“John Glenn: Let’s get the girl to check the numbers.

Al Harrison: The girl?

Yes, sir.

Al Harrison: You mean Katherine?

John Glenn: Yes, Sir, the smart one. And if she says they’re good, I’m ready to go.”
(Exchange from the movie Hidden Figures)

Hard not to be impressed by John Glen, an original astronaut, and the first American to orbit the earth.  But his role in the movie, “Hidden Figures,” took it to a new level with me.  He didn’t see an African-American female; he saw “the smart one.”  Think about it; we were second in the space race.  The Soviet Union had launched a satellite before us and put a man into space before us.  We needed every edge we could find just to keep up, but still bright people were overlooked because of how we saw them.

We’ve progressed since then, but in watching the movie, I thought about how much we in leadership ignore what we consider “lesser,” whether it’s age, another department, thinking of people from the perspective of their position, and so on.  I mean, all the smart, creative people come from programming, right?

Interesting, when we too need every edge we can get right now.  Wherever you are, there are probably smart people playing a role who can help you become more than you are.  Who knows, maybe they will be the people that lead you into a new era.

By the way, this isn’t about the people who feel entitled, but about the people who feel they have a contribution.

There’s no magic about it, just look around you, and see what could be instead of what is.  Listen to how involved individuals are instead of what title they have.  People who are driven to success instead of those who think they deserve success.

It’s your job to make the hidden obvious.

“Explicit disagreement is better than implicit understanding.”
~Douglas Stone, “Thanks  For The Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well“

I have so many books on my reading list that it’s almost overwhelming.  So I love it when we can bring someone into EMF to talk to us.  A recent person was Elaine Lin, an amazingly brilliant woman to talk about the book, “Thanks  For The Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well.”  Too long to encapsulate here, it’s a book about giving, and as important, receiving feedback.

A part of the presentation was about being an ACE.  Which means three kinds of the feedback you can give: appreciation, coaching, and evaluating.

Appreciation is showing that your teammate knows you notice them and that they matter.  Coaching is helping them improve, and Evaluation lets them know where they stand.

Two things struck me about this idea.

First, that we’re not exactly rock stars when it comes to appreciation.  Letting people know you notice and value them on an ongoing basis.  Mostly we’re so busy we forget, but also because we’re not intentional about giving appreciation.

Second is that the authors separate coaching and evaluation.  Typically I’ve seen them as linked.  “Here’s how you’re doing and here’s how to fix it.”  But it makes more sense to unlink them so they’re two different parts of the employee discussion.  I think it’s better to help them get better at one point, and then evaluate them at another.  Focus is always a good thing.  I know that I’d be more open if they were separated for me in my performance conversations.

Elaine’s presentation moved the book up my priority list, and I expect it to help me both give and receive performance feedback.

“No, no!  The adventure first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”
~Lewis Carroll, author

On the CBS TV show, “Sunday Morning,” recently there was a “short,” on one of those films shown before a movie, usually a kids movie.  This one is called Piper, and you may have seen it just before the movie, “Finding Dory.”

So what’s the big deal?  Besides the Academy award it won?

First, this short, entertaining movie from Pixar, is a great example of the paramount value of a story.  The technology was great, but without the story, the technology would be useless.  Sometimes we’re so excited about the technology we use in radio that we put the story second.  The fact we can use or create the technology takes over our imagination.  Not the story.

The second thing that got my attention was the credits.  I couldn’t believe the team, and I suspect teamwork, that went into those 6.5 minutes.

Technology is a sexy distribution, but only a distribution channel.  Don’t be seduced by the “cool” that you forget the story.

See Piper yourself.

“You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.”
~Herb Brooks, Coach for the U.S.A. Men’s Ice Hockey, 1980.

It was a sunny day at the Blue Lagoon in Nassau, Bahamas.   A bunch of us were laying out on the beach in front of the lagoon when it came time for a water challenge to see who could get across and through the obstacles first.   It began with a young man on the cruise none of us knew, and Bill Corbin, leader of K-LOVE‘s pastor team.

