Leadership is a fun little bag of tricks, isn’t it?
It’s inherent in how you speak, in how you write, in how consistent you are. It’s in whether or not you lead from the front. It’s in the influence you have on others. It’s in your culture, your environment, and your willingness to help others succeed.
Leadership is inherent in the recognition that others do incredible work, and that by lifting others you lift yourself. And it’s about trying to make yourself redundant.
In this week’s Sunday Letter you’ll see examples of all kinds that touch leadership in some way: From Facebook’s dodgy behaviours in trying to control the media; to the types of rules that emerge out of statements that you make.
All of these articles touch content and business publishing in some way. If you can’t see where or how, reply or leave a comment and ask.
Asking a question is never a stupid thing. In fact, good leaders know just how powerful they are.
~ Leticia Mooney,
Queen Pixie at Brutal Pixie
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The Sunday Five
If you find any articles in the wild, worthy of us sharing, email them to hello@brutalpixie.com.
If you don’t have a shared sense of place as a leader, you’ll suffer.
This comes to us in new research from MIT. Researchers have discovered that if you aren’t in a location as a leader, then you may end up suffering because you don’t have a community of stakeholders. It’s particularly pertinent to those who travel a lot, who are nomadic, or who even work from home a lot. It turns out that place is important in community, and this affects your wellbeing. Read it at https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/a-shared-passion-for-place-can-make-a-business-more-resilient/
Does everyone understand your language?
In this fabulous article from Reflexive Practice, the term ‘trajectory’ is unpacked. This unpacking occurred because, when the author started reading works on strategy, the term kept coming up… and then they wondered what else was being communicated. The very term ‘trajectory’ does a lot of work - and conveys far more than you realise, from authority to planning. Read it at https://reflexivepractice.wordpress.com/2019/03/22/a-glossary-of-contemporary-management-terms-trajectory/
You chase shiny things because maintaining business as usual isn’t sexy…
… which is something you probably already realised, right? Well, sure, but stay with me. McKinsey’s latest podcast talks about why maintenance is often under-invested, but glamorous divisions get more capital. However, if you value your business going along without any issues, investing in maintenance is critical. The solution? To have overlapping committees at board level. That way, the people in the glamorous divisions can’t out-play the boring maintenance guys, and you’ll achieve parity. Read this at https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-to-resist-the-allure-of-glamour-projects
Facebook makes doomsday prognostications that may not be real
And it might well be intentional. In this article from Fast Company, the author writers about Facebook’s current doomsday predictions about local news journalism suffering. But, really, who are they to say that? Remember when they told everybody to pivot to video - about three years ago - so people did? Remember how they recently came out and said OH SORRY WE WERE WRONG, leaving everybody scrambling to know wtf to do, given the analytics were screwed? It turns out that when people pushed resources into video, Facebook did a 180 and prioritised different content. Even though, yes, consumption (tracked by spending) is apparently dwindling, my question is: How much of it is now dark? How much of it has become independent? And how much of the industry’s problem is a result of anti-competitive behaviour? Big questions, not answered by this article - but it’s worth a read regardless. https://www.fastcompany.com/90321376/facebook-in-2015-pivot-to-video-facebook-today-local-news-is-dead
Paternalistic rules enforcement is what destroys law firm cultures
This fantastic piece over at Evolve the Law discusses the fine line between accountability and blame. It suggests that the industry-wide strategy of “do good work” relies on individual intelligence… and that the culture of then blaming individuals for poor performance has traditionally been viewed as being ok. The problem is, blame kills trust. Trust happens to be entangled with loads of other things, like motivation, creativity, knowledge-sharing, collaboration… and all of these inspire innovation and working smarter. The article gives you some great tips on improving your culture, and suggests that your strategy ought to be empowering others to do good work. Well, you know, it’s not really a business strategy, but it will definitely help to turn your culture around. Read this at https://abovethelaw.com/legal-innovation-center/2019/03/19/confusing-accountability-and-blame-is-killing-your-culture/?rf=1