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Enjoy!

This ambitious project will provide a way to publicize the customs and traditions of San Antonio Aguas Calientes while providing opportunities for mothers to work in the community and generate resources for strengthening health programs, education, and micro-lending programs.

All of the proceeds from the center will be used for operation of the local school, which serves about 150 pre-primary and primary students (1st-6th Grade), and to strengthen health and nutrition programs in the community.

Through community presentations on the culture and traditions of the area, visitors to Antigua Guatemala will learn about the culture and traditions of the Cakchiquel people.  The center will feature a store which will offer goods and innovations of the local community, language classes that celebrate the linguistic traditions of the Cakchiquel, community classes on the development of recycled materials for production, and even tortilla-making classes.

This ambitious project is a perfect example of the kind of collaboration that can pull the community together to build a sustainable resource to improve the quality of life and access to resources for everyone involved.  Getting the ball rolling on this initiative is a great step forward in the future of Antigua.

Between improving the educational prospects for the children and enhancing opportunities for their parents through this community center, Big Task is implementing a multi-pronged approach to make life better for these amazing people. And I'm so proud to be a part of making it happen.

I will report back during the trip, and of course we encourage continued donations to support these important projects.  Thank you so much for your support.

Rise: 3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, and Liking Your Life

Here’s a few takeaways from the lessons she passed on during her interview with myGreenlight co-founder Sara Grace, gleaned from a career that took her from Hewlett-Packard’s youngest GM to the head of a $1 billion software business to CEO at 38:

• Why “follow your passion” can be career – and soul – destroying advice, and what to do instead;
• The two-step personal branding secret that quickly established her husband as a superstar at his new company;
• How the world’s most respected executives make it seem like they know all the answers, even when they don’t.

It's a great interview, and a great book. In fact, I liked it enough to write the forward. An excerpt:

Patty never forgets that success is about more than incremental or even stratospheric gains in your career; it's about enjoying your work and nurturing the relationships you make along the way. She recognizes that the most efficacious "corporate power grabs" aren't those that pit you against the people around you but those that draw them into a shared collaborative vision. To be a leader is not just to find solutions but specifically to find those that help build, strengthen, and expand your team.

To give just one example, I love Patty's recognition that diligently creating a strong network of relationships means that anyone is a potential project resource, not just your direct reports. When you make a conscious decision to "connect better" (step 3 in Patty's strategic map) you have access to intelligent resources that your counterparts do not. People are happy to help you out - it doesn't have to be in their job description. They're hungry to be on your team, and stuff gets done.

I always say that you need to start every day, every event, every meeting with the same two goals: Find a way to help and find a way to care. Care about what you're doing and care about the people you're doing it with. This book serves up a powerful course of action that will keep you true to both those intentions so that both extraordinary success and life satisfaction can be yours.

Enjoy the Social Capitalist interview – and get the book!

What we are doing is made possible by the generous donations that have been made by friends and supporters like you. I wish I could name you all individually, but know that I thank you from the bottom of my heart, as do the families who are benefiting from your help.

I do want to acknowledge one special donor. Sarah Thomas identified one of our Big Task Foundation kids to receive donations in her mothers' name, Gill Thomas. These donations will fund Abner's education until he graduates.

Sarah writes:

"Gill Thomas was born on 6th October 1939 in England and passed away after losing her battle with cancer on 15th February 2012, leaving behind her husband Eric, daughter Sarah and son, Simon. Gill was a lifelong teacher with a passion for education, the English language and reading. She taught both her children to read and ignited a lifelong passion for books in both of them. Gill taught primary school children during her career as well as English as a foreign language and adult reading classes. She loved learning and inspiring others. One of the most touching tributes on her passing came from a former pupil from the very first class she taught after graduating from college who simply thanked Gill for giving her such a happy childhood.

Rather than asking people to send flowers to mark Gill’s passing, as a family we thought it was a much more fitting tribute to remember her in a positive way – by giving a child an education and a future that they may not otherwise have had. Everyone who knew Gill commented how fitting it was and we are thrilled that through the Big Task Foundation we will be able to help her memory live on by enabling someone else to learn, be inspired and to achieve their dreams through education. We are all looking forward to meeting (virtually) the child we sponsor and through Keith and his team, helping him develop a passion for learning and open up new opportunities for himself and his family."

The child they are sponsoring, Abner, is 10 years old and a 4th-grade student at San Miguel Milpas Altas. He lives with his mother, grandmother, and brothers in a small tin house with a cement floor.

Abner wrote a letter to thank the Thomas family (translated from Spanish):

Thank the support you give me, I'm happy to have you in my life as you know I am in in good health and my family too I would like to know more of you and that you know more about me. I always ask God to watch over and protect you. I want to tell you that I did my first two months of classes and I got a good degrees. You are my second family because I have only my mother and my brothers and my grandmother. my mother is a single mother to come forward with us when I grow up I want to be an expert accountant after working very hard. And support my family and people.

