“I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”.

Sylvia Plath (on the courage to close doors)

Culture: sharpen your axe.

There’s a story, about a man who wanted to be the best wood cutter in his village. He trained, sharpened his axe, and did all he could. One day he challenged an older lumberjack to a wood cutting contest. From sun up, to sun down, whoever chopped the most, wins. The young guy goes at it hard. Chopping non-stop. He looks over at the old guy every so often, sees him sitting down and thinks, I’ve got this in the bag. He’s wasting time. When sundown came, they weighted the wood. The old guy won. The young guy incredulous, says “how the hell did you do that, you took breaks?”. The old guy smiles and says, “yes, but every time I sat down, I sharpened my axe”. It’s a good lesson isn’t it? About why we should learn to rest so well it makes you dangerous.

A thought for leaders: We’ve somehow come to think of rest as soft. Wasteful. Weak. We now “rest like criminals, guiltily, secretly, with one eye open”. But as any athlete will tell you, rest is an essential part of high performance. And yet, as Adam Grant reminded us, 16 studies found that although managers know that detaching boosts performance & well-being, they still judge it as a lack of dedication in hiring & promotions. Do you, as a leader, spend the right amount of time sharpening your axe? And do your people or your team spend the right amount of time doing it too?

Leadership: lean in.

Is your organisation, or team, leveraging AI properly, or fully, yet? Probably not. Wharton Professor of Management Ethan Mollick wrote about AI, and how to improve organisational adoption of this new tech. He points out that even though it undoubtedly improves productivity, that the majority of people are using it, and that there are massive gains to be made if done properly, he notes that companies are still reporting only small to moderate gains. So why, with all this potential, aren’t companies reporting bigger benefits? The answer he says, is that AI that boosts individual performance, doesn’t naturally translate to improving organisational performance. This he says, requires organisational innovation, rethinking incentives, processes and even the nature of work. Which in turn he says, requires the three keys to AI transformation – Leadership, Lab, and the Crowd.

A thought for leaders: AI is being used in your org now. But it’s individuals using it. The future though, has to be collective. But how? As Mollick points out, AI companies don’t even know how the tech can be best used. And they certainly don’t know your industry or org. Driving organisational benefits, needs your people and your leadership. You need to recognise the opportunities (and challenges) and lead people forward. It also requires a Lab of sorts, where people are actively designing tests, exploring new angles and helping the company to build potential. And finally, it requires the crowd in your organisation, testing, learning and sharing every win.

Performance: Pygmalion Effect.

A thought for leaders: Expectations are a self fulfilling prophecy. As Henry Ford said “whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right”. This research study found that higher expectations = better performance, and lower expectations = limited growth. How you are perceived by others, changes your self beliefs. And your self beliefs, shape your reality, your performance, and your potential. As a leader, you’re responsible for shaping how people they see themselves. So, if you want a high performance team, set the expectations high, and believe that each team member can deliver on them.

Podcast: EP 26: The Leadership Contribution

Continuing with our theme of Leaning In, we have included a podcast from the vaults: EP 26: The Leadership Contribution.

You can listen to it here.

Enjoy revisiting or newly discovering it 😊

You can follow Flow Group on LinkedIn here.

Hope you enjoyed, and please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

P.S. This month’s featured artist is Dutch artist Rob Blanken. His images of crystals are painstakingly created, using scientific methods to uncover the hidden worlds within the rocks and offer an insight into how patterns are mirrored in the real world.