Leadership

Significance

Most of us seek peace, love, and significance.
All can be achieved by offering each to others.

Visions, missions, and titles guide teams in a shared direction, but linchpins want work that matters, and culture outshines even the most thoughtful strategy.

The race to revenue makes it easy to see why we’ve been seduced by surveillance, predictable profit margins, and forced productivity. Too often, the easy metrics borrowed from such compliance are the ones that get measured. This leads to endless meetings geared toward delivering information, avoiding blame, and asserting authority for those in charge.

The illusion is that control will lead to predictable results thanks to a maximization of resources. The problem is, humans are not a resource.

Extra Shot

Are your meetings led by a few people talking and most pretending to pay attention? Perhaps it’s time to get real by inviting the team to lead together.

Leaders who make a difference welcome tension from those who make a ruckus. We nurture initiative, even when results aren’t perfect. This creates enrollment, where enthusiasm is met with consistent action. Promises that are kept lead to progress, which makes intentional permeability easier to execute. When everyone on a team is proud of the impact they make, roles are better understood, contributions last longer, and appreciated energy would be missed if it were gone. This is work worth doing, and it sounds like a symphonic choir when everyone on a team is given a voice to sing their own song of significance.

Brewed From Within
#39 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Listen

Listening is louder than it sounds.

The more obsessed, the more vociferous we get. Idea machines must be willing to share compelling stories, but listening is part of any transmission. This is obvious, but with precious airtime up for grabs and knowing so much about our own interests, listening can devolve into feeling like a required distraction.

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Hearing is passive.
Listening is active.

As we guide people through the layers of understanding, active listening forms a bond much faster than forcing ourselves to be heard. The fear of not having time to deliver our message will linger, but when we truly tune into what another person is saying, it shows we care. Active listening also helps us better harmonize our thoughts within the moment and counters the common mistake of overloading others with too much numbing details all at once. Knowing each conversation is part of a broader relationship journey, good listeners are almost always given a chance to make a bigger impact.

Ready for an experiment? The next time you meet someone new, embrace your inner scientist. Set your introverted/extroverted mindset aside and focus your attention on asking as many thoughtful questions as you can. The less you talk, the better. This will feel awkward if you just fire question after question, so be concise with each response, then return to thoughtful questions for a more natural interaction. Consider expanding this social experiment by purposely doing this throughout an entire networking event. Remember who you talked with and track how the listening-focused conversations evolve. Over time, how do these relationships compare with others where you’ve been less intent on listening?

Here are tactics to support your listening practice:

  • Center your internal attention.
  • Stay engaged with eye contact.
  • Use jarring questions to dodge small talk.
  • Don’t interrupt or jump to conclusions.
  • Occasionally paraphrase what was said.
  • Avoid the urge to make it about you.
  • Ask curious questions to go deeper.
  • Use non-verbal cues to express attention.
  • Record and share a few key takeaways.
  • Exit gracefully, without a sense of rush.
  • Follow up with one more question.
  • Ask about progress next time you meet.

This type of active listening will not only extend your ability to hear. It will also make your responses more in-tune with what others are thinking versus always trying to prove your point. Selflessness may keep a conversation from landing exactly where we want in that moment, but as we move from one topic to the next, we learn how others work.

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Listening within a support network ignites optimism, connection, and motivation. A healthy balance involves listening to challenge networks, which keeps us intellectually humble and rooted in reality.

When done well, an unspoken bond is formed. This synchronization curates future conversations that are enforced by shared enthusiasm.

Brewed From Within
#34 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Linchpin

We are often told that being extraordinary makes us special. We each write our own story in life, but as Neil deGrasse Tyson suggests, perhaps the sameness of our cosmic composition is what makes each of us fundamentally special from beginning to end. This eliminates the need for permission and actually invites us all to be remarkable.

The factory, which can be thought of as any existing organization with established systems, relies on profit margins and replaceable cogs that follow instructions to keep the vast machine churning. The factory was designed to maximize productivity during the Industrial Age, but in our connected era, factories are fading. Gone are the days of clocking in on time and keeping your head down just long enough to climb a ladder built to resist change. The factory worker’s willingness to play it safe may extend a sense of security, but this choice makes you easy to replace with cheaper labor, faster tools, and advancing technology.

