New Today:

​Click above for the Flywheel Exercise.  Buckingham on Feedback.  Deborah Ancona on Sense-Making, the forgotten key to successful leadership. 

The Feedback article by Buckingham is truly counterintuitive.  We have all grown up with the idea that feedback is necessary in order to learn effectively.  In school, we were hammered daily with A's, B's, and C's.  The all-powerful teachers used their red pens and pencils to correct, correct, and correct... scribbling disrespectfully all over our precious work.
At work, the dreaded annual reviews and in the military, the EPR's gave senior employees and officers the power to "fix you" in print.  According to Buckingham, this process rarely helps performance.  In fact, it takes on a life of its own, fostering resentment and in many ways, diminishes performance.  Buckingham jokes, "humans are not very good at figuring out what other people really need in order to get better."

You might enjoy his book, Nine Lies About Work - - - which tells the whole story.  He does have quite a sense of humor.

​This article states, "People need attention, not correction."

On Leadership Development
https://hbr.org/2019/03/educating-the-next-generation-of-leaders#the-future-of-leadership-development

8 Ways to Manage Your Team...
https://hbr.org/2020/03/8-ways-to-manage-your-team-while-social-distancing
"Support continued learning but keep it short. Learning doesn’t have to stop in this new environment, but it may be more practical to use microlearning. Focus on sharing short lessons on a single topic in a five to 10-minute segment. These might cover a specific tool, behavior, or skill. Rotate the delivery of these lessons among team members and allow them to identify their own topics for training. You might ask a different team member to debrief the lesson and lead a short discussion about the application, relevance, and implications of what everyone learned."
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Note: Just received in the mail today the latest edition of Forbes Magazine.  More on that later in the week.

Note:  Watched a 20 minute interactive video-lecture featuring the extraordinary leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton during his most challenging voyage to the Antarctic.  I will make it available later in the week.

What Good Leadership Looks Like During This Pandemic
co-authored by Amy Edmondson, who also wrote, Extreme Teaming
https://hbr.org/2020/04/what-good-leadership-looks-like-during-this-pandemic

Still Available:

Is It even possible to focus on anything right now
https://hbr.org/2020/04/is-it-even-possible-to-focus-on-anything-right-now

Spark Your Creativity Now
https://hbr.org/2020/03/dont-let-your-obsession-with-productivity-kill-your-creativity

Better Brainstorming by Hal Gregerson      
https://hbr.org/2018/03/better-brainstorming

Coach: Hal Gregerson is "the question man".  His book, Questions Are The Answer features 318 pages on the subject of questions.  As you have heard from me, in our one-on-one sessions and at our workshops, being able to ask good questions is a key to motivating your colleague-employees to perform at the highest level.  Remember leaders,  asking works better than telling.

Go to the MIT Leadership Center.org if you want to hear from Hal Gregerson.

In Praise of The Incomplete Leader by Deborah Ancona+ and Peter Senge 
https://hbr.org/2007/02/in-praise-of-the-incomplete-leader

Coach:  I often speak about Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline.  I consider him to be one of the smartest.  This article that he co-wrote with other colleagues, focuses on a critical point about strong leadership... You can't do it alone... You should not feel weak or less talented because you depend on the talents of your teammates.  In fact, smart leaders purposely find people who have skills and abilities different from their own, that strengthens the team effort.

Learning for a Living​ by Gianpiero Petriglieri
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/learning-for-a-living/

Coach: You all know that this coach is absolutely into learning.  After all, what is all of this "brainpower for?"  This is one of many articles about how we can learn, grow, and change... for ourselves... for our team... for our families...for our Vets.

quick look:  Despite the lofty statements and steep investments, however, learning at work remains complicated. People are ambivalent about it, if not outright resistant. We want to learn, but we worry that we might not like what we learn. Or that learning will cost us too much. Or that we will have to give up cherished ideas.  There is often some shame involved in learning something new as an adult, a mentor told me at the start of my career. What if, in the process, we’re found lacking? What if we simply cannot pick up the knowledge and skills we need? I have spent two decades studying adult learning, helping companies design and deploy learning initiatives, and teaching and coaching thousands of high potentials and executives all over the world. And I have found that mentor’s words to be wise: Nothing truly novel, nothing that matters, is ever learned with ease.

HBR Article The contagion we can control
https://hbr.org/2020/03/the-contagion-we-can-control


Team,
We have been looking at different ways to boost our skill set.  See if you can find some interesting and useful information in the three articles above.  Remember, you do not have to read the entire piece.  Practice jumping in and out.
Coach