Month:January 2023

Thoughts on Leadership: Tough Love and Butterflies

By Gino Blefari:

This week my travels find me starting Monday at home, conducting my typical WIG calls. On Tuesday, I had my early morning Berkshire Hathaway Energy call and then prepped for several meetings with the team. Today, I had the opportunity to support newly inducted Santa Clara County Association of REALTORSⓇ (SCCAOR) president Will Chea of Intero Real Estate at the 2023 Installation of SCCAOR Officers and Directors. Now, I sit down to write this post to you.

Read more: Thoughts on Leadership: Tough Love and Butterflies

Even though we’re about midway through the academic year, I happened to see Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech online, and it inspired me to think about what an ideal talk to a graduating class should be. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do,” Jobs famously told the new grads. “If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

His speech was moving, but it was also direct. As a leader, it’s about imparting tough love, the kind of love that’s no-nonsense, gritty, and real.

Many times people who love you don’t have those difficult, tough-love conversations because their instinct is to protect, comfort and shield you from all the bad things about the world; they only want you to see what’s shiny and good.

Tough love will help you recognize that life isn’t easy, and tough love implores you to learn those difficult lessons all on your own.

Here’s a scenario: You’re sitting in your backyard one afternoon. Suddenly, you spot a butterfly attempting to break free from its chrysalis – that hard shell formed during its metamorphosis. The struggle is difficult for you to watch, and your instinct is to help the creature out. So, you get some scissors from the kitchen and cut the chrysalis, allowing the butterfly to emerge into the world.

Success, right?

Wrong.

You wait for the butterfly, still shriveled up and weak, to flap its wings and fly away. But it never does. Instead, it just walks on the ground, and that’s where it will remain, if it even survives as all.

What the metamorphosis of a butterfly teaches us is that struggle is necessary for survival. As the butterfly pushes through a small opening at the bottom of the chrysalis, the fluid from its body is sent to the wings, making the butterfly’s wings strong enough to support its eventual flight.

This is the tough-love lesson those students – and all of us – need to hear when times get challenging. It’s the hard that makes us great. Just like the butterfly must fight against its cocoon to develop wings solid enough to fly, so too do people need to experience adversity to grow strong enough to overcome it. Remember, it is not what struggles happen during our lives that determine how well we’ve lived. It is what we choose to do next during those unexpected times of struggle that defines our character and determines our happiness.

In other words, we must develop grit. In author Paul Tough’s book, How Children Succeed, the journalist says that using IQ and academic success as a predictor of future accomplishment is wrong. Through exhaustive research, he discovers that noncognitive skills like gratitude, optimism, curiosity, and grit are far better predictors of high achievement.

So, what’s the message? When it comes to success, it doesn’t really matter what other people say, or even how they perceive you. It doesn’t matter what talent you’re born with or what skills you acquire early in your career. It doesn’t even matter whether the economy is strong or weak, or what the market is doing today and where it’s going tomorrow. What matters is that you understand there’s no substitute for hard work. As the saying goes, if you’re interested in being successful, you’ll do what’s convenient, but if you’re committed to being successful, you’ll do whatever it takes. Basketball coach Tim Notke said, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” Your competition may have more innate talent than you do, but tell yourself they’ll never outwork you. That’s tough love. That’s the chrysalis you’ll have to break on your own. Because in the end, the only one who can determine how high you’ll really fly is you.

Posted by rethinkcouncil

Thoughts on Leadership: Lessons from Katherine Johnson

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me at home on Monday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Tuesday, I had an early morning Berkshire Hathaway Energy call and monthly leadership virtual meetings. Wednesday through today (and really, for the rest of this week), I’m working on various projects and in between those projects, sat down to write this post to you.

This week our HomeServices family of companies honored the tradition of MLK Day of Service with a wide variety of company events. So, in the spirit of leaders who give back, I want to dedicate this post to a Black leader whose contributions changed our country, our world and really, our entire universe: Katherine Johnson.

