by Caroline Leach | Feb 13, 2016 | Leadership, Social Media, Work/Life
“Find Your Inspiration” greeted us on the tram today as we arrived at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
What a great way to build community. It created connections through social media with #GettyInspired.
Not only was I inspired myself and in how my family responded to our visit, but I could also see how others experienced this architectural and artistic treasure.
There was a common experience in being part of something bigger than ourselves. This is a hallmark of all storied brands, and the Getty sets a great example.
The Getty has been the site of many a previous inspiration for me. The DIRECTV annual leadership development program. A National Charity League gathering for an architecture tour. Many family visits, including today’s.
Today was by far my favorite. We checked into a tour of the collection’s highlights. It was led by a passionate and knowledgeable docent who ably linked art history with current events.
We learned how Rembrandt, who never traveled more than 40 miles from his home, had haunted flea markets of his day to collect props used in his paintings.
We learned how Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder had collaborated on a painting about the transience of peace in The Return from War.
We learned how Vincent van Gogh painted Irises, the vibrant view outside his window in his first week at the sanitarium in Saint-Remy, France.
And it was only a few hours later that we heard the news of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia‘s passing. Whatever your politics, it underscores how each day is really all that each of us has.
That was poignantly clear in today’s New York Times article about an AT&T leader who overcame great adversity.
(Full disclosure: I work at this company and this blog represents my own opinions.)
This leader’s mother encouraged him to imagine himself in different circumstances.
That’s the power of inspiration.
by Caroline Leach | Feb 7, 2016 | Change, Work/Life
As if Super Bowl 50 wasn’t enough excitement for one weekend, try two high-school winter formals and a retirement party on one super Saturday night.
All of these events interwoven with seemingly unrelated threads got me thinking. Mainly about the similarities among life’s transitions. And how we have more in common with each other than we think we do.
Whether you’re just starting high school, as my son is. Or finishing high school and contemplating college, as my daughter is. Or celebrating 35 years of service with a company, as a former boss of mine is.
As one phase of life ends, there are misty-eyed memories and fond farewells. Peering into the next phase, there’s the excitement – and trepidation – about what the future holds. And there’s a reminder that the present is precious.
The misty-eyed moment at the retirement party was a heartfelt speech by the honoree, Paul James. True to Maya Angelou, I remember the feeling more than the actual words. But they were about how we’re all shaped and influenced by the special people we choose to surround ourselves with.
Looking around that room in the company of my husband, I saw many wonderful colleagues, past and present. I thought about how much I’ve learned from them and others I’m privileged to work with.
I thought about my daughter gathering earlier in the day for photos with her dressed-up friends by the Malaga Cove Library, laughing and enjoying the moment.
They – and their fellow high-school seniors – have worked so hard. They’ve studied, taken test after test, stepped up to leadership roles, given back to their communities and applied to colleges.
This is their moment to savor their hard work and their friendships. With luck and good grace, there will be a lifetime of moments ahead for them.
And I thought about my son, attending his first formal. The red carpet at the entrance to Wendy and Jason Moskowitz’s home where the ninth graders gathered in advance took on special meaning. It reminded me of these students’ upcoming transition from adolescence to adulthood.
The common thread? There is so much ahead, no matter what stage of life you find yourself in.
As Marina Keegan wrote in her widely read Yale Daily News essay, The Opposite of Loneliness – “we have to remember that we can still do anything.”
There is much to be grateful for today. And much to look forward to tomorrow.
This is shaping up to be an historic year. In our family, our oldest child is heading off to college. Of course, we don’t yet know where that will be. But all will be revealed soon enough. Isn’t that the same for everything in life?
In sports, the Super Bowl turns 50 today and the Olympics are coming this summer. In politics, the citizens of the United States will choose a new president this fall.
In science and technology, we’re seeing accelerating change with driverless cars, drones, artificial intelligence, the connections of everything, and so much more.
As I was thinking about transitions and passages this sunny Sunday, I returned to the site of an earlier transition. It was my daughter’s bridging ceremony from Brownies to Girl Scouts in grade school.
Speaking of special people, she and several of her classmates were led by two incredible troop leaders, Gina Ann and Allyson Rener.
They took the girls on a decade full of amazing outings, from ropes courses and horseback riding to behind-the-scenes tours at storied companies and nonprofits.
The bridging ceremony was no exception. We spent a beautiful day at the South Coast Botanic Garden. As each girl walked over the bridge (pictured above), with a rose in hand, she moved from one phase of Girl Scouts into the next.
And as they near high-school graduation, I’m especially thankful for the wonderful experiences that Gina and Allyson offered these girls who have grown into accomplished young women.
