Year of the Peer

Year of the Peer Joins C-Suite Radio Family and Announces Q2 Schedule

C-Suite Radio Chairman, Jeffrey Hayzlett recently welcomed Year of the Peer with Leo Bottary to the C-Suite Radio family, “Leo leads conversations about leadership, collaboration, and our future, that you just won’t get anywhere else. If you’re a leader of any organization at any level, or you want to be one someday, this show is for you.”

I couldn’t be happier than to share this journey with C-Suite Radio! For 50 weeks, I’ve committed to invite some of the best minds in the world to share their insights, stories, and recommendations about how we can work together more effectively – to seek common ground and see one another for our special gifts rather than our differences. I am so appreciative of the guests who appeared on the show in Q1. Here’s the guest lineup for Q2!

April 6 Lolly Daskal, Founder, Lead From Within

13 Pat Wadors, CHRO LinkedIn

20 Larry Robertson, Founder Lighthouse Consulting

27 Sekou Andrews, Poetic Voice

May 4 Paul Michelman, MIT Sloan Management Review

11 Marian Salzman, CEO Havas PR, US

18 Ryan Foland, Managing Partner, InfluenceTree

25 Gini Dietrich, CEO Arment-Dietrich

June 1 Leo Bottary & Randy Cantrell (Year of the Peer Update)

8 Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chairman, C-Suite Holdings, LLC

15 Christina L. Martini, Partner at DLA Piper LLP (US)

22 Scott Mordell, CEO, YPO

29 Jimmy LeBlanc/Perry Stagg, Louisiana Department of Corrections

This podcast is one of several initiatives designed to encourage leaders everywhere to collaborate more effectively. Enjoy!

About C-Suite Radio:

C-Suite Radio is the premier source of the world’s leading business podcasts for C-Suite leaders and business executives, featuring shows covering a range of topics, including sales, marketing, leadership, social media, finance, and management. C-Suite radio features premium content from top thought leaders, designed to increase knowledge, deepen understanding, and build skills to enhance readers’ personal and professional lives. Visit C-Suite Radio online and follow them on Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit http://www.c-suiteradio.com.

UConn Women’s Basketball: 9,923 #AndCounting

Friday night, I was on a Delta flight from JFK to San Diego, where I took advantage of the free satellite tv to watch the women’s college basketball semi-final games from the Final Four in Dallas. I was especially interested in the second game between Mississippi State and the University of Connecticut. UConn has become even more famous this year for having won 111 consecutive basketball games. And after losing three seniors, who were the top three picks in the WNBA last year, this would have been a rebuilding year for any other program in America; yet, UConn was back to the Final Four – streak intact and on the doorstep of winning its fifth straight national title.

While I enjoyed the streak as much as any UConn fan, I was far more impressed by the team culture that makes such a streak possible – one that doesn’t measure itself against its opponents so much as set its own standard of excellence. One that inspires a relentless commitment to getting better each and every day. I’m not sure when it started, but the hashtag #AndCounting took on a life of its own once UConn broke its own record (90) for consecutive NCAA basketball wins (men or women), and with each win thereafter, it was always noted, for example, as 100 #AndCounting, etc.

The prevailing thinking across the country, and especially for UConn fans, was that this team showed no signs of losing, and if they didn’t lose this year, everything points to their being even better next year. ESPN’s Kara Lawson speculated that because of this, 200 consecutive wins wasn’t out of the question. But as head coach Geno Auriemma warned everyone time and time again, all streaks come to an end. Unfortunately for UConn, it ended on Friday night with a buzzer beater in overtime.

The winning streak and program’s 11 national championships are great headlines, but they aren’t the story. The story and the lessons the coaching staff and these young women have to teach all of us lie in the team’s culture. The streak that I believe matters most to the coaching staff, and should matter most to the players, is the number of consecutive days they add to perpetuating a winning culture and honoring the players who came before them. In fairness, during many interviews I watched throughout the season, the players talked about this quite a bit. They don’t focus on the result; they focus on what makes the result possible.

To that end, I’ve created a new UConn streak. Let’s call it the UConn culture streak. I’ll mark its beginning as January 31, 1990 – the day the UConn women’s basketball team played its first game at the then new Gampel Pavilion. The following year, the team would advance to its first Final Four, and in 1995, go on to win its first national championship. The rest is history. As of today, its culture streak is 9,923 days #AndCounting. Congratulations to UConn on a wonderful season and for showing all of us what commitment to excellence and teamwork is all about.

