Scott Monty | Timeless and Timely

Words Matter

<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tv0gkh4amXo/XzQLiujMFnI/AAAAAAABOZA/PMJa3DHJQ-M9HxAy4OJwjClOUCASRFGCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1255/Bookworm%2B-%2Bsq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1253" data-original-width="1255" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tv0gkh4amXo/XzQLiujMFnI/AAAAAAABOZA/PMJa3DHJQ-M9HxAy4OJwjClOUCASRFGCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Bookworm%2B-%2Bsq.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em style="font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bookworm_(painting)#/media/File:Carl_Spitzweg_021.jpg" target="_blank">The Bookworm</a></em><span style="font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"> by Carl Spitzweg, c. 1850 (public domain - Wikipedia)</span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Clifton Fadiman</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Academics are still on my mind this week, after discussing <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/oh-the-humanities">the humanities</a> with you last week (and our <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/the-covid-scholar">childhood reveries versus adult realities</a> that was sent to paying subscribers).</p><p>This is more than an academic discussion (pun intended). <strong>Lifelong learning</strong> and <strong>curiosity</strong> are two of the hallmarks of great leaders―individuals who are constantly consuming information in a variety of formats, who then take what they've learned and weave it into a tapestry of other formats that complement their teams' styles.</p><p>But you may have noticed that the preferred medium of communication in the last few months has skewed toward video, as we sit in front of webcams and partake of meeting after meeting on Zoom. Video is powerful because it involves so many of our senses, but it's also the most exhausting precisely <em>because</em> it involves so many of our senses. <strong>Zoom fatigue</strong> is real―and it has <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/21314793/zoom-fatigue-video-chat-facebook-google-meet-microsoft-teams">a long history</a>.</p><p>Writing is still the most powerful medium that we have, and the best leaders are also good writers; arguably, communication is probably the most essential skill a leader can have. Everything else―strategic planning, hiring, creating a vision, motivating your team, and even financial planning―involves communication, which is simply defined as a process for exchanging information.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"What magnifies a voice is the force of mind and the power of expression, which is why Shakespeare’s plays still draw a crowd in Central Park, and why we find the present in the past, the past in the present, in voices that have survived the wreck of empires and the accidents of fortune."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Lewis H. Lapham, 2008</em></div><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Good communication makes all the difference in how your audience receives your information. Whether it's relayed in a story or a set of bullet points, leaders need to present their ideas in ways that inspire, motivate or emphasize, and you can't do that without spending time laying it all out in your mind. The historian David McCullough wrote, “<em>Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard</em>."</p><p>Perhaps this is why exhaustion is setting in from our video calls. Because just sitting down in front of a camera and talking doesn't require planning. Set up the shot, hit "Join Call" and start talking. Compare that to a planned video shoot, where you're blocking every shot and have a script to follow. A script? Why, that's writing!</p><p>So even for video (<em>good</em> video, that is), writing is necessary. It's also the secret to giving a good presentation―writing out what you plan to present helps frame the idea and the persuasiveness before they come flowing from your mouth.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"Vox audita perit, littera scripta manet." ("The spoken word vanishes; the written word remains.")</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>― Latin proverb</em></div><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>With live presentations, our interactions are ephemeral. They remain in our memories, but are inconveniently inaccessible. Think of all of the great actors of the past who were heaped with praise by critics: Edwin Booth, David Garrick, Richard Burbage and more. Yet there's no one alive who can convey what the experience was like, the nuances of the craft, or how it made them feel.</p><p>With video, thanks to YouTube, that second largest search engine on the internet, we have the ability to scan, search, and find material that is buried in our memory. But it can be hit or miss. The written word, not so much.</p><p>We have a record of great acting and great speeches from the last century that have been captured on film or audio, but there have been great speeches throughout history worthy of remembering. How do we know? They were written down. One of the reasons we still have the <em>Iliad</em> and the <em>Odyssey</em> with us today is because they transitioned from the oral tradition to the written record.</p><p>It's not enough to simply write things down; after all, we can still read the graffiti on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Words and ideas will remain with us if we're appropriately inspired—that is, if they're crafted in a way to make us sit up and pay attention.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"There is nothing so intolerable as dull writing."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>― Charles Honce<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>If you want to become a great leader, you first need to become a good writer. What's the secret to good writing? I'll share a secret about good writing with you. Yes, it's a matter of practicing your writing on a regular basis, but there's something more fundamental:</p><p>If you want to be a good <strong>writer</strong>, first you need to be a <strong>reader</strong>.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>― Samuel Johnson, 1775</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>For me, the most intense and rewarding part of writing this newsletter isn't the writing. Nor is it the feedback (although I do appreciate hearing from you!). It's the research. I usually put five times the time and effort into reading and research that I do into the writing of my newsletter.</p><p>How are you preparing for what you write?</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>― Rev. D.F. Potter, 1927</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Certainly you should be educating yourself with analyst reports, memos, and industry news, but there are sources outside of your vertical that will give you <strong>inspiration </strong>and <strong>insights</strong> where you least expect them.</p><p>For example, I was recently reading Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "<a href="https://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_poem.php?pid=275">Morituri Salutamus</a>," a poem he composed for the 50th anniversary of Bowdoin College's class of 1825. [Incidentally, the title of the poem is taken from the old Latin phrase "<em>Nos morituri te salutamus</em>," translated as "We who are about to die salute you." This is the apocryphal phrase that gladiators uttered to the emperor before battle.]</p><p>In it, Longfellow laments the inexorable march of time, but indicates that we can use age to our advantage—for with age, we gain insights that are simply unachievable in youth. </p><blockquote><p><em>The scholar and the world!  The endless strife,<br />The discord in the harmonies of life!<br />The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,<br />And all the sweet serenity of books;<br />The market-place, the eager love of gain,<br />Whose aim is vanity, and whose end is pain!</em></p><p><em>But why, you ask me, should this tale be told<br />To men grown old, or who are growing old?<br />It is too late!  Ah, nothing is too late<br />Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.<br />Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles<br />Wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides<br />Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,<br />When each had numbered more than fourscore years,<br />And Theophrastus, at fourscore and ten,<br />Had but begun his ?Characters of Men.?<br />Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales,<br />At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;<br />Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,<br />Completed Faust when eighty years were past.<br />These are indeed exceptions; but they show<br />How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow<br />Into the arctic regions of our lives.<br />Where little else than life itself survives.</em></p></blockquote><p>There are two points here for business leaders that are worth reflection. The first is that we ought to give more consideration to hiring older employees, who will have more experience and insight to apply to our business challenges, rather than relying on cheaper labor that will make mistakes that the more experienced workers could have avoided.</p><p>The bean-counters will push us to hire in ways that will immediately protect the bottom line, but in certain cases, these decisions will have longer-lasting impacts if we fall into the same traps we once did (see above: "we find the present in the past, the past in the present"). Concurrently, the median tenure of employees at companies is <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf">4.2 years</a> (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2018), meaning that in addition to being prone to hiring workers with less work experience, we're victims to a shrinking institutional memory as well.</p><p>The second breadcrumb that Longfellow leaves us is to continue to read—and reread—long after we've left school. That Fadiman quote at the beginning of the essay is a reminder that what we get out of books is almost mathematical in its precision: as we grow, so does our understanding and interpretation of what we read.</p><p>In <strong><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/states-war/gulf-time">the very first essay for </a></strong><em><strong><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/states-war/gulf-time">Lapham's Quarterly</a></strong></em> in 2008, Lewis H. Lapham noted this phenomenon:</p><blockquote><p><em>"As a college student, I acquired the habit of reading with a pencil in my hand, and, in books that I’ve encountered more than once, I discover marginalia ten or forty years out of date, most of it amended or revised to match a change in attitude or plan."</em></p></blockquote><p>How much do our attitudes or plans change over time? Are we even willing to admit it?</p><p>This kind of flexibility speaks to our fallibility―something certain leaders seem to be afraid to admit. But those with emotional intelligence are naturally open to listening to others, taking in new information, and applying it to their decisions. With age, experience, and observance of our inevitable errors, we find how necessary reflection is.</p><p>Reflection can come in a variety of forms, whether it's through meditation, journaling, or even reading. But rarely (if ever) does it happen during a string of video calls.</p><p>Read more. You'll discover a world within you and around you taking on a whole new meaning ― and you can share it with those who matter to you.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"When you sell a man a book, you don't sell him 12 inches of ink and glue―you sell him a whole new life."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>― Christopher Morley<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><br /><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>This originally appeared in the August 12 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/words-matter" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i>. </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div>

Words Matter

The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg, c. 1850 (public domain - Wikipedia) "When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than ...

