WHO REALLY CREATES COMPANY "CULTURE"?

In most cases “culture” or organizational climate is used to describe people’s understanding of what things are expected, tolerated, and punished in a workplace. In short, it is “the way things are done around here.” 

 

Organizational climate results from leader behaviours and personnel practices (e.g., hiring, compensation, or training), but it’s the shared meaning people attach to these things that really matters. Beyond human resources policies, leader behaviours also have an outsized effect on climate. Generally speaking, leaders who want to create a certain climate need to do two things: communicate those expectations and model them.  

 

Try this: Consider the various workplace cultures you have been a part of. Which did you perform best in? Now consider your current workplace culture. Are you as a leader creating a culture you want to be a part of?

"Relationships matter: A high-quality and respectful relationship between a manager and an employee will result in more seeking out and using feedback. Trust is especially important, as is leadership style that focuses on the recipient’s personal and professional needs." --Jamie Madigan, PhD 

5 EXAMPLES OF PERSONAL BRANDING FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Personal brands are to people what brands are to businesses. 

Let me explain that. We know there there are millions of businesses that are good but it’s brands that we recall and recognize instantly.

As an individual, especially as an entrepreneur, building a personal brand is a must. When you craft an image of yourself that catches your audience’s eye, you create many advantages. Here are some of them:

• The most obvious benefit is that you stand out in a crowd. Millions of people have a LinkedIn account, but they’re competing in a crowded space. When you bring your content, website, and graphics together with intention, you’re more likely to make an impact 
• As your personal brand stands out and becomes attractive, you’ll start sending the right signals for better SEO. People will click on your website and content more, you’ll get engagement, more shares, and other activities that help you rank for keywords. 
• Very simply, you’ll get more opportunities to win over customers and investors

So, how do you build a personal brand? The best lessons are learned through examples and in this post, we’ll take a look at how different people have created successful personal brands. These examples will help you define your own brand and how to go about making one. 

Quiet can be a brand statement

The impact that Susan Cain has made from her TED talk and book ‘Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop Talking’ is somewhat ironic. 

Here’s a person who is recognizable and has a clear influence on others. Her work validates the contributions that quiet and introverted people have to offer to the world. Cain herself is a relatively quiet person even online.

You won’t find a website under her own name and she shares her content through her Quiet Revolution blog and social media. Yet, Susan Cain is an impactful thought leader who stands out and is memorable years after her viral speech on the value of introversion. Here’s what we can learn from her personal brand: 

• Be authentic and true to yourself. There’s no need to develop a false extroverted personality to have a strong brand
• Communicate well. You need to have a message for others and the conviction to share it 
• Take the stage. Being quiet does not mean never speaking. Save your words for when you have something relevant and powerful to say. A person that creates a thoughtful blog post once a month will have a greater impact than someone who produces fluff daily 

In fact, Ahrefs, the SEO tool brand puts out a blog post just once every two weeks but because it focuses on evergreen content, it’s a top ranker for SEO related keywords. 

Have a ‘Why’

One example of a thought leader who embodies their message is Simon Sinek. Simon Sinek’s work Start With Why is about finding what drives people and what gives them purpose. 

When you can figure out how to tap into people’s passions, you can meet their desires through a great product and communication. 

Sinek himself is passionate about his work and like Susan Cain, he’s best known through his books and talks, especially his TED talk. 

When creating your own personal brand, look at what you’re passionate about and what your audience cares about as well. When you focus on communicating a message that has great meaning, you’ll reach a wider audience and see your brand grow on its own. 

Make a statement 

The artist Banksy is another interesting example of a personal brand even though he may not look at it that way. Much of the world has heard of him and his artwork frequently appears on media channels. This makes Banksy an interesting example for a personal brand because even though his identity is unclear, his work is recognizable and heavily discussed. Here what makes Banksy unique:

• Making a powerful statement 
• The use of a distinctive style. In Banksy’s case, his artwork is often recognized by his drawing style as well as the colors red, black and white 
• As long as you have powerful content, you can let it do the talking

What we can learn from Banksy as entrepreneurs is to have a distinctive style, to make meaningful content, and to try and surprise our audience. While the art world and business arena are different, there are still good lessons to be taken from a persona like Banksy. 