What I feel this weekend is the elusive yet powerful “opposite of loneliness.” It’s what Marina Keegan profoundly articulated before her tragic death a few days after her essay was published.
As uncertain as life can be, I’m exceedingly grateful for the people who touch my life. I’m exceptionally aware of how precious the present is. And I’m happy to be reminded that we’re all linked to each other through generations, years, transitions and passages.
May you find much joy this day and every day, wherever you are on your journey.
by Caroline Leach | Feb 6, 2016 | Corporate Communications, Leadership, Learning
Reading is all the rage among many business leaders.
As a lifelong bookworm, this is welcome news. Something I’ve always loved to do has (finally) become on trend.
The lesson? If you do things you like long enough, they might become popular at some point. Then you can say you were ahead of the curve.
The benefits of reading are vast – there’s focusing your mind and calming your soul. There’s learning new information relevant to your career. There’s exposing yourself to a diversity of viewpoints to understand how different groups of people think and act.
In the year since I posted News Rituals of a Communicator, my own reading habits have evolved and changed.
New on the scene are 3 daily digests pushed to my email.
- theSkimm. This filters news through the eyes of Millennials. It’s a fun read with a fresh take on the world, with quotes of the day, a main story and things to know.
Thanks to colleague Lauren Brown for the recommendation, during a meeting of our company’s employee resource group for women.
It starts with today’s agenda, moves into the world in brief and wraps up with market activity.
- L.A. Business Journal. This is the local look at what’s going on in the Los Angeles business world. It aggregates sources with news that impacts Southern California.
And since I work for a Dallas-based company, I’ve become an avid follower of The Dallas Morning News.
Isn’t this a lot to read? Not really. Similar to other news sources, I scan the headlines in each digest and choose at least one story to read in full.
That’s why I focus so much on the importance of headlines in any corporate communication. Often it’s all people will read. The main point has to be captured in it. If someone read nothing else, would they get the key point? Is it something that could be easily found later in a search?
Beyond news, there are blogs for a variety of viewpoints. And what about books? There’s less of a method to my madness here in creating a reading list.
I keep an eye out in Harvard Business Review posts for upcoming books. Sometimes I’ll discover books through TED talks. Other times it’ll be on best business books lists.
Usually I discover books before their publishing date. So I pre-order on my Kindle app. It’s a fun surprise the day they download. This week’s gift is Adam Grant‘s Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World.
Because I’m such a book lover, I haunt my local library‘s new releases section. It’s like browsing the latest titles and taking all the best ones home for free. Even better, they get returned after 2 weeks and don’t clutter my home or office. There’s also an option to borrow electronic books.
How is there time for all these books? They’re always available on my smartphone or tablet. That way I can read on the go whenever I have a few minutes. It makes time fly when you’re standing in line or waiting for an appointment to begin.
When time is tight, I’ll read the first chapter, last chapter and any other chapters in the table of contents that catch my eye. There are plenty of book summaries out there. And you can listen to books in the car.
And I’m endlessly inspired by Claire Diaz-Ortiz and her reading habit. Her post on How I Read 200 Books a Year gives great tips for how to fit more reading into your life.
What are you reading and how do you make time for it?
by Caroline Leach | Feb 5, 2016 | Leadership, Learning, Marketing & Analytics
Are the hallmarks of great leaders confidence, certainty and decisiveness?
Or as our world grows ever more volatile and complex, are the best leaders open to influence? Are they persuadable?
That’s the premise of a great new book by Al Pittampalli called Persuadable: How Great Leaders Change Their Minds to Change the World.
How did I find it? By reading one of my favorite marketing blogs. Seth Godin had a great plug for it last week in his post “When I want your opinion…”. And if Seth is recommending a book, it’s going to be good.
With only slight sheepishness at being a marketer’s dream by buying the Kindle edition of the book after reading the post, I dove into it this week.
What did I learn? In a nutshell, I’m going to be much more comfortable evaluating new data and information as it comes to light. And I’ll be more willing to change my mind as a result.
Some of it harkens back to the classic principles in Robert Cialdini‘s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The reciprocity principle in particular has stood the test of time as a key driver of social media.
John Maxwell‘s writings about Becoming a Person of Influence also made an impression. Maxwell says you have to be open to the influence of others, in order to have an influence on them. I’m still tickled that he was one of the first people who “followed” me back on Twitter.
Why is persuadability to important? “In a world that is unpredictable, ultra competitive and fast changing,” Pittampalli writes, “being persuadable is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
This gives key advantages, he explains — accuracy, agility and growth:
- A better understanding of the world fuels more accurate decisions.
