A Holiday Video and Gift From Lorne

Abundance Accountability Personal leadership Respect

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Dear Readers/Listeners,

Garrett and I thank you so much for reading our blogs and/or listening to my podcast. Please accept a gift of a few of our most popular blogs from 2018. While we get very encouraging responses to most of our blogs, these seemed to trigger something a little extra from our followers. We hope you might enjoy reading them anew. Also, we put together this Holiday video greeting as well. 

Click here to receive the free e-book, and we invite you to share it along this Holiday season. 

We look forward to you joining us again in the New Year. We do this because of our commitment to your personal leadership journey, and our joy in continuously learning.

Seasons’ Greetings and Happy New Year,

Lorne and Garrett

 

Santa at Work

Abundance Accountability Personal leadership Respect

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Story: I remember one Christmas Eve when I was a rookie VP in a division of a Fortune 50 company. I was quietly working at my desk in the early afternoon. My radio (remember them?) was playing holiday songs. Almost everyone in the office had left for the Christmas break. It was a very peaceful moment. As I was wrapping up to head home for our family festivities, the Chairman and CEO popped in my office. He stopped by on his way home to personally offer Christmas best wishes. He sat for a moment, asked me what our family holiday plans were, and thanked me for my contributions to the company. I’ve always appreciated and remembered that gesture.

Key Point: As you wrap up the week, regardless of what position you have in your organization, please remember to take a personal moment to acknowledge and thank someone. Your genuine care will likely always be remembered. That personal connection where we can see each other, appreciate a handshake or even a friendly embrace, reminds us that above all else, it’s people that make organizations and cultures what they are.

Lead Yourself:

  1. Take a moment to personally check in on someone you work with before the holiday season begins. Learn more about how they celebrate and genuinely thank them. No excuses regarding not having time or being too busy.

Lead Others:

  1. Call, Facetime, or ideally in person check in with ALL your direct reports before the break. No excuses. And no lazy group generic emails or texts. As a leader, you’re Santa at work with the simple gift of care and conservation.

Santa at work in Personal Leadership,

– Lorne

One Millennial View: As great as the office Holiday party or Secret Santa exchange can be, a small gesture of acknowledgement from a leader is a memory that is sure to last through the New Year.

– Garrett

Blog 956

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

 

Lead In With Lorne Podcast: The Importance of Laughing at Work

Abundance Accountability Personal leadership Podcast Respect

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Hi readers and listeners,  

We invite you to take a couple minutes to watch/listen to our new podcast, Lead In with Lorne Rubis: A Leadership Story to Start Off Your Week.

This week’s podcast discusses the importance of laughing at work… And introduces Cecil the goat. Enjoy it on the YouTube video embedded below, and stay tuned for it to be available to access/subscribe to on iTunes and other audio options soon. We hope it enriches your Monday morning. 

– Lorne and Garrett Rubis 

Gary Vee and Me Agree Self-Accountability = Happiness

Accountability Personal leadership

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Story: Is self-accountability fundamental to happiness? My experience is that many people think they’re self-accountable, yet fail to realize they often behave in ways that are opposite. One way or another, they explain away their unhappy circumstances as somebody else’s fault. I’ve been in so many executive meetings where it became an art form to blame others or hide the lack of responsibility in amorphous terms like the evil “silo.” In fact, silos have been known to be the cause of most organization ills. What malarkey, and a testimony to how insidious unaccountability is. So my direct answer is a resounding, “yes!” Being fiercely and personally accountable is a key ingredient for one’s (and organizations’) happiness.

Gary Vaynerchuk, the widely followed blogger, podcaster, venture capitalist and all around raconteur, recently published a popular blog that connected self-accountability and happiness. He talks about five reminders why he thinks accountability leads to happiness. The headlines are:

  1. “COMPLAINING GIVES AWAY LEVERAGE.
  2. BLAMING YOURSELF ISN’T THE SAME AS JUDGING YOURSELF.
  3. COMPLAINING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE MAKES YOU FEEL HELPLESS.
  4. OWNING YOUR WEAKNESSES TAKES AWAY THEIR LEVERAGE.
  5. BLAMING YOURSELF LEADS TO THE OUTCOME YOU WERE LOOKING FOR BY BLAMING OTHERS.”

Key Point: I agree with Gary Vee about the freedom and sense of autonomy that comes from taking full ownership for one’s situation. Regardless of what happens, and any misfortune, a true self-accountable person asks one question first: “What can I do about it?” There is little or no time invested in complaining or feeling victimized, as seductive as a little whining may be. This does not mean ignoring feelings of hurt, regret, guilt or whatever. Awareness about how one feels and self-compassion is vital for personal growth. However, self-accountable people focus their exclusive attention on changing matters they are not satisfied with. They avoid getting stuck in a rut that they find unacceptable. Self-accountable people are also confident enough to seek help when necessary, without giving away personal autonomy. They are respectful of the viewpoints of others, and still avoid being paralyzed by the harshness of judgement.

