Episoder
-
In this episode, we continue our conversation with Renaissance man Kent Keith, exploring the relationship between meaning, motivation, and performance.
Managers can often help their employees find meaning in the work they do and should take time to help others see the bigger picture or reimagine their work, when possible, as meaningful. This matters because people are usually more motivated and better when they feel connected to their work.
In this discussion, Kent also encourages managers to share the meaning they find in their work as an example for others to do the same.
Episode Highlights:
• People rise to the challenge if they see meaning in their work.
• Managers can motivate their employees by highlighting how the work they do impacts others. Communicating the greater impact or the bigger picture can also help others see meaning they may have overlooked in their work.
• Meaning at work can boost motivation and performance.
• Prosocial motivation (desire to help others) + intrinsic motivation (enjoyment of the work itself) = highest levels of persistence, performance, and productivity (This is Kent’s summary of Adam Grant’s research finding in his book, Give and Take.)
• Managers may need to redesign work, where feasible, so it is more meaningful to employees.
Quotes:
“People will rise to almost any challenge if it is meaningful to them.” – Kent Keith
“There’s a lot of meaning in helping other people to find meaning.” – Kent Keith
“We need more people who, as leaders and managers, are aware of the meaning they find and share the example of that.” – Kent Keith
“Managers care about meaning because it tends to unlock internal motivation, and usually that leads to better performance.” – Geoffrey Tumlin
Resources:
Kent Keith (2021). The paradox of personal meaning.
Adam Grant (2013). Give and take. Viking.
Fredrick Herzberg (1968). One more time: How do you motivate employees? HBR Press.
Alfie Kohn (1993). Punished by rewards. Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
Daniel Pink (2011). Drive. Canongate Books.
Key Words: Personal meaning, servant leadership, intrinsic motivation, work-life balance -
What does a meaningful career and a fulfilling life look like? Kent Keith is an author, a university president, and a businessman who has thought deeply about what makes a meaningful life. In this episode of the Management Muse podcast, Kent helps us build a more fulfilling life, one decision at a time.
Episode Highlights:
• As a college student who wanted to encourage his peers, Kent wrote the Paradoxical Commandments, which went viral long before the Internet age.
• Success involves identifying how your work matters and finding the personal meaning in what you do.
• The symbols and trappings of success, like power, wealth, fame, and prestige don’t provide lasting happiness.
• Kent’s research shows that the source of meaning for most people comes from living your values, being in relationship, and serving others.
Quotes:
“If you have the meaning, you don’t have to have the glory.” – Kent Keith
“Our lives are shaped by a degree to what the world does to us, but they are really shaped by how we respond to what the world does to us. And the response is always up to us.” – Kent Keith
“We can find meaning in adversity, and the way that we choose to respond is a large part of our legacy.” – Geoffrey Tumlin
“I think unconditional love is what can hold our families and communities together. There’s just not enough of it in the world.” – Kent Keith
About: Kent Keith is an author, a university president, and a businessman. He's also the kindest person you'll ever meet.
Resources:
Kent Keith (2021). The paradox of personal meaning.
Kent Keith resources and writing here: https://www.kentmkeith.com/
Key Words: Personal meaning, servant leadership, work-life balance -
Mangler du episoder?
-
Super-lawyer Lynne Liberato talks with Management Muse about the importance of expertise and genuineness in building our confidence. In this discussion, we explore overconfidence, bluffing, and how confirmation bias can impact confidence.
Managers build confidence in their employees through feedback and mentorship. By walking them through situations and highlighting how key decisions were made, staff can build their own confidence through the acquisition of knowledge.
This episode also covers the importance of body language, speech patterns, and appearance, as well as the crucial difference between confidence and arrogance.
Episode Highlights:
• Your confidence builds confidence in other people.
• Without knowledge and experience, it’s bull, not confidence.
• Mentoring helps managers instill confidence in younger workers.
• Managers also build confidence in their staff by providing feedback. Be timely, be honest, and be encouraging.
• Lynn shares a story about an incredibly skilled lawyer who had to overcome credibility issues because she didn’t look confident.
Quotes:
“You have to have credibility before you can say I don't know without a penalty. Don’t walk in unprepared. – Cindi Baldi
“The best thing to do is to be confident, but have the facts and the work to back it up.” – Lynne Liberato
“I always believed if I tried hard enough and I was prepared as I possibly could be I had earned the right to be confident.” - Lynne Liberato
“When you cease to be open, to even consider other positions, perspectives, and arguments you then cross the line from being confident into counterproductive arrogance.” – Cindi Baldi
About:
Lynne Liberato is a legendary Texas lawyer. Pray to your maker that she’s on your side.
Keywords: Confidence, Confirmation Bias, Mentoring, Feedback, Arrogance -
In this episode, Cindi and Geoff dive into the myth that a little bit of stress helps your performance. The conversation touches on the idea of procrastination and deadlines, where the stress of a time constraint can encourage task completion but may degrade performance. Cindi and Geoff also look at individual stress sensitivity and expertise as intervening variables that allow people to handle challenges without flipping out.
