October 10, 2008
The ChangeThis Connection - Hugh MacLeod Interviews Seth Godin
The author of the most downloaded ChangeThis manifesto of all time recently interviewed the site's founder about his new book and much, much more. A lot of people are saying this is Seth's finest book, which is really saying something considering the consistent quality of his writing. Hugh asks Seth 10 questions, the first of which is:
1. For the benefit of gapingvoid readers not yet familiar with your work [all 14 of them], let's get the main schpiel over and done with: From your perspective, what is "Tribes" about?It explains why top-down, buzz-driven media is the past, not the future.
The world has always been organized into tribes, groups of people who want to (need to) connect with each other, with a leader and with a movement. The products, services and ideas that are gaining currency faster than ever are ones that are built on a tribe.
Barack Obama has one, John McCain tried to co-opt one. Arianna Huffington has built the most popular blog in the world around one. Harley Davidson and Apple are titanic brands for the very same reason. They sell a chance to join a group that matters.
The punchline is that the only way to lead a tribe is to lead it. And that means that marketing is now about leadership, about challenging the status quo and about connecting people who can actually make a difference. If you can't do that, don't launch your site, your product, your non-profit or your career.
I'd argue that you understand how to tap into this need, Hugh. Lots of people don't like your work--screw them, we don't like them anyway. The people who do like, who find that it resonates... it's likely that we'll like each other. You lead us to a place we want to go.
To read the rest of the inteview, head on over to gapingvoid.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Review Roundup
David Brooks had praise of the highest order for The World is Curved in his op-ed on Tuesday, writing:
In his astonishingly prescient book, The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy, David M. Smick argues that we have inherited an impressive global economic system. It, with the U.S. as the hub, has produced unprecedented levels of global prosperity. But it has now spun wildly out of control. It can't be fixed with the shock and awe of a $700 billion rescue package, Smick says. The fundamental architecture needs to be reformed.
We posted an excerpt of the book when it was released last month, which you can find here.
The writers at The Economist have covered a number of intriguing books in their last few issues. In the last issue, they reviewed Yasheng Huang's Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State. It tells a story of China's shift from the rural, entrepreneurial capitalism that existed in the '80s to "the 'Shanghai model' that dominated the 1990s: rapid urban development that favoured massive state-owned enterprises and big foreign multinational companies."
The issue of September 27th-October 3rd has reviews of both The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs (here) and Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is driving the Future of Business. The Partnership's been released at an unfortunate time, but The Economist gives it a good review, offering that "... amid the torrent of negative news, Charles Ellis's exhaustively researched history of Goldman Sachs paints a convincing picture of an institution that has got most of the important things right." We've covered Crowdsourcing a few times in the past, and you can listen to Kate's interview with Jeff Howe, the book's author, here. The Economist review is here. And Wired had this video of Jeff Howe on the front page of their blog today.
On the 26th of last month, I listed 8 books that Jia Lynn Yang at Fortune wrote "belong in everyone's briefcase." Sadly, I couldn't find a link to his synopsis of each book at the time, but that has now been remedied and you can find the list and book descriptions here.
The October issue of Inc. contains a skimmer's guide to Changing the Game:How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business Leigh Buchanan specifically suggests:
Chapters Five though Eight describe how games can be used to manage and motivate employees. Edery and Mollick believe that even the most tedious task can be made fun if they incorporate elements of gaming. Their examples include Microsoft's in-house competition to find bugs in Vista and a program that allows IT administrators to destroy errant code using an interface similar to Doom.
I'm assuming "Doom" is a videogame, otherwise that doesn't sound very pleasant. So, Jack and Todd, how about that office Wii™?
October 9, 2008
Jack Covert Selects - Inside Drucker's Brain
Inside Drucker's Brain by Jeffrey Krames, Portfolio, 224 Pages, October 2006, $24.95 Hardcover, ISBN 9781591842224
Peter Drucker, the man often referred to as "the inventor of modern management" died in 2005. Drucker was an author of numerous influential business books. From his first major book published in 1946, Concept of the Corporation--with it's inside look at GM--to his final book, Peter F. Drucker's thoughts and writing are timeless and brilliant.