Content comes first

From the examples we’ve just seen, it’s clear that content needs to be at the forefront of a personal brand. We also find that this is true of the prolific content marketer Ann Handley. 

Her works include Content Rules, Everybody Writes, and she also started the Marketing Profs website. 

She attributes her success to content. In an interview, Ann Handley says that content comes before personal branding. It was her work in helping marketers create better content that makes her the figure she is today. Here’s her advice:

• Focus on a niche and avoid trying to create a personal brand in a large space. She says ‘Get big for your niches’
• Ask yourself what you want to be known for. It’s important to be passionate about the message you’re sharing
• When you know what you care about, do the work and make unique, helpful, and rich content

For Ann, building a strong brand is not rocket science. You need to do great work and start talking about it and your personal brand will grow on its own. 

Don’t be afraid to turn some people off

Mark Manson has a remarkable personal brand that’s hard to miss. His blog gets millions of page visits and his books are New York Times bestsellers.

One of the reasons he stands out today is because he has a no-nonsense approach to personal development in all areas of life. He uses expletives in his book titles and you’ll find them in his blog posts as well. Clearly, this is not the road for many businesspersons.

But we can learn a helpful lesson from his personal branding strategy and that is to make your peace with making some people unhappy. The phrase ‘you can’t please everyone’ has been said time and again for a reason. There’s truth to it and if you embrace it can help you speak with conviction. This can make your personal brand appear authentic and resonate with a large audience. 

Summing it all up

If there’s anything that shines amongst all these examples is that content matters more than personality. Some of the people mentioned here are unapologetic introverts and in one case, even use expletives in their work. 

You don’t have to emulate any of them in particular but recognize that content needs to be the core of your personal branding strategy. Be passionate about your work and it will show when you share it with others. 

EIGHT CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERS

The ability to persist and learn has always been of interest to psychologists who study successful leaders, and one conclusion they have reached is that successful leaders are those who learn more effectively and are able to be more flexible in novel situations.    The Burke Learning Agility Inventory outlines these eight characteristics as the ones successful leaders display and develop learning agility:    Flexibility—being open to new ideas and proposing new solutions  Speed—acting on ideas quickly, so those that aren’t working can be discarded and other possibilities accelerated  Experimenting—trying out new behaviours, approaches, and ideas to see what is most effective  Performance risk taking—seeking new activities, tasks, and roles that provide opportunities to be challenged  Interpersonal risk taking—discussing differences with others in ways that lead to learning and change  Collaborating—finding ways to work with others that generate unique opportunities for learning  Information gathering—using various methods to remain current in one’s area of expertise  Feedback seeking—asking others for feedback on one’s ideas and overall performance    Try this: Evaluate yourself and your team on each of the eight characteristics above. How does each person stack up? What are the areas that each person can work to improve their agility? Do you have any unrecognized potential leaders?

TESLA'S RISE IS UNMASKING JAPAN'S RISK OF BEING LEFT BEHIND

Tesla has been one of the automakers that have actually managed to thrive this year despite the pandemic. And as the electric car maker continues its rise, it is becoming pretty clear that legacy automakers who refuse to ride the transition to renewable transport risk getting left behind. This is the case even if the automaker in question is Toyota, the previous Number 1 carmaker by market cap. 

Tesla only sells a fraction of the vehicles sold by Toyota every year, but the electric car maker has a market cap that is around $370 billion now. That’s roughly equivalent to the annual gross domestic product of Hong Kong, and it’s nowhere near reaching its full potential yet. TSLA bulls like Cathie Wood of ARK Invest note that Tesla’s Autopilot tech and data are pretty much ignored for now, and billionaire investor Ron Baron argues that Tesla Energy has as much potential as the company’s EV business. 

Tesla is showing rapid growth across the globe, and this is no more evident than in China, a country that is currently home to the company’s first offshore Gigafactory in Shanghai. Thanks to this, as well as grassroots efforts that make Tesla's widely supported by the Chinese government, the company is poised to reap benefits in the country. In Japan, however, things could not be more different. Tesla may have close ties with Japan thanks to its long-time battery partnership with Panasonic and its previous deal with Toyota, but today, the far east country’s mainstream vehicle market remains out of reach for the Silicon Valley-based maker. 

