Money Lessons with Andrew Temte, PhD, CFA

I believe in bringing more of one's “whole or best self” to work. I believe that a diversity of voices and lived experiences leads to a richer tapestry of potential solutions to business challenges and ultimately, better outcomes. Conversely, I believe that heavy conformance to preconceived norms and blindly following overpowering voices stifles creativity and leads to the adoption of a fixed, unyielding mindset.

As time passes, the business matures, growth slows, and entropy sets in. Leaders and team members pull their heads up and take a look around at the state of their business. The common refrain goes something like this: “Wow, how did our culture deviate so far from our original intention? We need to get back to growth mode, but we also need a culture that will facilitate further growth, not impede it!”

Welcome to the Saturday Morning Muse! In this episode, I'm talking about what integrity means and propose a simplified definition. Here's an excerpt: "I propose that when we teach and coach the human skill of integrity, we must also add the words empathy, compassion, and understanding. As a result, the definition of integrity can be simplified to: Integrity: Compassionately doing the right thing." Learn more about Andrew Temte at https://www.andrewtemte.com.

This episode tells the story of 10-year-old Andy as a member of the La Crosse Boychoir, my mentor, Dan Johnson-Wilmot, and outlines three benefits of focusing on good posture for your personal and professional journey of continuous improvement. "Nothing says “you’ve got this,” more than good posture. Many people will tell you that “clothes make the person,” but those clothes have to fit onto a frame—your frame. So before you go out and spend big money on a new wardrobe to boost self confidence, make the time to invest in posture by strengthening both mind and body." Learn more about Andrew Temte at www.andrewtemte.com. #Posture #Self-Confidence #LeadershipDevelopment

My goal with this muse is to gently, but purposefully change the arc of the conversation in corporate circles around the concept of empathy and empathetic leadership. In my opinion, empathy is great, but it lacks two essential ingredients—the willingness/ability to help, and the ability to detach. Compassion represents a logical extension of empathy as it combines the ability to recognize someone else’s feelings and the motivation to help them do something about it. This addition of the motivation to help requires an ability to separate or detach oneself from the challenge the other person is experiencing. Without this ability to mentally detach, their challenge or pain becomes yours and carrying around that emotional burden will ultimately lead to your own exhaustion and burnout. Yes, it’s awesome that you feel another’s pain and want to help alleviate it, but if it’s at the expense of your own well-being, what’s the point? www.andrewtemte.com

Financial literacy is a woefully underdeveloped skill in both our homes and businesses. I frequently hear business leaders lament about the lack of financial literacy within their teams. In my first book, Balancing Act, I outline the four most important future-facing skills and financial literacy (and it’s more sophisticated cousin, financial acumen) is one of these four critical skills. So what is to be done to close the financial literacy skills gap? Use your annual budget process as an experiential learning opportunity for managers and key individual contributors in your organization.

Today, I'm musing about turning your company's budgeting process from wasteful drudgery to a value-adding exercise that helps develop individuals, teams, and builds your corporate culture. Optimally, your company’s budget should be an elegant financial expression of a tight, cohesive storyline that explains how tactics and execution in the upcoming year align with the company’s purpose, long-term vision, and master (or top level) goals.

So how do we balance control and empowerment? How do we create a high trust, high accountability workplace? We do so by installing a clear set of guardrails and guidelines within which the organization can function. Said differently, we install a “management operating system.”

Excerpt: If I’m living my personal purpose in both life and work and striving toward my long-term personal vision, then the likelihood that I feel unworthy of my successes is reduced because my success is more genuine to me and, no pun intended, purposeful. So if natural feelings of unworthiness and self-doubt creep in, I can remind myself that my success didn’t come out of nowhere, but was instead the result of planning, skill, and hard work.

Episode Excerpt: "What I do know is that reducing the negative feelings that accompany my imposter syndrome has distinct benefits. My anxiety is much more manageable, I’m happier and feel more fulfilled, and I believe I’m a better parent, partner, and friend. So how did I reduce my exposure to imposter syndrome? I defined and connected to my personal purpose."

