobbies.

It’s your chance to connect with them and make them feel understood. Only then you can lead them where they’ve always wanted to go.

Consider a team of hockey players, subdivided into the offensive team and the defensive team.

What’s the objective of the offense of a hockey team? You’d probably say: to score goals.

And what’s the objective of the defense of a hockey team? Maybe, you’d say: to limit the number of goals conceded. 

But if I asked you what’s the objective of the entire team, what would you say?

To win the game. Right?

That’s strange. You get three different objectives for the exact same team of players. That seems like a recipe for conflict in the team. Sub-teams will be pulling in different directions given the conflict in objectives. That much is obvious.

Now what were to happen if the entire team’s sole objective was to win the game? Well, maybe you would get defenders taking more shots if the team were behind. And forwards would do more defending, if the team were ahead. You would have a team in unison, aligned and ready to fight for the sole objective.

As a leader, you must ensure that your team has only one objective.

Not two. Not three.

One.

And you must keep the team on task to achieve the single objective. No detours. Even if it means rearranging the team to have defenders on offense or forwards on defense.

You only have one objective. To help the team win. 

Will you do the leader’s work of aligning the objectives?

 

Criticism. Stonewalling. Defensive behavior. Contempt.

According to John Gottman, these are the four horsemen that predict which marriage is likely to fail. Clearly, this is relevant for leaders as well. Great team chemistry should be like a great marriage – lots of love and communication flowing within.

Now which of these four horsemen do you have in your team?:

Do you criticize your teammate’s work and complain about them behind their back?

Do all the members of the group share their ideas?

Does anyone get defensive when their work isn’t up to the level required?

Does anyone feel that they know best in the team?

If you’re a leader, these are the four horsemen that you need to watch out for in your team. They are clear signs that the team chemistry is low and that you need to fix something.

How? By getting your team’s safety levels back up. By eating together as a team. By sharing praise in public. By allowing each person to have their own opinions without being attacked. By giving out high-fives. By ensuring that everyone feels heard with their ideas.

Keep the four horsemen at bay and your team will gel beautifully. Or don’t, and watch your team implode. It’s all up to you. You’re the leader remember?

 

 

Imagine you wanted to physically get from point A to point B. One of the things you’d be concerned with is your average speed. It’s the total distance divided by the total time taken. So if you wanted to get there faster, you’d find ways to reduce the time. You might take a plane, or a speedboat, or a bullet train instead of a car.

Now similarly, imagine you wanted to get more revenue for your business. You’d be thinking about your average revenue speed. You would think of ways to improve the rate at which you get new customers, or improve the average transaction size per customer. Or maybe you would think about increasing the rate at which people buy from your store.

But if someone asked you, “what’s your average leading speed?”, chances are you’d be stumped. It’s not inherently obvious what your average leading speed is. Leading is inherently messy and people are complex. There are many factors that affect it. How would you determine what your average leading speed is?

I’d like to propose some metrics that might help you get a sense of your speed. You could count the:

• Number of 1 on 1 conversations you have with your teammates per day
• Number of times you praise your teammates in public per day
• Number of times you share your mistakes per week
• Number of times you share the team’s purpose per week.
• Number of meals eaten together as a team per week.

The beauty of knowing these numbers, is that you can measure and see change from day 1. You don’t need to know all of the messy complex leadership variables. Change these numbers and you will change the team’s performance.

What’s your average leading speed?

 

 

A great leader is judged on the decisions she makes. That much is obvious. The quality of your decision making needs to be flawless, regardless of the stress you face.

But what happens when you feel decision overwhelm? When you’re fighting so many fires during the day that you can’t breathe, what do you do?

Former President of the United States, Barack Obama, once said that he only wears white and blue shirts. He said that because of this rule, he avoided wasting his willpower on small, insignificant matters. He had more willpower for the bigger decisions during the day.

It’s a great thought experiment: What rules can you implement that will conserve your willpower throughout the day?

In the quest for improving my decision making, I’ve decided to implement a few “I only” rules for 2019. I don’t watch Netflix or use Instagram so thankfully these aren’t problems for me. The main problem areas in my life are:

• drinking too much alcohol and being hungover
• reading too much non-fiction (I do it to make myself feel like I’m “working”)
• using my phone too much to send emails

So here are my “I only” rules for 2019.

• I only drink alcohol on Saturdays.
• I only use my cellphone for Whatsapp and phone calls.
• I only read and reply to emails from my work computer.
• I only read fiction books.