A Tesla Model 3. (Credit: Motor-Fan.jp)

Despite this, William Pesek, an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of “Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan’s Lost Decades,” argues that Tesla’s rise across the globe further highlights how Japan’s auto market is still stuck in first gear. In an article on the Nikkei Asian Review, Pesek noted that what Japan is so far missing in the Tesla picture is the fact that Elon Musk does not sell cars. While Japan is still busy focusing on hardware, Tesla is already exploring software, allowing Elon Musk to pretty much sell than iPhone on wheels. This ensures that Tesla is capable of embracing the next generation of motoring. 

“What Toyota long missed about Musk is that he is not selling cars. He is selling an iPhone with wheels. The vehicle itself is merely a medium to market the software undergirding the iTunes-like community that he is building. The data Tesla collects from users, their environs, interests, tendencies, travel habits and the range of behaviours will arguably be more valuable than the engines and high-performance batteries powering them. This enables Tesla to hone the customer experience, while discerning where the market will veer next,” Pesek wrote. 

Perhaps what Japan really needs right now is to embrace the fact that sometimes, disruption is a necessary evil during times of transition. Strictly speaking, legacy automakers like Toyota should have no problem catching up to Tesla by, say 2025, due to their massive talent pool and resources. This does not seem to be case, however, as carmakers like Toyota have a tendency to focus more on legacy than innovation. Toyota has refined its car making processes through decades of refinements, and its global supply chain helps create millions of jobs. This, while noble in a way, is a weight that a company like Tesla simply does not have. 

Tesla moves fast, fails fast, and innovates fast. The company’s vertical integration allows it to implement changes and improvements as soon as they are ready. Granted, automakers like Toyota could not adopt such changes overnight, but efforts must be done to increase innovation. This is something that Japanese companies are capable of doing, as seen in the continued efforts of Panasonic’s and its longtime battery partnership with Tesla in Gigafactory Nevada. Perhaps companies like Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and the other premier Japanese carmakers could do the same. 

For now, it appears that Elon Musk has already won. So great is the gap in the electric vehicle market that newcomers like Lucid Motors and Rivian Automotive seem to have a better chance at catching Tesla than legacy carmakers. But amidst this threat of being permanently left behind, veterans in the auto market could also see this time as an opportunity to change and raise their electric vehicle game. If there’s anything that Tesla’s rise shows, after all, it is that renewable solutions are the new standard, and they are here to stay. 

- By Simon Alvarez

SIX SMART PIVOTS INSPIRED BY THE PANDEMIC

A lot of pandemic-related news is dark. Well, most of it. But there are bright spots, particularly when it comes to founders whose smart ideas and gutsy pivots have defied the Covid-19 curse. Remember the mantra "change is good"? These entrepreneurs are living it. They're making moves that not only boost revenue today but also set them up to prosper tomorrow.

Automats Make a Comeback

Popular in the first half of the 20th century, automated restaurants later fell out of vogue in the United States with the rise of fast-food chains. Today, a New York City dumpling shop and a French-pastry chef in Portland, Oregon, are going back to the future with vending machine service.

After 19 years of doling out sweets and champagne at her Portland restaurant, Pix Patisserie, Cheryl Wakerhauser switched to takeout-only after Covid-19 shut her doors. That kept some money coming in, but the utilitarian service model ran counter to the chef's creative character. So, she introduced the Pix-O-Matic vending machine to put more fizz into her pandemic-era presentation. "After the whole shutdown came, it just made perfect sense," she told The Oregonian. Positioned outside her restaurant, beckoning customers 24/7 with a mirrored disco ball, the refurbished Shoppertron 431 takes payment by card only, serving desserts, savory foods like pork dumplings, and novelties such as a Ruth Bader Ginsburg mask. The machine has boosted Wakerhauser's net profits above pre-coronavirus levels, and she's planning to add another this week.