Finally, the hosts play a parlor game to see if they can track every habit back to a stressor and talk through strategies for managers to help employees unwind performance-draining work habits.
Episode Highlights:
• Stress in any dose can degrade performance, even though stress is ubiquitous. The same goes for deadlines, even though they are essential.
• Managers can help prevent people from excessively inflating stress and anxiety.
• Most habits form as a response to stress and anxiety.
• Managers require tools to help employees manage their stress so performance and quality of life aren’t negatively impacted.
Quotes:
“You have to be careful about high-drama people in organizations because they run around cranking up everyone’s anxiety.” – Cindi Baldi
“We want to encourage managers to build the kind of organizations where people feel like they're able to relax more into very challenging work.” – Geoffrey Tumlin
Resources: Malcolm Gladwell, The Art of Failure. New Yorker, August 13, 2000. Judson Brewer (2021). Unwinding Anxiety. New York: Avery.
Keywords: Stress, anxiety, habits, performance -
On this episode of Management Muse we talk to the extraordinary family therapist Larry Allman. Since no one can fully separate home from work, it’s important for managers to know strategies for building strong families.
Home problems create work issues and vice versa, so it’s prudent to think through pitfalls and obstacles to building resilient, thriving families. Master mentor Larry Allman helps us maintain families that last.
Episode Highlights:
• Larry proposes that organizations are not only hiring the individual but should provide something for the family so they feel nurtured by the institution.
• Managers need to remember that employees are people with feelings and families, and those feelings and families will impact how employees interact with others.
• How you interact with your family impacts how you interact with your employees.
• A compassionate work environment leads to healthier employees.
• Managers need to identify why they are having a strong reaction to others. Self reflection is key to improving relationships.
Quotes:
“If people can't resolve differences with their family, they're probably going to have trouble resolving conflict at work.” – Larry Allman
“Anybody who believes that family life doesn't impact work performance hasn't ever been at work.” – Geoffrey Tumlin
“There’s no such thing as a normal family. Everybody's struggling with family issues, everybody.” – Larry Allman
About Larry Allman:
Larry Allman is the founder of Hawaii Family Therapy. He strengthens families worldwide.
Resources:
David Cantor (2012). Reading the Room. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.
Jennis T. Jaffe (2020). Borrowed from your Grandchildren. New York: Wiley.
George E. Valliant (2015). Triumphs of Experience. Boston: Belknap Press.
Daniel Goleman (2005). Emotional Intelligence. New York: Random House.
James S. Gordon (2019). The Transformation. San Francisco: HarperOne.
Key words: Family resilience, boundaries, performance, work-life balance -
On this episode of Management Muse we talk to the extraordinary family therapist Larry Allman. Since no one can fully separate home from work, it’s important for managers to know strategies for building strong families.
Home problems create work issues and vice versa, so it’s prudent to think through pitfalls and obstacles to building resilient, thriving families. Master mentor Larry Allman helps us maintain families that last.
Episode Highlights:
• Larry proposes that organizations are not only hiring the individual but should provide something for the family so they feel nurtured by the institution.
• Managers need to remember that employees are people with feelings and families, and those feelings and families will impact how employees interact with others.
• How you interact with your family impacts how you interact with your employees.
• A compassionate work environment leads to healthier employees.
• Managers need to identify why they are having a strong reaction to others. Self-reflection is key to improving relationships.
Quotes:
“If people can't resolve differences with their family, they're probably going to have trouble resolving conflict at work.” – Larry Allman
“Anybody who believes that family life doesn't impact work performance hasn't ever been at work.” – Geoffrey Tumlin
“There’s no such thing as a normal family. Everybody's struggling with family issues, everybody.” – Larry Allman
Resources:
David Cantor (2012). Reading the Room. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.
Jennis T. Jaffe (2020). Borrowed from your Grandchildren. New York: Wiley.
George E. Valliant (2015). Triumphs of Experience. Boston: Belknap Press.
Daniel Goleman (2005). Emotional Intelligence. New York: Random House.
James S. Gordon (2019). The Transformation. San Francisco: HarperOne.
Key words: Family resilience, boundaries, performance, work-life balance -
In this episode of Management Muse, outer space expert and Earthling extraordinaire Joe Guzman shares his unique perspective on managerial risk and decision making. Uncertainty looms large in risk taking, since decisions with certain outcomes aren’t risky at all. The good news is that managers can often take risks incrementally by experimenting with small decisions and running pilot studies to see what happens before going all in. Risk, reward, and failure are usually interconnected, but with some forethought and wisdom from experiences managers can learn when to most appropriately turn smart risk on. Strap into your chair because in this episode space cowboy Joe Guzman takes us on a lively ride.
