WoW Wednesday​

This week, let’s reflect on a powerful quote often attributed to Bill Keane: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”

How does this timeless wisdom apply to our leadership journey? It’s a potent reminder to anchor ourselves in the NOW for maximum impact.

Here’s how we can unpack this for leadership:

🎁 Embrace the Present (Focus & Action): Today is where influence happens! Effective leaders are fully present – actively listening, making timely decisions, and tackling current challenges head-on. Don’t let past setbacks or future worries paralyze you from acting decisively now.

📚 Learn from the Past (Informed Decisions): “History” isn’t for dwelling, but for learning. Leverage past experiences – both wins and losses – to inform your current strategy and avoid repeating mistakes. Extract the lesson, then refocus on today.

🔮 Approach the Future (Vision & Motivation): The “mystery” of tomorrow shouldn’t breed anxiety, but inspire vision. Leaders use the future to set motivating goals and create purpose. Look forward with hope, using it as fuel for today’s actions.

🧘 Mindfulness & Resilience (Composure & Adaptability): Accepting that yesterday is gone and tomorrow is uncertain builds resilience. Mindful leaders respond thoughtfully, not reactively, navigating complexities with a steady hand.

🙏 Gratitude & Acknowledgment (Team Morale): Recognizing today as a “gift” fosters gratitude. Acknowledge your team’s efforts, appreciate current opportunities, and cultivate a positive environment. Gratitude is a powerful motivator!

📖 Book Recommendation:

For a deeper dive into the power of presence in leadership and life, I highly recommend “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle.

Why? While not exclusively a leadership book, Tolle’s teachings are profoundly relevant. He emphasizes the importance of disidentifying from the “pain-body” of past regrets and future anxieties, and instead, accessing the immense power of the present moment. For leaders, this translates to:

▪️ Clearer decision-making, free from the noise of past failures or future fears.

▪️ Enhanced ability to connect authentically with team members.

▪️ Greater creativity and problem-solving capabilities by being fully attuned to the current situation.

▪️ Reduced stress and increased personal well-being, which radiates to the entire team.

It’s a transformative read that can help any leader cultivate the focus and inner peace needed to navigate today’s dynamic challenges effectively.

This week’s Words of Wisdom come from the insightful Tony Robbins: “Identify your problems, but give your power and energy to solutions.”

This quote is a game-changer for effective hashtag#leadership and hashtag#management. Challenges are a given in any organization, but true leaders differentiate themselves by how they steer through these moments. It’s about acknowledging the issue, then immediately shifting gears.

Here’s how this solution-focused philosophy translates into impactful leadership:

▪️ 🚀 Drives Proactive Problem-Solving & Innovation: Instead of dwelling on “what’s wrong,” leaders embodying this mindset immediately pivot to “How can we fix this?” or “What’s our next best step forward?”. This not only resolves issues faster but also cultivates a culture where innovative solutions are actively sought and valued.

▪️ 💡 Empowers Teams & Fosters Ownership: When leaders concentrate on solutions, they naturally invite their teams into the problem-solving process. This encourages creative thinking, builds collective ownership of outcomes, and boosts individual and team capability.

▪️ ⏳ Optimizes Resource Allocation & Boosts Efficiency: Energy and time spent dissecting blame or endlessly analyzing a problem are resources diverted from progress. Solution-oriented leaders strategically channel their team’s efforts and company resources towards constructive actions, leading to significantly greater operational efficiency.

▪️ 🌱 Cultivates a Resilient Growth Mindset: Viewing problems as direct opportunities for solutions helps build organizational resilience and adaptability. It reframes challenges not as insurmountable roadblocks, but as critical chances to learn, innovate, improve processes, and grow stronger.

▪️ 🤝 Strengthens Trust, Morale & Psychological Safety: When teams observe their leaders actively and visibly working towards solutions rather than just highlighting deficiencies, it builds immense confidence. This fosters a more positive, trusting work environment where individuals feel safe to acknowledge issues knowing the focus will be on repair, not reprisal.

Book Recommendation: 📚

This week, I recommend “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.

Why? This book powerfully illustrates the principle of taking complete responsibility for problems as the first step to then relentlessly drive solutions. It emphasizes that leaders must own all challenges their teams face to effectively guide them to success, aligning perfectly with channeling energy into solutions, not blame.

This week, let’s reflect on a powerful aspect of leadership: connecting everyday work to a larger meaning. I’m inspired by this insight, often attributed to leaders like Larry Fink:

“People want to know that their work matters. Great leaders connect the daily tasks to the larger purpose.”

Why does this resonate so deeply, especially today? 🤔

In a world seeking connection and impact, employees aren’t just fulfilling tasks; they desire to contribute to something bigger than themselves. Effective leadership bridges the gap between the daily grind and the organization’s mission. 🌉

The Relevance for Leaders:

• Boosts Motivation: Understanding the “why” fuels intrinsic motivation far more than just knowing the “what.”
• Increases Engagement: When people see their impact, they become more invested and engaged. 🤝
• Provides Context During Change: A clear purpose acts as a north star 🌟, helping teams navigate uncertainty.
• Fosters Loyalty: Feeling part of a meaningful mission builds stronger commitment.

