Lead On with Greg & Mark (LOwGaM)
We invite you to join us as we talk about the world of leadership during times of complexity.
Lead On with Greg & Mark (LOwGaM)
S5:E9 Turning Weekly Questions into Powerful Development Tools
This episode of Lead On with Greg & Mark delves into the importance of intentionality by exploring five critical questions that listeners can reflect on each week to enhance their personal and professional growth.
Through engaging dialogue, Greg and Mark provide actionable insights into learning, relationships, problem-solving, seizing opportunities, and adding value in various contexts.
Show highlights:
• Utilizing weekly questions to focus on personal and professional growth
• Encouraging proactive learning and development
• Emphasizing the significance of nurturing and repairing relationships
• Recognizing the importance of addressing or avoiding specific problems
• Identifying and embracing opportunities for innovation and change
• Understanding the role of value creation in both personal and organizational contexts
Check out all episodes of Lead On with Greg & Mark on your favorite podcast platform!
You're listening to Lead On with Greg and Mark, brought to you by the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units. Join us this season as we engage in conversations on leading on through times of complexity. Now for your hosts, Greg and Mark.
Speaker 2:Hello Greg, hi there, hi there, Bork Bork, who's Bork?
Speaker 3:Bork Bork. Well, we just had a really interesting lunch, didn't we? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:It's.
Speaker 3:Lead On with Greg and bork. So, uh, how, how difficult it is. Is it to remember the name mark, right? I think it's a fairly simple one syllable.
Speaker 2:It's monosyllabic. I said it like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you said it so we had a table for two under the name of bork yeah, you weren't enunciating properly, maybe not I. I need to work on my english bork bork, bork, bork, bork. Properly, maybe not. I need to work on my English Bork Bork, bork, bork, bork. That was the Muppets, right, the Muppets?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I love that Swedish chef, that's right. Borgish morgy do skiddy, skiddy do. Borgish morgy do skiddy do.
Speaker 2:So we discovered that you have a talent. You are a man of many talents and and they just are always ever. What's the word I'm looking for forthcoming? Flowing forth from the universe. Your talents Kind of a big deal. You are kind of a big deal, a talent discovered today. Yes, you set up the podcast equipment better than I do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that goes back to my tech staff days at Millersville.
Speaker 2:Well, I was on the tech staff here, and yet you have outshined me, my friend, in setting up the podcast gear.
Speaker 3:I appreciate the compliment. You don't hand out many and I will take it Listen.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate that. You recognize the fact that it must mean something right. It does, it does. Yeah, not only was it done quickly, it was done where we don't have any connection issues. Sometimes our headphones don't work. They're both working because you set it up, they are they are because you set it up, they are, they are. I think you have a new job okay, all right, I'll take it.
Speaker 3:Love it, all right. So what are we talking about today there?
Speaker 2:I have like a like a link aggregator, things like when I collect links I put them in a like I save them to like a folder yeah, you geek out, you put that on there. Yeah, so like, when I see something I like, I put it there. If I really like, I print it out. This is something I printed out a long time ago, probably back in 2010.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we got. It's dated May 31st 2010. Yeah, that's when this is from Wow.
Speaker 2:And this is something that I don't look at this religiously. I don't mean to imply that this is something that I I refer to all the time, meaning like every day or every week, but I definitely look at it monthly. Yeah, and I've definitely thought about it a lot since I first read it. It came from the lead on purpose blog, almost like the lead on with Greg and Mark but this is lead on purpose.
Speaker 3:How about that Meant to be?
Speaker 2:And it's back from 2010. And the author wrote it. Mark Sandberg is not the author of this blog post, but this blog post was about a guy named Mark Sandberg and the five questions that he recommends people ask themselves every week. I like it. It's simple, yeah, and so the questions are simple, but the answers are profound and they probably change all the time. We've often talked a lot on this little redundant. We've often talked a lot. We often talk on this podcast about journaling, how it's a goal that I think we both have.
Speaker 3:Yes, and how are you coming with it Not doing well I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't do well with it either. I'm good on the reflection part, but it's just to myself, like I'm not actually putting it down on paper or in an app. Yeah, so like neither am I. I've tried, uh, writing like with my hand. You know pen. Yeah, I've tried typing, I've tried dictating, I've tried sentences, I've tried google docs, I've tried word, I've tried notebooks. It, um, I think it probably is one of of those things where it either just immediately comes naturally to you and it's just something you do, because I never kept a diary as a kid.
Speaker 2:Or it's like one of those things like exercise, that you just have to do it and force yourself to do it until it becomes a routine.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I've just never made it to the point where I've forced myself to commit.
