Happy Corona Week/Month/Quarter.

Things seem to be changing faster than any of us can keep count. Life has been turned upside down, which was fun for a hot minute until things got even crazier. 

We have a two year old. My wife is full time employed, I’m self employed. We are all working from home - Gabby on her work, me on mine, Isabelle on Frozen 2. I’m not balding - but if the next eight weeks go as well as the past two days - I will be by April. 

In stressful times, I like to go on a long run. It’s where I do my best thinking; I get to go into my own head and have a nice, little, split personality conversation with myself. The people on the trail think I’m crazy, but whatever, I can run faster than them. 

My “thinking running” helps me gain perspective. I’m able to jump back and forth between big picture and me picture; separating problems I can solve from circumstances I need to respond to. And on this run, my perspective was focused on what I needed to do to make it through eight weeks of isolation (or whatever this ends up being).

Last year, I organized my thoughts on wellness. I gave an overview, and then detailed episodes on the three components: physical, mental and social. I was pretty proud of it - and it’s a model I use all of the time. I went through the checklist on my run. Here's a fun, fancy picture I drew:

Go back and read more on the details - of each if you are looking for definition, but this is how I operate at my best.

I’m out of whack because my wellness routine was out of whack. When something isn’t clicking for me - I go through the checklist. And I realized that for many people, such a major disruption for your routine is going to smack us upside the wellness category. 

Cabin fever and depression are no joke. Fortunately, we are able to go for walks around the block (for now). As a coach, I have a career of helping people adapt and adjust to change. While it's primarily in a strategic, business-focused work setting and way, the facts remain: your home is now your office, and you are responsibility for delivering your best work from home. That starts with you. So with that, I want to help you re-visit your wellness.

Now, I can’t tell you how to tackle these things for you - only you can. A recommendation to just “go for a walk” is worthless if you have a broken leg. But from a macro-visual perspective, I would encourage everyone to give some thought to the three areas below, and what you can do to hit all cylinders. 

We are in an unusual, uncomfortable time. And in order to respond at our best, we have to make sure all of these items are working in tandem. It takes work, focus and an effort to be intentional, from physical to mental to social. It’s important to think through what works for you in each of the below areas. 

More details are on the podcast - but here are my points for being “well” in isolation.

Physical Wellness

The three components here are diet, fitness and sleep, and the key reminder is to be intentional. You need all three to be in good operation. When diet struggles, so do fitness and sleep (and vice versa). If you eat right and do something active, your sleep is better. It’s the circle of life, Simba. 

Here are some individual points to remember on physical: 

Diet: tends to go to shit in times of stress. If you are like me, you overeat when stressed or bored. Eating well requires focus, and intentionally planning/preparing your 2-3 meals is vitally important. I’ve cut out snacking completely simply because I know I will balloon if I don’t.

Sometimes I reflect on the massive amounts of ways that I have changed over the past 40 years, and it blows my mind.  30 years ago, I was jazzed by baseball. 20 years ago, I was jazzed by the pub. Now, I’m jazzed about learning and how people read books. I suppose the “coolness” of that journey is fairly subjective, and some might call it maturity, but whatever we call it - it’s quite the journey. 

In my monthly series highlighting Irish bellwethers, we bring our focus to Patrick McAndrew - founder of The Bowery Common. Patrick is committed to changing the way we learn. I met Patrick through a mutual colleague, and after a cup of coffee all I wanted to do was go off and learn something new. And it wasn’t because of the caffeine.

Influencers of change and leaders take many forms, and sometimes they come in the form of a person who questions the way we do things - like learning. Many of us were taught how to learn in a very specific way: in desks, by memorization and routine, and then stepping back and applying it to larger concepts. Patrick argues that it’s backwards. 

Learning concepts, and then the detail, not only makes learning easier, but keeps it in our longer-term memory. From learning new languages to new skills - focusing on “cognitive development,” rather than just the steps to do something, will fundamentally change how you approach work, learning and the future.

I often speak about how the economy and the workplace is changing. We know that job roles are evolving, and the routine work is being replaced by algorithms and technology. For those of us who wish to remain relevant, we have to change the way we approach work and adjust ourselves to think more conceptually - beyond the basic steps in what needs to get done. 