Episode Highlights:
• Joe emphasizes the importance of failure and humility in understanding risk and highlights timeless lessons from Stoicism, including embracing failures as part of the growth process.
• Cindi, Joe, and Geoff discuss the significance of calibrating risk when possible, and talk about the dangers of too much success leading to a bulletproof gambler illusion. Good feedback and reflection processes also help us learn practical and important lessons from failures.
• Geoff, Cindi, and Joe discuss some key factors the impact risk-taking, including openness to experience, the situation, our personal strategy, our age, and Kahneman and Tversky’s prospect theory (which states that individuals may take bigger risks after experiencing losses).
• The gang discuss the importance of morals and principles as guideposts for risky decisions.
• Cindi, Joe, and Geoff talk about what fear can and can’t teach us about our decisions.
• When possible, experiment and start small to reduce some uncertainty and test larger decisions.
• Without risk, too much of our potential is left on the table. A fulfilling life requires risk, failure, reward, and learning.
Quotes:
“Every challenge in your life makes you into the person you are now.” -Joe Guzman
“You’ve got to be willing to fail if you're going to take risks.” -Cindi Baldi
“A meaningful life has a well-calibrated acceptance of risk.” -Geoffrey Tumlin
“You're going to get into trouble if you don't fail and if you are missing feedback mechanisms.” -Geoffrey Tumlin
“A lot of times we don't have to predict. We should just experiment.” -Geoffrey Tumlin
About Joe Guzman:
Joe Guzman is the founder of Space Cowboy. He also went to high school and college with Geoff. He retired from the Army's Space Force as a Colonel.
Resources:
Selected works from Nassim N. Taleb:
Taleb, Nassim N. (2017). Skin in the game. Penguin Books.
Taleb, Nassim N. (2013). Antifragile. Penguin Books. T
aleb, Nassim N. (2008). The black swan. Penguin Books.
Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic Podcast: https://dailystoic.com/podcast/ Amor Fati is Latin for “the love of fate” https://dailystoic.com/amor-fati-love-of-fate/
Selected work from Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (and Paul Slovic):
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P. & Tversky, A. (1982). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kahneman, Daniel. (2011).
Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Principles by Ray Dalio: Dalio, Ray. (2017). Principles: life and work. Simon and Schuster.
Key words: Risk, fear, risk management, failure, feedback, decision making -
Where do good ideas come from? In this episode, entrepreneur Dan Schmisseur shares his experience generating and exploring ideas to find gems worth pursuing. Dan shares how the best ideas often come from connecting the dots to what may seem like unrelated information. The ability to create the space to think, explore, and learn broadly all aid in coming up with unique and valuable ideas. Additionally, relationships are key to bringing your ideas to life. In this episode, managers will learn to foster a culture of idea generation by encouraging employees to deeply explore their industry, share their interests and experiences with each other, and build an atmosphere where people share ideas without fear of being immediately shot down.
Episode Highlights:
• Great ideas are often ahead of the time other people are ready for them.
• Support and relationships are crucial for helping good ideas become great.
• Sometimes thorny problems lead to creative solutions. Occasionally, this is out of desperation.
• Never be afraid of looking stupid. Don’t shoot down ideas. People are much more willing to share their ideas when first reactions aren’t criticism.
• Outside perspectives can sometimes offer the necessary vantage point for meaningful change.
Quotes:
“Never be afraid of looking stupid because of your ideas.” - Dan Schmisseur
“It’s a weakness for managers to always be constantly busy, which may not be the best use of their time. When endlessly busy, there’s no time for developing people under them, and they are also making it so they have no time to think about new ideas.” – Cindi Baldi
“One of the myths of entrepreneurs is that they go all for broke when the truth is that most successful entrepreneurs have safety nets.” -Dan Schmisseur
About Dan Schmisseur:
Dan Schmisseur is a serial entrepreneur who is half of the brains behind the consulting firm Cromwell Schmisseur.
Resources:
Adam Grant (2016), Originals: New York: Viking.
Adam Grant (2013), Give and Take: New York: Viking.
Clayton Christensen (1997), The Innovator’s Dilemma: Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Scott Shane (2008), Illusions of Entrepreneurship: New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Sehgal, Kabir. "Why you should have (at least) two careers." Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr. org/2017/04/why-you-should-have-at-least-two-careers (2017).
Keywords: Ideas, idea generation, relationship building, networking, creativity -
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi and Geoff discusses habits and how to change the ones that are not serving you well. They discuss the trigger-action-reward habit loop and then dive into the power of feelings as a way to encourage habit change. Managers care about habit loops because they care about focusing energy where the greatest contributions can be made. And habits can inhibit or enhance focus and energy. Cindi and Geoff discuss common issues managers face with daily habits and the ways those habits impact productivity. In order to break a habit, it’s necessary to update the reward value associated with it. This involves paying attention to how the habit makes you feel, because some habits are no longer as rewarding as they used to be. Cindi and Geoff also discuss starting with small habits to build momentum for larger behavior change and to avoid procrastination.