Speaker 3:I don't know about you Well do you know I, I, I struggle with it because, like I said, it just I think it's going through the act of actually writing it down or typing it.
Speaker 2:The reason that I brought up journaling. I think if you're an aspiring journaler, like we are, I think these five questions could serve as fodder or fuel for your journaling pleasure, if you will.
Speaker 1:Like if you don't know what to write about.
Speaker 2:These are five questions that could start. They could be considered prompt starters or response prompts, Right, all right. So here let me give you the first one, and then you want to just go every other one. Does that work? That sounds great, all right. So the first question that Mark Sandberg says that you should consider every week is number one what will I learn this week? I like that because it's not. Am I going to learn this week? It implies that you are going to learn something and that you have some agency over what it is, that you have the ability to decide that you're going to dedicate time, energy, attention, resources to learning something. What's it going to be? So he goes on to say identify what you need to learn, what you want to learn and how you'll learn it.
Speaker 3:I like this. This is a good version of being like premeditated thoughts, yeah yeah, yeah so you're going to already say okay, this is what I'm going to accomplish this week. This is what I'm going to learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this is what I'm going to learn, yeah, so this is what I'm going to learn, and he phrases like what do you need to learn and what do you want to learn, right? So, like, maybe for work, you need to learn how to do something. Or at home, there's a project you're working on, you don't know how to do it. I need to learn that. Youtube, the internet, whatever, who cares and what do you want to learn? Maybe, like this last question of like, how will you learn it? So it's one thing to write down what you want or what you need. It's another thing to actually articulate a plan for how you're going to come to that knowledge. And then it's just this. I like the sentence growth and development rarely happen accidentally. In other words, it's back to that word of intention, right, intention. So what are you gonna learn, greg, and how are you gonna learn it? Because development doesn't happen accidentally. What do you think?
Speaker 3:Respond. I think it makes perfect sense and if you can have, if you identify an area of growth for yourself and let's say it's a Sunday before your work week, right, and then you are intentional, like you said, intentionality, you were intentional about what you're going to focus on that week. It might be, I mean, it could be a number of that week. It might be, I mean, it could be a number of things, but it might be the way that you prioritize with your daily tasks. We've talked about it in the past and sometimes we we do the things that we like first and then we hold off on those things that are the more difficult tasks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 2:New Year's resolution time now around here. Right it is. And so like what do they call this Quitters week?
Speaker 2:I learned that the second or third week of January is called quitters week because that's when people give up on their resolutions. Yeah, so like to counteract that. One of the things you should do is you share your resolutions with other people so that they're public and there's some accountability. And then another thing it personal. You can be your own accountability partner by literally writing it down. All right, so that's number one. What will I learn this week?
Speaker 3:Okay, Number two what relationship will I improve? What relationship needs repair or nurture? Now we've talked about in the past. I had a mentor. I had a mentor who would say we are in the relationship business and I don't care what field you're in, Um, it's all about relationships. It's about how we treat people, it's about how we form those relationships and how we sustain those relationships. So something I like about this Mark is that it talks about what relationship needs repair or nurture. So we often you know when things are going well with the relationship, that's great, but we don't often focus in on those relationships that are damaged for whatever reason yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, I mean, and like it could be like different stakeholder groups, right, we're all running in different circles, so at work, you've got multiple stakeholders, like you and I. We both have a board, yes, but then we also have a group of superintendents that we work with. That's right.
Speaker 2:But, then there's also groups of administrators that we work with in our own organizations, and then there's all the people in our organizations that we don't necessarily see every day but that we want to be connected to. And then there's community partners, and then there's colleague executive directors across the state, and then there's colleges and universities, business partners, local government. There's no shortage of people that you have a relationship with to your point. Back to that word intention, right. What are you doing to nurture those relationships, or improving those relationships with each set of people, like it's an infinite number of people that you could choose to spend your time with?
Speaker 2:So I like this idea of reflecting on what relationship requires my attention this week, because some of them you're going to keep on In fact, most of them, obviously are going to be on autopilot, right, but this week, with the week that I have, the five days that I have Monday to Friday, or the seven days that I have with the weekend, who needs me to call them? Who needs a text? Who did I offend? Who haven't I seen? Who has some awkward thing going on with me right now that I need to address? Who just might benefit from a lunch or a coffee or a text?
Speaker 3:Right, and there's two different questions that it asks. It says think in terms of both. Who, like Mark said, but also how. So is it a text? It is a phone call? Is it a visit? What is it? Is it a letter? Any of these things? Is it a cup of coffee or something like that?
Speaker 2:Or a line, you just stop by.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because we know, you know, we always talk about showing up with your best self right. Yeah, you know being your best self and you can tell. When you spend a lot of time with people, whether they be colleagues or friends, you know when they're off. Yeah, and it's a really good point that this is a very important one of these five reflection questions.
