Do you prefer Uber or Lyft? I always use…

As we barrel headlong into the holiday season, I wanted to take an opportunity to share my gratitude that you remain part of my leadership community. I love sharing my learnings with you and then hearing yours in return. So please feel free to hit reply (now or anytime) and let me know your thoughts!

My last 5-bullet newsletter was incredibly popular. I got a lot of feedback that people liked the pithy points and it made for a faster read.

And one person I respect a lot questioned my use of naming it bullets in our world with increasing gun violence. While of course bullets is the technical name for that writing convention of indented lists, it did inspire my creativity in honor of my new website, Incite To Leadership.

So without further ado, here are my 5 Leadership Incites…
Dr. Jo’s 5 Leadership Incites: 

1. Last week’s Thanksgiving holiday has become synonymous with heaping plates, full stomachs and crowded shopping lines – did you make time for gratitude as well? Multiple studies point to the elevated happiness effects from taking time to be grateful in your own life. And research points to the fact that employees who feel more appreciated end up being more engaged employees.
   Take a moment and reflect: how do you actively show appreciation to your team? How could you turn up the volume on that 10%?
2. Two weeks ago I gave my latest talk at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business which was livestreamed and watched live by people in countries as far away as Argentina. Technology is amazing! If you’d like to watch it – click here to have a listen. It’s about 45 minutes and I’d love to know what you think of it!
3. A new report on the barriers to innovation was just released as a result of a working group with over 30 top companies’ CEOs, top executives and academics. Click here to view it. What struck me on page 2 is how thwarted established companies feel when considering investments in innovation. Most of them agreed that they routinely sacrifice innovation for current shareholder gains and 78% of CEOs would destroy long-term value to smooth short-term earnings – wow! As a leadership coach (and someone with stock investments) this kind of myopia in executive teams is both worrisome and not surprising. No matter how much talk there is in Silicon Valley about revering failure and “failing forward,” the sad reality is the most companies still reward small safe bets and punish innovative failures. I’m curious about your company – how safe do you feel to experiment and potentially fail in your company?
   

   Photo courtesy of Lyft press kit. Lyft and the Lyft logo are trademarks of Lyft, Inc.

4. I just spend some great time in Chicago, my hometown, for Thanksgiving. I also rode Lyft about 20 times getting around. I love asking my drivers about Uber vs. Lyft. Which do they drive for? Prefer? One of my drivers shared that a year ago at the airport, he would wait 40 minutes to get an Uber request and about 2 hours for a similar Lyft request. Since the whole Uber PR debacle last year (#DeleteUber, the infamous Susan Fowler blog detailing her sexual harassment at Uber, and Founder and ex-CEO’s Travis Kalanick’s downfall), he now routinely finds that Lyft is much busier than Uber and so he only drives Lyft. Plus when you sign-up for Uber, you watch some video trainings and go. When you sign-up for Lyft, he said there are experienced Lyft drivers to help train you and give you advice.
   I’ve been a Lyft fan for a while but I’m even more inspired to hear that the company invests in developing their drivers and in their success as a Lyft driver. Here’s to companies who invest in their often anonymous freelance workforce! (Lyft please don’t disappoint me with the next round of sexual harassment claims!)
5. I’m teaming up together again with the amazing Jen Goldman to do the Mastering Difficult Conflicts workshop January 23-25th for the second time at the lovely 1440 Multiversity new retreat center. The workshop will introduce a set of practices that allow you to free yourself and others from the toughest situations and conflicts—at work, at home and in public life—even without cooperation from the other side. This January workshop is specifically designed for senior executives who are willing to engage with cutting-edge methods to free themselves and others from the conflict that may be holding them back from achieving their potential. If you or someone in your organization might be interested, please reach out to me at [email protected].

As we barrel headlong into the holiday season, I wanted to take an opportunity to share my gratitude that you remain part of my leadership community. I love sharing my learnings with you and then hearing yours in return. So please feel free to comment below and let me know what you’re grateful for.