Admiration, Work and Being Inspiring - Cultivated Management Newsletter

Hi,

This week I've become obsessed with Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet. The more I read about this remarkable duo and their company, Berkshire Hathaway, the more inspired I am about bringing some of their thoughts, musings and lessons in to management.

So here are some thoughts:
 

Who to work for?

When asked this question Warren Buffet responds with:

“I’ve got a very simple answer… the real thing to do is to get going for some institution or individual that you admire. I mean it’s crazy to take in-between jobs just because they look good on your resume, or because you get a little higher starting pay."

Spot on. Be the manager that people want to work with and choose the managers that inspire you. Being inspired at work makes up for pay any day of the week.
 

On Hiring

"We look for three things when we hire people. We look for intelligence, we look for initiative or energy, and we look for integrity. And if they don’t have the latter, the first two will kill you, because if you’re going to get someone without integrity, you want them lazy and dumb. I mean, you don’t want a spark of energy out of them”

I love this.
Basically hire for people with integrity first.
People who do what they say they will.
People who are honest, transparent and can be trusted. And if you have that, then find people who are intelligent (learn hard things quickly) and have energy that infects others.
 

On Learning

“Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.”

Spot on. Every day, as managers, we need to be getting smarter. We need to read, study, watch, learn, get knowledge. If we do this, then according to the compound effect, we'll just keep getting better.
 

On Health

"It’s what you do right now, today, that determines how your mind and body will operate ten, twenty, and thirty years from now."

I've pivoted Cultivated Management recently to cover the pillars of success (Health & Longevity, Education, Relevance & Responsiveness, Money, Cultural & Societal Impact and Productivity).

We have to take care of ourselves. I'm digging myself out of year's of not looking after my health. It's slow and hard and I wished I'd taken care of myself earlier. So it's never too late to start and never too early either.
 

Book of the week

This week's book of the week is Smarter, Faster, Better. It's an incredible book. Incredible.

It is packed full of idea after idea after idea on how to get smarter, faster and better. I properly love this book. So much so that I'm re-reading it again for the fourth time.

A quote from the book:
“Our basic philosophy was that no one goes to work wanting to suck. If you put people in a position to succeed, they will."

It's got so much wisdom in the book and is really well written. The author, Charles Duhigg, weaves in stories, anectdotes and compelling evidence to present lots of ways to get better. I've implemented many and they work. I'm dabbling with others and there's still more to learn.

The more I read the book the deeper the insights are. Seriously good book if you're trying to build productive teams.

There won't be a newsletter next week as I'm taking a week off from writing blogs and newsletters. I'm trying to get over the hump that is my next book.

Until next time.

Rob..