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01.18.25
Learn to Take Time to Take Time to Change
HOW do you start your day? Is it hitting snooze 4 times before you reluctantly crawl out of bed, accepting your fate of another day? Or, are you on the other side of the spectrum, waking up at 4 am in order to ‘win the day,’ hitting the gym and grabbing a quick post workout bite before most people are even awake? Maybe you are a night owl work late and take your coffee black at 2 pm. Whatever your daily routine, it may be time to look at it with a fresh pair of eyes and an intention to change something. Most people make the mistake of going big where change is concerned. The quintessential example of this is the night owl, with trouble waking up before 8 am, setting a goal to wake up early, maybe at 6:30 am every day, hoping it will help them become the person they always wanted to be. Assuming they’re like most, they might succeed in this endeavor for a few days, maybe even a week or two, but as is the way with most resolutions, they will eventually revert back to old habits. Soon, one day will turn into two, and before they know it, months have gone by and they are making the same promise all over again. Unfortunately, continually repeating the same failing scenario produces a negative feedback loop that permits people to talk disparagingly to themselves, e.g. you suck; you really should get out of bed on time and quit being a bum. The negative feedback becomes a detriment to self-image, and as studies show, a negative self-image can affect everything from how much you earn, to the quality of friends you keep, to what you eat, and to what you allow into your body. In short, your negative self-talk creates a negative self-image, which potentially creates harmful self-sabotage. Change is Coming Whether it’s to start the year on a positive footing, or choose to make changes when the time is right, here are 3 tips on how to move forward based on who you already are and who you hope to become. Tip #1: Start small Rather than being the night owl who suddenly aims to wake up at 6 am, essentially trying for a 180 degree turn in lifestyle and schedule, aim lower. Your resolution could be to go to bed 1 hour earlier, stop watching TV 2 hours before bed, or maybe sleep-in late one day a week. So often we pick solutions based on the equivalent of “cheat codes” in video games. Rather than putting in the time to become a person who constantly gets a great night of sleep, we foolishly plug in a habit (code) that some guru swears will make us successful. Instead, let your changes be small, incremental improvements based on where you are now. Waking up at 6 am can still be your long term goal, but by setting an initial target to go to bed an hour earlier in month 1, then once you have this down adding 10 minutes of stretching in month 2, and so on, you’ll not only find it easier to eventually wake up at 6 am, you’ll find that by making small incremental adjustments along the way, you secretly architected a new lifestyle, making the big goal much easier to achieve. Tip 2: View your habits as investments in yourself, not as a checklist you will be graded on One year, I made a resolution to quit drinking. Still in my late 20s, and coming out of a recent divorce, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you it didn’t last long. Eventually, I got there (3 years later), but it wasn’t easy. Part of the trouble was allowing one lapse in behavior to fuel another. When a buddy would ask, “you want a beer?” it was so much easier to say yes when I already had a drink the night before, my excuse usually being, “sure, I drank yesterday, it’s not like I can go back and undo that.” Part of my underlying logic was based on keeping score. Losing yesterday meant I had already blown getting a perfect record, so there was no real harm doing it again. It wasn’t until I read the 5 am Club, by Robin Sharma, and started viewing my habits as investments in myself and my life, that I really started to make progress. Saying no to a beer wasn’t about some arbitrary checklist on which I was keeping score for and with myself. Rather, it was a decision to invest in myself; saying “no” meant I’d have more energy the next morning to do the things I cared most for. Tip 3: When in doubt, start your day doing the thing you love for at least 30 minutes I love to read and I love to learn new things. Therefore, I start every day by brewing my favorite mushroom coffee, sitting down with a book on the subject I currently want to learn more about, and then losing myself in both the coffee and the book for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes, I read about business and investing. Other times, I learn about color in art and the history of pigments. Recently, I’ve been mixing in books on flying, since I’m currently working on getting my pilots’ license. By starting my day with my favorite things, this daily habit helps me get out of bed and also stay focused on what I want, instead of getting sucked into social media or other form of distraction. Maybe you love yoga or weight lifting. Or maybe you don’t yet know what you love. If that’s the case, start by taking 30 minutes a day to explore things you might be interested in. Eventually, you’ll find something that brings you joy, improves your opinion of yourself, and helps you get out of bed, eager to learn more about it.
