My 5 Things Saturday post is quickly becoming one of my favorites to write. It provides a broad perspective I things I (re)learned from the past week or I found particularly interesting. Let’s get to the list.
Who Should You Be Trying To Make Proud Of You
Adam Grant makes a statement in his incredible book Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things which has rocked my world.
Grant writes on pages 149-150, “It’s more important to be good ancestors than dutiful descendants. Too many people spend their lives being custodians of the past instead of stewards of the future. We worry about making our parents proud when we should be focused on making our children proud. The responsibility of each generation is not to please our predecessors – it’s to improve conditions for our successors.”
Grant reminds us that too many spend their time trying to make our parents proud. Sometimes, we are even trying to please parents who are deceased. All the while we should be trying to make our children and those coming behind us proud. We can’t change the past but we can certainly change a person’s future.
#CommissionsEarned
Books
Speaking of books, some interesting stats have just been released. Per the November 1st edition of the Morning Brew daily newsletter and YouGov survey, 9% of Americans do not own a single book! That’s right, no not one! On the other hand, 3% of Americans own more than 1,000 books!
When it comes to personal libraries, nearly a third of Americans don’t organize their bookshelves at all. I actually had lunch with one of those individuals yesterday. 22% sort by genre. Less than 10% sort by author. For decorative individuals, less than 3% arrange by color.
For the record, I arrange my library by genre and then sort by author.
If you are looking to build a personal library, make sure you read 10 Books Which Need To Be On Every Leader’s Bookshelf.
The Importance Of Self-Awareness
When being introduced the local media, newly-acquired Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden was asked about fitting into the his new team’s system. The notoriously ball-centric player said in the video below, “I’m not a system player; I’m a system.”
Harden was an elite player from 2012 – 2020 with the Houston Rockets. Since then he is simply a scorer with limited ability to impact the game otherwise.
I’m not throwing shade at Harden because any of our skills can erode if we do not continually evolve and grow. But if the market or others have passed us by and we no longer bring the value we once did, we must have the self-awareness to know it.
Eventually all of us will no longer be the system, we will just be a player. But that is not all bad if we continually improve and add value.
The Communication Skills of Bruce Bochy
Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy entered rarified air this week when the future Hall of Famer won his fourth World Series championship. Bochy is one of only six managers in baseball history to do so.
Rangers offensive coordinator and bench coach Donnie Ecker said in this article from The Athletic, “It’s this combination of passion and people. The fire is lit so high, but then his ability to maneuver and have conversations with people and do it in a way that is supportive, transparent and challenging is a really unique blend.
Ecker continued, “In a day and age where people maybe shy away from perceived difficult conversations, it’s like waking up and having breakfast to him. He does not miss a conversation. There are things that can be left unsaid and he makes sure they are said.”
From Ecker’s comments, we learn the following six communication skills of the most successful leaders:
- The most successful leaders speak with passion.
- The most successful leaders focus their message on helping people.
- The most successful leaders are supportive.
- The most successful leaders are transparent.
- The most successful leaders challenge their listeners to get better.
- The most successful leaders engage in difficult conversations.
How Mikel Arteta Deals With Losing And Disappointment
On November 1st, Arsenal lost to West Ham 3-1 knocking them out of the Carabao Cup. Afterwards, the team’s manager Mikel Arteta said in this The Athletic article, “I’m disappointed with myself. We wanted to play in a different way and we weren’t able to do that. Every time we lose the pain is there. We have to use this pain and this defeat to prepare the best way for Newcastle on Saturday.”
From his comments, we learn four things about dealing with losing and disappointment:
- Leaders take full responsibility. The responsibility of leadership is to give credit to others when you are winning but take the blame when losing. Rather than blaming the players, Arteta told those assembled he was disappointed with himself.
- Losing happens when you don’t adjust. In 1871, wrote, Helmuth von Moltk wrote, “No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the main enemy forces.” Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Continual success requires continual adjustments.
- Every loss has a twin named pain. For a deeper dive on the subject of pain, read 15 Benefits Of Pain.
- The most successful leaders learn from failure and leverage the experience for future success.
Just an FYI, I can’t wait to get the new book on Arteta later this month entitled Revolution: The Rise Of Arteta’s Aresenal.
What things did you learn this week?
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