I came across this piece today — from a series I had the most fun writing (click here.)Excerpt:The artist’s desire to communicate an idea and create better art is only as strong as their audience’s desire to give meaning and definition to the piece. You need your audience, readers, listeners, clients, customers to create art.

Data data everywhere, and not a drop to drink. I have that belief about data. News commentators talk about data, industry people talk about data, candidates say “I love data”. I have developed rules about data:Don’t trust, always verify. What you see is not all there is. (HT Ed Powers for that one)One person’s proof is another person’s conspiracy. People who use data because it pays, will manipulate the data because it pays. I may have mentioned that I am studying statistics — I need it for work. The more I learn about statistics, the more I don’t trust anything or anyone with any high degree of certainty (alpha = 0.05). Question everything.

Customer success practitioners talk about how to discover and capitalize on their customer’s most important ROI metrics. That most important metric is measurable, specific, and can be managed. I call that metric the customer’s “currency of ROI.” The way that a customer success practitioner must learn and deal in their customer’s “currency of ROI”, so to must a manager learn and deal in their team’s “currency of ROI.”An employee is like a customer. The way they decide to accept a job is similar to the way a consumer decides what business to buy from. The consumer has goals, dreams, hopes, and ambitions. They have a problem they want solved. They hope the product they purchased helps them solve it. Why should work be different?Managers would do well to learn the “Currency of ROI” of each of their team. A skilled manager learns how to deal in that currency. They are skilled at helping their team members see how the investment of their team and energy has grown over time. I believe in this concept so much that I coach the people leader on my team to develop and use this metric with her team. We see results.

My friend Jen told me that my brain notices every weird things — do you agree?I related to Jen that I noticed that news headlines often say:So and so spoke out against…So and so is calling for…So and so won’t say whether or not they condemn… As often as I hear these words used in news headlines, I rarely hear these words used in every day conversation. I thought to myself, what do I want to speak out against, what would I like to call for, what will I condemn?Here are my answers:I will speak out against pineapple on pizza. I would like to call for a celebration for all those people who abandoned pineapple as their favorite topping and adopted sausage, mushrooms, and onions. I will not condemn those who choose to keep pineapple as a topping. They have a right to make their mistakes.

I struggle to keep myself focused when my interests become wide and varied. I write my goals down, but then they shift.I commit myself to a book, but I lose interest.I let myself go with it, but then I’m not focused.I need to ground myself most during these moments. A hike outside always is just the thing I need. I find a hike allows the mind to settle. It gives the brain time to ponder, connect, and apply new knowledge. If there’s any habit I must start and keep, it is to commit time to convene with nature.

If you want good relationships with people, your relationship must be in balance. The feedback ratio — optimizing for improved future performance vs reinforcement of the right behaviors. Ideally 1:1.

I act the exactly the opposite of how my team expects me to act. If they expect me to get pissed, I act calm. If they expect me to be calm, I act a bit cooky — arguably, my steady state. I notice that the humans I lead act the opposite of the way I expect them to behave too. The universe, life, everything — all of that is under no obligation to make sense to us. (borrowing a line from Neil deGrasse Tyson). I have found the best way to lead is to prostrate myself before the absurdity that is life and human nature, embrace it in all its glory, and approach slightly off center.

The West Allis West Milwaukee School District sent me a survey asking my thoughts on funding initiatives. They need to increase budget for improvements — both immediate and long term. I wonder how many citizens have enough information to make recommendations? I answered “unsure” to most of the questions. I came back to the same questions over and over again:How are you leveraging the existing constraints? What outcomes are you getting? How are you scaling what works? With so much educational material online and free, how do you bring more of that content into the classroom? What is driving the need to increase funding per student? How much of that increase is tied to maintaining and upgrading existing physical capital? How much of it is labor market demands? If additional funds were not approved via referendum, how might the school district leverage private partnerships to educate? And if that’s not possible, how will they weigh the cost of cutting programs? These are just my questions. I can only imagine what questions someone with kids might have. When I realize how much I don’t know, I begin to realize that the only decision I can make is the decision to learn more. I wish that was an option on the survey.

4 years later, I still believe it. An employee I had hired came up to me and let me know that their recruitment moment was the singularly most important moment of their life. The individual shared that my job offer brought them out of a depressing situation. Wow. I had that impact on another human being?  Suddenly, all of the wins and cost savings meant nothing to me. It didn’t matter how much we saved. What money we didn’t spend translates as lives impacted. What caused me to miss the importance of others? What happened that I did not help people find other work? How could I let myself become so consumed?   Needless to say, after much soul-searching, I would learn to do this much differently.  1. Communicate what’s happening and what we’re trying to do.2. Ask the team for their input and advice. Make the employees part of the solution.3. Develop better partnerships with vendors and have them unify around a common goal.4. Be mindful, self-aware, and temper the feeling to “win” and use that energy to “help” others.Winning isn’t winning if it costs your morality.  “Winning” is a stop along a more infinite journey.  Now, I’ll focus on the journey.  Now, I’ll focus on others.

I have a strong and sweeping opinion about performance reviews — I believe their useless. What’s the value in a conversation that’s held once a quarter, twice a year, or annually? I believe effective managers engage with their team’s work as often as possible. Managers say what they love about the work, they offer ideas for making it better, and they point out pitfalls and future traps their team members might not anticipate. Radical thought: what if managers used the quarterly/semiannual/annual review the way that a customer success manager uses a quarterly business review?What if the manager says, “here are all the things we worked on together, here’s where there’s opportunity for next quarter, and,” the part that no manager I’ve ever had has asked, “is it your intent to stay another quarter?”If the employee says “no” or “I don’t know,” that’s a great response. Then the manager can engage in discovery, and with the employee, determine the path forward.If the employee says “yes,” that’s a great response too. Now the manager finds a way to maintain a steady state and plot a growth path with and for the employee.Effective managers give generous insights and guidance that helps their team move forward routinely. Better managers go out on a limb and ask their teams to renew.