It goes without saying that the year 2020 has tested our collective mettle - as individuals, small communities, and greater society at large. Many of us are wondering what we can do to strengthen our character and our resolve in order to get through whatever may be next. A few months back we linked to an article on how to stay optimistic in a time of crisis. The gist of it: Allow yourself to feel your feelings. All of them. Without judgement or rumination. Feeling your feelings, along with a daily gratitude practice have turned out to be two key factors allow us to rise above the fray and continue on. Recently, another trait has been linked to resiliency: the experience of hardship and suffering. Harvard Business Review has published a piece by Marcus Buckingham looking at what really allows us to rise above to adversity. Mr. Buckingham’s study connected the quality of resiliency to the experience of previous hardship more than any other individual experience. It turns out, what inspires fear is simply the unknowns. Once we are facing our troubles and can take stock of obstacles to overcome, that’s when our true strength comes out. Take a few moments to read Mr. Buckingham’s research, and see if you can’t identify with some of the experiences he describes.
Disney, Squared
“The biggest mistake marketers make is believing choice is a good thing. It isn’t. Consumers don’t want more choice, but to be more confident in the choices presented.” Says Dr. Scott Galloway in his recent “No Mercy, No Malice” blog posting that looks at companies who created “rundles”; Galloway’s term for “recurring revenue bundles.” Examples include Amazon, Peloton and Apple. The effect that rundles can have on a firm’s market value is obviously profound.
Galloway thinks the next rundle will be Disney if it moves from its recently introduced “Disney Plus” to what he terms “Disney Squared” by more effective use of its staggering assets. He outlines a strategy that suggests that Disney can leverage its assets, customers and current conditions like Covid to create a much more valuable - and difficult to imitate - enterprise. Check out Galloway’s predictions should Disney “Unleash the Mouse”. Some great strategic thinking for any C-Level Executive… and if Galloway is right, you, your kids and grandchildren will help make it happen.
Do you have a rundle in your business?
The Leader and The Spiral
We’ve all been in group situations when it’s uncomfortable to speak up about one’s opinion. Much of this is due to group dynamics (i.e. being separated from a group we value, the perceived risk of losing a job or other forms of risk). A recap of research on this phenomenon suggest that “The only time someone will feel safe to voice a divergent opinion is if they think the group will share it or be accepting of divergence, or if they view the consequences of rejection as low.” But this biological drive doesn’t just dictate how individuals behave—it ends up shaping communities. It’s almost impossible for us to step outside of that need for acceptance. Scientists call it the “Spiral of Silence.”
Teamwork in all its forms requires a willingness and ability for team members to share thoughts, opinions and abilities. The job of a C-suite a leader is to make doing so a safe experience, even if it’s not always a comfortable one. Unless you can recognize the Spiral of Silence and its implications, your effectiveness as a leader will be less than it could be, and needs to be. The short article linked above is enlightening on the nature and implications of the Spiral, an aspect of leadership you didn’t even know was missing… or have been avoiding.
Women on Wall Street; Now and Then
One would think that a woman being named head of one of the world’s largest banks would have happened by now, after other women (though by no means yet proportionate to their share of the populace) in industrial and retail arenas have long ago attainted the corner office. This past week Jane Fraser was named CEO of Citibank, the first woman to lead a major Wall Street Firm. While she may be the first female CEO of a major Wall Street firm, another woman once reigned as one of Wall Street’s most powerful players even though she was not a CEO.
Hetty Green had been born into a wealthy family in 1834. She learned the art of investing from her successful father so well that she multiplied her inheritance of $6 million to over $2 Billion (both figures in today’s dollars) by her death in 1916. Like many successful business people (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Carly Fiorina, Jeff Bezos), Hetty had some sharp edges to her personality and many felt that her unfortunate sobriquet, the “Witch of Wall Street”, was to some degree deserved, though male contemporaries in similar pursuits rarely suffered similar nicknames. Regardless of any personal shortcomings, it’s clear she achieved astounding investment results decades before she was even been eligible to vote. Spend a few minutes on this short bio of Mrs. Green: “The Peculiar Story of the Witch of Wall Street.”
Don't Trust Anyone Over 60?
During the 60’s, the Boomers warned each other, “Don’t trust anybody over 30.” Gen X and Gen Y’s version may well be “Don’t trust anybody over 60.”
Why, you ask? The Great Recession of 2008 set back more than a few Boomers’ retirement accounts. Covid didn’t help either. While the financial markets have recovered much of 2020 losses, more than a few people, Boomers among them, lost their jobs. The end result is that many Boomers who planned to retire at 65 will want (need) to extend their work lives to make retirement possible.