The educational support coming from the Thomas family will completely change the direction of Abner's life. An amazing legacy for Gill Thomas, I think she would approve.

Any donations of any size to support our work are welcome - you can donate via Paypal through the link here. Stay tuned over the next weeks for updates from the trip.

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Enjoy!

One of my employees accidentally pocket emailed me while he was at Warren Buffett's annual meeting in Omaha. When I found out, I asked him to share what he learned. - KF

Three Smart Ways to Invest in Relationships from Warren Buffett
By Brandon Smith

I’d long heard about the legendary shareholder meetings of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Dubbed the “Woodstock of Capitalism,” the event attracts 30,000 people to Omaha, Nebraska, every year. For five hours during the meeting, Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger answer questions from reporters, analysts, and shareholders on a wide range of subjects. No audio or video recording is allowed.

Despite the high cachet of the event (I walked past Bill Gates without realizing it until I heard a commotion behind me), any shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway can attend by filling out a form in the annual proxy statement. I’m only four hours from Omaha, so I decided to make the trip.

I’m sure glad I did. The event is a one-of-a-kind networking opportunity. More importantly, Buffet and Munger’s willingness to answer questions is priceless. I was fascinated by their emphasis on people and relationships and took away three key lessons.

1. People skills are critical and take a lifetime to master.

Buffett learned how to invest at 19 from his mentor Benjamin Graham. His method hasn’t changed since. Any one of us can learn Buffett’s method by going to the library and picking up Benjamin Graham’s seminal classic The Intelligent Investor. What has taken Buffett a lifetime to figure out is how to understand people. When Buffett first started out, he placed a heavy emphasis on quantitative data. Despite being the third richest man in the world, Buffett feels he would be richer today if he started paying attention to the people side of investing sooner.

2. Much of investing is figuring out whom you want to create business relationships with.

Because Buffett only invests in uncomplicated companies, figuring out if a business is statistically undervalued is relatively simple for him. The problem is that some companies that seem statistically cheap will never appreciate in value because they have bad management. Before investing in a company, Buffett has to know that management will run the company in the interest of owners—instead of in the interest of management. Often, he literally has to trust management with billions.

Buffett figures out if he wants to be in business with a company’s management by looking at their track record over several years. Are they always candid? Do they admit weaknesses and mistakes? Do they set clear standards of accountability?

3. Motivate subordinates with trust and accountability, not money and control.

When Buffett acquires whole companies, he doesn’t get involved in day-to-day management. Instead, his main job is to keep the company’s management motivated. Because the heads of Buffett’s businesses are almost all millionaires in their own right, Buffett doesn’t focus on money. He pays people fairly so they don’t feel ripped off, but he thinks real motivation comes from trusting managers and setting them free. He wants his managers to act like owners; therefore, he treats them like owners. He gives them broad, multi-year objectives and then lets them reach those objectives however they please. For instance, he owns a carpet company and a company that builds houses. Most conglomerates would make their house company buy carpet from their carpet company in the name of “integration,” “efficiency” or “collaboration.” He doesn’t because he can’t hold his managers accountable if he places extraneous demands on them. He says his managers excel because he allows them to “paint their picture” as they see fit. The moment he starts standing behind them and starts telling them to “use more red” or “use more green” in their painting, he will lose their artistic genius.

Brandon Smith is a Ferrazzi Greenlight consultant based in Iowa.

Which of Buffett's tip ring true for you?

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Enjoy!

High school and college are pressure cookers – far more competitive than in my day, and it was intense then. I remember feeling so alone at times at Yale. Despite my gregarious outward appearance, I longed for real connection. To feel that I was enough.

This week, a friend from Yale sent me an op-ed from my alma mater’s daily that took me right back – not just to my undergrad time, but to a few years ago when I did a session with the freshman class there, organizing them into small groups to discuss the question, “Which major experiences of your past make up who you are today?" I was taken aback by the incredible personal struggles some of these young people had already faced – and also by their ability to open up when they felt safe to do so, and to support each other. Friendships were made that day that carried through all four years.

But tragically, the op-ed my friend sent was written in response to a student’s suicide several weeks ago; a boy whom apparently no one had any idea was struggling.

In her op-ed, recent graduate Kate Calhoun wrote:

“Yalies tend to talk freely about achievement but remain silent about hardship. In this stoic culture, people easily slip through the cracks. We notice when it becomes a tragedy of the magnitude of last week’s, but there are people all over Yale who need some support, compassion and relief.

“You can’t provide this support only in the toughest moments. It’s when people are in trouble that they are least likely to feel comfortable speaking up. Openness, encouragement, and understanding need to be cultivated long before hardship hits.”