Jeffrey Krames has been an editor, writer and publisher for twenty plus years. As he states:
...I thought the definitive book on Drucker had not yet been written. I had no intention of writing a biography, but rather a book that would accomplish two important objectives: one, to showcase his most important management philosophies and signature strategies, and show how they are as useful today as they were when Drucker first espoused them; and two, to reveal how many of the best-selling business books of the last two decades were built on ideas that he originated.
I believe that the author accomplishes these goals admirably.
I started reading this book because I know the author, and Drucker has always fascinated me. But truth be told, Drucker also somewhat intimidated me. I know people who have interviewed him and I always enjoy hearing about listening to his accent and how dazzling he was. "Drinking from a fire hose" seems to apply when you got him talking.
Krames starts the book with the story of how his wife thought this heavy accented phone caller was a crank caller. Then, when he figured out who had called, he calls back, but Drucker is so deaf that they reverted to letter writing. Just before Christmas 2003, Krames drives up to Drucker's modest house for two all day interviews surrounding six agreed upon questions. For the next eight hours, none of these questions are asked.
Topics range from the relatively recent arrival of the middle manager--since the Second World War--to one of his key assumptions that management is a practice, and success is measurable. Drucker describes the traits needed to be a capable manager:
Can hire, fire, organize...promote
Is completely accountable for results
Knows how to delegate upstairs
Makes informed decisions after thinking through the time frame
Really thinks it through and then communicates it
Is the right person for the business plan
Asks what needs to be done and sets a new priority
Ends meetings with clear assignments...most meetings end in murkiness
Jeffrey Krames relates Drucker's stories like the talented writer he is. What hooked me into this book is that the author had me practically sitting in Drucker's living room and the Italian restaurant for lunch as the great man told stories.
Jack Covert Selects - Notes on Directing
Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director's Chair by Frank Hauser ad Russell Reich, Walker & Company, 127 pages, $15.00, Paperback, September 2008, ISBN 9780802717085
Authors Joseph Pine and James Gilmore told us "Work is Theatre" in their 1999 book The Experience Economy. The authors drew on the arts, in particular theatre, and explored the metaphor between business and the stage. The script for a play is "the basic code of events," much like how a firm choreographs the exchanges between sales, order entry, operations, and distribution. The performance itself is the product delivered, the value created. The metaphor grows as human resources become the casting department, and the director's role resembles a more dynamic version of the typical project manager or business leader. We chose another book this month that exposes those same parallels.
Notes on Directing by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich was written for the aspiring director looking to improve their craft. The book publisher Walker & Company recognized the same thing I did and chose the subtitle "130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director’s Chair." This book is about getting a group of people all on the same page and accomplishing something, whether it’s staging a play, launching a product, or holding a bake sale.
The book is delivered in short bursts and an active voice. Do this. Don't do that. Here are just a few of business corollaries you'll find:
29. Directing is mostly casting. Some say directing is 60 percent, others say 90 percent. Regardless, it's a lot. There is not a more important single decision you will make during production than who you put into a role. ...The Arts have been doing innovation and project management for several centuries longer than us business types. Notes on Directing is another example that shows there is a lot to learn from other disciplines.61. Sincerely praise actors early and often. ... Rather than correcting your actors all the time, get into the habit of frequently telling them what they are doing right. ...
65. Never, NEVER bully ... ... either by shouting or sarcasm, or worse of all, imitation. It will get a laugh and make an enemy. ...
70. Please, PLEASE be decisive. As the director, you have three weapons: "Yes," "No," and "I don't know." Use them. Don't dither; you can always change your mind later. Nobody minds that. ...
Jack Covert Selects - Reality Check
Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition by Guy Kawasaki, Portfolio, 496 pages, $29.95, Hardcover, November 2008, ISBN 9781591842231
Guy Kawasaki gives entrepreneurs two options when they ask him about their ideas--"the truth or 'feel good' pablum." Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition offers no such choice. It is a book of smart and brutally honest advice for entrepreneurs.
As a venture capitalist, Kawasaki has witnessed scores of entrepreneurs pitch their companies, and it's not often pretty. Mr. Kawasaki wants to help, possibly so he doesn't have to sit through so many awful pitches. When discussing how to put together an executive summary for possible investors, he counsels:
Do not attach a presentation. Save your presentation for the face-to-face meeting. It probably sucks anyway, so you're only burying yourself if you attach it.
and:
Do not brag about an MBA degree. Most venture capitalists want to invest in hardcore engineers, not overhead--also known as, MBAs. ... focus on engineering and sales experience, because in the beginning, all you need is someone to make a product and someone to sell it.