Read more: Thoughts on Leadership: Lessons from Katherine Johnson

Johnson lived an extraordinary life. She was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1918 and immediately it was clear she had a penchant for – and brilliance with – numbers. By age 13, Johnson was already attending high school classes. At age 18, she enrolled at West Virginia State College, where she excelled in mathematics and was mentored by math professor W.W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third Black American to earn a PhD in mathematics. In 1937, she graduated West Virginia State College with the highest honors and began working at a teaching job at a Black public school in Virginia.

In 1939, when West Virginia quietly integrated its graduate schools, West Virginia State president Dr. John W. Davis chose Johnson and two other men to be the first Black students at the state’s flagship graduate school, West Virginia University. Johnson left her job teaching and enrolled in the program, though she left the program shortly after the first session to start a family. When her children were older, Johnson returned once again to teaching.

Several years later, in 1952, a relative told Johnson about a few open positions at the all-Black West Area Computing section at the Langley laboratory at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Johnson moved with her family to Newport News, Virginia and started working at Langley in the summer of 1953.

For the next four years, she analyzed fight data and plane crashes, and in 1958, her mathematics work was used in “Notes on Space Technology,” a series of lectures by engineers in the Flight Research Division and the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) who would become the Space Task Group, NACA’s first official exploration into the possibilities of space travel. Later that year, when NACA turned over operations to NASA, Johnson, according to NASA “came along with the program.” The year prior, she co-authored a report along with engineer Ted Skopinski – “Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position” – and this credit marked the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division was named on a research report.

Her work on NASA’s Mercury program (1961-1963) was perhaps what she’s most well-known for today. In 1961, Johnson’s calculations of the path from Freedom 7 sent the first U.S. astronaut – Alan B. Shepard, Jr. – into space. In 1962, Johnson began work on an orbital flight for astronaut John Glenn that required the building of a complex communications network around the globe.

Despite the intense work to create this network, astronauts were hesitant to trust their lives to electronics. “Get the girl,” Glenn told his engineers, during the preflight checklist.

“The girl,” of course, was the brilliant Johnson, who ran the same equations that were programmed into the computer all by hand, using a desktop mechanical calculating machine.

Johnson would later recall Glenn saying, “If she says they’re good, then I’m ready to go.”

On February 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. The mission, thanks to Johnson, was a success, and marked the beginning of NASA’s accomplishments in human spaceflight.

So, what’s the message? During Johnson’s 33 years spent at Langley, she co-authored 26 research reports and among many, many achievements, was part of the team that made calculations about when to launch the rocket for the 1969 Apollo 11 mission that sent the first three men to the moon. She also worked on the space shuttle program. In 2015, at age 97, President Barack Obama awarded her with the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, though sadly in February 2020 Johnson passed away at the age of 101. When once asked about her time at Langley, Johnson said, “I loved going to work every single day,” proving that when you love something that much, you can achieve goals that are out of this world.

Posted by rethinkcouncil

Thoughts on Leadership: Lessons from Damar Hamlin

By Gino Blefari:

This week my travels find me starting Monday with an early morning Berkshire Hathaway Energy call followed by seven WIG calls. On Tuesday, I traveled to Dallas for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Sales Convention 2023 video shoots and speech coaching, which continued into Wednesday. Also on Tuesday, the Swanepoel Power 200 list was released.  Congratulations to all the extraordinary leaders who were recognized on the list this year!

Today, I’m home and I have one incredible leadership story on my mind: Damar Hamlin.

Read more: Thoughts on Leadership: Lessons from Damar Hamlin

On January 2, as football fans watched the Buffalo Bills play the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-year-old Bills safety Hamlin tackled Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins during the final moments of the first quarter. An ESPN correspondent broadcasting the game described what happened next: “[Hamlin] made a hit, he got up, took a couple of steps and then just fell to the ground.” 

The response was immediate. First, the players knelt over Hamlin, aware he was in serious distress even before ESPN could identify the player who had collapsed on the field. The first wave of first responders came from the Bills sideline. According to the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills, when a player is injured, doctors and trainers from that player’s team will be the first to get to the athlete.