Bri Seeley and Thaís Sky: Talk About Un-Networking!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:02 — 34.9MB)

Our guests today are Bri Seeley and Thaís Sky, founders of The Amplify Collective, based in Los Angeles. As life coaches, writers, speakers, and entrepreneurs, they founded the company because even after Bri had lived in LA for 4 years and after Thaís had been there for a year, they were struggling to make authentic connections in the city while working to get their businesses off the ground. Desperate for the connection of an authentic, tight-knit community of women, Bri and Thaís created a sisterhood for themselves and countless others -—not to trade business cards and false platitudes, but to communicate, collaborate, and support one another on a deeper level.

Next week’s guest: Renowned leadership coach and best-selling author, Lolly Daskal.

Stuck in the shallow end of the pool?

If you’re trying to get your entire body wet, staying in the shallow end of the pool isn’t going to get the job done, no matter how long you stand there. Nor will showing up to participate in your CEO or executive peer advisory group without being completely open and willing to be vulnerable about issues pertaining to your life and your business. If you go into it halfway, you’ll never realize the full benefits that come with being a group member.

Since late last year, I’ve been conducting workshops with peer advisory groups across the country, working with CEOs, small business owners, and other senior leaders. During these workshops, I essentially facilitate a group self-evaluation using the five factors from The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success. From there, we develop an action plan for driving even higher group performance. (I also encourage the group members to facilitate a very similar exercise with the teams back at their companies).

The five factors or conditions we found to be common to high performing groups and teams include: 1) selecting the right people, 2) having an environment of mutual respect and trust (one that makes personal vulnerability possible), 3) fostering valuable group/team interaction, 4) inspiring a belief in the power of peer-to-peer accountability, and 5) having servant leadership that cultivates the other four factors.

When it comes to peer advisory groups, members typically score “the group” high when it comes to creating and sustaining an environment of mutual respect and trust. They understand that without it, nothing else in possible. What some members admit, however, in a moment of self-reflection, is that just because the water is warm and inviting, doesn’t mean they aren’t more comfortable in the shallow end of the pool.

For those members, I would say three things:

1) Cut yourself a break. At least you’re in the pool. At least you’re part of a peer advisory group and on the path toward going deeper.

2) Growing as a leader and as a person involves stepping outside your comfort zone once in awhile.

3) Take it one step at a time. Challenge yourself to reveal a little bit more of who you are during each and every meeting. Follow the lead of those who are more comfortable talking about sensitive issues and see the value they receive from having deep exchanges versus surface ones. Notice how much easier it is to identify the root cause of a challenge when someone is being completely open in describing it.

Stand alone in the shallow end and you’re far more likely to drown there than if you go to the deep end. Why? Because your members are in the deep end waiting for you, and they would never let that happen.

A Simple Idea, but Not a Small One

Later this week, I look forward to having my coauthor Leon Shapiro join me as my guest on the Year of the Peer Podcast with Leo Bottary, as we mark the one-year anniversary of the launch of The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success. When I think back to how much we were anticipating the release of the book, it’s hard to believe how quickly the time has passed.

Leon will share much of what he’s experienced over the past 12 months during our upcoming conversation. For me, it’s been the learning experience of a lifetime. I’ve enjoyed the privilege of speaking to business leaders, scholars, and students, both here in the U.S. and abroad, sharing key concepts from the book and being fascinated by countless stories that people, from all walks of life, have shared with me about the power of peer in their lives. No matter where we live, none of us achieves anything entirely on our own.

In the end, we wrote the book because when you look at the positive difference peers and peer groups have made in the lives of CEOs and business leaders all across the world and then realize how few of them avail themselves of this powerful resource, it’s hard to square.

How could something that is so simple and works so well, be so underutilized? In a world where, all too often, we don’t give peer influence a second thought, what if we did? What if we could transform peer influence into peer advantage by simply being more selective, strategic and structured about how we engage those around us? The good news is we don’t have to guess. We know what happens, and I believe if more people reached out to one another more positively and purposefully more often, the world would be a better place.

That’s what makes every minute I spend writing a blog post, preparing for a podcast interview, or speaking to a live audience so worthwhile. Who we surround ourselves with matters. With a little effort, we can make it matter even more.

It’s not unlike the premise of Drew Dudley’s famous TED Talk, where he described leadership, not as an ominous concept, but as making a difference in the lives of those around us, one person at a time. He closed by saying, “It’s a simple idea, but I don’t think it’s a small one.”

He’s right.

