Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! This semester I am requiring my seniors to participate in a small group networking session with a senior alumnus of our program as part of their professional development seminary. With 35 seniors, I am running eight sessions (with eight different alumni) so that each session is only 4-5 students. One guest, who is a CEO, took the time to write a short note to each student after the session offering individual advice and suggesting other people he thought they should meet, and offering to make introductions. It’s really great to see how willing our alumni are to spend time with the current students. This is something I will continue into the future.
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Enjoy the links!
(pic above is a sunrise paddle down the Oyster River on Monday)
Read
What: AEI, Kori Schake, What working for Colin Powell taught me
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/what-working-for-colin-powell-taught-me/
Why: As you no doubt have heard, Colin Powell passed away last week. This is a short farewell from defense analyst Kori Schake whom I follow, who worked for Powell when he was chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“He populated the arc of his light with people he was good to, because that’s how he made his own hard work fun.”
RIP Colin Powell.
**
What: Colin Powell’s 13 rules for how to lead
https://share.america.gov/colin-powell-13-rules-how-to-lead/
Why: Very short. Read them. They are insightful. Here’s one:
Rule 1: It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. Leaving the office at night with a winning attitude affects more than you alone; it also conveys that attitude to your followers.
Great leaders have reality distortion fields. Their presence makes their followers believe they can achieve hard things.
**
What: Project Syndicate, John Cochrane, Inflation in the Shadow of Debt
Why: I’m a fan of John Cochrane, AKA The Grumpy Economist. He is a world-class monetary economist (i.e., he studies stuff like inflation for a living), so when he talks about inflation, I listen. He has some really interesting points in this essay, especially the last bit about refinancing our debt.
**
Watch
What: Anne Scherer, Why we're more honest with machines than people (11 min)
https://www.ted.com/talks/anne_scherer_why_we_re_more_honest_with_machines_than_people
Why: Researchers have found we are more likely to be honest when answering personal questions from bot than from another human. The study highlights our fear of social judgment. An interesting discussion on how this is relevant to being a better conversation partner, and of course therapy.
**
Listen
What: The Insightful Leader, Now’s the Time to Negotiate for the Job—or Salary or Flexibility (17 min)
Why: This is less a timely piece of advice because the labor market is red-hot, and more a timeless set of strategies for thinking about negotiating on your own behalf. There is some really good advice in this one. I am going to pass it on to my students.
**
What: Conversations with Tyler, Stanley McChrystal on the Military, Leadership, and Risk
https://cowenconvos.libsyn.com/stanley-mcchrystal
Why: Not so much about the military as about leadership and policy. Amongst the many topics, a discussion about how military service is not broadly distributed in the population as it once was, and why McChrystal thinks this is unhealthy for the military and the country as a whole. He also admits to a sense of loss of identity after retiring, which I am not surprised by given his acclaim, but which I also experienced, even as a person who did not think the military was all that central to my identity. And as he explains it, it isn’t so much about your identity as you cross a subtle (and not subtle) cultural boundary.
**
What: The Dispatch Podcast, Balance of Power: China and the United States
https://omny.fm/shows/the-dispatch-podcast/balance-of-power-china-and-the-united-states
Why: After the Chinese military tested a hypersonic missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload to US mainland targets that is also capable of avoiding current anti-missile technology, Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary stated, “generally speaking, we’ve made clear our concerns about the military capabilities that the PRC continues to pursue. And we have been consistent in our approach with China: We welcome stiff competition, but we not — we do not want that competition to veer into conflict.” (here is the link to the White House web site where you can read the whole briefing) This is one of the topics of the Dispatch podcast conversation with Klon Kitchen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and veteran of the intelligence community. That comment from Psaki was hopefully a verbal fumble, because it is profoundly stupid from a national security perspective. The interview with Kitchen is excellent and raises a number of points of ongoing concern.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
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See you next week!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Associate Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast:
http://healthleaderforge.org
"Were there none discontented with what they have, the World would never reach anything better." - Florence Nightingale