A Question to Ask Your Child Each Day After School

In Chapter 19 of 22 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, elementary charter school network CEO Preston Smith answers "How is Your Parenting Approach Evolving as Your Children Grow From Infants into Toddlers?" With a 3-year old and a 5-year old both now in school, Smith learns ways to engage his kids after the school day. Getting advice from a cohort member from his Aspen Institute Pahara fellowship, Smith asks not "What did you learn today?" but rather "What questions did you ask in school?"

Preston Smith is co-founder and CEO of Rocketship Education, the highest performing low-income school system in California. After graduating the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Smith joined Teach for America. After three years teaching 1st Grade, he founded a district school in San Jose and became its principal. Smith was selected as a member of the 2010 class of Aspen Institute New Schools Fellows. 

Louise Langheier on Two Ways to Give Better Career Advice

In Chapter 7 of 21 in her 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, social entrepreneur Louise Langheier answers "How Have You Learned to Give Better Advice When People Ask You For Help?" Langheier shares two ways she has learned to give better advice. The first is honing in on the specific question the person seeking advice is really trying to answer. The second is appreciating the learning experience that comes with being asked to give advice.

Louise Davis Langheier is founder and CEO of Peer Health Exchange, a non-profit that trains college students to teach health education in public high schools. Louise was selected as a member of the 2011 class of Aspen Entrepreneurial Education Fellows, and was named an Ashoka Fellow in 2012. She graduated from Yale University. 

Conrad Doucette on Taking UX Classes to Broaden Digital Job Skills

In Chapter 16 of 17 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, musician and digital strategist Conrad Doucette answers "What Skills Are You Working on Right Now to Become Better at Your Job?" Doucette signs up for a User Experience Design - or UX Design - bootcamp course at Skillshare to get back into the classroom and build new digital media job skills. He finds the experience of returning to the classroom reignites his passion for learning.

Conrad Doucette is a Brooklyn musician and the drummer for the band Takka Takka. He has performed with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, The National, Alina Simone, and many other leading acts. When not performing music, Doucette is the communications and brand director at music licensing and publishing startup Jingle Punks. Doucette earned a BA in History from the University of Michigan. 

Simon Sinek on How to Be a Better Teacher By Not Being the Expert

In Chapter 2 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "How Are You Becoming a Better Teacher?" To Sinek, teaching is as much teaching what you do not know as it is teaching what you do know. This approach gives him an opportunity to better engage his students, learn from their own experiences, and integrate the sharing into his teaching. It is less about being an expert and more about being a curious learner. Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. Sinek is the author of two books, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Come Together and Others Don't" and "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". He is a public speaker, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a Brandeis University graduate.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: How are you becoming a better teacher?

Simon Sinek: Teaching, like anything, is the art of sharing not just what you know but what you don’t know. I think I’m becoming a better teacher because I’m becoming a better student where I used to walk into a classroom or any kind of teaching opportunity to tell them what I know, and now I come into it to share what I know with the hope of hearing what they know because I wanna learn too. So I actually show up to a class with the desire to learn. And so, the only reason to share whatever thoughts, or ideas, or knowledge I have is so that together we can grow, and it has made me a better teacher for sure. I think all the best teachers are the best students. Anybody who thinks they know everything is missing out because you don’t. It’s the same thing I hate about people who refer to themselves as experts. “I’m an expert in X.” I was like, “Really? Really?” There’s so much more to learn. And so, even in my own disciplines, I don’t consider myself an expert in leadership, or inspiration, or whatever you wanna label it. I’m a student of leadership. I’m a student to what inspires. I don’t think I know everything, in fact, out of everything I know, I know this much, and so that to me keeps me curious.

Erik Michielsen: Have you found that there’s a difference between teaching college students and teaching adult learners?

Simon Sinek: No. There are people who have a desire to learn and those people who have a desire to make the grade, and you’ll find them everywhere. There are people who have desire to advance the greater good, or advance the cause, or advance the company, and there are people who have just the desire to make money. And the people who show up with curiosity and the desire to learn will always make better students. The ones who only wanna make the grades are pains in the asses because they complain about everything, and they throw their teammates under the bus because they’re “hurting their grade”, and it’s the same in a company. Somebody who only is in for the cash, they’ll throw their teammates under the bus because they’ve don’t wanna ruin their bonus, or get the credit, or—it’s the same. It’s the same.

