12 O'Clock High

Richard Lummis and I are back for another episode of 12 O’Clock High, a podcast on business leadership. Today, we take up the issue of how to brief senior leadership in an organization. This podcast is based upon a recent Harvard Business Review article How to Brief a Senior Executive by Grant T. Harris. Harris notes in his article, “Briefing a senior executive is an art and adept White House staffers do it every day under the most stressful of circumstances. They’re masters of compressing the right information into the right amount of time, no matter how complex the topic or short the briefing. The skills needed to brief the chief executive in the Oval Office are directly applicable to briefing any executive in the C-suite.”

Some of the highlights include:

1.     Before You Walk into the Room (or Log in) 

a.    Identify the “crucial nodder.” 

b.    Know your boss’s “tells.” 

c.     Find out how the boss engages with the material.

d.     Plan for gradations of success and failure. 

e.     Keep an idea alive to fight another day or, in the best-case scenario, go bigger and faster in implementation.

2.     In the Room (or on the Video Conference Call)

a.     Read the room, not your notes. Whether the briefing is in person or virtual, you need to read cues and body language. In short, “take cues, not notes.” 

b.     Stay laser focused on your task. 

c.     Practice the art of staying silent. 

3.     What does it all mean? 

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Richard Lummis and I are back for another episode of 12 O’Clock High, a podcast on business leadership. Today, we take up the issue of what is ‘focused leadership’. Our podcast is based on the Harvard Business Review article, The Focused Leader by Dan Goldman, who notes "A primary task of leadership is to direct attention. To do so, leaders must learn to focus their own attention. When we speak about being focused, we commonly mean thinking about one thing while filtering out distractions. But a wealth of recent research in neuroscience shows that we focus in many ways, for different purposes, drawing on different neural pathways—some of which work in concert, while others tend to stand in opposition. Grouping these modes of attention into three broad buckets—focusing on yourself, focusing on others, and focusing on the wider world—sheds new light on the practice of many essential leadership skills." Richard Lummis and Tom Fox break it down for you. It consists of self-awareness, self-control, the empathy triad and building relationships. We look at it in the context of long-term strategy, innovation and system awareness.

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Richard Lummis and I are back for another episode of 12 O’Clock High, a podcast on business leadership. Today, we end this most unusual year of 2020 with our annual wrap up and look forward into 2020. We consider where have we been over the past year with our Presidential series, some of our favorite episodes and why researching Theodore Roosevelt was almost as much fun as recording the podcast series on leadership lessons from TR and we conclude with where we might head in 2021 and a sneak peek at our February month of leadership lessons from Oscar-winning best pictures. 

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In this episode of 12 O’Clock High, a podcast on business leadership, Richard Lummis and myself consider how leaders grew and evolved during crucible crisis in their professional careers. This podcast is based on the Harvard Business Review article, Crucibles of Leadership by Warren Bennis and Robert J. Thomas, where the authors posited that “a crucible is, by definition, a transformative experience through which an individual comes to a new or an altered sense of identity. It can often involve the experience of prejudice, as “it forces an individual to confront a distorted picture of him- or herself, and it often unleashes profound feelings of anger, bewilderment, and even withdrawal. For all its trauma, however, the experience of prejudice is for some a clarifying event. Through it, they gain a clearer vision of who they are, the role they play, and their place in the world.”

The key is how individuals deal with such or even any similar adversity. You can and indeed must learn from negative events. This is not simply learning from your mistakes but forces you into a deep self-reflection where you examine a wide set of core beliefs, including your own judgment. A successful leader will emerge from such a personal trauma stronger, more confident, with more purpose and indeed more committed to your values and work. 

Some of the highlights include:

1.     What a “Crucible of Leadership”?

2.     Some examples of crucibles of leadership.

a.     Sidney Harman-Richard

b.     Vernon Jordan-Tom 

3.     Four Essential Leadership Skills

a.     Engage Others in Shared Meaning

b.     Distinctive, Compelling Voice

c.     Integrity

d.     Adaptive Capacity

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 One of the key components for any successful business leader; yet one rarely discussed, is judgment. I was therefore intrigued by a Harvard Business Review article on the topic by Sir Andrew Likierman, entitled “The Elements of Good Judgment: How to Improve Your Decision-Making”. 

Most of us have heard, been told or believe that you should always ‘listen to your gut’ and that ‘gut instinct’ is something you either have or you do not. As Likierman noted, “A lot of ink has been spilled in the effort to understand what good judgment consists of. Some experts define it as an acquired instinct or “gut feeling” that somehow combines deep experience with analytic skills at an unconscious level to produce an insight or recognize a pattern that others overlook. At a high level this definition makes intuitive sense; but it is hard to move from understanding what judgment is to knowing how to acquire or even to recognize it.”

Interestingly, Likierman finds it all starts with listening and, more importantly, good listening. Listeners to the podcast series 12 O’Clock High, a podcast on business leadership will recognize that as a key trait for almost any successful business leader. Yet, perhaps even more significant, is that he has found that “leaders with good judgment tend to be good listeners and readers—able to hear what other people actually mean, and thus able to see patterns that others do not. They have a breadth of experiences and relationships that enable them to recognize parallels or analogies that others miss—and if they don’t know something, they’ll know someone who does and lean on that person’s judgment. They can recognize their own emotions and biases and take them out of the equation. They’re adept at expanding the array of choices under consideration. Finally, they remain grounded in the real world: In making a choice they also consider its implementation.”

Likierman identified six key elements of good judgment. They are: (1) learning, (2) trust, (3) experience, (4) detachment, (5) options and (6) delivery. It is important to define each of them and have actionable steps to improve your judgment making skills and help you make some sense of not only ambiguous information but the data, data, and data which will become the basis of many corporate decisions in 2020 and beyond.

