Meikles & Dimes

178: Focus on Strengths over Weaknesses | Sarah Dalton

Sarah Dalton is a partner at Conchie Associates, a consulting firm that uses psychometric assessments to help CEOs and Boards select talented leaders. She is the author of the book, The Five Talents that really Matter, with co-author Barry Conchie. Sarah earned a Masters degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Colorado State University. In this episode we discuss the following:

• To achieve our potential, it is most effective to focus on areas where we have some natural ability and curiosity. Motivation and hard work can only take us so far.

• Rather than constantly working on our weaknesses, it is often more effective to harness our strengths.

 

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177: Filmmaker Ken Burns | “I Will Do Whatever Inly Rejoices Me.”

Ken Burns is an icon. He’s been making documentaries for nearly 50 years, and has taught more people about American History than anyone else. His documentaries span topics such as baseball, jazz, national parks, U.S. presidents, authors, and inventors. And his television series, The Civil War, attracted an audience of 40 million during its premiere, becoming the most watched show in the history of public television.

Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including seventeen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Oscar nominations. And Ken won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and was recently inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Ken kept three-ring binders on his desk that had hundreds of rejections. Those binders reminded Ken that we pay for what we get with effort, hard work, and perseverance.
• I love how Ken followed his passion. He ignored the conventional advice to move to New York City, and instead followed his heart and moved to New Hampshire, and that made all the difference.
• In the words of Emerson: I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints.

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176: Lying to Help Our Organization | Professor Elizabeth Umphress

Elizabeth Umphress is a professor of management at the University of Washington where she researches ethical decision making and organizational justice. She has been published in the top management journals, including the Academy of Management Journal and Organization Science.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• As a PhD student studying unethical behavior, Elizabeth found herself lying to prospective professors about the crime rate in Tulane. She then realized she was doing this to help the school, which prompted her to study unethical pro-organizational behaviors…lies we tell or unethical behaviors we engage in to help or our organizations.
• Elizabeth found that we’re especially prone to engage in unethical pro-organizational behaviors when we strongly identify with our organization. To combat this behavior, Elizabeth suggests that we think about other stakeholders who may be harmed by our behavior.

 

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175: Be Brilliant in the Roles That Best Fit Your Capabilities | Oxford PhD Barry Conchie

Barry Conchie is Founder & President of Conchie Associates, which has a database of over 58,000 C-suite executives. Previously, Barry headed the Gallup organization's Global Leadership Research and Development business.

Born and educated in the UK with PhDs in Cognitive Neuroscience and Statistical Modeling at Oxford, his work for Gallup began in London where he developed their leadership consulting business across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and eventually the Americas as well.

Barry has 40 years of experience in the areas of psychometric assessment and testing, executive coaching, and team optimization. He has been ranked as one of the top 50 leadership thinkers in the world by Leadership Insights magazine. And he is also the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling co-author of Strengths-Based Leadership.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• The reality is that most people are not going to be outstanding leaders. So, we should strive to be brilliant in the roles that best fit our capabilities, and then surround ourselves with people who have complementary skills who are brilliant in their roles.

 

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174: The Obvious Answer Is Often Wrong | Costas Markides, London Business School Professor

Costas Markides, professor of strategy at the London Business School, is one of the world’s foremost experts on strategy and innovation.

He examines how companies can create a culture of continuous innovation and the role that individual managers play in making a company more innovative.

Costas is the author of four books on strategy and innovation, he was listed by Forbes.com as one of the world’s most influential management gurus, and has served as a Fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Costas received his BA and MA in Economics from Boston University, and his MBA and DBA from Harvard Business School. 

In this episode we discuss the following:

• What often seems like an obvious answer to a problem is usually not the right answer. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, 1000s of companies diversified, only to refocus decades later. An obvious explanation for this was that the companies had made a mistake. But an alternative explanation was that the companies were right to diversify when they did and then right to refocus when they did because the market had changed.
• Just because a company communicates a particular strategy in public, does not mean that they aren’t communicating a different, or more refined, inspiring, strategy privately. To get at the heart of the onion, as Costas said, we need ask at least five Why’s.
• Managers know they should differentiate themselves. Yet data suggests that 92% of managers imitate rather than differentiate. To close the knowing/doing gap, Costas suggests we start small, develop a strategy, work hard, and try to turn behaviors into habits.

