The Art of Magazine - Volume 20

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The Dirty Secret of Overachievers Dr. Tasha Eurich

The 5 Big Causes of Burn-Out Patrick Lencioni

The 3-Step Dance Behind The Honest Company’s Showstopper Growth Performance Tiffani Bova

Leadership is a Thing Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall

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VOLUME 20

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MALALA YOUSAFZAI

BUILDING TOMORROW’S LEADERS

TODAY Since our inception in 2008, The Art Of has shaken the complacent and challenged the status quo as we’ve forged a dynamic global community that has helped to define and inspire thousands of individuals and businesses over the last 11 years. Thank you for joining us on this journey!

CONTENTS TOP INSIGHTS FROM Alan Mulally, Whitney Johnson, Jacqueline Carter and Morten Hansen

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HOW TO EXERCISE DURING THE WORKDAY IF YOU HAVE AN IN-THE-OFFICE JOB Laura Vanderkam

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THE 5 BIG CAUSES OF BURN-OUT Patrick Lencioni

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THE WAY FORWARD FOR FEMALE LEADERS: CULTIVATING YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF Veronica Draleau

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EMPOWERING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS Gillian Riley

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THE VIEW FROM THE TOP (OF THE HAMSTER WHEEL) Laura Gassner Otting

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WORKING SMART Morten Hansen

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THE BRAIN REWARDS YOU, EVEN WHEN YOU ARE WRONG. THIS IS BAD FOR INNOVATION (AND LIFE) Stephen Shapiro

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DELL EMC’S KEVIN CONNOLLY ON HOW TRUST AND CULTURE CAN MAKE OR BREAK SMALL BUSINESSES Belinda Alzner

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THE VIEW FROM THE TOP (OF THE HAMSTER WHEEL)

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WORKING SMART

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THE DIRTY SECRET OF OVERACHIEVERS

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MALALA INSPIRES LEADERSHIP AT ANY AGE

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THE DIRTY SECRET OF OVERACHIEVERS Dr. Tasha Eurich

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HAPPINESS IS A DAILY CHOICE Kate Ross LeBlanc

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TIMELESS LEADERSHIP WISDOM WE ALL NEED TO FORGET Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick

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THE 3-STEP DANCE BEHIND THE HONEST COMPANY’S SHOWSTOPPER GROWTH PERFORMANCE Tiffani Bova

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WHERE DO GREAT IDEAS COME FROM? Jules Pieri

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WHY HUMAN CONNECTION MATTERS AT WORK Samra Zafar

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LEADERSHIP IS A THING Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall

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MALALA INSPIRES LEADERSHIP AT ANY AGE The Art Of

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WHY SMART AUDIO IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS RIGHT NOW Mitch Joel

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MYTHBUSTING BOARDROOM BODY LANGUAGE Mark Bowden and Tracey Thomson

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ASK THEM AND THEY WILL TELL US....

Sherry Elwood and Wendy Lim

Plan International Canada is calling on Canadians to

#DefyNormal

‘Normal’ for too many girls means experiencing roadblocks that challenge their power, freedom and equality. We must listen to girls, amplify their voices, and help to support their transition into empowered, confident leaders, ready to unleash their full potential.

Learn more at plancanada.ca

@PlanCanada

Founders’ Letter The more things change, the more questions there are to ask.

Engaged leaders keep their fingers on the pulse of business trends to help ensure success for their companies. Understanding how to manage used to be a no brainer. Meet Gen Z, the first cohort with no memory of life without a smartphone. There are 61-million Gen Z about to enter the workforce in the US. In Canada, we’re looking at one-fifth of our population. Do you know why they will be more difficult to manage and train than older generations?

Is this the year we finally close the gap? Among the world’s largest 500 companies, only 10.9 percent of senior executives are women.

Yet the trend shows that companies with more female executives make more money. While researchers scratch their heads, there is one thing that we know for sure. Diversity helps make companies profitable, innovative and respected.

Customers want instant gratification and results that move faster than ever. Companies that find the balance between increased speed and continued high-quality results will be far better positioned to grow in 2019. As a leader, how can you make sure that it doesn’t lead to a decline in quality?

With more employees working remotely this year, do you know how you will consistently hold everyone accountable? Having a continued and future plan for employee development is a predictor of its future success. At The Art Of, staying ahead of the trends helps us design conferences with all the answers to today’s trending questions. You can prepare yourself and your organization for the next big thing, even before it arrives.

CO-FOUNDERS Christopher Novais Scott Kavanagh

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Joey Van Massenhoven

HOW TO REACH US The Art of Productions Inc. 46 Sherbourne Street, 3rd Floor Toronto, Ontario Canada M5A 2P7

ADVERTISING & SUBSCRIPTIONS Visit: www.theartof.com/magazine Email: magazine@theartof.com Call: 866-992-7863 (In U.S.A and Canada) Write to The Art Of: Subscription Services 46 Sherbourne Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2P7 Our subscribers list is occasionally made available to carefully selected firms whose products or services may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive information from these firms, please let us know at privacy@theartof.com or send your request along with your mailing label to The Art of Productions Inc, 46 Sherbourne Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2P7

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TOP INSIGHTS FROM

Alan Mulally 11 PRINCIPLES Mulally has 11 principles and practices that have guided him throughout his career and made him one of the greatest business leaders of all time. These principles include: • • • • • • • • • • •

People first – love them up Everyone is included Compelling vision, comprehensive strategy, and relentless implementation Clear performance goals One plan Facts and data Everyone knows the plan, the status, and areas that need special attention Propose a plan with a positive “find-a-way” attitude Respect, listen, help, and appreciate each other Emotional resilience – trust the process Have fun and enjoy the journey

WORKING TOGETHER Mulally’s “Working Together” philosophy did not stop at the office door; it extended to all of the stakeholders. He applied this same principle to the company’s dealings with its suppliers and dealers as well. His message to each group was simple: We are in this together, and if you help us succeed we will make sure you share in the success. Think of all of the different players that you rely on and show them how they can become more successful by contributing to the success of your organization.

Respect, listen, help, and appreciate each other.

RED, YELLOW, GREEN Mulally spoke about one of his first leadership meetings at Ford. His team would come in with status reports. Major goals, all color-coded red, yellow or green, depending on the status of each project. At the meeting, most people came in with their projects all green. However, since everyone at the table knew that Ford was going to lose money that year, there was no way that everyone’s goals were green. One leader had a few reds marked on his status report. So Mulally asked this person to come sit next to him. The person assumed they were being brought next to Mulally so he could fire him. They talked about the challenges and obstacles he faced. Mulally didn’t fire him. Instead, they looked for solutions together.

Over the next few weeks, more and more of the leadership team changed their colors to yellows and reds. They identified the real challenges in the business. They worked together to find solutions. They stopped hiding problems. The culture started to shift. At the foundation of this cultural shift, Mulally built a safe environment in which his team could work and thrive.

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TOP INSIGHTS FROM

Whitney Johnson Whitney Johnson sees disruption as a series of innovations that industry leaders often ignore until suddenly the disruptor changes the way a whole market behaves. Imagine the disruption journey as moving from the bottom to the top of an S-curve and that every employee is at one of three places on that learning and engagement curve. Now, also imagine every organization is a collection of each employee’s journey and healthy organizations have a distribution near to the following ratios: •

15% of your employees are at the bottom of the S-curve. They are usually new to their roles, energetic and demonstrate a desire to grow and be creative. This group works hard to become one of the 70%.

•

70% is the sweet spot. Employees are productive and their quality is dependable; for a little motivation they do exactly what leaders want. This is also a challenge area because it’s easy to leave them alone. Great leaders keep these people excited, creative and proud.

•

15% of your employees are at the top of the S-curve and are your high performers. They are also your biggest problem because most masters want opportunities to grow. If you let them get bored, they will often leave… to one of your competitors.

THREE LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES •

Hire people for their future potential and their ability to add to your existing corporate culture.

As this innovative group learns they will be loyal for years to come. If you hire masters they will quickly get bored.

•

As employees move up their learning S-curve don’t stop challenging them. Top performers need, and often want, more challenge not less.

•

When people are at the high end of their S-curve and have mastered their role, find something new for them to do that is in-line with their goals. Too often we keep them ‘right where they are’.

THREE OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR TOP 15% •

Give them a coach. Help them explore new challenges or become even greater at what they do.

Don’t imagine what motivates them; ask them.

•

Help them be a coach or apprentice to a junior employee. Pair them with high-potential people in your lower 15% group and/or 70% group.

•

Give these people a stretch assignment and provide them with the support they need.

When people are bored they don’t innovate; they either leave or get disengaged. Strong leaders of healthy organizations practice disruption by providing safe and supportive environments. Build a high-performance team by helping your team see disruption as fun.

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Are you a disruptor?

Do you want to be a disruptor?

TOP INSIGHTS FROM

Jacqueline Carter The room went silent when leadership & mindfulness expert Jacqueline Carter said, “There is a leadership crisis” and then the room began buzzing when she followed up saying; 77% of leaders think they do a good job of engaging their people.

88% percent of employees say their leaders don’t engage enough.

• 65% percent of employees would forgo a pay raise to see their leaders fired.

• •

Carter’s research has identified startling findings about what employees and their leaders are feeling. At the same time, her research gives us data-proven solutions focused on the development of three core qualities within leaders: 1. Mindfulness

2. Selflessness

3. Compassion

WHAT IS A MINDFUL LEADER? Mindfulness helps us clear the mental clutter,” says Carter. “It’s the ability to be fully present in this moment.” A mindful leader is able to self-manage, stay focused on their employees and the most important projects. All of this translates into increased loyalty and quality.

Mindful Tips:

Be here now Stop multitasking • Take the HBR Mindfulness assessment and tool • •

WHAT IS A SELFLESS LEADER? A selfless leader is more concerned with the needs of his or her people, organization and society. The challenge is that ego can consciously or unconsciously influence a leader to support opportunities that confirm their own needs.

Selflessness Tips:

Use less “I”, “me”, “my” and “mine” Acknowledge who contributed to your success • Express gratitude – say thank you every day •

65% of employees would forgo a pay raise to see their leaders fired.

•

WHAT IS A COMPASSIONATE LEADER? Compassionate leaders build trust and loyalty by helping those around them and by bringing wisdom to discussions. They focus on strengthening their employees and their teams.

Compassion Tips:

Take care of yourself Ask. “How can I be of benefit to…?”

• Do random acts of kindness • •

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TOP INSIGHTS FROM

Morten Hansen WORKING SMARTER Working smart requires answering some tough questions in your job: what are the key activities that I can undertake that maximize value? What does “value” mean in my job?

What must I say “no” to in order to do this? And what does it mean to go all in and do exceptional work in my job?

It’s important that we shift from a volume-focused mindset to a value-focused mindset. Some examples of this: Medical Doctor shifting from # of patients seen to % of accurate diagnosis.

Lawyer shifting from # of billable hours to % of legal problems solved.

• Teachers shifting from # of classes taught to % students learned.

• Sales people shifting from # calls, # of units sold to usefulness to the customer.

• •

DO LESS, THEN OBSESS Do less and then obsess is one of seven practices that Hansen says are the keys to working smarter and becoming a top performer. These practices were identified through a five-year research project that included studying 5,000 managers and employees.

The research shows that having the self-discipline to stick with doing exceptional work on a handful of priorities will give us the single greatest boost to our performance.

SUBTRACT & SIMPLIFY Leaders and managers are inundated with tasks that aren’t necessarily the most important things. In order to improve effectiveness and productivity as a leader, we want to be mindful of the clutter and consider removing or significantly reducing the following items: number number • number • number • number • •

of of of of of

meetings & pre-meetings task forces metrics product features objectives per job

number number • number • number • number • •

of of of of of

priorities per job emails sign-offs required decision makers needed options being pursued

P-SQUARED Finding passion at work isn’t just about following your bliss. Hansen shared that passion wasn’t limited to certain types of jobs. For some, finding joy meant savouring relationships with colleagues or customers.

