Month: December 2024

leadership dot #4477: winter

December 21, 2024December 20, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Today is the Winter Solstice — the day winter officially begins (even though we’ve already had several inches of snow). It also marks the day with the shortest amount of daylight.

Many people lament the loss of light but it also presents an opportunity to embrace the gifts of the dark. Fire pits, stargazing, viewing holiday lights, and moonlit walks are all treats to be enjoyed only at this time of year.

Winter is also like the darkness; you can be down about it or see it as an opportunity to go skiing or skating, eat pomegranates, or cozy up with a blanket and hot chocolate.

Whether you fight it or welcome it, longer nights and colder weather are here for much of the country. Reframe your perspective to make the most out of that which you cannot change.

leadership dot #4476: be authentic

December 20, 2024December 19, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Instead of watching a lineup of holiday movies, I’ve been enjoying Friday Night Lights again before it leaves Netflix at the end of the month. With this viewing, I see that many things I loved about Ted Lasso were first seen in FNL. Coach Taylor is the original Ted!

Though the shows have a sports background, neither one is really about sports. They are about leadership and building a team. Both include lessons such as:

Be authentic
Have high expectations
Hold people accountable
Get to know your people well
Help people see more in themselves than they see
Admit when you make a mistake and apologize
Remember it’s about more than winning or losing
Put in the time

If you’re tired of all the holiday fantasy movies, switch to Friday Night Lights. It’ll be a good reminder of how you should be going into the new year. “Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can’t Lose.”

leadership dot #4475: snowmen

December 19, 2024December 18, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Flying during the holidays can be stressful for everyone, but especially for the little ones. It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep the kids amused and happy, so to help in this effort, the Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP) airport placed snowmen throughout the terminal. These statues were perched on signs, sitting on counters, and peeking out from multiple locations. It was a game (even for me) to see how many snowmen could be spotted. They served as both a distraction and an impetus to keep moving forward down the long airport concourses.

Someone at MSP thought ahead about a way to serve their youngest passengers (and, in turn, everyone else around them!) Have you considered how to treat all of your audiences at your next event, in your waiting room area, or in whatever way you serve multiple groups of people? Even though the wee ones didn’t buy the ticket, making the experience less stressful for the parents increases the likelihood that there will be a next time. Implement the equivalent of snowmen in your organization to prevent meltdowns!

leadership dot #4474: adamant

December 18, 2024December 17, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a colleague who shared a disagreement he was having over resource allocation. He was adamant that he had the authority to ensure the outcome landed how he wanted it to and was convinced that his stance would not change after he met with the affected party. Guess what? After he learned more, he was convinced and agreed to back away from his request.

Last week, I had lunch with him again, but this time I was the one ranting, in my case about the (lack of) service from a car dealership and how I would not be buying from them. I was as firm in my conviction as he had been about his situation, but guess what? After clearing up a misunderstanding (and a nice ‘we’re sorry’ discount), I changed my mind and sealed the deal.

Both situations remind me of the songs from the classic musical South Pacific. One minute Nellie is singing I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair and in the very next song she sings I’m in Love, I’m in Love, I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy.

Sometimes it feels good to rant and rave and insist that you are on the correct side of an issue, but it also feels good to process new information and change your mind. Save the angst and consider a new year’s resolution to ease up on righteousness and lean more into inquisitiveness.

leadership dot #4473: seating

December 17, 2024December 16, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I’ve been in theaters, stadiums, and airplanes where the aisle and seat markings are ridiculously hard to see. The performing arts center may make them tiny for aesthetic reasons, but other venues also tend to obfuscate the numbers or make them visible only when you are immediately on top of them. Whatever the reason, it’s always a challenge to find the right seat.

Contrast that with a movie theater which plasters giant markings on the carpet next to the aisle. There is no mistaking which row holds your designated ticket, making the seating process speedier for everyone.