I know that implementing these rules will be challenging. Especially as the world tries to pull me in different directions every single day. But I’m willing to give them a try and experiment with my routines. If the Former President needs rules in his life, then why shouldn’t I?

What “I only” rules will you implement in 2019?

There’s a particular image of Muhammad Ali that always grabs me. He’s in his white shorts, feet ready in a fighting stance. You can see the look of determination, hands poised to throw a knockout punch. But the part that grabs me is:

He’s underwater. Training. Ready to win.

I find that the image pops up in my head a lot. When I get the temptation to say “Why me, God?”, I think of Muhammad Ali. When I start thinking “I just want this to be done”, I think of Muhammad Ali. And when I complain about not getting a chance, I think of Muhammad Ali.

I imagine him jumping in the pool, knowing that he can’t swim. I imagine him holding his breaths, straining for air as he stays underwater longer and longer. I imagine him throwing punches knowing that it’s slower and more energy consuming. I imagine him doing all of that training, willingly. 

And then there’s silence in my head. The whiny voice disappears. Finally, I hear my creative voice say loudly and confidently: “I’m ready to win.”

Whenever your voices of doubt, of you’re not good enough, of you’ll fail pop into your head… Think of Muhammad Ali. Underwater. Training.

Ready to win.

Camels are a hardy species. They can walk for hundreds of miles in scorching 50 degree Celsius deserts. They can carry up to 900 pounds of weight on their backs. And they can go for days without drinking water.

But the most impressive thing is that they don’t ask for help. You’ll never hear a camel say “Hey, how about some help carrying this load, please?”

Sounds very similar of what we typically expect of our leaders. You’re expected to know it all. You can’t make a mistake in your planning. You can’t change direction. And worst of all, you can’t ask for help.

Let’s get one thing clear: that’s a myth. 

There’s no physical law that says that you need to be infallible to lead. The sooner you let that idea die, the sooner you can actually lead the way.

For your tribe, the people that care about what you have to say, they want someone who can acknowledge his mistakes. Someone who stumbles along the way. Someone who may not have everything figured out. Someone who can ask for help.

Surprisingly asking for help makes you even more relatable to your tribe. There’s an innate feeling that this person is one of “us” by asking for help. We want to follow people who want to make a difference. and can be vulnerable in front of us.

So the next time that the world expects you to be a camel, become the type of leader that they truly want.

A human one.

On a scale of 1 – 10, how much do you enjoy swimming at a tropical beach?

Most people would say at least an 8. Swimming at the beach is highly enjoyable, provided you’re swimming close to the shore.

Now, on a scale of 1 – 10, how much do you enjoy swimming in the ocean far away from land?

Most people would say about a 3 or lower, unless you’re an open-water swimmer or diver who enjoys being in the seas.

Why? I’m assuming that one of the top reasons is that you’re afraid of sharks. You’ve seen Shark Week and you know what a menace sharks can be. But the likelihood of getting eaten by a shark is 1 in 3.7 million. In other words, you’re 11 times more likely to die from fireworks than get eaten by a shark.

So what’s the real reason you’re afraid?

You’ve told yourself a story. One that doesn’t serve you. One where sharks exist exactly where you are in the ocean and are coming for you.

This same thing happens to a leader who wants to make change. You become afraid of what your colleagues might say, or how you might fail or how difficult the journey will be.

So you get stuck.

The first step out is to recognize that you’ve created a story. And that since you’ve created it, you can create another story. A better story. A story that can allow you to take one stroke after another until you get to where you need to go.

Tell yourself a better story. The sharks aren’t nearly as lethal as you think.

How do you tell if your milk went sour?

You sniff it.

It’s crude but surprisingly this is pretty accurate. Our noses and taste buds have evolved  to be able to determine what smells can lead to pain. Thus we are able to avoid the milk that goes bad or the water that smells funny.

Our sense of detecting leaders isn’t quite perfect though. Historically we’ve made some horrible decisions with picking our leaders. So I’m going to propose a “sniff test” for detecting good leaders.

If you know someone who:

• makes others feel safe in their presence
• can be vulnerable and shares their flaws openly
• explains where they are going succinctly and honestly

then chances are they are a strong leader.

It’s not a bulletproof method, but neither is sniffing milk to know if it’s gone sour.

For the next time you’re in a pinch, do the “sniff test”.