The important thing to remember is to marry your passion with a sense of purpose.

Purpose is to do something that contributes to others or what you can give to the world.

Focused energy comes at the intersection of passion and purpose when they are blended.

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What is the one thing that I must do less of in order to focus on the thing that matters?

Moreover, we subscribe to a strong corporate social responsibility program that includes supporting women through education!

Transoft Solutions, headquartered in Richmond, B.C., and supported by its eight international offices is a global leader in the development of specialized software for transportation engineering professionals.

Our sustained growth, since our inception in 1991, is a result of our corporate culture and our subscription to three critical cornerstones: our Customers, our Products, and our People.

We are proud to be a sponsor of The Art of Leadership for Women conference.

HOW TO EXERCISE DURING THE WORKDAY IF YOU HAVE AN IN-THE-OFFICE JOB LAURA VANDERKAM I exercise every day. I think it’s one of the best time investments I make.

Exercise energizes me, and makes me happier with the world. Life often seems more doable after a run than it does before. I find that exercise is a great mid-afternoon break when I start to feel frazzled. Rather than waste 45 minutes reading the same emails six times in a row, I do something that then allows me to focus for the rest of the afternoon.

Of course, I work for myself and (most days) I work at home. This makes mid-afternoon exercising easier.

But I don’t think during-the-day exercise is impossible for people with ‘normal’ jobs.

I’ve been thinking of this recently thanks to a note from blog reader Annette, who lives in Australia. After listening to the audiobook of 168 Hours, she decided that she wanted to use her 30-minute lunch break to exercise (she noted that she normally worked through lunch or surfed the web).

The problem, of course, was that it was only 30 minutes. And then there was the question of what condition she’d be in afterwards. “How are other listeners accounting for time to redo makeup, redo hair, etc.?” she asked. “It seems the personal care after working out is harder to manage.”

This is true, and is an issue that is generally more problematic for 14

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women than men, both because of more complicated hair and make-up, and because women may be judged more on appearances.

My first suggestion is to rethink the definition of exercise. Any physical movement is good. You do not have to do high-impact aerobic activities that leave you a sweaty mess. You do not have to exercise for an hour.

A 30-minute lunch break can, on a nice day, allow for a 20-25 minute stroll outside. Just bring comfortable shoes and any necessary coats, gloves, hats, etc. You might even be able to squeeze a few other walk breaks into the day. If people go outside to smoke for a few minutes, go outside as well. Just don’t smoke!

Another option for standard office workers is the walking meeting. Oneon-one meetings can be turned into walking meetings if the weather is decent and the other person has been warned in advance (so they don’t only have stilettos). This might be a particularly good option if you need to give feedback or advice to someone more junior to you. These conversations often feel more authentic if you’re not staring across the table in a beige conference room.

Or hey, if your workplace is large enough, you might take a fair number of steps just in the course of daily life.

Last summer, I spoke at an organization in California that had multiple buildings spread across their campus. One woman whose office moved to the opposite side of the campus from many of her team mates reported that she was now getting so much activity that some stiffness/ pain issues were clearing up (it was also hard to avoid being late to meetings, but that was a different matter).

Even a brisk walk seldom requires redoing hair and make-up. You could stop by the bathroom for 2 minutes after to look in the mirror and make sure nothing has gone terribly wrong.

Quickly touch up lipstick and you’re good to go.

If you have a little more time, and somewhere you can clean up a bit afterwards, then more options for sweatier activities open up. You might not actually need more break time overall. If your boss is generally flexible, or your schedule is, and you have been taking 30 minutes for lunch, maybe you could take 50 minutes on three days and work through lunch the other two days (you and a colleague could agree to cover for each other if that’s required in your job). Or you could take a 45-60 minute break during the day a few days per week but agree to come to work a little earlier or stay later on those days.

A 45-minute lunch break would be enough time to change (5-10 minutes),

When you come back from an office workout and actually have the energy to focus all afternoon, you can get a lot done.

run for 25 minutes, and then spend 1015 minutes making yourself presentable.

This could involve a 3-minute shower (with shower cap) if you felt it necessary, 3 minutes getting dressed, with the remainder of the time spent re-powdering and possibly running a hair dryer quickly to fluff everything up, or putting hair in a ponytail or bun.

This might not be a great idea if you’re presenting to the CEO that afternoon, but could work for a normal afternoon twice a week.

(No place to shower? Bring wipes and a little towel and maybe a touchup on deodorant…though personally I think people can be excessively

concerned about this. As long as you get out of your sweaty clothes, you’ll probably be fine.)

If you can take an hour, then you could exercise for 40 minutes (with a 10-minute buffer on either side).

Or you might aim to do an hour-long class at a nearby gym one day a week.

If you take 90 minutes one day, and 15 the other 4 days, that’s 150 minutes, or exactly the same as taking 30 minutes a day 5 days a week. This would also be only one day, then, that you’d be worrying about post-exercise hair and make-up. But add one lunch-time class to one early morning sweat session and two weekend sweat sessions per week,

and you’re exercising more days than you’re not. Which is pretty good as these things go.

So that’s the logistics. Of course, the psychological aspect is more complicated. I have definitely heard from people about office grumbling: how come she has time to exercise?

Short walk breaks usually don’t inspire the same grumbling, so if you’re in that kind of office, that might be the way to go. But you could also choose to be a pioneer. When you come back from an office workout and actually have the energy to focus all afternoon, you can get a lot done. Hopefully, results speak for themselves.

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THE 5 BIG CAUSES OF BURN-OUT PATRICK LENCIONI

Over the past 30 years, I’ve watched plenty of friends, colleagues and clients get burned out at work, and I’ve experienced my own share of it. I’ve recently come to the conclusion that there are different reasons for burning out, and that someone’s personality and worldview probably influence what their reasons are. More important, I can’t help but think that if we understand what is driving our potential burn-out, we might have a better chance of addressing it.

Here are the five reasons, as I see them.

1. THE “WORK IS MY IDENTITY” MENTALITY Some people launch themselves into burn-

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out because they define themselves based on the work they do. Their jobs are their personas, and so it only makes sense that they fill their lives with as much of it as possible. People in high-profile positions in business find themselves constantly traveling and working weekends—even unexcited to go home at the end of a day, because work is where they feel most valued and capable. These people often complain about working so hard, but in reality, they take on more because they aren’t sure what else they would do.

2. THE “IN-THE-MOMENT PLEASER” MENTALITY Some people just can’t say ‘no,’ or more accurately, love the feeling of saying

‘yes.’ They want the person standing in front of them to thank them for agreeing to do whatever is being asked of them, and they are extremely reluctant to disappoint in the moment. These people are not necessarily hyper-responsible or guilt-ridden; once they’ve agreed to do something and received the immediate reward, they often regret having been so amenable. It really is a matter of wanting to enjoy the immediate gratitude of pleasing someone by saying ‘yes.’

3. THE “HELPER” MENTALITY Some people say ‘yes’ not because of the desire to please someone in the moment, but because they really feel compelled to help others over the longer term.

if we understand what is driving our potential burn-out, we might have a better chance of addressing it.

These are the classic pleasers, and there is a saintly quality to them. However, sometimes they are simply incapable of disappointing others, even when disappointment is necessary, or even beneficial. Like the “in-the-moment pleaser,” the “helper” needs to better understand their internal psychological economics and get better at calculating the true costs and benefits of saying ‘yes.’

4. THE “ESCAPIST” MENTALITY Other people burn out because they use work to distract themselves from bigger issues in their lives. They come up with every reason to do more at work, not only to avoid going home but to stay busy enough to prevent themselves

from slowing down to think about the issues that are most important. For these people, weekends and holidays are particularly difficult as it deprives them of their productive distraction.

5. THE “DEPRESSION ERA” MENTALITY Finally, some people take on more and more work because they are afraid that if they say ‘no,’ there may never come another opportunity again. This happens to service providers and consultants who feel compelled to accept every client and every project and squirrel away the revenue for the inevitable, rainy, flood-ridden day. For people with this mentality, the idea of turning away any opportunity raises great anxiety, and the

future possibility of regret.

I suppose there is a sixth type of burn-out—people who have to work to provide for the basic needs of their family.

Working two jobs or two shifts a day is a reality for these people. I didn’t include them here because their challenge is not a function of their mentality, per se, but rather their situation.

Every one of these different causes of burn-out is potentially painful, and all people who are experiencing burnout need compassion, empathy and encouragement to reestablish balance in their lives. However, if we don’t understand the underlying causes, it is difficult to provide the help that people need.

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THE WAY FORWARD FOR FEMALE LEADERS:

CULTIVATING YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF VERONICA DRALEAU

At a point of feeling overwhelmed at work several years ago, I told my husband (only half-jokingly) I was going to leave my career to bag groceries at the store down the street.

I tried convincing him that the hypothetical cut to our income would be more than offset by the reduction in my stress level. He was unconvinced. “I support any decision you make,” he said to me, “but I know you would find the stress in that job as well.”

He was right. I wasn’t trapped in a high-stress job; I was trapped in a high-stress mentality.

Many female leaders share this mentality—striving for success but haunted by other thoughts. I describe this feeling using the question, “Did I leave the stove on?” This thought sparks the mild but persistent anxiety that we should be doing more, or that we are forgetting something important.

Even though many women burn the candle at both ends, it can be very difficult to admit we are struggling.

From a distance, it can seem as if others do not share in this struggle. They appear to make it look easy, seemingly relaxed and comfortable.

I previously tried to ignore this stress and guilt. I threw myself into my work because I believed that being perfect at my job would mean less stress. I assumed that striving for perfection was the least stressful path.

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I gained valuable insight into how misguided this mindset was when I attended the Lee Hecht Harrison Elevating Women in Leadership (EWIL) workshop.

There were so many incredible women in the room who, I knew by reputation, were amazing at their jobs. I recall thinking, “I wonder what they will be able to get out of this workshop; surely they have this all figured out.”

What I learned was that we shared many of the same challenges, assumptions and fears. Hearing others’ stories allowed me to redefine my image of a leader.

Before the EWIL workshop, I did not realize I carried a stereotype of a successful female leader. Trying to measure up to this ideal kept me from fully embracing my own style and was another needless source of stress. Seeing successful female leaders embrace their own authentic styles allowed me to shatter this stereotype and concern.

I think we are slowly developing a different understanding of what “leadership” means. In the past, we believed leaders had to have all of the answers and drive all of the corporate results. How the work got done did not matter, so long as it got done.

Today, it’s all about networking. You don’t need to have all of the answers. In fact, you shouldn’t pretend that you have them all. But you do have to know where to go and

I WASN’T TRAPPED IN A HIGH-STRESS JOB ; I WAS TRAPPED IN A HIGH-STRESS MENTALI TY.

who to connect with to get those answers. That’s what makes a great leader.

There are many different ways that women can demonstrate our unique value as leaders in today’s business world. Work life used to be all about job security. Most people planned to stay with the same company for their entire careers.

Today, people can and will change employers more frequently. That means companies have to work harder to keep their best employees and offer them much more than just job security. They need to provide a place where people want to show up for work day after day after day.

Data tells us people join companies but leave managers.

As women leaders, managing teams is an area of strength.

Women are generally more intuitive and are, in many instances, able to make better, stronger connections with our employees. That builds loyalty.

Recognizing this as a strength, rather than something that didn’t fit my old “leader stereotype”, has given me more freedom to trust my own gut and lead my people in a way that feels authentic to me.

To tap into the knowledge and experience of women, I recommend building your own community of female leaders simply by creating opportunities to share experiences with each other. It could be a group gathering or just finding one

other woman at your company with whom you can speak candidly.

Finding someone you feel comfortable sharing your fears and challenges with is a huge asset that can help you make sense of your own assumptions and find solutions to the roadblocks between you and success.