Episode Highlights:
• The value of rewards associated with habits often change over time. Managers should explore the feelings associated with habits to more effectively change behaviors. Sometimes, breaking a habit is easier than we think because the reward is outdated.
• Strategies for improving work habits include isolating triggers, implementing small changes, and finding alternative behaviors that offer similar rewards.
• New managers sometimes develop bad habits due to the uncertainty of the role, which encourages action. Reflection and deliberation about the urge to act can help reduce early missteps.
Quotes:
"Our feelings about rewards have a lot more to do with habit than we think and those feelings are often outdated. This can actually help us make new and better habits." -Cindi Baldi
"Our advice: pay attention to how you're feeling about what you're doing and see if that doesn't lead you to stop things that aren't working as well as you thought and increase things that bring you more satisfaction, joy, and fulfillment." – Geoff Tumlin
Resources:
Brewer, Judson. (2021). Unwinding anxiety. New York, Avery.
Clear, James. (2018). Atomic habits. New York, Avery.
Duhigg, Charles. (2013). The power of habit. New York, Random House.
Fogg, B.J. (2020). Tiny Habits. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Morgenstern, Julie (2005). Never Check Email in the Morning. New York City
Newport, Cal (2016). Deep Work. New York: Grand Central
www.culsure.com
www.ondemandleadership.com
www.managementmuse.com
Key words: Habits, rewards, emotions, reinforcement -
How do you slay your to-do list and knock out key priorities? In this episode on work-life balance, Jon Calvin, the CEO of Lone Star Circle of Care, joins Cindi and Geoff and gets real about a balanced life. Importantly, Jon notes that everyone's path to balance is different. What may seem unbalanced to others may enable someone to live the life they love. And sometimes, we need the help and support of others to pull off a balanced life. To help us strike a balance, managers can periodically log their time and write down priorities. Lifetime learning and maintaining a growth mindset can also help managers keep their lives in balance and make their time more productive and meaningful.
Episode Highlights:
· Jon stresses the importance of support systems and a strong team at work.
· Managers should take personal inventory of their goals, consider their schedules, and redirecting energy towards what matters most.
· Exercise boosts productivity, energy levels, and provides long-term health and cognitive benefits.
· A supportive work environment is essential, especially during times of intense and challenging work.
Quotes:
"You're always working on balance. It's a process." – Geoff Tumlin
"I rely heavily on my team and their areas of expertise and I try to focus on the higher-level issues I need to work on." – Jon Calvin
"I think people have more opportunities in their schedules than they may think and they can turn some bad habits into some good habits." – Jon Calvin
“I think if people periodically logged where their time was going and wrote down their priorities they might see where they're out of sync.” – Cindi Baldi
"Wake up early to get ahead. It's much easier to protect your time when most people are sleeping." – Jon Calvin
About Jon Calvin:
Jon Calvin is the CEO of Lone Star Circle of Care and is a competitive triathlete. He moves fast and doesn't break things.
Resources:
For a full Q&A with Jon Calvin and his post-episode thoughts visit www.managmentmuse.com
Adam Grant (2013), Give and Take. New York: Viking.
James Clear ( 2018), Atomic Habits. New York: Avery.
Lewis Hamilton speaking about Nelson Mandela: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av-tn2Oao_4
Texas Mamma Jamma Bike Ride: https://www.mammajammaride.org/
www.culsure.com www.ondemandleadership.com www.managementmuse.com
Key words: Work-life balance, habits, priorities, stress, burnout, resilience -
What you say and how you say it matters. In this episode of Management Muse, author and researcher Darrin Griffin discusses the importance of nonverbal communication. As managers, we should be master noticers and to pay attention to how nonverbal cues like dominance behaviors, body language, and timing impact those around you. This episode also covers importance of perception checks to reduce miscommunication.
Episode Highlights:
• Paying attention nonverbal behavior can help identify others’ interests and conversational goals and aid in better communication.
• Nonverbal communication varies significantly from person to person. Translation: people are often quirky.
• Nonverbal communication can help build trust and make people feel understood.
• Because miscommunication is common, and feedback and perception checks are essential.
Quotes from Darrin Griffin:
“When you send a message nonverbally, you send it to someone and they receive it. But it may not be the same message that you intended, so somewhere in there you got to align your perceptions.”
“If you're going to hone your nonverbal skills, you do it in a way that is goal driven and mutually ethical between you and your interactants because you're not doing it just to benefit yourself, right? You want to better understand people so you better understand them and then you can react to them more accurately.”
“We know how to communicate. But nonverbal communication as managers is often challenging when you're doing it with a lot of people with different perspectives.”