- Quickly seeing and responding to changing conditions enables necessary pivots.
- And honestly evaluating your performance and getting feedback creates growth.
How do you become persuadable? Pittampalli outlines 7 practices of persuadable leaders. Here are 3 that most resonated with me.
First is “considering the opposite.” It seems straightforward, yet we have to overcome our own cognitive biases to actively seek out information that conflicts with our current thinking.
A simple way to counter it is by asking yourself questions, starting with “what’s the opposite here and have I thought about it?”
Second is “update your beliefs incrementally.” What works in leading change in general also applies to being more persuadable.
As more evidence becomes available, we can update our beliefs along the way. That way, beliefs evolve naturally over time. It’s easier for your own brain as well as for others to embrace smaller changes in thinking.
Third is “avoiding becoming too persuadable.” Just because you choose to become more persuadable as a leader, there are still plenty of times when it’s appropriate to make decisions that may be unpopular and take action.
Like many things in life and leadership, there are tradeoffs to be made. It’s valuable to get input up to a point, but then there are diminishing returns over time of each additional piece of feedback.
Perhaps you’re embracing on a course of action and finding it difficult to decide whether or not to proceed. A good question Pittampalli puts forth is asking yourself, “Is it worth it?”
My experience in business reinforces for me that it’s more important than ever to be open to new evidence. The world is constantly changing, and information used previously to make decisions is likely to have changed.
By extension, it’s important to become ever more comfortable with changing you mind. Along with that, it’s critical to clearly articulate the reasons behind the changes in your thought process.
As Simon Sinek so compellingly outlined in his TED talk How great leaders inspire action, understanding “why” is the first thing people need to know in order to change the world.
by Caroline Leach | Jan 31, 2016 | Careers, Change, Learning
When you’re learning something new, there’s often an expectation that you’ll pick it up easily. That it will be smooth sailing. That you won’t skip a beat.
After all, the world moves faster every day. The competitive landscape is more intense than ever. Time is in short supply. It’s one sprint after another to learn what you need to know. Learning curves can feel like vertical climbs.
But when in your life have you learned something new and performed it perfectly right from the start?
As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in the book Outliers: The Story of Success, it takes about 10,000 hours to master a skill.
The hard part is the feeling of incompetence that comes along with learning. Two things happened this week that made me think more about being bad at something new.
First was reading the work of Erika Andersen in an HBR post, which was the subject of my blog post yesterday. She wrote about how to identify the next skills you should learn.
In that was an angle on having to be bad at something before you can be good. The important thing, Andersen says, is to continue on through the bad phase so you can get to the good.
In fact, it’s the subject of her new book coming out this winter called Be Bad First: Get Good at Things Fast to Stay Ready for the Future. Sign me up. The pre-ordered book will download on my Kindle app on March 8.
In a Forbes post that may have inspired the book, she gives great strategies for How to Get Good at Things By Being Bad First. One of them is managing your self talk and being deliberately encouraging in how you speak to yourself.
That brings me to the second thing that happened this week. I’ve been trying different yoga classes, looking for 2 to do consistently each week. In addition to the serenity, stretching and balance benefits, I’m training to do paddle board yoga in the spring and summer.
And I’m moving through being bad into being good. One of my yoga instructors gave me a little smile this week when I at last managed to transition into Warrior II with the correct arm in front.
And my first experience with stand up paddle boarding last fall left me with a patch of broken skin on my thumb from holding the paddle the wrong way. The skin healed, and I figured out a better way to paddle.
Something the teacher in yesterday’s yoga class said made a big impression on me. He advised us not to condemn, judge or demand. If we let go of these mindsets and expectations, we will be calmer and happier.
These could apply to others. They could also apply to ourselves. By letting go of judging ourselves and demanding perfection, we are more free to experiment and learn.
That’s what Andersen is saying too. Most everyone will be bad at something when they first start. But by having faith in your ability to persevere and learn what you need to know, you can get good.
Another great book, What To Do When You’re New by Keith Rollag gives strategies for you to perform new things in front of people who aren’t familiar to you. Focusing on learning and getting better, rather than being good right away, is a great tip.
And his HBR article on being new gives good guidance on asking questions: consider what you want and why, determine whom to ask and if the time is right, ask short to-the-point questions and express thanks.
It’s humbling to recognize what you don’t know and what you need to learn. To try to ask the right questions, even when you don’t know what you don’t know. To take a crack at doing the new task. To learn from and recover from the inevitable mistakes. To start building competence.
