Delusional people don’t learn well.
David Novak, co-founder Yum Brands
Anyone who tells you to follow their passion is already rich!
Scott Galloway
An invitation to invest 2 to 22 minutes in your executive education this week.
Summer Read – How Leaders Learn
From living in 30 trailer homes to co-founder and former CEO of $32 billion Yum Brands, this Fortune article details the lessons David Novak has learned along the way. I love great biz biographies, and his book How Leaders Learn is the best so far in 2024. Start with chapter 11 “Are you Delusional?” and then read the rest – there is so much practical wisdom in this book.
Pizza Hut’s Critical Number
Great leaders boil immediate strategy down to one metric. Notes Fortune, when Novak was hired to lead marketing for Pizza Hut, its numbers needed help, so one question his team asked was, “How could we get weekday volumes much closer to weekend volumes?” That’s a perfect strategic metric – Moneyball stat. Read the article above to see how they did it. Then read Novak’s book.
Follow Your Talent (not Passion)
Marketing guru Scott Galloway riffs on the reasons “follow your passion” is bad advice in this 3-minute video. It was author Cal Newport who first pointed out the fallacy of this overused commencement address bromide – to follow your passion. Here is a link to Cal Newport’s important 20-minute video which is the best career advice you can offer your recent college grad – a video I shared during EO’s Family University this week in Ocean Reef with my son Quinn (16).
Start with What (not Why)
I witnessed it again this week – how confusing “starting with why” can be for leaders. What is supposed to be a “purpose” question, I normally get an answer that is closer to the “brand promises” i.e. why do people buy from us, because we deliver fast, quality service. The much better question is a “what” question i.e. what difference are you trying to make? What problem are you trying to solve in the world? What do you want to do with your life? What is your purpose? You’ll notice whenever someone describes their purpose it's with a lot of “what” statements as well.
“Why” is Not a Friendly Question Anyway
Most of the communication literature I read suggests avoiding “why” questions. Why did you do that? Why are you saying that? Why are you thinking that? Asking “why” has a finger-pointing, accusatory tone. Work to eliminate the word “why” from your communications with people. The better word is usually “what” i.e. what caused you to make that decision? I even suggest when looking for the root cause of something to ask 5 what questions vs. why questions. It just feels less offensive/accusatory. Start with What.
Vibecession (not Recession)
27-year-old Kyla Scanlon first coined this term in 2022. Considered Gen Z’s favorite economist, this Fortune article details her rise to fame. Maybe not that interesting, I do find her term fascinating – which represents the “disconnect between peoples’ malaise about the economy and rosy official metrics like GDP growth and the low unemployment rate,” according to Fortune. Save 2 minutes and skip the article.
Felix Culpa – Good Bad Luck
Tim Ferriss shared this:
“Felix culpa is a Latin phrase that comes from the words felix, meaning ‘happy,’ ‘lucky,’ or ‘blessed,’ and culpa, meaning ‘fault’ or ‘fall.’ In the Catholic tradition, the phrase is most often translated ‘happy fault,’ as in the Catholic Exsultet. Other translations include ‘blessed fall’ or ‘fortunate fall.’” More broadly and put another way in Oxford Languages: “an apparent error or disaster with happy consequences.”
Love This Employment Ad
Taking a page from MOM’s Organic Market’s CFO/COO ad in Scaling Up, Skyco Group created this highly successful recruiting ad for Concreter/Formwork tradespeople. Note the “Would you like to work for a company that…”
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Additional Books
Scaling Up Compensation, a quick read helping you get much greater impact and outcomes from one of your largest expenses; and The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time, which provides you with some great ideas to borrow/steal for your own business are available on Amazon.
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