“Don't try to interpret nonverbal behavior with certainty. Be tentative and reality check what you are seeing.” “It's okay to be wrong. And by acknowledging that you might have been wrong, misunderstood, or the source of miscommunication, you'll build trust and rapport. People will like you more. They'll think you're human.”
About Darrin Griffin:
Darrin Griffin is the communication department chair at the University of Alabama and is a prominent author and researcher. His academic expertise is in nonverbal communication and deception and his practical expertise is in BBQ and motorcycles.
Resources:
Lying and Deception in Human Interaction by Mark Knapp, Billy Earnest, Darrin Griffin, Matthew McGlone
www.culsure.com www.ondemandleadership.com www.managementmuse.com
Key words: Nonverbal communication, body language, self-presentation, influence, power -
What do you do after adversity to manage the challenge and build reserves for the future? Geoff and Cindi talk through strategies for deploying resilient responses and decreasing the incidence of adverse events becoming trauma. In this episode, Cindi and Geoff discuss cooling our emotions, how to reflect and not ruminate on adversity, and finding meaning in the hand life deals us. Episode
Highlights:
CRM = three strategies for building resilience: Cool the emotions, Reframe adversity as an opportunity for growth, and find Meaning in the challenge.
Cindi shares a story about escalating emotions and how she cooled things down in a tense situation.
Finding meaning in adversity is essential to lower the odds that it becomes traumatic. We can do this by identifying a purpose or mission that helps make sense of our difficult experiences and therefore provides value to adversity.
Having a growth mindset and an internal locus of control (that is, feeling like we have a hand in our fate) help build resilience.
Tendency is not destiny.
We can intentionally cultivate a more resilient mindset even if it doesn't come naturally.
Homework for building resilience: practice reframing adversity as an opportunity for growth and identify a sense of purpose or meaning in a challenging experience.
Quotes:
"When faced with adversity, we can decide that we're going to look for where we can make a difference." – Cindi Baldi
"Sometimes the manager's job is just to help people ID – what am I actually feeling? And get the right label on it." – Geoffrey Tumlin
"The science is pretty clear. An internal locus of control, where we say things to ourselves like I can work through this and There are things I can do help generate more resilient responses." – Geoffrey Tumlin
Resources:
• Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset. Ballantine Books.
• Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Scribner/Simon & Schuster.
• Konnikova, Maria. "How people learn to become resilient." The New Yorker 11 (2016).
• Diane Coutu- How Resilience Works https://hbr.org/2002/05/how-resilience-works
• Bessel van der Kolk M.D. - The Body Knows the Score
• Martin Seligman- Learned Optimism
www.culsure.com www.ondemandleadership.com www.managementmuse.com
Key words: Resilience, Adversity, Locus of Control, Growth Mindset, Reframe -
In life, we get dinged up by things that happen to us. Resiliency is the science and art of getting the dings out and continuing on. In this episode on resilience, Cindi and Geoff share strategies on keeping perspective, reframing situations, and taking action to get through challenging hard times. One current management challenge is change fatigue, which can lead to more dings. In adversity, managers can benefit from the 3A’s by acknowledging what the current situation is, adjusting their thinking and taking action.
Episode Highlights:
Three big insights from resilience research: 1. Resiliency isn't a stable trait. 2. Everybody has a breaking point. 3. Not all adversity causes trauma.
Cindi's mom highlights the value of resilience and also shows that resilience varies depending on the individual and the nature of the adversity.
Geoff's experience shows how acknowledging the situation, focusing on positive emotions, and avoiding counterproductive emotions can help build resilience.
Remember: building resilience is a muscle that requires strengthening over time. Resilience is about growing in the face of adversity, not merely surviving.
Before adversity, it is important to build a buffer of emotional and physical reserves to better handle tough times.
Doing things that bring balance and recentering are important resiliency tools.
Reframing from pervasive negatives (like everyone is lazy) to specific negatives (like Jim is lazy) and permanent hardship (my job seems impossible) to temporary hardship (my job seems impossible this week) can help increase persistence in the face of obstacles.
Quotes:
“ Not all adversity causes trauma.” - Cindi Baldi (From the research of George Bonanno.)
“Resilience is not a stable trait.” - Geoffrey Tumlin
“You have to look adversity it in the eye and deal with it the way that it is. Then, you can go forward, plan, and react.” - Cindi Baldi
Resources:
Bonanno, G. (2021). The End of Trauma: How the new science of resilience is changing how we think about PTSD. Basic Books.
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Scribner/Simon & Schuster.
Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset. Ballantine Books.
Konnikova, Maria. "How people learn to become resilient." The New Yorker 11 (2016).
www.culsure.com www.ondemandleadership.com www.managementmuse.com
Keywords: Resilience, Reframe, Adjust, Growth Mindset, Positive Psychology -
In this mini episode, retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General Jefferson “Beak” Howell shares a few fun stories from his life and relates some lessons on leadership. If you missed his earlier episodes, check out our 3-part series on Crisis Management, episodes 4-6.