One of the long-standing struggles I confronted at the EWIL workshop is a problem many women have: broadcasting our successes. Men don’t usually have the same problem. They talk about their successes casually in conversation, over lunch or in the coffee room.

Women, on the other hand, have this assumption that good work will speak for itself and that people will know when you’ve done a good job. Often women are passed over for leadership opportunities simply because they do not promote their own past successes and future ambitions as well as men do. Instead, we are more likely to invest the time advocating for our colleagues.

We all need to appreciate the differences in leadership, not just between men and women, but across the board. By being honest with ourselves and embracing our style, we can alleviate some of the unnecessary pressure we face and tap into the power of authenticity.

In other words, we’ll have one less “stove left on” in our lives.

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Are You Ready for What’s Next?

Today, many companies are transforming their businesses.

But will they succeed? At Lee Hecht Harrison Knightsbridge we can help your business thrive in an everchanging world. Our solutions help organizations bridge the gap between strategy and implementation, achieve individual commitment aligned to organizational objectives and quickly change the mindset and capabilities of your workforce.

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European Innovation Academy Falling Walls Lab - Calgary

EMPOWERING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS GILLIAN RILEY , the force behind The Scotiabank Women InitiativeTM, is helping move the dial for female entrepreneurs.

Gillian Riley, President & CEO of Tangerine, is on a mission to help strengthen the opportunities and support available to women-led businesses in Canada.

While these enterprises represent over $117 billion in economic activity and employ over 1.5 million Canadians, they only receive 4% of venture capital dollars in Canada, and receive a disproportionately low percentage of debt funding. Research has shown that the challenges women business leaders face are partly due to unconscious bias: social stereotypes about certain groups that individuals form outside of their conscious awareness.

That’s something Riley wants to address through The Scotiabank Women Initiative™, which launched in December 2018. Over her nearly 25-year career at Scotiabank, Riley and her teams

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have helped many entrepreneurs start or build their businesses. Now, through The Scotiabank Women Initiative, Riley is leading a push to address unconscious

bias and close the support gap through a comprehensive program of financing, mentorship, and education for women business owners and leaders.

A FRESH SOLUTION THIS IS ALL ABOUT HELPING WOMEN GROW THEIR BUSINESSES. WE’RE HELPING TO GIVE THEM SUPPORT AND KNOWLEDGE TO SUCCEED. – GILLIAN RILEY

To get The Scotiabank Women Initiative™ off the ground, Riley had to demonstrate the importance of the program to a wide range of stakeholders.

“We did a lot of work over nine months to ensure The Scotiabank Women Initiative™ is relevant to women business leaders and will be effective in helping them succeed,” says Riley. “The program is informed by academics, business leaders, and our own executives and front-line teams. It’s so important that we don’t just pay lip service to this issue – we have to make a difference.”

The Scotiabank Women Initiative has three core pillars:

THE SCOTIABANK WOMEN INITIATIVE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO LEAVE A LASTING MARK, AND MAKE SCOTIABANK THE LENDER OF CHOICE FOR WOMEN-LED BUSINESSES ACROSS CANADA.

ACCESS TO CAPITAL Scotiabank is empowering its sales force to deploy capital to support the growth of women-led businesses--from small businesses to mid-market enterprises.

The Scotiabank Women Initiative™ helps ensure equal access to a full suite of financing solutions through a dedicated team of credit adjudicators trained in mitigating unconscious bias.

All women business owners/leaders deserve to leverage a financial partner to help support their growth.

MENTORSHIP An Advisory Board made up of women and men with deep experience in financial services has been created to help women grow their business through facilitated small groups and one-on-one mentorship sessions. These sessions will address real, topical business challenges and complex business situations.

EDUCATION In cross-Canada Un-Mentorship Boot Camps™, Scotiabank will hold a series of sessions that will explore businessfocused issues like finance, business planning, and buying or selling a business. The sessions will be led by successful women leaders, Advisory Board members, and Scotiabank executives.

As well, Scotiabank is partnering with Disruption Ventures, Canada’s first private female-founded venture capital fund for women entrepreneurs.

Through this partnership, Scotiabank has committed funds to Disruption Ventures and will assist with deal flow, marketing initiatives and educational content to support women entrepreneurs. “Funding female entrepreneurs is what drives tangible change,” says Riley. “Our partnership with Disruption Ventures is another way for us to expand access to capital and deliver on our promise.”

WHAT’S NEXT What drives Riley is the fact that there are entrepreneurs and women business leaders who could really benefit from The Scotiabank Women Initiative.

More established business owners are cheering her on. Years ago, Helen Milic, RMT and her business partner were flat-out refused a loan by a financial institution to establish their clinic.

Today, Milic is co-owner of Bayview Sheppard RMT in Toronto, and sees a lot of positive in The Scotiabank Women Initiative. “We have grown every year as a business and as entrepreneurs, and we had to do it the hard way,” she says.

“Thank you Scotiabank for offering this opportunity for women. We wish our fellow entrepreneurs much success!”

The success of The Scotiabank Women Initiative is also deeply personal to Riley. She knows how profoundly unconscious bias can affect a woman business leader – and she is invested in seeing the program soar. The Scotiabank Women Initiative has the potential to leave a lasting mark, and make Scotiabank the lender of choice for women-led businesses across Canada.

“I brought my parents to the launch event for The Scotiabank Women Initiative™ because I wanted them to see what’s possible when a bank makes a choice to do something better,” says Riley. “As we grow and learn, we’ll look at opportunities to expand the program into other areas of business and other countries. There’s just so much potential here – and I’m thrilled we’ve started on this journey – this will make a difference for entrepreneurs for Canada.”

If you are a women-led business, we welcome you to learn more about the program at scotiabankwomeninitiative.com Participation in The Scotiabank Women Initiative TM or any programrelated events does not constitute advice or an offer or commitment by Scotiabank to provide any financial products or services. ™ Trademarks of The Bank of Nova Scotia, used under licence.

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THE VIEW FROM THE TOP (OF THE HAMSTER WHEEL) LAURA GASSNER OTTING

Imagine this scenario.

You’ve done all the right things. You’ve found the fastest, most expedient way to the top. You fought and hustled and strived and leaned in to the idea of success that you were told you’d want, that you thought you’d want.

You went to the right school. You got the right internship. You took the right job. You made it.

And, yet, despite seeing all the checkboxes filled in along the path, you wonder, “Why do I still feel as though something is missing?”

THE TROUBLE WITH LEANING IN Books like Lean In, which took the professional world by storm in 2013, encourage us to follow one particular path: claw our way to the spotlight, wrangle the fast track, demand the big shot. This advice champions the path of assertiveness, of boldness, of driving to the top of the organizational chart with as much speed and determination as we can muster.

It encourages us to put ourselves smack-dab in the center of the deal flow.

But, five years later, even Sheryl Sandberg’s own research has found that despite all this leaning in, not that much has changed in terms of equalizing pay or even

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securing offices for women in the C-suite.

But this unflinching, myopic, one-sizefits-all approach limits us—women and men both. When we measure our progress by how fast and how high we climb. We are limited by the imaginations and burdens of others. We are limited by their opinions about who we are and where we belong. We are so limited by checking off the boxes of other people’s versions of success that we forget to determine our own. And in these limits, we lose ourselves.

The problem isn’t how we pursue success, it’s how we define it.

FINDING SUCCESS THROUGH CONSONANCE I know this from the thousands of leaders from the corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors whom I’ve interviewed during my twenty year career in executive search. And I know it from my own career, founding, running, and eventually selling my executive search firm to the team members who helped me build it. Leaning in and other such approaches to this all-encompassing, Machiavellian pursuit of professional success worked for me—until they didn’t.

I’d had that type of success, and now I wanted something else entirely. I needed to get off of the hamster wheel of go-go-go and get onto the pursuit of purpose, of meaning, and of consequence.

I needed my work to matter.

Over the course of my career, found that in order for your working life to feel right for you, it has to actually be right for you.

And in order to do that, you will have to align your work and your personal self. In order to become limitless, you must achieve consonance.

Simply defined, consonance is when what you do matches who you are (or want to be). You achieve consonance when your work has purpose and meaning for you. This meaning might be professional, societal, or personal. It might be actual (some concrete, immediate change in your life) or aspirational (a subtle shift in your intentions). Consonance is easy to recognize, but it takes intention to achieve. Realizing it is missing is often easier than figuring out how to get it.

Each time I interviewed a candidate who was successful, but not happy, I saw the same damage caused by a lack of consonance, by the disconnect between purpose, action, and that external view of success. And here’s why: we can’t be insatiably hungry for someone else’s goal, for someone else’s idea of success. Eventually, checking off the boxes for the sake of checking off the boxes comes back to haunt us.

I have come to understand that true

success comes from a combination of four particular elements that allow individuals to carve their own path, do their best work, and live their best lives. Each of us will value these elements differently, at different ages and different life stages. (And to take an assessment to determine how much you want and have of each of them, please visit www.LimitlessAssessment.com/theartof • CALLING is a gravitational pull towards a goal larger than yourself—a business you want to build, a leader who inspires you, a societal ill you wish to remedy, a cause you wish to serve. ● • CONNECTION gives you sightlines into how your everyday work serves that calling by solving the problem at hand, growing the company’s bottom line, or reaching that goal. ● • CONTRIBUTION is an understanding of how this job, this brand, this paycheck contributes to the community you want to belong, the person you want to be, or the lifestyle you’d like to live. ● • CONTROL reflects how you are able to influence your connection to that calling in order to have some say in the assignment of projects, deadlines, colleagues, and clients; offer input into shared goals; and do work that contributes to your career trajectory and earnings.

Put simply: until we are able to control how our connection and our contribution influence and are influenced by our calling, we will continue to be limited in the confidence we have in the choices we make and the chances we take. Understanding how these elements align for you, personally and professionally, will allow you to determine whether you need to change your career, change your workplace, or change yourself in order to become limitless.

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WORKING SMART Defined by a study of over 5,000 managers and employees MORTEN HANSEN

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By working on a few key collaboration initiatives, the upshot is that you can do them exceptionally well.

The phrase “work smarter, not harder” has been thrown around so much that it has become a cliché. I mean, who wants to “work dumb”? Unfortunately, from time to time, many people, including myself, do just that. It’s not because we want to work dumb; it’s because we don’t know exactly how to work smart.

When I first searched for advice on how to work smarter, I arrived at a picture that was incoherent and overwhelming. Prioritize. Delegate.

Keep a calendar. Avoid distractions.

Set clear goals. Execute better. Influence people. Inspire. Manage up. Manage down. Network. Tap into your passion.

The list went on and on and included over 100 pieces of advice. You could say I was dumbstruck.

I decided to bring more rigor and clarity to the notion of working smarter, so I studied 5,000 people to find out what top performers do differently than the rest of us. What I learned surprised me a great deal because most of them went against conventional wisdom.

Working smart requires selectivity.

Whenever they could, top performers carefully selected which priorities, tasks, collaborations, team meetings, committees, analyses, customers, new ideas, steps in a process, and interactions to undertake, and which to neglect or reject.

On its own, this discovery isn’t groundbreaking—we’ve all heard that “less is more.” But the very best performers also redesigned their work to focus on activities that add the most value. Instead of simply reducing their workload, they eliminated busywork and applied intense, targeted efforts to

their selected work activities.

Based on these findings I created this definition: To work smart means to maximize the value of work by selecting a few activities and applying intense targeted effort.

Working smart requires answering some tough questions in your job: what are the key activities that I can undertake that maximize value? What does “value” mean in my job? (I devote an entire chapter to this question in my newest book.) What must I say “no” to in order to do this? And what does it mean to go all in and do exceptional work in my job?

Wo r k i n g s m a r t a l s o m e a n s questioning the latest workplace trends.

For example, many people currently believe that collaboration is necessarily good and that more is better. Experts advise us to tear down “silos” in organizations, collaborate more, build large professional networks, and use lots of high-tech communication tools to get work done.

