Month: March 2024

leadership dot #4212: lunch break

March 11, 2024March 8, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

A tough thing for many new managers to learn is how to make time to go to lunch. (Lots of experienced managers have the same challenge!)

There will always be something more to do, another meeting that got scheduled, or a fire to put out. Those who are successful and healthy in the long term learn to manage their workload and not become absorbed by the crisis-of-the-day. Sure, some occasions require an immediate response, but it should be the exception.

Gulping down a meal at your desk doesn’t count, either. It’s best if you make time for a break or even a social call outside of your work environment as taking that 30 or 60 minutes can clear your mind and help you refresh for the second half of the day.

One way to facilitate this is to schedule lunchtime on your calendar as a repeating appointment with no end date. (I scheduled mine 11:30 am – 12:30 pm — and on many days that left my 11-11:30 am and 12:30-1 pm slots unscheduled.) I didn’t eat every day, but the majority of the time I at least had a respite from meetings or outside demands during that time.

Focus on the “break” rather than the “lunch” and make it a priority to happen. Better to eat lunch than to have the job devour you.

leadership dot #4211: fountain

March 10, 2024March 8, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Sometimes you need to have a visual image for advice to stick with you. Such was the case for Travis Kelce when his football coach at the University of Cincinnati told him: “Everybody you meet in this world is either a fountain or a drain.”

It was clear that Kelce was the latter — and the advice was powerful enough to become the necessary motivation to change his performance. Three Super Bowls later, the advice has stuck.

Having a picture in mind helps to embed the lesson and serves as a visual reminder going forward. So, the next time you need to provide feedback or feel compelled to give advice, work hard to frame your wisdom in the form of an analogy. In other words, give your feedback like a peace lily instead of a cactus.

leadership dot #4210: onsite

March 9, 2024March 8, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

When people receive a solicitation request in the mail, most people toss it as they are far removed from the benefit their donation could provide. A museum’s approach is to close the gap between giving and receiving by having on-site donation machines outside their most interactive exhibits. People can instantly see the enjoyment kids get from feeding the stingrays or touching sea creatures in the tide pool tank and may be more inspired to give.

Think of ways you can lessen the time gap between request and reward. Maybe ask for scholarship donations at an honors banquet. Conduct your volunteer sign-up at a rally. Collect supplies at a pet adoption event. Proximity is a powerful motivator.

leadership dot #4209: translator

March 8, 2024March 7, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

My car is one of 2.5 million that are targeted for a recall. When I received the notice, I had no clue as to what a “low-density impeller” was or did — but my dealer’s service advisor was able to explain it to me in a way that I could understand. I’ve come to rely on my service advisor as an invaluable translator — he speaks “car” which is a foreign language to me.

I use the analogy of a service advisor in training for other customer-facing positions. In order to help me, the service advisor has to understand how the vehicle works in enough detail to explain it. They must know in depth what the mechanics do — without necessarily having the ability to do the work themselves. The service advisors are far more than just relays; they must know the questions to ask, what likely scenarios are, and how to interpret the results of the diagnostics and mechanic’s work. They have to be competent communicators in both directions: speaking with the mechanic in technical terms and speaking with the customer in empathetic but plain language.

Too many service providers see themselves as clerks — responsible for just processing transactions. But to truly provide service, those in that role need to have a solid understanding of the system in which they work. It’s not enough to merely check someone in at the dealership. True service comes from knowing enough to read a technical recall notice and then tell the customer that a low-density propeller is part of the fuel pump, and if it was his wife’s car he wouldn’t worry about her safety if she drove it until it was fixed.

leadership dot #4208: every season

March 7, 2024March 6, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

To accept a friend’s challenge, Mark Hirsch took photographs of the same tree, taken every day for a year. Not only did Hirsch capture the tree in different seasons, but from different angles, distances, and light. It made for stunning artistry.

I thought about that when I visited my favorite place on the shores of Lake Michigan — only this time in the winter, not in its usual summer glory. Instead of crowds and beach umbrellas, there was a snow fence and boarded-up facilities — all hunkered down for the punishing lake winds. It made me wish I lived closer to see the lake in every season and watch it adapt to the conditions.

Both with That Tree and Lake Michigan, the same view takes on different perspectives depending upon when you study it. It’s a good reminder for other things — that taking a fresh look at some practices and policies, a vexing problem, a long-held assumption, or even relationships can look differently depending on when you examine them. Embrace the opportunity to reflect over time.

