Brief snippets FYI …
Topic ONE: Generational management.
I’m sick-to-death of the “How do we manage ‘Gen Whatever'” bullshit. My response thereto:
As leader, commit yourself fully to helping everyone grow every day. Gen A. Gen B. … Gen X. Gen Y. Gen Z. Nothing new. Damn it.
People you work with can smell your (leader’s) passion for helping them grow. Or the absence thereof. Demographics be damned.
Topic TWO: “Helping.”
“Helping” is more delicate than neurosurgery, so half (three-quarters? 90%?) of the time we’re helping, in fact we’re hindering. (That’s NOT glib.)
Thought of the day: “Helping” is the most delicate act there is. (THE MOST DELICATE.) Most managers—newbies or seasoned, especially seasoned—think they understand how to help. They are delusional X10.
“Helping” is an area of intense-committed-sustained professional study—not “instinctive” or “seat of the pants” or “old wives’ tales.”
Effective-attuned listening is the heart of helping. “Listening” is an area of professional study—not seat of the pants or old wives’ tales.
Topic THREE: Selling.
Selling is 80% listening. (Not clear what the other 20% is.)
Hypothesis: Often as not/more often than not INTROVERTS make the best salespeople.
(Re introverts: Persistence and aggressiveness do not require making noise.)
Topic FOUR: Nurturing creativity in yourself.
Best way—bar none—to stay creative is to manage “hang out.” RELIGIOUSLY. Hang out with weirdos (on any and all dimensions) rather than “same old, same old” and you automatically win.
The “smartest person in the room” is the one who (KEEPS HIS OR HER MOUTH SHUT) and learns from everyone else in the room.