In 2010, Seth Godin gave those who choose to be indispensable a name: linchpins. Linchpins are artists who go beyond mediocre. Linchpins solve interesting problems and make judgement calls without a map. They welcome weird. They are scientists who stay curious. They are generous and passionate about the art of connection. Through an inclusive, positive-sum lens, linchpins lead and let others lead without seeking credit. They are fearless in that they are unafraid of things they don’t need to be afraid of. Linchpins leave resumes behind by curating a body of work that transcends time. They keep building at the speed of trust and relentlessly #GiveFirst, knowing that accelerating others generates unmatched energy.

Cogs in a machine are replaceable and therefore can be paid less. When you are a linchpin, you leverage your own superpowers and get rewarded for creative expressions that are rooted in lasting purpose. The skills of a linchpin are hard to quantify with traditional metrics, but a willingness to bring your true genius to work is an open invitation. Over time, the linchpin’s art becomes meaningful to many, which makes work less about trading time for money. This also brews a centered state of indispensability, where nobody can compete with being you.

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“Leaders don’t get a map

or a set of rules. Living life

without a map requires a

different attitude. It requires

you to be a linchpin.” –Seth Godin

If indispensability is accessible to anyone, why doesn’t everyone accept the invitation to be wonderfully weird?

One primal reason is the indoctrination of an education system that was designed to produce factory workers. From an early age, we are brainwashed to pursue perfection, to color within the lines, to follow instructions, to care what others think, and to define success by worldly consumption.

Fortunately, progressive teachers are activating modern students to go beyond the system. Instead of molding obedient factory workers who hope to be taken care of by factories built on promises of the past, we can teach people to take initiative. To honestly assess Playforce Principles. To invite doubt and to solve interesting problems while leading with reverse charisma and confident humility.

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What makes you indispensable?

Whether fueling innovative action as an intrapreneur, diversifying your career portfolio with an inventive side hustle, or building as an entrepreneur, we may only live once, and life is too short not to enjoy your work.

Brewed From Within
#38 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Head Start

The entrepreneurial lifestyle resists definition.

Business owners paint with strokes of curiosity, determination, and innovation. When people build with creative ambition, experience is valuable, but the symphony of desire and attitude plays an equally important role. It takes heart to start and resilience to execute early moves, manage focus, build teams, maintain sales, and provide lasting customer service to maintain momentum.

The best part about an entrepreneurial lifestyle is that it’s accessible to everyone. This can be seen as students explore projects that transcend the classroom. It’s intrapreneurs fueling positive change in existing companies. It’s startup founders achieving product-market fit with new ideas and others who acquire an established business.

EXTRA SHOT

This contribution was written by Sheldon Ohringer. Along with helping us buy a business, Sheldon is an investor and board member who led large sales teams, developed acquisition programs, and as CEO took a technology company public.

Starting a brand new business is one way to explore the entrepreneurial lifestyle, but buying an existing business is also an interesting way to write your own story.

While there may be a higher cost for the head start, acquiring an existing business presents an interesting side door to the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Organic growth is important, but there are added benefits in augmenting internal development with external acquisitions as well. As you consider a business to buy, avoid future headaches by understanding industry requirements, such as licenses, permits, zoning, and environmental requirements. As you work with existing ownership to determine a purchase price, a valuation based on capitalized earnings, excess earnings, cash flow, and tangible assets are all methods to guide fair negotiations. In the end, the right price is one that delights the seller and excites the buyer.

As details come together, partner with legal and accounting experts who focus on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to document the transaction. A letter of intent, confidentiality agreement, contracts, leasing documents, financial statements, tax returns, and sales agreements are all important documents to talk with your M&A team about. Many transactions include a vesting schedule as well, so stay in tune with these details to avoid unwanted surprises.

There are a variety of strategic ways to acquire a business, but once the transition takes place, new owners are given keys to a kingdom that hails an established team, customer base, and operating procedures. As we see in the Exit section of the Results chapter in YDNTB, there will be challenges during these transitory times, but in the end, virtuous leaders listen to keep the culture balanced.

All the good that comes with a business is important to maintain, but an audit of negative aspects is important too. This focus on areas that need improvement is stressful, and concerned employees may exaggerate issues to make their own contribution seem important. To stay proportionate, talk with everyone for context, invite resolutions that may solve issues, get hands-on, and stay optimistic to keep your assessment honest and weighted against the big picture.

