Hello everyone,
I'm glad to be back here with you. Unfortunately, I was off last week competing in another triathlon event and my schedule got complicated to sit down and share with you all the best content I read-watched-listened to during the week.
Here are three different moments from the race and without a doubt my personal highlight of the event. ( I got Clara giving me a little extra energy to keep pushing and of course Duda, once and again showing her support!!)
On top of competing in yet another triathlon, I had to get down to work on my final assignment for this semester's Organisational Psychology class.
I ended up choosing a topic that's very close to my heart and also to my line of work: the effectiveness of the servant leadership style in a VUCA environment that is an early-stage startup.
Through a series of well-documented analyses and data, I wanted to make the case that leaders who focus on taking care of their people create a work environment where people can thrive and, as a result, the organization will thrive. I will be sharing some of my work in the future, but for now, I will leave you all with the best definition of "servant leadership" and the "Vuca" environment.
Servant leadership is often associated with the work of Robert K. Greenleaf, who first coined the term in his 1970 essay, "The Servant as Leader." According to Greenleaf, servant leaders prioritize listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. In doing so, they create a culture of trust, collaboration, and mutual respect, which can lead to higher levels of employee engagement, productivity, and job satisfaction.
Some key characteristics of servant leadership include:
Empathy: Servant leaders strive to understand and empathize with the needs, feelings, and perspectives of their followers.
Humility: Servant leaders are humble and modest, and they prioritize the needs of others over their own.
Listening: Servant leaders listen carefully to their followers and seek to understand their perspectives and opinions.
Commitment to personal growth: Servant leaders are committed to the personal growth and development of their followers, and they work to create an environment that fosters learning and development.
Building community: Servant leaders work to create a sense of community and shared purpose among their followers, encouraging collaboration and teamwork.
Overall, servant leadership is a type of leadership that emphasizes the importance of serving others and creating a culture of trust, collaboration, and mutual respect. By putting the needs of their followers first, servant leaders can create a more engaged, productive, and satisfied workforce.
The term VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, and it is used to describe the nature of the rapidly changing and unpredictable world we live in. Here is a brief description of each aspect of VUCA:
Volatility: Refers to the tendency of things to change quickly and unpredictably. This can be seen in fluctuations in the economy, the stock market, or the political situation in different countries. Volatility makes it difficult to predict the future and plan for long-term success.
Uncertainty: Refers to the lack of predictability and the inability to know for sure what will happen next. This can be seen in technological advances, geopolitical changes, and market disruptions. Uncertainty can lead to indecision and hesitation in decision-making.
Complexity: Refers to the interconnectedness and interdependence of different systems and factors. The complexity of the world can make it difficult to understand cause-and-effect relationships, as well as to develop effective solutions to problems.
Ambiguity: Refers to the existence of multiple interpretations and perspectives, and the difficulty in determining what is true or accurate. Ambiguity can lead to confusion, misunderstandings, and a lack of clarity in decision-making.
Taken together, these four aspects of VUCA create an environment that is challenging and unpredictable, and that requires organizations and individuals to be adaptable, flexible, and resilient in order to succeed.
I will conclude with this short but powerful video of one of my favorites; Simon Sinek, talking about how lack of trust is an organization killer!
Best from Linkedin
[ Schedule + Time Management ] - “We’ve been deep at work at Clockwise building a new type of scheduler with superpowers." - Read it here.
[ I love this one ]
[ Founders + Leadership ] - Founders - here's how much equity to give your first 10 employees 📊 Read it here.
[ Growth + User Acquisition ] - “I'm officially launching a boycott against CAC (cost of acquisition). CAC is useless. The acquisition performance metric that actually matters is the velocity at which you can recoup your money, or payback period.”- Read it here.
[ Product Market Fit + Founder ] - “The PMF engine operates in five steps: surveying users for their experience and disappointment level with the product, segmenting customers based on these responses to identify high-expectation customers, analyzing the survey results to understand the product's benefits and its shortcomings, implementing changes based on the analysis, and continually tracking PMF scores to measure progress.”- Read it here.
