Leadership topic - Pearl Jam

What keeps you Alive at work… and which unfinished thing are you still holding tonight that somebody on your team would hand back to you better than it left?

This series walks that question through all 7 empower vectors with 1 guide: a band that started as an ending. In March 1990 Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament had a finished debut record waiting to come out when their singer, Andy Wood, died at 24. Stone kept writing anyway… wordless riffs on a cassette labeled “Stone Gossard Demos ’91,” handed to strangers until it reached a night-shift gas-station clerk in San Diego named Eddie Vedder, who went surfing, wrote words over 3 of the songs in 1 sitting, and mailed the tape back to Seattle. One of those riffs came back as “Alive.” Pearl Jam has run on that trade ever since: the man who wrote the song let a stranger make it his, and the tape came back better than it went out. Your team runs the same play theirs did… this week is about what you hand away, what you keep, and who sings it back.

The 7 posts, 1 vector a day:

– Monday … Unfinished enough to engage Alive? … “Alive” and “Mankind,” and the 3-line handoff: I started this. It is not finished. Make it yours.
– Tuesday … Nothing as it seems… can you manage Alive? … “Nothing as It Seems,” and the 7-word decision the most senior person in the room already made.
– Wednesday … Given to fly… which partner keeps you Alive? … “Given to Fly,” and the partner who shows up after both predecessors quit.
– Thursday … Just breathe… and observe what is still Alive … “Just Breathe,” and the answer that arrives 10 minutes too fast.
– Friday … I am mine… do you wonder who chose you Alive? … “I Am Mine,” and the 10-year note from HR you read twice.
– Saturday … Yellow Ledbetter… can you execute your way back Alive? … “Yellow Ledbetter,” and the blank week nobody is going to hand you.
– Sunday … Alive… who sings it back to renew you? … the crowd singing “Alive” back, and the 3 people who sing it back to you.

Your “Simple… Not Easy” move for the week: pick the 1 post that made you flinch, and do its move first.

Schedule time with me here.