The author doesn't pull any punches, even on himself. In explaining his decision on whether to call Chapter 10 "the top ten lies of investors or of venture capitalists," he writes,
I chose "venture capitalists" because they lie more often and are better at it. If you can handle their lies, you can handle any investors.
Although a long book, the chapters are short and bullet-pointed for easy digestion. He also has prominent guests in the book such as the author of The Elegant Solution, Matt May, Made to Stick authors Dan and Chip Heath, Influence author Robert Cialdini and author of The Strategy Paradox Michael Raynor, among many others. Many are Q&As, such as Chapter 13: The Inside Scoop on Venture Capital Law, in which Guy asks Fred Gregarus of the Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick and West "the most common questions entrepreneurs ask their attorneys--or that they don't ask their attorneys and later regret not asking."
Considering the $500 dollar an hour cost of most corporate lawyers, Guy suggests that the chapter with Gregarus alone is worth the cost of the book. I would argue that many chapters in this book are worth that cost, and there are 94 chapters, all clear and concise and addressing a new issue.
Reality Check is a very practical, yet highly entertaining book. If you're looking for a self-help book that coddles your entrepreneurial fancies, this book is not for you. If you're starting a business and looking to understand the world you're walking into, you won't find a better, more honest and enjoyable guide than Guy Kawasaki.
October 8, 2008
ChangeThis: Issue 51
The November issue of ChangeThis has been published for your reading pleasure. Titles and excerpts, links and cover image thumbnails below.
:::::
Finding Your Howl by Jonathon Flaum
"To find our howl we have to pay a price... This process may feel like a death and may at its most intense terrify us and at its least unsettle us. This is the price of finding our howl, our own one of a kind authentic voice, and there is no way around it... The only way out of our self-erected prison is to go through it completely. There is no quick escape, every square inch of our imprisonment must be touched and lived through before it can be abandoned."
Click here to visit the site.
Click here to download the PDF.
Let's Get Persion by Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui
"Herodotus, the Greek historian, reported that the ancient Persians always made important decisions twice--first when they were drunk, and then again when they were sober. Only if the Persians reached the same decision, drunk and sober, would they act on that decision.
In addition to using what might be called a second-chance meeting to review important decisions in an unbiased light, businesses should also take advantage of other means of introducing constructive contention into their decision-making... Our research found nine additional ways to introduce disagreement and to manage that disagreement so it keeps everyone on their toes without harming the camaraderie of a management team:
1) Informal devil's advocacy
2) Escalation systems
3) Bets
4) Staring into the abyss
5) Finding history that fits
6) Deciding (ahead of time) how to decide
7) Smoothing out management ruts
8) Constructing alarm systems
9) A formal devil's advocate review
We'll look at those nine methods, one by one, starting with the relatively simple and concluding with a formal process that, we believe, should be used by every company before any major decision is made."
Click here to visit the site.
Click here to download the PDF.
Today's Trojan Horse by Diana McLain Smith
"At least as far back as Agamemnon and Achilles on the beaches of Troy, relationships have had the power to create or to destroy enormous amounts of capital--human, social, intellectual, and economic. Yet few among us can say anything even remotely systematic about how relationships work, develop, or change.
[...]
If relationships can have such a decisive impact on the success, even survival, of leaders and their firms, why do so many of us give them such short shrift? The answer lies in the outdated belief system that governs how we conduct business. Among the many beliefs that make up this system, four are killers. This manifesto is a call for us to shift to a new set."
Click here to visit the site.
Click here to download the PDF.
I Am The Walrus: Lessons In Personal Branding from The Beatles: With A Little Help from Alan Parr & Karen Ansbaugh
"Side One
1. I Me Mine (Harrison)
2. I Am The Walrus (Lennon-McCartney)
3. Don't Let Me Down (Lennon-McCartney)
4. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (Lennon-McCartney)
5. Your Mother Should Know (Lennon-McCartney)
Side Two
6. She Came In Through the Bathroom Window (Lennon-McCartney)
7. The Long and Winding Road (Lennon-McCartney)
8. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Lennon-McCartney)
9. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey (Lennon-McCartney)
10. Hello Goodbye (Lennon-McCartney)
On Parrlophone 33 1/3 RPM"
Click here to visit the site.