This is what I’m doing in my new career role in marketing. This is how I navigate new community leadership roles. And this is how I approach my exercise classes. It’s not easy, but I keep moving forward.
As I learned from my yoga teacher, don’t judge yourself or demand perfection. Be kind to yourself and let yourself experiment. You’ll achieve much more, much faster and much better than you ever thought you could.
by Caroline Leach | Jan 30, 2016 | Change, Learning, Work/Life
With the torrential pace of change in our world, how will you decide what you need to learn this year?
Even if you’re not tackling a new job as I am, every field is changing rapidly. This makes lifelong learning an imperative for all of us.
Richard Bolles had an early inkling of this. While he’s better known as the bestselling author of the annually updated What Color is Your Parachute?, he also wrote The Three Boxes of Life.
In it he argued that we should not think about our lives in a linear fashion of education followed by work followed by retirement.
Instead, he advocated that all 3 boxes of life should be woven through every stage of our lives. This has never been more true than today, nearly four decades after the book was published.
Our education has to continue in parallel with our careers. For those who loved formal schooling, as I did, this is welcome news.
And for those who didn’t, there are many new ways of learning – by online courses, by doing and by observing, to name a few – that can make it more fun and intuitive.
And weaving in elements of retirement with its passion projects, travel and leisure refreshes and inspires us. This is why what we do on weekends is so important.
Thinking about all the things I need to learn in my new role, a Harvard Business Review post by Erika Andersen caught my eye this week.
How to Decide What Skill to Work On Next gives a great framework to focus your learning efforts. Andersen links the framework of Jim Collins‘ hedgehog concept from Good to Great with learning.
Collins found that great organizations have 3 areas of focus:
- What drives their economic engine
- What they can be the best in the world at, and
- What they’re most passionate about.
Linking that with learning, Andersen advocates asking yourself these questions:
- How can you learn and grow in a way that will help your company succeed? What will drive the bottom line?
- Of those areas, which ones could you become excellent at? If you’re good at similar things, those are ideal starting points.
- How passionate are you about those areas? And she shows that passion can be learned by looking at the benefits to learning and how it will create a better future for you.
This is not only a manageable and efficient way of making a personal learning plan, but it’s also inspiring and exciting.
It’s helping me narrow my focus and pick the highest-impact areas in my learning project. And it’s reassuring to know that I don’t have to learn everything, right away.
Like so many things in life, it’s about identifying the highest priority areas, taking initial actions, assessing progress and course correcting. It’s taking steps forward, day after day.
by Caroline Leach | Jan 24, 2016 | Leadership, Learning, Social Media, Work/Life
How do you spend your Sunday?
Inspiration abounds in the Sunday Routine series in The New York Times. Each week, a different New Yorker shares their weekend rituals.
And Laura Vanderkam‘s book What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend made me much more thoughtful about planning and enjoying the precious 60 hours from Friday night to Monday morning.
She helped me understand the important of planning “3 to 5 anchor events” every weekend. These might be fun day trips within a short drive from home, dinners with family and friends, time for yourself and more.
It’s especially important to plan fun, relaxing and meaningful weekends as a means of refreshment after a busy work week.
Here are a few activities in my Sunday grab bag. They aren’t things on every Sunday’s menu, but they’re favorite things that I order as often as possible.
Enjoy exercise. Sundays are perfect for longer-form exercise than during the week. Today, for example, was cardio on the treadmill, followed by a yoga class.
The added bonus during treadmill time? Catching up on favorite shows with TV everywhere on the DIRECTV app. (Full disclosure: for many years I’ve worked at DIRECTV, which is now a proud member of the AT&T family. Opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
Spend time with family. Whether it’s an excursion to a park or other local landmark, a religious service or a special meal together, Sundays are perfect for family time.
In our house, we often have an early Sunday dinner. My husband loves to cook, thankfully, so we often get to enjoy new recipes he’s trying. Our teens are in the middle of high-school finals and college apps, so there’s plenty of work to be done on weekends too.
Get a jump on the work week. Before the hustle and bustle of Monday begins, it’s great to create a plan for the week. In the relative calm of the weekend, it’s an ideal opportunity to spend focused time on an important project. And it’s a good time to clear the decks of accumulated email and open actions.
Focus on special projects. What side projects do you have going on, separate from your day job? For me, it’s blogging.
Although my blog often explores professional topics in marketing and communications, blogging is filled with intrinsic motivation for me. I enjoy it so much that I get lost in the flow of the experience. Whatever your flow state is, devote some of your weekend to it.