Timestamps
[00:50] General Howell shares a story about Tom Cruise coming over for dinner during a visit to the Johnson Space Center.
[06:59] General Howell talks about his surprise promotion to General.
[11:43] General Howell shares a story from his time as an infantryman.
[22:27] General Howell shares an important leadership lesson.
[25:34] General Howell discusses balancing big-picture thinking with individualized attention to members of a very large team.
[27:24] General Howell talks about having lunch with the king of Jordan.
Episode Quotes by Jefferson Howell:
“You gotta take care of the organization. You gotta get the job done. The mission always has to be completed. And that’s paramount. At the same time, look after your people. Take care of them. Try to help them do wonderful things.”
About Lieutenant General (retired) Jefferson Howell:
Lieutenant General Jefferson Howell had a 37-year career in the Marine Corps, serving at all officer levels, and then was Commander of the Johnson Space Center. Following his retirement from NASA, he served on the faculty at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. -
This mini episode is a standalone conversation that occurred during turnaround episode 12 with Rhonda Mundhenk, Chief Executive Officer of Clinical Health Network for Transformation (CHN). In this mini episode, Rhonda discusses what she would do if given the chance to turn around American healthcare.
Episode Highlights
· The ways in which social investments and preventative care are central to successful healthcare.
· Differences in attitudes about healthcare between the United States and other developed countries.
· How America’s focus on treating disease rather than creating health shapes our approach to healthcare.
Timestamps
[01:17] Rhonda discusses what she would do if asked to turn around American healthcare.
[02:04] Rhonda talks about how important social investments and preventative care are to a successful healthcare system.
[04:07] Rhonda speaks about how the US healthcare system focuses on treating disease and morbidity rather than creating health.
[07:13] Rhonda points out the positive correlation between the health of a nation’s women and children, and the overall health and economic well-being of that nation.
Episode Quotes by Rhonda Mundhenk:
“When you think about the US healthcare system, this is the fundamental question: Are we treating disease, or are we trying to manufacture health? And therefore, where should we spend our resources?”
About
Rhonda Mundhenk is the Chief Executive Officer for the Clinical Health Network for Transformation (CHN) in Central Texas. Previously, Rhonda was CEO of Lone Star Circle of Care (LSCC), a system of federally qualified health centers in Central Texas. The has a Master’s in Healthcare Transformation from the University of Texas at Austin, and a law degree from Northwestern University in Illinois. -
Note: Not recommended for kids who still believe. This mini-episode of Management Muse is a great story from Nate Self’s Transitions episode 8. We loved the story so much, that we didn’t want it to die during editing. So, here it lives. In this mini-episode, Nate talks about a time his youngest child, Griffin, caused him to suffer an involuntary and abrupt transition. About Nate Self Nate is a former U.S. Army officer and founder of the Praevius Group. Nate graduated from West Point with honors and served on active duty in Germany, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Nate travels the world speaking to audiences on topics related to personal and organizational effectiveness. He lives in Central Texas with his wife and four children, and he coaches a ton of youth sports.
-
This mini episode is a standalone conversation from the culture episode 2 with Welela Tereffe, M.D., the Chief Medical Executive of the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. In this mini episode, Welela shares important lessons about healthcare inequality, and discusses ways to improve the American healthcare system.
Episode Highlights
· Why there is a massive racial disparity in U.S. healthcare.
· Implicit biases affect the quality of healthcare people of color receive.
· How stress and aging take a disproportionate toll on African Americans.
· How minority representation in healthcare plays a key role in correcting some inequalities in the U.S. healthcare system.
Timestamps
[00:53] Welela speaks about poor health outcomes in the state of Texas.
[01:58] Welela discusses racial disparity in relation to breast cancer.
[04:54] Welela shares why healthcare disparity is sometimes rooted in racism.
[08:18] Welela gives an example of how implicit biases affect the healthcare people of color receive.
[09:48] Welela and the hosts discuss the importance of representation in the medical field.
[12:31] Welela explains some of the ways we can increase healthcare equality.
[13:12] Welela talks about how to correct implicit biases. [14:24] Welela defines systemic racism.
[15:21] Welela shares some of the incremental changes that could be made in healthcare to improve the system.
[16:11] Welela discusses how our lifelong health outcomes are driven by the environment we grow up in.
[17:43] Welela defines weathering and how it affects African Americans.
[21:00] Welela offers an example of environmental racism.
[22:25] Welela asks the question: How do you engage more people of color to become healthcare workers?
[24:48] Welela speaks about how to help reduce implicit bias in the workplace.
Episode Quotes by Welela Tereffe:
“A recent study showed that when black women have a black obstetrician, their risk of maternal and infant mortality is something like three times lower. So, why is that? What’s the cause of that? I would say it’s likely the minimization of social distance, misperceptions, misdiagnosis, inattention, etc. that can happen because of our own implicit biases about people who are a different color than us.”
