Wise Bites: April 23, 2021

Greetings

Are you ready to bring your best self to the week’s challenges? If not, what will it take to rise to the occasion? One way to get yourself in the position to help others reach their potential is to invest in your own growth and improvement. So take a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for you to consider for the week.

Book Segment

This week, I highlight a great book to help you bring out your best self. Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy explores how to harness confidence and achieve personal empowerment. Cuddy, a social psychologist and TED speaker, delves into how we can use body language, mental framing, and "power poses" to project and cultivate a stronger sense of self. Drawing on psychological research and personal stories, she shows that adopting a "presence" mindset can reduce stress, increase resilience, and improve performance in high-stakes situations. The book emphasizes authenticity and encourages readers to bring their authentic selves into challenging moments, ultimately leading to greater success and satisfaction.

Quotes

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

-Aristotle

The person who asks questions is more helpful than the person who offers advice.

-James Clear

Internet Find

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Wise Bites: April 16, 2021

Greetings,

Are you ready to bring your best self to the week’s challenges? If not, what will it take to rise to the occasion? One way to get yourself in the position to help others reach their potential is to invest in your own growth and improvement. So take a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for you to consider for the week.

Book Segment

This week I decided to highlight the book,  The Right to Write by Julia Cameron. The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron encourages readers to embrace writing as a natural, accessible form of expression for everyone, not just professional writers. Cameron, known for her influential book The Artist’s Way, dismantles common misconceptions about writing and offers exercises to help people connect with their inner voice. Through personal anecdotes and practical advice, she reveals that writing can be therapeutic, empowering, and joyful. The book inspires readers to approach writing as a tool for self-discovery, creativity, and personal growth, highlighting that everyone has the right to write.

If you are looking to encorporate more writing in your personal or professional life, or aiming for ways to get more out of life through passion and creativity, you should grab a copy of The Right to Write by Julia Cameron.

Quotes

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

-Booker T. Washington

Do something every day that you don't want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

-Mark Twain

Internet Find

I don’t know what it is, but I really enjoy an excellent top-ten list.  Sometimes, you can find some great gems in a list that has condensed a body of work down to the most essential. You get that when you watch Evan Carmichael’s YouTube video, Malcolm Gladwell’s Top 10 Rules for Success Volume 2.  Gladwell shares ten thought-provoking rules for success with indelible wit and sometimes comedic timing from his work over the years in this compilation video.

It is definitely worth viewing the 16-minute video to gain more context and insight from Gladwell, but here is a summary of his Top Ten.

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Wise Bites: April 9, 2021

Happy Friday,

How was your week? Did you meet your goals, make a difference, or learn something new? If you answered yes, congratulations! If you answered no, don't worry. In that case, you can make up for it today by taking a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for you to consider for the week.

Book Segment

This week, I decided to revisit a leadership book on a true American hero, Abraham Lincoln, that I had previously read and written about (Lincoln on Leadership: A Book Review for School District Leadership) a couple of years ago. With so much written about President Abraham Lincoln, it is sometimes hard to see him in a new way. However, Phillips presents the president's leadership traits from a fresh perspective in his book, Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times. Phillips highlights several of Lincoln's letters and quotes throughout the book and uses Lincoln's actual words to illuminate and validate his claim that Lincoln possessed modern leadership traits applicable in today's business and workforce environments. His book organized Lincoln's leadership abilities and his book into four sections.

In the first section, Phillips outlines Lincoln's critical strategy for building meaningful relationships with subordinates. In his second section, he highlights how Lincoln's stringent policies of honesty and integrity won over many of the strong personalities he confronted. Phillip shares in his third section that Lincoln encouraged innovation and sought generals who craved responsibility and took risks. In the final section, he puts President Lincoln's charm and masterful communication style on display to emphasize the power and importance of Lincoln's effective communication.

You can never learn enough about Lincoln or leadership, and Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times is one book you should read.

Quotes

Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.

-Michael Landon

Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone.

-Billy Cox

Internet Find

When was the last time you had a lollipop moment? If you don't know what I mean, you should watch the TED Talk video, Everyday Leadership, by Drew Dudley. In only 6 minutes, Dudley masterfully shares a story from his life that illuminates how everyone can be a leader and significantly impact others' lives if we stop making leadership an unobtainable concept. He employs the viewer to redefine leadership and resist the notion that it is only exhibited in grand fashions. Dudley posits that If we expect leadership from ourselves every day, we all can have the power to change others' lives and help them have lollipop moments. Here's to you passing forward a lollipop moment today.