Wakerhauser's instinct is right on trend. Another example is the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop (yes, more dumplings), which is due to open before summer's end in Manhattan's East Village. Dreamed up by restaurateur Stratis Morfogen, the dumpling shop's touchless kiosks, which are located inside a brick-and-mortar shop, accompany temperature-controlled cubbies that hold the food.

Customers simply order and pay via a smartphone app and then receive a barcode to unlock the glass door. A scanner at the shop entry detects anyone who's running a fever, and people collect their orders with the help of a PPE-wearing human attendant. 

Brooklyn Dumpling Shop.COURTESY COMPANY

Socially Distanced Fitness

Gyms and workout studios took a hit from Covid-19, but some found creative ways to pivot as social distancing put an end to sweating cheek-to-jowl.

In Toronto, six yoga studios and a handful of independent instructors led group sessions in a pop-up event pulled together by LMNTS Outdoor Studio. During June and most of July, customers paid about $25 apiece for the opportunity to work out together in an urban park, keeping a safe distance thanks to 50 plastic domes, each measuring 12 feet wide and seven feet tall, and equipped with piped-in sound and lights for night classes.

In Redondo Beach, California, South Bay Fitness is keeping clients inside with pods roomy enough for weights, a bench, a floor mat--and a human, of course. The walls of the makeshift workout rooms are made of clear plastic shower curtains attached to metal framework. The gym also offers instruction via Zoom and outdoors, helping to drive the larger trend.

Bars on Wheels--and Inner Tubes

In New Zealand, a tiny pub on wheels made stops on its way from Auckland in the north to Dunedin in the south, traversing about 900 miles from June through mid-July. No larger than a tool shed and with just two stools at the bar, the mobile drinking hole sold out every 27-minute reservation (about the time it takes to enjoy a pint and some conversation, and maybe play some tiny darts) at 10 stops. It was a publicity play by Emerson's, a popular Kiwi brand, but no one really cared, because: free beer.

COURTESY COMPANY

Meanwhile, in Ocean City, Maryland, alcohol sales at Fish Tales restaurant got a boost from a new contraption, the "bumper table." It's a giant rubber inner tube on four legs with wheels and a donut-shaped "table" at the center. Standing in the hole, patrons simply can't get any closer to one another than six feet. After a staffer tested positive for Covid-19, the popular restaurant shut down on July 11 and reopened about a week later.

Boat-In Movies ...

Covid-inspired drive-in movies are so last month. Next up: Boat-in movies will sail into 16 U.S. cities throughout September. The Floating Boat Cinema, operated by Australian film and events company Beyond Cinema, will offer screenings to customers who rent one of 12 to 24 boats. Events have been confirmed for Los Angeles, San Diego, and Miami, and an online ticket-sales portal also indicates screenings in Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cleveland, Austin, and elsewhere. The vessels will enable moviegoers to maintain social distance, and each boat must contain one party, whether it consists of just two customers or the upper limit of eight.

COURTESY COMPANY

... And Drive-In Concerts

It's the Hamptons, so why not have a concert where attendees pay $1,000 to $25,000 for one of 500 parking spaces in a 100-acre field to take in the show together? Billed as Safe & Sound, the July 25 event was the first in a planned series of drive-in shows purported to allow for public gathering while also social distancing. 

COURTESY COMPANY

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, appearing onstage as his DJ persona, D-Sol, performed for an hour. "Standing up there and watching the sunset, looking out over this huge field of cars and people on their cars, it was absolutely beautiful," Solomon told Bloomberg. "If we work together and are thoughtful, we can do things that feel more normal and allow us to live with this virus safely."

Unfortunately for Solomon, not everyone shared his rosy view of the event. Despite organizers' best efforts to keep patrons socially distant, the event did catch some flak when concertgoers got out of their cars. The concert's marketing company, In the Know Experiences, listed "no upcoming shows" on its website a week after the event. 

