Correct overgeneralization

Correct overgeneralization is the feeling that you can forecast where things are going with just a few hints, some people can call it a hunch but the people that really has it, they are correct most of the time. This "ability" is especially useful for companies dealing (creating) with innovation where things have not been set yet and we need to forecast and set the expectations over the product that might have not even been designed yet. A leader with this skill can help you to create a vision of the product in a short or even long term.

One of the things we have to be careful with this type of distortion is when people have too much power because they can become overconfident in the decisions that they are taking or they stop listening to the advices of others to focus on this vision. As leaders is better if we can back up these decisions with data or a close tracking of the expectations and possible turnovers that we can find.

The five cognitive distortions of people who gets stuff done

This is from lecture from Michael Dearing about the characteristics that he has found to be common across colleges and founders that get things done.

• Personal exceptionalism: This is the believe that you are unique and your destiny is to do something great, something like if you were chosen for that.
• Dichotonomous thinking: If you are one of those people that things that something is right or wrong and there is not a gray area in the middle, this is you cognitive distortion
• Correct overgeneralization: You are able to forecast in someway what is going to happen or what is going to be needed and you are correct most of the time.
• Blank-canvas thinking: This is for the people who is able to think outside the box, even when there is an established way of doing things and they know it, they will find other way around to make things probably better.
• Schumpeterianism: This is based on the last name of an infamous economist Joseph Schumpeter and it means someone who is able to create innovation by the meaning of destroying his previous creation. Sometimes to make something better you have to kill your favorites, this is something that I heard from Stephen King in the book on writing.

 What I mainly learned about this talk is how to find and control entrepreneurs and direct them the right way or even I felt identified with some of those distortions and it helped to better understand what is the risk of following such schemas.

Good boss, bad boss by Bob Sutton

A very interesting book and lecture from Bob Sutton about leadership and what makes the difference between a good boss and a bad boss.

In this book Bob defines a good boss and someone that people likes to work with him, it doesn't really matter if the numbers of the company are excellent or if the leader actually makes more money per year., what is important is that the people that he leads will want to work and continue working with him. Don't misunderstand this as a poor performers.

Starting with the facts that you will actually increase your chances to live longer (because bosses are the most stressful part of most jobs) to the fact that with the right influence people can perform better.

Across the book, Bob mentions a series of examples and ideas to improve your influence over people, what traps to avoid and how to be a good boss.

These are some of the ideas that were given during the lecture:

• A good boss have a moderate assertiveness. As a leader you most know where the team is heading and you must be able to select what to do and what not to do If you made a mistake you must be able to retake the route.
• A leader must be able to get real information from his subordinates. I know it sounds easy but it is actually hard because we tend to kill the messenger, so people will tend to tell you only good news.
• A leader must be able to set an environment where people feel confident to share their ideas and fight for it. Everyone can have a great idea, if  they can actually talk about it, you must protect those that are sensitive to rejected ideas and encourage people to put ideas over the table every time they can.
• It is better when you break things down to smaller tasks. People will always feel better when they feel that they are moving forward and that they are actually accomplishing something. Note to myself:. I'm realizing that this goes hand on hand with the fact that you need to break down things to small task in your project plan to create a better estimation (if a task takes longer than 4 weeks, maybe it is time to break it down)
• Smart talk trap: Avoid the smart talkers, people that will just talk about how things should be done but they don't actually execute it, this people is not useful to the organization.
• If you made a mistake it is better if you accept it, show that you have learn and implement a solution.
• The toxic tandem: Leaders have the attention of their let's call followers, but people will imitate the behavior of the leader, some times leaders will just try to ignore and do whatever they want (including some misbehavior just because they are leaders) you must watch out for this, this will also be imitated by your followers. The problem is that eventually some leaders tend to ignore this, be careful.
• Power, when you are the leader you have the power to make certain decisions the problem with this is that people with power tends to focus on themselves and pay little attention to others which leads to poor decision making.
• A great phrase I got from the lecture is: Debate, decide and deliver. In an open environment it is probable that you will find situations where two people have similar ideas but they can't decide which one take this must exist for a successful company but what it is more important is that you must not focus on keep fighting, you must focus on delivering.
• In a small team a bad resource can ruin your team for a 30% to 40%. That's why I think that the process of hiring new people must be done carefully (remember it is easier to kick someone out when you are in this part)