“And the Oscar Goes To”…The Year of the Peer

The prevailing sentiment of the Year of the Peer was evident in its full splendor at the 2017 Academy Awards, as host Jimmy Kimmel opened the show with a monologue, that in part, called for greater civility in our dialogue. I also loved how the attendees celebrated peers who inspired their careers, as well as the way they applauded each others’ work with what I believed to be a heightened spirit of enthusiasm. In this Year of the Peer, Hollywood was pitch perfect.

Several of the advertisers followed suit in impressive fashion by sharing messages about the power of love and understanding to the millions of people around the world following the live broadcast. Here are two of the spots below. Enjoy and let’s be sure to carry this forward in our own lives in the months and years ahead.

It’s a fitting time to remember the words of Jodie Foster‘s character, Ellie Arroway, in the movie Contact, “I’ve always believed that the world is what we make of it.” That it is.

Name-calling and Our Pernicious Public Discourse

When I grew up, kids called each other names for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is they were not particularly equipped to do much else. That’s how they covered for their own lack of knowledge and insecurities. Most of us left this childish behavior behind. Over time, society asked more of us – that we actually had to offer something that didn’t involve name-calling or ad hominem attacks. We were expected to make our case on the merits in a fashion that inspired thoughtful debate. Unfortunately, that’s all changed.

In 2016, we were introduced to “Crooked Hillary” and “Dorito Mussolini”. More recently, U.S. Intelligence veteran Malcom Nance identified Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller as a “Baby Goebbels.” Grown-ups are now behaving like 8-year-olds, and I’m pretty sure that today’s kids are modeling this behavior more than ever. After all, it’s not like the name-calling is just coming from crazy Uncle Dave; it’s coming from the mouths of government leaders and political pundits on every media platform. It’s only a matter of time before we’ll turn on CNN, FOX News or MSNBC to bear witness to a debate that is reduced to the Pee-wee Herman loop, “I know you are, but what am I?”

During the Year of the Peer, we have to expect more of our leaders. Don’t we? Check out James Hoggan’s book, I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up. He says, “The most pressing environmental problem we face today is not climate change. It is pollution in the public square, where a smog of adversarial rhetoric, propaganda, and polarization stifles discussion and debate, creating resistance to change and thwarting our ability to solve our collective problems.”

If we’re ever going to turn it around, Hoggan adds, “It is important to recognize that in a time when mistrust and polarization have soared to all-time highs, conversations aimed at injecting information into people in order to cure them of their misunderstanding will fail.”

Have a look at David Biggs’ terrific interview with James Hoggan and consider grabbing a copy of the book. Maybe if we made it required reading for all leaders, they would actually start to act their own age.

What do you think and how can we fix it?

Vitaly M. Golomb: Year Of The Peer Podcast – Accelerated Startup

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (34.0MB)

Vitaly M. Golomb leads global investments at HP Tech Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Silicon Valley’s original startup. He is a serial entrepreneur, a contributing writer to TechCrunch and a consistently top-ranked mentor to a number of startup accelerator programs all over the world. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and travels to over 20 countries each year to consult and guest lecture corporations, associations and universities on entrepreneurship, innovation and design. His book, Accelerated Startup – The New Business School came out end of January and can be ordered at golomb.net/book.

Next week’s guest will be inspirational speaker/author, Rahfeal Gordon.

100 Consecutive Wins – Life in Stage 5!

Moments ago, the #1 ranked University of Connecticut women’s basketball team defeated #6 South Carolina 66-55 for its 100th consecutive victory. To put this perspective, the team hasn’t lost a game since November 17, 2014. Last year, their big three, seniors Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck were drafted by the WNBA, number 1, 2 and 3 respectively. After losing the players who led the Huskies to four consecutive national championships, this would have been a rebuilding year for any other sports program in America – except for UConn. They’re already 25-0 this season, beating nationally ranked opponents Notre Dame, Baylor, Maryland, Florida State, Ohio State, and now South Carolina, with no one left of the regular season schedule likely to give them a serious challenge until the NCAA tournament.

Why should organizations outside of sports be marveling at the streak and paying close attention to this program? Let me offer this:

Several years ago, I heard Dave Logan deliver a terrific presentation based on a book he coauthored called Tribal Leadership. Among other things, he talked about the five stages of culture. Here are the five stages as I recall them:

Stage 1 – “Life sucks.” Roughly 2% of companies have cultures that represent something akin to a prison gang. (Scary but, true).

Stage 2 – “My life sucks.” The implication here is that people are likely to believe that your life may be okay, but my life sucks. (25%) of companies have cultures where people pretty much show up and do just enough to avoid getting fired. They can’t wait until 5:00 PM – especially on a Friday.