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Wise Bites: April 2, 2021

Happy Friday,

How did we get to April so fast?  As you prepare for a beautiful weekend, take a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for you to consider for the week.

Book Segment

This week I want to share a book segment review from The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. In this short read, Stanier manages to distill the most critical habits of coaching to seven transformative questions that every leader should ask to improve their work and help others improve theirs.

1. The Kickstart question - “What’s on your mind?” - This question is an excellent start to any conversation. It is the perfect balance between being focused and open that invites people to what most important to them.

2. The Awe question - “And what else?” - This self-management question opens the door for more insight and self-awareness and sets the stage for the rest of the questions.

3. The Focus question - “What’s the real challenge here for you?” - This question slows down any rush to action and helps you address the real problem.

4. The Foundation question - “What do you want?” - This question helps you to get at the heart of what matters most.

5. The Lazy question - “How can I help?” - This powerful question is a time saver question for you as it forces those you are working with to make a clear and direct request and keeps you from making assumptions about what would be best.

6. The Strategic question - “If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?” - This complex question is a time saver question for those working with you as it helps them clarify their commitments.

7. The Learning question - “What was most useful for you?” - The bookend question helps you create a space for those that you work to have learning moments, and it connects back to the kickstart question.

Stanier wisely advises us to ask one question at a time when implementing the coaching habit.  He shares that rolling out a string of questions, regardless of our motivations or intentions, could make people defensive and counter our goal to help others get better.

Quotes

Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.

-Gustav Flaubert

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.

-Seth Godin

Internet Find

Are you an original? If you fancy yourself as one or have been described as such by others, you will benefit from watching Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers, a 2016 TED Talks video presented by Adam Grant, organizational psychologist, best-selling author, and podcast host who focuses on the dynamics of success and productivity in the workplace. In his talk, Grant poses the driving question: How do creative people develop great ideas?  Grant coined the term originals to refer to people who dream up new ideas and take action to put them out in the world.

He highlights three principles that you can use today whether you think you are an original or not.

1. Boost your creativity by being quick to start but slow to finish.

2. Motivate yourself  to try something unique by embracing the fear of failure.

3. You need a lot of bad ideas to get a few good ones.

These principles are not groundbreaking, but they can be liberating and empowering if enacted when we are confronted with negative thoughts during a brainstorming session. If you want to go deeper into the topic, I would recommend you pick up a copy of Grant’s New York Times Best Seller, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World.

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Wise Bites: March 26, 2021

Happy Friday,

Congratulations, you have completed another work week!  Hopefully you have finished it as a better version of yourself when you started it on Monday.  Now you can ride that wave into the weekend.

Take a moment to consume an illuminating review of a segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom.  Here is the Wise Bites memo for you to consider for the week.

Book Segment

This week I want to share a book segment review from Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell. Gladwell seamlessly weaves scientific research findings from diverse fields into an anecdotal style that gets the reader to see ordinary things in new ways. In this work, Gladwell brings to light an area of psychology, rapid cognition, to help us better understand what is behind our ability to make quick decisions. The three major concepts that I learned about were:

1. The benefit of quick decisions - decisions made quickly can every bit as good those made cautiously and deliberately.

2. Instinct Management - you need to know when to trust your instincts and when to be wary of them.

3. Snap Judgment Control - you can refine the efficiency of your judgment through a process called “thin slicing”, which is the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on narrow slices of experience.

Quotes

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

-Zig Ziglar

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

-Mark Twain

Internet Find

This week I found a political cartoon on LinkedIn, courtesy of Charles Jackson, that captured my attention. The image depicts an American teacher under the weight of social pressure and public policy outcomes. The cartoon shows a white, female teacher wearing a face covering and shield and carrying an assortment of supplies, both symbolic and literal. She looks to be impressively strong and focused, with her eyes fixed on the ground before her as she walks with an assertive gate toward an unseen destination.  It is easy to see that the artist believes that teachers must “carry” remnants of every significant political debate, from guns in schools to the separation of church and state. I found the image to be arresting, revealing, and most accurate.  Several questions came to mind.  How did the American teacher become the poster child of political activism?   Are teachers assuming roles and responsibilities as a result of the motivations of zealous politicians? Or have teachers voluntarily engaging in social movements because parents and community stakeholders are no longer doing it?  Who’s driving what teachers do - school district leaders, policy makers, community members, or teachers, themselves?  