Sean McMann was recruited right out of college to work at one of the largest data firms, and then embarked on an eight-year journey from new grad to consulting director. Privileged to see behind the curtain of some of the largest corporations today, he recognized the system was broken and quit at the height of his career, when working the least but making the most money he ever had, betting everything, including his money, reputation, and time, on trying to fix the problem of the corporate jungle. He shares his insights in his new book, Hacking the Corporate Jungle: How to Work Less, Make More and Actually Like Your Life. When he's not writing, researching, and speaking, McMann spends his time riding his bike, visiting art museums, snowboarding, and playing with his two young sons. Learn more at seanmcmann.com.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:42 PM
01.17.25
Leading Thoughts for January 16, 2025
IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: Joel Kurtzman on leadership: “The leader is not separate from the group he or she leads. Rather, the leader is the organization’s glue—the force that binds it together, sets its direction, and makes certain that the group functions as one. Good leaders are not outsiders who cheer on a group. They are part of that group, integrated deeply into its fabric and emotional life. Connecting with the group you lead means demonstrating you are part of the group, understand its challenges, can do its jobs, and can stand the pressure and the heat.” Source: Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the Extraordinary Greg Satell on identifying a keystone change: “To create real change, change that sticks and won’t be soon reversed, you need to identify a fundamental issue that encapsulates the value of the mission—a keystone change that is concrete and tangible, unites the efforts of multiple stakeholders, and paves the way for greater change. Revolutions don’t begin with a slogan—they begin with a cause. Source: Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.   Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:14 PM
01.09.25
Leading Thoughts for January 9, 2025
IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: Jack Trout on being a doer: “The best leaders know that direction alone is no longer enough. The best leaders are storytellers, cheerleaders, and facilitators. They reinforce their sense of direction or vision with words and action.” Source: The Power of Simplicity: A Management Guide to Cutting Through the Nonsense and Doing Things Right Jack Welch on simplicity: “For a large organization to be effective, it must be simple. Insecure managers create complexity. Real leaders don’t need clutter. People must have the self-confidence to be clear, precise, to be sure that every person in their organization—highest to lowest—understands what the business is to achieve. But it’s not easy. You can’t believe how hard it is for people to be simple, how much they fear being simple. They worry that if they’re simple, people will think they’re simple-minded. In reality, of course, it’s just the reverse. Clear, tough-minded people are the most simple.” Source: Noel Tichy and Ram Charan: Speed, Simplicity, Self-Confidence: An Interview with Jack Welch, Harvard Business Review Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:56 AM
01.02.25
Leading Thoughts for January 2, 2025
IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: Brian Tracy on zero-based thinking: “To simplify your life, zero-based thinking is one of the most powerful strategies you can learn and apply on a regular basis. Here’s how it works. Ask yourself, ‘Is there anything I am doing right now that, knowing what I now know, I wouldn’t get into again if I were starting over today?’” Donald Miller on creating meaning: “We build lives of meaning by stating an ambition, by enduring challenges, and by sharing our lives with others. The single characteristic that sets heroes apart is that they are willing to accept a challenge that will ultimately transform them. Heroes take action, which is why they are so good at experiencing meaning.” Source: Hero on a Mission: A Path to a Meaningful Life Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:15 AM
01.01.25
First Look: Leadership Books for January 2025
HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in January 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
There are more pieces of digital data than there are stars in the universe. This data helps us monitor our planet, decipher our genetic code, and take a deep dive into our psychology. As algorithms become increasingly adept at accessing the human mind, they also become more and more powerful at controlling it, enticing us to buy a certain product or vote for a certain political candidate. Some of us say this technological trend is no big deal. Others consider it one of the greatest threats to humanity. But what if the truth is more nuanced and mind-bending than that? In Mindmasters, Columbia Business School professor Sandra Matz reveals in fascinating detail how big data offers insights into the most intimate aspects of our psyches and how these insights empower an external influence over the choices we make. With passion and clear-eyed precision, Matz shows us how to manage psychological targeting and redesign the data game. Mindmasters is a riveting look at what our digital footprints reveal about us, how they're being used—for good and for ill—and how we can gain power over the data that defines us.
Changing how we work can feel overwhelming. Like trying to budge an enormous boulder. We’re stifled by the gravity of the way we’ve always done things. And we spend so much time fighting fires—and fighting colleagues—that we lack the energy to shift direction. But with the right strategy, we can move the boulder. In Reset, Heath explores a framework for getting unstuck and making the changes that matter. The secret is to find “leverage points”: places where a little bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Then, we can thoughtfully rearrange our resources to push on those points.
Whether you’re a leader, a member of a team, a spouse, or a parent, this engaging and rigorous exploration unpacks the science of inspiration. Through compelling stories, fascinating research, and practical tips for addressing the common dilemmas we face daily, Inspire reveals how all of us, regardless of status or circumstance, can be more inspiring more often. Social psychologist and leadership expert Adam Galinsky has spent three decades building a method for determining when we are inspiring versus infuriating, and where various leaders—presidents, CEOs, coaches, teachers, parents, and a wealth of others—currently land on that spectrum. .
In an era where the foundational elements of business are being disrupted, Essential emerges as a crucial guide for leaders navigating the profound changes reshaping industries and markets worldwide. This book, penned by a team of seasoned business and leadership strategists, offers a radical and necessary perspective on management transformation, emphasizing the importance of human-centered leadership in meeting the full potential of the technology age. Essential is not just a book; it's a roadmap for 21st-century leaders facing existential challenges in a rapidly evolving global market. Perfect for managers, executives, directors, founders, entrepreneurs, and any business leader aiming to steer their organization towards success in a transformed landscape, this book provides the tools and insights needed to lead with conviction and humanity. Whether you're looking to redefine your leadership approach, adapt to the transformed market, or leave a lasting legacy, this book offers a compelling case for why now is the time for a leadership reinvention.