Where I disagree with Gary Vee, is in his use of the word “blame.” I think all blame is waste and mostly about shame. Self-accountable people that are evolving in the right direction do not invest in blaming themselves any more than they do others. They compassionately accept, learn or unlearn, and then take full responsibility to move forward. I also encourage people to spend less time concerning themselves with leverage over others than embracing the full joy of being autonomous and perusing mastery.

Lead Yourself Moves:

  1. Recognize that when you take ownership, you are adding to your happiness quotient.
  2. Always lead with the question, “what can I do about it?” Then ACT!
  3. Fight against blaming anyone or anything. It is wasteful.

Lead Others Moves:

  1. When you find people reporting to you blaming someone or something else, constructively confront them. 
  2. Set the example. By confidently and humbly being self-accountable, leaders set the stage for controlling one’s destiny and teaching others to do the same.
  3. Self-accountability also means being clear about expectations from others. Do not expect them to read your mind so you fall in the trap of blaming them for a disconnect.

Happy self-accountability in Personal Leadership,

Lorne

One Millennial View: I don’t mind admitting that Millennials might be stereotyped as the most “it wasn’t me” generation, able to professionally throw blame around like Tom Brady slings a football. And unfortunately, we’ve often seen this mindset be profitable, encouraged and applauded. We’ve witnessed shame work as insurance for our own safety, protecting our jobs, relationships and more. So, what can we do about it? Well, thanks to well-informed, logically based messages from blogs like this one, we can put effort into finding and spreading the happiness of self-accountability, especially in spaces where blame seems to recycle through the atmosphere like air conditioning on a plane.

– Garrett

Blog 955

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

 

New Peer to Peer Power

Abundance Accountability Personal leadership Respect

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Story: Some people who worked with me implementing the Google G Suite platform at my previous company still think it was primarily a technology initiative. However my team’s intent was to create a work renaissance and revolution. My belief is the old power controlling resources, innovation and decision making is dissolving rapidly. New power values are about collaboration, adaption, crowd wisdom, self-organization, radical democracy and transparency, impact assignments, tours of duty, a “find it, learn it, do it” mindset, and more. This workplace transformation is still not obvious to many, and when standing in the middle of a change from well-understood norms to new power forms; it can be disorienting and even frightening.

Key Point: Today, as powerfully explained in their exceptional book entitled New Power by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms, our lab is the world. Digging into that way of thinking can be a super mind bender. One has to embrace learning and unlearning by being a technologist, futurist, transformer and hopefully humanist. The workplace, regardless of industry, is going to feel like it’s in a 8.0 earthquake and no one is immune. As Heimans and Timms state: “Too often, this tension gets lampooned as Old Codger versus Young Turk. AARP versus ADD. But there is a deeper cultural shift playing out as old and new power values do battle at work.” This blog is just an appetizer. I hope to inspire you to learn and unlearn much more about new power.

Lead Yourself Moves:

  1. Learn what it means to think and act more as a Founder: Create things, feel ownership, live with transparency, learn to navigate being all in/always on, and to drive constructive movement.
  2. Think of yourself on “tours of duty” versus a career or job.

Lead Others Moves:

  1. Embrace the concept that leaders are designers.
  2. Take the New Power quiz to see where you are on the New Power/Old Power spectrum.

New Power in Personal Leadership,

Lorne

One Millennial View: I’m very curious to learn more about this, and do harbor an appreciation for some “old power” values. For example, I believe in the credibility of a boss with experience, I think competition among co-workers is healthy and motivating, and while transparency can be awesome, forcing everyone to reveal how much they earn teeters on the line of “that’s nobody’s business but my own (my boss and HR’s), and impolite for anyone to ask.” Some other new power values are great, and I look forward to learning/unlearning more.

– Garrett

Blog 954

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

 

Lead In With Lorne Podcast: Autumn is a Metaphor For Career Change

Abundance Accountability Personal leadership Podcast Respect

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Hi readers and listeners,  

We invite you to take a couple minutes to watch/listen to our new podcast, Lead In with Lorne Rubis: A Leadership Story to Start Off Your Week.

This week’s podcast discusses how Autumn is a metaphor for change/reinvention, with a personal story attached. Enjoy it on the YouTube video embedded below, and stay tuned for it to be available to access/subscribe to on iTunes and other audio options soon. We hope it enriches your Monday morning. 

– Lorne and Garrett Rubis