Professional Services Go Mobile

COURTESY COMPANY

Heading into the corona virus with a fleet of eight "luxury" dentistry vehicles, Henry the Dentist may be better positioned than most to meet consumers' changing needs during the crisis. Still, the company had expansion aspirations. The New Providence, New Jersey-based mobile dental practice opened a brick-and-mortar location in late July at the Parlor NYC, on Madison Avenue. In an August 4 interview, co-founder Justin Joffe said the hotel-based practice booked three weeks of appointments in the first 48 hours after its opening was announced. Henry the Dentist's other pandemic pivots include a move to telehealth for consultations and a redirection of the fleet from individual business locations to high-rise condo complexes.

"People working from home have a lot more flexibility during the day to do things like personal care," Joffe says. Apparently, when cabin fever sets in, even going to the dentist is preferable to sitting around and suffering through endless Zoom meetings.

Joffe says that over the past 90 days, the company's appointment bookings have increased 31 percent over the same period in 2019.

Nearby, in Florham Park, New Jersey, Sperling Dermatology took its business on the road with the state's first ever mobile spa. Built into a 24-foot-long Mercedes van, the Sperling Sprinter launched in mid-June, betting on a demand for on-the-spot services.

The mobile unit, which complements three brick-and-mortar locations, helped the company draw $500,000 in revenue in July, according to Sperling's managing partner Ari Katz. Not a bad haul for treatments that include "entry level" facials at $200 to $300, body sculpting, and Botox.

"Everything we do, whether in New Jersey or New York, strictly follows health guidelines," he says. "Masks on, taking temperatures, sanitizing between treatments--we're doing it right."

7 PRODUCTIVITY RULES ELON MUSK SAYS EVERY EFFECTIVE LEADER SHOULD EMBRACE

Love him or hate him -- sentiments in-between seem to be rare -- Elon Musk is having a very productive year. Tesla stock currently trades at well over $1,400 per share, up from a low of approximately $360 in mid-March. Tesla's current market capitalization -- depending on how you run the numbers -- arguably makes it the most valuable automaker in the world. Not Toyota, even though in 2019 Toyota sold more than 10 million cars and Tesla sold only 368,000. Clearly, plenty of investors believe in Tesla's future and in Musk's ability to lead the company, however unconventional his approach may sometimes be.                    Take productivity, where conventional management practices don't always apply. In a 2018 email to all Tesla employees, Musk offered six productivity recommendations.

1. Stop holding large meetings.

"Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time," Musk wrote. "Please get of all large meetings, unless you're certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short." During the next meeting you attend, add up the hourly cost of every person in the room. Then imagine, which shouldn't be hard when you own a small business, that you're writing the check for that meeting. Any meeting that won't directly generate revenue or cost savings -- either in the form of a key decision or a concrete plan of action -- is a waste of money.

2. Stop holding frequent meetings.

"Also get rid of frequent meetings," Musk wrote, "unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved." No agenda should include the words "information," "recap," "review," or "discussion." The only agenda you should have is a single bullet point: "Set product launch date," or "Select software developer for database redesign," or something that actually requires a group to make a decision. And it should require only one meeting to make that decision.

3. Feel free to walk out of meetings.

"Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value," Musk wrote. "It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time." Hmm. Walking out of a meeting sounds, like most grand gestures, great in theory but terrible in practice. Even if the top dog says it's ok. A better approach? Encourage your employees, if they don't feel they're adding value to a team, to talk to the team's leader after the meeting. Encourage them to offer ways they can help that don't require their presence at the meeting.  And if you're the team's leader, make sure you model the behaviour you want other team leaders to exhibit. Be the first to admit an employee's physical or virtual presence is not necessary.

4. Stop using acronyms and buzzwords. 

"In general," Musk writes, "anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don't want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla." Granted, jargon is shorthand, and shorthand saves time. But shorthand also excludes. Anyone unfamiliar with a particular buzzword or acronym has a choice: Remain quiet, or ask what it means and risk seeming unintelligent or out of the loop. One feels terrible. The other is less productive and inclusive. Clear, simple, and to the point, especially in conversations that cross functions or departments, is how great leaders communicate. Because that ensures everyone can contribute.

