[MG100] week 20.36 Cultivate Leaders. Curate Community.

Ayse writes:
Do you feel over your head these days? I do. Not all the time but at times I feel like I reach my limit. Either in my ability to understand a new thing, or answer a question on the spot or when I have just one more thing to do. Does this happen to you?

One of my friends is Scott Osman, CEO of @MG100 Coaches. Scott seems unflappable and knows a lot about a lot of stuff. Scott said, "When I’m over my head I call a friend. People I know, and if that’s not enough, people they know. We’ll figure it out together. I ask myself, what’s good enough for now that will get me to the next stage. From there, I can continue to learn."

I found this incredibly helpful and wanted to share it with you. This is something I’m going to practice more. When I’m over my head and feel like I’m drowning in stuff, I will reach out to a friend to help me pull out. It’s so simple but sometimes we need to be reminded of the simple things.

Anyone else feeling over their head? What do you do?

It’s been six months since I first started to quarantine. In the first week of March, I went on vacation to Puerto Rico on the cusp of what ended up being the pandemic. I watched it unfold and came back to New York in uncertainty which evolved in a matter of days into certainty.

It’s interesting how defining this period has been for me. It’s easy to remember this period of time since it is so defining: the time since you saw friends in person, since you traveled on a plane, in a taxi, on a subway, the time since you went to a restaurant. I have been fortunate to be part of an amazing LPR with Bill, Julie, Darcy, Erica, Mo, and Ayse. I began doing daily questions with Ayse which has been a game-changer. We started our Daily Calls, which became Core Calls which are changing again.

I had an opportunity to develop a culture change program for the IT department of a major medical device company which was supposed to be an all-day workshop for leaders, and because a series of virtual workshops that many felt were the best workshops they had ever attended, virtual or otherwise. It was so successful that I was asked to innovate a solution that would allow the entire 3,000 person IT department to experience the workshop, led by their managers in 25% of the time. And to deliver the solution ready to launch in 30 days. I delivered this work in partnership with Marc Schiller, my friend who is an exceptional strategist transforming IT leadership, and Jane Kosstrin, my business partner of 25 years, and her company, Doublespace who always delivers brilliance.

We launched the Methodsof.com platform which is the new platform for 100 Coaches to share their leadership thinking with the world. It has been a two-year journey and I am fortunate to have been able to partner with World Leverage and the extremely talented Justin LeVrier and Brent Klein and even more grateful to have the honor of working with Steve Hull, one of the most honest, dependable, and tenacious people I have ever met. Not falling far from that tree is Steve’s son Andru who is proving to be a critical element to bringing the project to life. A few months ago, they brought on Janice Perkins, CMO of Methods, who is working with our new agency, Path Interactive, and getting ready to launch our platform more ambitiously and strategically so more people can benefit from the 100 Coaches collective wisdom. We will be adding more courses, offering more of you a chance to build our and your collective audiences and reach more people.

On October 13, 14, and 15th we will be launching the first 100Leaders.live conference featuring 15 of our 100 Coaches members focusing on three topics: Managing Change, Orchestrating Symphony, and Resilience. Following that event, there will be opportunities for 100 Coach members to give additional talks to this audience twice a month. We plan to build mastermind groups, workshops, online training, and other impactful opportunities from each of these events in what is planned to be a year-long series of events that become a mainstay on the calendar of global leaders and a key part of their growth. The vision for this has come from the amazing leadership of Zion Kim, Marva Sadler, Beth Schofield, Chris Alexander, Dino Bosak, and Ben Croft.

This month, I expect to be announcing a new partnership with Heath Dieckert, who will join me in expanding and professionalizing our coaching, consulting, and speaking placement business. I have gotten to know Heath gradually over the past few months and he is one of us.

And I have had the opportunity to cultivate and collaborate with so many of you, that to start naming you all I would risk leaving someone out.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend the month of August in the Hamptons with my children, Jake (28) and Lily (25) who are two of the most amazing human beings I know and watch them have the blessing to developing their adult relationship, something that few siblings have the opportunity to do. Every day they make me proud and I am blessed to have them in my life. While I’m at it, a big shout-out to my amazing parents, my brother and sister and their families who I love and Joan and Michael, my aunt and uncle. And to Allegra who I am so fortunate to have as a loving partner.

I have been binge-watching The West Wing. And tonight I was watching S3:E3 in which Bartlett announces his plan to run for re-election after having announced that he has MS. His staff is stressed and frustrated and making mistakes. They have gone from bantering to fighting, and CJ offers her resignation. In an elegant Aaron Sorkin way, Bartlett takes a moment, right before he speaks to the crowd in New Hampshire waiting to hear his declaration, to apologize for not letting his staff know earlier that he had MS, for keeping them in the dark instead of trusting them. It is heartfelt and succinct and at that moment, the entire team together.

I am perfectly healthy.

But I do have to say I am sorry. I have been doing all of the above without bringing you, my dear, talented, wiling 100 Coaches community along with me. I have done all of this with any paid staff, without any cash resources.. bootstrapping. I should have told you earlier and brought you in one what I have been planning and what the potential can be. In August, watched myself trying to split my time between my family “vacation”, my client, my 100 Coaches family, and other activities. And I recognized that like all the amazing advice I hear from all of you and that I give to others, I need help.

So now that the secret is out, here is what I know:

Working with an amazing story coach Terence Mickey (recommended by Ayse) I can now clearly articulate what I do well and what I need to focus on. In all of my work, all of my interactions, each of the above initiatives, I Cultivate Leadership and Curate Community. 100 Coaches cultivates leadership and curates community. It brings my joy, fulfills my purpose, and I am highly effective.

So, at the sixth-month mark of the pandemic, I have gotten some clarity and focus. One of my Daily Questions is “did I try my best to consider how we exit the pandemic?” And “Did I try my best to identify the new post-crisis opportunity?” We are blessed and fortunate to have grown this community that can come together, support each other, and together “make a dent in the universe.” We all know that 100 Coaches is Marshall’s legacy project. If you listen very carefully, you will hear him actually say that 100 Coaches is OUR legacy project.

My name is Scott Osman, CEO of the amazing 100 Coaches and I cannot do this alone. I need help in creating the resources to grow our community, to build our infrastructure so we can properly onboard and welcome new members, and so we can build and sustain a better world.

The first step is sharing my world with you. I have a privileged position of knowing and working with so many of you. Thank each one of you for making 100 Coaches what it is. You are all instruments in the Symphony* that we are creating and the music is amazing. Together, it will only get better. There is so much work to do!

Special thanks to Bill Carrier who has been an amazing collaborator and enabled me to extend beyond my breaking point with his tireless support and endless coffee talk.

Extra special thanks to Ayse who, in addition to being the inspiration for 100 Coaches is a daily inspiration for me.

And of course, thank you to Marshall for making all of this possible.

We will return to our regularly scheduled email next week.

With love and gratitude
Scott

*thank you Oshoke for your Symphony work in opening my eyes to new ways of seeing a world in which people become an orchestra and companies becomes symphonies to make the world a more melodious place