This article, called the 5-Hour Rule, makes a fascinating assertion: that the world is shifting so fast and physical products and services are being demonetized so rapidly that the best investment to make today – in fact the currency of tomorrow – is knowledge. Our ability to learn will be what differentiates the most successful people from the less successful ones. People who identify skills needed for future jobs and quickly learn them are poised to win.
“We need to stop thinking that we only acquire knowledge from 5 to 22 years old, and that then we can get a job and mentally coast through the rest of our lives if we work hard. To survive and thrive in this new era, we must constantly learn.”
This is worth the read.
Category: Leadership
Don’t Widen Home Plate
Credit this content to Rick Houcek whose free weekly email broadcast has featured this story more than once over the years. It’s worth the read, every time.
In 1996, at a convention of 4,000 baseball coaches in Nashville, a 78-year old keynote speaker stepped to the stage to a standing ovation. Only 5 years had passed since he retired from a storied college coaching career that began in 1948.
A Leader’s Humility
If leadership lacks humility, they will rarely admit when they make a mistake. If this happens, employees observe and the result is employees who don’t take risks. This subversively kills companies.
Learning vs. Development
Here are 3 premises that I believe are true about organizations and their leaders:
1. The organization that the develops the fastest, wins.
2. No one develops faster or further than the leader.
3. People, including leaders, will do anything to avoid significant development.
Learning is easy. Development sucks. Learning changes what I know, but Continue reading “Learning vs. Development”
The Scarcest Resource
The scarcest resource in any organization is the attention of the leader. How much time does the leader spend on WHAT versus HOW versus WHY. For most leaders, most of their time is spent on WHAT and HOW. Yet executives are the ones who should be thinking about WHY.
Acquisition vs Reactivation
We invest a lot of time and money in acquiring new customers. It is also part of the natural flow for customers to eventually become dormant. As this happens, our sales team turns its attention toward finding new customers. However, this is not usually the most profitable approach. We are leaving Continue reading “Acquisition vs Reactivation”
Sales Covers Many Sins
When sales are good, it’s easy to ignore problems in the organization. Are we spending too much on freight? Did our R&D project run far over budget? What about the mistake in marketing that required us to reprint all those materials?
More subtly, systemic and cultural problems such as tolerating Continue reading “Sales Covers Many Sins”
How To Kill a Stupid Rule
I stumbled across this easy-to-understand article about How To Kill A Stupid Rule. If you are a boss, please take 2 minutes to read this. If you are an employee, please take 2 minutes to read this, then show it to your boss. Don’t wait until next week, do it right now. Just one conversation to create a Continue reading “How To Kill a Stupid Rule”
Who They Are
In my encounters with other people, especially challenging encounters that tackle tenuous issues where there may be tension or disagreement, I try to keep in mind the other person, and I try to be curious about Who They Are:
- What do they fear?
- What do they believe?
- What do they need?
Framed Glory
One of our company leaders had a great idea. Our hallways and walls were utterly uninspiring: mindless motivational posters and a few Ansel Adams images mishmoshed with an assortment of oddball paintings from long-gone employees.
What if we had a contest to update our surroundings? Something personal Continue reading “Framed Glory”
What Einstein Knew
What Einstein knew: ‘No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.’ In other words, you can’t solve your problems using the same mixed-up logic that got you into this situation in the first place. If you’re spinning in circles thinking about the problem, not Continue reading “What Einstein Knew”
More vs Better
It’s tempting to focus on a single metric ($ revenue; # social media followers; words written per day) especially as we’re getting things up and running, striving for that initial growth. A single metric is easy and it feels good to see each little step of progression. But it’s only a single axis of Continue reading “More vs Better”
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