A New Source Code

In baseball, there’s only one place in the entire field where you get to swing a bat. In the “batter’s box”.

That’s it.

If you set the goal to hit a home run, you have to go to the batter’s box. At any other location on the field, you would have 0% chance of hitting the ball. Actually you wouldn’t even be able to swing a bat. You’d be doing something else, but not trying to hit the ball.

For most goals in life, there’s usually one optimal place to be to get results. It’s your batter’s box. 

As a leader, you must determine where is your batter’s box for your team. It’s one of your most important jobs on a strategic level. Find the batter’s box and you can put your team in their sweet spot.

You can’t afford to waste time, resources or energy placing your team away from the action. And let’s be honest, most of the time, that’s precisely what you do. You give them the wrong goals or you tell them to do the wrong activities. You mislead them because you don’t know where they should be.

Take the time to find which area best leverages your team’s skills.

Where exactly is your batter’s box?

 

I’m going to tell you a secret. Now keep this between you and me. Promise? Okay here it is:

Stay Open. 

Huh? What does that mean?

How many times have you planned for something and it didn’t work out? Like the time when your flight was cancelled last minute. Or when you didn’t get the job that you wanted. Or when your client gave you a last minute request that caused you to miss the comedy event you were going to see.

Each of them is an objectively “bad” event right? Wait a minute…. Maybe not?

Maybe these events are opportunities for you to become a better person. Maybe

The fact is you are notoriously poor at judging for yourself what will be good for you. You don’t get the job and you get a better offer at a better company later. Your flight gets cancelled and so you spend another day with your loved ones. You miss the comedy event but get a promotion based on the work you did with your client.

We can’t see the arc of our lives. Something that may be “horrible” now, could be the single greatest thing that ever happened to you. So get rid of the tendency to judge an event as it happens. It actually holds you back from becoming your best self.

Look at each event as an opportunity to practice leading and living with compassion and love.

Promise me you’ll remember this secret. It’s the best thing I’ve learnt so far. And I know it’ll help you in the future.

Stay open.

• Perfect Information
• Unlimited Time
• Unlimited Options
• Guarantee that it will work
• Unlimited budget
• Super easy to implement

Congrats on making your perfect decision! Woohoo!

Clearly, this is unrealistic. The likelihood of making the perfect decision is zero. Never will happen. Not even on Mars. (Actually especially if you’re on Mars).

But for the rest of us , you can make better decisions by asking yourself some questions:

• What are your current options?
• How can you widen the option pool?
• If you are thinking of choosing one option over another, then why not think of choosing both?
• Can you test those assumptions behind the decision?
• What’s the base rate of success?
• Are you too emotionally involved in the decision?
• When will you evaluate your decision to see if you’re on track? (My favorite question)

These questions surface your biases, the ones you normally ignore. For a deeper look into what questions can help, read Decisive by the Heath Brothers. It’s phenomenal!

What’s holding you back from making a near perfect decision today?

Imagine this: You’re well rested. You’re singing your favorite song  in the car on the way to work. And the weather is perfect for the drive; brilliant blue skies and hot sunshine

As you walk into your office, you run into your grumpy boss. You try to avoid him but he grumbles to you: “I hate mornings when the sun is so bright! I can’t ever see when I’m driving to work.. And jeez, I hate that someone left dishes in the sink again!”

What’s your mood at this precise moment?

If you’re like most people, your mood will go down, if only slightly. You will subconsciously start to mimic his mood. Why?

It’s a process called mirroring.

You start to imitate the behavior of your boss as a way to show empathy. It’s a habit wired in our brains. You copy him, even if you don’t want to. I mean you’re having the best morning of your life! Why would you want to go to a low state?

The reality is that, when you’re the leader – everyone mirrors you. Subconsciously, people look to you for clues to see how they should behave. Consider it a hangover from our caveman days. We looked to the leader of the tribe for guidance on how we should act in a given situation.

So if you’re the leader and you’re worried, the rest of the team notices. You can’t hide it. They will start to feel on edge. The team’s mood is a reflection of your mood.

Be very careful of what emotions you project.

Mirror, mirror.

You can’t.

Not even a little bit.

There are only two things that you have full control over:

Your thoughts and your actions.

Outside of that, it’s up to the gods. Every final outcome of on action is not in your control. Even the simple act of turning on the bath water isn’t always in your control. You don’t always get hot water when you turn it on, do you? So why do you imagine that it will be the same when you lead your team?

My main point is that you get lucky so often that you mistake chance for choice. Strangely, this is the most liberating thing you could ever learn. Surrendering control of the outcome means that you can spend your energy elsewhere. Like trying actions that might actually work.

And if those actions don’t initially work the way you intend, you can just do another action. That’s it. No complaining that you didn’t get the outcome you wanted. No wishing that things were different.

It helps if you view the world like a scientist. You’re coming up with new hypotheses and then testing them. You’re constantly experimenting with different actions to see what works and what doesn’t. You might get the results you want along the way. But you must always remember that you can never fully control the final outcome.

Focus on your actions instead.

 

 

Q: In soccer, when is your team most likely to be scored against?

A: Within 2 minutes of your team scoring a goal.

You would think that your team would be on top. Psychologically, they have inflicted damage against their opponents. Your opponents should be down and out..