Simon Sinek on How to Simplify Concepts So You Can Teach Them

In Chapter 3 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "How Have You Learned to Better Distill Complex Concepts Into Teachable Moments?" As someone that did not do well in school, Sinek shares how he has learned to make something repeatable. This, in turn, has helped him to make it understandable and to more clearly explain something when teaching others. Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. Sinek is the author of two books, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Come Together and Others Don't" and "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". He is a public speaker, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a Brandeis University graduate.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: How have you learned to better distill complex concepts into teachable moments?

Simon Sinek: Oh, that’s an easy answer. I’m an idiot. I’m not smart. I didn’t do well in school. I didn’t do well in college. (chuckles) And so, my push to simplify concepts is so that I can understand them. There’s a lot of things I don’t understand, and so I ask a lot of questions, repeating back what I think I’m hearing, because I don’t understand. And so, the desire to simplify concepts is for my own understanding, and if I can understand it, then I can share it with somebody, because now I have an understanding of it.

And the good news is if you make something simple, then it’s repeatable. Whenever you make something repeatable, then it’s understandable. And the best part about that is, at that point, others can share your thinking without you. So many things that were “taught”, whether from a teacher, or somebody in the industry, or sitting down with your financial adviser or whoever, you can understand that, hopefully, maybe, you think you can for the moment that you’re with them, but then try and go to explain what you just learned in the meeting, and you’re like, “I don’t know. That’s what he said. I don’t know.” Right? And so, my desire is to be able to repeat something, which is why I need to dumb them down. (chuckles) It’s no great secret. (chuckles)

Simon Sinek on Why Diversity Differentiates Team Performance

In Chapter 10 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "How Are You Learning to Work More Effectively With Different Personality Types?" Sinek shares why curiosity is so important in working with others who are different than you. He notes diversity is built on different perspectives regardless of race or religion. Curiosity allows you to push beyond what you know and surrounding yourself with people who have different experiences facilitates deeper learning. Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. Sinek is the author of two books, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Come Together and Others Don't" and "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". He is a public speaker, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a Brandeis University graduate.

Simon Sinek on How to Give Better Advice When Asked for Help

In Chapter 11 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "How Have You Learned to Give Better Advice When People Ask You for Help?" Sinek shares how experience has taught him to shift his approach from giving advice based on what questions he hears to instead asking more questions to get at what is not being asked. This allows Sinek to get at the root of the question being asked and be more helpful. Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. Sinek is the author of two books, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Come Together and Others Don't" and "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". He is a public speaker, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a Brandeis University graduate.

Simon Sinek on Learning a New Way to Write a Book

In Chapter 19 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "As You Have Been Writing the Second Book, How Has it Felt Differently Than the First?" Sinek finds writing his first book "Start With Why" far easier than writing his second, "Leaders Eat Last." He notes how the first came naturally after years developing the concept in hiw work. It just required him writing down the ideas he had been using. The second book, however, required him to develop a new concept from the start and figure it out while he was researching and writing the book. Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. Sinek is the author of two books, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Come Together and Others Don't" and "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". He is a public speaker, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a Brandeis University graduate.

Lauren Serota on How to Build Relationship Rapport and Trust

In Chapter 8 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?" Serota shares how she has learned to build rapport, as trust is called in research terms, with others through being honest and inquisitive. She shares how defining what trust means depends on the context of a relationship. She uses trust-building examples from her fiancee personal relationship and ones from work.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). 