5. Stop following the (communication) chain of command.

"Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the 'chain of command,'" Musk writes. "Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere." Another tip that sounds great in theory, but difficult in practice. Most managers manage up, which means they to be caught off guard by not feeling "in the know." Only the most self-confident and self-assured leaders feel comfortable being bypassed. Which means, if you want to benefit from the efficiency of direct communication -- communication between, say, the person who spots a problem and the right person to solve that problem -- you'll need to encourage direct communication and make people who might feel bypassed feel comfortable with the situation.  And you'll need to make sure that you don't appear to need to know everything -- because if you do, then the people who work for you will, too.

6. Stop limiting communication between departments.

"A major source of issues is poor communication between departments," Musk writes. "The way to solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. "If, in order to get something done between departments, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen. "It must be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen." Can't argue with that. But don't just encourage direct communication. Require direct communication.

7. Stop following stupid rules.

"In general, always pick common sense as your guide," Musk writes. "If following a 'company rule' is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change." One way to build a common sense culture is to play "Kill a Stupid Rule." It's easy. Just ask: "If you could kill or change all the stupid rules that get in the way of better serving our customers or just doing your job, what would they be and how would you do it?" Then prove you're willing to listen and willing to change. Change a rule you can change on the spot. Work on changing rules that might first require a change in process or workflow.

FRIENDLY COMPETITION

So how do you get people to engage in friendly competition and motivate them to keep trying until they’re satisfied with their performance? You have to frame, communicate, and present performance information that promotes that friendly competition. Leaderboards are one tool you can use, as is the Big Fish, Little Pond mentality.  

 

Leaderboards are publicly visible rankings that allow people to see how they compare to everyone else they are competing against. The Big Fish, Little Pond mentality says that people who outperform those close to them in ability still get satisfaction and motivation, even if they don’t end up at the top of the leaderboard.

 

Try this: Combine the Leaderboard and Big Fish, Little Pond mentality by creating a tiered leaderboard against a specific goal. Leaderboards work best if everyone agrees on what they’re being measured against. And you’ll be able to motivate a greater number of employees by creating tiers—you may have one overall winner, but you’ll have many more people who feel motivated and have improved their skillset.

JEFF BEZOS: LEADERSHIP TRICK TO OVERCOME BASIC LEADERSHIP PROBLEM

Here's a simple trick that Jeff Bezos suggests using to overcome a basic business leadership problem.

It stems from the fact that the most important business decisions are often also the hardest ones--and those tough decisions often result in an additional cascade of leadership challenges. 

It's pretty simple, really. If you make a choice from among several reasonable choices in your business, some of your team members or stakeholders will likely conclude you've made the wrong choice.

And once you've made that decision, they might have a hard time getting on board with it.

Here's a basic example. Let's say you're debating the retail price of a new product.

A low price might mean higher sales, but a high price might reinforce the perception of a premium product.

Your sales team wants to make fast sales, so they'd prefer the low price. Your marketing team would rather promote something that's seen as more exclusive.

And you can make the case for either choice. But you have to decide.

How do you get the team members who will inevitably think you've chosen wrong to move past that disagreement? That's where Bezos and Amazon come in.

Overcoming the toxic mindset

Let's call the failure to commit what it is: a toxic mindset -- although one that reflects such basic, human, emotional needs that it's hard to condemn people for it.

Recognizing this, Bezos shared a technique to overcome it in the annual shareholder letter he released on April 17, 2017.

Bezos wrote that he values making fast decisions, which often means deciding before you have  all the information you'd like. He puts the sweet spot at acting when you have 70 percent of needed information. 

The lack of information makes tough decisions even tougher, however, and that prompts the cascade of leadership challenges described above. To overcome them, Bezos introduced a simple linguistic trick that stops these toxic mindsets in their tracks, and cuts off the metastasis of difficulties.

It's just a three-word phrase. Bezos wrote: "Disagree and commit." 

The phrase can save a lot of time. If you have conviction on a particular direction even though there's no consensus, it's helpful to say, "Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?"

By the time you're at this point, no one can know the answer for sure, and you'll probably get a quick yes ...

If you're the boss, you should do this too. I disagree and commit all the time. 

Even the Kindle

Bezos goes on to give the example of when his team advocated for a particular Amazon Studios show that he personally didn't think made sense. He told them: "I disagree and commit and hope it becomes the most watched thing we've ever made."