They both jumped, ran and climbed, but it became clear Bill would win, and he did.

But then he jumped back in the water and swam to where his “competitor” was still struggling and began to encourage him through the rest of the obstacles until he too had completed the course.

It was an incredible demonstration of the value of leadership.   Bill didn’t do an arm pump and take a victory lap, he turned back to encourage.

We think of leadership in directive terms, telling people what to do, and often how to do it.   We’re very good at being “corrective”, too, but we don’t think as much about encouraging our own team members, cheering them on to their own victory.

Leadership isn’t just about finding difficulties and correcting them, that’s management.   We can always find something wrong, and it’s easier than being the encourager, which is leadership.

Sometimes it seems that way back in the darkest parts of our minds the “corrector” lives, ready to pounce.   But, like all good leadership, it’s a choice.   One seems easier than the other.   One gives you temporary short term improvements, and the other allows you to help the other person grow and accomplish long-term, valuable growth.   One creates a better employee, and the other creates a better, more motivated person.

Which one do you think is most apt to help you achieve your goals?

“It’s a habit of mine now, noticing labels, logos, shoes.”
~Michael Jordan

It was my birthday and we were sitting in a restaurant with family.  We were talking about who was doing what, the menu, the view, kids, and grandkids…

And then I heard the word “radio” at a table on the other side of the room.

It’s funny how our minds are attuned to filter out almost everything except what’s relevant to us.  We can be in a crowded ballroom buzzing with people and still hear our own name.  It gets our attention and pulls us in.

It’s a good lesson for radio talent.  If you’re talking about what’s relevant to the listener, you’ll draw them in.  If you’re talking about what’s irrelevant to the listener they’ll never hear you at all.  That’s why there are so few true personalities, they’re too busy talking about what’s trending instead of what they have in common with the listener.

Like Michael Jordan, you’re attuned to your own interests.

“True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that’s what courage is.” ~Norman Schwarzkopf

The latest version of “Call Of Duty” is coming out, and you can hardly wait.  Finally, you get your copy and rush off to play.  It gets you out of the real world and into one where you have control.  Or does it?

At this point there are several things you can be assured of when the new version comes out:

1. You’re going to get shot.  It’s a new game and you don’t know it as well as others, so it’s going to happen.  Just like in real life leadership.  Unfortunately, like COD, it’s ever evolving and becoming more difficult.  The higher you go (the difficulty settings) the more challenging it gets.  If you accept these setbacks as short term, rather than fatal, you’ll be better.
2. It’s easier with allies.  People to watch your back and be a team of people with a common goal.  We all do better as a part of a team than we do as a leadership maverick.  That stirs emotion in the souls of those who always have to win, and thereby never learn.  They probably operate in single player mode anyway.
3. There’s always something new.  If there weren’t new features there’d be no sales.  You’ll run into road blocks in leadership too.  You’ll encounter tough areas and new challenges on a regular basis. But players don’t give up or ignore them, they keep learning and trying until they master them.
4. There are do-overs.  Like the game, you can try again when you have a real life setback.  It doesn’t have to be the end of your life or your career.  You may have to go back to the beginning of that scene, but with renewed information about how not to die.
5. You’ll never be done.  After you’ve worked your way up from novice, a new version of the game comes out, and you start all over again.

Alright, let’s go play.

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
~Abraham Lincoln

I realized recently how success… or failure… can change your perspective.  But especially when you’re successful, you can begin living in a bubble.  Suddenly everything is seen through the lens of your success, which tends to lead you to see anything and everything in a way that reinforces that last success.  No need to examine alternatives or a wider perspective on the world, just where you are and where you’ve been.  It’s one of those “if I close my eyes no one can see me” strategies.