Click here to download the PDF.
The Attitude Problem In Education by Don Berg
"We are losing the potential for entrepreneurial, vocational, and artistic genius in children and teachers around the world because the majority of schools navigate by academics alone. Academic schooling facilitates only a partial liberation of the human spirit. We have liberated some people, in some places, in some ways by making due with the limited academic tools available.
[...]
Parents today have already chosen to launch their children into a world of challenging conditions. The question is whether their suppliers--schools--are providing the right stuff to get the job done."
Click here to visit the site.
Click here to download the PDF.
Being a Gifted Speaker Isn’t a Gift by Frances Cole Jones
"Despite a pervasive idea that some people are born with a 'gift' for public speaking--and that this gift is the reason they excel when presenting themselves--my experience has proven this isn't so. I believe that everyone can be a great speaker, and this includes you.
So what's the disconnect? Why do so many people feel they don't have what it takes to present their ideas with confidence and flair?
Thomas Edison said, 'Opportunity is missed by most because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.' I find the same is true for public speaking. If you're willing to put in the time, there's a science to presenting that's concrete and available."
Click here to visit the site.
Click here to download the PDF.
Tom Peters Thoughts on Dealing with these Strange Times
In Tom Peters blog today he has some great ideas about how we can deal with these uncertain times.
Check it out here.
The comments are also very good.
October 7, 2008
September's Audio Books
Here are September's Top 25 Books from 800CEOREAD that are now available in audio format! Surprisingly, 7 new titles made our list this month starting out in the # 2 and # 3 positions with the Encore Effect and The First Billion is the Hardest. Compact disks may have become more in style or perhaps people have been on the go/traveling more. Either way, check out the following listing of audio books, maybe one or two will strike a fancy with you!
If you have any questions about obtaining multiple copies of these or know of anywhere else we may find the top 25 in audio, let me know!
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BusinessWeek review of The Snowball
The new Warren Buffett biography, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder, is reviewed in BusinessWeek by Amy Feldman:
Buffett's Ferocious Focus
...Buffett himself has attributed his success to "focus." Schroeder writes: "He ruled out paying attention to almost anything but business--art, literature, science, travel, architecture--so that he could focus on his passion." As a child, Schroeder relates, Warren carried around a coin-changer as his prized possession, and when his dad offered him a trip at age 10, he asked to go to the New York Stock Exchange (NYX). Not long after, Buffett read a book called One Thousand Ways to Make $1,000 and announced to a friend that he was going to be a millionaire by the time he was 35. "That was an audacious, almost silly-sounding statement for a child to make in the depressed world of 1941," Schroeder writes. "But...he was sure he could do it."...However, at 838 pages not counting footnotes and index, the book itself would have benefited from some focus. And a good editor might have cut a few of Schroeder's pet phrases, such as "elephant bumping," which she uses to refer to gatherings of the rich and powerful. But despite these quibbles, The Snowball is an astute, and at times riveting, read--especially now.
It's a very favorable review and will give you a good idea of the book's content and tone. I know Jack is working his way through it right now and will likely have thoughts to offer soon.
at 8:37 AM
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Categories: Book Reviews, History and Biographies
October 6, 2008
An Advance Review of Panic
The LA Times' books blog, Jacket Copy, has an advance review of Michael Lewis's upcoming title, Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity, due out in December. Discussing authors who would dare to offer up a book in the current, constantly changing economic climate, Nick Owchar writes:
I wouldn't want to be a financial writer with a book coming out later this year--every pre-plunge-written text about the U.S. economy and its health is going to sound hopelessly dated.
That said, he does praise Lewis's long view approach that "provides some helpful context about how we got here" and the book's "interesting, sometimes unflattering portraits of the various people involved."
