leadership

Politics at Work: “Cognizant but Don’t Embark”

Understand the politics do not play in the politics because the worst thing that can happen is you’re labeled as political, which is a dead nail. So please do not embark and playing the politics. Just be cognizant of the politics.

Indra Nooyi on Adam Grant’s Podcast, Taken For Granted (approximately 37:35 timestamp)

This is from Part 2 of a two part series of interviews by Adam Grant with Indra Nooyi, the former chairman and CEO of Pepsi Co. Both interviews are worth a listen and specifically this concept of being cognizant of politics but not embarking on politics in the workplace.

Balance between being aware but not engaging. What a dance to do.

Values Over Talents

When looking ahead, planning a shift, crafting a career, deciding about the future, we ought to focus more attention on our values instead of our talents.

Talents or gifts are reflective. They look backwards at where we have been. This contextual perspective brings loads of insight but we must ensure to also look ahead.

The rear view mirror on a car is much smaller than the windshield.

Values help us look ahead while also connect with a core of who we are.

Talent/Gift: A unique function or ability we possess or have proven to be successful.

Value: A guiding principle or ideal which we prioritize.

If you are looking ahead, of course consider where you’ve been and what are your talents or gifts but ensure you focus more towards what you value. If we continue to respond to our environment with our talents alone, we are shaped more by our environment than our true selves. Focusing on values brings a proactive approach, helping us shape the environment with ourselves.

Values lead ahead while talents look back.

Brene Brown has a great values clarification process where you take this list of values and cross out words until you’re left with 2-3 of your top values.

Building a practice of mindfulness or journaling can also help you clarify and identify your values while reflecting on the talents you possess.

I love focusing on talents and have found huge value in it myself. Strengths or talents or gifts are important to consider. But they only go so far. This StrengthsFinder worksheet can be a great launching point if values feel too daunting.

What is servant leadership?

This buzzword often feels positive, is something we look for, aspire towards, or seem to enjoy.

But what does it really mean for us?

If this is how you intend to lead, as a servant of a cause or for people around you, truly serve those people well by defining servant leadership for yourself and clarifying how it shows up in your world.

Where does this ideology show up in your day to day? What are examples of how you’ve lived this out? If this idea were to live out in its best/purest way, how would it look? What would it do? Feel free to think nuts and bolts specifics or consider the three P’s.

Sometimes we can define what it is not to discover what it is.

A quote I love that embodies how I see servant leadership from Lao Tzu (original pronouns “he” changed to “she”):

The wicked leader is she whom the people revile.

The good leader is she whom the people revere.

The great leader is she of whom the people say, “We did it ourselves.”

Lao Tzu

This idea sparked in me from two sources: (1) The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge (feels like a must read book for anyone looking to do effective leadership) quotes Lao Tzu. (2) Coaching Real Leaders Podcast Episode “Bridging the Gap Between Me & My Team” shows a process we can clarify and understand more deeply the meaning of core values like “servant leadership.”

Conflict Quotes

A couple quotes from Yulee Lee at Fuller Youth Institute I wanted to save and share:

“Conflict doesn’t stay where it starts.”

“Collaboration challenges our own preferred ways of working and thinking.”

“Two types of conflict: Content (beliefs, values, goals) and Relational (esteem, control, affiliation). Often these are tied together.” -Paraphrased

“In conflict people often want to be respected. Four ways through conflict: 1- Separate people from problem. 2 – Focus on interests not positions. 3 – Invent options from mutual gains. 4 – Sometimes it’s helpful to use objective expert criteria.”

A Renewed American Dream

The past American dream was about opportunity based mostly on wealth and money. Creating a world of opportunity for future generations.

New American dream clarified by Amanda Gorman in her inaugural poem of January 20, 2021 is one of justice, inclusion, unity.

She paints the picture of our collective dream that we would leave a world better for our children and their children. A better world that to me is renewed.

Not of opportunity through comfort and means but of opportunity through love and bravery.

This new dream is The Hill We Climb.

Amanda Gorman reciting her Inaugural Poem for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris

Transcript of Gorman’s Poem on January 20, 2021:

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it

Amanda Gorman Inaugural Poem January 20, 2021

Necessity for My Life: Purpose Beyond Myself

Excerpt from my journal on 03Nov2020…shared via blog on the day of inauguration of President Joe Biden:

Today elections around the USA came to a close. As I was working at a polling location in Indianapolis, I realized and felt a purpose beyond myself that I have not felt often before.

I was helping people live out democracy. The freedom to speak for what you want and demand what you believe is right.

I helped people who voted in the same way I did as well as people who I would disagree with. When I helped each person, I felt the power of democracy.

Even those I disagreed with, I felt the purpose of giving them the chance to make their vote heard. I wanted them to have just as much of a chance to demand what they believe is right…even if I disagree.

This is the power of a purpose beyond yourself. We have something to stand on which unites us.

This idea of a purpose beyond ourselves recalls to me John Maxwell’s framework of Level 5 Leadership. The most effective leaders are those who lead with a purpose and on principle. We follow them, they follow us, because of who we are and what we are on mission towards. It is not because we have authority, nor because we have their permission, nor because of what we have done for the group or for them. It is because we have respect. Because of what we represent beyond ourselves.