See: That Tree by Mark Hirsch, 2013.

leadership dot #4207: constraints

March 6, 2024March 5, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

We think we’d like it if someone gave us a blank check and unlimited time to accomplish a project, but author Seth Godin believes that constraints are the reason a project exists and we should embrace them (see dot #4193).

Godin believes it’s constraint confusion that causes problems, not the limitations themselves. If you know what the parameters are, you can likely adjust the work to meet them. He gives the example of Saturday Night Live — which airs Saturday night at 11:30 pm — “not because it’s perfect, but because it’s 11:30. No one is allowed to say the show would be better if we could put it on an hour later.”

While it may be tempting to work in an environment without boundaries, you could work on incremental improvements forever and it would actually be harder to know when the work was finished. The clarity of project constraints helps to alleviate stress and delays — and allows people to make the best decisions about where to allocate resources and effort.

The next time you’re starting a project, start with an agreement on the boundaries of time, money, and output specifications. Taking time to build that fence will keep you from later disagreements about what success looks like.

leadership dot #4206: lessons

March 5, 2024March 5, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Author Louise Penny’s beloved Chief Inspector Armand Gamache imparts four lessons to new agents in the Sûreté homicide division. While the lessons are offered as a crash course in catching killers, Gamache’s advice can prove helpful in many real-life scenarios.

The statements that lead to wisdom require that you learn to say:

I don’t know.
I’m sorry.
I need help.
I was wrong.

Chief Inspector Gamache may be fictional, but his advice couldn’t be more real. These words can go a long way to building trust, showing vulnerability, and receiving the assistance needed to be successful.

Such simple statements, but with such power, and for too many, they become impossible to say aloud. Don’t let pride kill your voice; instead, be humble enough to benefit from Gamache’s wisdom.

Source: The Cruelest Month, by Louise Penny, 2007.

leadership dot #4205: schedules

March 4, 2024March 1, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

When we started a project last September, one of the first things I did was schedule time on everyone’s calendar. It was easy — at the time — to hold an entire day in March and to find a consistent time for our bi-weekly meetings. If I had tried to do that now, everyone’s calendars would have been booked up.

As we worked, we have made faster progress than expected so I was able to cancel seven hours of meetings for this month. I’m sure it was a welcome bonus for everyone to have almost a full day now available to them.

A few takeaways from this process:

Schedule early when it’s far more likely that you can have clear options for everyone to gather.
Schedule all at once so you can hold a regular time and not deal with scheduling issues every time you need to meet.
Hold a large block of time (all day) at regular intervals — you’ll then have it available if needed for deep thought or extended project work.
Cancel meetings when the agenda doesn’t warrant holding them.

The time you dedicate to meetings should be about the content, not the logistics.

leadership dot #4204: launch pad

March 3, 2024March 2, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Yesterday, I wrote about finding inspiration (dot #4203). A company that found inspiration from the Keurig single-serve coffee machines is Bartesian — which adapted a similar mechanism to create individual cocktails.

Bartending is a skill, requiring knowledge of hundreds of combinations to make a specialized drink. Bartesian automates that process and uses machinery instead of humans to do the mixing. Someone saw a “personalized drink maker” for hot drinks and modified it to serve the same function for mixed drinks. It’s a good example of taking one element of a product and reimagining it for another purpose.

Look around. Can you find a component of one thing and use it in another way? Keurig >> Bartesian. Industrial security cameras >> Ring doorbells. Bath mat >> Dog mud-absorbing mat. Vending machines to dispense food and drinks >> vending machines to dispense Narcan. Ace Hardware stores >> Ace Handyman services. A bunch of blog posts >> a book. The launch pad for your next idea is out there already.

leadership dot #4203: cherry

March 2, 2024March 1, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Much of Ann Patchett’s novel, Tom Lake, takes place at a cherry orchard in Michigan. The main character tells stories to her daughters while they are out picking cherries in their fields, and with Patchett’s vivid prose, you can almost taste the season’s fresh fruit.

A Michigan retailer capitalized on this connection and created a special batch of cherry jam in conjunction with the book. You don’t usually see a book inspire the making of preserves, but in this case, it’s a perfect pairing.

Where can you find new inspiration for your next project or product? This dot came from shopping in a boutique while on vacation. Shelby Van Pelt was inspired by an octopus documentary (dot #4190). A contest was spurred by the unlikely partnership between an ice cream company and a hippopotamus (dot #3505). Look beyond the usual sources to create connections that become the cherry atop your sundae.