I would have to believe that if anyone can pull a book off in this moment, Michael Lewis can. And, I personally appreciate books that provide context in heady times, even if they're not able to tell the end of the story. According to the publisher marketing, Lewis's account of the situation goes back to cover "the crash of '87, the Russian default (and the subsequent collapse of Long-Term Capital Management), the Asian currency crisis of 1999, the Internet bubble, and the current sub-prime mortgage disaster." I'm looking forward to seeing a copy arrive here.
October 3, 2008
Guest Post IV - Lee J. Colan, Ph.D.
Below is the last post we have from Lee Colan. We'd like to thank him for the providing the material and hope you've all enjoyed it. If so, I would humbly recommend looking into his new book, Engaging the Hearts and Minds of All Your Employees: How to Ignite Passionate Performance for Better Business Results. If you'd like to learn more, head on over to his website, www.theLgroup.com.
The heart represents the emotional side of people that is based on connections. This side requires the art of leadership that focuses on relationships. Engaging the heart creates passion. Although we might like to think otherwise, the truth is that we live in a world driven by emotional decisions. Seventy percent of customers' buying decisions are based on human interactions. Likewise, employees are primarily driven by emotional and personal considerations. When people go to work, they don't leave their hearts at home. We may live in a high-tech world, but leadership is still a high-touch job. How often do you hear people speak with envy about companies with "real heart"--companies like The Container Store, Southwest Airlines, Harley-Davidson, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Chick-fil-A? Outsiders are constantly looking for their "secrets" to success. The secret lies in the hearts of their employees. These companies have created connected teams and, as a result, have built dominant businesses.
If you're going to engage your employees' hearts, you must first meet their basic emotional needs:
1. Purpose
2. Intimacy
3. Appreciation
When you fulfill these needs, you create self-reinforcing connections--connections between your employees and you, between their work and their purpose, and between each other. These connections establish strong, intangible relationships that yield amazing tangible results. Engage employees' hearts and watch their passion grow!
Your organization's real purpose may not be apparent at first glance. For instance, a company that distributes building products to home builders may not seem to have a compelling cause; but a deeper look reveals that they "help make the American dream a reality." That's a cause worth working for!
But don't wait for your organization to communicate a purpose that your team can latch onto. Take the initiative now to engage the hearts of your employees so they will develop a passion for their work. Define a compelling purpose. Step back and look at the big picture. Think of how your team improves conditions for others. Your purpose should answer the question, "What difference are we making?" It should stir the emotions.
For example, a customer call center may have a purpose to brighten the day of each and every caller. An information technology department’s cause could be to improve personal productivity. For a purchasing department, it might be to ensure that all company products are made with the best raw materials available.
Engaging leaders do what other leaders might consider to be corny. These leaders make it a priority to establish activities and "traditions" that connect employees to each other and to the customer. The purpose is to foster intimacy, belonging and fun. And I can assure you that their employees certainly do not think these events are corny. Try some of these rituals with your team:
The engaging leader knows that appreciating the person is just as important as appreciating his/her contributions. The most effective ones had one thing in common--they expressed a sincere interest in, and appreciation for, their employees as people. "Sincere" is the operative word here.
Learn something new each day about one of your employees. Ask them about their families, hobbies, leisure activities, etc. You will begin to understand and appreciate them more fully. Then weave this information into your interactions with them. They will return your appreciation with passion for your leadership.
The bottom line is this: we do more for those who appreciate us. Appreciate your employees and you will engage their hearts!
Humility is expressed in our actions, not our words. We cannot afford to be like the guy who was a member of a nationwide, professional association of leaders in the workforce. He was voted the most humble leader in the entire association for leaders. The association presented him with a medal that said, "The most humble leader in America." Then, they took it away from him at their next meeting because he wore it!
Ask yourself with each decision and interaction, "Who am I doing this for--myself or my team member?" Nothing wrong with taking care of ourselves, but the humble--and excellent--leader is generally focused on others' success. They know that the fastest path to success is to make other people successful.
Maintaining our humility is a constant struggle for most of us. So let me know about your battles--and victories--with humility.
Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, applied this definition and took his stand when Starbucks wanted to move into a particular international market. However, Schultz was discouraged by every analysis he read, even after he spent over a half a million dollars on consultants, telling him not to go. Further, all of his direct reports were against the move.