 

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173: Sundays with Tozer Episode 19 | Tozer Talks about His Image

In this episode I ask Tozer about his image, and whether or not he cares what people think of him. He also describes how he was forced to move once because his neighbors complained about him.

172: Mistakes We Make When Dealing with Uncertainty | Columbia Professor Rita McGrath

Rita McGrath is a best-selling author, sought-after speaker, and longtime professor at Columbia Business School. She is widely recognized as a premier expert on leading innovation and growth during times of uncertainty. Rita has received the #1 achievement award for strategy from the prestigious Thinkers50 and has been consistently named one of the world’s Top 10 management thinkers. Rita has also consulted CEOs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide.  

Rita has written five books, including Discovery Driven Growth, cited by Clayton Christensen as creating one of the most important management ideas ever developed.

Rita received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School and has degrees from Barnard College and the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• At any given time, we’re in one of two situations: low uncertainty or high uncertainty. And the mistake we so often make is using the techniques we use for low uncertainty in the domain of high uncertainty.

• When we’re in an uncertain environment, where we’re making a lot of assumptions, we need to collect data to convert those assumptions to facts. Rita calls this Discovery Driven Planning.

• When planning for a conventional line of business, uncertainty is low, managers have good data, and people can accurately forecast the future with relative precision. But when launching an entirely new venture, uncertainty is high, so it doesn’t make sense to start off with a big team, ambitious goals, all the money upfront, and definite deadlines. Rather, we should do the opposite and start small, collect data, test assumptions, and iterate.

• When making decisions, we should first assess whether we’re in Situation 1 (low uncertainty) or Situation 2 (high uncertainty). And if we find ourselves in Situation 2, we should start small, collect data, test assumptions, and iterate.

 

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171: What If You Were Incapable of Distrust | Writer Jennifer Latson

Jennifer Latson is a writer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, TIME, The Boston Globe, and other publications. She is also the author of The Boy Who Loved Too Much.

Jennifer has an English degree from Yale University and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from the University of New Hampshire.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Williams Syndrome, which occurs in about one in 10,000 people, makes people incapable of distrust, so people with Williams Syndrome love everyone (and they want to hug everyone). And in return, people love those with Williams Syndrome.

• I love what Williams Syndrome teaches us. It’s not always about what we say, or how we say it. But rather, if we are genuinely curious about people and want to connect with them, they will feel it, and they will be forgiving if we aren’t the most articulate or charismatic.

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170: The Inner Bully versus the Inner Wimp | Mike Lerario on Leadership Development

Mike Lerario is President of Crispian Consulting Inc., which provides specialized training in Leadership Development to Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, and government agencies. Mike served 23 years in the United States military in Airborne Ranger assignments, and he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after serving with the Joint Special Operations Command. During his service, Mike completed multiple combat tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Mike is also the author of the International Best Seller Leadership in Balance.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Effective leadership is about finding the balance between how we naturally want to show up as a leader and what the situation demands of us.
• Mike distills leadership down to four domains: communication, adaptability, focus, and influence. But what’s most intriguing about Mike’s work, is that these four domains are each on a spectrum. For example, adaptability is on the spectrum of rigidity and flexibility. And the best leaders do what the task requires.
• Though we might naturally feel most comfortable being flexible as a leader, sometimes the task requires that we be rigid; we might feel more comfortable being selfless, but sometimes leaders need to be selfish.
• It is neither bad nor good to be rigid or flexible, to be selfless or selfish. But rather, the best leaders do what the task requires.

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169: The (Underappreciated) Power of Asking for What We Want | Professor Vanessa Bohns

Vanessa Bohns is a professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. Her research has been published in top academic journals in psychology, management, and law, and has been covered by media outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, Economist, and NPR.

She is also the author of the book, You Have More Influence Than You Think.

She received her PhD in social psychology from Columbia University and her AB in psychology from Brown University.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• We tend to underestimate the power of a simple ask. As a graduate student, Vanessa felt anxiety about asking people to fill out a survey. But once she analyzed the data, she was surprised to see how different her perception was from reality. People were way more willing to help than she had expected.
• Before we ask for something, we should assume we are going to get the thing we’re asking for, and then ask ourselves, “Is this something I should be asking for.” Given how powerful our asks can be, this extra step will help us ask for things that are appropriate.

 

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