Stage 3 – “I’m great.” (with an implied, “and you’re not.”) This culture is characterized by an egotistical, command and control style leader who creates dyad relationships with the employees. (49% of organizational cultures fit this description, by the way).

Stage 4 – “We’re great.” 22% of organizations enjoy a team culture that wants to be the best as defined by their competition. They’re all about being #1 among everyone else in their space.

Stage 5 – “Life is great.” This is the organizational culture that sets its own standard of excellence. Think Secretariat at the Belmont. Logan noted that roughly 2% of organizations experience this rarefied air, but no one lives there for very long. They typically toggle between stages 4 and 5.

Dave Logan, meet the University of Connecticut women’s basketball program.

UConn players, and the coaching staff who created this culture over the past 30 years, compare themselves to the great UConn teams of the past, not to the teams on their upcoming schedule. They set their own standard of excellence each and every day at practice and with every possession – offensively and defensively – in every game. Rather than pay attention to the scoreboard, they honor the work ethic of UConn’s former players and are committed to making the dream of winning a national championship possible for their teammates. Their accountability culture and support for one another is off the charts. They will lose a game someday, but as long as they maintain their culture, it won’t happen very often.

This is what living in stage five looks like. Close your eyes and imagine your organization playing at UConn’s level. Now open them. Life is great! (Or it could be, if you take the power of their example seriously).

Congratulations to UConn for winning 100 consecutive games and for setting a standard of excellence for all of us to follow.

The Peer-to-Peer Paradox

Edelman recently released the 2017 edition of its Edelman Trust Barometer. It revealed a decline in trust among all four major institutions (business, government, media, and NGOs). The words “global implosion of trust” were used to described the current state of affairs.

The Findings

Among 10 insights from the study, “a person like yourself (peer) is as credible a source for information about a company as a technical or academic expert.” As a result, the guidance for today’s organizations is as follows: “The trust crisis demands a new operating model for organizations by which they listen to all stakeholders; provide context on the issues that challenge their lives; engage in dialogue with them; and tap peers, especially employees, to lead communications and advocacy efforts.” Why? Because fellow employees are regarded as a more reliable source of information than either the CEO or the senior leadership team.

Contrast that with this finding: “People are nearly four times more likely to ignore information that supports a position they don’t believe in and don’t regularly listen to those with whom they often disagree.”

The Peer-to-Peer Paradox?

While we may trust our peers more than our institutions or their leaders, it appears we don’t really want to hear from peers who don’t share our worldview. There are myriad reasons for this, not the least of which are 1) we like to be comfortable, 2) we like to be right, and 3) too many people believe there’s an empirical right or wrong and that life is a zero-sum game.

What we know

1) We learn best when we’re taken out of our comfort zone.

2) Being “right” is highly overrated. Our need to be right at the expense of considering other ideas, options or possibilities makes us tenacious fighters, but horrible problem solvers.

3) There are often multiple truths (I’m not talking about not alternative facts or fake news), but specific realities that are true for individuals and groups.

Our society’s inability to listen to one another was evident recently as we watched town meetings across the country, where people met to talk (scream at each other) about the Affordable Care Act/Obama Care (yes, they are the same thing), without much intent to even hear, let alone try to understand a different point of view. Good television, bad result.

What We Should Do

It’s time we stopped making good television and begin engaging in thoughtful and respectful dialogue, where rather than try to prove we’re right, we identify points of agreement, build from there, and focus on actually accomplishing something. Conflict is healthy, as long as it involves an open and honest exchange of ideas. It’s how we explore and discover new possibilities. Conflict is unhealthy when it consists of ad hominem attacks and the desire to be right at another’s expense. There’s nothing more divisive.

How We Get There

Expand your circle of peers. A peer is a “person like yourself” not necessarily a person who is exactly like yourself.” Engage more people who look different from you, have different backgrounds, and see the world differently from the way you do.

2. Practice conversational jiu jitsu. When someone says something you don’t agree with, don’t bang heads, ask questions. I’m suggesting you do so NOT to gain an advantage over an adversary, but to seek an advantage for yourself – the one that comes with being a learner rather than a judger – and opens doors for creating mutual understanding and problem solving.

3. Be open to the concept of multiple truths. A number of years ago, in a powerful demonstration at a Dealing With An Angry Public conference (MIT/Harvard) led by Lawrence Susskind, I learned unequivocally that truth is often in the eye of the beholder. Once we start seeing the world from another person’s point of view, it expands our own view, and creates a dynamic for achieving a win-win.

In the meantime, as our institutions work to regain the public trust, I hope Edelman keeps shining a bright light on trust and how we can engage our institutions and one another more effectively. Our very survival depends on it.