“A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout our educational system is really, really important. That will increase the number of people of color who are in healthcare… It’s also very important for ensuring that we increase the number of women and minorities on clinical trials. Clinical trials are the way we advance in science.”
About Welela Tereffe
Welela Tereffe, M.D., is the Chief Medical Executive at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She’s a graduate of Brown University, New York University Medical School, and Harvard University. Her medical specialization is in radiation oncology.
Related Resources
Patterson, Evelyn J., Andréa Becker, and Darwin A. Baluran. "Gendered Racism on the Body: An Intersectional Approach to Maternal Mortality in the United States." Population Research and Policy Review (2022): 1-34.Seligman, Martin EP. "Learned helplessness." Annual review of medicine 23.1 (1972): 407-412.Wakeel, Fathima, and Anuli Njoku. "Application of the weathering framework: Intersection of racism, stigma, and COVID-19 as a stressful life event among African Americans." Healthcare. Vol. 9. No. 2. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021. -
Managers are often decent at waging bets, but what if you had to take over a losing hand? Management is hard on a good day, but leading an organizational turnaround takes special skills and a willingness to persist in the face of imposing obstacles. How do you condition yourself to lead an organization when the odds are stacked against you? That’s what we cover on this episode of Management Muse. In this episode, we discuss Organizational Turnarounds with Rhonda Mundhenk. Rhonda is the Chief Executive Officer at Clinical Health Network for Transformation (CHN), and former Chief Executive Officer at Lone Star Circle of Care Under her leadership, Lone Star survived a multimillion dollar financial restructuring to become one of the nation's leading federally qualified health centers. She’s got major turnaround skills. Tune in to get the scoop.
Timestamps:
[00:01:35] Tenacity is a common characteristic of many managers; however, turnarounds require an especially invested leader. Rhonda shares why this matters.
[00:02:59] Rhonda explains a 3-step process for turnarounds. 1) Preserving the core of the organization, 2) Redefining the organization, 3) Recasting the organization
[00:08:28] Restructuring relies heavily on committing to a new vision and endlessly communicating the vision to everyone involved. Here, we discuss how that's best done.
[00:12:41] Here, we talk about the traits necessary when turnaround work gets especially hard.
[00:16:12] Rhonda talks about the importance of your team, and accessing resources outside of your organization.
[00:16:55] Not every job survives a turnaround. Here’s how to keep your sanity during this tough phase.
[00:19:15] Rhonda reflects here on her top turnaround lessons learned
[00:24:55] Here is what the pandemic taught us all about navigating uncertainty, which is a common trait of turnarounds.
[00:29:02] Rhonda advises on how to influence change when you're not the CEO by: identifying your audience, communicating your why, overcoming inertia by appealing to emotions
[00:37:40] Rhonda discusses looking back and seeing your good work continue.
[00:43:10] What wildebeest migration and organizational restructuring have in common—the answer may surprise you.
Quotes by Rhonda Mundhenk:
“When you're in the moment, it just seems all consuming and there's so many things to do, but you also have to provide a vision for the future that's actually going to get people through [to] the other side.“
“You have to be able to understand your audience, understand what actually needs to happen, and then just write it to your audience in a way that [has] the emotional component. It's very rarely actually the rational things that make people change big, deep seated, you know, deeply felt beliefs.”
“You just have to have that understanding that like, yes, this is the whole herd that I am responsible for, but I do understand that not the entire herd is going to make it to where we're going, because that is not the nature of migrations. So, there will be some attrition along the way. But your goal is to get that critical mass of wildebeest to jump in the water. Because actually when they all jump in the water, very few of them are gonna be eaten by crocodiles.”
Resources:
McKinley, William, Scott Latham, and Michael Braun. "Organizational decline and innovation: Turnarounds and downward spirals." Academy of management review 39.1 (2014): 88-110.
Useem, Michael. Leading Up. New York: Currency, 2001.
www.managementmuse.com
https://culsure.com/product/organizational-benchmark/
https://ondemandleadership.com/strategic-planning/ -
Organizations move slowly, until they don’t. They resist change, until they can’t. Why? On this episode of Management Musewe discuss an unusual—and unusually powerful—way of thinking about organizations…like they are trash cans! Hosts Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin talk about one of the greatest management papers you’ve never read: "A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice," the classic article written by Michael D. Cohen, James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen. As crazy as it sounds, the trashcan model of organizations makes a lot of sense: Organizations are messy and chaotic. There’s a lot of different issues inside them, and occasionally the contents spill out and come into full visibility. Grab your flashlight; it’s time to climb into the trashcan.
Episode Highlights:
● Organizations aren’t efficient like computers, they are messy and somewhat unpredictable like trashcans.
● Do you feel unheard? Like your ideas are neglected? Don’t take it personally. It’s a garbage can out there, and you have to reach in, grab the item you care about, and champion it.