And here's another high-level example I love even more: Jeff Wilke, a top executive known as the "second-most important Jeff" at Amazon, shared the story of how he originally thought the Kindle wasn't a good fit for Amazon.

But, he told The Wall Street Journal, "I disagreed and committed, and I'm very glad I did."

So, let's unpack this powerful three-word phrase, and why I think it's so effective.

1. "Disagree … " 

It all starts here. How many times have you heard that the goal in a business decision-making process is to "build consensus"? But that's wrong: The goal isn't to convince everyone; it's to review facts and make fast decisions. 

Sometimes, you'll make mistakes. By putting "disagree" right into the decision-making goal, you give people an option to go on record, record their opposition, and move on quickly to helping the team.

2.  " … and … " 

It's just a conjunction, true, but it points out that this isn't just a mechanism to "agree to disagree." There's a second component coming up -- a more important one, frankly.

3.  " … Commit"

The more I think about this word, the more I love it in this context.

First, it makes clear once more that the goal here isn't agreement; it's concerted, coordinated action.

Second, it's an implicit promise from the members of your team who might have disagreed: "I might have made a different decision if I were the final authority. But I recognize we've made another decision, and I will now put my best efforts behind it."

Saying it helps inoculate against the all-too-human toxic mindset at the root of the whole problem. 

Commitment over consensus. It's a powerful concept.

And if it works for Bezos and Amazon, maybe it can work for your business, too.

HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE LISTEN TO YOU IN ZOOM MEETINGS

What's even worse than having to attend half a dozen Zoom or other video chat meetings during the working day? Attending all those meetings and feeling like you might as well have skipped them because no one was listening to your input or your ideas. That happens much too often to entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, business leaders, and employees.

Fortunately, you don't have to put up with feeling ignored during video chat meetings. A few subtle changes to your approach will have your colleagues, business partners, or customers paying much more attention to what you have to say. In a post at Psychology Today, business communications coach Nancy Ancowitz offers some smart tips for getting people to pay attention to you during video meetings. 

These are my favourites.

1. Be picky about which meetings you attend.

In a hilarious TED Talk that's been viewed more than two million times, information security manager David Grady rails against what he calls MAS, or "mindless accept syndrome." It's that bad habit most of us have of clicking "yes" on meeting invitations without necessarily knowing how we'll contribute to the greater good by being there. Instead, he recommends clicking "maybe" (or whatever the equivalent is in your calendar system), and then emailing the person who invited you for more information about how you can add value by attending the meeting. If there isn't a compelling reason for you to be there, it might make sense to skip it and review the information by email instead.

Admittedly, in a work-from-home world, video chat meetings carry the benefit of letting people who no longer see one another every day feel more connected as a team. At the same time, it's all too easy to get overloaded and exhausted, and it's harder to be effective in a video chat meeting -- or any meeting -- if you're desperately wishing you were just about anywhere else. So be judicious about which meeting invitations you accept and which you politely decline.

2. Learn to interject gracefully.

When should you speak up? It can be tough to pick the right moment, especially if there's a brief time lag so that two or more people start speaking at the same time. That's always an awkward moment, but it's also an unavoidable side effect of video chat meetings. Be prepared to yield the floor, if appropriate, and don't let it rattle you.

Ancowitz suggests that you "practice interjecting by putting up your actual or virtual hand, saying the facilitator's name, and jumping in." In a smaller, less formal meeting, you could just jump in. She recommends acknowledging or building on whatever was just said, for instance, "Great point, Lee. I'd like to add to that ... " Conversely, if you want to tackle a different topic, say so. "That's a great point. But now I'd like to talk about something we haven't covered yet." 

Speaking up during meetings can be difficult, and speaking up during video chat meetings is even tougher. But if you've been hanging back and letting everyone else do the talking, you're not adding value or doing yourself any favours. It's important for your voice to be heard.

