The Advisor’s Corner

Fascinating Mentoring by a Dad

May 2, 2016/in Nuggets and Encouragement Regarding Strategy and Focus/by Tom Doescher

Somehow I missed Steve Wozniak’s book iWoz when it was published in 2006, five years before Walter Isaacson’s now-famous book, Steve Jobs. My regular readers know I have written several times about Steve Jobs, but I knew very little about his Apple co-founder, Wozniak. At the end of the book, Wozniak states that he wrote the book for two reasons. The first was to set the record straight. The second — and I quote — was “To give advice to kids who are like I was. … Kids who feel they’re outside the norm … who feel it in themselves to design things, invent things, engineer things.”

My biggest takeaway from iWoz was Wozniak’s description of how his dad mentored/fathered him. His father, a Lockheed engineer, was the perfect person for this young, gifted inventor. In his own words, “My dad guided me, but I did the work. And my dad, to his credit, never tried to teach me formulas about gravitational power and electric power between protons, or stuff like what the force is between protons and electrons. That would have been way beyond what I could understand at that point. He never tried to force me to try and jump ahead because I wouldn’t have learned it.” Wow. I’m sure you can imagine how easy it would have been for his dad to push him, like some other famous fathers.

Mr. Wozniak’s perfect mentoring contributed to one of the greatest technological discoveries of all time. Wow!

Question: Would your team say this about you?

p.s. When Steve Wozniak was a child, he says his goal was to build something that would end up allowing him to do something really good for people. I would suggest he accomplished his goal and then some.

The Johari Window

April 18, 2016/in Ideas to help you build a solid team/by Tom Doescher

In Edgar H. Schein’s book, Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling, he mentions the Johari Window tool, which was invented by two American psychologists — Joe Luft and Harry Ingham — in 1955.

Instead of me trying to explain it, I would highly recommend watching this two-minute video clip:

(Or watch here)

I have written before about the importance of leaders being transparent with their team. I had the good fortune of experiencing my longtime mentor, Ken Kunkel, model the behaviors that are discussed in the video.

Are you the Marlboro Man (or whatever the equivalent is for a woman)? Would your team say they know you really well?

Humble Inquiry

April 4, 2016/in Extraordinary Customer/Client Service, Ideas to help you build a solid team/by Tom Doescher

Over the years, many people have told me that I’m a good listener. Recently, I discovered that I’m not as good as I would like to be. One behavior that I have identified and that I don’t like in myself is that sometimes, when someone describes a business problem that I have experienced many times, I jump to a conclusion and offer my advice without asking many questions about the individual’s specific concern.

In Edgar H. Schein’s book, Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling, he says, “We must become better at asking and do less telling in a culture that overvalues telling.” Ouch! He also says, “Humble inquiry is the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not already know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person.” He suggests thinking about what we ask, how we ask it, where we ask it and when we ask it.

Even for those of you who are “great listeners,” I would suggest reading this short little book because it’s filled with many very practical suggestions.

So you say you’re a good listener. What would your subordinates say?

Fascinating Mentoring by a Dad

The Johari Window

Humble Inquiry

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