Think about the goal of all your communication (which also includes your signage). Do you want it to be pretty or to be functional? Kudos to the designer who can achieve both, but if you have to choose, my vote is for making it practical.

leadership dot #4472: improvised

December 16, 2024December 14, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Gift wrap as we know it wasn’t in use in 1917. People would wrap gifts in tissue paper, but that year a stationery store ran out of it during the busy holiday season. Out of desperation, the owners improvised by selling “fancy French paper”, usually used to line the inside of envelopes. Even at 10 cents per sheet, it was a big hit. After the demand continued the next year, the owners decided to make their own the following season. Those entrepreneurs were brothers Rollie and J.C. Hall and their fortuitous experiment turned into Hallmark. Today, gift wrap products are valued at $15 billion globally.

Every day, people improvise and create solutions to common problems. The Hall brothers didn’t set out to create a gift wrap industry. They were initially just trying to serve their customers due to an inventory shortage, but they paid attention to the responsiveness of their Plan B.

Instead of trying to devise a creative solution, maybe your best approach is to heighten your awareness about the problems or solutions already around you. One of those improvised workarounds could turn into something big.

leadership dot #4471: spirits

December 15, 2024December 14, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I love a good double entendre. A great example of this was a sign at a bar in the Minneapolis airport: “Making Spirits Bright.” It was a splendid way to acknowledge the holiday season and simultaneously advertise their specialty drinks.

Double entendres are thoughtful, creative uses of language. They remind me of the quote by Blaise Pascal: “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” It’s easy to bloviate or add filler. Kudos to the copywriter who succinctly communicates multiple messages with one well-placed tagline. Smart!

leadership dot #4470: start small

December 14, 2024December 14, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Twelve years ago, 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I vividly remember watching the television on a perpetual loop discussing the horrors of 20 families losing first-graders right before Christmas. The gunman fired 156 shots in less than five minutes and at the time, mass shootings were an anomaly. There was a public outcry to “do something” and prevent future tragedies like this.

Here we are, more than a decade later, with hardly anything different. The issue of gun control is so complex and so politicized that nothing substantive has been done in the intervening twelve years. No one has an acceptable solution for fixing everything, so there is movement on nothing.

If you find yourself facing a sensitive, daunting problem, focus your efforts on the next step, not the end goal. Make some progress. Take a baby step. Address one part of the issue. Find a morsel that you can agree on. Trying to eat the elephant in one bit is impossible. Take a tiny nibble — over and over again.

leadership dot #4469: watching

December 13, 2024December 11, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

A sneaky but clever device for parents to extract the best behavior from their children is a Santa Cam — a realistic (but fake) camera that reminds kids Santa is watching them. It probably only works during this time of year, but it could do the trick.

There is no such thing as a “supervisor cam” so supervisors need to be more intentional about holding their teams accountable for performance. If you let deadlines pass or tasks go undone without follow-up or consequences, it signals to your staff that the actions don’t matter, or at least timeliness doesn’t. To establish the expectations, you may need to do some reminders (“The budget is due next week, see me if you have questions but I expect it by end of day Tuesday”) but by golly, if that budget isn’t there when you walk in Wednesday morning, you need to be on the phone.

If you want others to be accountable, you need to be clear about what success looks like and address it when someone doesn’t comply. Expecting good behavior without external motivation is an unrealistic ask from most people. Let them know that Santa is watching.

leadership dot #4468: tuning fork

December 12, 2024December 11, 2024by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

A helpful analogy about feedback comes from Liz Wiseman in her book Impact Players. She likens feedback to a violin, which requires tuning every time it is played. Violinists tune their instruments at each concert by aligning them with a tuning fork until the instrument and pitch are perfectly in sync. The supervisor’s or organizational goals become that tuning fork, giving the employee a reference point.

“Feedback is simply information to help the recipient recalibrate,” she writes. “When we operate like a musician who is continually tuning their instrument, the beneficiaries of our work don’t need to tell us we are out of tune.”

Everyone expects violinists to tune every day, relying on the tuning fork as an essential tool. This allows them to develop a keen ear to detect subtle misalignment and adjust accordingly. High performers should act like violinists and do the same.

Source: Impact Players by Liz Wiseman, 2021, p. 143-145