I’ve learned a few universal truths about leadership in my day.
But only a few.
Because there are countless shapes and flavors. Like beauty, leadership is in the eye of the beholder.
One thing I do know is that leadership, coaching, and management are distinct – sometimes orthogonal – gifts. They require a different mix of skills, if often sharing similar ingredients. Each can also be an ingredient in the others.
Most people aren’t gifted at any of them. I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve met who are gifted at all three. I’m certainly not. For starters, I’m a C-minus manager.
Gifted managers are organized, focused, anticipatory, and highly attentive to the goals and circumstances of the people they’re tasked with managing. I’m too scatterbrained, too self-centered, to always be thoughtful or patient enough about the needs of the individuals around me.
Gifted coaches have superior motivational talents, the ability to know when to use carrots or sticks, to precisely diagnose problems, and crystal-clear communication. I’d like to think I’m a decent coach, but I fall short when it comes to the sticks. I can be a pushover when times call for the opposite. I’ll give myself a solid B.
Leadership is its own ball of wax. Although a million books and blog posts have tried, pinpointing the universal ingredients of leadership is a fool’s errand. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said about porn, you know it when you see it. Some people lead by example or force, others through inspiration, vision, and flourishing oratory. Leadership can be participatory or delegatory. There are servant leaders and autocratic ones, even if I find the notion of “autocratic leader” to be an oxymoron.
The only reason I think I’m a good leader is because people have told me I am, not including the obvious kiss-ups. But I can’t account for the people who were never comfortable or compelled to tell me they thought otherwise. Also, leadership is about a destination – management and coaching are about the process – and we haven’t reached ours yet. Let’s just say I have several more semesters until I’ll get my leadership report card.
With all that said, every truly gifted coach, manager, or leader I’ve met has a handful of fundamental attributes in common. They’re authentic, empathetic, and confident. And they deliver results.
So, if we all just stay focused on those things, our grades will go up in no time.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
Lots of people have side hustles. Over half of working-age U.S. adults with a job report having at least some kind of secondary paid gig, like driving Ubers or teaching yoga or answering surveys for those ‘other’ research companies who peddle in slop. Forty percent of gig workers say they’re doing it to cover basic living expenses or to pay down debt, which is a lot, but it also means people are side hustling for lots of other reasons. On the list are things like saving for a big purchase or event, doing something they’re passionate about, wanting to try a new skill or career path, and the dreaded “Other.”
The (alleged) tariff pullback with China doesn’t seem to be slowing accelerated buying, yet. If you missed our economic uncertainty webinar on Monday, you might be the only one – the turnout was off the charts. I’m happy to share some of the highlights, since we’re such good friends. First, as the header of this paragraph suggests, the number of U.S. consumers who have pulled forward one or more purchases to beat impending price increases climbed significantly in May (count me among them, I just got a new iPhone). We also showed how emotional well-being indicators are proving to be particularly strong predictors of spending behavior right now. Oh, and even Republicans saw their economic sentiment measures fall over the six weeks. We’ll be doing biweekly webinars going forward. You can see the schedule and sign up here.
Higher-income consumers are fickle. In our 3 Things to Know this week, we took a double look at America’s upper echelon of wage-earners, who’ve largely been bolstering the economy as lower-income households pull back. While brand switching behavior always jumps during economic headwinds – mostly to find better deals – households making over $150k in annual income switch for other reasons, like declining product quality, shrinkflation, or availability. We also examined where high-income adults are cutting back most right now. Canceling and downgrading subscriptions is where they over-index the most. Lastly, we looked at the status of community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs and found some unintuitive trends across income groups.
Salons are taking a hit, but women are still prioritizing beauty treatments during the economic chaos. The wholesale pandemic-borne evolution of beauty and skincare from a fashion category to a wellness one is fully complete. While sales have finally proven not to be immune from economic headwinds, the industry continues to fare far better than most. Case in point is the latest data we published on beauty and spa treatments. Tariff concerns are contributing to a pullback in out-of-home salon visits; however, we’ve seen a significant counterbalancing rise in at-home, DIY beauty treatments. The move isn’t purely cost-driven either – the rise of social media tutorials and the feeling that people can achieve better results on their own have both contributed. You can see what types of DIY treatments are trending the most here.
Half-caff coffee is a new status symbol. Every morning, Tara makes one high-octane pod of coffee, then returns to the kitchen an hour later for one pod of decaf (I drink a double serving of the former, all at once). She could save herself the extra trip to the kitchen by doing a double serving of half-caff, but I’m sure she’ll have a reason why that’s a terrible idea. Anyway, it appears the popularity of half-decaf (that’s the cup-half-empty term for it) is on the rise, especially among women and younger adults. Generally, they’re a trendy group – brand-centric in their retail behaviors, big into health and fitness, and early adopters – the kind of things that signal a prime advertising target. I’m good with my 2X caffeine.
One more item of awesomeness from the InsightStore:
- Mike’s Hot Honey is a fast-growing brand, and its customers love Bojangles, the WNBA, and other fascinating insights;
- We’re hosting a webinar next Thursday with our partners at Tenetic, sharing hot-off-the-press data about the recent television Upfront, which shows have the highest audience interest, and who will be watching them. Sign up here.
The most popular questions this week:
How important do you think it is for kids to attend summer camp?
Do you think flying cars will become a common mode of transportation in the near future?
Do you typically go all out for your birthday?
Do you usually prefer vintage or modern cars?
Answer Key: Depends on how much you trust your doctor, but why not?; They were game-changers for our kids; No, we still can’t even handle all the planes; No, but maybe this year (50); 3-year-old used ones.
Hoping you’re well.
JD