Oh, the Humanities

<h6 data-pm-context="[]"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ctYl3zqIJ9M/Xyp5f0tUysI/AAAAAAABOPo/Lrn2veefEiwzxTwcnBp94CMkhgM5BAMYgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1240/Pierre-Auguste%2BRenoir%2B-%2BReading%2B%2528La%2BLecture%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1240" height="529" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ctYl3zqIJ9M/Xyp5f0tUysI/AAAAAAABOPo/Lrn2veefEiwzxTwcnBp94CMkhgM5BAMYgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h529/Pierre-Auguste%2BRenoir%2B-%2BReading%2B%2528La%2BLecture%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="font-size: 10.72px; font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir_-_Reading_(La_Lecture)_-_BF107_-_Barnes_Foundation.jpg" target="_blank">Reading (La Lecture)</a></em><span style="font-size: 10.72px; font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"> by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1891 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></h6><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”</strong></em><strong> </strong></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Will Durant, 1926</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br />There's so much happening in the news every day, it's difficult to keep up. It feels as if we're caught in a current and are fighting it with every swipe of the phone, swimming against a digital riptide while powered only with thumbs to propel us through the water.<br /><br /> It's exhausting.<br /><br /> There's a temptation to undertake a digital detox, but sometimes, it's just not an option. Leaders are expected to make sense of it all—to parse through all of the facts flying at them, and to do so, they need to put the pieces together using <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/too-much-information.html">perception and imagination to create insights and informed decisions</a>.<br /><br /> Perception, imagination and insights come from years of experience on the job, but they also come from being widely read and learning how to think critically. These are attributes that are a consequence of an education in the humanities.<br /><br /> In the age of the rise of STEM education, philosophizing about the humanities might seem a counterintuitive. As with all of my essays, I have a point—one that will be explained by way of some of the great thinkers of the past (and present).</p><h3><br /></h3><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>A Virginia Vision</b></h2><p>When Thomas Jefferson envisioned the University of Virginia in 1818, he set out with some guiding principles in his <em><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/ways-learning/thomas-jefferson-opens-school">Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia</a></em>. He stressed ideals bound by <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/06/honor-and-duty.html">honor and duty</a>, of enlightenment, and the greater good.<br /><br /> These included:</p><ul><li><p>To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business.</p></li><li><p>To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts, and accounts in writing.</p></li><li><p>To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties.</p></li><li><p>To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either.</p></li><li><p>And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.</p></li></ul><p>He went on to prescribe various branches of higher education, such as government and civics, agriculture, mathematics, manufacturing, the arts, and more. In summing up, Jefferson advocated that education should advance "the prosperity, the power, and the happiness of a nation."</p><p>If you read the full excerpt of the Report, there's a subtle shift from those ideals related to morals and enlightenment and those that are more practical in nature. As a classically-educated man of his time, he understood the importance of the care and feeding of the mind, but it was no less important that the care and feeding of one's own family—something that results from "transaction of his own business" and with any luck, ends in "prosperity."</p><p>As America developed from an awkward agrarian youth to a full adult of the Industrial Age, the caretakers of education evolved from the bookish types to industrialists and men of a practical nature, who knew how to measure output and productivity. And before we knew it, higher education became not only practical, but essential for upward mobility.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Students don’t go to school to acquire the wisdom of Solomon. They go to school to acquire a cash value and improve their lot, to pick up the keys to the kingdom stocked with the treasures to be found in a BMW showroom or an Arizona golf resort."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Lewis H. Lapham, 2008</em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br />That's not to say that business and education are separate concepts; they sail on the same ocean that is the almighty dollar. Indeed, <a href="https://www.profgalloway.com/post-corona-higher-ed-part-deux">the business of higher education is struggling</a>, as the tempest of COVID-19 is rocking already precarious ecosystem, ready to dash its ships upon the shoals.</p><p>When students venture into the "real world," as it's so often called from the halls of the academy, they often leave behind what they've gained from university settings. Degrees in hand after a sunny spring commencement ceremony, they accept job offers and plunge headlong into a new environment, eagerly learning a trade—a trade, odds are, that their liberal arts institutions or humanities degrees have not prepared them.</p><p>Or have they?<br /></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Dust Off Your Shakespeare</strong></h2><p>At first blush, Plato doesn't seem to be of much use in computer programming; Hannibal may have crossed the Alps on elephants, but he can't navigate an algorithm for an autonomous vehicle; and Abraham Lincoln thought that the world would little note nor long remember what he said, but can he help write ad copy?</p><p>Ralph Waldo Emerson bridged the theoretical and the practical in "<a href="http://digitalemerson.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/text/the-american-scholar">The American Scholar</a>," a speech he gave to Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa in 1837, in which he discerned the difference between the "Man Thinking" and the bookworm:</p><blockquote><p>"<em>Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given; forgetful that Cicero, Locke and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books…Hence the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution</em>."</p></blockquote><p>He of course meant not that these are two separate states of being (humans are almost never entirely one thing or another—we're complex that way), but that if we apply what we've come to learn on the printed page to our own experiences, we can create new and better opportunities for ourselves. </p><p>In fact, Emerson plainly stated the interplay between our work lives and our education: "When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read become luminous with manifold allusion."<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1911</em></div></em><p></p><p><em><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><h3><strong><br /></strong></h3><h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong>The Spacious Country of the Mind</strong></h2><p>As I select a topic to write about each week (my labor and invention), I find myself inspired as I read various sources—books, articles, newsletters, etc. Current events are filtered through this topical lens, and everything takes more meaning.<br /><br /> I've made no secret that one of my regular resources is <em><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/">Lapham's Quarterly</a></em>, a publication that in each issue captures a wealth of history and knowledge, which Will and Ariel Durant called "a celestial city, a spacious country of the mind, wherein a thousand saints, statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing." (<em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/3ia4OiR">The Lessons of History</a></strong></em>)<br /></p><p>But what can such figures of the past teach us about digital communications, leadership in the age of a COVID-19, or the security concerns of an enterprise SaaS purchase? What good are history, literature and philosophy when engineers are trying to complete their code?<br /></p><p>Just over a decade ago, Lewis Lapham noted that he regularly came across academic journals and alumni magazines with "articles that might as well be entitled '<a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/ways-learning/playing-fire">What In God's Name Are the Humanities, and Why Are They of Any Use to Us Here in the Bright Blue Technological Wonder of the Twenty-First Century?</a>'"<br /><br /> Technology has advanced well beyond its capabilities in Mr. Lapham's observation in 2008. But the need for humanities has not. Since then, we've seen the fine-tuning of artificial intelligence, the creation of the gig economy, and the rise of Facebook's power. As a result, we've seen unconscious built-in biases in A.I., a feudal class system made up of taxi-driving serfs, and a global communications platform that puts the very idea of democracy at risk led by a CEO who has all the power of a dictator.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><br /></em></p><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><em><em><strong>"Like the sorcerer's apprentice, our technologists produce continuously improved means toward increasingly ill-defined ends; we have acquired a great many new weapons and information systems, but we don't know at what or at whom to point the digital enhancements." </strong></em></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Lewis H. Lapham, 2008</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>When you develop a business primarily through the lens of engineering, algorithms and technology, and fail to properly account for human behavior as discernible by historic events and trends, this is what happens.<br /><br /> Enjoy those computer science degrees while you have them, Mark Cuban says. Because with the rise of A.I., the ability to program will be quickly assumed by machines. Longer term, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/29/18644652/mark-cuban-ai-computer-science-coding-liberal-arts-kara-swisher-steve-case-decode-podcast-interview">creativity, collaboration, and communication skills will be more valued</a> because these are things that are bound by emotions and empathy. He even thinks that in 10 years, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/20/mark-cuban-philosophy-degree-will-be-worth-more-than-computer-science.html?__twitter_impression=true">a philosophy degree will be worth more than a computer science degree</a>.</p><p>The humanities give us an opportunity to apply perspective and ethics to the field of technology. To not only game out the potential scenarios, but to ask and answer the hows and whys before those scenarios even exist.<br /></p><p>Voltaire once asked, "Is there any one so wise as to learn by the experience of others?" While no one has lived exactly as any one of us will, we can turn to the stories from those statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers from history and go from bookworms to Humans Thinking.<br /><br /> Our heritage is the key to our humanity.</p><p><br /></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2361544305652948199" itemprop="" style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><hr /><br /></div><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><i>This originally appeared in the August 5 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/oh-the-humanities" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i>. </div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><p><span class="datex show" face="" style="background-color: #2e2e2e; color: white; display: block; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 15px; padding: 3px 0px; position: absolute; text-align: center; top: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; z-index: 0;"><strong style="display: block; font-size: 21px; padding: 0px 2px;">29</strong><span style="display: block; font-size: 9px; height: 12px; line-height: 12px; padding: 0px 2px;">Jul</span><small style="display: block; font-size: 9px; height: 12px; line-height: 12px; padding: 0px 2px;">2020</small></span></p><div class="post-footer" style="background-color: #fafafa; border-top: 1px solid rgb(211, 211, 211); color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px -10px -10px; padding: 8px;"><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><div class="post-author vcard" style="margin: 0px;">Posted by <span class="fn"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/17710406470860389078" rel="author" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" title="author profile">Scott Monty</a></span></div></div></div>

Oh, the Humanities

Reading (La Lecture) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1891 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons) “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organize...

