Episode #399: Josh Kaufman – How To Master The Art Of Business

The Learning Leader Show

• Sustaining Excellence =
  • Learn constantly
  • Experiment constantly
  • Obsessive about learning the details, not a cookie cutter approach
• Rapid Skill Acquisition:
  • Must be specific
  • Break it down: don’t try to do it all at once
  • Do research
  • Practice
  • Deconstruct the skill to its smallest parts
  • Make a pre-commitment – “I’m going to practice this skill for 20 hours no matter what.”
• Create fast feedback loops for yourself:
  • Keep a daily log of what you do… Meetings, interactions, what was discussed, how you feel, etc.
• This helps reinforce the importance of paying attention to the small details of what you’re trying to learn
• If something happens, you can review your notes later
• Josh has always had “a desire to understand the world around me”
• Teaching is one of the greatest tools in the world for learning
• “Management is the act of coordinating a group of people to achieve a goal. Management is not business. Management is not leadership. Management is a supporting function, not a decision making function.”
  • “Leadership = define the goal, account for change.”
• “Good management =
  • Recruiting – must get good people
  • Communicating well between teams and decision making parts of the business
  • Must create environment of psychological safety
    • Create a productive working environment
  • Planning – Estimating time lines and schedules
  • Measurement
• Commander’s Intent – “When you are a leader, decision making authority, the least effective thing is for you to make all the ground level decisions.” Push decision making power to the people closest to the action.
• More quotes from Josh’s work:
• “You can’t make positive discoveries that make your life better if you never try anything new.”
• “Every successful business (1) creates or provides something of value that (2) other people want or need (3) at a price they’re willing to pay, in a way that (4) satisfies the purchaser’s needs and expectations and (5) provides the business sufficient revenue to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.
• “If you rely on finding time to do something, it will never be done. If you want to find time, you must make time.”
• “The best thing that can happen to a human being is to find a problem, to fall in love with that problem, and to live trying to solve that problem, unless another problem even more lovable appears.”
• “Every time your customers purchase from you, they’re deciding that they value what you have to offer more than they value anything else their money could buy at that moment.”
• “The trouble comes when we confuse learning with skill acquisition. If you want to acquire a new skill, you must practice it in context. Learning enhances practice, but it doesn’t replace it. If performance matters, learning alone is never enough.”
• “Be positive, force yourself to smile.”
• “Improve by 1% a day, and in just 70 days, you’re twice as good.”
• “Ideas are cheap—what counts is the ability to translate an idea into reality, which is much more difficult than recognizing a good idea.”
• “Fear of the unknown will always be with you, no matter what you do. That’s comforting in a way: if there’s nothing you can do to change it, there’s no reason to let it stop you.”

• Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea…

Resources:

• Read: WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT
• Be part of “Mindful Monday” — Text LEARNERS to 44222
• Read: The Personal MBA
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Connect with Miranda on LinkedIn
• Join our Facebook Group: The Learning Leader Community
• To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12

More Learning:

Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon

Episode 216: Jim Collins — How To Go From Good To Great

Episode #300: AJ & Keith Hawk – How To Instill Work Ethic & Curiosity In Your Children

Episode #303:  General Stanley McChrystal – The New Definition Of Leadership