In any case, the image is worth examining closely if we want to understand the role of the American teacher today and what their roles and responsibilities should be.

Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos; share it online; and tell a friend!

Wise Bites: March 13, 2021

Happy Friday,

Whether you are completing your Spring Break week or are preparing for one next week, I hope your time off is beneficial. Now that you are ready to transition to the weekend let me help you get ready for the best week ever.

Take a moment to consume an illuminating segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for you to consider for the week.

Book Segment

This week, I want to share a book segment from Ruth Whippman’s New York Times Bestseller from 2016, America the Anxious. In this delightful analysis of American culture, Whippman raises insightful questions about our understanding of happiness and the impact of our efforts to obtain it. As a British expatriate living in California, she exposes America’s seemingly obsessive and at-all-cost quest for happiness with humor and freshness, giving the reader the unique opportunity to reflect on his investment in happiness as a first-hand observer. Throughout the book, Whippman shares her experiences and reflections with a charm and compelling innocence as she takes a pilgrimage through American culture to discover authentic contentment and happiness on this side of the pond. In Chapter Seven, “I’m Not a Happy Person, I Just Play One On Facebook,” Whippman’s sharp wit and cutting social commentary are on full display when she shares that,

Facebook is a parallel universe in which everyone is either stratospherically successful in their career, married to the ‘best guy ever,’ ‘enjoying every moment of motherhood,’ or in a state of single childlessness for which the only descriptive adjective permitted by the Social media authorities is ‘fabulous’.

Later, she gives a spot-on analysis of how social media has infiltrated our understanding of happiness when she posits that “in a culture that both insist that we have complete control over our happiness and too often equates unhappiness with inadequacy, social media gives us an unprecedented ability to craft and present a happy front.”

Are you happy? Are you as happy as you want to be? What would make you happier? Have you pondered these questions before and are now looking to take action to answer them? In that case, you should consider reading Ruth Whippman’s insightful and hilarious journey through America’s infatuation with happiness, America the Anxious. I am sure you will find this book a joy to read.

Quotes

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

-Marcus Aurelius

Internet Find

Many people find joy and satisfaction when they successfully address a problematic task or solve a complex problem. However, it is also challenging to overcome the anxiety and stress from formidable obstacles to stay focused. David Badre set out to address this challenge in his March 15, 2021, Nature article, Tips from Neuroscience, to keep you focused on hard tasks.

Badre shares that to solve challenging problems, we need access to pertinent task information or task sets, like plans, notes, and procedures, before adequately tackling the challenge. As such, he identifies the following straightforward strategies to help us make space for the task sets.

• Setting aside large blocks of time for the intense thought and work required for working through task sets

• Being consistent with the time and place we set aside for working on demanding tasks

• Badre also admonishes the reader to minimize distractions and never “multi-task” by doing the following.

• Removing cues for other tasks such as phone calls, email, and social media.

• Being aware of the temptation to multitask or switch to easy tasks

Last, Badre says we should engage in good problem-solving habits, like structuring the problem in a way that will help us succeed. This would suggest that we seek efficient frameworks for addressing our demanding tasks. Some of the good habits mentioned by Badre include the following.

• Being persistent even when we don’t think we are making progress

• Being flexible enough to reconceptualize the problem for a fresh perspective

• Breakaway from the problem as needed to allow for incubation

• Interact with others to break out of a rut and get some perspective

Although Badre's article was written from a scientist's perspective, his simple strategies apply to anyone facing a challenging problem or complicated tasks requiring time and attention.

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Wise Bites: March 12, 2021

Happy Friday,

Few things are more satisfying than coming to the end of a whole work week.  Hopefully, your week has been one worth celebrating. Now that you are ready to transition to the weekend, take a moment to consume an illuminating segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet -  small bites of wisdom.  Here is the Wise Bites memo for you to consider for the week.