Searching and finding undervalued, cash-flow businesses may take time, but it serves as a viable alternative to growing a business from scratch. Intentional candor with areas to improve allows new owners to build on past success while charting a renewed vision for lasting prosperity.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Table of Riffs

Brewed From Within: Energy for the Entrepreneurial Lifestyle compiles 125 riffs into four timeless sections. Here’s a VIP snapshot tour, with a handful of riffs linked for early access!

Imagine holding your new book. After the cosmic cover art is initially observed, we open to a title page, one blank page for personalizations from the author, and then the publisher’s copyright page. After the heartfelt dedication page and motivating preface, you’ll find the table of riffs. While the book flows from start to finish, each riff is individually numbered and includes a snapshot of Key Topics and a unique QR code that supports easy referencing and quick sharing. The Foreword from Brad Feld and the book’s Introduction prepares you for what to expect and then we dive in! The Table of Riffs below is your first look at the modern circus that’ll energize whatever you’re building. After the book becomes a new favorite, we end with the book’s closing matter. Readers can refill their mug even more in the About The Author pages, meet the 21 contributing authors, acknowledge those who brought this book to life, sneak backstage for people interested in writing a book or book marketing, play in a mini crossword puzzle, and explore more timeless resources to keep us all building… TOGETHER.

PART ONE: ENTREPRENEURSHIP

1. Uncharted
2. Early Moves
3. Maverick
4. First in Line
5. Ideaworks
6. Pain Relievers vs. Vitamins
7. Minerva
8. Prismatic
9. Fresh Powder (cc)
10. Escorting Execution
11. Slow & Fast
12. Triangulation
13. Real Skills
14. Ship It
15. Storytelling
16. Super Sentence
17. Isochronal
18. Sequencing
19. Feedback Is Data
20. Down Under (cc)
21. Slide Deck Design
22. Attention Traps
23. Captive
24. Momentum Mountain
25. Fructifying Fortitude
26. Shifting Gears
27. Echoes
28. Breakout Valuation
29. Head Start (cc)
30. Not to Lose
31. Landing
32. Voices (cc)
33. Diplomacy Disrupted (cc)

PART TWO: LEADERSHIP

34. Listen
35. Jargon vs. Understanding
36. Small Business Owners
37. ArtOfficial (cc)
38. Linchpin
39. Significance
40. Permeability
41. Everyday Activism (cc)
42. Generosity Builds Trust
43. Atmospheric
44. Winds of Outrage
45. Executionist
46. Import Knowledge
47. Líneas Invisibles (cc)
48. Interested Introductions (cc)
49. Overtime
50. Decisions
51. Aphorism
52. Airport Foot Massage
53. Enchanting Events
54. Reluctance
55. Collide
56. Playforce (cc)
57. Playforce Principles
58. Adaptability (cc)
59. Adapttitude (cc)
60. Extra Credit (cc)
61. Tenured & Tired
62. Seasonality
63. Linear
64. Diversified Career Portfolio
65. Visualizing Variety
66. Hiatus

PART THREE: TECHNOLOGY

67. Pure Wonder
68. Innovation Curves
69. Tinker
70. Wireframing
71. Hybridize
72. Time Trappers
73. Cyberspace
74. Producing a Podcast
75. Dollowers
76. Welcome to Web3
77. Mechanized Money (cc)
78. Woven Worlds (cc)
79. Phygital
80. Munch Munch
81. Septenary
82. Conversationalized
83. Yin-Yang
84. Bridges to Tomorrow
85. Digitized Consciousness
86. Replicants
87. Incentivized Reality (cc)
88. Propulsive
89. Neon Future

PART FOUR: LIFE & HAPPINESS

90. Open to Next
91. Indexing
92. Uncertainty
93. Anticipation
94. Recursion
95. Horizons
96. Anxiety
97. Creation vs. Consumption (cc)
98. Waiting Rooms (cc)
99. 1% Better
100. Training Wheels
101. Bloop
102. Winterizing
103. Santa Is Real
104. Front & Center
105. Pebbles
106. Goodnight Moon
107. Totality
108. 13.8 Billion
109. Dark Matter
110. Gimmies
111. Hole-In-One (cc)
112. Serendipitist
113. Bookmarks
114. Feng Shui
115. Sedona Sands
116. Love Letters
117. One & Only
118. Wayfinders
119. Winding Whys
120. Oversubscribed
121. Intrinsic
122. Conspicuous Kindness
123. Sharing
124. Endowment
125. Perpetuity

For more details or to consider creative ways to collaborate, download the book summary, grab a book, and connect with the author to talk through more ideas.

By Ben McDougal, ago