Businesses are already working full time to stay relevant, so they aren’t going to wait for you to catch up. The responsibility is our own, and as the onus shifts to us to control our own learning and development, it’s time to question how we do that. Patrick has the solution. 

From the way we read books (sometimes you should read the ending first), to watching a TV show to learn a language (gestures teach as much as grammar), it calls into question many of the habits we have today. It’s unnerving, but exciting, and certainly fun to think about. 

Patrick McAndrew in action ...

Patrick is brilliant, and his interview is great. Give it a listen, and hit up his YouTube channel for more!

Patrick McAndrew is the founder of The Bowery Common, a professional development organization that maximizes the mental performance of teams and organizations. Patrick has worked with over 600 professionals from medicine, finance, and academia to sharpen their thinking, better their learning, and deepen their memory. 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTh0pC413XlrZNc8VFen8Vw

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmcandrewonline/

On the InterWebs: thebowerycommon.com

Few places have gone through the type of change that Belfast has experienced in the past 50 years. Former Mayor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir offers his perspective on the opportunities ahead for a great city.

We all talk about what we want a work environment to be - but psychological safety is the wrapper that makes it work.

Why can't anyone seem to get good feedback at the office? It's because we are so focused on "frameworks" and not a conversation ...

This week’s podcast is for “the people.” 

Many organizations bring me in to work with their “high potential” employees (hi-po for short); those people who are seen as the future leadership of the firm with a lot of potential. I, along with my partners, offer coaching, individually and as a group, and put together leadership programs specific to them and their company’s needs. We accomplish a lot, we get great reviews, and we are excellent at what we do. 

This week isn’t about that.

It’s about the other huge segment of people at the company who I really love to work with, and I call them “The Other Hi-Po” … or hidden potential. These are the people that don’t get the full force of the company’s support, might feel misaligned or frustrated with their organization, and float around from one organization to another without really tapping into something meaningful and engaging. 

In my corporate career, I was very much a hidden potential. 

I was very capable in my role. I was always “picked first” for new projects. I had great working relationships across the entire organization. My employees loved working for me. My problem, which I now know, was always one person: my manager. And the reason they were my problem was because of me - I was a difficult person to manage. And when you are a difficult person to manage, your manager might not be the best person to speak up for you when new leadership roles arise. 

We work crazy hours in the corporate world - many of us spend more waking hours at the office than at home. It’s impossible for work to not be a part of your identity. And when we don’t align our work with who we are as an individual, and don’t embrace our identity paired with work, we can become resentful, frustrated and begin to look elsewhere for our next focus. 

Managing a hidden potential and being a hidden potential are two sides of the same coin. What we all want at the office is recognition for our contribution. We also want power. Those two are big time drivers for people who want to get ahead, and the easy way to envision that is by managing a team. 

But recognition and power take many forms. Not everyone can be a manager, but in most of my experiences, managers generally aren’t the most powerful people in the room. Buy re-aligning your work with your identity, and bringing a recognized power to the office (as in your best self), things will change. 

From personal experience and from coaching other hidden potential people, the responsibility for your frustration and challenges at work begin and end with you. If you wait for someone else to fix it, it’s not going to happen. 

Investing in yourself, finding the power in your own identity, and showcasing that in the office will catapult you through the organization when done the right way. I’ve seen it happen. 

There is power in hidden potential. Tapping into that and discovering what’s hidden from you, your co-workers and management can light a fire in growth. 

Happy week and be productive!

Just hearing the term “micromanager” makes my skin crawl. I have flashbacks to late nights in the office, constant revisions of pointless e-mails, and lovely reminders of why I left the corporate life. In fact, while working on this week’s post and podcast, my two year old daughter happened to drop her first “F” bomb. I believe they may be related. 

We hate micromanagement - no secret there. It’s ubiquitous with the frustration of corporate life; and when we think of all the reasons we dislike a job or look to move, having a micromanager is typically at the top of the list. 

It’s become so ubiquitous, in fact, that many of us just accept the fact that it’s there, and we don’t go beyond and try to understand it. But through understanding, and a different perspective, we might be able to deal with that boss that drives us up a wall - or change the way that we are managing our own people. 

Why We Hate It

There aren’t many surprises in the research on micromanagement - it shows we don’t like it. The challenge with it is that we are pairing “process” and “emotion;” two fundamentally very different aspects to work life. 