● Organizational change often happens on its own timeline, but smart managers can often spot moments to push, and times to back off.
Timestamps:
[0:00] Cindi and Geoff talk about key managerial lessons from the garbage can model.
[4:00] The hosts discuss championing your ideas in a garbage can environment.
[6:00] Cindi and Geoff talk about floating ideas up and outside of the trashcan.
[8:25] The hosts talk about using your time and energy in the trashcan wisely.
[9:20] Geoff and Cindi cover the ways that Covid knocked over many trashcans, and created numerous opportunities for change.
[14:00] The hosts explore how external shocks often lead to big changes.
[17:12] Geoff and Cindi talk about using the garbage can model to help people improve their organizations.
[25:10] Cindi and Geoff talk about making change happen with limited time and other resources.
[28:00] The hosts cover two scenarios that prompt change in a garbage can world: (1) Something internal or external knocks over the trashcan, revealing messes that require attention. (2) Someone external takes the lid off, raises a flag, and forces action.
[37:00] Why it’s so humbling to try changing an organization. No matter what you think you know or which methodology you deploy, it’s a trashcan out there. The process is messy, so when an opening emerges, don’t hesitate to seize what might be a sacred opportunity.
[38:32] Geoff and Cindi talk about what’s in the trashcan and what can be done to evolve the organization.
Episode Quotes:
“It’s humbling to try to change an organization because no matter what you think you know or what methodology you’re following that seems to have all the answers, it’s a trashcan out there. It’s just not going to be clean.” –Geoffrey Tumlin
“At the lower end, you really have to be able to build a coalition, go up the chain. There’s still a lot of work that you have to do if you decide that it’s really important and it’s a much longer, harder process because you’re that much further away from the actual decision-makers.” –Cindi Baldi
Episode Resources: Would you like to read the original article? Here it is: "A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice," by Michael D. Cohen, James G. March and Johan P. Olsen.
https://culsure.com/coaching/https://ondemandleadership.com/executive-team-building/www.managementmuse.com -
To lie or not to lie, that is today’s question. Deception isn’t always a bad thing—you probably don’t tell your significant other everything.There’s a difference between outright lies—almost always counterproductive and bad—and selective deception, which is not saying something. Sometimes, a little selective deception is a smart management strategy. After all, that’s what having trade secrets is all about. Today's guest on Management Muse, Professor Matthew McGlone, is here to tell us more.
The key to leveraging deception in business is to focus on the good, like your good reviews, your successes, and your happy customers. Impression management and selective representation can be a very useful skill for businesses managing their public image.
The danger, however, comes when what you are not saying is more important than what you are saying.
You can still be authentic and mostly honest while using selective deception. Most people tell the truth most of the time. Used sparingly, and without outright lies, selective deception might be a smart occasional choice. In today’s episode, we dive deep into deception.
Timestamps:
[3:04] When deception in management is a positive tool [6:46] Avoiding deception pitfalls [9:36] Managing your company’s public impression
[13:10] Authenticity versus falsehood
[16:39] Self-deception to continue to see ourselves in a good light
[21:48] Why you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself for deceiving
[28:00] Differences in groups (females/males) in lying [37:48] Detecting lies, maybe
Episode Quotes:
“Why should organizations which consist of people be any different than the individual who tries to put their best face forward? And so, in that sense, I think that deception can be very useful. I'd say that it is sort of skill. Any sort of impression management selective representation would be very important for a manager. “– Matt McGlone
“Astroturfing is when companies will put their campaigns and efforts to engage in sustainable, clean technology. They'll put that in the forefront while not talking about the fact that there are major pollutants. That's why astroturfing is a wonderful word. It looks like grass. But it really isn't. It's as toxic and plastic and artificial as it can be.”– Matt McGlone
“We're generally truth tellers, and so the four things that I remember you saying are to go easy on yourself, try not to lie outright, think about the relationship, and then consider being extremely forgiving of other people when you catch them [in a lie].” – Geoffrey Tumlin
“I’ve always thought that organizations get hung up when they make their identity about like a core value, and then that's the thing that they wind up doing something contradictory towards, whether it's lying or just an overt act.”– Cindi Baldi
“Used in a very misleading way, and that's there's a phenomenon people called paltering. Paltering is when you say things that are truthful, and they are every bit as misleading as a falsehood. I would urge managers to think about how much paltering might be going on in there. In their organizations because I think misleading truths is an overlooked category.” – Matt McGlone
Resources:
McGlone, Matthew S., and Mark L. Knapp. "Historical perspectives on the study of lying and deception." The Palgrave Handbook of Deceptive Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. 3-28.
McGlone, Matthew S., and Mark L. Knapp, eds. The interplay of truth and deception. New York, NY: Routledge, 2010.
www.managementmuse.com
https://ondemandleadership.com/executive-team-building/
https://culsure.com/product/organizational-benchmark/ - Se mer
