What’s left?

My 50 year college reunion committee sent out a classmate survey.  One of the questions was how I applied what I learned in college.  I wasn’t prepared for a trick question!

So I chatted with my 14 year old grandson about his school experiences.  He’s in the 8^th grade and I’m not sure what he’s learning nor how well he’s doing.  He’s smart but he doesn’t give the impression of being a good student.  Turning in his assignments on time seems to be a challenge.  (I can relate!)

Of course, his generation is growing up with the machines; aka AI; aka Artificial Intelligence.  (I always worry why it’s called “artificial”, but I digress.)  It’s common for grandparents to worry about their grandchildren, true?  Get a good education is a common theme we harp on.  But what exactly is a “good education” and how do we apply it in our everyday lives?

Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn't know.

Daniel Joseph Boorstin

For better or worse, the traditional learning I grew up with is all different today.  We don’t have to read that well anymore; the machines read for us now.  We don’t have to write that well; talk-to-text and ChatGBT handle the writing.  What’s left?  My grandson makes online friends through gaming apps.  Does that make for learning good social skills?  Maybe the grandparents should join in.

It makes me think back to my experiences at school and that 50-year reunion survey.  What did I study in high school and college, and what did I use throughout my career?

I’m hoping my grandson’s generation will turn out like mine.  He may forget how to use parallelograms but with any luck he’ll remember how to file his taxes.

                                                            GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Kindness…

Throughout my management career I tried to balance performance aka “results” with encouragement aka “kindness”.  It’s tricky to do – some managers don’t even try.  I bet you’ve worked for one of those.  I know I have.  Still:

Kindness is not an act, it's an attitude.

Robin

It’s challenging for sales managers to have a results-demanding attitude and be kind at the same time.  Salespeople have this inherent sensitivity about fairness.  If managers aren’t careful, their sales team will test them - see if they're soft.  Soft managers and competitive salespeople don’t mix well.

In the sales profession, we’re all competitors.  And, we want a fair opportunity to succeed.  That expectation of “fairness” is a real challenge and not unique to sales:

… the only way to treat someone fairly is to treat them as they deserve to be treated, bearing in mind what they have accomplished.

Marcus Buckingham

This brings to mind my very first day as a sales manager.  It was the beginning of a new fiscal year.  I met with each of my people individually to (A) increase their quota, (B) reduce their territory, and (C) tell them their compensation plan was changing.  It’s that annual ritual in sales called “raising the bar”.  My salespeople didn’t take it well.  I emphasized I believed in their ability to exceed this assignment.  They accused me of being unfair.  The women cried; the men yelled.  They were testing me; seeing if their new manager was soft.

After the 1-on-1s, I pulled everyone together to address their concern.  I told them I heard loud and clear that each of them thought I was being unfair.  Then, perhaps in a moment that lacked kindness, I said:

If everyone on the team feels I’m being unfair, then I’m practicing the principle of equal unfairness – which is fair!

Prior to becoming their manager, I too was an individual quota-carrier.  I understood.  I knew they were watching me; judging me; testing me.  They were listening to how I spoke when making their job harder.  It was that fine line between results and kindness.  Going forward, I continued to choose my words carefully:

Our words can uplift and heal and empower - or not.  Words can inspire, rekindle a sense of wonder, and provide direction, or they can dampen spirits, condemn ideas, and destroy initiative.

Jim Anderson

I kept encouraging.  They decided I wasn’t soft.  We went on to exceed quota and qualify for President’s Club.  The next fiscal year?  Same routine.  I told them I believed they could accomplish another great year.  This time no one complained about unfairness.  Guess I passed the test.

                                                            GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

War

War; threats of war; reminders of war...  Personally, the word “war” is bandied about a bit more than I’m comfortable with.  Ergo these thoughts.

I can’t help but wonder how historians will look back and describe our time.  Joseph A. Tainter shared in The Collapse of Complex Societies ®:

Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.

Unknown Sage

Ulysses S. Grant was one of our nation’s most famous and controversial military, war generals.   It was a controversial time:

…a President who had a good deal of trouble finding a successful commander for the armies of the United States.  And one of them turned up one day and he was very successful.   And some very good citizens went to the President. 'You can't keep this man. He drinks.'  'It must be a good brand of liquor', the President replied.

Jean Edward Smith

Grant knew the sobering realities of war.  James McPherson wrote:

Like Lincoln, he believed in a hard war and a soft peace.  “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it.”

Ulysses S. Grant

One of the things that made Grant successful was his focus.  That created controversy and even jealousy “among the ranks”:

I am a great deal smarter than Grant; I see things more quickly than he does.  I know more about law, and history, and war, and nearly everything else than he does; but I'll tell you where he beats me and beats the world.  He don't care a damn for what he can't see the enemy doing and it scares me like hell.

William T. Sherman 

Grant (among many others) was tasked to save our Union.  If it was to be war, then he would conduct a vicious one.  But he wasn’t a vicious man:

A war hero, drawn in by his sense of duty, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican Party and then elected president in 1868.

As president, Grant stabilized the post-war national economy, supported congressional Reconstruction and the Fifteenth Amendment, and prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan. Under Grant, the Union was completely restored. An effective civil rights executive, Grant signed a bill to create the United States Department of Justice and worked with Radical Republicans to protect African Americans during Reconstruction. In 1871, he created the first Civil Service Commission, advancing the civil service more than any prior president.

He failed in his second term.  Back to Wikipedia:

… executive scandals during his second term. His response to the Panic of 1873 was ineffective in halting the Long Depression…

Parallels to today?  Is history repeating itself?  Are we at war?  I hope not.  Challenges?  Yes.  Disagreements?  For sure.  But war?  No. 

We’ve seen the good - and the cruelty - focused leaders can inflict.  I prefer to remember Ulysses S. Grant’s preference for attaining, “a soft peace”.

GAP

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.