Processes have no emotion - they are steps in getting something done. Yet we internalize them, and when we are corrected, we take it personally; we feel belittled, and our emotions affect our ability to respond appropriately. Often times, what we consider micromanagement has nothing to do with us at all. 

A Macro View of MicroManagement

So let’s take a “macro” view of micromanagement. Each individual situation is different, so preaching how to handle your particular micromanager is a pointless exercise. But as I like to ask questions, I’ll pose a few to you in order to help you think through what it is you are actually dealing with. 

When I think of micromanagement, I think of four buckets that could be causing the issue: 

Neuroticism or insecurity on the part of the manager - We don’t always know what a manager is dealing with. The pressure to perform, especially when in a new role, could be the driver behind this style of management. In some instances, a manager can grow out of it as they get more comfortable in their role - it just takes time. 

High performers like things their own way - In many organizations, the high performers are the first promoted. The problem is, high performance in the field doesn’t translate to successful people managing. Many high performers either know what it took for them to be successful and want to instill it in others, or they have difficulty giving up control as they evolve from a “me” person to a “team” person in management. 

Our brains work differently - I mentioned above that micromanagement covers emotions and process. Well, each of us has a brain preference for one or the other. Some individuals are “process” people, where they are big on how things get done, while others are “people” people, who are big on who gets that thing done. These people clash ALL of the time, simply because they communicate and prioritize differently. Fortunately for many - this is easily coached (so call me.) 

Lessons of Machiavelli - What I hear the most when coaching someone through dealing with a micromanager is something along these lines: “They just feel threatened by me because I’m so talented and amazing.” (not always in those exact words). Look - it may be possible, but often times it’s not. Most people are so busy with their own agendas that they aren’t paying that much attention to the people behind them (not a good thing, by the way).

As an FYI, and a counter argument - in some instances micromanagement is a good thing.

We love helping people. The psychological benefits are well known; we feel rewarded and valued; we like being needed and being the hero, the savior and the champ. It’s … nice. 

Unfortunately - all of those descriptions are about the benefits for YOU, not the person being helped. And there is a nuance to helping, where the reward, value and feelings of heroism need to be pushed to the back, and we need to be reminded that in order to properly help other people - the focus purely needs to be on them, not us, and they have to do a lot of the work. 

Beyond the fundamental aspects of helping others, there is a science. Helping people, and I mean PROPERLY helping people (not just dictating your opinions), requires a framework and guidelines. Fortunately for all of us - there are people who study this stuff. (Recommended reading: Helping by Edgar Schein).

Most of the advice we receive we don’t take. And the reason we don’t take it is because it’s coming from the perspective of the person giving it. And for a person that is being helped, we have to put the choices through our own lenses, with our own perspectives, and then we have to live the choices we make. Nobody else can make our decisions for us. 

So What’s Needed? 

We need a framework to help other people. And the guiding light to the framework is an understanding that in order to help people, we need to create an environment where the person helping and the person being helped have equal footing. Both need to be a part of the question, albeit with different roles and obligations. 

With that in mind, there are three things you need in place to offer your help:

Recognize: Every person is resourceful. No matter who you help, there needs to be a recognition of and expectation that they are resourceful and have value. A person’s problem is their own problem - and they have internal resources to fix it. Expecting them to do so, and recognizing their capability in doing so, leads to accountability on their end. 

Understand: Your role. Once you recognize a person’s resourcefulness, your role as a helper is to develop that resourcefulness through questions, support and challenge. That’s it. Unsolicited advice isn’t going to cut it. You are a guide, and the person being helped will push it. 

Allow: The person being helped to set the agenda. They are the ones with the resources and full story. Let them drive the conversation and bring everything they can to the table. For a person to truly be helped, they have to bring what they are working on. Again, you can’t dictate what a person needs help on (despite your opinions).

These three aspects of helping allow for accountability and nurture commitment. Properly helping others requires patience and time. It requires curiosity and a belief in the capability of others. We say that one of the greatest gifts we can give other people is our time - and that includes patiently shutting the hell up while they figure things out on their own. 

It’s one of the most effective managerial strategies out there. Think about it, and how you are currently helping people today. 

Have a great week!