Ignorance, Incompetence and Impostors

<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IfUXp1QzHRA/XyGsAk_rUTI/AAAAAAABOH4/KwTMFeu4bOMvH1xXQOnf0WhwEwqgs2U9QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1010/Andries%2BCornelis%2BLens%2B-%2BHercules%2BProtects%2BPainting%2Bfrom%2BIgnorance%2Band%2BEnvy.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Painting from 1763 of Hercules protecting painting from Ignorance and Envy" border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1010" height="504" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IfUXp1QzHRA/XyGsAk_rUTI/AAAAAAABOH4/KwTMFeu4bOMvH1xXQOnf0WhwEwqgs2U9QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h504/Andries%2BCornelis%2BLens%2B-%2BHercules%2BProtects%2BPainting%2Bfrom%2BIgnorance%2Band%2BEnvy.jpg" title="Andres Cornelis Lens: Hercules Protects Painting from Ignorance and Envy" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andries_Cornelis_Lens_-_Hercules_Protects_Painting_from_Ignorance_and_Envy_-_WGA12673.jpg">Hercules Protects Painting from Ignorance and Envy</a></em></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"[I]gnorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Charles Darwin, 1871</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>If you were granted the opportunity to choose between two states of being, which would you prefer: being stupid but not realizing it, or being intelligent but not believing it?</p><p>Ignorance itself isn't something to be ashamed of. We're all ignorant in certain areas. When combined with a lack of self-awareness though, it could mean the difference between being harmless and dangerous.</p><p>Humility isn't dishonorable either. Or perhaps you wouldn't consider not believing your own intelligence to be defined as humility; maybe you prefer the phrase <em>de rigueur</em>: impostor syndrome.</p><p>Given the choice between these two states of being, which would you choose?</p><p>"Ignorance is bliss," as the saying goes, but that only applies to the ignorant―those on one side of the equation. What about those whom are the victims of ignorance, whether it's hapless or willful? The principled among us would feel responsibility for any damage our actions cause others. The ignorant? Not so much. I'm not sure I could live with such a state of being.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world, the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>– Bertrand Russell, 1933</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>In <em><a href="https://amzn.to/39DnKDv">Mortals and Others</a></em>, the philosopher Bertrand Russell included a scathing essay titled "<a href="https://russell-j.com/0583TS.HTM">The Triumph of Stupidity</a>," written in 1933. It was aimed at Germany, but could just as well apply to America today. In addition to this misplaced sense of confidence, he also points out that along the way, there's a moral failing as well: "<em>if intelligence is to be effective, it will have to be combined with a moral fervour which it usually possessed in the past but now usually lacks</em>."</p><p>Amid the COVID-19 response, we've seen a moral failing in scientific leaders who have missed opportunities to speak up when political leadership says misguided or ignorant things (e.g., "light inside the body" and "disinfectant"). The willful and hapless ignorance of these leaders resulted in cases and deaths that outstrip the rest of the world. Conflicting messages and uncertainty, combined with many Americans' desire to get back to normalcy and lack of self-discipline, combined with their skepticism of scientific experts have given us <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/america-land-pathetic/613747/">an America that is woefully ignorant of its decline</a>.</p><p>This might be summed up most succinctly in a quote from Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who said on June 30, 2020, in a pandemic hearing regarding the role of public health in the reopening of schools: "<em>We shouldn't presume that a group of experts somehow knows what's best for everyone.</em>"<br /></p><h3><strong><br /></strong></h3><h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Dunning-Kruger Effect on a National Scale</span></strong></h2><p>The Dunning-Kruger effect, named for social psychologists David Dunning (University of Michigan) and Justin Kruger (New York University's Stern School of Business), states that people of average abilities tend to overestimate their competence, while those of above average abilities tend not to realize how proficient they are. That is, <strong>confidence does not align with competence</strong>. It's illustrated in this graph:</p><div style="height: 0px; padding-bottom: min(75.9677%, 471px); text-align: center; width: 100%;"><a class="image-link image2 image2-471-620" href="https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F156e7d64-46be-4a2d-b39a-e0de455bb2ea_620x471.jpeg" style="height: 0px; padding-bottom: min(75.9677%, 471px); width: 100%;" target="_blank"><img alt="Image for post" data-attrs="{"src":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/156e7d64-46be-4a2d-b39a-e0de455bb2ea_620x471.jpeg","height":471,"width":620,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":null,"alt":"Image for post","title":null,"type":null,"href":null}" src="https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F156e7d64-46be-4a2d-b39a-e0de455bb2ea_620x471.jpeg" style="max-height: 471px; max-width: 620px;" /></a></div><p><a href="https://medium.com/discourse/the-dunning-kruger-effect-explains-why-society-is-so-screwed-up-1432aca90aa8">The loudest voices tend to have the most confidence but little competence</a>. In the animal kingdom, the ape or the lion expresses domination by virtue of a roar, but their sounds are backed up by ability. The weaker animal who tries to dominate by voice can receive his comeuppance with a drubbing if his physical abilities don't match his vocal abilities.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"What a king must suffer! For he knows, deep down in his heart, that he is a poor, cheap, wormy thing like the rest of us, a sarcasm, the Creator's prime miscarriage in inventions, the moral inferior of all the animals… the superior of them all in one gift only, and that one not up to his estimation of it — intellect."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Mark Twain, 1906</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>With humans? Not so much. We often see leaders <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3f95BGIiA">asserting their primacy of knowledge in a wide variety of subjects</a>. It's impossible for anyone to master many topics; this is why the best leaders assemble teams that contain subject matter experts, and then rely on them for advice and counsel. Leaders and experts know that there are limits to what they know; if they're presented with something outside of their sphere of knowledge, they're not afraid to say “I don’t know.”</p><p>Add to this the concept of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/role-cognitive-dissonance-pandemic/614074/">cognitive dissonance</a>, and it complicates matters further. The minute we make any decision we begin to justify the wisdom of our choice and find reasons to dismiss  alternatives.</p><p>You've probably encountered your fair share of leaders in business who don't seem to have the skills to match their positions. This was first captured as an idea by Dr. Laurence Peter in his 1969 satire <em><a href="https://amzn.to/336T8Ji">The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong</a></em>. Stated simply, the Peter Principle is this: "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."</p><p>It's based on the idea that employees will continue to receive promotions until they ultimately land in a position that's above their skill set. We often reward individual performers for success that has nothing to do with the positions they'll be placed in next. That is, we might see a proficient analyst or marketer, and based on the successes they've generated, put them in leadership positions.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among the men the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Charles M. Schwab, 1897</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Leadership requires a different set of skills than positions of individual performance. It's one thing to hone a deep level of expertise in a specific area; it's quite another to handle the functions of management and leadership. Suddenly, you're no longer responsible for the output—you're responsible for your people.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Impostor</span></strong></h2><p>Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a project, a speech, or strategic planning and thought, "I shouldn't be here. I don't have the skills or the ability to do this, even though people think I do."? If so, you've experienced an aspect of impostor syndrome.</p><p>Despite astonishing accomplishments, some people still feel a nagging sense of self-doubt and severe inadequacy. They might even feel like frauds.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em>“<strong>Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1914<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Even though many people struggle with impostor syndrome, I see two upsides to this. The first is it's evidence of self-reflection. Good leaders have a high degree of emotional intelligence (EQ), and one aspect of EQ is self-awareness. You can't have self-awareness without reflection. So, even though impostor syndrome brings self-doubt, you can be sure that those who struggle with it are not suffering from ignorance.</p><p>The second point is a corollary to the first: Intelligence looks in the mirror and sees ignorance. Ignorance looks in the mirror and sees intelligence. The only people who don't suffer from impostor syndrome are actual impostors. Remember that.<br /></p><p><br /></p><h1 style="text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">What's a Leader to Do?</span></strong></h1><p>As we try to bridge the gap between ignorance and competence, and to provide ourselves and others with well-reasoned rationales, there are a few steps we can take to minimize detrimental behavior.</p><p><strong>Don’t assume everyone knows what you know</strong>. Even if there are certain topics that come easy to you, take the time to bring everyone along on the journey. Overcommunicate without being patronizing.</p><p><strong>Make it okay for people to ask questions</strong>. No castigating or belittling: we are all on different stages of our journeys, whether it's in a career or in life.</p><p><strong>Failure is an option</strong>. We don't want to celebrate incompetence, but we should acknowledge it, free of stigma, and encourage learning from mistakes. To ignore it or punish it outright only gives people reasons to hide failures.</p><p><strong>Set time aside for reflection</strong>. Self-assessment is an always-on effort. We learn by honestly assessing our words and actions with others. Encourage self-reflection in your team as well.</p><p><strong>Find your inspiration</strong>. Look to others you admire and try to understand their journey to success. Yours may not be identical, but you can learn from them.</p><p>And don’t forget Hanlon's razor:  "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."</p><p><br /></p><p>So have you decided whether you'd rather be stupid without realizing it, or intelligent but doubtful of it?</p><p>It's not an easy choice—and of course it's a false one because these are not absolutes. But given the choice between the two, the latter at least provides a path toward enlightenment.</p><p>And a path forward is all we can ask.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /><br /></div><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>This originally appeared in the July 29 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/ignorance-incompetence-and-impostors" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i>. </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div></div>

Ignorance, Incompetence and Impostors

Hercules Protects Painting from Ignorance and Envy "[I]gnorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." — Charles...

