Month: October 2023

leadership dot #4080: convenient

October 21, 2023October 21, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Gift cards have become so popular because they’re easy, but also because people may not know what to give for a present. A store in Michigan helped make the gift-giving decision easier by curating boxes of goods themed around either breakfast, dinner, or bakery. The boxes provide a pre-packed assortment of foods that are generic enough to appeal to most people but are more tangible and unique than a gift card.

Think about how you can make it easier for people to utilize your services. Can you pull together diverse resources into a curated package? Make documents and information easily shareable? Create themed items to allow people to know what offerings are similar?

Easy has become the default. Make sure what’s easier for your people to do is what you want them to choose.

leadership dot #4079: orbit

October 20, 2023October 19, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Whether due to a desire for collaboration, expansion, or efficiencies, many organizations take on new units as part of their operation. It may result in absorbing a program that was another’s, creating an affiliate or branch outlet, or assuming the support roles that were performed elsewhere.

In many cases, it makes sense for these mergers or partnerships, but it also requires extra effort on everyone’s part. Each entity comes with different cultures, processes, and expectations and care must be taken to acknowledge the differences. It’s similar to blending a family — it takes work to make it “ours.”

Look at what is outside the core of your organization and evaluate whether you provide adequate resources, attention, and promotion of that which orbits the base. To the external person, it’s all one organization. Is it that way internally, or is there an “other”?

leadership dot #4078: un-ring

October 19, 2023October 18, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

One of the lessons that has stuck with me since college is the idea that you “can’t un-ring a bell.” You can correct information, make apologies for what was said, or reverse your position, but there are no “takebacks.” What was said was said.

I thought about this yesterday when an opinion piece stated incorrect data as if it were facts. I’m sure a rebuttal will be forthcoming from the affected party, but it won’t “un-ring the bell.” The wrong impression was made, and the correction will never reach everyone who read it or heard it from someone else.

Think about the bell the next time you are tempted to share something. Once your passion seeps through or your information is faulty, there is no un-ringing. Better to pause until you’re certain you want those vibrations in the world permanently.

leadership dot #4077: marching orders

October 18, 2023October 6, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

When Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, he certainly provided an infusion of cash that helped the paper turn around its financials. But as former editor Marty Baron shared, Bezos provided more than money.

Bezos was able to inject a business perspective into the paper and help the leadership translate their “good ideas” into an actionable strategy. It wasn’t enough to say that they had to grow; Bezos helped them define that notion into a plan to increase their online presence, become a national newspaper, and write stories that attracted younger readers. He also challenged their practice of offering news to people for free.

Bezos summed his marching orders for the paper into this simple mantra: “Be right. Be riveting. Ask people to pay.” After setting the vision and helping to craft the strategy to achieve it, Bezos left the leadership free to execute it without further meddling.

It’s a gift to give clarity to your team and then get out of their way. Try to provide both aspects to those you lead.

leadership dot #4076: used to be

October 17, 2023October 6, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

In a webinar, former Washington Post editor Marty Baron spoke of some of the challenges he faced running the paper. When he assumed the position, the Post had been losing millions of dollars and needed to recraft its strategy in order to survive.

“There is a gravitational pull toward what used to be vs. what needs to be,” Baron said. “And not just in the newsroom, but on the business side, too.”

I think the pull is evident in most organizations as well as in personal lives. We are much more comfortable with what is known, and implementing change evokes fear and discomfort. Yet, evolving into what “needs to be” is where progress occurs.

Think about the tension that Baron describes the next time you’re faced with a decision. Let the future orientation win.

leadership dot #1120a: ambassador

October 16, 2023October 6, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I recently was in Washington, DC and had the good fortune to stay on Embassy Row. I love that part of the city where streets are lined with mini-museums and cultural artifacts representing the countries whose embassies are stationed there.

There are 176 nations that have embassies in Washington, and I am always surprised at the scale and depth of their buildings. The Tiny Republic of Cote d’Ivoire (an Ivory Coast country I will admit I never heard of before) has three attached buildings taking up almost half a block. Likewise for Greece, the occupant of prime real estate as their country fends off loan defaults. It is a mini-United Nations as each country finds ways to express its culture and personality amidst the DC row houses.

I began to think of the concept of embassy, defined as “a permanent diplomatic mission.”* Why does it only have to be countries that establish such relationships?