We love helping people. The psychological benefits are well known; we feel rewarded and valued; we like being needed and being the hero, the savior and the champ. It’s … nice. 

Unfortunately - all of those descriptions are about the benefits for YOU, not the person being helped. And there is a nuance to helping, where the reward, value and feelings of heroism need to be pushed to the back, and we need to be reminded that in order to properly help other people - the focus purely needs to be on them, not us, and they have to do a lot of the work. 

Beyond the fundamental aspects of helping others, there is a science. Helping people, and I mean PROPERLY helping people (not just dictating your opinions), requires a framework and guidelines. Fortunately for all of us - there are people who study this stuff. (Recommended reading: Helping by Edgar Schein).

Most of the advice we receive we don’t take. And the reason we don’t take it is because it’s coming from the perspective of the person giving it. And for a person that is being helped, we have to put the choices through our own lenses, with our own perspectives, and then we have to live the choices we make. Nobody else can make our decisions for us. 

So What’s Needed? 

We need a framework to help other people. And the guiding light to the framework is an understanding that in order to help people, we need to create an environment where the person helping and the person being helped have equal footing. Both need to be a part of the question, albeit with different roles and obligations. 

With that in mind, there are three things you need in place to offer your help:

Recognize: Every person is resourceful. No matter who you help, there needs to be a recognition of and expectation that they are resourceful and have value. A person’s problem is their own problem - and they have internal resources to fix it. Expecting them to do so, and recognizing their capability in doing so, leads to accountability on their end. 

Understand: Your role. Once you recognize a person’s resourcefulness, your role as a helper is to develop that resourcefulness through questions, support and challenge. That’s it. Unsolicited advice isn’t going to cut it. You are a guide, and the person being helped will push it. 

Allow: The person being helped to set the agenda. They are the ones with the resources and full story. Let them drive the conversation and bring everything they can to the table. For a person to truly be helped, they have to bring what they are working on. Again, you can’t dictate what a person needs help on (despite your opinions).

These three aspects of helping allow for accountability and nurture commitment. Properly helping others requires patience and time. It requires curiosity and a belief in the capability of others. We say that one of the greatest gifts we can give other people is our time - and that includes patiently shutting the hell up while they figure things out on their own. 

It’s one of the most effective managerial strategies out there. Think about it, and how you are currently helping people today. 

Have a great week!

I speak often on the speed of change, and the challenges that come with it. And if my recent posts are any indication, I have a belief that responding to the speed of change, and putting ourselves in a position to be flexible, is one of the most important ways we can be successful.

Many clients of mine are thrust into challenging environments where success is a tall mountain to climb. Executives have only one or two quarters to make a difference, companies turn over teams in an effort to be more agile and flexible, and the slightest diversion from a laid out plan can lead to fundamental changes in direction for an entire firm. 

Long story, put shortly: Now, more than ever, we need help. Recognize it, admit it, and get over it. 

Everyone needs help, and none of us like asking for it. And help is wide-ranging - it could encompass serious mental health issues, or it could be as silly as the best way to reheat pizza (oven, by the way). Regardless of the level of help we need, not asking for it impacts our ability to be ourselves, to be successful and to get to where we need to go.

We are irrational in our fear of help. We have a fear of being viewed as a failure, or of being socially rejected, when in reality the most successful executives that I work with are the ones who have tackled how to ask for help with finesse. It’s a skill - one that is rarely, if ever, on a person’s list of “things upon which to improve.” 

But in the right context, and done the right way, properly asking for help will lead to more opportunities and better outcomes.

Like any other skill, it takes practice. We have to get used to asking for help. On the podcast this week, I cover psychological safety, one of the bigger buzzwords in the corporate circles these days. Research is coming in and shows that allowing individuals to ask questions, share feelings, embrace vulnerability, and ask for help is what separates the successful teams from others. 

People like helping others - it gives us a high. When other people have the opportunity to help you, it solidifies social bonds and actually improves relationships. To properly ask for help we need to embrace the need for advice, and welcome it with open arms.  

Test it out. I’m sure that if you sat for a minute and thought about something that you haven’t been making progress on, you can find an area where you need help. Help could be an explanation or a push in the right direction. See how it feels to build on your relationships and continue to make progress.

With that - have a great week!