3. Arrive early and follow up afterward.

Ancowitz recommends logging in a bit before the meeting starts so that you can relax and check yourself and your surroundings on camera before you share your video with the group. That's great advice and it also lets you take part in the meeting from the very beginning. Entering a video chat meeting when people are already conversing puts you at a bit of a disadvantage. And sometimes, before a meeting has officially begun and in particular before recording starts, other participants may share their uncensored thoughts, so you could wind up gaining valuable information.

Even more important, follow up in writing after the meeting. This is your chance to -- briefly -- remind others of important points or suggestions you made, share any new ideas or comments you may have, and suggest follow-up actions. Because people don't always have precise memories of a meeting (especially if it was a long one), your written follow-up can influence how they remember it, giving you some power to control the narrative. Which is a great way to make sure your contributions and your good ideas don't get forgotten.

FOUR MAJOR PANDEMIC CHALLENGES FACING LEADERS AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

It's hard to be a leader in the best of times, and the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has created an entirely new set of challenges. In the Q2 2020 Vistage CEO Confidence Index survey, a survey conducted by a company, we asked our community of small- and midsize-business leaders what their most significant leadership challenges are today.

In the company's analysis of their nearly 900 open-ended responses, we found four common challenges, along with approaches to overcoming them and continuing the journey toward recovery.

1. Morale

The most common theme shared by CEOs was maintaining and building morale with their leadership teams and employees. It has been a highly stressful six months, which is now compounded as the number of Covid-19 cases rises across the country. This, coupled with increasing uncertainty around timing of the recovery, is raising the fear factor for everyone. Burnout is becoming a real threat, and leaders will continue to be challenged to motivate a diverse workforce struggling with multiple stressors and the pressure to perform.

Leaders need to encourage their people to take a break away from work when they need one--even if they aren't going away for their typical summer vacation. This is going to be increasingly important for maintaining morale over the next few months as we continue to limp toward recovery. Going forward, your priorities should include keeping employees focused and positive, avoiding executive burnout, and inspiring the organization despite continued uncertainty.

2. Workspace concerns

The pandemic has changed what we consider the workplace. CEOs are grappling with not only when to return to the office but also how to do it. You're likely challenged to redesign the workplace with physical health and safety as top priorities. For those workers who are willing to return to the workplace, creating a feeling of safety is vital. But the challenge is well beyond physical workspace.

Even after Covid-19 is under control, there will likely be more people who will look for and change jobs specifically to have the ability to work from home. Working remotely will no longer be a benefit but a requirement for a certain percentage of the workforce. You'll have to define how a hybrid model will work best for your organization.

3. Growth

Driving and sustaining growth is especially difficult to achieve in this environment. To reboot growth, leaders have to really understand the status of their market and the change in buyer needs, wants, and behaviours based on the level of devastation they've experienced.

At the same time, leaders need to continue to innovate and transform to meet new needs. Almost half (48 percent) of Vistage members surveyed have created new products and services during this time. About half of those innovations are going to be permanent offerings going forward.

Creating new demand, reengaging with customers, and rebuilding opportunity pipelines are all prerequisites to increasing business volume. Quickly adjusting to changing customer behaviours and shaping messages that connect to their new reality will be essential in accelerating growth.

4. Uncertainty

Undercutting everything is the overwhelming uncertainty about the length of the pandemic, the direction of the economy, and the unknown impact to the markets. Forecasting has become far less predictable as pre-Covid financial models have lost relevance.

To make decisions now, leaders must rely on the information that is available at the time. They are increasingly relying on instinct--how they feel about an issue--and judgment--the combination of experience, knowledge, and what they've learned, seen, and think. Leaders need to also pull in perspectives of people and resources they trust and respect, such as a tax or financial adviser, other CEOs, and research from credible and objective sources.

The key is to seek multiple perspectives, add them to instinct and judgment, and then make the best possible decision. Be prepared, however, to admit you are wrong in a nanosecond and quickly pivot to what the information, the data, and your instincts tell you is a better path. And prepare for that path to change again and again.

The amount of energy, innovation, and focus that is required to overcome all of the challenges leaders are facing and then move toward recovery will continue to be enormous. Leaders may feel like their companies are taking one step forward and then two steps back. The key, however, is that you don't stop. You keep moving ahead.