A Monumental Reckoning

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Dr04stRQa4/Xw7_pp9VjgI/AAAAAAABN-U/sXeY7mLprJoSAB7xVGqq5kObvozqa3xCACLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/William%2BWalcutt%2B-%2BPulling%2BDown%2Bthe%2BStatue%2Bof%2BGeorge%2BIII%2Bat%2BBowling%2BGreen%252C%2BJuly%2B9%252C%2B1776.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Painting of the toppling of the statue of George III on July 9, 1776" border="0" data-original-height="821" data-original-width="1280" height="410" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Dr04stRQa4/Xw7_pp9VjgI/AAAAAAABN-U/sXeY7mLprJoSAB7xVGqq5kObvozqa3xCACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h410/William%2BWalcutt%2B-%2BPulling%2BDown%2Bthe%2BStatue%2Bof%2BGeorge%2BIII%2Bat%2BBowling%2BGreen%252C%2BJuly%2B9%252C%2B1776.jpg" title="Pulling Down the Statue of George III at Bowling Green, N.Y. July 9, 1776" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="2"><em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Walcutt_statue_George_III.png" target="_blank">Pulling Down the Statue of George III at Bowling Green, N.Y. July 9, 1776</a> </em>by William Walcutt, 1857 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)</font><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h6 data-pm-context="[]"></h6><div><hr /></div><p style="text-align: left;"><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>“Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.” </strong></em></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Christopher Wren, 1723</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>There’s a very human tendency to cling to what’s familiar — to keep up a process or tradition because “we've always done it that way.”</p><p>It’s so powerful a notion that in many boardrooms and whiteboard sessions, it’s used as a reflexive force field, to shield the team and the corporation from looming change. A new approach is greeted with “Nope, sorry. That won’t work. We’ve always done it this way.”</p><p>Consider our attachment to monuments and the current debates happening about them, as we reassess what they stand for. One camp is interested in removing anything object or representation that doesn’t square with our modern sensibilities and the other is steadfastly clinging to the past, right or wrong.</p><p>Does a physical object determine our beliefs? Can it teach us history?</p><p>A statue or monument certainly isn’t an advanced history lesson, but it does tell us something about our history as a society, if not the events or people it represents. It’s a snapshot in time rather than a fully fleshed out story—the difference between what happened and what we tell each other happened.</p><p>Lewis H. Lapham <strong><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/memory/remembered-past" target="_blank">eloquently wrote about the recorded past versus the remembered past</a></strong>:</p><blockquote><p><em>“The recorded past is a spiked cannon. The remembered past is live ammunition — not what happened two hundred or two thousand years ago, a story about what happened two hundred or two thousand years ago. The stories change with circumstance and the sight lines available to tellers of the tale. Every generation rearranges the furniture of the past to suit the comfort and convenience of its anxious present.”</em></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Ultimately, it’s about keeping a set of stories alive. Consider how the <em>Iliad</em> and the <em>Odyssey</em> made their way to us today, first as part of the oral tradition and then codified in writing.</p><p>When it comes to physical monuments, they tell us a great deal about ourselves, about our priorities at the time they were built, rather than about the events or people they symbolize.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“If there is one lesson to be learned from studying how monuments get chosen and built, it is that they most certainly do not represent history in any straightforward or responsible way.” </strong></em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Kirk Savage, 2018 (“<a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/making-monuments-what-they-ought-be" target="_blank">Making Monuments What They Ought to Be</a>”)</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Prof. Savage says that monuments tell us more about who made the decisions to build them and the times in which <em>they</em> lived. For example, the Emancipation Memorial, a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and a freed slave on his knees, was dedicated in 1876 after funds were exclusively raised by emancipated citizens, yet “a committee of white philanthropists in St. Louis controlled the money and decided on the artist and design without ever consulting their funders.”</p><p>The current debate began with monuments to leaders of the Confederacy. When you stop to think about it, <strong><a href="https://pca.st/fv4imvua#t=3735.0">it</a></strong>’<strong><a href="https://pca.st/fv4imvua#t=3735.0" target="_blank">s just plain crazy</a></strong> that we had statues honoring men who were traitors and who tried to bring down the country.</p><p>We hear the plaintive cries of “history” and of “heritage” that inevitably follow. But the facts remain. Most of these weren’t built in the years following the war to honor its history, but <strong><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/16/us/confederate-monuments-backlash-chart-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">decades after the Civil War ended</a></strong>, at a time when the country looked like it was making racial progress. And honoring traitors isn’t part of the heritage of any other country.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B0B7KCZNlVQ/Xw8I0dnqQSI/AAAAAAABN-g/Ep8j_xLAn5Ahvdt5yRpNSip5GzkwAAZBACLcBGAsYHQ/s1100/Confederate%2Bmonuments%2Bover%2Btime.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="1100" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B0B7KCZNlVQ/Xw8I0dnqQSI/AAAAAAABN-g/Ep8j_xLAn5Ahvdt5yRpNSip5GzkwAAZBACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/Confederate%2Bmonuments%2Bover%2Btime.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>What about other monuments to leaders who exercised questionable judgement? Leaders like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, who both owned slaves, and of others who may not live up to our standards today, are now being called into question.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“No one monument could be made to tell the whole truth of any subject which it might be designed to illustrate.”</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Frederick Douglass, 1876</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>This is where things can get problematic. If you dig deeper into things like women’s rights, gay rights or civil rights or other issues that are important by today’s standards, you’re going to find faults with every single leader of the past.</p><p>As presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says, “<strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ye2S8FbHPU" target="_blank">we need to cut the past some slack</a></strong>,” understand these figures, and get perspective on them.<br /><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Ye2S8FbHPU" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><p><br /></p><p>I often think that if I weren’t a communicator and a marketer, I’d be a historian. For what is a historian, but a storyteller? It’s the historian's job to understand the past and put some context around it.</p><p>That’s your job as a leader. To put context around strategies, decisions, and initiatives. You’re the chief storyteller who weaves a narrative for your employees and gets them excited or informed about the <em>why</em> behind the <em>what</em>.</p><p>Vainglorious leaders spend too much time worrying about their legacy. They hope to be remembered for the mark they leave on the world — for some, these things occupy their every waking moments.</p><p>We’d like to think our legacy assumes some permanence, as expressed in concrete, marble or steel, but in “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias" target="_blank">Ozymandias</a>” Shelley reminds us such things are temporary:</p><blockquote><p><em>“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay<br />Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare<br />The lone and level sands stretch far away.”</em></p></blockquote><p><br />True legacy — the legacy that matters — isn’t one that’s set in stone or on balance sheets. Your legacy will be in the stories they tell about you. It will be carried on by employees long after you've left the company, who remember you fondly for the way you made them feel.</p><p>Christopher Wren’s quote at the top of the essay (<em>“Si monumentum requiris, circumspice”</em>) is Latin for “If you seek his monument, look around you,” and is set in a great circle in the floor directly under the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, his masterpiece.</p><p>The beauty of the placement is that when you do look around, you see not the Wren crypt but the whole glorious structure that he created. An architectural wonder that does more than honors his memory: it brings joy, instills wonder, and inspires awe to all who visit there. It’s a monument, but not to Wren; it's a monument to our relationship with God.</p><p>At home, your family won’t remember you for your work achievements, nor for the headstone or mausoleum built to mark your final resting place. They’ll remember you for the love you show and the moments you share together. In short, for the joy, wonder and awe you bring them.</p><p>Your monument will be built on the relationships you nurture.</p><p>As the cast sang in <em>Hamilton</em>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gnypiKNaJE" target="_blank">who lives, who dies, who tells your story</a>?</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div><hr /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">This originally appeared in the July 15 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/a-monumental-reckoning" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>

A Monumental Reckoning

Pulling Down the Statue of George III at Bowling Green, N.Y. July 9, 1776 by William Walcutt, 1857 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons) “Si...

