March 23, 2025
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (💡) I developed.
What?
“Are Millennial Managers Too ‘Soft?’” | Per My Last Email Podcast | Morning Brew Podcasts:
- [Kyle] “As a direct report, I think you can practice having difficult conversations as well with your manager. And I would give the same advice: show that you care about them deeply, show up. But if you’re afraid to have a difficult conversation at work, you’re putting a ceiling on your potential growth.”
[Kaila] “Yeah, I agree there. And I think my advice for … an employee of a stereotypical millennial manager is that you might have to … put on some of the manager goggles to have a conversation. … Which is hard, especially if you’re early in your career to be like: ‘Hey boss, I need you to be harder on me.’ That’s not a fun conversation to have. But I think especially if somebody is too nice as a manager, that’s going to impact your ability to grow. It’s going to impact your ability to get promoted, especially if they’re nice, but they’re not seeing growth from you. They’re not going to be advocating for you. You kind of have to take the reins there. And so, my advice is to really understand their motivations and then have a conversation addressing those motivations.”
Eye.
My 9-year-old and 7-year-old sons have been playing a lot of street hockey lately. Now that Utah has a professional hockey club (the Utah Hockey Club), they’ve been much more interested in the sport. The best thing I saw this week was an epic shootout involving my sons and a few of their friends. They are fun to watch!
Read.
“So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love” by Cal Newport:
- “The Law of Remarkability: A simple law that can help you identify successful projects for making your mission a reality. … The law says that for a mission-driven project to succeed, it should be ‘remarkable’ in two different ways. First, it must compel people who encounter it to remark about it to others. Second, it must be launched in a venue that supports such remarking.”
💡
Begin posting four short videos on my social media channels each week corresponding with the four items I shared in my most recent newsletter (i.e., the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.), as well as the best idea (💡) I developed).
Additional Content
Next Newsletter (March 30, 2025 – Newsletter Subtitle)