Hot Topic Friday: May 29

Happy Friday! Here are my May 29 Hot Topics and how they relate to advancing culture or leadership.

Hot Topic 1: Great (Not Perfect) and Always With Help.

What It’s About: To the best of my knowledge, I was the first person to publicly proclaim a statement I thought about for years. At an ATB Financial conference in 2014, I announced as the Chief People Officer, my deeply held belief, that people had a right to great leaders, and leaders had a responsibility to become great and not perfect. I did so in front of about 300 top leaders, and our keynote speaker, the famous leadership guru, John Maxwell. I remember him telling me how much he liked that viewpoint. During the conference I also challenged leaders to think about who brought out the best in them over their career. Subsequently, Maxwell wrote this in his best selling book, Intentional Living: “I recently spoke at a conference for ATB Financial in Edmonton, Canada. Their top three hundred leaders had gathered for a day of leadership training, and I was their keynote speaker. They had a banner draped across the stage that read, ‘Why We Lead—To Bring Out the Very Best in Others for Outstanding Results!’ I loved that. During the conference, Lorne Rubis, the organization’s chief people officer, instructed the attendees to ask themselves this question: ‘Who brings out the best of me?’ Right alongside the others, I took his advice. For the next thirty minutes I reflected and I wrote down the names of people who have continually added value to my life. Each time I added another name to this gratitude list, I would smile and remember something each person had said or done for me that added value to my life. Here’s the list I made:”

Note: In the book, Maxwell lists about 20, starting with his dad and mom. A year or so later, an HBR article came out entitled: “Great Leaders Know They’re Not Perfect.” It is a tepid article, and yet it starts the conversation that leaders do not serve themselves or others well when they pretend, or even aspire, to be flawless.

So What?: People want authentic, vulnerable, transparent leaders who seek progress over perfection, and are courageous enough to lean on others for support and wisdom. Except in a few high profile political positions (you know who I’m talking about), that’s what we want in modern leaders .

Now What?: As Maxwell says in his book: “Making such a list reminds me that I am not a self-made man. None of us can really claim to have done anything alone, can we? We need others. And we should value them. Who brings out the best in you? Who are you grateful for? Have you made a list of the people you appreciate? If not, now is the perfect time of year to create your own list. Take time to do so this week. Once you have, it will be difficult for you to forget all of the people who have helped you get to where you are today, because it lives with you and within you. It lives with you because of the things people have done with you. It lives within you because of the way it sustains you. And it can inspire you to get outside of yourself and put others first, just as others have often put you first.”

Humbly learn from others, and stop trying to be perfect! That’s what great (not perfect) leadership is!

One Millennial Response: What do they say? Perfection is the enemy of progress. I think transparency and honesty that yields positive results is more valuable than perfection, because if you buy what is marketed as perfect then you’re likely being swindled and lied to.

Hot Topic 2: Wake Watchers More Than Weight Watchers?

Source: New York Times.

What It’s About: How would you like this written about your brand? Especially a reinvented, so-called hip refresh called WW, which is supposed to center on all wellness, including mental health. Here’s a recap from the article: “On the afternoon of May 14, Joanne Patten sat down at her computer in her home in Houston and logged in to a Zoom call with her employer, WW International, the company formerly known as Weight Watchers…

She listened as her boss, reading from a script, said she and the other employees on the Zoom call were being fired, effective when the three-minute session ended. It was one of numerous Zoom calls that occurred simultaneously across the country, resulting in the firing of an undisclosed number of WW employees…

‘I was like, what just happened?’ said Ms. Patten, 59, who was a part-time employee for nearly 11 years. ‘I put a call into my territory manager and said: ‘What was that? Are you kidding me? That’s how you’re going to fire me after all of these years?’”

So What?: We all get that companies need to make hard decisions about restructuring, especially during times like this. People aren’t dumb. But why do we have to treat people like this? HR? Legal? IT? C-Suite? Board Human Resource Committees? Somebody convinced top people to “just pull the bandaid off,” and treat people like cattle going to the slaughter house. A nail gun to the head… Yup, all done. Oprah Winfrey is on the Board. I wonder what she thinks?

Now What?: Let’s revisit how to create a dignified exit for people being asked to leave. (The rare, egregious situation warrants more restrictive treatment). Employee exits are every bit, if not more important, than employee entries. Your real beliefs and values show up at that moment. Come on. We can be better at this. For a company formerly based on calculating points, we’re guessing this lost a lot of points with their employees and the public.

One Millennial Response: Hey! Maybe WW was just trying to set a record by dropping the most amount of weight in the fastest amount of time (A few hundred employees is not a light load). All bad jokes aside, this is a really lousy way to conduct business, and perhaps that’s why I wasn’t even aware Weight Watchers had even rebranded… There’s evidently no wellness at WW worth making any positive headlines.

My Weekly Wine Recommendation.

Charles Smith Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2017

Screen Shot 2020-05-28 at 3.42.26 PM.png

[Ed Note: Find it at your local wine shops.]

And finally! Here’s Cecil’s Bleat of the Week!

Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-3.11.14-PM-4-300x177.png

“When you can sit in perfect silence with someone, you truly know how to communicate.” - Richard Wagamese.

Bye for now!

— Lorne Rubis

Incase you Missed It:

My latest Lead In podcast.

My latest blog.

Season 3 of Culture Cast.

Also don’t forget to subscribe to our site, and follow Lorne Rubis on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for the latest from our podcasts, blogs, and all things offered on LorneRubis.com.

Happy Friday! Here are my May 29 Hot Topics and how they relate to advancing culture or leadership.

Hot Topic 1: Great (Not Perfect) and Always With Help.

Hot Topic 2: Wake Watchers More Than Weight Watchers?

Search Blog Posts:

Follow Us: