While a 5K fundraiser used to be a novelty, now it seems that every week there is another run or walk to benefit a worthy cause. To draw attention to their event, organizers of a race to raise awareness of human trafficking utilized a creative angle to entice participants: they held the event on an airport runway.
Run the Runway is not just a random gimmick. According to Polaris, a non-profit group that fights human trafficking, 71% of human trafficking victims are transported on planes so the airline industry has become actively involved to help combat the problem. In addition to training and awareness campaigns, it made sense for the airport to partner with the local group to sponsor the 5K.
If you are holding an event or fundraiser, consider partnering with an organization that has a natural tie to your cause as well as a unique benefit to provide. Not all donations need to be monetary to provide great value.
During the Final Four tournaments, Buick ran a series of ads that showed just a sliver of a key moment in a woman’s sporting event with full audio describing the excitement of the contest. The punchline of the ads: women account for 40% of athletes but receive less than 10% of media coverage. The campaign was focused on helping people #seehergreatness — promoting women and the Buick brand which claims to have the largest percent share of female buyers.
I thought the ads were brilliant and made you realize you were missing record-breaking moments by not watching women’s sports. But the ads have been pulled — replaced on their website with clips of the full-screen version of those iconic moments — apparently after Buick received criticism for not showing the women’s heroics in their commercials.
I’m sure that dozens of people vetted those commercials and the campaign itself but I wonder if any of them were female athletes who might have a different perspective on the failure to ultimately show women shining. It’s so easy to become invested in a project or viewpoint and to surround yourself with people who reinforce your thinking. Wherever possible, gather input from those unlike yourself and seek out feedback that challenges you — before you finalize the output. It’s far better to hear from the critics when you can still address any valid concerns.
People often experience angst about difficult conversations because they don’t know how to begin them. I think it’s important to have an opening line — or an opening question — that gets the conversation started, making it easier to improvise from there depending on how the discussion proceeds.
It’s good to have a go-to line to raise issues in meetings as well — something that you can fall back on as your automatic default that will kick in when emotion tends to cloud your thinking otherwise. Examples could include: “Could you please help me understand…” or “Could you say more about…”
Like with everything else, getting started is the hard part. Instead of fretting over your lack of an entire script, just practice your first words and allow things to flow from there.
One of the hardest things for people to grasp as they transition to positions with additional responsibility is that their focus must also shift to a longer time horizon. If you’re a front-line worker, you may only need to be concerned with having inventory for the next hour, whereas managers must be thinking about the next quarter and leaders need to work several years ahead.
I describe the shift via a series of pie charts — the change in proportion may not occur on a daily basis, but overall leaders should spend more of their time on the future compared to others in the organization whose role demands a more current focus.
“Doers” who ascend in the organization may discover that more responsibility does not necessarily mean more tasks, but rather more strategizing and addressing challenges — meaning that more of their time should be spent on thinking about what’s next. If you are a junior-level employee with leadership aspirations, I suggest developing habits that help you think about a longer time horizon than you currently hold. Maintain a calendar set several months ahead and consider that month’s needs when planning your time this month. Notice your organization’s cycle for budgeting and prepare long-term proposals to coincide with that. Even pre-setting the next appointment and agenda at the conclusion of a meeting helps tweak your perspective to become a bit more toward thinking ahead.
If you’re a senior-level employee, review how you are spending your time and brutally assess what proportion of your work is spent on the issues of the day vs. creating strategies and systems or building capacity for tomorrow. Shift your focus to intentionally craft agenda items, planning sessions, or reflection times that allow you to keep your focus down the road as is expected from your role.
It’s easy to become consumed by the day-to-day barrage of emails, meetings, social media feeds, and problems but those who are most successful create ways to align their time with the appropriate “pie” perspective.
When working with other teams, groups, or partners there are five elements that are important to manage:
TIME — You need to consider the amount of time that you are willing to invest in relationships. Whether internal or external, working with multiple stakeholders requires time so it must be prioritized in order to happen.
TIME HORIZON — The closer you are to your desired action, the more resistance you will face. If you are able to think long-term to cultivate mutual understanding and create shared solutions, you’ll have more success than trying to compress the process. Think marriage, not speed dating.
TRUST — Time invested often builds trust, but not automatically. In order for partnerships to prosper, you must earn the trust of the other parties and commit to trusting them as well.
POWER — When groups gather, the aim is to disburse the power and have the players operate from an equal footing. However; you also need to take care that those with the power are either in the room or involved in the process. Nothing will waste time and erode trust faster than a group making a decision, only to have it negated later when the power holder disagrees.
