Launch Team for The Growth Leader

Thanks to those of you who have joined the Launch Team for The Growth Leader! If you aren’t familiar with the Launch Team, here’s where you can find

out more. It would mean a lot to me for you to join as the early reviews for a

book create important momentum and social proof for a big impact. I’ll keep those emails separate from the regular newsletter, so let’s get to our regularly scheduled programming.

Individual Leadership: Choosing What NOT to Do

We all have stretches where we feel overloaded. I’ve been in one for much of 2023. And for many of you, there isn’t one culprit, but a combination of factors, including work commitments, family responsibilities, self-care, social obligations and more. Even if you enjoy living a full and busy life, every now and then we all experience this.

Michael Porter observed that, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” While he meant it in the context of business decisions and tradeoffs organizations must make, it’s equally valuable in evaluating your own priorities.

Take stock of what you have going on and make some decisions about what you are not going to do. Or at least not going to do right now, or next week, or next month. Be realistic because, something’s gotta give. Get strategic and decide in advance before your circumstances decide it for you.

Organization Leadership: Magnets and Milestones

Are you creating a results focused culture or one that is task-focused? Results focused conversations tend to focus on clarifying what needs to be done and discussing where help is needed to make progress toward the results. Task focused conversations dig in to reporting what has already been done and reviewing how assignments are being completed.

In The Growth Leader, I introduce a model called magnets and milestones to help leaders drive execution and results.

• Magnets are organizational and departmental strategic initiatives that define the work that must be done to achieve each goal.
• Milestones measure the progress of that work toward the goal.

Using Magnets and Milestones helps leaders avoid getting stuck in the quick-sand of complex project management.

For more on this topic, check out my LinkedIn Live event from last month here. Fast forward to the 4-minute mark to skip the wait for the broadcast to start.

To go deeper into these activities, and others like them, pre-order a copy of The Growth Leader.

Perspective: When Things Look Easier Than They Are

I recently finished recording the audiobook of The Growth Leader, and I had no idea how difficult it would be.

This was my professional voice-acting debut, and it was challenging, to say the least. Looking back at the experience, I can’t help but laugh at how it all went down. Here’s the short take:

February 2023:

When asked by the audiobook producer if they should hire a voice actor:

“No, I’m interested in reading the audiobook. I’d rather do it than have a professional voice actor do it. If you think my voice is good enough, I’d love to read it.”

[Producer agrees and I feel super cool. Like an actor who does their own stunts in a movie.]

Recording Day 1, 9:00am:

[Feeling a little nervous as we get started. We test a few lines.]

Producer: “Ok, this time I want you to put some inflection and emphasis into it.”

Me: “I was putting inflection and emphasis into it.”

45 minutes later:

[Thoughts to self]: That sure seemed like a long time for a couple of pages. Where are my lozenges. And some tea. And water! What have I gotten myself into.

1 hour later:

[To producer and audio engineer apologetically]:

“Sorry we keep having to do the retakes, fellas.”

[To myself]: My throat is suddenly really bothering me. Why is this so hard to read? Why did I write it like that? Couldn’t that sentence have been shorter? People have to breathe when reading. Is that really the correct pronunciation of “minutiae”? Is it too late for me to make changes to the book?”

Noon:

[Thoughts to self]: Is it too late to hire a professional voice actor? I’m barely done with chapter one and this book is nearly 200 pages long!

3:00 pm:

[Thoughts to self]: Ok, I’m getting the hang of this. The playbacks sounded pretty good to me, once the breaths, mistakes, throat clearing, and profanity from stumbling over my own writing were edited out.

Days 2 & 3:

Repeat. Reach exhaustion. Realize my overconfidence might have ended my voice-over career, and possibly my career as an author, and vow to never do this to myself or a potential listener again. Go home and contemplate a career as a professional house sitter.

One Week Later:

Fearing the worst, I talk to the audiobook producers who believe they have spun gold out of my ramblings. No retakes needed! I listen to an early take and actually believe them. Forgetting this painful process completely, I’m now on cloud nine and quite proud of what we’ve produced together. 

[To my wife and daughters, as I discuss my career options as a recording artist, while their eyes roll to the back of their head]: “I don’t think I want to do any more books though. My real interest is in animated films.” I’m sure I’ll be hearing from Pixar or Disney about voice acting in their next movie!

Anyway, now you know that the real brilliance happens in the sound booth of Brilliance Publishing! Thanks to Starr Michaelson and Jonathan Pennock. And most of all, thank goodness for exceptional direction and production engineering from Ryan Neuschafer and Dan Mockensturm. If you enjoy The Growth Leader in audio format, it’s because they did such an amazing job.

Here are some behind the scenes photos from our recording days. You can view some YouTube shorts here and here

LinkedIn Live

Join me on September 19th at 10am Eastern Time to discuss Why Your Team Isn’t Listening To You. I'll be sharing the most common reasons that teams do not do what their leaders expect of them, and how you can address them.