Hacks To Better Leadership in 2022

Hello! I took a month long break. It was a luxury of being on my own after working 80+ hours weeks for 20 years straight. 💆🏻‍♂️ #humblebrag

It's another new year and so in the next few issues of this newsletter, I will share a few practical hacks that will help you become a better manager in 2022.

But first, A Few Things Worth Sharing:

1. Carbon footprint was a marketing campaign created by a marketing agency for a gas company. FML. 🤦🏻‍♂️
2. I have been reading the Tao Te Ching, and I've found this website that has almost all the English translations in the Universe. It's actually frustrating to realise most translations presented the original text poorly.
3. How much time will you save when you add another teller at the counters in a bank? It's 🤯:

"With only one teller, customers will have to wait nearly 5 hours. When you add a second teller, the average waiting time is not just cut in half; it goes down to about 3 minutes.

The waiting time is reduced by a factor of 93x."

On Leading:

Here is combo-habit (hack) that will make you a better manager, guaranteed:

Do A Lot More One-on-Ones:

Don't roll your eyes yet. From my experience, most leaders don't invest enough time and attention in their most important resource - their direct reports.

You should meet with your most important direct reports one-on-one once a week. Not only will this help them grow and perform better, not only will this help you develop better rapport with them, it will also strengthen your interpersonal skills, from probing to listening to making not-so-lame boss jokes.

During these one on ones, aim at working on one skill at a time. For example, you can start with "listening" in the first month- Every time you meet with your direct reports, you challenge yourself to shut up measurably more.

Or you can work on probing. You can challenge yourself to ask 1 more probing question.

Or you can work on expanding- the skill to help others expand their ideas. An example of how to do this is: Ask, "what are the options you are considering?"

The beauty of this combo-hack is that it gives you a lot of opportunities to practice deliberately. It also forces you to invest time into the most important resource you have- your direct reports, which, frankly, is something many of us don't do enough.

You can support me:

Reply to this and chat with me! Tell me what you think of this. Or whatever is on your mind. I will always reply, I guarantee it.And if I fail to keep my promise? Email me and let me know at siu.david@hey.com 🙃

Share this with someone whom you think wants to sound smarter, and or anyone who deserves something light and fun.  (Plus, they trust your recommendations more than my LinkedIn ads.)

Thank you for reading this. I think about leadership & psychology in the showers. I know it's odd, but these topics are important and fun. I hope you find them useful too.

Work diligently. You are bound to be successful.

David