On the advice of one of his gurus, Warren Bennis, he met again with his team, listening to their concerns and answering their questions and asking for their support. In the end, he had mobilized the support of his management team, and as Bennis had encouraged, he went with his heart, with what he thought was right and entered the market in question. Schultz stood his ground and, ultimately, was able to score another successful expansion of Starbucks into the international marketplace.
Please share time when you acted on courageous instincts... and were rewarded!
** Contest Alert ** Trial by War
* ATTENTION: CONTEST IS OVER! *
Today, I'm offering a book and CD set of James M. McPherson's book entitled Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief.
McPherson is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History at Princeton University and is the bestselling author of Battle Cry of Freedom (won the Pulitzer Prize), For Cause and Comrades and Crossroads of Freedom.
Joseph Glatthaar, author of Forgotten Allies said this about the book: "This is vintage McPherson. Smart, shrewdly analytical, insightful, and elegantly written, Tried by War is sure to become the standard treatment of Abraham Lincoln as commander in chief."
Now, that's about the author, but to win this set - here's what I need from you: Lincoln's bicentennial celebration of his birthday is next year and we all know that he was an Illinois state legislator, but where was he born?
The first one to email me at roy@800ceoread.com will get a copy of Trial by War and its CD AND a copy of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich on CD.
ACT FAST and GOOD LUCK and TGIF!!
Guest Post III - Lee J. Colan, Ph.D.
And now for the third installment of Lee J. Colan series of guest posts. If you like what you're reading, pick up his new book, Engaging the Hearts and Minds of All Your Employees: How to Ignite Passionate Performance for Better Business Results.
Elevating employees' performance by engaging their minds involves the basics of leadership, but the basics are often overlooked. Even the best professional athletes can lose site of the basic skills of their sports: An all-star wide receiver takes his eyes off the ball and misses an easy touchdown pass. An Olympic downhill skier doesn't stay in a tight tuck, catches a draft and eats snow. A world-class golfer forgets to shift her weight during a tee shot and shanks it.
It's no surprise that, as leaders, we can also sometimes forget the basics. The basics of our "sport" involve meeting employees' three intellectual needs:
1. Achievement
2. Autonomy
3. Mastery
When you fulfill these needs, you create a self-reinforcing cycle of improvement, growth and high performance for your team. The mind is a muscle. It must be exercised or it will weaken. Engaging the mind is a form of mental exercise--it strengthens your employees' ability to perform. Engage their minds and watch their performance grow!
So what can you do to eliminate barriers to achievement? Following are a few actions you can take:
Involve your employees in defining and improving their work. Even in the most routine jobs, you can still get input from employees about ways to make improvements. When you give employees the appropriate level of autonomy, you engage their minds. The benefit to you? People support what they help create... and that yields increased discretionary effort from employees.
Giving employees control over their work requires trust in your team. Autonomy is generally more important than doing it "the way the boss said to do it." What's the risk of not providing autonomy? Employees basically become robots--they give you their hands and feet, but not their minds and hearts.
Toyota employees are required to submit two suggestions per month that they can implement themselves or with a teammate--in other words, something the employee can control. As a result, Toyota receives about 1.5 million employee suggestions for improvement each year. More impressively, 80% of these actually get implemented! What kind of impact would this approach to autonomy have in your organization?
Mastery at work is not built gradually also. So create a rich learning environment for your team. Use various learning sources--special projects, cross-functional assignments, presentations to management and training colleagues. Successful leaders achieve results through others. Your employees' mastery gets you results.
The most important source of learning for your employees is YOU! Share your experiences. There are lessons to be found in everything your team does. Look for opportunities in:
Seize all of these experiences to coach your employees toward mastery.
When you invest in a mind, you engage it!
Stop back in later today for Lee's final guest post, or visit his website at www.theLgroup.com.
October 2, 2008
Guest Post II - Lee J. Colan, Ph.D.
Below is the second part in Lee J. Colan's series of guest posts. We'll have two more for you tomorrow. To read his first entry, click here.
Engaging the Minds and Hearts of Your Team--Part
Management guru Peter Drucker advises leaders to, "Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer." Employees as volunteers is a useful concept to remind leaders that they must continually engage their people. Only fully engaged employees will give you the discretionary effort required for Passionate Performance. In the era of the volunteer worker, leaders must engage their employees to elicit discretionary effort from them. It may sound like pretty heady and heart-wrenching stuff to fully engage your employees. But there are clear steps you can take to turn a mental meltdown into a mental breakthrough and convert a heart attack into a heart light.