How Leaders Can Do This (Examples):

• Regularly communicate the company’s vision and strategic goals, explicitly linking team projects to them.
• Share customer testimonials or data showing the real-world impact of the team’s efforts. 📈
• During 1-on-1s, discuss how an individual’s role contributes to the team’s and organization’s success.
• Celebrate milestones not just as task completions, but as steps towards the larger purpose. 🎉

Connecting these dots isn’t just a “nice-to-have”; it’s fundamental to building a high-performing, resilient, and purpose-driven team.

📚 Book Recommendation:

If this theme interests you, I highly recommend “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek. Sinek’s core message is that inspiring leaders and organizations think, act, and communicate from the inside out, starting with their fundamental purpose (their WHY). This perfectly complements Fink’s sentiment. To effectively connect daily tasks to a larger purpose, you first need to clearly understand and articulate that core purpose. “Start With Why” provides a compelling framework for doing just that. It’s essential reading for any leader wanting to make work truly matter.

In leadership, smooth seas are nice, but turbulence often defines our true capabilities. This week, let’s reflect on a powerful insight from the legendary Peter Drucker:

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence itself, but to act with yesterday’s logic.”

This quote is a critical reminder for every leader navigating uncertainty. The real risk isn’t just the external chaos; it’s clinging to outdated assumptions, strategies, and processes when the environment demands change. Effective leadership in turbulent times requires embracing today’s reality and anticipating tomorrow’s shifts.

Acting with “yesterday’s logic” can manifest in several ways. As leaders, we must actively guard against:

• ✅ Sticking rigidly to the old strategic plan: Assuming what worked before will work now, without reassessing the current landscape.
• ✅ Ignoring new data or dissenting voices: Relying solely on familiar sources or past successes, potentially missing crucial warning signs or opportunities.
• ✅ Maintaining inflexible processes: Resisting changes to workflows or structures that could offer needed agility and speed.
• ✅ Discouraging experimentation: Fearing failure so much that we shut down the innovative ideas needed to find new paths forward.
• ✅ Failing to challenge core assumptions: Not questioning why things are done a certain way, even when circumstances have fundamentally changed.

To thrive amidst turbulence, we need a different approach – one rooted in adaptability, learning, and foresight.

📚 Book Recommendation:

I highly recommend “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries.

Why? While focused on startups, its core principles are incredibly relevant for established organizations facing uncertainty. Ries provides a practical framework for navigating ambiguity by emphasizing:

• Validated Learning: Moving away from assumptions (yesterday’s logic) towards real-world testing and data.
• Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop: A dynamic process for iterating and adapting quickly, rather than executing a fixed, potentially outdated plan.
• Pivoting: Making fundamental strategic changes based on learning – the exact opposite of sticking to yesterday’s logic when it fails.

It’s a playbook for acting with today’s information to build a resilient future.

This week, let’s reflect on a truly powerful piece of guidance from the incredible Maya Angelou:

“When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”

Such simple words, yet they hold a profound truth about growth, responsibility, and especially, leadership.

Think about it:

➡️ “When you learn, teach.” As leaders, we’re constantly learning – new skills, strategies, insights. This quote reminds us that knowledge isn’t meant to be hoarded. Our role includes sharing that wisdom, mentoring our teams, and illuminating the path for others.
➡️ “When you get, give.” Whether it’s recognition, resources, influence, or opportunity, leadership often means receiving more. The call here is clear: use what you “get” to uplift others. Share the credit, create pathways, open doors, and offer support.

This resonates so deeply with my own journey in the hospitality industry. I stand where I am today because leaders and mentors before me took the time to teach me invaluable skills and gave me opportunities to learn, grow, and prove myself. Just as importantly, they consciously chose to give opportunities – trusting me with new responsibilities, providing chances to lead projects, letting me learn from mistakes, and ultimately allowing me to grow and prove myself. Without that intentional sharing of knowledge and opportunity, individual growth can stall, and teams can stagnate. Their generosity truly paved the way for my career.

It’s a cycle I feel a strong duty to continue. As leaders, especially in hospitality where mentorship is key, we MUST consciously:

▪️Teach our teams what we know – share the secret sauce, the recipe for success, the techniques, the service standards.
▪️Give them chances to shine – delegate important tasks, provide constructive feedback, advocate for their growth.

Let this week’s wisdom guide our actions: How can we better embody this cycle? Let’s turn our learning into teaching, and our getting into giving. It’s how we build stronger teams, foster loyalty, and create a lasting positive impact.

Book Recommendation 📖
For anyone in leadership, particularly hospitality, I can’t recommend “Setting the Table” by Danny Meyer enough. It beautifully illustrates how prioritizing and investing in your team (teaching & giving!) creates exceptional guest experiences and business success. I had the privilege of working with Danny (and so many other great leaders) during my tenure at Shake Shack and saw firsthand the profound, positive impact living the principles from this book has on culture and success. It’s packed with real-world hospitality wisdom!