Kids today need all the help we can give them to learn that the ability to open up to others about fears, doubts, and dreams is a key survival skill and a badge of strength. Then, once they learn that it’s OK, they need help learning how to do it – not just shoulder pats, but organized, facilitated peer coaching that lets the students develop the dialogue themselves.

I’m still working with Yale on this, and hopefully with more schools soon. A group of Yale Sophomores recently took a version of the myGreenlight training, translated for their specific environment by a couple of really bright students, and with a peer-coaching and support component built in. I was so moved and inspired by the enthusiastic response to the program. So many of them pushed past their comfort zones to share intimacy and vulnerability, and finished with better relationships and the knowledge that they could be themselves, warts included, and be respected and supported all the more.

Kate closes her piece with exactly the right suggestion (in fact, the one I’ve given many times) to give anyone the power to kickstart culture change where they learn, work, or play, in the absence of a formal program or help from leaders:

“Start small. Create the type of culture in your own life that you want to see across this campus. But start immediately. People close to you might need you more than they’re able to admit right now.”

Please share your ideas on how to help our kids open up. And thanks for listening.

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Most corporate structures don't encourage frank conversation. In fact they actively discourage it. If it's a hierarchical, command-and-control type of culture, subordinates will take pains never to upset a boss. If it's an overly political and competitive culture, people worry that candor will come back to haunt them. Even in collegial office environments, people still worry that candid critique of someone's performance will be seen as overly blunt. It's almost as if they would rather see someone repeatedly fail than speak up and hurt their feelings.

Cultivating the kinds of professional relationships that can withstand candor is incredibly important. Studies have found direct links between:

• strong relationships and revenue growth;
• workplace camaraderie and productivity;
• group candor and effective problem-solving.

To get you started, here are 10 tips for creating the kind of environment in which everyone feels enough safety and mutual commitment to say what they're actually thinking:

1. Make the first move.
The person who initiates the move toward greater candor and transparency has to give a preview of what it looks like. This does not mean launching into immediate criticisms but rather using intros like, 'This is hard for me, and I'm a little worried about how this is going to go over, but because I care about the work we're doing, I want us to start having more meaningful conversations."

2. Do it in person.
If at all possible, begin the move toward greater candor in person, when you can see how the other person is responding to what you're saying. Email is better for follow-up, and a perfect way to affirm someone by thanking them for their time and willingness to listen.

3. Encourage pre-meeting reflection.
Giving a brief “heads up” as to what you’ll be discussing can produce greater insight, help avoid groupthink, and lays a groundwork for fruitful conversations that culminate in action items. No one feels blind-sided, and concrete next steps are formulated more quickly. It's a time saver and builds trust.

4. Coach, don't dictate.
Use phrases like “I might suggest” or “Maybe think about this” to make it clear that this conversation is not going to result in a power struggle. Similarly, when receiving candid feedback, thank the person who offered it, but it's perfectly okay to say you'll get other data points on the subject to help decide how to proceed.

5. Be short and sweet.
Mark Twain quipped, "I’m sorry for writing such a long letter. I didn’t have time to write a short one." Boiling down our talking points to their most useful essence takes time, but we do people a favor by using our time to make sure we consume less of theirs.

6. Let difficult communications marinate overnight.
Let several hours elapse between initial drafting of a critical email and hitting “Send.” In that interim revise and remove any loaded language. A good rule of thumb is to cut it by half, which sounds difficult but won't be after everyone has had some sleep.

7. Coach through questions.
Research has found that ideas are often sparked by asking the right questions. A semi-structured approach works better for promoting innovation than unrestricted brainstorming. In short: the more thought and care put into your questions, the greater the value of the answers you'll elicit.

8. Invoke the larger vision.
If a conversation starts to veer off course or get bogged down in messy details, nudge it back into line by invoking a larger shared goal: "We’re having this conversation because we're devoted to delivering a world-class customer experience, and you and I are both integral to making that vision a reality."

9. Say thanks.
The gist of all candid conversations is ideally, I have some particular concerns but overall I’m grateful. If communicating by email, it helps to wind up with an invitation to respond. Use some variation on “I look forward to your thoughts.” Most importantly, regular expressions of appreciation and celebration are what makes the bitter pills easier to swallow. If it's all pointing out room for improvement, all the time, people quickly shut down.

10. Conclude with a promise.
At the end of every candid conversation, it should be clear what the next steps are. Restate briefly what you're taking away from the conversation, and if there's any action item on your plate, restate your commitment to act and, if appropriate, include a rough date for when you hope to pick up the conversation. This maintains the relationship momentum and affirms that the contents of the conversation were important enough to warrant follow-up.

Which of these tips resonate, and what else has worked for you?