Business is on the cusp of a profound transformation. Conventional work models are failing to adapt to the evolving needs and expectations of the modern workforce. Simultaneously, the emergence of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, coupled with web3 innovations, including the metaverse and decentralized work models, is unlocking a new realm of possibilities. It raises the question: Is the era of traditional employment over? The tools of tomorrow will amplify human potential, from collaborating in virtual spaces through digital avatars, to managing transactions transparently on blockchain. Those who embrace these technologies—and the ways people want to work—will unleash unprecedented levels of productivity and innovation. But those who don't risk losing out on the best talent, and even becoming obsolete.
   
“You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well. And I mean that last "well" in both senses. You have to be good at reading, and read good things.” — Paul Graham, Y Combinator co-founder
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 02:40 PM
12.31.24
LeadershipNow 140: December 2024 Compilation
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:15 AM
12.27.24
5 Leadership Lessons: Tony Blair on Leadership Essentials
TONY BLAIR wrote a book about leadership in government. However, his practical ideas on leading in the 21st century apply across the board. Leadership, both good and bad, leaves clues for us to study how other leaders have handled problems and challenges common in all leadership situations. On Leadership does just that. It is the unwise leader who thinks they know everything. Learning from others’ mistakes and successes is the best way to guard against leadership hubris. Below are a selection of Blair’s thoughts on leadership.
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:12 AM
12.26.24
Leading Thoughts for December 26, 2024
IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: Joe Davis on engaging the skeptics: “Have you ever been in a room, presenting an idea for change, and someone says, ‘Oh, that will never work’? Or you’ve solicited feedback as you work through your options, and you hear the ‘No, we cannot do that’? Your instinct might be to be defensive or just ignore them, but their perspective and experience, if you can embrace it, will strengthen your position. Asking for more information about why they feel the way they do, and then listening carefully to what they say, can be the best course of action.” Source: The Generous Leader: 7 Ways to Give of Yourself for Everyone’s Gain Behnam Tabrizi on the challenge to breaking organizational inertia: “Besides the inertia of size and complexity, human nature is the main obstacle to change. People are conditioned to give away their own power. From being entirely dependent as infants, to partially dependent as we grow into adulthood, we are tempted to continue that pattern. We often abdicate our own thinking to the books we read and the lectures we hear; we leave the dictates of morality to religious leaders and our diet to doctors. Essentially, we’re too afraid to think for ourselves. In the workplace, we’re comfortable ceding our power to the bureaucratic hierarchy so we can settle into a predictable, stable set of routines and tasks.” Source: Going on Offense: A Leader’s Playbook for Perpetual Innovation Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:42 PM
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Mindmasters
Reset
Inspire
Essential
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Here is a selection of 
Leaders have the courage not to go with the flow. They speak up when others stay silent. They act when others hesitate. They take the risk, not because they fail to identify it as risk but because they believe a higher purpose means the risk should be taken. The Leader sets out for the people what they need and not simply what they want. Otherwise, the Leader is just a follower.
If You come across something unpleasant or cruel that has been written about you: DON’T READ IT! If it’s a horrible headline, ignore it. If it’s an awful article, don’t look at it. None of this means that you shouldn’t listen to sensible and serious criticism. You should. You can learn from it. But you won’t learn anything from the stuff that’s vomiting forth, that’s written for clicks, that delights in its nastiness, that takes pleasure in the hope it is inflicting pain. And if you let it get to you, then you have lost, and ‘they’—whoever at any given time ‘they’ may be—have won. Treat the handling of criticism not as about the receiving of a blow, but as the willingness to be knocked down by it. See refusal and defiance as victories. Because they are.
When things are going really well, that’s the time to worry about what could go really wrong. Hubris, in its most egregious form, combines overbearing arrogance with malevolence. But hubris can also stem as much from ignorance as vice. The sin lies in these characteristics: thinking you know more than you do; a belief that you have the power to affect a situation that you can’t, or at least not in the way you want; an overly exuberant conviction that you can overcome the odds, however much they may be against you; a faith that by sheer force of conviction you can triumph over an embedded reality.
Since leaving office, I have met a big swathe of the business community, including, for fundraising purposes, a significant number of billionaires. I have noticed, however, that in some that success has given them a sense of self-belief that makes them think they’re not only good at the thing that made them rich, but smarter than anyone on other things. The political world contains similar offenders. You win great victory or manage to ascend somehow to the top of what the nineteenth-century Conservative prime minister Benjamin Disraeli called “the greasy pole.” You conclude that you’re a genius. You figured it all out. You came through. You beat the rest. You forget that it isn’t only about ability; it is also about circumstance, the door of opportunity opening in a timely manner, the poor quality of the opposition and, of course, luck.
A Leader should never bear a grudge. Grudges are wasted energy. They are pointless and mentally time-consuming. They are bad for the esteem in which others hold you and in which you hold yourself. They’re also a sure way of converting someone who dislikes you into someone who hates you. Leadership is best exercised when the senses are cold, not hot; calm, not stormy; detached from personal rancor; when the teeth are not grinding or gnashing and the eyes are seeing the whole picture, not the small corner to which they are drawn by irritation or anger. There is nothing wrong with emotion—we’re human. But emotion should not discolour. It should not warp.