Spend time in nature. Especially in the winter during the shorter, darker days, it’s important to spend time outside on the weekends. Whether it’s exercising, gardening, dining or a myriad of other outdoor activities, the outdoors has a restorative quality to it. Connecting with nature is grounding and soothing.
Of course, those on the east coast of the U.S. will have to do this on a weekend other than this one. The snowstorm there is one instance where no action can be the best course of action.
Catch up on reading. Weekends are a great time to read a wider variety of materials than during the work week. Maybe it’s reading the longer news stories you didn’t have time for during the week. Or maybe it’s the latest business book. Or a novel that has lessons about leadership and life.
Enjoy favorite TV shows. If you work in an entertainment-related business, as I do, this really fun homework for my job. Streaming shows on the DIRECTV app (see: exercise, above) is a great twofer – exercise and entertainment.
Today during treadmill time I streamed Jobs for G.I.s on the AUDIENCE network. It’s a compelling look at the challenges veterans face as they transition from military service to civilian life. It makes me proud of my company’s focus on hiring and supporting veterans.
Learn something new. What do you want to learn this year? Whether it’s personal or professional, weekends give you the time and space for learning, whether it’s in person or online. A new book out this month called Stretch is full of ideas for how you can future-proof yourself and your career.
Have fun and enjoy life just as is it. Perhaps most important is to enjoy the moments and the special people in your life. The past is done, the future isn’t here yet and the present is right before you, waiting to be savored.
by Caroline Leach | Jan 23, 2016 | Social Media, Work/Life
Are you looking for more fun in your life? Would you like to connect with friends and family? Do you want to research the fastest growing social network?
Those are the reasons I joined Snapchat today. I want to learn how I can use it in my personal life. And I’m interested to see how businesses are using it to build their brands.
It’s a feeling not unlike the one I had upon joining Twitter. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. I didn’t fully know why I was there. I couldn’t yet articulate what I wanted to accomplish.
And that’s okay. Part of learning why you’re in a social network and how you can use it for personal and/or professional objectives is to experiment and play with it.
That reminds me of Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick‘s opening to their book The Art of Social Media.
“We are in the trenches of social media, not in a “war room” back at headquarters,” they wrote. “We acquired our knowledge through experimentation and diligence, not pontification, sophistry and conference attendance.”
That’s what I’m doing with Snapchat. I’m learning as I go. I’m making mistakes along the way.
And while I’m not quite ready to share “how to be social” in this network in the way I did with LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, that day will come.
Today I set up my profile and found a few friends. To maintain at least a few boundaries, I didn’t click on younger family members or professional colleagues.
To my surprise, a handful of my Facebook friends were on Snapchat, so I connected with them. And I convinced my spouse to join, so we could learn together.
In the meantime, there was an unexpected benefit to joining Snapchat.
Not surprisingly, my daughter doesn’t want to interact with me in social media.
But when I told her I joined Snapchat, we had fun looking through her Stories and Snaps together. She showed me how captions and geofilters work.
Best of all, she finally followed me in Instagram. And I was able to follow her back for the first time.
Now I just need the next big social network to come along, so she’ll be my friend in Snapchat.
by Caroline Leach | Jan 17, 2016 | Leadership
On this Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, I’m endlessly inspired by these timeless words from Dr. King:
“If you can’t fly then run
If you can’t run then walk
If you can’t walk then crawl
But whatever you do
you have to keep moving forward.”
by Caroline Leach | Jan 10, 2016 | Corporate Communications
The Golden Globes is a great reason to gather with family and friends.
It’s fun to celebrate favorite movies and TV shows, rooting for favorite performers.
And if you’re a communicator and marketer, like me, it’s entertaining to listen for the best speeches of the evening.
The winners in my book? Sylvester Stallone for Creed and Lady Gaga for American Horror Story: Hotel.
Show emotion. Sly looked stunned when his name was announced, sitting in his seat for a few moments before he stood up. (The standing ovation may have begun before he stood up himself.) And his first words were about his genuine surprise.
Lady Gaga pulled her hand to her mouth, stopping time for a moment as the win sunk in. And among her first words were, “This is the biggest moment of my life.”
Shine the light on others. Sly endeared himself to the whole world when he said, “I am the sum total of everyone I’ve ever met.”
Lady Gaga said, “Because of you I was able to shine.” And, “Thank you for sharing your talent with me.” And, “You guys pick me up every day.”
Be brief. The best speakers leave you wanting more. Not wondering if they’re going to say something memorable (eventually), or wrap it up and be gone. Not so with Sly and Lady Gaga. I would have been happy listening to them speak for hours.
And that’s the art of a great acceptance speech.
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