I want to do an experiment that is partially inspired by my good friend Simon Lamb. This experiment I hope will open your eyes to actions you can take to live your life more fully and give you some insight into challenges you face at work.
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The year of 2023 was my year to focus on living a healthy life. At the beginning of 2023 I decided a healthy life consisted of several buckets. Alongside each bucket, I documented my intention. Below you will find my buckets, intentions, and learnings/reflections.
Not documented in my post last year were the measurements that I was using to track my progress on these buckets. About halfway through the year I stopped tracking my progress. This happened for two reasons.
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This year my oldest daughter is in 6th grade and if you have had a sixth grader before you know students in sixth grade have the opportunity to experiment with band or orchestra.
We talked it through with my daughter and she thought the violin would be a fun instrument. For the first two weeks of school, they learned about the instrument and plucked at the strings. This week she came home and with some excitement shared she got to try out the bow for the first time on the violin. She laughed saying that she’s learned how to squeak on the violin but eventually she will be able to make music.
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This week I had the most fascinating experience while on vacation with my family.
First a bit of context. I’m in the middle of a LinkedIn experiment where I’m attempting to post 100 times in 100 days. May 25th marked my halfway point. It is not easy, and I have slipped into asking myself questions that are not particularly useful mid-experiment.
These questions sound like
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A tool is a device or implement used to carry out a particular function. To become a better leader, we must use tools (not physical but mental tools) to make progress in our life.
I want to share with you a simple tool called the 10-Day Experiment. It is so simple it is almost hard to call it a tool, but it goes like this.
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Before COVID seems like an easier time. It likely was not, but it feels that way. The amount of complexity that surrounds us is tremendous and we as leaders must find a way to navigate today and the uncertainty that is yet to come.
The only true way to figure out how to navigate complexity is to experiment. Jean-Philipee Courtois (JP) shared one specific experiment he ran as his role went from managing sales for the country of France to managing sales for all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
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Ever since reading Good to Great by Jim Collins I have been fascinated by the concept of the flywheel. Working hard on the right things consistently over time and then having your efforts compound for massive impact over time. I have touched on the idea here and here.
Leadership is a difficult topic to create a flywheel around because there is not a shared definition of leadership in the community. The definition I choose to use is:
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I have written a few times about what I am learning from an accident my son experienced and this week I learned something new from the physical therapist.
My son’s toe requires stretching to have it lay flat like the rest of the toes. The physical therapist showed us the few stretches we need to be doing and then said:
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On a recent star tour in Bryce Canyon, I had the opportunity to look through several high-powered telescopes.
Some of these telescopes were almost as big as I am, and all required a step ladder to get to the eye piece and see the object it was directed at in space.
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I love to teach and recently had the opportunity to visit and facilitate a college course at Wichita State University. The course was hosted by the Kansas Leadership Center. The curriculum is based on principles of Adaptive Leadership from Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky.
The definition of leadership shared in the course is:
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I teach and invite people to act. Proud husband, father and amateur pizzaiolo