Well, my research shows that convention to be dead wrong. Top performers collaborate less. They carefully select which projects and tasks to join and which to flee based on value. And they channel a huge degree of effort and resources to excel in the few chosen ones.

By working on a few key collaboration initiatives, the upshot is that you can do them exceptionally well. Working smart means finding the few activities that matter the most and going all in on those to create the best possible results. You get the greatest outcome for every hour worked, and it doesn’t get much smarter than that.

Formerly a professor at Harvard Business School and INSEAD (France), professor Hansen holds a PhD from Stanford Business School, where he was a Fulbright scholar. His academic research has won several prestigious awards, and he is ranked one of the world’s most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50. Morten Hansen was also a manager at the Boston Consulting Group, where he advised corporate clients worldwide.

The Brain Rewards You, Even When You Are Wrong. This Is Bad for Innovation (and Life) STEPHEN SHAPIRO The brain loves to be correct, so even when you are wrong, you get a “rush” that can increase innovation failure rates….

“Well, now we know what not to do.”

In a previous article, I wrote about why “wow this is a great idea” can lead to higher failure rates of your innovation efforts. This results in wasted time, money, and effort that could be invested in more valuable solutions.

We now have scientific evidence as to why this is true.

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According to a recent study, “When updating beliefs about their future prospects, people tend to disregard bad news.” This has traditionally been called Confirmation Bias.

According to researcher Bojana Kuzmanovic, “In complex, confusing situations, we run the risk of making a

biased judgment as soon as we prefer one conclusion over another.”

The study goes on to indicate that these judgments are not influenced by new information that contradicts the original conclusion. In other words, we ignore information that is not aligned with our beliefs. Why?

THE BRAIN REWARDS BEING CORRECT, EVEN WHEN IT’S WRONG

WHEN MAKING IMPORTANT

Any time we hear information that supports our beliefs, the brain activates a region of the brain that is associated with other rewards such as food or money. Given this, we look for information that supports our desires, because we receive a reinforcing boost.

Even when you are wrong, the brain find a way to say, “Hey, you were right about this decision. Congratulations!”

Interestingly, the study also concluded that, “The influence of preferences is independent of expertise.

We can benefit from this pleasant self-strengthening effect as long as our judgments do not have serious consequences.”

This implies that even when you have little experience, your confidence levels might be overly inflated.

(NOTE: Sometimes a lack of expertise can sometimes help innovation as I discussed in this earlier article).

The study concludes, “When making important decisions, we should be aware of our tendency to distort judgment and apply strategies to increase objectivity.”

This is great advice.

Simply being aware of these biases is a good first step, as is supported by another research study.

OF OUR TENDENCY TO DISTORT

IN OTHER WORDS, WE IGNORE INFORMATION THAT IS NOT ALIGNED WITH OUR BELIEFS. WHY?

DECISIONS, WE SHOULD BE AWARE JUDGMENT AND APPLY STRATEGIES TO INCREASE OBJECTIVITY. AWARENESS IS THE FIRST STEP Researchers gave trained U.S. Army intelligence analysts a battlefield scenario. After forming an initial hypothesis, the analysts were given updated intelligence reports. Even though these reports contained significant evidence that disproved their beliefs, the analysts held on to their initial hypotheses and in fact increased their confidence levels.

Researchers ran the test again with the same participants, but before doing so they showed participants how confirmation bias negatively impacted their decision making the first time around. During the second trial, the participants were given visual reminders designed to help foster their awareness of alternative hypotheses.

The result? There was a “lower level of confidence, greater consideration of alternative enemy courses of action, and more willingness to reverse early decisions based on new evidence.” In fact, during the second trial, 50 percent of the participating teams changed their hypothesis at least once during the exercise.

Therefore, be sure to remind yourself and others that we all have these tendencies.

DROP YOUR EGO AND WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE OPPOSITE BELIEFS Another good step is to partner with people who have a bias that is opposite yours. Someone who thinks your idea is not good as it is currently proposed.

Of course, in order for this to work, both of you need to be open to the other’s perspective.

Egos and arrogance can kill innovation. A willingness to be wrong is critical for reducing failure rates.

The brain loves to be correct. It will therefore give you the equivalent of an adrenalin rush, even when you are wrong.

By acknowledging this, and taking corrective measures, you can reduce your failure rates and ultimately develop better solutions. This apply not just to business, but to all areas of your life.

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DELL EMC’S KEVIN CONNOLLY ON HOW TRUST AND CULTURE CAN MAKE OR BREAK SMALL BUSINESSES BELINDA ALZNER

In his notes to prepare for this interview, Kevin Connolly says he has the word “people” written everywhere. The President of Dell EMC Canada Commercial believes that building a culture around people and trust leads to exponential growth for an organization. Teams that trust each other will outperform those who don’t. Trust should be developed and fostered by the organization.

Connolly joined Dell EMC over a year ago via the company’s acquisition of EMC, which eventually sent him north to Toronto from his hometown Chicago. I happened to be in Chicago the day of our interview, and spoke to Connolly about his advice for small businesses based on his experience from both sides of the border.

invested as they are, and vice versa.

If a small business can’t set the right culture and inspire employees, then you may start to suffer attrition. You can imagine in a small business if you have people coming in the door and going back out six months later. That is probably the number one struggle I see, maintaining your employee base, keeping them inspired, staying consistent.

Another struggle is that businesses think that the product will sell itself. That’s a problem. It won’t. Some businesses fall into this trap before realizing there’s a lot more to it, like the importance of employee engagement. If you build an inspired and trusting culture that is consistent, you’ll do really, really well.

What are some of the biggest struggles that you see Canadian small business facing in their early days?

Obviously, those early hires are super important.

What can small businesses do to make sure they’re hiring the right person so six months later someone doesn’t walk out the door, as you said?

I’d say the biggest struggles for small companies are in building the culture. When you’re hiring employee number one to employee number 30 there’s the pressure of making sure that hire is right. You’re setting the culture of a small community of people you have and making sure that they’re inspired, and they see that as the business leader you’re as

At Dell EMC, we’re not a small business but we certainly approach it that way. First, I look for referrals. I think for anybody starting to build an organization, a great first step is to get people you trust to recommend you people that they trust.

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I THINK FOR ANYBODY STARTING TO BUILD AN ORGANIZATION, A GREAT FIRST STEP IS TO GET PEOPLE YOU TRUST TO RECOMMEND YOU PEOPLE THAT THEY TRUST.

I would rather hire passionate energetic people and then teach them the business versus perhaps someone who’s been in the industry a long time. There’s certainly value in that, but when you’re getting going and you’re a small business—I’ve heard this a thousand times from small business owners—the amount of work needed to be done is massive and industry expertise isn’t always what’s needed, we need people to roll up their sleeves and get the job done, whatever that may be.

And you’ve got to fail fast, and you’ve got to take risks— calculated risks. Whether it’s risk in hiring, jumping into another vertical market, putting additional money into marketing or trying a new social avenue. Whatever it might be, small businesses can learn through risk and failure.

I think it’s important that when small businesses realize a mistake was made, go ahead, admit that mistake, fail fast, and move on.

As a small business owner, you have to be in the trenches of the day-to-day making sure everything is getting done. How can they also stay focused on those more medium and long-term goals?

What do you think the next big trend in technology is going to be and how will it impact the way that we work?

Success at the beginning begets being able to survive, right?

You need to do a little bit of both.

I learned from people running pretty successful small businesses, that as a business owner you have to enable the people that are running the business. There’s so much to do long-term that getting sucked into the day-to-day isn’t a winning strategy, they’ve got to rely on people that they trust, and they’ve hired. I think that it goes back to the people. You should put someone in charge and empower them.

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I think the future is more about what we’re seeing today, just at hyper-scale. People are going to be mobile, people are going to be working from everywhere. Work will no longer be a place, it will be an activity, and I think devices are going to scale. My view of the world is it’s just going to be continually mobile, continually easier from a sense that everything will be at our fingertips. The winner in the future will be the one consumers find easiest and most productive from an experience perspective. I think that’s the race going on right now.

I think personally that’s why I’m inspired at Dell EMC. We’re

This article first appeared in BetaKit

building unique end-user technology that is making it easier to work on-the-go and to be more productive wherever you are.

Where do you think the future of work is headed?

Data analytics and artificial intelligence—you hear these buzzwords a lot but it’s truly real and it’s what we’re living every day. Data analytics and AI will look at what someone like you is doing in Chicago.

Where are you at and what are you likely to do? And are you going to shop while you’re there? You’re going to have an advanced device and you’re going to have all these companies mining through this type of data and finding ways to make your life easier or offer products, services and experiences all at a hyper-targeted level.

Who do you look to for mentorship?

Everybody should have a mentor, it’s a great learning opportunity. I have a couple of mentors now. These are people that run global and multinational regions of businesses, operating in very complex situations that I think are fascinating. I have so much to learn.

I look for global leaders that must deal with exchange rates and challenges in geopolitical issues and all the complexities that come with that.

I would encourage anybody to go find someone who’s dealing with as much complexity in an organization as you can and pick their brain.

Finally, is there any advice you’d want to give to an entrepreneur or a small business owner who’s just starting out?

The amount of actual work it requires to make the small business successful is something that I’ve often heard from small business owners and frankly, it’s something that seems daunting to hear. They’ve said to make sure you believe in it; make sure your heart is in it. It’s going to be the hardest thing you’ll ever do in your entire career. I’ve heard that time and time again.

If we’re being honest with each other, it’s scared me a couple times. Having worked with enough small businesses and watching some folks going through it, my advice would be, get ready for the tidal wave. It’s an adventure but an exciting and rewarding one.

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THE DIRTY SECRET OF

OVERACHIEVERS How to push past imposter syndrome DR. TASHA EURICH I was recently in Chicago for a keynote. By random chance, the annual conference for my fellow organizational psychology nerds was taking place at a hotel just three blocks away. Heeding the message from the universe, I dropped by and caught up with several colleagues I hadn’t seen in a decade.

One had just snagged a big promotion; one had landed a massive research grant; another had recently published a brilliant book. But during our conversations, each one of these unquestionably successful people said something to the effect of “it’s only a matter of time before everyone realizes I don’t know what I’m doing.”

I was totally floored, and not just because I have similar thoughts on an almost daily basis.

In my team’s research on how we see ourselves, we’ve uncovered two general types of self-awareness deficiencies.

The first is to overestimate our abilities and contributions, which, for obvious reasons, hurts our performance and strains our relationships.

The second, which can be far more insidious, happens when we underestimate ourselves by downplaying our contributions, overlooking objective evidence of our effectiveness, or feeling undeserving of the rewards or accolades we’ve rightly earned.

The phenomenon where successful people don’t internalize their own success has been dubbed “Imposter Syndrome.”

In the 1970s, Oberlin psychology professor Pauline Clance was the first to publish her observations of imposter syndrome in action. Even though her 34

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students had attended the best schools, excelled in standardized testing, and earned exceptional grades, many didn’t feel like they deserved to be attending the prestigious university, reporting, “somehow the admissions committee made an error.”

People with imposter syndrome usually work harder than they objectively need to. They often recognize this pattern but struggle to break it—If I pull back even a little, they worry, I’ll finally be found out. This cycle has real consequences: even though imposters can achieve their goals in spite of their self-perceived inadequacies, they’re more likely to experience depression, psychological distress, and poor mental health.

So who is vulnerable to imposter syndrome? In short, literally everyone.

Initially, it was thought to affect mostly women. Female leaders, for example, tend to under-predict their boss’s ratings of them even though they are seen as slightly more effective (on average) compared to their male counterparts.

But imposter syndrome has since been demonstrated in both men and women across a variety of professions and cultures.

And despite evidence that 70 percent of people will experience at least one episode of imposter syndrome in their lifetime, most suffer in silence.