Far too often, when confronted with a challenge, we talk. We talk to deflect. We talk because we don’t know what else to do. We talk to release nervous energy. To make matters worse, when we start talking, we usually start relaying a story of a similar challenge that’s happened to us. The individual who’s going through the challenge doesn’t want to hear about our suffering or similar situation, they want to be heard. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

Are you feeling disengaged or ‘stuck’ at work? Does it feel like you’re trudging through mud and that the light in your eyes has dimmed? From my own personal experience, it can be very difficult to pinpoint the root cause of these feelings and it’s even harder to break through to an improved state of well-being and engagement. Today, I’d like to share a tip that’s worked well for me when I find myself feeling negative, harried, and strained. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

Today, we’re talking about one of the most important questions we must ask ourselves. That question is: Am I Adding Value? Am I adding value at work? Am I adding value to my friend group? Family unit? The board I’m a member of? https://www.andrewtemte.com/

The popular press is filled with “how to” guides on personal and professional fulfillment as well as tons of click bait on fad diets, how to get in shape, and develop washboard abs. Yes, it can be fun to vicariously live through others and dream of personal transformation, but those same dreams can be soul-crushing when we slide back into old habits and self-destructive behaviors and patterns that hold us back from making real progress. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

I love puzzles that test my mind. My go-to right now is Sudoku at the “Beware: Very Challenging” level. I find the task of searching for patterns within number grids both soothing and energizing. It may sound odd, but I like working through the frustration of a difficult puzzle, in part because I’ve learned enough about brain science to know that I’m making new neural connections within the ball of gray matter that sits between my ears. I’ve also learned enough about brain science to know that puzzle diversity is the key to a healthy brain—much like muscle confusion has been shown to be an essential element of physical fitness. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

In my previous writings, I talk a lot about the benefits of engaging in constructive self-reflection. In my Personal Planning Guidebook, which is a free download on my website, the ability to self-reflect is an integral part of the personal planning process. But what is self-reflection and how can you get the most from it? We’re going to discuss the art of self-reflection over the next two weeks. Today, we’ll focus on the pre-conditions for successful self-reflection, and next week we’ll get into specific recommendations for self-reflection sessions.

Giving versus taking. This is one of, if not the, most important balancing acts we play throughout our lives. We come into this world naked and completely dependent on our parents and caregivers. Throughout our youth, we are, by definition, net takers. As we age, we build and refine a portfolio knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes (a.k.a., competency) with the goal of providing for ourselves, our families, and contributing to our employers and communities.

We fill our lives with busy and hurry—seldom, if ever, stopping to check in with ourselves and ensure we’re living out the promise of our purpose. One of my goals with the Saturday Morning Muse is to help drive a shift in perspective—from the negative to the positive—from “I have to,” to “I get to.” If you want to be an effective, compassionate leader in life and in business, start engaging in your own mindfulness practice. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

There will be times when you’re the smartest person in the room and others when you need a helping hand. Your colleagues will quickly become exhausted by a know-it-all attitude and will begin to tune you out. Your value to the team and its leader will fall, and tough decisions will follow. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

I get asked periodically how companies will maintain and grow healthy corporate cultures in an environment of hybrid and/or fully remote work. The argument goes something like this: If my people aren’t together everyday, how can culture thrive? Sometimes, this question is a mask for unspoken undertones like damnit, I’m paying for this physical office space, I want it full of busy humans, or I don’t trust that the work is getting done if I can’t see it happening in front of me. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

Resilience is defined as “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties” (Oxford Dictionaries). The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences.” In most definitions of resiliency, adversity, shock, and/or change occurs that an individual or system must adapt to. Individuals or systems that are resilient are able to absorb and adapt to said adversity, shock, or change more efficiently than their peers. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

What do your people want (other than more money)? They want clarity, autonomy, empowerment, respect, and organizational accountability. They want to make a difference and do good, meaningful work. They want to know that leadership cares and that everyone in the company is rowing in the same direction with the same commitment and vigor that they apply to their own work. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

AI, AI, AI. Everyone’s talking about the challenges and opportunities that individuals, corporations, institutions, and governments face as artificial intelligence tools gain prominence in our daily lives. I’m amused by the shock and dismay that surrounds the debate in many circles—as if the rise of the efficacy of tools like ChatGPT 4, Bard, Bing, Chatsonic, etc., just arrived on the scene out of left field. We either knew or should have known that continued reductions in the incremental cost of computing, coupled with advances in natural language processing (NLP) experiments would yield offspring such as the large language models (LLM) we see today. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

We’ve all been there. The conference room is packed with attendees for the big presentation. The projector comes to life and the speakers begin walking everyone through the next big corporate innovation, the quarterly financials, or an update on a cross-functional project. The room is professional and focused, with the exception of Suzie and Quentin, who are whispering so loudly that their side conversation is impossible to ignore. As the presentation progresses, Suzie and Quentin continue to chatter periodically amongst themselves—unimpeded and oblivious to their surroundings. Nobody steps in to call them on their behavior. Why? https://www.andrewtemte.com/