“If they get out on the field and they sense that this is a significant emergency, then they will give a hand signal in addition to the radio signal,” Sill explained. “It’s basically an all-call, meaning everyone come.”

During that Monday night game, everyone came, including the code leader, who is responsible for taking charge in an emergency. Sills continued to explain the medical response protocol: “If there is a cardiac arrest, who’s going to lead?” he said. “Who’s going to be the captain of the ship in that moment to make determinations, decisions about various aspects of the resuscitation?”

In the NFL, those leadership questions are critical; the answers could be the difference between life and death. It’s why the choreography of emergency response is planned before every NFL game, from preseason games to the Super Bowl.

Before kickoff, a 60-minute meeting of medical personnel takes place where the emergency action plan is reviewed, discussed and committed to, and most importantly a code leader (the person in charge should a medical emergency occur) is acknowledged by the medical team – you could almost call it an NFL-style emergency response WIG meeting. This code leader acknowledgement is fairly new to NFL protocol but vital to the success of any emergency medical operation; with a code leader established prior to every game, there is absolutely no question who will lead in a crisis.

That pivotal change potentially saved Hamlin’s life and gave him a fighting chance to live.

And fight he did, and continues to do, with the support of the entire NFL – and the world – on his side. Another leadership lesson from this story is how quickly everyone came together, no matter what team they played for, what team they rooted for, or even whether they watched football at all. Everyone sent their good vibes for Hamlin to make a speedy recovery.

Following Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, the safety received an outpouring of support. People who didn’t normally post about football were wishing him well on social media and routinely checking for updates on his condition. All 32 NFL teams changed their Twitter profile photos to say “Pray for Hamlin” with his number 3 Bills jersey. Hamlin’s Chasing M’s Foundation Community To Drive, which had a goal of $2,500 in donations, raised $8.7 million from more than 245,900 donations (and counting) that came from around the world.

During Week 18 games, all 32 NFL teams had a pregame moment of support for Hamlin. They also had an outline of “3” (Damar’s number) in each 30-yard line number on the field in either Buffalo Bills Red or Buffalo Bills Blue. Pregame warmup shirts had “Love for Damar 3” written on them, and the Buffalo Bills wore “3” jersey patches.

Then, after about nine days spent in two hospitals, Hamlin was discharged from Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute. According to ESPN, doctors said they were “ecstatic” about his quick recovery, and Hamlin himself recently tweeted he was “grateful for the awesome care” he received. It’s amazing – and characteristic of a solid leader – to see Hamlin leaning into gratitude during such a challenging time.

So, what’s the message? Dorrian Glenn, Hamlin’s uncle, delivered a powerful statement about the recovery. “A lot of people don’t see how much they’re loved when they’re alive,” he said. “To see that he has a chance to eventually recover and see all the love he’s gotten … it’s gonna mean a lot to him.”

We’re experiencing that now, as Damar recovers and gives us an incredible leadership lesson about gratitude and coming together as human beings for a cause bigger than ourselves. No matter what business we’re in or what team we root for, we are always stronger together.

Posted by rethinkcouncil

Thoughts on Leadership: Leadership Lessons from Jim Thorpe

By Gino Blefari:

This week my travels find me kicking off the new year by participating in my regular Berkshire Hathaway Energy call and speaking at Intero’s Academy. I spoke about finding opportunity in chaos, four reasons we aren’t in a housing bubble, 16 ways to thrive in a shifting market, seven types of agents who will get crushed in 2023 (and how to thrive instead), seven daily REALTOR® activities to utilize to have your best year ever, five predictions for 2023 (and how to take advantage of them), seven things top-producing REALTORS® do that you probably don’t do, and more! I also spent the week preparing and organizing for a busy January ahead.

From time to time, people will send me articles they think might be of interest, and this week, I received a text from one of the top agents in the country and a dear friend, Andy Tse of Intero Real Estate Services. He wrote: Have you ever studied Jim Thorpe? This blew me away.

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Posted by rethinkcouncil

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