If Only

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v7mBuwWgclQ/XwX0YzL2RjI/AAAAAAABN3g/gfr8-7nFrnsenPEmFKsfm7pevix-ZO49wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Peter%2BWtewael%2B-%2BKitchen%2BScene.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1456" data-original-width="2048" height="456" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v7mBuwWgclQ/XwX0YzL2RjI/AAAAAAABN3g/gfr8-7nFrnsenPEmFKsfm7pevix-ZO49wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h456/Peter%2BWtewael%2B-%2BKitchen%2BScene.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437956" target="_blank">Kitchen Scene</a></em><span style="text-align: left;"> by Peter Wtewael, 1620s (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art)</span></span></td></tr>
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<em><strong><em><strong><br />"A multitude of small delights constitute happiness."</strong> </em></strong></em></div>
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<em><em>— Charles Baudelaire, 1897<br /></em></em></div>
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If only I had a better salary, I'd feel secure. If only I had a bigger house, I'd be content. If only I got that promotion, I'd be happier.<br />
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If only… If only…<br />
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We seem to predicate how we feel and how we live our lives based on tangibles and outcomes. As if there were some end goal, some final state of being that we could attain if we possessed something or passed a level—an IRL version of "<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Achievement%20unlocked">Achievement unlocked!</a>"<br />
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Humans are a strange species. Our brains trick us all the time, and in the strangest ways. Here's a quick example: <b><i>if a baseball bat and a baseball together cost $1.10 and the bat costs a dollar more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?</i></b><br />
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I'll bet your intuition told you that the ball was ten cents, right?<br />
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If that was your answer, your brain tricked you. The correct answer is five cents.<br />
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Yet our brains tell us that if only we got what we wanted, we'd be happy. That a change in circumstances would make us satisfied.<br />
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Think about that for a moment. If you had desires—more money, a different house, a different job, a vacation, an ice cream cone, a single malt whisky—does that keep you happy and satisfied? Likely not. Your circumstances change briefly, but then you find you're back to saying "if only…" again. <br />
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According to Professor Laurie Santos of Yale University, in her course Psychology and the Good Life, "<em><strong>a primary takeaway is that happiness is a mind-set to be cultivated, not a condition to be imposed</strong></em>." (<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/how-to-be-happy.html#_ga=2.99131222.973464786.1594220952-1797213638.1591757462">New York Magazine</a>, May 2018) <br />
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A mind-set to be cultivated. In other words, it's not about external forces, the stuff you own, or the way society judges you to be successful; it's about the habits you undertake that lead to sustained satisfaction. What are some of these habits?<br />
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You could put more effort into relationships with family and friends. You could <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2019/11/gratitude-is-virtue-not-transaction.html">practice gratitude</a> (recall that G.K. Chesterton wrote "<em><strong>Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder</strong></em>."). You can live in the present, taking the time to observe the world around you and appreciate the things that make you smile.<br />
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It's the little things that matter.<br />
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<em><strong><em><strong>"If you can honestly say that you get along well with your family without worrying too much about them, that you get satisfaction from your work from day to day, and that you ‘feel good’ most of the time, you already possess the main elements in happiness."</strong> </em></strong></em></div>
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<em><em>— </em>Ladies’ Home Journal<em>, 1946</em></em></div>
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We're surrounded by little things every day—things that may escape our notice. And yet, when we practice <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/01/how-to-make-reflection-part-of-your.html">a little reflection</a>, we can get so much more out of these little things than we first imagined.<br />
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<div class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/01/how-to-make-reflection-part-of-your.html","text":"How To Make Reflection a Daily Habit","class":null}" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Related: <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/01/how-to-make-reflection-part-of-your.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to Make Reflection a Daily Habit</a></span></i></b></div>
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A couple of years ago, I posted something that later made me reframe how I look at things. I asked my friends to share a fond memory of us<span style="text-align: right;">—</span>a simple request: "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/scottmonty/posts/10154993649231625">If you're reading this, even if we barely talk, comment with a fond memory of us</a>."</div>
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Much to my surprise, it got nearly 300 comments, including from some friends from long ago. But more than that, it was he caliber of responses that stuck with me.<br />
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Again and again, I came across little moments—moments that in some cases, I don't even recall—that stood out in people's minds. Perhaps it was a note I sent, a remark I made, or a laugh we shared.<br />
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Things that frankly, didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time. But they mattered to my friends. So much so that these memories were sparked these many years later. Like George Bailey in <em>It’s a Wonderful Life</em>, I was greeted with a multitude of small interactions that added up to a great deal ("<b><i>You've been given a great gift, George.</i></b>")<br />
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It's the little things.<br />
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The true power of leadership isn't how many people you can fire, how profitable or successful you make a company, or the number of hours you spend working. True leadership is found in everyday words and actions—the way you treat every person you meet.<br />
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Speeches and official communications will fade from memory. But your small gestures of kindness and inspiration will remain with people forever.<br />
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<em><em><b>"They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel." </b></em></em></div>
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<em><em>— Carl W. Buehner, 1971<br /></em></em></div>
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A Little Gesture from a Big Guy</h3>
One last story for you.<br />
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One of my fondest memories of working at Ford was on Take Your Child to Work Day in 2013, when I brought my two sons, Will and Drew with me for the day.<br />
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One of the events was a presentation in a large auditorium filled with Ford employees and their kids, where Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford at the time, gave a presentation. When he finished, he asked for questions from the audience, and Will's hand shot up, but there wasn’t time to take his question.<br />
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Back at World Headquarters, after the boys finished their hot dogs and tater tots (a requested favorite!), as we were leaving the cafeteria, my phone rang. It was Amy, Alan’s executive assistant.<br />
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“Scott, where are you?”<br />
<br />“I’m downstairs, just outside the cafeteria.”<br />
<br />“Can you come up to Alan’s office, please?”<br />
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As much as I visited the 12th floor, just two floors above my office, and regularly interacted with Alan, I didn't really know what to expect. <br />
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When we arrived there, Alan was waiting in the doorway with a big smile on his face. He invited us into his office and chatted with Will and Drew for a bit. He asked them about school, he inquired about their day so far, and he asked their mom’s name.<br />
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Then, he sat down and wrote a note to my wife on Ford letterhead, telling her what fine boys she had and how proud she must be. Then he drew his signature heart around "Ford + Monty Family" at the bottom.<br />
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He asked if we’d like a picture, and invited us behind his desk. Then he motioned to Amy, who brought in two bags of Ford goodies—Hot Wheels, pens, keychains, notepads, and other Ford tchotchkes—and sent the boys on their way.<br />
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This was one of the finest examples of servant leadership I’ve ever witnessed. Alan took note of us in the audience, and even though he couldn’t answer Will’s question, he followed up with this meaningful and personal experience.<br />
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Were there other executives whose kids’ questions didn’t get answered that day? Probably. Did they get an invitation up to Alan’s office? Possibly. But the thing is, even if they did, I guarantee Alan made them feel just as special as he made us feel.<br />
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Because that’s the kind of leader he is.<br />
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And I hope that’s the kind of leader my kids grow up to be.<br />
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Meanwhile, I'm spending as much time with them as I can before they're grown.<br />
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If only we could stay like this forever.<br />
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If only.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QYsECURlNZI/XwX1g9fS0jI/AAAAAAABN3o/QpSLdZfSeusHbEubW8H9Tg9Re4inmcdzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Take%2BYour%2BChild%2Bto%2BWork%2B2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Monty boys with Alan Mulally" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QYsECURlNZI/XwX1g9fS0jI/AAAAAAABN3o/QpSLdZfSeusHbEubW8H9Tg9Re4inmcdzwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/Take%2BYour%2BChild%2Bto%2BWork%2B2013.jpg" title="Alan Mulally with the Montys on Take Your Child to Work Day" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">This originally appeared in the July 8 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/if-only" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;">. </span></div>
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Don't miss a single issue:</div>
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If Only

Kitchen Scene by Peter Wtewael, 1620s (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art) "A multitude of small delights constitute h...