In that spirit, here are a few reassuring data points. Oscar winner Jodie Foster has worried that “everybody would find out” she wasn’t a good actress and “take the Oscar back.” Maya Angelou admitted that every time she releases a book, she thinks “uh oh, they’re going to find out

[that] I’ve run a game on everybody.”

Even Thomas Jefferson, widely considered one of the most effective presidents in U.S. history, confessed that “more confidence is placed in me than my qualifications merit.”

An important first step, then, is to name and normalize the experience of imposter syndrome. But here’s what I think is the more fundamental problem. Whatever it is we are trying to achieve, when we look at those who are outpacing us, we inevitably have a biased perception of their journey.

It’s rarely evident to us, nor do they typically advertise, how much fighting, flailing, and failing they had to do to get where they are. To us, they look like elegant swans gliding across the water, when in reality, and out of our view, they are furiously paddling beneath the surface.

As writer Iyanla Vanzant so eloquently put it, “comparison is an act of violence against the self.” The root of imposter syndrome may therefore be comparing ourselves to others without a full picture of what they had to do to get there.

The next time you see someone who appears to be effortlessly succeeding while you’re fighting to keep your head above water, remember that even those who are miles ahead of us face their own stressors, struggles, and self-doubts.

Success is not easy for anyone, and it is almost always hard earned. The more we remember that, and the less we compare ourselves to others we feel are outpacing us, the more we can celebrate and appreciate just how far we’ve come, and how far we have yet to travel.

And despite evidence that 70 percent of people will experience at least one episode of imposter syndrome in their lifetime, most suffer in silence.

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HAPPINESS IS A DAILY CHOICE KATE ROSS LEBLANC My fascination with happiness began at a four-way stop in Toronto.

I was on my way to work, ruminating on how unhappy I was at my job.

As I pulled up to the intersection, I noticed the faces of the other drivers and pedestrians around me. It was a common scene: all of us wearing different variations of the same miserable mask, headed to jobs we hated, bracing ourselves to repeat this same unfulfilling experience day after 36

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day until retirement.

This particular moment ignited the researcher in me. I decided that I wanted to answer the question: “am I as happy as I could be?� I then started to spend my free time learning everything I could about happiness and imagining the career that would light me up, not weigh me down. I quickly recognized that my idea of

happiness was tied to my desire of achieving or obtaining something. I noticed this in others too. It was this assumption that happiness would come through a promotion at work, a new car, or a move to a new city.

When we define happiness as a result of outside circumstances, we will never truly feel it. Deep down I knew that true happiness came from within.

BECOME RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF. Deepak Chopra, has said “Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.” It’s easy to fall into the habit of thinking our happiness is controlled by something outside of ourselves, rather than realizing: “I can change how I think about that. I can take responsibility for how I respond to this person.”

Once I realized I could step out of victim-mode and choose how I wanted to feel, I was able to rework my patterns of thinking and behavior. It is within your power to better your situation and shift your mind from what is being done to you, to what you can do for yourself; it all starts with the thoughts you focus on.

LET GO OF COMPARISONS— HAPPINESS IS AN INSIDE JOB. I often share this quote: “Don’t compare the outside of other people’s lives to the inside of your own.”

Especially in this digital age, we spend so much time judging ourselves and comparing our inner struggles to someone else’s highlight reel. You know your own doubts and limitations and it’s easy to look at other people’s lives and believe that they don’t have any – but of course, this isn’t true.

The process of turning inward and accepting ourselves, our real struggles– the things that make us human—takes daily practice. It isn’t always easy, but it’s real. Once we accept that everyone has their own struggle, we can have greater self-acceptance and compassion for ourselves and our own journey.

LIVE YOUR TRUTH AND LET YOURSELF SHOW UP AS YOU REALLY ARE. Living your most fulfilled life means being true to yourself and allowing yourself to be seen – vulnerability and

all. Often, this requires letting go of what others have told us about ourselves. If you’re one of those people, like I was, it will mean having the courage to press pause and shut out the external messages to discover who you truly are.

Getting honest with yourself is the first step to living your best life. This is easier said than done, because it means sharing your authentic self (and work) with the world.

If we never get comfortable with being uncomfortable, it becomes impossible to grow and step into our potential.

INVEST IN DAILY RITUALS THAT HELP YOU MAINTAIN CONSISTENT LEVELS OF HAPPINESS. Our level of happiness is based on how steadily the state of happiness occurs in our lives, as opposed to how many happiness ‘peaks’ we experience. When you’re working towards a big goal, it can be an incredible rush when you succeed, and you’ll probably experience a happiness ‘peak’. However, when the moment is gone, so is the peak of happiness, and you can end up feeling let down.

Rather than putting all of our energy on milestones or possessions that we think will make us happy, we can choose to invest in daily, regular commitments to ourselves, our loved ones and our goals. Not only will this help level-set after trauma or success, it will help us maintain consistent happiness throughout our lives.

Whether it’s getting more rest, connecting with nature, meditating, spending time with people you care about or just treating yourself, do what makes you feel well every day.

Something that I know helps me is practicing gratitude. Whether it’s for yourself or for other people, gratitude connects us to the abundance we already have.

It took me awhile to come to a place of acceptance and responsibility, but I’m so grateful that I have. Every area of my life has benefitted by playing the long game and focussing on maintaining consistent happiness and not chasing the next peak. I know that these practices will help me to stay true to

Rather than putting all of our energy on milestones or possessions that we think will make us happy, we can choose to invest in daily, regular commitments to ourselves, our loved ones and our goals.

my values, no matter what, and live a life well lived. This is what happiness is to me.

Vulnerability, taking responsibility for your own life and being mindful are the qualities that will support us all in living our best life — and when we live our best life, happiness will be quick to follow.

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TIMELESS LEADERSHIP WISDOM WE ALL NEED TO FORGET CHESTER ELTON AND ADRIAN GOSTICK A sales leader asked us last week if we had found anything in our research that contradicts long-held wisdom about leadership? Yes, we said, there have been ahas in our work that should change the way we all think about the science of leading others. For instance,

MYTH 1 YOU SHOULD TREAT EVERYONE EQUALLY. Conventional wisdom has been that you should treat all members of your team the same because that assures fair management. With all due respect: Bwahaha! That is old school thinking, and it prevents leaders from optimizing the allocation of responsibilities among team members according to their particular motivations and abilities. Career

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development, for instance, is going to be very different for an employee who wants to climb the corporate ladder versus one who simply wants to do a good job and go home at five. Both employees are important to your team and, trust us, both want to be developed—career development has replaced pay as the number one reason people leave an organization—but each needs to be developed in very different ways. This process doesn’t have to take a huge bite out of a manager’s time. Many team

leaders use something we call job sculpting—having frequent, brief aspirational conversations with each of their people to review progress on development goals and career growth.

MYTH 2 MONEY IS NOT A MOTIVATOR. Says who? Yes, we’ve read the research around this subject—often conducted with college students incented or not incented to do a specific task. It’s fun reading but should never influence how a real manager runs a real team. Have you ever worked in sales, or ever known anyone who has? Is money important to people who are commission-based?

You’d better believe it. Have you ever been underpaid in a job? Did you stay long in that job? What our research on money shows is twofold: First, money is actually a very strong motivator for about 10 percent of the human population. Admittedly, that’s not a huge percentage, but for those people money is a very big driver and there’s a chance you have someone on your team who fits that bill. And the good news: You know exactly how to get those people to focus on their goals. Second, money for the majority of the rest of us may not be a strong motivator, but it’s still a satisfier—meaning if we don’t make enough to pay the rent, feed our families, or feel commensurately rewarded for our contributions, then we either won’t stay long or will stay and be dissatisfied in our work.

But once most of us cross a threshold with money (and are making enough to meet our core needs), then other factors become much more important in motivating us day-to-day.

MYTH 3 AUTONOMY IS A CORE MOTIVATOR. One of the most striking findings from our research is that while autonomy is one of the strongest motivators for Boomers and Gen X workers, it ranks near the bottom for Millennials and Gen Z. As one young worker told us in an interview, “Why would I want to work autonomously? That’s terrifying.”

Our research shows that most younger workers want much more coaching and mentoring from their managers than previous generations, and the majority value working in a team versus working on their own work. That, alone, should be changing the way we think about leading our teams.

MYTH 4 INTRINSIC MOTIVATION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EXTRINSIC. Psychologists such as Frederick Herzberg and Edward Deci explained that extrinsic motivation

can actually have a negative influence on knowledge workers and productive people are almost exclusively intrinsically motivated. Our latest research shows individual motivation is much more complicated and understanding how varied we all are is crucial to figuring out why one particular person might be unhappy or not as engaged as he could be at work. In two decades of diving deep into the subjects of employee engagement and team performance with Fortune 500 clients, we’ve found that even employees who are intrinsically driven can be very unhappy. For instance, we’ve been asked to work with a bevy of health care firms that have high turnover and strong disenchantment in staff and

...individual motivation is much more complicated, and understanding how varied we all are is crucial to figuring out why one particular person might be unhappy or not as engaged...

clinical areas. And often physicians are those with the greatest discontent (certainly a group that, as a whole, are intrinsically driven). Why are so many of them miserable? Their number one complaint by a country mile: Compensation. It seems intrinsic motivation is not the whole story, and extrinsic motivation isn’t all bad. Now, with that said about our doctor friends, one key failing in many previous studies is that they mistakenly suppose the only extrinsic motivator leaders use is monetary rewards, ignoring the positive effects of praise, promotion, leadership attention, the admiration of peers, and so on. We personally have been told by hundreds of employees around the world some variation of what a young professional woman told us recently: “Two years ago my CEO sent me an awesome thank you note. When things get tough I pull that note out and read it. It still reenergizes me.” We have found intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are not diametrically opposed, they are not good and evil.

To feel the most highly motivated, most employees must have some of both—in a balance that is most motivating to them.

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THE 3-STEP DANCE BEHIND THE HONEST COMPANY’S SHOWSTOPPER GROWTH PERFORMANCE TIFFANI BOVA

It’s not just the strategy – nor even the execution – that produces business growth. It is also the choreography— or in other words plotting a series of powerful and unusual growth strategies—and then executing them in the right order.

Consider Jessica Alba’s The Honest Company. The online retailer began with just 17 environmentally friendly household cleaning products. Yet just five years later, The Honest Company had a market valuation of more than $1 billion and hinted at its first public sale of stock. How had it managed the kind of success and explosive growth traditionally associated only with high tech companies?

The Honest Company achieved it with dance: not just one strategic move

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but a breathtaking series of moves in a very short time, and executed in the right sequence so that the company never lost its all-critical momentum.

Every dance needs struct ured choreography. The choreographer needs to plan where on the stage the dance should move, the choice of workable steps, and then the order in which those steps get executed.

At The Honest Company, Alba is the movie star spokesperson and co-founder Brian Lee and CEO Nick Vlahos are the choreographers who are directing every move the company makes i n response to one rapid shift after another with a definitive st r uct u re. T he Honest Compa ny mastered this structure with three formal elements:

1. CONTEXT – The current social and economic conditions, existing product portfolio, competitive landscape, and corporate culture.

2. COMBINATION – The act of selecting key actions that can positively influence actions when done together.

3. SEQUENCE – The act of establishing a priority, order and timing to those actions.

For her context, Alba, in dealing with her own family’s needs, had in fact identified an emerging – and huge -- new market.

Consumer attitudes were changing everywhere in the world regarding the purity of household products. The big consumer companies were beginning

The Honest Company achieved it with dance: not just one strategic move but a breathtaking series of moves in a very short time.

to notice – but only a start-up like The Honest Company was willing to risk going all the way in and committing the company wholly to natural products. A timely move considering that a recent report by market watcher The Nielsen Company found that “Forty-two percent of global respondents say they’re willing to pay a premium for products made with organic or all-natural ingredients.”

How big of a global market? $60 billion is the most recent estimate. That’s a lot of undeveloped demand. Alba didn’t just launch a strategy but selected the right one by understanding the marketplace first.

