When he was 11 years old, Ben Franklin invented swimming fins.
Imagine little paddles for your hands that help you move faster in the water, circa 1715. As a ‘tween, Franklin was already adding to the world, observing what is and finding a way to increase the joy behind it.
I know about this because my family and I visited the Ben Franklin museum in Philly this weekend. The whole place was full of Franklin’s inventions and ideas, some failed and some so successful that they changed the history of America. Being in that room was intoxicating; it made me wonder about the little tweaks I might make in our home, my work, my writing. There is plenty for me to adapt and invent right here in my own life and the community around me. After a difficult U.S. election this month, this is a small, yet comforting, reminder.
In the end, Franklin’s swimming fins didn’t really work. He later admitted that they were tiring to use and kind of hurt his wrists. But his willingness to create was admirable and I hope we are willing to embrace an inventive spirit and craft our own fins to move through hard times ahead, should they come.
I’m in a book!
I’m super excited to tell you about the release of People, Performance, and Succeeding as a Manager, published by Harvard Business Review Press! Earlier this year, HBR asked me to write the foreward for about 20 articles about management and (obviously) I was glad to do it. The pieces in this book are helpful, modern, and drawn from each writer’s deep experience.
My piece is called So Now You’re a Manager (which, in case you didn’t know, I’m teaching again in February! Tickets here!) Whether you’ve been managing for 10 days or 10 years, I highly recommend checking it out. There’s truly something for everyone.
The Businessology Podcast
I recently had a wonderful conversation with Jason Blumer over at the Businessology Show all about trust-building, remote work challenges, delegation and… ADHD. This is the first podcast where I share my thoughts about supporting neurodivergent folks in workplaces and I can only say that there’s more where that came from!
Download the episode on your favorite platforms like Spotify or Apple Podcasts or find it on YouTube here!
From the Plucky blog
This month, on the blog:
– First Performance Reviews as a New Manager:This is your first opportunity to share critical feedback in a standardized fashion; don’t miss it. Hard conversations are understandably tricky but if you don’t set a precedent now, it’s going get harder and harder to use a critical tone…
Last of all…
The next email you’ll see from me will be the launch of Plucky’s Day of Big Dreaming! This is an e-course designed for you to spend one day dreaming big for the upcoming year. You’ll reflect backwards, you’ll look forwards, you’ll name the THREE biggest things you want in 2025 and you’ll draw pictures of trees to make it happen. (Not a typo, it’s getting weird this year).
So be on the lookout for more Plucky things ahead. Fins or not, let’s all keep swimming.
xo Jen
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