A number of readers have written me questions. I read all emails sent to me, and I am responding to a few questions below. 

Basketball – What Happened?

Reader: In your story you talk about your basketball career. What happened? Why didn’t you go down that path?

Josh: Interestingly, these days, some my favorite hours of the week are being on the court with my son. Some of my best memories are playing basketball in high school. I just found this video of the Chicago Bulls Championship season in 1991. I used to watch as a kid when I still dreamed of being the next Michael Jordan.

Should I Speak Up?

Reader: I find myself sometimes, to just be quiet, or i don’t have enough arguments to speak up.

Josh: Speak up. That’s my short answer. The longer answer is that it can take a lot of work to get to the point when you speak up. You’ve already taken one important step which is to ask for help. If you want, you can practice with a response to a blog post. Email me after you get my next blog post and let what you think. Or better yet, comment on the blog post itself. Bonus points for if your comment is to disagree with the content of the post. 

Accountability in Albania

Reader: Is accountability practiced among leaders in Albania?

Josh: Yes. 

What do you think about Albania?

Leader: After several years of being in Albania, what do you think about this country, people, culture, social, political and economic aspects?

Josh: For economics and politics, I know of an inspiring group of people doing some amazing. We’ve started an initiative together called “The Leadership Forum.” You can check us out here.

For more about the country, I’ll tell you a story. My wife and I went down to Dhermi for the weekend a few years ago. We were on the beach, and a report came by and asked me this question. 

I said, “I love this place. It’s like paradise. The sea. The mountains are beautiful. The food is amazing. And the people are wonderful.” 

Then my wife took the mic. “It’s true this like a pearl. But people don’t take care of it.” 

If Nastradin was there, he would say to my wife and myself, “Ti ke drejte Bona. Por edhe ti ke te drejte Josh!”

Helping Others

Reader: God’s big picture, focusing on that how can we manage to help others at work?

Josh: I’m assuming something about you – that you believe that there is a bigger picture. What we do at work is more than just about making money. That’s not to minimize the work that men and women put in to provide for their families. It’s simply to say that while work is about making money, it’s also about other things too. 

So in recognition of that, how do we help others at work. 

A few people come to my mind. I haven’t asked them permission to share their stories, so I’ll use pseudonyms. 

My first lengthy conversation with Barry, a man in his 50s was when I left my lights on at 6pm after everyone else had left the building. “Barry, can you help me out?” I asked him. “I left the lights on and my car won’t start.” It was a few weeks into my first real job – a long-term substitute ESL teaching position at Princeton Junior High School. As we walked to the car, Barry told me how he liked working there, that he had Mercedes, and he was happy with life.

“We all helping out the kids. I’m cleaning the floor and the bathrooms so all you all can do what you doing. I’m happy with what I do.” Then he grinned, “These floors never yell back at me.” 

So whatever our work is, we do it with all our hearts. And I believe that by using our gifts and working our best, we help each other. That’s generally just going to work every day and doing your best. There are other times when we have the chance to go out of our way to help someone. Barry did that too the day helped me. It took about 20 minutes and two different batteries to get my car to start!

Arta is the CEO of a large company in Albania. She told me about how during the early days of the pandemic, when a colleague shared a need for her family, Arta took it upon herself to make all the calls necessary to take care of her colleague’s family. 

Another friend of mine, Dave Gotaas, who is no longer with us on earth, went to a hospital in the US when he heard that a tenant in his building was not being given adequate medical treatment. When he returned to the office, the other tenants told him, “We knew you would go.” 

And I’d like to mention one more person – Ana. Ana participated in a workshop I delivered. She offered to serve me. She offered to serve her co-workers. During lunch something was spilled on her. If it had happened to me, I would have rolled my eyes. Ana just laughed it off.’

Doing our best. Showing kindness. Advocating for people that are needy. Serving. Forgiving. Those are a few things that come to my mind when I think of how we help one another.

If my answer seemed too long to you, you’re in good company. My kids say the same thing!

Work and Family Balance? 

Reader: How do you manage to keep the balance between work and family? How to find time to do effective work and also be there for the family?

Josh: Honestly, I’ve been out of balance for the past few months, so I don’t want to answer this and say, “Do what I say and not what I do.”  

Change “Set in Stone” Behaviors?

Reader: What it takes to change the organizational culture? How to make an impact on attitudes and behaviors, traditionally set in stone by the company/ organization. It would be nice to combine all your topics from the blog.

Josh: It takes work. If you lead, it’s part of your role to reinforce productive attitudes and behaviors that drive the vision of the organization. 

What about when ineffective behaviors are the standard operating procedure? What should be done to address organizations that are aging or dying?  

The best answer I’ve read is in Ichak Adizes’ book Managing Corporate Lifecycles. Adizes’ book is about understanding how organizations age and how to manage them effectively through each stage of their development.

Adizes explains that organizations go through a natural lifecycle consisting of four stages: birth, growth, maturity, and decline. Organizations are flexible, adaptable, and focused on growth in the early stages. I know you can find exceptions. But stay with me. 

As organizations mature, they tend to become more bureaucratic and slower to make decisions, which can lead to stagnation and decline. You have observed this when you mention “set in stone” behaviors.

To avoid decline, Adizes argues that organizations must recognize the signs of aging and take action to rejuvenate themselves. 

If enough people like you see the need for change, and the CEO or Head Executive stays the same, boards often hire a new executive. 

To apply Adizes’ approach to a phenomenon in Albnaia, imagine a shareholder who owns 100% of the company fires the CEO and gets a new CEO. If he tells the new CEO, “I need 20% profit, oh and by the way, my cousin has to remain Head of Finance,” guess what? The same systemic issues will continue. The issues of the system have to be addressed.

Wrapping it Up 

Do you have other questions you’d like me to respond to?

Or would you like to share your response to one of the questions I was asked? 

Comment below.