Could you have an embassy to another office in your organization with whom you need to cooperate — and negotiate — and be friendly even when you disagree? Would it change the perspective if one of your employees (or you) were named the “ambassador” to another organization? How would you approach your relationship with others if you saw yourself fostering a permanent diplomatic mission instead of just a one-time transaction?

The United States has embassies in 307 locations. Where should you assign your ambassadors?

*Source for definition and numbers: Wikipedia, 2015

Originally published in modified form on June 26, 2015

Embassy of Latvia. The sign reads: “Nice to meet you. Honestly.”

leadership dot #2419a: milking the cows

October 15, 2023October 6, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Sometimes I am discouraged by all the things I have to do that are never really finished.

As soon as I write this blog, tomorrow’s deadline will loom large.
Immediately after teaching a class, the next lesson beckons.
Before the clean floor dries, the dogs will want to go out and leave their mark on the tiles.
Once I finish dishes, I’ll dirty a cup for hot cocoa to enjoy while I read.
You file the expense report and go about business, thus generating more expenses to record.

There is so much of our daily work – at home and in our organizations – that is repetitious and part of a continual cycle. Just as in the summer we plan on cutting the grass each weekend and in winter it seems we need to shovel snow every day, so must we allocate in our mental constructs as well as our literal calendar the time to do that which must be done over and over.

As the adage goes, “You have to milk the cows every day.” While that is true, don’t get so consumed by the milking that you fail to enjoy the splendor of the farm that surrounds them.

Originally published in modified form on January 29, 2019

leadership dot #2428a: Tahiti

October 14, 2023October 6, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

In another one of those decade-old conversations that I had but don’t remember, apparently I influenced someone to go on a trip to Tahiti with his friends. This person had the financial means and the time, but for whatever reason was hesitant to make the investment to go on the trip. I talked him into it, and he has been (unbeknownst-to-me) grateful ever since.

This all came to light in a recent conversation when I listened to another of his dilemmas and unwittingly did the same thing. In response to his concerns, I pointed out the flipside: that he did have the capacity to do this and I repeated back all the reasons I had heard about why it was something he really wanted. “You know what you’re doing, right?” he said. “You’re telling me to go to Tahiti.”

All of us need friends and trusted colleagues who can push us to go to Tahiti when we’re hesitant to take a risk. Oftentimes we are personally so consumed by the fear of committing to something that we fail to take into full account the positive side of the equation. Sure, it’s scary to sign a lease, hire a staff member, or book a luxury vacation, but it also might be exactly the right thing to do.

Make sure that your network includes some truth-tellers and those who will nudge you forward until you head for the islands.

Originally published in modified form on February 7, 2019

leadership dot #1119a: lifeline

October 13, 2023October 6, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I recently had to drive for about an hour in a dense fog. Thank goodness for the white line on the side of the road or I would not have made it.

I know that line is there all the time, but I usually don’t pay attention to it. I suppose at night it becomes a subconscious guide, but for the most part, I don’t even notice its existence.

Yet, in fog or bad weather, that white stripe becomes an essential lifeline for a driver.

Try to be like that line for your employees: where they are mostly unaware that you are guiding them, but you are always there when they need you.

It’s a good style to drive an organization.

Originally published in modified form on June 25, 2015

leadership dot #2418a: whacked

October 12, 2023October 6, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

There are probably some people within your organization who do not feel like they have a voice in larger issues or policies, yet some of those people have forfeited their voice by choice. In unhealthy cultures, it is easier to remain quiet, doing your work under the radar rather than paying the price that people who speak up often pay. If raising questions or pointing out issues only results in pushback or creating enemies, why is it worth it? It is often so much easier to just go with the flow.

The same is true about being informed; if you remain blissfully ignorant of the issues, you relinquish your obligation to address them or to engage in finding a solution. You can focus your efforts on the surface instead of tackling the hard stuff that lies underneath.

Cultures that don’t provide the psychological safety and overt encouragement to foster disagreements, challenges and risk-taking fall into a muted rhythm where things hum along without disruption – until they don’t. Avoiding issues does not solve them, rather it just prolongs their emergence and intensifies the reaction that occurs once the festering bubbles to the surface.

If you find yourself in a culture that operates like the old Whac-a-Mole game – where anyone who pops their head out of their hole is beaten down – you have two choices: find a critical mass of “moles” to pop up with you, thus avoiding the silencing of all or find yourself another culture where you can do your best work. It may be uncomfortable to stick your head out and use your voice, but it’s the only way change can really happen.

Originally published in modified form on January 28, 2019