One thing I have learned over my many years of fumbling through life is that mistakes get made. How is that for a profound revelation? Mistakes happen, and, yes, yes, (yes!), we should learn from our mistakes, which means first learning to own them. Blah, blah. Blah.

Blah.

All true, painfully true, and a topic for another day.

Originally published 12 August 2021

Leaders at every level need to understand that an individual’s perception is reality. This statement is not the same as “everything I believe to be true is true,” which is just lazy, fanciful thinking. Nor is it a license to insist that everyone share your perceptions, which is bullying. Indeed, the failure to grasp this last point or, more cynically, an effort to exploit this last point has led this nation to the cultural-political precipice where we teeter at this moment.

The Lucky 13

1. Clarity trumps everything.

2. Know your audience.

3. Know your genre.

4. Communicate the message you want to convey the way you would want to hear it.

5. Sarcasm is a double-edged sword.

6. Mind your grammar and mechanics.

7. Straight talk is a virtue.

8. Go ahead, use cliches, but sparingly.

9. Euphemism is sometimes necessary, but it still flirts with miscommunication.

10. The same is true for jargon.

11. Be bold.

12. Remember COP — Clarity, Organization, and Precision.

13. Read. Listen. Mindfully.

My Catholic school days taught me a lot, albeit little I was supposed to learn. For one thing, I was quite a freethinker by parochial school standards. I had wild, wild thoughts and too often even blurted them out, which I am certain thoroughly endeared me to my classmates and to my teachers.

Indeed, my attempts at being true to myself and to my intellectual pursuits were so universally well-regarded that by the end of sixth grade, I had become afraid to raise my hand. The bullying from classmates I learned to deal with, but the teachers were another thing. My classroom silence lasted all the way through college.

THIS INSTALLMENT IS AN ENCORE PRESENTATION FROM AUGUST 2021

Welcome to my first Ted talk.

Two types of politics pervade most workplaces. One is the politics of possibility, the idea that, through sheer persuasiveness and appeals to values, people can be recruited and motivated to work together for good. That their passions and their intellect can be encouraged to join forces in common cause for the betterment of all.

The other is sadly much more pervasive, the politics of power, which centers on the ego and the zero-sum game and relies upon the machinery of personal destruction. In this brand of politics, the we is never evoked but in service to the I. Accomplishments remain singular affairs.

The difference between bossing and leading is massive. Yes, of course, most leaders are bosses on some level, but very few bosses are leaders. By that I mean too many bosses do too little to bolster their leadership skills and many in fact assume they are leaders simply because they are bosses. If you make that assumption, I can guarantee you are no leader no matter what your title. Boss is a position. Leader is an attitude of greatness, whatever the position, which is why untitled (and unentitled) employees can be great leaders without being bosses.

I recently heard a local politician quip, “I’m not one to judge a book by its cover, but they put covers on books for a reason.” It’s a clever turn of phrase, and he has a point. Modern book covers are a marketing tool and are supposed to indicate, reflect, or symbolize something about the contents of the book. Therefore, the cover should have some meaning and some bearing with regard to the book itself.

Let’s start by stipulating that you are busy, very busy, very, very busy even. What with the kids and that damn dog and your nagging boss, not to mention the sheer number of tasks you are expected to complete in a given work day. You’re busy. I get it.

Back in April of 2021, the business and entrepreneurship guru Sahil Bloom posted on Twitter a simple but profound observation.

The world wants you to be normal. Our systems and institutions are all designed to make it easy to be normal. Maintaining your distinctiveness is possible, but it will require effort — painful, constant, relentless effort. But stay the course. You’ll find it’s worth it.

Bloom sets himself up here as an enemy of the normal, of the comfortable, of the same-old-same-old, of the status quo as he advocates for individuals and organizations to lean into their distinctiveness in order to differentiate themselves from the herd.

John Henry was a steel-driving man, or so the song goes. A figure of American legend and the subject of many heroic songs and tales, John Henry was a Black railroad worker in the 1800s who challenged a newfangled steam-powered drill to a contest. Henry, according to the lore, won the competition but died soon after from the strain.

That model of labor, the man who can just push himself further and further — suggesting that all effort is just a matter of willpower — is a myth that still burdens our workplaces and our approach to work. It’s the idea that if we just do more — one more thing — productivity will increase, as though we will never reach the point of diminishing returns.