What It Takes to Start a Movement

<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VUIaTc2lISk/Xvuub3ksocI/AAAAAAABNlc/K9fI8KX0s8UzrRuvQ9vvMgMso_iJqzWMgCK4BGAsYHg/s1280/Francois%2BPerrier%2B-%2BMoses%2Bdraws%2Bwater%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BRock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1280" height="412" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VUIaTc2lISk/Xvuub3ksocI/AAAAAAABNlc/K9fI8KX0s8UzrRuvQ9vvMgMso_iJqzWMgCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h412/Francois%2BPerrier%2B-%2BMoses%2Bdraws%2Bwater%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BRock.jpg" title="Moses Draws Water from the Rock - painting by Francois Perrier" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="2"><i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francois_Perrier_-_Moses_draws_water_from_the_Rock_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Moses Draws Water from the Rock</a></i> by Francois Perrier, 1642 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)</font></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h6 data-pm-context="[]"></h6><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks." </strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Sun Tzu, 5th century BC</em></div></em><p></p><p><em><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><p>Moving people to action is more difficult than it seems.</p><p>Selling something tangible — a product, a widget, a thing — is fairly straightforward. People can see it in action, feel in their hands, and observe the difference it makes. You can craft a story around that and play a bit of show and tell.</p><p>But when you have to sell an idea or a vision? That takes more than getting people to pay attention. You need to make them <em>believe</em>.</p><p>Belief is a powerful thing. If you can get someone to put faith in what you're saying, such that they'll turn away from what I'll call <em>a pre-existing cognition</em>, you'll have won them over.</p><p>It's what was required in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and so many other uprisings when failure could have easily been proscribed. Instead, leaders marshalled their people behind them by going first, creating hope, and focusing on their people.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Everyone's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."</strong> </em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— W.C. Fields</em></p><p><em><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><p>Imagine if you were a person with a speech impediment and questionable self-esteem, and you were tasked with leading half a million people to their freedom. Do you think you'd be up to the task?</p><p>Moses certainly didn't at first. And yet, in the book of Exodus, he was called upon to lead his people out of Egypt. What did he do? He had quiet, reflective time and took notes. He shared this notes (on stone tablets) with his people, he showed them the way.</p><p>Eventually, Moses delegated authority and shared this vision with his chiefs. But he always demonstrated leadership by being out front and participating, just as he was asking everyone else to do. Leaders go first.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><em>Leaders are prepared to do whatever they ask their people to do.</em></h3><p>It's the classic difference between a boss and a leader: the boss says, "Go," while the leader says, "Let's go."</p><p>Simon Sinek's book <em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/2VAw6WR" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leaders Eat Last</a></strong></em> may seem to offer countervailing advice, but its title comes from how leaders wait to take care of themselves, giving their people priority. The converse is true when it comes to doing the work. </p><p>When you're trying to escape a tyrant or facing various plagues, you need hope. Moses inspired his people, again and again, such as instructing them to mark lamb's blood over their doors to protect their firstborn. When leading his people through the desert, he told stories about the Promised Land and what awaited them at the end of their journey.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><em>Leaders provide hope by focusing positive energy on encouragement, inspiration, and enthusiasm</em>.</h3><p>Consider another fundamental difference between a boss and a leader: a boss is a subject matter expert while a leader is an expert in managing people. So often, we see subject-matter experts and bureaucrats promoted to leadership positions, when they could benefit from more people skills. (More on this in in next week's update).<br /><br /></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"%%checkout_url%%","text":"Subscribe now","class":null}" style="text-align: center;"><a class="button primary" href="%%checkout_url%%">Subscribe now</a><br /><br /></p><p>Moses saw his people defy the first commandment and worship a golden calf. An angry God was ready to exact vengeance on them, but Moses didn't hew to the technicalities at hand; he stood up for his people — reminding God their were His people too — and sought forgiveness. Moses ended up taking responsibility for their actions.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><em>Leaders put their focus on their people</em>.</h3><p>When you've demonstrated to your people that you're in it with them, have given them hope, and put them first, they'll move mountains for you.</p><p>Look at where we are with mask wearing during the pandemic, for example. We've seen countless examples of people in public places who throw tantrums because places of business are requiring them to wear masks. They don't want to have to listen to authority and they claim their Constitutional rights are being violated.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h4>[<strong>Aside</strong>: <em>I thought <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/individualism-has-no-place-in-a-pandemic-915" target="_blank">we covered this in March</a>. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, which predates the Constitution. Life comes first. Not Liberty. Not Happiness. Life. And when your Liberty impacts my Life, you need to rethink things. Please, wear a mask.</em>]</h4><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>But maybe we've been going about this insistence on mask wearing the wrong way. Maybe we need to adhere to those three precepts of leadership:</p><p>There's no consistency in leaders <strong>going first</strong> by wearing masks. The simple gesture of wearing a mask would send a powerful message to the public.</p><p>Leaders in some states with spiking cases and hospitalizations haven't been providing <strong>hope</strong>. They've been ignoring the reality of the disease and selling false hope of reopening as if nothing has happened. This is difficult, because it's hard to make a case for hope out of what <em>didn't</em> happen. Perhaps we need to rely on something like this report from Goldman Sachs that says <a href="http://on.forbes.com/6013GPYcS" target="_blank">a national mask mandate could save the U.S. economy $1 trillion</a>. That's hopeful.</p><p>Naïvely, I thought we were <strong>putting people first</strong> when the message was that masks protect <em>other people</em>. Sadly, we may need to flip that, to align with how people are acting more selfishly, and tell them that masks protect <em>them</em>. It's a sorry state of affairs when you can't rely on empathy and compassion to convince people to do the right thing.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p>One final example on movements and believing: in fact, it's the very story that caused me to consider this topic.</p><p>The president held a rally in Tulsa the weekend before last, and his campaign chief was seen on social media in the days leading up to the event, bragging about 1,000,000 tickets that the public had reserved for the event. You know how the story ended: with an anemic turnout.</p><p>Aside from the entire population of Tulsa being 400,000 people, people were scratching their heads about how the calculation could have been so far off. It turns out <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank">Tik Tok fans and K-pop stans took credit for reserving tens of thousands of tickets</a>, effectively sticking their finger in the eye of the establishment.</p><p>Such was the example of a grassroots-led movement that was popular enough and gained enough traction in a short period of time to make a difference.</p><p>Whether a movement is sparked by a leader, a group, or an idea, it's the vision for what's possible and the associated emotions that help drive success.</p><p>Without those, it's inertia.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><br />Credit for the three truths of leadership goes to </em><a href="https://amzn.to/2Y83wyA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Greats on Leadership: Classic Wisdom for Modern Managers</a><em> by Jocelyn Davis<br /><br /></em></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><hr /></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">This originally appeared in the July 1 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/what-it-takes-to-start-a-movement" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span><br style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;" /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>

What It Takes to Start a Movement

Moses Draws Water from the Rock by Francois Perrier, 1642 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons) "He will win whose army is animated by t...

Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Poker

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D0bmdcrc4DU/XvL4cMoVkuI/AAAAAAABNeM/NUSVyglRTj0w5wx8gM33NG_5EpKWrgSKQCK4BGAsYHg/s1200/Caravaggio%2B%2528Michelangelo%2BMerisi%2529%2B-%2BThe%2BCardsharps%2B-%2BGoogle%2BArt%2BProject.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Painting of men cheating at cards" border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1200" height="460" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D0bmdcrc4DU/XvL4cMoVkuI/AAAAAAABNeM/NUSVyglRTj0w5wx8gM33NG_5EpKWrgSKQCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h460/Caravaggio%2B%2528Michelangelo%2BMerisi%2529%2B-%2BThe%2BCardsharps%2B-%2BGoogle%2BArt%2BProject.jpg" title="Caravaggio's The Card Sharps" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="2"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cardsharps#/media/File:Caravaggio_(Michelangelo_Merisi)_-_The_Cardsharps_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" target="_blank">The Card Sharps</a></i> by Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), c. 1595 (public domain - Google Art Project)</font></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /><hr /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />“But for its costliness and dangers, no better education for life among men could be devised than the gambling table—especially the poker table.”</strong> </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br /></strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Clemens France, 1902<br /><br /></em></div></em><div><hr /></div><p><br />I can't remember when I first became aware of Maria Konnikova.</p><p>Most likely, it's from her then-regular "<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/maria-konnikova/">Literally Psyched</a>" column in <em>Scientific American</em> in the early 2010's, where she wrote a number of entries on lessons from Sherlock Holmes. Her undergraduate degree in psychology and creative writing, followed by her Ph.D. in psychology provided the ideal preparation for this work.</p><p>More vividly, I remember meeting Maria at the annual dinner of <a href="https://smonty.co/3es4hra">the Baker Street Irregulars</a>, the Sherlock Holmes literary society, of which I am a member. She was an invited guest and seemed a little unsure of herself in the crowd of lawyers, doctors, authors, business people, teachers, exterminators, Hollywood directors, booksellers, and various other individuals who represented a microcosm of society.</p><p>But her curiosity and affability quickly dispelled any notion of insecurity, as she joined in the welcoming and witty repartee that is the hallmark of the BSI. She was a quick study, reading the large room in record time amid cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and loud chatter, before settling in to a comfortable gaggle that included Michael Dirda, Nicholas Meyer, and Otto Penzler.</p><p>That ability—to remain silent and make keen observations before jumping in—is an indicator of good leadership. It's all too tempting to want to hold court on a topic (especially one which you know so much about) or to give a rambling soliloquy to qualify yourself to a new crowd.</p><p>A good leader knows <a href="https://smonty.co/2YtsWGg">when to remain silent</a>.</p><div><hr /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"Silence is one of the great arts of conversation." </strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Cicero<br /><br /></em></div></em><div><hr /></div><p><br />But the real test for Maria would lay ahead. This well-published, well-educated author and speaker took a leave of her job at <em>The New Yorker</em> and decided to become a professional poker player. But not as a dilettante; her goal was to become a poker champion within a year.</p><p>While there were many questions that Maria would have over the course of the following few years, she learned quite a bit by quietly observing. And we're the beneficiaries of her diligence.</p><p>Konnikova's latest book is <em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/2zWmWMC" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win</a></strong></em>, and although the subject is nominally different than her previous books (<em><a href="https://amzn.to/3dvkgmO" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes</a></em> and <em><a href="https://amzn.to/3hOQayd" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It Every Time</a></em>), follows a theme: that the human mind is simultaneously complex and predictable, and there are patterns and cues available for our consumption.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://amzn.to/2zWmWMC" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Maria Konnikova's The Biggest Bluff" border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1684" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hHA2oF-u6Mg/XvL5DtOigpI/AAAAAAABNeg/Dym479QxgycJCLhqh7Jcj25DcO3FZ23eQCK4BGAsYHg/w210-h320/Bluff.jpg" title="The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova" width="210" /></a></p><p>The attributes of Maria that I mentioned above—affability and curiosity—are central to <em>The Biggest Bluff</em>. They're what allow her to befriend Erik Siedel, one of the top professional poker players in the world. And to absorb the game, its quirks, and its specialized vocabulary.</p><p>But more than that, she grapples with the idea of luck, superstition, and seeing poker for what it is: a very human game of chance. A game that, unlike chess or Go, is driven by rationality rather than by algorithms.</p><div><hr /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />“It is so difficult not to become vain about one’s own good luck.” </strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Simone De Beauvoir, 1963<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Many of us—particularly those of us who have risen through executive ranks—consider our success a matter of our contributions, as if we are in control of our lives and our status is a result of our talent and accomplishments. It's a comforting thought; input yields an expected output. Sounds rational, right?</p><p>At the end of the book (spoiler alert!), Konnikova reveals "the biggest bluff of them all: That skill can <em>ever</em> be enough."</p><p>In fact, we have less control than we think. Swirling around each of us are innumerable variables, each independent of the other, and intersecting with our lives when we least expect it. These variables contribute to our failures and our successes, but we're not in a position to control them.</p><p>Call them luck, call them fortune, call them chance or superstition, it's all the same: circumstances that we can't control. But if we put ourselves in the proper mindset, we can tilt ourselves one way or another, as a sail catches wind.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h2><strong><br />Emotional intelligence and poker intelligence</strong></h2><p>Throughout the book, Konnikova introduces us to a cast of characters from both the worlds of poker and psychology. The nuggets of wisdom, lessons, and observations she picks up along the way resonated with me, in a way that applied to leadership.</p><p>Particularly with respect to some elements of emotional intelligence, or EQ. According to <em>A Dictionary of Psychology</em> (3rd edition), emotional intelligence is:</p><blockquote><p><em>"the ability to recognize one's own and other people's emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior."</em></p></blockquote><p>I can't think of a better description of the skills necessary to succeed at poker.</p><p>Some of the aspects of emotional intelligence that stood out to me as relevant to poker include: </p><ol><li><p><strong>Self-management</strong> (keeping those emotions in check, not getting irrational)</p></li><li><p><strong>Social awareness</strong> (being observant of your surroundings and competition) </p></li><li><p><strong>Relationship management</strong> (the spoken and unspoken exchanges between you and other players)</p></li><li><p><strong>Self-awareness</strong> (the ability to reflect and make an honest assessment of your performance)</p></li></ol><p>That last one is the most important aspect in leadership and poker. Being honest with yourself means making hard decisions about when to end a venture. As the Kenny Rogers song goes, "You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em…"</p><p>Leadership isn't about mastering skills, or even mastering others. <em><strong>To be a good leader, first you need to master yourself</strong></em>.</p><p>Or, as Konnikova writes:</p><blockquote><p><em>"One of the most important lessons of poker strategy, intimately connected to self-assessment, is this: sometimes, it’s the hands you don’t play that win you the title. We remember the hero calls. What about the hero folds? What you don’t do rather than what you do—that can be greatness. The art of letting go can be the truly strong one. Acknowledging when you’re behind rather than continuing to put good money after bad. Acknowledging when the landscape has shifted and you need to make a shift yourself as a result."</em></p></blockquote><p>Just as I wrote last week (in "<a href="https://smonty.co/2BxGtDx">Honor and Duty</a>") regarding how we can see results from actions <em>not</em> taken as well as from actions taken.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h2><strong><br />Leadership strategy and poker strategy</strong></h2><p>In addition to principles of emotional intelligence, other strategic leadership activities stuck out to me. Here are a few.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Position is king</strong>.</h3><p>If you're last to bet, you have the benefit of all of the other moves before yours. You have the power. If you wait to listen to everyone in the room or for other competitors to make a first move, you have the advantage of more information.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Mindful vs. mindless activity</strong>.</h3><p>There are always possibilities and choices. Making a decision based on informed choices is mindful; making decisions on a whim or because you feel you have to is mindless.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Your strategy should be flexible</strong>.</h3><p>Values and vision are set, but strategies change. Strategies consist of a system or a process that is informed by experience  and need to be updated with real-time feedback.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Area of expertise matters</strong>.</h3><p>It pays to specialize sometimes. An analogy comes from the most effective hunter in the animal world. It's not the cheetah, lion or wolf; it's the dragonfly. Why? Because the dragonfly has evolved a sense of vision where it can detect the slightest variation in movement by its prey. It gives the dragonfly a 95% effective kill rate. If you spend time to develop a skill in a particular area, it can make the difference between victory and defeat.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Experience is required</strong>.</h3><p>You don't rise to the top by just showing up and relying on luck and intuition. You need to put in the hours. To practice—sometimes for what feels like an eternity—before you're ready.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Pick your spots</strong>.</h3><p>Know when to be aggressive and how to be aggressive. Always-on aggression isn't effective—particularly if your opponent expects it.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Focus on the process, not the results</strong>.</h3><p>Don’t get hung up on failures, successes, or luck. The way we frame something affects our mindset and emotions, which in turn affects decisions we make. By saying or thinking that things happen <em>to</em> us, we avoid taking responsibility for our actions. "<em>These are the seeds of resilience, of being able to overcome the bad beats that you can’t avoid and mentally position yourself to be prepared for the next time.</em>"</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>You need to pay attention</strong>.</h3><p>Many things are happening around us, and we're tempted to chalk a few up to luck or market conditions. We can't control any of those things. What can we control? Our own behavior. Our reaction to things, as the Stoics teach us. "<em>We can’t control the variance. We can’t control what happens. But we can control our attention and how we choose to deploy it</em>."</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Don't forget the </strong><em>why</em>.</h3><p>It's important to construct a narrative about your opponents (“<em>In the game of poker, you’re a detective and a storyteller</em>,” a mentor told Konnikova) while creating your own story at the same time. What's the story and why is someone doing it? Why are they making a move? Always ask yourself why someone is behaving a certain way.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h2><strong><br />The object of leadership</strong></h2><p>Mike Caro, professional poker player and author, asks his audiences, "What is the object of poker?" He may just as well ask "What is the object of life?" as poker, particularly in Konnikova's powerful storytelling style, is analogous to life. It's also analogous to leadership.</p><p>After many members of his audience make guesses related to money, Caro lays the truth on them: "<em><strong>The object of poker is making good decisions</strong></em>."</p><p>Anyone can make decisions; indeed, it's what we expect from leaders. Faced with choices—buy or sell, hire or fire, action or inaction—leaders make choices based on information at hand. More than the outcome, it's the <em>process</em> that matters. Leaders need to know—and in many cases need to justify—the reasoning behind their decisions. </p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“In every tablet there are as many grains of luck as of any other drug. Even intelligence is rather an accident of Nature, and to say that an intelligent man deserves his rewards in life is to say that he is entitled to be lucky.”</strong> </em></strong></em></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— E.B. White, 1943</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>It's sheer joy to follow Maria's journey, to be invited into her inner thoughts and insights that she shares en route, and to drink in the references from literature, philosophy, and psychology that she liberally and effortlessly incorporates.</p><p>The wonderful surprise is that even though she realizes that fortune is a fickle thing, gossamer-like in nature, she still manages to bend it ever so slightly (for that's all that's required in poker) to her advantage.</p><p>All it requires is patience, fortitude, the ability to observe our environment and ask why, and the willingness to do the hard work and spend time reflecting.</p><p>For it's reflection that gives us the ability to hit pause or reset. And it's reflection that allows us to achieve self-awareness.</p><p>For that is where our potential lies.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This originally appeared in the June 24 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/leadership-emotional-intelligence" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>

Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Poker

The Card Sharps by Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), c. 1595 (public domain - Google Art Project) “But for its costliness and dangers, no b...