For her combination, The Honest Company made a breathtaking series of moves instead of just one—all in only half a decade. With its initial focus

on diapers, infant formulas and baby cleaning products it quickly expanded its sales to its initial group of prosperous and demanding mothers (customer base penetration). Then it added a subscription program for diapers and wipes (product expansion). Meanwhile, it took the unlikely path of selling its products solely on-line and making major donations to charities from Day One (unconventional strategies).

Then it reversed direction and added off-line retailing through CVS, Whole Foods and other chains (customer base penetration). It moved into women’s beauty products (more customer base penetration). And finally, began to sell to rest of the world (market acceleration).

And last but not least, The Honest Company mastered sequence. They

executed this series of powerful and unusual growth strategies in the right order.

Any company can master the dance that led The Honest Company to deliver showstopper growth performance. If you execute these three moves (context, combination, and sequence) properly in support of the right growth path, they harmonize to execute an intricate dance that can lead to considerable success that can last for years. Then, as your revenues and profits begun to level out, you choose a new, congruent growth path and apply the proper context, combination and sequence again. In this way you can join those few great companies that have navigated from path to path over generations of profitability and always have a next act.

TIFFANI BOVA is the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce and author of Growth IQ: Get Smarter About The Choices That Will Make Or Break Your Business (August 14, 2018; Portfolio). Previously, she was VP, Distinguished Analyst and Research Fellow with Gartner 43

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WHERE DO GREAT IDEAS COME FROM? Examining the Design Thinking behind Fitbit JULES PIERI

Excerpted from How We Make Stuff Now: Turn Ideas into Products That Build Successful Businesses by Jules Pieri, p. 13-17 (McGraw-Hill Education April 23, 2019)

No company or client wants to produce products for yesterday, or even today. They want “Wayne Gretzky” outcomes—products that fulfill where the demand is going. Great product ideas often exhibit an uncanny prescience for solving a problem, like the “I just want to make a single cup of coffee” solution provided by Nespresso. Other times new products simply add joy and beauty to a routine activity, just as Method did when it gave pump soap a contemporary makeover.

And sometimes, breakthrough products create brand-new behavior the way Fitbit did when it made it a social norm to count steps.

So how are these ideas born? How do people who are not professional designers get started?

During my years working at Playskool, a trial attorney friend told me he could never do my job, saying, “Sitting down to face a blank screen or piece of paper every day would scare the crap out of me. How do you make something from nothing? Where do you get your ideas?”

He envisioned my workday as a mysterious process of actively seeking stop-in-your-tracks lightning bolt inspirations. I told him I could never imagine succeeding in his job, which I simplified down to “getting paid to argue in front of strangers all day.” I told my friend that when you are employed to generate good ideas, you develop a definitive and predictable process for being creative. Today people call that process “design thinking.”

I will save you the trouble of researching design thinking as an abstract concept and boil it down to its basic process: 45

1. IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITY What is the business or customer area that needs attention? In the case of Fitbit, the founders James Park and Eric Friedman saw an opportunity to help people improve their fitness with newfound access to individualized performance data. This breakthrough was made possible because of the advent of new cost-effective miniaturized sensors.

2. SETTING GOALS AND CONSTRAINTS Setting goals for a new product is an iterative process as the entrepreneur learns more via research. But a product like Fitbit could start with a list such as: “This solution must cost less than $100. It has to be convenient to carry at all times. It must be water resistant.

It must not interfere with normal daily activities.”

3. RESEARCH Research involves studying the three Cs: customers, competition, and (internal) capabilities. For Fitbit, the potential

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customer need was fairly vast: people who want to set and meet fitness goals.

Investigation at the time of Fitbit’s founding in 2007 would have yielded very little relevant competition, as existing solutions were cumbersome and required a customer to manually stitch together data from devices such as a pedometer, heartrate monitor, or calorie counter. Beyond technology advances, the founders could easily see that people were increasingly drawn to online communities and the gamification of ordinary activities—a big trend to draft off.

4. IDEATION This involves conceiving and quickly visualizing various concepts (you often see a ream of exciting raw sketches highlighted in the visual history of a product). Some founders draw their own concepts, while others engage a designer at this stage, but fancy renderings are not advised at such an early step. The original Fitbit was a thumb- sized clip, but it is likely that all manner of devices were conceived—ranging from necklaces, bracelets, credit card-sized devices to fit in a wallet, shoe inserts, and the like. Even if many of these ideas were not technically or economically feasible,

the goal during ideation is to cast as wide a net as possible.

5. ROUGH PROTOTYPING AND FEEDBACK Rapidly prototyping concepts to get customer feedback comes next.

Early stage prototyping for a device like the Fitbit could be as simple as a nonfunctional foam version of a clip presented alongside a static set of graphic screenshots to show the type of data the device could collect. Early prototypes help express the idea to a potential user without needing to be fully functional. Fitbit would have been looking for feedback on core interest in these new capabilities, as much as for feedback on form and function

6. ADVANCED PROTOTYPES The entrepreneur repeats the last two steps enough times to commit to testable prototypes that help her lock down on a single idea. Advanced prototypes usually look like the real deal, even if they are not fully functional. But the more functional, the better.

IT’S A RIGOROUS AND DISCIPLINED PROCESS YOU CAN DO RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FLUORESCENT-LIT OFFICE, OR IN YOUR KITCHEN, OR AT A COFFEE SHOP. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.

There is nothing in that process that requires long walks on the beach, consuming hallucinogenics, or locking yourself in a dim room with Mozart playing. It’s a rigorous and disciplined process you can do right in the middle of a fluorescent-lit office, or in your kitchen, or at a coffee shop. Anytime, anywhere.

There are two deep secrets to this process. Success lies not just in a designer ’s ability to generate concepts.

First, great ideas are entirely hostage to the information and stimulation the designer (or aspiring Maker) gathers to provoke their gestation. In other words, it’s all about the goals and research. You can think of this almost like cooking. The better the ingredients, the better the food. Ideas need to be fueled by great inputs.

For example, I was part of a consulting firm team that engineered the famous Reebok Pump shoe, which allowed a user to inflate an internal chamber for cushioning and support purposes.

After its wild success we were subsequently engaged to propose ideas for shoes that could help a person jump higher. The research project included a huge range of athlete interviews and observations and then exploration of

springy or reactive materials, mechanical systems, and natural systems. It even included the study of what enables the best rebounders on Earth— fleas—to jump 100 times their body height. (That would be like a person jumping over the Eiffel Tower.) Only after that wide-ranging exploration did our engineer, Eric Cohen, sit down and start sketching ideas.

The second critical building block to generating successful ideas actually precedes the research described above.

As Eric explains it: “The first step is to define the problem you’re trying to solve very clearly. The Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen calls this ‘the job to be done.’

This clarity then narrows down the field of possible solutions and brainstorming activities. If you just start brainstorming, you lack context for deciding which concepts are best. If you can clearly articulate the problem, often the solutions seem to magically appear and become obvious. But getting to that point of clarity is the real challenge.”

In the case of step one, “identifying opportunity,” Grommet Makers do not approach this step like an established business would. Why? Because they don’t have an actual business just

yet. They aren’t noticing sales slipping, doing heavy R&D that yields opportunity, or responding to competitive threats. They are just going about their lives. As such, they tend to stumble into either (1) a problem that vexes them and needs solving or (2) an emerging technology or behavior that inspires them.

In fact, only 10 percent of Grommet Makers have any professional experience in the area where they end up building a product. In an interesting parallel, in my capacity as an entrepreneur in residence at Harvard Business School, I observe that a great number of the students pursue the well-known degree and credential as a giant, and admittedly expensive, career reset button. Makers often experience their businesses in much the same way. They throw over or work out of established careers to pursue an idea. The business is going to be epic in terms of effort and opportunity cost compared to other easier ways they might have collected a salary. But the idea becomes an itch that must be scratched, whatever the cost. The idea is often the fuel for all of the late nights, financial sacrifice, and occasional skepticism of friends and family.

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WHY HUMAN CONNECTION MATTERS AT WORK SAMRA ZAFAR

I opened the package when it arrived in the mail. There it was – a beautiful, glossy copy of my book. My first book.

Along with pride and joy, I also felt a massive knot of nerves in my stomach.

My book would be out there in a few weeks for the world to see. I felt raw, exposed, vulnerable. What will people think of me? Will they see me as broken? Or think I’ve used my story as some attempt to get ahead? Even worse, will people feel sorry for me?

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It was the same feeling I had two years ago when my story was published by Toronto Life. The story hit newsstands in late February 2017 and went online a few days later. It was out there for the world to see. The list of messages on my social media rose by the hundreds every hour.

Until that day, I had always wondered why I went through so much abuse, yet survived and thrived. That day, reading the congratulatory and

thank you messages from strangers, I found my why. I knew my story was not just mine. It was the story of millions of people around the world who continue to suffer in silence due to a lack of support, awareness, and hope. I wanted to give people that hope. I wanted to raise my voice and help others reclaim their voices. I wanted to break the silence for the millions of silences that are still waiting to be broken.

The same questions arise in my

mind each time I go on stage, as I publish my book, even as I write this piece. In an effort to share my true self with the world, I also fear that my truth will diminish me. Yet, every time I put myself out there, I am overwhelmed with love and support from people I connect with.

As I reflect on my journey, I realize that the biggest game-changer in my life was not how smart or hard-working I was – it was the people I had around me.

My friends who watched my kids when I went to class or court, and who showed up with ice cream to drown my sorrows after a bad day. My professors who spent hours motivating me to believe in myself. My mentors who helped me with critical decisions in my life. By having faith in me, these people taught me to have faith in myself. And as I’ve gone on to pay it forward by raising my voice and mentoring others, I’ve seen the ripple effect continue.

These experiences show me again and again, that the most important thing people need to heal, succeed and thrive is human connection. A sense of belonging. A community of support. For human connection creates incredible resilience.

The tough part, though, is getting there. In order to create connection, we must allow ourselves to be seen.

Really seen. We must practice letting go of who we think we are supposed to be, and embrace who we truly are, by cultivating the courage to be imperfect and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable.

And that is scary. Many of us live in selfmade prisons of judgment, with the key held by strangers from whom we seek approval.

When my Toronto Life article went viral, I had massive anxiety going back

to work the following week, unsure of how my story would be perceived in a corporate environment at a major bank. But as I walked through the office, colleagues who I’d barely ever spoken with came up and gave me teary hugs, sharing their own life stories and experiences. This has resulted in genuine, life-long friendships and connections that go beyond our job titles and business cards. I cherish these connections every day.

When we connect from a place of humanity, what fades into the background is where we were born, the colour of our skin, the gender we identify with, the faith we practice, or who we choose to love. Because when we connect authentically, we realize that what unites us is far greater and more powerful than what divides us. By practicing the courage to show up as who we are, we give others around us permission to do the same, building trust and confidence, a common sense of values, and the emotional muscle to allow ourselves to fail and to empower each other to get back up. We realize a profound thing: We do not have to do it alone, because we are not meant to do it alone. We create collective resilience in ourselves, our families, our teams, and our workplaces.

I’ve spent a major part of my life hiding pieces of myself from others in order to fit in. As a girl who was told her dreams were too big, as a woman who was trying impossibly to perch on

the pedestal of being “a good wife”, and as a person who was seen by many as a source of shame or as a threat to their own value systems, I’ve tried to hide my imperfections behind my awards and accomplishments, seeking validation of my worth in others’ approval. I’ve learned that the only person I need that approval from is myself. The vulnerability of my truth does not diminish me. It sets me free.

A few weeks ago, I delivered a

AS I REFLECT ON MY JOURNEY, I REALIZE THAT THE BIGGEST GAMECHANGER IN MY LIFE WAS NOT HOW SMART OR HARD-WORKING I WAS—IT WAS THE PEOPLE I HAD AROUND ME. keynote address at a University of Toronto graduate conference. After the speech, a PhD student approached me and said, “I came to say hi, because I’m not staying for the networking session.