Speaker 2:Well, and I like it too, because it's based on improvement, repair and nurturing. It's very easy to spend your time with people where things are great. It's very easy to avoid the people where things are awkward or difficult, and so I think this challenges you to confront, if you will, let's call it, an area where there's deficiency or problem Agreed. So number one was what will I learn this week? Two is what relationship will I improve and what relationship needs repair and nurture? Number three what problem will I address, or what problem will I avoid? I love that We've talked about this too. Sometimes the best action is no action.
Speaker 2:Not all problems need to be solved by you. Perhaps some problems need to run their course for the best outcome to happen. Perhaps some problems need other people to address them. Perhaps some problems need to fester for a while in order for there to be the urgency for people to dedicate their resources or whatever to fix it. So I like this one, because what problem will I address? What problem will I avoid? It requires you to be thoughtful of all the problems that you have and they're endless, just like of all the relationships that you have that are endless. Which one are you going to focus on Of all the problems that you have, which one are you going to say the five days I have this week, I'm going to work on that issue. Or of all the problems I have this week, I'm going to avoid that one, as tempting as it might be to jump into it. I'm going to let it sit Right. I think both questions are key.
Speaker 3:I think it's key and, you know, not every problem is an emergency and I think sometimes, if it's now, we have to be mindful of the fact that to that person they may consider it an emergency, but we need to be that. We need to ground our colleagues that way in a way, in saying this is okay, let's give it some time. You said let it fester. I like that. I think it's another way we could maybe say it is that give it some time to gel, Give it some time to work itself out A little creative abrasion, as I've heard before. Let your team try to work this out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that. I think that makes a lot of sense and it's also an opportunity for other people to grow. And then I learned early in my career when people come to me with a problem, I would try to solve it. And I had one of my colleagues say to me go, hey, respectfully, I didn't come here for a solution, I came here to vent.
Speaker 3:Yes, right, isn't that great yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, isn't that great, yeah. And I was like, oh, that's, that's really great. And so then I've learned to ask the question what do you want me to do with this information, or what role am I playing here? And a lot of times people will say I don't need you to do anything, I just need someone who I can talk to, right, right. And then other times they'll say all right here, here's my problem. What ideas do you have? They're actually soliciting input, but but I was just assumed incorrectly that people always wanted input and advice.
Speaker 2:No, that's not the case at all. People don't want advice 50% of the time. 60% of the time.
Speaker 3:And a lot of times they'll come up with even better solutions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you just sit there and listen Sure, right Sure. And so I think that's sort of like with this one, like those are not problems for you to address. Other people's issues are probably not problems for you to address. Maybe not avoid either, but definitely not to address. All right, let's go.
Speaker 3:Well, and just to add to that you talked about you know, look for a problem that is looming on your horizon and head it off. Yeah, so if there is something out there and you do see, oh boy, this might get worse. You know, they're also saying that to head it off.
Speaker 2:That's the other point there. Yeah, I feel like the way that you phrase look for a problem that's looming on the horizon headed off, right. Yeah, Bad news doesn't get better with age, right? That problem that's looming on the horizon this week is going to be a disaster next week if you don't deal with it today, so sometimes we just need to head it off and just have it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and your intuition probably tells you which problems are on the horizon that you need to deal with, just like which relationships that are broken that you need to deal with. You probably know the answer to both of those questions without doing a lot of soul searching Agreed, and they're probably out there looming, or they're probably broken because you've been avoiding them in the first place. So it's like that whole, like you know, be the adult in the room, call that person, make amends or pull people together and let's address the elephant in the room, this problem that we know, that we're just sort of ignoring. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I like it. I like it, um, so, uh. Next, uh is what opportunity will I seize? It says here. Too often we're fixated on our problems and miss our opportunities. Look for opportunities in the midst of challenges, struggles and difficulties. They're out there, yeah. So we difficulties, they're out there, yeah. So we always talk about that. Like challenges are actually opportunities. Right, problems can be opportunities. Now, that's not always the case, but if we have that mindset, I think we could. You know, I think every, every human being has that creativity.
Speaker 2:You know that they could bring to the table yeah, I like this one too, because it's not necessarily deficiency or negative focused. We could spend our entire day, our entire week, if you use this protocol, focused on things that are broken. I think this is saying you know, the first two or three are talking about fixing things that are broken or addressing things that aren't right. I think this one challenges you to think a little differently. Problems are the things that are broken. Right, we've already talked about that. I think this person is saying okay, with all the time that you have, what part of that time are you going to spend trying to build something new, trying to develop something new, trying to create something new, right?