Yet, your players mentally relax. They get comfortable. They don’t make the extra effort to put numbers behind the ball. They don’t pressure on the opposing team. They don’t try to finish them off.

Scoring a goal is precisely the time when you, as a leader, should keep your guard up. You slip, you relax and before you know it, you’re wondering what happened to your team’s mojo. Call it overconfidence, or ego, or complacency. You know what happens – you regress to your mean level.

When you make an achievement, it’s the ultimate test. Do you want the goal or is that goal just a stepping stone? Are you willing to keep doing the work when you’re getting the plaudits? Are you in it for the glory or are you doing it to reach mastery?

Will you keep focused to win the game?

I see you. 

This little phrase can unlock the potential in your team. Your team members simply want to be seen. To feel appreciated. To feel respected. To feel valued.

I see you. 

As leaders, you must have this phrase tattooed on your forehead. You must “see” them and their work everyday. Again. And again. It never ends.

How you “see” each of them may vary. It could be that you send a song of their favorite music. Or you could send a company wide email, praising the performance of one person. Or you could leave some chocolate on their desk. Or you might even send them that book that they always wanted.

The beauty of this is that if you do it well, they’ll have your back. For life. They’ll work late. They’ll work when they’re sick. They’ll do anything to help you achieve your goals.

But first, they want you to say,

I see you. 

Imagine you’ve been recently hired to be the CEO of a small family run company. The company has about 60 employees who’ve never heard of you. And you’re younger than most of the employees by at least 20 years. In their eyes, they see you as just a baby in diapers.

“Who’s this young guy? And what’s he doing here? Come on, I have to now listen to this youth!? I bet he last 2 months before he gives up…”

As you stand up on the podium to address the company, what should you say?

First, you start by acknowledging the elephant in the room – you’re young and relatively inexperienced.

Be humble and tell them that you have a lot to learn from them.

Spend as much time one on one with each of your direct reports. Take them out for lunch. Get to know them as thoroughly as possible. You can’t lead them anywhere unless they like and want to follow you.

Avoid making major changes within the first 3-6 months as you get up to speed.

Lean on the old CEO and encourage her to personally endorse you as head of the company. This will ease the fears for the majority of the employees.

Recognize that about 10% of the employees will not be behind the decision. They won’t follow you because you’re young or maybe you have an MBA or some other reason. That’s normal. Change is always scary for some.

And above all, be grateful for the opportunity to lead them. Make them feel that you will carry on the legacy and take the company to a better place. That you’ll make the founder proud.

You might have some teething problems, but if you stay humble, then you’ll grow into a leader. One that they can admire and respect.

Not bad for a baby in diapers after all.

 

How do you create the owner mindset in your employees?

Give them more responsibility. Not too much. And not too quickly. But give them enough that they feel the weight of their job.

When you have an employee who is skilled and willing to do more, this is easy to do. In that situation, you give him as much as he can handle. But what happens when you have  someone who you consider to be loafing on the job. How do you create the owner mindset then?

You show them the direct effect their activities have on the bottom line. In terms of dollars and cents. That’s the key.

You show them how much they are costing the firm. You show them how much they produce and its effect on revenue. You show them how much revenue the firm can make by hiring someone better than them. If that doesn’t motivate them, then maybe they shouldn’t be a part of your company.

But what if you don’t have all of that information on hand?

Then maybe you’re not really an owner. Go get your owner’s mindset first.

One of my favorite leaders of all time is Frodo Baggins.

Huh? The hobbit?

To me, he shows tremendous character to resist temptation throughout his journey to Mt. Doom. He faces danger, fear, criticism and even death. And he faces a mountain of temptation along the way.

Here are the points where he could have turned back during his journey:

• Gandalf gives him the ring and advises him to take it to the next town.
• On his way, he is attacked by the Nazgul warriors and nearly dies.
• He steps up and decides to take the ring to Mt. Doom himself.
• He watches as Gandalf, his dear friend, falls into a pit and he is unable to rescue him.
• His teammate Boromir, turns on him and tries to take the ring.
• He escapes and eventually decides to continue on the journey alone.
• He finds a guide, Gollum, who eventually betrays him.
• He gets stung by a massive spider Shelob
• He is taken prisoner by orcs.
• He is rescued by his friend and they reach Mt. Doom where the ring gets destroyed*

He had so many opportunities to quit and return to his safe comfortable existence. Why, on Middle Earth, did he keep going?

Because of his why.

He knew that if he didn’t continue, he would be living in a world of chaos. Sauron would come back and destroy the world as he knew it. In a sense, he had to keep going.

At this point you might be thinking: “This is just fiction. I don’t have to be that good. One time won’t hurt anyone.”

And you might be right. You might not be able to fight off all of the temptation. You may slip up and make a mistake. Even Frodo succumbs to temptation at the end and wants to keep the ring to himself.

But my point is: What’s your why that will keep you from straying? What are you leading for? And, importantly, what kind of leader do you want to become?

Because if you’re just in it for the money, fame or power, then forget being a leader. You’ll take any chance to take a bribe or sleep with the secretary or commit fraud. Honestly, we have enough of those leaders right now. We don’t need any more.

More Frodos, please.

*Author’s note – I recognize that Frodo eventually succumbs to temptation and wants to keep the ring for himself. But, he gets his finger bitten off immediately after he puts it on. Maybe there’s some form of justice in that. Interesting, no?*