I’m leaving right now for the police station to report my abuser. Your speech gave me the courage to stand up for myself and do the right thing”.

I gave her a big hug and admired her courage. I was once again reminded that this is why I do what I do. This is why I wrote my book. This is why I put my story out there. And I will never stop.

Samra Zafar is an international speaker, human rights activist, scholar, author and social entrepreneur who advocates tirelessly for equity, human rights, women’s rights, diversity and inclusion through many channels. Her passion is to motivate and empower all people to believe in themselves, achieve their goals and reach their full potential, no matter what the circumstances might be. Samra’s book is scheduled to appear in bookstores across Canada in early 2019.

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Let’s get humble– the experience of the people on our teams and in our organizations is a true thing, and we don’t simply get to choose what it is.

LEADERSHIP IS A THING MARCUS BUCKINGHAM AND ASHLEY GOODALL 50

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Excerpted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press from NINE LIES ABOUT WORK: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall.

Copyright 2019 One Thing Productions Inc. and Ashley Goodall.

All rights reserved.

We spend vast sums of money, in the corporate world, on training and developing our leaders—in the United States alone, a jaw-dropping $14 billion every year. The usual leadership course goes something like this: There’s a video, either of people talking about leaders, or else of a real leader in the real world. It’s intriguing, provocative, and moving. We learn about the impact leaders have had on the various interview subjects, or we feel it ourselves as we see the real leader on-screen. While watching, we feel inspired, curious, energized—that we are going to learn about something important, and that we have just, in a small way, felt that important thing for ourselves.

Then a facilitator steps to the front of the room and explains the model. The model takes whatever we’ve just seen and experienced and makes it boring. The model is usually a two-by-two grid of little boxes, and in each of the boxes is written some sort of abstract word: empathy, authenticity, vision, and so forth. And then the facilitator explains that for the next several hours of our lives, we will take each little box in turn, and learn about the abstract thing written in it, and how each of us can have more of that thing. Sometimes the course has been preceded by an assessment that we’ve all taken, and partway through the course we get to see our results, and how we compare with the things in the boxes. Sometimes we get to give one another feedback in real time at our tables on how we’re doing at the things in the boxes. Sometimes we build action plans and write down in our notebooks well-meaning commitments about how we’ll do more of the things in boxes, knowing as we do so that the moment the course finishes, these commitments will join “floss more often” in the Big Lifetime Pile Of Things Not Done.

We’re told, as we do all these things, that at the end of this process, we will all be more like the leader we saw at the beginning. But our experience, as we go along, is one of increasing frustration. None of the things in the boxes helps us locate the feeling we had, in the opening video, about a particular leader. Indeed, the things in the boxes seem to have nothing on earth to do with the actual leader we’ve seen, or any actual leaders we’ve seen. We encounter leaders, in life, emotionally. In our leadership training, the first thing we do—in our attempt to understand leadership—is to wring the emotional life out of the thing.

Because what never, ever happens in any of these courses is our starting with the question: who are you? Not, who are you in comparison with some model involving abstract words in little boxes, but who are you as a living, breathing, growing, worrying, joyous, uncertain, loving, striving, messy, and yes, spiky human being? We never ask why, given your particular jumble of characteristics, anyone would follow you. We never ask how—given that oneof-a-kind mixture of states and traits that makes you who you are—you would use those things to create an experience for the people around you, and use what you have to help them feel better about the world you’re all walking through together, and, while we’re at it, how we might give you some measure of that so you can adjust your course as you go.

So we need to stop with the models. Stop with the 360-degree assessments. Stop with the minute and meaningless parsing of how to move your “effective communications” score from a 3.8 to a 3.9, while also figuring out why your peers gave you a 4.1 on “strategy” yet your boss gave you a 3.0.

Stop with the endless lists of abstractions.

Stop debating whether it’s authenticity or tribal leadership or situational leadership or level-five leadership or whatever the latest leadership-nirvana thing is. Stop with the one-size-fits-all.

Instead, let’s get humble—the experience of the people on our teams and in our organizations is a true thing, and we don’t simply get to choose what it is.

Let’s get curious about that experience and how our actions shape it.

And let’s follow our own reactions to real people in the real world. When we feel uplifted by what someone does or says, we need to stop and ask why. When we feel a fresh rush of energy after talking with someone, we need to stop and ask why. When we feel, in response to another human being, that mysterious attraction tugging on us—like a fish on a line, or like a needle twitching in a compass, an attraction that says Here, something is happening, something true and visceral and substantial, something that will change, however slightly, the arc of our future—we need to stop and ask why.

We need to get to know real leaders in the real world, and we need to come to know them as followers ourselves. Then we can start learning.

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MALALA INSPIRES LEADERSHIP AT ANY AGE THE ART OF Malala Yousafzai is many things. The survivor of a Taliban assassination attempt. An activist for female rights and education. She is a fighter and a crusader for justice. But Malala is also a leader, despite her young age. Her mission is to remind us that leadership is about the willingness to speak for yourself and for others. Malala believes in the magic that happens when you

believe in yourself and the magic of your voice. Through this magic, she says, women will feel empowered. She speaks of the need for women to not become complacent. She wants them to become leaders themselves. She also wants women to appreciate and celebrate what we have in common.

“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.”

It’s a potent message. Malala Yousafzai is a leader with the courage and determination to change the world.

Malala grew up in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan. Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was a passionate education advocate who helped run a learning institution in the city. School and education played a big role in Malala’s early life. In 2007, when

THERE WAS FEAR, BUT I NEVER LET THAT FEAR OVERCOME MY COURAGE. I LET MY COURAGE WIN

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Malala was ten years old, the situation in the Swat Valley changed. The Taliban moved into the area and quickly became the dominant voice throughout much of northwestern Pakistan. Girls were banned from attending school, and cultural activities like dancing and watching television became verboten.

Suicide attacks were widespread, and the Taliban made its opposition to female education a cornerstone of its terror campaign. By the end of 2008, the Taliban had destroyed some 400 schools.

But this never stopped Malala from speaking out for the rights of girls and women, not just in her home country of Pakistan but across the globe. Malala believed, “If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?” Even at such an incredibly young age, Malala refused to let the Taliban

stifle her courage. “There was fear, but I never let that fear overcome my courage. I let my courage win,” she says.

To bring about change, leaders instinctively understand they can’t wait for change to happen. To make change they have to make it happen themselves. Malala was determined to go to school. She believed in her right to an education. She openly criticized the Taliban on Pakistani TV, calling them out for taking away her basic right to an education. In early 2009, Malala started to blog anonymously. At 11 years of age, she began to write for the BBC in a diary describing her life and being afraid to go to school. Even now Malala says, “Let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons.”

That same year, Malala was forced to leave her home and seek safety

hundreds of miles away. Upon her return to Swat, she continued her public campaign for her right to go to school.

As her voice grew louder, her magic as a leader became more powerful.

Word spread about Malala and her father. They became known throughout Pakistan for their determination and insistence that Pakistani girls get immediate access to a free quality education. She was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.

With her growing activism, it was just a question of time before the Taliban showed their hand.

In 2012, on a bus with her friends, having finished school exams, Malala was shot in the head, the target in an assassination attempt by the Taliban.

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Malala survived the attack and was airlifted to Birmingham in Great Britain for care and rehabilitation. Throughout her ordeal, Malala insisted that conflict and violence were not the answer. Said Malala, “I don’t want revenge on the Taliban, I want education for sons and daughters of the Taliban.” Malala didn’t want to be thought of as the girl who was shot by the Taliban, she wanted the world to see her as the girl who fought for education. Instead of stopping her, she became even more determined to make her life’s work helping girls and women empower their lives through education and equality.

Malala spoke at the United Nations on her 16th Birthday, calling for education accessibility. “I told myself, Malala, you have already faced

I DON’T WANT REVENGE ON THE TALIBAN, I WANT EDUCATION FOR SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE TALIBAN.

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death. This is your second life. Don’t be afraid - if you are afraid, you can’t move forward.” Although she was only a teenager, Malala showed the world what leadership really means.

Leadership isn’t about titles, recognition or corporate power. Leadership is about standing up for positive change. It’s about taking risks, even in the face of fear. Leadership is about doing the right thing. Malala showed the world that leaders need to be brave and that the brave are the people who fight for what is fair without limitations.

Later that year, she published her first book, an autobiography entitled “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” and won the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. In 2014, Malala

and her father co-founded the Malala Fund, an organization that, through education, empowers girls to achieve their potential and become confident and strong leaders in their own countries.

Today, Malala continues to use her leader ’s voice to advocate for girls and women’s rights. With more than 130 million girls out of school, Malala continues to work her magic. She travels far and wide getting the message out there as she fights poverty, wars, child marriage, and gender discrimination to go to school. “There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.”

Malala is one leader who is making sure that their stories, like hers, continue to be heard around the world.

What are you working for?

At ADP we’re designing a better way to work, so you can achieve what you’re working for.

ADP and the ADP logo are registered trademarks of ADP, LLC. Copyright © 2019 ADP Canada Co.

WHY SMART AUDIO IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS RIGHT NOW MITCH JOEL

Smart audio is not something to focus on just because it was the big deal at CES this past January.

The story is much bigger than that.

We’re starting to see data, insights and usage that reminds me of another magical moment in time: The early days of the commercialization of the Internet. That’s what this is, and that’s what this feels like. There is one big difference. As we sit here today, the devices have already gone mass market. Look no further than the data reported in The Smart Audio Report (Winter 2018) by Edison Research and NPR at CES:

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53 million people in the U.S. (18+) own a smart speaker (21%).

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14 million new smart speaker owners in 2018 alone.

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Number of smart speaker in U.S. households grew by 78% in just one year.

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During the 2018 holiday season 8% of people in the U.S. got a smart speaker.

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29% use their smart speaker several times a day.

•

People have these devices. They are everywhere, and that is expanding as well.

Pushing beyond The Smart Audio Report’s most recent data, Google has been very vocal as well. In a January blog post (Here’s how the Google Assistant became more helpful in 2018), the company stated that Google Assistant grew four times over the past year. And, “by the end of this month, we expect the Google Assistant to be available on one billion devices, up from 500 million last May.” One billion devices will have Google Assistant’s voice functionality. In a word: staggering. It’s not just smartphones and smart speakers. On the Amazon front, people are looking forward to 57

welcoming Alexa and the interactive voice skills that go along with it in the car as well. When Amazon launched Echo Auto (by invitation only), they may not have been prepared for the one million-plus preorders that are about to ship. With that, Amazon also announced that it has sold more than 100 million devices with Alexa.

More devices and much more demand.

That’s where the state of smart audio sits. The devices are plentiful and filling up our homes, cars and available in smartphones. The battle for voice rages on, while businesses need to rethink everything about their digital presence and how to connect with consumers. With this technology comes new realities. Take a look through the Media Village article, Voice Search Is Replacing Keyword Data, to better understand the massive impact and disruption this will cause for your business and marketing: “As more people buy voice-enabled devices, adoption of voice search is set to rise with some even predicting that it will replace text as the primary means of searching – like how smartphones overtook desktop… If the predictions are true, then we should expect that 30-50% of searches (Gartner and comScore) will be through voice.

Paired with this new revelation, this

could mean up to half of all keywords won’t contain an entity, thus eroding the insightfulness that keywords and their search volumes yield to brands and their marketing intelligence.

Searches provide brands with insight into seasonality for budget pacing, color nuances for designing products and market research, to name just a few examples. Keywords have long been a staple of intelligence for brands, but their significance and level of detail has lessened over the years. Positively, brands should be focusing on their audiences’ ‘needs’ instead of vein metrics like traffic. Without keywords being as effective for audience insight, brands will need to find intelligence elsewhere.”