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Richard Lummis is on assignment this week so I am pleased to host Tom Pilotti. Tom is a world-renowned trainer of professional sales teams. In this episode, he explains his sales training process and how leaders can benefit from not simply an understanding of how to sell and market but how those skills are needed by successful leaders. 

Some of the highlights include:

Resources 

To find out more about Tom Pilotti, check out his website by clicking here.

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Richard Lummis is on assignment this week so I am pleased to host Nick Gallo, co-CEO of ComplianceLine for a special episode. In this episode Nick and I take a deep dive into Doris Kearns Goodwin’s class Doris Kearns Goodwin Teaches U.S. Presidential History and Leadership, where Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin teaches you how to develop the leadership qualities of exceptional American presidents. In her class, Goodwin shares how some of the greatest presidents have made consequential decisions and how we can use their approach in our own lives. She also talks about how to heal divisions and build consensus. MasterClass is an immersive online experience that offers access to genius by allowing anyone to take online classes with the world's best leaders, instructors and commentators. MasterClass produces the courses directly with the instructors to capture exactly what the masters want to teach. I highly recommend their classes as a great learning tool.

Some of the highlights include:

Resources 

To find out more about MasterClass online learning, click here.

For more information on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s class Doris Kearns Goodwin Teaches U.S. Presidential History and Leadership, click here.

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Richard Lummis and Tom Fox continue their a five-part series on leadership lessons from Theodore Roosevelt. We will look at lessons from Roosevelt’s early years in New York up to his cowboying days in Montana; the second phase of his public career, from NYC Police Commission to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, San Juan Hill and the Vice Presidency; his leadership from his Presidency; his life in the post-Presidency and the election of 1912 and we will end with leadership lessons from his post Bull Moose Party life, World War I and event surrounding his death. In this fourth episode, we consider the leadership lessons learned from Roosevelt’s years after the end of his second term up through his run for President at the head of the Bull Moose Party in 1912.

Highlights of this podcast include:

Roosevelt goes big game hunting and holds meetings with political leaders across all of  Europe. What led to the schism in the GOP and Roosevelt’s defeat at the GOP 1912 Convention? The formation of the Bull Moose Party and his survival of an assassination attempt. The election of 1912, his loss to Wilson but his overwhelming defeat of his former protegeé, William Taft. We conclude this episode with three key leadership lessons, including: 1. Change when the facts change; 2. Don't be afraid of making unpopular decisions; and 3. Leaders are Learners.

Resources

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s 10 Leadership Lessons from the White House

6 Leadership Hacks From The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

10 top Leadership Principles of Teddy Roosevelt

The Roosevelts: Eight presidential lessons in leadership

Lessons in Leadership from 100 years ago

Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership

10 Theodore Roosevelt Leadership Lessons

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Richard Lummis and Tom Fox continue their a five-part series on leadership lessons from Theodore Roosevelt. We will look at lessons from Roosevelt’s early years in New York up to his cowboying days in Montana; the second phase of his public career, from NYC Police Commission to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, San Juan Hill and the Vice Presidency; his leadership from his Presidency; his life in the post-Presidency and the election of 1912 and we will end with leadership lessons from his post Bull Moose Party life, World War I and event surrounding his death. In this third episode, we consider the leadership lessons learned by Roosevelt in his ascension to the Presidency and his first and second terms as 26th President.

Highlights of this podcast include:

Roosevelt’s ascension to the Presidency after the assassination of President McKinley; his domestic policies including: trust busting, issues with railroads, starting the American conservation movement and regulation of food and drugs. We then turn to foreign policy and his arbitration of the Russo-Japanese War which won him the Nobel Prize, the Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine and construction of the Panama Canal. We look at the clection of 1904 and his second term. We conclude with three key leadership lessons: 1. Surround yourself with other leaders; 2. Maintain an Open Channel with Adversaries; and 3. Be able to take criticism.

Resources

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s 10 Leadership Lessons from the White House

6 Leadership Hacks From The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

10 top Leadership Principles of Teddy Roosevelt

The Roosevelts: Eight presidential lessons in leadership

Lessons in Leadership from 100 years ago

Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership

10 Theodore Roosevelt Leadership Lessons

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Richard Lummis and Tom Fox continue their five-part series on leadership lessons from Theodore Roosevelt. We will look at lessons from Roosevelt’s early years in New York up to his cowboying days in Montana; the second phase of his public career, from NYC Police Commission to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, San Juan Hill and the Vice Presidency; his leadership from his Presidency; his life in the post-Presidency and the election of 1912 and we will end with leadership lessons from his post Bull Moose Party life, World War I and event surrounding his death. In this second episode, we consider the leadership lessons learned by Roosevelt in the second phase of his political career, which took him from Police Commissioner of NYC to the Vice Presidency.

Highlights of this podcast include:

What led to appointment to New York Civil Service Commission and then to the NYC Police Commissioner? His move to the National Stage as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. This led to his work in the War with Spain and Admiral Dewey in Manilla Bay. He founded the Rough Riders, his leadership in Cuba and ride up San Juan Hill. He becomes Governor of New York. This leads to joining the McKinley ticket in the election of 1896 and becoming Vice President. We conclude with three key leadership lessons, including: 1. Pick yourself up when you fall; 2. Find a cause; and 3. Communicate Simply and Directly Through Stories.

Resources

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s 10 Leadership Lessons from the White House

6 Leadership Hacks From The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

10 top Leadership Principles of Teddy Roosevelt

The Roosevelts: Eight presidential lessons in leadership

Lessons in Leadership from 100 years ago

Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership

10 Theodore Roosevelt Leadership Lessons

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