Honor and Duty

<h6 data-pm-context="[]"></h6><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_gqQwQBOQus/XupLREBLu8I/AAAAAAABNa0/DCtwdyqRduQMT2khjJ6jhMQPyuDSidcwwCK4BGAsYHg/s1539/Jacques-Louis_David%252C_Le_Serment_des_Horaces.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David, 1784" border="0" data-original-height="1218" data-original-width="1539" height="506" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_gqQwQBOQus/XupLREBLu8I/AAAAAAABNa0/DCtwdyqRduQMT2khjJ6jhMQPyuDSidcwwCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h506/Jacques-Louis_David%252C_Le_Serment_des_Horaces.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="2"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_the_Horatii" target="_blank">The Oath of the Horatii</a></i> by Jacques Louis David, 1784 (public domain - Wikipedia)</font><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /><hr /><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Waste no more time in arguing what a good man should be. Be one."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Marcus Aurelius, 161<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Years ago, in one of my first professional jobs, I had a colleague who made an observation that has stayed with me to this day.</p><p>I don't remember the exact situation that brought it about, but he said to me, "You know what impresses me about you, Monty? I see so many people complaining about things, but you don't sit around complaining. You take action."</p><p>I've considered that remark over the years, and it's at the core of my sense of integrity: if a person is aware that something wrong and  has the power to make a change, I respect them for taking action <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujBjn1qeCLs">rather than whining</a> about the situation.</p><p>Leaders serve by virtue of the power that they're given. And, as the phrase goes that can trace its roots to the Bible, with great power comes great responsibility.</p><div><hr /></div><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it."</strong> </em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Theodore Roosevelt, 1894<br /><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><p>That means when a leader is aware of a situation over which he or she has control, they are in a position to do something about it. In fact, they are duty-bound to react.</p><p>One reaction is simply to do nothing. Just wait it out, see what the public outcry is, and either take the heat or eventually capitulate with some feeble response.</p><p>The alternative is to take action. Given that leaders are aware of their resources, of the impact their decisions make, and of the morale that they inspire by doing the right thing, their actions speak volumes about what they prioritize. They indicate a code of honor.</p><p>We don't hear the words duty and honor being used much any more, do we? Not outside of the military, anyway. The U.S. Department of Defense has <a href="https://smonty.co/2USO5Ho">core values</a> that it expects out of its personnel: "duty, integrity, ethics, honor, courage, and loyalty."</p><p>These are values that make up what we recognize as character. We expect our leaders to have character and to act in ways that create trust.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"I am no longer good through deliberate intent, but by long habit have reached a point where I am not only able to do right, but am unable to do anything but what is right."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Seneca, 65<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Honor. Duty. Trust. These precepts should be lodestars—guiding principles for how we act in our private lives and in our careers. And yet…</p><p>Recently we learned that John Bolton's forthcoming memoir <em><a href="https://amzn.to/2UOneMM">The Room Where It Happened</a></em> indicates that the former National Security Advisor witnessed multiple instances of misconduct by the president. And yet, given the opportunity to testify during the impeachment hearings, Bolton chose to remain silent.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">If only there had been some sort of congressional investigation into the president’s behavior at which John Bolton could have testified.<br /><br />If only. <a href="https://t.co/hYbVjYOLvg">https://t.co/hYbVjYOLvg</a></p>— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1271432854375989249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Facebook has been no stranger to criticism and has continually done things to erode trust rather than to build it. Most recently, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan (majority shareholders, with Zuckerberg impervious from discipline or termination) said they were "<a href="https://smonty.co/3fvAWvW">disgusted by President Trump's divisive and incendiary rhetoric</a>" during the protests.</p><p>And yet Zuckerberg continues to allow him to post divisive and even untrue content on Facebook. If only he was in a position to be able to do something about it. But it seems to be part of the brand at Facebook to simply turn away from unpleasant truths and embrace that which profits the company.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"It little profits that an idle king,</strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>By this still hearth, among these barren crags,</strong></em></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole</strong></em></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Unequal laws unto a savage race"</strong> </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><em style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1842<br /><br /></em></div></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Facebook's own internal research in 2018 stated “our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness. If left unchecked,” Facebook would feed users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.”</p><p>What did Facebook do? <a href="https://smonty.co/2AC4YQ5">It shut down efforts to make the site less divisive</a>.</p><p>Honor and duty. What honor is there at Facebook? What duty do they have to anyone other than their shareholders?</p><p>We have every right to expect accountability out of our leaders. </p><p>President Harry Truman famously had "<b><i>The buck stops here</i></b>" displayed on his desk. </p><p>Dwight D. Eisenhower, when he was Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, prepared for a possible failure in Operation Overlord at Normandy, penning a note that he hoped he would never have to send: "<b><i>If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.</i></b>"</p><p>That willingness to accept responsibility is the very definition of integrity. </p><p><br /></p><p>With recent protests over racial inequality, we're finding ourselves at a major inflection point for society, and that includes brands as well. </p><p>Earlier this year, <a href="https://smonty.co/3hF1VqE">Land O' Lakes dropped their logo</a> that depicted a Native American woman. Now <a href="https://smonty.co/3hBPdce">Quaker Oats is eliminating Aunt Jemima</a>, a brand that was established in 1889 featuring a black woman who was originally dressed as a minstrel character. </p><p>In the 1970s, the American chain restaurant <a href="https://smonty.co/2UVuFC1">Sambo's</a> (which was an amalgamation of the names of its founders, Sam Batttistone and Newell Bohnett) faced backlash, as its name was reminiscent of the very dated book <em>The Story of Little Black Sambo</em> by Helen Bannerman (1899). They reluctantly began to move away from it, but the damage was done and its more than 1,100 locations in 47 states began to close. As of this month, the last remaining restaurant—the original location, now owned by Battistone's grandson—<a href="https://smonty.co/30XqHN7">is changing its name</a>.</p><p>Whether it's renaming a restaurant, rebranding a racially-insensitive product, or removing monuments to Confederate leaders from public spaces, we're seeing leaders who recognize their responsibility and are taking action that is within their power.</p><p>There is a contingent of the population who see this as capitulating to political correctness, or "giving in" to the demands of a vocal minority. They fight for the status quo, ignoring the negative impact that these racial stereotyped representations may have to portions of our society. The underlying assumption is that social reform isn't possible, because human nature is inherently limited.</p><p>As much as I like to point out how human nature is constant, there comes a time when we must recognize the need for change. Nor are we fixed in a certain morality; we've seen society update its expectations over the centuries, from the Emancipation Proclamation and the 14th Amendment to the Civil Rights Act, and more.</p><p>Each of us has a moral code, and that's what defines our integrity. But society operates with a sense of group morality, which involves judgement, shame and exclusion as well as kindness. We may think we're limited in our ability to evolve our morality, but the speed at which we're seeing cultural change backed by a desire for ethics and integrity is astonishing.</p><p><a href="https://smonty.co/3fEwsU1">According to Allen Buchanan</a>, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law at Duke University, "<em>Humans have possessed moral capacities for many millennia, possibly even hundreds of thousands of years, and yet inclusivist morality has emerged only in the most recent eye-blink of human history.</em>"</p><p>Which brings us back to leadership.</p><p>Those in power—those with the ability to make a change—have a responsibility to take action when they can. To ignore it is to invite scorn and distrust.</p><p>To embrace the opportunities and seek a better, brighter option for all stakeholders is what separates the courageous from the cowardly.</p><p>Honor and duty. The backbone of character.<br /></p><p><br /></p><hr /><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as be seen as a people with such responsibilities."</strong> </em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Theodore Roosevelt, 1905<br /><br /></em></p><div><hr /><br /></div><div><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This originally appeared in the June 17 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/honor-and-duty" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div><h2></h2>

Honor and Duty

The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques Louis David, 1784 (public domain - Wikipedia) "Waste no more time in arguing what a good man should...

Scott Monty - Strategic Communications & Leadership Advisor

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