Lauren Serota on Using Reflection to Understand How Others See You

In Chapter 18 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?" Serota finds reflection helps her avoid getting caught in her own head and pushes her to examine her actions from the perspective of others. This underscores an important lesson she has learned: the value of regularly asking for and receiving feedback on her actions and work.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Lauren Serota on Blending Life Passions and Career Goals

In Chapter 21 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "How Are Your Personal Experiences Shaping Your Professional Aspirations?" Serota shares how work and life experiences integrate together into how she lives her life. She notes how life outside work - from exercise and cycling to personal relationships to traveling - inform life inside work and vice versa. As a creative leader, she looks to always learn and figure out the right homeostasis between her work and life that keeps her simultaneously happy and challenged.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Yoav Gonen on Identifying New Ways to Improve News Writing Skills

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, New York City reporter Yoav Gonen answers "What Skills Are You Working on Right Now to Become Better at Your Job?" As Gonen gains confidence, he sees what other reporters are writing as a learning opportunity and not a threat. Following reporters he admires on social media helps him look for new ways to report the news. Additionally, Gonen invests time taking Hebrew classes and benefits from the process of learning a language. Yoav Gonen is a reporter and City Hall Bureau Chief for the New York Post daily newspaper. Previously he spent nearly six years covering the education beat for the New York Post. Gonen earned a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Journalism from New York University.

Michael Margolis on Assessing Fit in Final Round Job Interviews

In Chapter 15 of 17 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "How Do You Assess Fit When Interviewing Prospective Employees?" Margolis first asks whether he would like to spend time around the candidate. Secondly, he looks for curiosity, namely through the questions job candidates ask in the interview. He then looks for heart and how this translates into culture fit. Lastly, he looks to job skill competency, knowing his team has already covered much of this in earlier round interviews. Michael Margolis is founder and president of Get Storied, an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. He earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Doug Jaeger on the Creative Benefits of Playing With Legos

In Chapter 1 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and brand marketer Doug Jaeger answers "What Childhood Experiences Have Been Most Fundamental in Shaping Who You Are Today?" Jaeger shares how playing with Legos shaped his creativity and imagination as a child as well as his relationship with his brother. To Jaeger, building Legos was less about following predefined set instructions and more about imagining something and building it with the blocks. Doug Jaeger is co-founder and creative director at JaegerSloan Inc. where he focuses on brand and experimental marketing for clients such as Squarespace, Samsung and PwC. He is an adjunct professor at New York's School of Visual Arts (SVA) and co-curator of JnrlStr. He graduated from Syracuse University.

Clara Soh on Adapting Job Skills to Work in Washington DC Politics

In Chapter 20 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?" Soh shares how she gets research career advice from peers and experts in her field. She notes this academic and collegial community is different from a new one she needs to navigate for her job - the political network of Washington DC. She shares approaches she is taking to build new relationships for her work. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Chris Hinkle on Why to Be a Software Engineer

In Chapter 6 of 10 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, software engineer Chris Hinkle answers "What Do You Enjoy Most About Being a Software Engineer?" Hinkle most enjoys creating products for the world to enjoy and use. He also values the job responsibility for high quality craftsmanship that comes with his work. Hinkle shares why concentration is a useful software engineering job skill that helps him solve complex problems in his work. Chris Hinkle is a senior software engineer working at Evernote in Silicon Valley. Previously, Hinkle worked at New York City digital agencies HUGE and R/GA in creative director and software engineering roles designing products and developing Internet mobile applications and websites.

Matt Curtis on Two Easy Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills

In Chapter 16 of 18 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, HomeAway government relations director Matt Curtis answers "How Are You Learning to Communicate More Effectively?" Curtis shares how showing enthusiasm and curiosity when having a conversation or meetings lifts the quality of communication. This helps him as he seeks to improve writing, grammar, and speaking skills. Matt Curtis is the director of government relations at HomeAway Inc. Previously he was communications director for Austin mayors Lee Leffingwell and Will Wynn. He earned his bachelor's degree in radio, television and film from the University of North Texas.

Audrey French on How Parents Get Child Excited to Learn and Motivated to Succeed

In Chapter 3 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "Where Did You Learn Your Work Ethic?" From an early age, French is stimulated and motivated by learning faster and performing at a higher level than peers. She learns this from a stay-at-home mom and a father who challenge her to explore new concepts and solve problems. This excitement for learning carries through an accelerated education and, ultimately, into entrepreneurship.

Audrey Parker French is an entrepreneur who co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm she helped grow to #144 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies and then sell to General Catalyst Partners. She currently volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and teaches children's choir. She graduated from Wake Forest University and lives with her husband in Austin, Texas.