15 Most Popular Questions Successful Executives Ask Me

Over the last 5 years I’ve provided executive advisory sessions to attendees of the Digital Ascendant and Retail Ascendant executive communities during their gatherings in Silicon Valley and New York. During their events I get to meet for 30min with an executive and provide advice on any aspect of their business and career.

I’ve completed over 100 of these formal advisory sessions and many more spontaneous sessions over the meals, field trips to members innovation labs, and entertainment experiences that are part of the events. All meticulously created by founder Susan McDermid and her brilliant team. 

As I was writing Words That Work, I decided to incorporate the top questions the most successful executives ask me both at the Ascendant Network events and my broader work and experiences. 

Top 15 questions the most successful executives ask me:
 

1. How do I encourage truth telling? 

2. What is the fastest way to deliver results as a newly appointed executive? 

3. How can I influence my board meetings to be more productive? 

4. How do I improve external media and investor relationships? 

5. How do I set the performance bar for my executive team at the right height? 

6. How do I know people are telling me the truth? 

7. How can I help my team think bigger? 

8. How can I test radical, bold moonshots? 

9. How do I change my habits rapidly? 

10. How do I upgrade my network to the right altitude of peers? 

11. How do I rapidly evaluate and change out the right people on my executive team? 

12. How do I understand and live my true purpose? 

13. How do I help those around me explore new ideas? 

14. How do I say what I mean concisely? 

15. What are the characteristics of the most successful executives?

These top 15 questions became the backbone of Words That Work. 

Which numbers are of most interest to you to learn more about?

I’d love to hear from you. 

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Why This Sport Is Called The Beautiful Game

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney would be envious of the story that played out at LAFCs Banc of California on Saturday at the MLS Cup Final LAFC vs. the Philadelphia Union.  It could have been a script from any Hollywood movie!

Reynolds and McElhenney developed a love for the beautiful game when they bought Welsh Football Club Wrexham AFC in February 2021. If you haven’t watched the Welcome to Wrexham documentary you are missing out! Ted Lasso has nothing on the heart warming show about the history and present day of the former mining town along with the players, staff, and fans of Wrexham AFC.  

LA resident McElhenney was even at the LAFC game on Saturday along with the Biebers, Magic Johnson, and many other celebrities. 

So what made this game so beautiful? (- apart from the fact LAFC won on penalties after 3-3 at extra time) It was the so-good-they-must-be-from-a-cheesy-movie moments that made this game so beautiful:

Knowing when to switch out the right players
It was a bold move to take Captain Carlos Vela off the pitch and bring on Gareth Bale.  But when Bale scored the crucial equalizer to bring the game to penalties that move well and truly paid off! He’s only played a handful of minutes since LAFC signed him but he scored right when it mattered. 

Being ready even if you think you might not be needed. 
It’s the stuff Hollywood movie storylines are made of…when substitute goalkeeper woke up on Saturday could he have ever believed that he would win the MVP Most Valuable Player award - against his former club and home town team the Philadelphia Union too? It’s rare for a substitute goalie to be needed but when Maxime Crepeau broke his leg after a foul that also earned him a red card, it was time for LAFC John McCarthy to take over. McCarthy saved two penalties and won the MVP player award. 

Keeping your ego in check, especially when others make mistakes
You read a lot about egotistical footballers and sports players, but keeping that ego in check isn’t always as simple as it sounds. LAFC’s Kellyn Acosta showed everyone how it is done at a pre match press conference. A Philadelphia reporter asked him what the vibe was like in Philly with the World Series and the Eagles undefeated, (even though he had an LAFC badge next to his name plate!!) Acosta handled the question perfectly, first trying to gently reposition the question, but as the reporter persisted with his question, Acosta told him “I don’t play for Philly, it is exciting for them I guess…” I happened to met Acosta’s Grandmother at the game and I shared with her how proud she can be of her grandson not humiliating the reporter and just calmly correcting him. 

Random fact:
Pelé made the phrase “The Beautiful Game” popular, but it was originally coined by English commentator Stuart Hall as early as 1958. 

Maybe you are reading this from outside the US and can’t believe that an MLS game could be this exciting. I challenge you to watch the highlights and decide then. 

Maybe you are reading this from inside the US and can’t believe I am calling soccer football, but my British upbringing makes that hard for me to adjust to!

Cheers to a great week.  

Dedicated to growing your business, 

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Will Elon Musk Succeed Or Fail With Twitter?

If you are a fan of reality tv documentaries like Back To The Floor or Undercover Boss I suggest you start following Elon Musk on Twitter as you don’t need a tv subscription to watch the latest corporate drama unfold real time. 

A video of Musk walking into Twitter HQ carrying a bathroom sink with the caption “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” was how many found out that the sale of Twitter to Musk was complete. It was a rapid conclusion to the endless “will-he won’t-he?” buy Twitter question last week.  

The deal got done and Musk immediately fired CEO Parag Agrawal, finance head Ned Segal, and head of legal policy Vijaya Gadde. But the real question is will Musk succeed or fail with his $44B investment? And will this be a distraction from Tesla and SpaceX that neither business can afford?

Musk’s first few days at the helm of the social media giant have been as frantic as the legal battles to determine the fate of the 7,500 Twitter employees. 

During the acquisition phase, Musk told investors that he could double Twitter’s revenue in 3 years and that he believed 75% of its workforce was not needed. Lofty goals and certainly claims that will put many current employees on edge even if the headcount cuts are being downplayed internally. 

Though the deal has been done, I doubt that the debate is over on the mechanics of the valuation as Musk has tasked a team to change the much coveted Twitter blue check to a paid only subscription. A sure way to weed out all of the bots that were at the heart of Musk’s claim that Twitter’s own reporting of users (and therefore their valuation) was exaggerated. While this is a great idea, but if the report in The Verge is true that the team has been told launch this by November 7th or you are fired, then it won’t help to win the hearts and minds of the Twitter teams. 

I do support Musk’s focus on inefficient middle managers, he’s supposedly asked the Tesla Engineers he trusts to identify technical middle managers who haven’t contributed to the code base. Now there could be an opportunity for some productivity gains!

Musk has often been quoted saying he wants to reduce Twitter’s content moderation, and concerning reports over the weekend indicate racial slurs on Twitter has risen since Musk took over the company. Celebrities including Lebron James called out Musk personally on Twitter over the weekend to ask Musk to address this and take it seriously. 

The window into Twitter has been opened as Musk answers LeBron and others questions real time on Twitter; polling if he should bring back Twitter’s short form video Vine; seemingly sharing evidence to support his past legal claims against the Twitter board, and ridiculing automated internal management training prompts publicly. His 112 million followers all following along. 

While everyone else waits for the next season of HBO’s brilliant series Succession to return, we only need to tune in to Twitter to watch the self named Chief Twit himself take center stage for his next performance. I expect Tesla and SpaceX won’t be seeing as much of Musk for a while.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/