Book Segment

This week, I want to share a segment from the book Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol. As a former NASA employee turned law professor, Varol successfully presents a business and personal development book in a nontraditional format.  Think Like a Rocket Scientist is a fresh presentation of work-life problem-solving strategies, often in the context of mind-tantalizing “rocket science” examples. In keeping with his NASA roots, Varol structured his book in three parts: “Launch,” “Accelerate,” and “Achieve.”

The key idea I would like to spotlight for this week's Wise Bites comes from Chapter 2: Reasoning from First Principles.  Varol posits that knowledge informs us and creates frameworks that help us make sense of the world.  He unpacks how knowledge can sometimes be a vice rather than a virtue.   The structures provided by knowledge give us productive, cognitive shortcuts that are sometimes beneficial and, at other times, distort our vision.  To clarify how knowledge often leads us to do the same thing repeatedly and ineffectively, Varol details the concept of path dependence: what we’ve done before shapes what we do next, and the past often drowns out the future. One of his examples of path dependence is how QWERTY keyboards were designed during the era of mechanical typewriters to prevent them from jamming. Today, we know that there are more efficient keyboard formats that improve typing speed and ergonomics, but they have not been adopted because of our comfort with the QWERTY format.

Varol offers the counter approach to path dependence: first-principles thinking. He shares that “Aristotle defined [first-principles thinking] as the first basis from which a thing is known.” Descartes described it as “systematically doubting everything you can possibly doubt until you’re left with unquestionable truths.” This approach means you don’t accept the status quo as an absolute. Instead, it allows you to drop existing assumptions until only the fundamental components remain.

If you are working on revamping your thinking to make innovative breakthroughs at work or in your life, I highly recommend the book Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol. It is an easy read with insightful anecdotes guaranteed to simplify cerebral concepts while holding your attention and stimulating your curiosity.

Quotes

A dull mind gets bored easily. A curious mind expands forever.

-Maxime Lagacé

If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully.

-Maya Angelou

Internet Find

In this episode of the popular podcast Akimbo, Seth Godin presents the thought-provoking topic, Modern Choice Theory. He sheds light on the reality that, in the last 20 years, there has been an expansion in the options we all have before us every day. The abundance of possibilities brings us leverage, and that leverage requires us to take responsibility. However, we are often exhausted by the responsibility of all the choices we must make, and we instinctively retreat. Godin's most potent idea is that when decision fatigue sets in, we must make a meta-decision - that is, we must decide about deciding.  We must realize that what we do for a living is make decisions.  Godin expands our thinking by questioning whether we know when we make decisions and for whom. He observes that, although we live in an era of maximum choice, most of us are throwing it away by letting others dictate the rhythm and agenda of our decisions. After listening to this episode, I find it hard to think about choices similarly.  The next time you make a decision, choose wisely.

Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos, and tell a friend!

Wise Bites: March 5, 2021

Happy Friday,

I hope you're off to an excellent start for March and getting ready for Spring (not considering allergies).

I routinely share an illuminating review from a book segment, a few quotes that captured my attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet—small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for you to consider for the week.

Book Segment
I dove into Show Your Work this month! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon. In this follow-up to his first New York Times bestseller, Steal Like an Artist, Kloen shares ten strategies that creatives can employ to get their work out into the world and build an audience around it. Throughout the book, he shares quotes, pictures, and very straightforward gems of practical wisdom and inspiration designed to help you focus more on your process than your product. The key segment I want to spotlight in this week's Wise Bite comes from Chapter 4 - Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities. In that chapter, Kleon encourages creatives to maintain a collection, physically or mentally, of our curiosities - books, music, places, people, or any source of wonder. He also shared that our collection forms our taste, and our taste influences our work. One of my favorite quotes from Chapter 4 is, “Your influences are all worth sharing because they clue people in to who you are and what you do sometimes even more than your own work.”

Quotes

If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get.

-Frank A. Clark

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

-Booker T. Washington

Internet Find
Have you ever yearned to read more? I know I have. This week I found an 18-minute video, How to Read More Like Ryan Holiday, in which Holiday shares a compelling rationale for why we all should read more and follows with a set of strategies for being a better reader, reading more, and making time for reading. So find a quiet place, grab a cup of coffee or tea in your favorite mug, and enjoy this motivating video.

Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos, and tell a friend!