CLARITY — Strive for clarity on the macro-level — a succinct purpose for working together — and clarity on the micro-level — a granular plan for what you are trying to do. Groups often get lost in lofty ambitions (e.g. fix health care in the community) but would achieve more by agreeing on a clear understanding of the problem (e.g. is it access, mental health, affordability, hours, location of clinics, trauma-level care, etc.) which helps more actionable solutions to emerge.
Most people would agree that collaboration is a good thing and allows you to achieve more than working on your own. Follow the five steps above to ensure that the maxim is true and your partnerships produce more fruit than frustration.
The term ghosting is typically reserved for the sudden lack of communication in romantic relationships but it seems to be happening in more and more settings. A client said they will get back to me about continuing our contract but never does. One of my students just stopped coming to class without notice. A potential client asks for information but does not even acknowledge receipt of it.
I find it ironic that people freely hide behind the anonymity of social media but can’t use the same platform to politely end an exchange. You don’t have to give an extensive explanation; a simple “no, thanks” would suffice. Even via direct message.
Time is our most valuable resource. Don’t create ill will with others by leaving them in limbo and wasting their time as they attempt to follow up with you. If plans have changed, just say so and let everyone move on. There are fewer hard feelings from a “no” than from a non-response.
My experience tells me that two overlooked leadership skills are interviewing and facilitation.
I mean interviewing in a broad sense, not just in hiring situations, but rather the ability to ask questions and to dig deeper to understand the story behind the story in a 1:1 meeting or networking situation. The more leaders are able to remain curious, seek out facts, and try to ascertain the full context of something, the more effective they are in communicating.
Facilitation allows leaders to orchestrate cooperation and collaboration between groups, run effective meetings, bring different teams together, and synthesize the multiple and often competing thoughts that arise. It’s a powerful way to move a group forward toward a shared goal. Jeff Cufaude from Facilitate Better offers regular tips on how to improve in this area.
The job of being a leader is often overwhelming. Lighten your load by focusing on these two important skills to enhance your effectiveness both one-to-one and in groups.
The shoulders of an interstate exit near a Walmart distribution center were always lined with semi-trucks, presumably with drivers sleeping before or after their deliveries. On my last trip past this area, the road was plastered with No Parking signs every few feet, and so trucks were seen on the side roads next to neighboring cornfields.
I can understand why the Department of Transportation doesn’t want a highway lined with trucks, but what I can’t figure out is why Walmart doesn’t make provisions for its drivers. This is in central Illinois, where land is flat and plentiful, and the multi-billion dollar corporation could have purchased an extra acre or two to accommodate those who make its distribution possible. The same policy is enforced at the local store where No Semi Parking signs are everywhere and are anything but welcoming for drivers who need a break. Whether motivated by hospitality or safety reasons, it seems like a simple thing to allow overnight parking for those who make deliveries to the business.
The circle of stakeholders who merit concern expands beyond direct employees and shareholders. Consider whose work makes your organization’s work possible — and find ways to accommodate them instead of alienating them with your practices.
If you’ve ever paid attention while in a public restroom, you’ve likely seen the dribbles of water as people make their way from the sink to the towel dispenser. In several settings, that could be across the room or far enough away that water on the floor becomes a problem.
Dyson has attempted to solve this problem with dryers that are built into the faucet. Whether to prevent dripping, to increase sanitation, or just for pure convenience they have combined handwashing and drying all in one device. Love it!
I’ve washed my hands thousands of times but never considered treating it as one step. Maybe there is a lesson there to pay attention to other multi-step processes to see if there is an opportunity to combine them. It doesn’t have to be a physical product — think of the driver’s license renewal that also serves as organ donation registration — but a way to add convenience to all involved. You’re all wet if you think everything must be done separately.
On a news segment, Bela Gandhi, the founder of the Smart Dating Academy, counseled viewers that finding love starts with loving yourself. She outlined a list of strategies to help people become “a dating rockstar” but the one that stood out to me was to surround yourself with “Elevator People.”
It’s a term coined by Gandhi that means being around people who can lift you up — and keep you grounded. Elevator people are family or friends that are always there for you whether that involves raising your spirits or sharing in your joys. She recommends avoiding toxic (non-elevator!) people as much as possible and spending as much time as you can with the positive people in your life.
Cultivating a cadre of elevator people is a good strategy whether you’re aiming to be a dating rockstar or just a healthy person in general. We often give more grace and better advice to others and having a supportive circle around you provides a vehicle for you to receive encouragement in return. Keep those who give you a lift close and you’ll both rise together.