It’s calm inside the bubble because there’s never anything bigger to wrestle with. You’re the most successful person in the bubble, but it’s such a small part of the world around you.  The bubble keeps you from growing and expanding, and you don’t realize how small you seem to those outside of it.  Until one day the bubble bursts, and you feel the full force of reality.

How do you know if you’re in a bubble?  Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I pretty much doing the same thing over and over, enjoying the celebration around me?
• Are you doing those things with essentially the same people who, being inside the bubble with you, are the only ones who have your trust?
• Do you fight new ideas that are nearby, but outside your sphere of influence?
• Do you spend more time on managing to keep things outside the bubble from breaking in than you do scanning the horizon for new ideas?

Here’s a thought from the Crosby Retreat I attended in New York recently:  Somewhere someone’s planning something that will disrupt your success.  Or maybe burst your bubble.

“Unless you are prepared to give up something valuable you will never be able to truly change at all, because you’ll be forever in the control of things you can’t give up.”
~Andy Law

Pandora now has an app for the Microsoft XBOX system.

Not really earth shaking… or is it?

Gaming is huge, which draws people to XBOX, and then XBOX provides them an entrée into movies, the web, and music.

Pandora uses Kinect to allow people to listen, vote, and change songs with just a gesture.  So Pandora has now integrated themselves into yet another popular distribution channel.  Have you heard the old story about finding a parade getting in front of it?

But both may soon be rendered obsolete as Virtual Reality achieves broad acceptance over the next five years.  Change is a fact of life.

My point here is to show how unimaginative and lame most of our radio apps are.  Radio will not continue to succeed by being “good enough,” at a time when the life cycle of an app becomes shorter and shorter.  Let’s do something different that really intrigues the listener/consumer, and be prepared to understand that change is faster and more constant than ever.

“The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.”
~Simon Sinek

Every year on December 7th we hear about the attack on Pearl Harbor, “A date that will live in infamy.”  Our lives changed in that day… yes, each and every one of us, irrespective of age.  For that is the moment that drove us to superpower status.

Before December 7, 1941, the United States had the 14th largest military in the world and was a country going through a time of isolationism.  The war produced “the greatest generation,” and they, in turn, produced the next generations.

But that’s not the end of the gifts.  On CBS Sunday Morning, in an interview with some of the remaining survivors of Pearl Harbor, one of them said something we’ve heard many times before, but rarely pay much attention to.

“I live every day as if it were my last.”

That concept doesn’t get much long term traction because the activities of life take over, and we think of it from our own perspective.  But what if, as leaders, we looked at today as our last day through the lens of how our leadership looks to the people around us?   Would others see us as the leader Sinek talked about?

How would you lead differently if tomorrow were your last day?  Would you be irritated as often?  Would you talk about the people around you any differently?  If you had only the one day, would you think about your legacy?

Conversely, would you be more honest with people if it were your last day?  Would you still kick the “I have to talk with them about that challenge someday” can down the road once again, or deal with difficult issues when they come up?  Would you be more grateful for the opportunity your team gives you?

We all have the gift of this kind of foresight available, and we all can sacrifice at least some self-interest if we choose to.

“The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do.  You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.”
~General Colin Powell

When the team is together, everyone talks teamwork.  When it’s public, we’re all aware that people are watching.  But when in pairs, or by themselves, when they think no one is around, it’s sometimes different.  They’re not leaders, I’m not even sure they’re managers, but I know they are toxic.

There’s a reason the military has “This side toward enemy” printed on the front of Claymore mines.  They know that sometimes people are in a hurry, not paying attention, or just don’t understand the ramifications of which way it needs to go.  I’m sure in the early days there were cases of those devices being planted in the wrong direction.  But in the business world, a backfire is a glitch.  People aren’t killed.  Harmed maybe, but not killed.

The difference is you, and your leadership.  When you’re complaining about your boss, or another leader, when you’re rolling your eyes at their comments, or when you try to create an alliance to ensure you win, you’re planting a leadership Claymore in the wrong direction.