Adoption is one thing. Being mainstream is another. Now, what smart audio really needs is for people to get beyond the one-and-done (use it for a bit, and only for a few things then wane) over to it being a critical part of how we live, work and operate with technology (which seems to be the direction that it should be flowing towards). What (should) happen today (and beyond) is a demonstration from both Google and Amazon that smart audio is not a one (or five trick) pony. Both brands (and Apple and Samsung can’t be dismissed in the smart audio space – plus where

Mitch Joel is Founder of Six Pixels Group - an advisory, investing and content producing company that is focused on commerce and innovation. His first book, Six Pixels of Separation, named after his successful blog and podcast is a business and marketing bestseller. His second book, CTRL ALT Delete, was named one of the best business books of 2013 by Amazon. Learn more at:www.sixpixels.com or www.mitchjoel.com

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is Microsoft’s Cortana in all of this?) need to demonstrate that the depth and breadth of new capabilities and uses that smart audio can (and will) provide consumers going forward will be boundless. Amazon and Google also need to address the myriad of privacy and security concerns that people have about these devices constantly “listening” in on their lives. What is being recorded? What is being done with this data? How can consumers have all of the control over their data versus being a victim to it?

The big reason why smart audio is what’s next… and what’s now: Typing and writing will be relegated to those that are writing something.

Audio is the best user interface. It’s the way humans communicate. We will (in the not-to-distant future) communicate with (and through) technology with voice (and voice only). This is early days. Think back to those first web browsers, dial-up connectivity and earlier websites. Messy, clunky, not obvious, etc… Smart audio is only a few steps ahead of this because the technology is becoming such a crucial function of smartphones and the demand of smart speakers in the current market. It’s happening. It’s important.

Your brand voice strategy. It’s about much more than what it sounds like.

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MYTHBUSTING BOARDROOM BODY LANGUAGE MARK BOWDEN AND TRACEY THOMSON Wouldn’t it be great if you could read the body language of everybody in the meeting room to know if they are “buyers and believers” or “negative and naysayers”?

How true is it that we can at all work out what others are thinking, feeling and intending toward us and our ideas from the behavior and body language we see from them?

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Can we trust our gut instincts? Can we trust the online articles we read? And can we trust the body language folklore that we grew up with? Let’s look at some of the biggest myths around body language in the boardroom, and figure out a better way to think about the behaviors we see to give us an advantage.

CROSSING ARMS = CLOSED FOR BUSINESS We hear time and time again “if they cross their arms, they are closed.” And it follows for us in any meeting room, this can only mean one thing - the negotiation must be going south! Then how easy it is for us to catastrophize and then internally battle against those negative feelings, doubts and worries that arise at that moment. But how true is it that someone is feeling closed or negative toward us when their arms are crossed?

Crossing the arms creates a physical barrier and closes off the body in what can look like a defensive posture, either intentionally or unconsciously blocking us off or closing us out. There are many reasons for arm crossing though: We are in a cold environment and so trying to keep the heat in; it is mid-afternoon and we are trying to keep ourselves more alert by holding the arms up higher on the body; we may be in an important meeting and concentrating hard by closing down other activity in the body to direct energy towards thinking; we are trying to remain in control; we are blocking out other unwanted stimuli.

All of these reasons may make someone look closed, but, and this is the point, they may not actually be closed to us and our idea or point of view. Yes, they may be thinking carefully about it and focusing hard, and in the boardroom, particularly if we have alarm bells going off from some online article telling us to beware of crossed arms during meetings, this may look like it’s game over. The truth is that crossed arms do not necessarily indicate that our listener is not interested or open to what we are saying or selling; however crossed arms will often trigger us into feeling that they are not, and in turn we are susceptible to behaving as if we believe them to be closed when in fact they may be anything but.

PEOPLE DON’T HAVE TO LOOK TO LISTEN How many times have you heard someone say, “I am listening. I may not be looking at you. But believe me, I’m paying attention.” Are they being disingenuous when they say that, or can people be truly listening to you even when they don’t seem to be giving you their visual attention? Listening to everyday speech is about hearing and discovering potential meaning. If we are listening to poetry or written prose, we have the advantage of hearing in the written words more descriptors, words that create the mood and context. Not so in everyday speech, which uses far less vocabulary and far more repetition of the same words.

So while they may be trying to give you their undivided attention but not actually looking at you, as meaning is helped along by seeing the words put into context, part of

that context is of course nonverbal. To this point, someone may be unlikely to get the fullest meaning of what someone else is trying to communicate without taking in some of the nonverbal signals around their messaging. One way to get people’s visual attention when speaking is not only to use more dynamic gestures that engage and help them to understand, but also include as you are speaking periodically ideas that subtly instruct the listener to look at you also. For example, “you can look at it this way,” “see what I am saying here” or “visualize with me the picture around this.”

NODDING THE HEAD MEANS YES It is very important for us, as social animals, to feel accepted by the group and also to accept others, to hold our groups together. While head nodding can show encouragement to others and indicate agreement, it can also be a signal of appeasement—placating someone—without necessarily agreeing with them. Head nodding is also quite often the result of isopraxism, the natural mirroring of another ’s behavior. In a group setting, it is sometimes both contagious and unconscious. Often those at the top of the social hierarchy can experience a room full of people nodding their heads at their idea and assume everyone agrees with them, only to discover later that no one accepted the idea or even understood it. And a completely still head can mean “We don’t get it,” “We don’t accept it,” “We don’t agree” or “We don’t like it” just as much as does shaking the head from side to side. In some cultures there is more emphasis put on always supporting up the hierarchy, which may explain why there may be great reports after some meetings of agreement and action items, and then nothing is followed up or carried out after the fact.

IF THEY ARE BREAKING EYE CONTACT, THEY ARE BEING DECEPTIVE Eye avoidance is often wrongly associated with deception.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Aldert Vrij, author of Detecting Lies and Deceit: Pitfalls and Opportunities (ref below) found that people who habitually lie actually engage in greater eye contact. Why? Because they know people may be on the lookout for this behavior and they want to make sure we are buying their lie. A truthful person may, in fact, let their eyes wander off because they are not motivated to convince, only to convey a story.

Eye aversion happens for many reasons, both personal and cultural. For instance, you may derive great personal comfort in recalling facts or an emotional experience by looking away from someone and looking down or focusing 61

on something distant. Additionally, in some cultures and groups, it is instilled in children that when they are in front of authority, they should show respect by averting the eyes.

In fact, deceit may not look at all how we think it is going to look. The confidence trickster does not so much engage in behaviors that display overt confidence as gain our confidence by offering something they can see we want.

Often they do this by lowering their own status to give us what feels like an advantage. They give us a feeling of power. Therefore, don’t expect a con artist to come to you looking like they have all the power. Rather, be aware of how your interaction with them may instill in you a sudden surge of powerful or superior feelings. Practiced con artists take advantage of our weaknesses around the power we may not possess but that we long for, and so manipulate feelings we may have of loneliness, insecurity or poor health; they also prey on our pride or simple ignorance.

So in meetings where you need to be wary of falling victim to exaggeration or purposeful omissions, first understand the kind of lies that you may be most prone to believing in, either for personal reasons or on behalf of your organization. Only by having some perspective on your own insecurities or organizational anxieties that may be targets for deception can you best secure against them.

So if you are offered the thing that feels like you just got

the greatest deal on the thing you want most, pull back a moment and question it further and more fully.Finally, and this is NOT a myth:

DON’T READ THEM - LEAD THEM! It is much better to be in charge of the body language you are producing then to try to read the body language of others without the time and technique needed to properly critically examine the behaviors that you are seeing.

Understand your own perspective, or lens, on the body language of others against the bigger context that they are in.

If you can, to find out more about this read our book TRUTH & LIES What People Are Really Thinking. Concentrate on producing the best body language yourself for the outcomes you are after, and if you are clear and consistent with those signals, people will mirror you and follow your lead. Be warm and open with your body language, and people are more likely to be warm and open back to you.

Conversely, be cold and closed, and you can expect that others will most likely be cold and closed toward you and your ideas. In the majority of our business situations, it is far better to concentrate on leading, not reading.

Mark Bowden and Tracey Thomson are co-authors of TRUTH & LIES What People are Really Thinking, a fresh, insightful, myth-busting guide to reading body language in the post-digital age.

Mark Bowden is voted #1 Body Language Professional worldwide, and as a thought leader in nonverbal communication is sought after internationally for his keynote speeches and communications training through his organization TRUTHPLANE. With a popular TEDx talk, he has four books, including bestselling Winning Body Language. Tracey Thomson as Co-Founder of TRUTHPLANE advises companies and individuals on questions around communication and body language. Her background directing and training performers internationally in the psychology of movement as well as her professional experience gives her unique insights into human behavior.

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ASK THEM AND THEY WILL TELL US....

VISIONING TODAY FOR TOMORROW’S FUTURE: STUDENT VOICES MATTER

SHERRY ELWOOD Superintendent of Schools WENDY LIM Assistant Superintendent Richmond School District #38 – a learning and leading place for 21,000 students and 2500 employees.

Over a three-year period, the District’s Visioning Task Force designed a plan to activate student voices in the creation of new Vision, Mission, and Values Statements to inspire and guide our work as an educational organization. The Task Force comprised of Stakeholders, including seven students, parents, trustees, teachers, support staff, school and district administrators, and senior team. Our 21,000 elementary and secondary students were invited to share their stories, thoughts, images and artifacts from provocation questions such as “If you had a crystal ball, what would you imagine school to be like in the future?” “How would you describe a great school to your younger brothers and sisters?” “What advice would you give trustees/superintendents/principals/ teachers to enhance students’ learning and thinking?” The District collected videos, photos, and physical artifacts from our students and displayed them at a District-wide Café, Visioning Today for Tomorrow’s World. Invited students, parents, stakeholders, and community members were excited to attend the Café to hear students’ stories, see students’ artifacts, and review students’ photos and videos as stimuli to identify key words, phrases and images to help develop the new District Vision, Mission and Value Statements.

Once these three inspiring statements were approved by the Board of Education, a District-wide Poster Contest was launched to invite students in elementary and secondary schools to create a visual that represented the new vision statement. The Vision poster, comprised of the Vision, Mission, and Values Statements along with the winning visual, is now proudly displayed in every classroom, office, and public space throughout the Richmond School District. Furthermore, all members of the Richmond School District community have been invited to engage in regular discussions about these statements and to live them in our schools, workplaces and community.

To signify our commitment to the new vision statement, “the Richmond School District is the best place to learn and lead,” the District piloted a number of leadership

initiatives this Fall to enhance the creation of a district-wide leadership culture. The leadership initiatives for student leadership development align with the British Columbia Ministry of Education’s new curriculum and specifically to the focus on “personal and social competencies as a set of abilities that relate to students’ identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society.” In addition, these leadership initiatives complement the existing student leadership programs at the school and district levels as well as emphasize the KnowDo-Understand model of learning.

Thus, to underscore this Know-Do-Understand model of learning, the Richmond School District is thrilled to collaborate with The Art Of to provide 190 secondary students and 30 educators with a special opportunity to attend The Art of Leadership for Women Conference on April 5th, as a launch to a 3-Part Student Leadership Development Series.

Part 2 of the Series will focus on knowing and learning more about leadership practices and social action projects while Part 3 of the Series will be a Showcase Sharing of the Social Action Projects students have designed and implemented in their schools and community. With the inspiration of Malala Yousafzai as the anchor keynote at the Conference, this leadership pilot between the Richmond School District and The Art Of will catalyze and leverage our 10 secondary schools’ student leadership programs. We are grateful that the two student winners of the essay contest will have an opportunity to meet with Malala and that a few students’ leadership questions will be posed to the panel of speakers at the Conference.

Thank YOU to The Art Of for this opportunity to collaborate and to pilot this 3-Part Student Leadership Development Series this Spring! Thank YOU to the students and staff who are actively engaged in this learning and leading process with the ultimate goal of empowering students to take positive social actions to make the world a better place for all!

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