[ AI + New Business + Starting a Business ] - “PREDICTION: The next billion-dollar startup will have only 3 employees.” - Read it here.
[ Scaling up + Growth + IPO ] - “From idea to IPO, you can see what it takes to build and scale a startup.”- Read it here.
[ Unicorn + Growth + Entrepreneur ] - “Becoming a unicorn founder 🦄 is an incredible achievement, yet for some reason, many people assume that obtaining a prestigious MBA degree is a requirement for achieving it.”- Read it here.
[ Founders + Leadership + Personal Development ] - “I have made 100+ investments over 8 years and worked with 14 unicorn founders and the very best founders have three traits:”- Read it here.
[ Airtable + AI + Revolution ] - “Today, Airtable announced our vision to become the fastest, easiest way to deploy AI-powered apps for your business.” - Read it here.
BEST TO LISTEN
[ Performance Under Pressure ] - Adam Grant hosts Sian Beilock a cognitive scientist who specializes in why we choke under pressure. She’s also the first woman to be elected President of Dartmouth College. Sian shares with Adam her unique perspective on delivering results in high-stress environments, the value of sitting with discomfort, and strategies for guarding against performance anxiety.
Ray Dalio - How to Prepare For The Changing World Order
How could AI save (not destroy) education - TED TALK!! - Watch it here.
Top Content of The Week
[ Innovation + Culture + Winners ] - 7 keys to creating a culture of innovation by BigThink - Read it here.
[ Entrepreneurship + Personal Development + Mindset] - Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset: What's the Difference? by Entrepreneur - Read it here.
[ Neuroscience + Flow State + Higher Performance ] - “A Neuroscientist Explains How to Invoke the Power of Clutch and Flow States” by Triathlete Magazine - Read it here.
[ Career Development + Personal Development ] - “6 Ways to Take Control of Your Career Development If Your Company Doesn’t Care About It” by Harvard Business Review - Read it here.
[ Innovation + Culture ] “Turn Your Teams Inside Out
Externally focused teams can drive innovation, performance, and distributed leadership — but adopting them requires a shift in mindset.” by MIT Sloam- Read it here.
[ Emotional Intelligence + Personal Development ] - The 3 Elements of Trust by Harvard Business Review - Read it here.
[ Career Planning + Personal Development + Leadership ] - “How to Gain Credibility When You Have Little Experience” by Harvard Business Review - Read it here.
[ Energy + Spain + Entrepreneurship + Venture Capital ] - The future of energy in Spain by KFund - Read it here.
[ Venture Capital + Ashton Kutcher + AI ] - “Ashton Kutcher raised a $243 million investment fund in just five weeks that will focus on ‘the next absolute transformation’ in tech” by Fortune - Read it here.
[ Career Development + Performance + Leadership ] - How to Give Tough Feedback That Helps People Grow by Harvard Business Review - Read it here.
[ AI + Future ] - ‘The Godfather of A.I.’ Leaves Google and Warns of Danger Ahead”
For half a century, Geoffrey Hinton nurtured the technology at the heart of chatbots like ChatGPT. Now he worries it will cause serious harm by The New York Times - Read it here.
My favorite of the week
[ AI + Future ] - Will AI become the new McKinsey? by The New Yorker - Read it here.
Startup of the Week
Bounties4.com - Access and manage the best tech developers in Brazil with Bounties4. I met the company a few months ago and I'm very impressed by the quality of the co-founders and how they are aware of the challenges, the need for validation through experimentation and the long-term vision to become the best platform for companies and professionals.
I believe that in the future (think about tomorrow) professionals will choose to work on projects that challenge them and give them the freedom to explore different things instead of running around in a single-track race, and that's what Bounties4 can do for professionals.
As a result of choosing what to work on, the professional flirts with the flow state (the challenge keeps the professional focused; therefore it triggers flow) and also task satisfaction. If you can choose what to work on, your satisfaction will undoubtedly increase - there are several studies that link satisfaction to increased performance.
Made with my brain in Madrid, Spain.
Muito bom, Dani! Parabéns pela news e pelo conteúdo que agrega demais!
Parabéns! Ta animal!