This presents a real challenge for the career aspirations of Gen Y and Z. Pre-Covid, companies focused on acquiring talent, but keeping that talent requires an expectation on the part of younger workers that advancement opportunities will materialize on a timely basis. If Boomers’ late checkout blocks advancement, and/or your company doesn’t grow sufficiently to provide opportunities for them, Gen Y and X will look elsewhere. Check out this article from the Kellogg School of Management summarizing recent research where this is already happening : “Young Workers Lose Out When Their Coworkers Delay Retirement.”
Coming Out of the Crisis: Stronger and Strategically Aligned
It goes without saying that the events of the year 2020 will forever change the global economic landscape. The ramifications of a global pandemic and the shifts in economies and work forces will be felt for years to come. For the business community, this means that leaders are having to re-evaluate priorities like never before; and are basically having to re-invent ideas on a near daily basis.
James O’Gara, CEO and Founder of OnMessage (a strategic B2B consultation firm) has some good advice for those in the midst of this struggle. His piece in Texas CEO Magazine outlines six strategic questions to ask yourself as a business leader in order to emerge from this crisis in a position of strength and clarity. Check out these strategies (along with a few other pearls of wisdom), and see what it means for business owners and C-suite leadership everywhere.
Leadership: Restoring Trust in Untrusting Times
So far, the year 2020 has brought a global pandemic, millions of jobs lost, businesses closing, police brutality, social unrest, and spike after spike of COVID-19 cases (not to mention the murder hornets, hurricanes, and fires!). These are incredibly unsure times, and keeping faith in leadership, both civic and organizational, can be challenging. Wharton School of Business adjunct professor Gregory P. Shea, PhD. has written a new piece discussing the divide between leadership and their followers that has grown exponentially in recent years.
In his article, Dr. Shea lays out a ten-point plan to rebuild trust among groups of people whose interests seem quite divergent at times. Perhaps these ten points can begin to bridge the gap that has dominated our realities not only in 2020, but for the past many years. Give it a read and see if you, too, can regain a bit of trust that may have been lost.
Certainty and Conviction
The past several months have tested leaders across the planet; from politicians and C-suite execs down to middle management. Many people who hold the position of leader, but perhaps without much in the way of experience, have learned on the job what that position demands. It may be helpful for all leaders to step back, take a breath and ask if your leadership is measuring up.
Dr. Travis Bradberry, author or “Emotional Intelligence 2.0” and “The Seagull Manager “ offers a brief leadership inventory that may help you judge yourself in two key areas that constitute much of leadership: Certainty and Conviction. This short post by Dr. Bradbury, How Great Leaders Confront a Crisis, offers an interesting checklist for these two key areas.
Quiz yourself and see how you measure up to the checklists.
A Tribute to John Lewis
Congressman John Robert Lewis passed away last week at the age of 80 after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Born the son of sharecroppers, Lewis became a figurehead in the civil rights movement after the 1965 march on Selma, Alabama.
In the wake of that march, Lewis (among many others) survived brutal beatings at the hands of the police. He also suffered beatings from angry civilian mobs as one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, an interracial group of men determined to defy the law that prohibited people of different races from sitting next to one another on public transportation. He was one of the founding members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later was elected to lead that organization. Later in his career Mr. Lewis took a position in the Carter administration, before winning a senate seat for Georgia’s 5th district, which he held for over three decades. Posthumously, it was just announced that a high school in Virginia that was heretofore named after Robert E. Lee, will be renamed in honor of Congressman Lewis.
Such a remarkable career prompted many memorable quotes, and an opinion piece in the Washington Post has paid tribute to Congressman Lewis using his own words. Rest in power, John Robert Lewis.
Changes of Degree and Not of Kind
One of the ways we manage our hearts and minds in times like these is to assume that everything that matters will change; that we are at a global turning point. History shows this is rarely this case. Assuming change will be extreme helps us manage our emotions: if it happens we won’t be surprised; if it doesn’t we can be relieved our worst fears weren’t realized.
Wharton Business School Professor Mauro Guillen’s new book: “2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything,” makes the case that the changes emanating from the Corona crisis will be significant, but not of the order of previous the Black Death in the 1300s or the Great Depression of 1930; in other words, changes of degree and not of kind.
The review of this forthcoming book in Chief Executive Magazine summarizes Dr. Guillen’s thesis that “the virus will intensify and accelerate rather than create a series of interrelated trends, all of which will have an increasing influence on every aspect of life across the world over the coming decade.”
Check out this short review of “A Changed World by 2030: How Covid Accelerates 6 Key Trends.”