One of the biggest errors a leader can make is to hire team members who are direct reflections of themselves. Yes, it can be temporarily convenient to surround yourself with people who always agree with you, or who share your own perspectives, but in the long-term, this type of hiring behavior will hinder growth, innovation, and forward momentum. A balancing act all leaders must grapple with is the short-term benefit of moving fast with minimal drag from a personally curated “Team Yes,” versus the long-term satisfaction that comes from building a diverse team that will simultaneously challenge, support, and push the boundaries of your current state positions and thinking. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

There are many truisms in business, and one that doesn’t get nearly enough attention is that as a leader rises through the ranks of an organization, the amount they are discussed, analyzed, and talked about increases in a non-linear fashion. I would periodically get asked if this bothered me during my career, and I would typically respond with a flippant: “My ears stopped buzzing long ago.” Meaning that it no longer bothered me. While marginally humorous in the moment, as I look back, my response was less than helpful and certainly didn’t reach the mark of a teaching moment. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

Once you’ve come to terms with and start loving the unique human that is you, then achieving your definition of success boils down to relationships and results. For a deep(erish) dive into the relationships side of the equation, here’s the link to last week’s episode for you to review. [1960s elevator music plays] Now that you’re back, let’s tackle the second part of the equation, results. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

Earlier this summer, I was in unavoidable earshot of a conversation between two acquaintances regarding team performance—specifically about an operational failure that had occurred in their business. They were lamenting about one of their co-workers, and the implication was that the co-worker was to blame. As a reminder, if I’m pointing a finger at someone else, three more are pointing right back at me. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

Last week, we outlined the pre-conditions to effective self-reflection and introduced the concepts of self-awareness, cognitive (unconscious) bias, and taming the negative voices that swirl within our heads—what Jane Pike calls our “itty bitty shitty committee.” Now lets get into the logistical specifics of an effective self-reflection session. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

“There are no failures in life, only learning opportunities.” “It’s only a failure if you don’t learn from it.” Phrases like this are designed to promote a lifelong learning mindset, but it can be incredibly difficult to separate the feelings of failure after something goes wrong from the need to learn from a failure, grow, and move on. I know from personal experience that I can get really stuck when I haven’t lived up to expectations, have failed to deliver on a commitment, or have had a project go completely sideways. It’s almost always these feelings of being a failure that lead me to spin unconstructively. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

Embrace the power of music. There’s an old saying that my father often repeats: “Keep a smile on your face and a song in your heart.” In this forum, I talk a lot about developing an agile, growth mindset and nurturing a strong portfolio of emotional intelligence tools. Embracing this old saying is one of many methods I’ve used through the years to keep my head screwed on straight and avoid the slide into a fixed mindset when the going gets tough. Yes, listening to your favorite music by yourself can be cathartic and healing, but periodically doing so in the company of an audience can be exponentially more powerful. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

What’s the formula for career success? There are endless consultants and prognosticators who claim to have the golden ticket to success. I’ve thought about this many times throughout my career, and with nearly 40 years of experience under my belt, I can boil the formula down to two interrelated concepts: relationships and results. If, at first glance, this framework appears overly simplistic, it is. Each of these words encapsulates numerous competencies and take years, if not decades, to hone and perfect. So let’s spend a bit of time diving into the nuance behind this formula—today we’ll be focusing on the first part of the formula—relationships. https://www.andrewtemte.com/

Your people need to hear from you. Radio silence is a terrible management practice and is a big driver of employee dissatisfaction. In the case of our delayed flight, all the pilot needed to do was provide a 30 second update to passengers regarding why we pulled off an active runway prior to takeoff. That simple action would have prevented unnecessary spinning and emotional waste. You can prevent spinning, gossip, speculation, and emotional waste by being prompt, clear, and as transparent as possible during times of uncertainty in your business.

On The Balancing Act Podcast, I routinely ask my guests for the advice they would give our listeners on how to optimize the balancing act between technical skill and human (a.k.a. soft) skill in the world of work. The answers to this question vary widely, but most answers share a common thread of building the skills of communication, active listening, presence, situational awareness, self awareness, and empathy/compassion. These are all the greatest hits of a solid emotional intelligence toolkit. https://www.andrewtemte.com/