Speaker 2:Like what intention are you going to bring to creation, as opposed to just?
Speaker 3:fixing. You know, something I thought about when you were talking about that is we'd spend a lot of time dissecting a problem, Like over-talking what the problem is. What I think this is here is you know how are we going to seize this option? Make it an opportunity, Take it from a problem into an opportunity, instead of just overanalyzing what the problem is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or just overfixating on problems themselves. So you could pull your cabinet together, you could pull your team together and you could make a list of 37 things that are broken in the organization that you need to work on, and no doubt you have to do that. But I think this is challenging you to say let's pull the team together, come up with a list of 37 things that we should be doing next, like what's the next thing that we need to be working on? Because if you're always playing catch up on fixing things that are broken, you're never developing anything new for tomorrow, and I like that's the lens I'm choosing to use for here. It's yeah, we need to spend time fixing things that are broken, but also we need to spend time building things for tomorrow.
Speaker 3:Yes, and there's times where you need to. If it's a problem, scrap it and start new.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's.
Speaker 3:That's a whole nother piece.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, and number. Is it my turn?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Number five how will I increase my value? So how will I increase my value? And the? They challenge you to think in terms of what you can do to increase your value to your employer, your customer, your family, if you provide more value than you consume. That makes you a producer rather than just a straight consumer.
Speaker 2:When young people start out on their career, or people switch jobs at any point in their career cycle, one of the easiest pieces of advice to give anybody is to create more value than you take away. Right, yes, to be a producer, someone who leaves the organization with more resources than they're consuming. And so it's a great question to ask what can I do? So we're all drawing a paycheck, we're all drawing benefits and things like that that cost the organization money, and anybody can do that, literally, right, anybody can cost an organization money. Anybody can be a cost center. This challenges you to think what am I going to do to bring value to my organization? It doesn't have to always be revenue. Revenue is great, but what am I going to do to add value to the culture? What am I going to do to add value to the bottom line? What am I going to do to add value to the relationships and the creative process. If you're just someone who takes, you're really expendable.
Speaker 3:Yes, highly expendable. And the thing is too, there are peaks and valleys to this. So let's think about if you're new to a position, you're obviously going to be coming in with little value and as you grow with that organization, that company, whatever it might be, you're going to be gaining value as you go through. And I like this because you want your the positive, the value that you bring to the table, be more than what's being taken away.
Speaker 2:Right, and I think if you don't bring value over your career over the first couple of weeks, months, years, whatever the metrics are, then that's when I think people say, well, what does that person even do? They complain a lot, we're paying them a lot, but what are they bringing to the organization? Whether it's a cultural thing, a morale thing or a revenue thing, people want to know.
Speaker 3:And I like how you said that, because it's not always about the money.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, it's not always about the revenue.
Speaker 2:Most people that work for organizations. They're not generating revenue. They're usually supporting the people who do generate the revenue, right, right. So if you're not a revenue generator, what are you doing that brings value to the organization, beyond just punching in and punching out? I just I think it's good. So what will I learn this week? What relationship will I improve? What needs repair or nurture? What problem will I address or avoid? What opportunities will I seize and how will I increase my value? You like these. I think they're great. You think these could be good prompts for journals. I don't know. It'd probably be exhausting to do all five every week, but maybe you pick one or two a week, that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 3:I think if you could just take one or two a week, that would be very helpful.
Speaker 2:You, you going to give it a try.
Speaker 3:I will give it a try.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll give it a try. I passed this out to the leadership team here a while ago, just again, not not as anything they had to do, but it's. I sort of framed it the way that I framed it with you. This is something that I look at. I have it printed out. I don't follow it religiously, I'm not expecting anybody to, but it as a way to frame, a way to approach your week. When there's infinite things that you can do, sometimes a protocol like this helps you focus on what it is you should be doing, and a takeaway for me was intentionality.
Speaker 3:We need to be intentional about how we lead, intentional about what we focus on for that given week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's like my word, intentional, right, I think. If you're not intentional, then it's Friday afternoon and you're like what the heck did I do this week? Yeah, yep, yeah, all right, greg, what do you say? We wrap this one up.
Speaker 3:So we'll wrap it up. We appreciate those low gam listeners out there. Uh, please keep spreading the word about low gam, uh, thanks. In the meantime, thanks for tuning into low, or at least pretend like you are, until the coffee kicks in.
Speaker 1:You're listening to Lead On with Reagan Mark. Well done, you're listening to Lead On with Reagan Mark, brought to you by the Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2:Association. You know why this is happening? Because I paid you a compliment on setting up the board. All right, let's get us out of here, yeah all right, have a good one, goodbye, bye-bye.
