Happy Sunday Friends!

Welcome back to another Sunday Friends! I’m glad you’re here. Here is your Sunday Musings, a quick dose of what I’m exploring and thinking about. If you find it useful, please feel free to forward this along to friends!

We Lead People, not Technology

I was chatting with a friend of mine earlier this week and he commented on how he had just complimented a junior at his office for a well-written document. He was surprised at how different he is from his previously held mental construct.

That one observation sparked memories we both had from entering the work force as “doers”. I can vividly recall a senior VP who seemed to never do anything. He went into his office, only coming out to talk with other seniors or to hand out an attempt at praise to someone for doing something menial. He *obviously* didn’t know how to do what we did and probably didn’t even understand it.

Really, that is what I remember of my perception of him.

Now, we are both in that guy’s position, and with time and position comes a very different perspective. We now get it, while we understand and have done what our employees do, it’s not our job to take care of those things anymore.

It’s our job to take care of our people and trust they know how to take care of those things. Unlike in the past, as leaders, we exist to remove the obstacles that prevent our employees and subordinates from being successful. We are their advocates, their champions, and the technology voice throughout the organization and up to the C-Suite. We must deliberately curate a culture where our people work at their natural best and ensuring they understand how organizational goals, division goals, and their goals nest.

Technology leadership has changed greatly from 20 years ago. We can’t be the guy or gal with their door closed, unavailable, unapproachable, and we are certainly not unassailable. CIOs and CISOs are now blended executives with an understanding and a passion for both technology and business. Providing unique insight, strategies and business development possibilities for what technology can do. Additionally, you are now the Integration Expert, responsible for handling the internal and external integrations and opportunities to ensure your clients/customers only experience the outcome, not the business process.

How do we do this? Cultivate an always improving mindset. Culture starts at the top. Surrounding ourselves with people who embody the virtues we aspire to, get a mentor and be a mentor! Be a leader of people, not just technology, attract and promote the same.

This Week’s Recommendation

The 2-Minute Rule

What is it?

The 2-minute rule comes from David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done”. It’s a simple razor you can boil down to this: If this task will take less than 2 minutes, do it now. If not, write it down.

How I use it

I find this a great starting point for two things.

EVERYTHING that I haven’t planned for.

I generally have a list of things I must do today and things I might get done this week. I tackle my musts as soon as possible, preferably before 10am. After that, the day is about being a people leader, ensuring I am able to assist with what they need to be successful, and solving the hard problems that arise. If I can handle them with a quick, informed decision or action, I knock it out and move on. If not, I take note and handle it in the margins (there are always exceptions of course).
When I don’t feel like doing anything.

This is me. I love my “nothing box”, it’s quiet there. But I can’t stay there, I wasn’t meant to be there forever. So I can knock out the simple and quick things to get a few wins and build momentum and motivation for the more demanding things.

That’s the 2-Minute Rule. Do you use it? Do you have tips? Going to try it out? Let me know! I’d love to hear from you!

Technology I’m Looking At

Using ChatGPT at your Smart Assistant

Someone did it, they built a smart home assistant by integrating ChatGPT into their smart home device. The results are a much more fluid-feeling generalist assistant. It’s just the nascent stages, but oh man, I hope this becomes a thing! Check out the article on Medium, and on his Youtube.

Once I’m done with this course, I think I’m going to try it out myself.

Quote I’m Musing

“Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those who you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one: [people] learn as they teach.”

-Seneca

Simply, we do not stay the same. We all change, even if it is usually slowly. The question is will we change for the better or not.

When we teach something, we learn again in new ways. We reapply the fundamentals, and by critiquing a student’s methods, we examine our own and ensure our examples are better than our normal work. In doing that, we learn as teachers.

Think of the areas of your life where you would like to improve. Who are the people you associate with in those areas? Are they pushing you towards improvement? Seek out and spend time with those who can help you improve, whether it is your spiritual, physical, emotional, or intellectual side, find them and spend time with them.

Who are the people who are good at what you want to improve and could best help you become better? How can you reach out to them? Do you have a mentor or a friend who could help? Can you take a class or read a book? Maybe there’s a web site on the topic, YouTube is free education, we just have to find the best professors.

No one can improve you but yourself, and not without your permission. Until you choose to improve, it will be difficult. Self-improvement requires action of us, and it’s a losing fight to just stay the same. We improve or we decline.

For me, small actions today become my habits of tomorrow. Every action is a vote cast for the person I will become. Today is the least informed I will be for the rest of my life. Hopefully, it’s also the least fit day of the rest of my life. I plan to improve in every way I possibly until I am no longer here.

I would love your feedback!

Which musing is your favorite? What else do you want to see or what should I eliminate? Any other suggestions? Just send a tweet to @erichaupt on Twitter and put #SundayMusings at the end so I can find it. Or, eric@erichaupt.com for long form email.

Have a wonderful week, I’ll see you Sunday.
-e