Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…

The weekly Newsletter of Without A Vision Consultancy LLC

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February 10, 2020 – Lincoln’s Birthday

Good morning!

In just two more days it will be Abraham Lincoln’s 211th birthday — had he lived. And oh how we needed him — and need him still! “If Mr. Peanut has to go, why does The Gecko get to live?” (Queenan) I don’t remember whom to credit for this good advice: Don’t make major decisions in February. It’s so true, think about it.

I don’t care how good or bad my generation has been — they call us the baby boomers — I hope succeeding generations are always better and smarter and wiser.
- A recent thought-provoking advertisement in the WSJ queried, “What if we were meant to be the next Greatest Generation?”
- The person featured in the illustration was obviously a Generation-Y or Generation-Z person. (Will they start over again with A?)
- Wonderful, I hope it’s true. We need you to be better than we have been — go for it!
We had the amazing experience last week of being in a small audience for nearly three hours to learn from and to be inspired by Nobel Laureate, Juan Manuel Santos, who was named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most important/ influential people in the world.
- Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for his work in ending the 50-years civil war in Colombia.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” (Maya Angelou)
From Roberto, Unlocking Creativity:
- “Team members will feel psychologically safe when they’re encouraged to speak up about issues, when they know it’s OK to fail, and when they feel comfortable taking risks around their peers.”
What do you think of Bock’s so-called Nudge Management? Or, perhaps that’s an oxymoron, Nudge Leadership, or Nudge Coaching?
- The research would seem to suggest it has improved customer retention, employee safety, organizational commitment, and innovations to name a few.
  - But, has it improved the quality of the stale leftovers in the break room?
- Take care: Don’t confuse a nag with a nudge, the former will lead to tragic results — and sorry, most well-intentioned nudges are (oops!) nags.
- Also, take great care: A nudge cannot in any way be manipulative or passive aggressive (whatever will Minnesotans do?!)
  - A nudge guides or suggests choice without removing other options, plus the preferred choice is easy to make and has an upside with little or no downside.
  - A nudge is clear, concise, easy to understand, easy to execute — it has a beginning and an end, though it might lead to new habits.
  - A nudge is highly personal and demonstrates to the nudgee the understanding care and concern the nudger has for the nudgee’s success.
    - In other words, you can’t buy a book of, Best Nudges Ever — though I suspect they will be available soon — and expect to have any success.
    - (The above synthesis informed by DiLeonardo, Smallets, and Lauricella)
(… continued from last week, repeated from an earlier Musings at your request:)
- The truth can be painful, and often is. Ninety percent of communication is non-verbal (no words written or spoken) yet we relay on texting, e-mail, and other forms of word-based messages for the vast majority of our communication. Don’t succumb to this temptation. Pay close attention to subtle body language, facial expressions, and posture. Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth. Learn to listen, practice listening, take classes in the art and the skills of listening — and then take refresher courses.
- Seek regular counsel, guidance, and evaluation from your full circle/ sphere of influence, including from your adversaries (yes, we all have them). Pay attention to the quiet person in the corner who appears to support your every move because that person just might be your greatest behind-the-scenes detractor. It is normal and natural for a leader to be criticized. Systematize safe and non-threatening ways in which people are invited to criticize you — and then report back to them so they know you listened, heard, and understood. And then if you don’t take their advice, explain why. The thing about paranoia is at its best and healthiest it is nothing more than acute affective intelligence at work. Stay in touch with why your paranoia is sending you the messages it is.
- There is no such thing as 100% agreement on anything — and even if there were, it’s fleeting. You might achieve what appears to be consensus because the members of a team, a family, or a group are conscious and supportive of the greater good and compromise accordingly, but each person expressing conditional or compromising support is at the same time harboring some doubt or disagreement. This doesn’t mean people are dishonest or deceitful, it’s normal and it’s human to disagree.
- Among the skills of leadership is keeping the greater good (the strategic objective) at a high enough value and visibility so that disagreements with it are subordinated to that greater good.
- Without a vision the people perish (Proverbs 29). Among the responsibilities of any leader, a duty that can’t be delegated, is having a vision, communicating the vision, asking others to share the vision, and transforming that vision into action and sustaining it. (Informed by Bennis and Nanus)

What do you get when you work with Without a Vision Consultancy LLC?
- We listen, we learn, and then we customize our response to deliver:
1. Confidence
2. Clarity
3. Coaching
4. Companionship on your journey… sometimes it gets lonely and it’s good to have a friend.