The solution to the engagement challenge is found within the minds and hearts of employees where basic human needs are fulfilled. It's a simple but powerful formula: When my needs are fulfilled, I am engaged and I perform at my peak ability. When my needs are met, I'm motivated to help those who meet my needs. When my needs are not met, I'm frustrated, out of control, unfocused, and disconnected--in a word, disengaged.
We all have these basic human needs, and they have remained the same amidst the tornado of external change. Times have changed, and our world has certainly changed, but people have not. In many organizations today, these basic needs still go unfulfilled. It's up to you as the leader to fulfill them.
What basic needs have you noticed your team requiring? Does your team complain about or request changes to similar needs that are unmet, such as recognition/rewards or compensation needs? How do you address such needs? I would love to hear your feedback and comments.
Engaging the Minds and Hearts of Your Team--Part II
To meet the basic human needs of your employees, leaders must first see them and acknowledge them. In order to see them, leaders must view their employees as people and not just workers. If you look at your employees as human beings, you can identify these six basic needs--three intellectual and three emotional:
Intellectual Needs:
Emotional Needs:
Achieving Passionate Performance is a two-sided challenge: intellectual and emotional. Successful leaders know they must engage both the minds and hearts of their people by satisfying both their intellectual and emotional needs.
When it comes to Passionate Performance, the mind and the heart go hand in hand. Engaged minds build your employees' performance and engaged hearts build their passion. Performance without passion tends to falter during tough times or in the face of challenges that require sacrifice, significant extra effort or unusually creative solutions. On the other hand, passion without performance results in diffused, unfocused efforts.
In tomorrow's posts, I will address each of the needs above starting with the intellectual need of Achievement. Until then, please tell me what you are doing to fully engage your team. No right of wrong answers here--this is the art of leadership.
Come back tomorrow for more from Lee Colan, or visit his website at www.theLgroup.com.
Green Collar Economy
Another seemingly awesome read just came to my attention per a client that wanted these books for a meeting this month for her employees. It's called Green Collar Economy and boy does this sound like exactly what this country needs right now. It's by Van Jones and it's basically a wake-up call to our economy and the movers and shakers within its walls. Jones also goes into what individuals must do on a more direct and personal approach.
It's not only a must read for business owners, investors, entrepreneur strategists, etc - but this "acclaimed activist" more than likely offers this solution to be considered for political players to take into account. Read this for one of the most courageous and timely reads this fall by one of the most daring authors - here's what others say:
"The Green Collar Economy is a both a rallying call and a road map for how we can save the planet, reduce our dependency on budget-busting fossil fuels, and bring millions of new jobs to America." -- Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund President and New York Times best-selling co-author of "Earth: The Sequel"
"This book illustrates the link between the struggle to restore the environment and the need to revive the US economy. Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans." -- Al Gore
"Van Jones reminds us that the worst of times can also be the best of times -- that a nation with an abundance of resources it’s wasting -- beginning with its youth -- has an enormous opportunity to stop foolishly bankrupting itself by chasing resources it is running out of -- like oil." -- Carl Pope, Executive Director Sierra Club
Management Lessons from the Ryder Cup Win
"If I tell you, then I can never do a book, right?"
That's the answer WSJ Golf Journal writer John Paul Newport got from Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger after asking how he managed to take the twelve person squad minus Tiger Woods and break the Americans nine year losing streak.
Azinger says he was inspired by the Navy Seals 13-man units and their smaller sub-units constructed for specific missions. The profile matched perfectly with the composition of Ryder Cup team.
The U.S. captain also tapped his life coach Ron Braund. Braund, a psychologist, is a fan of the DISC personality assessment (see his 1995 book Understanding How Others Misunderstand You) and used that methodology to construct teams of similar temperaments. Aggressive players like Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard were put together while "steady-eddie, unflappable players" like Steve Stricker and Stewart Cink shared the course.
The article ends with this thought:
"There was no guarantee all this strategy would work out, of course, In fact, a final part of Mr. Azinger's strategy was to shift the need for a team victory and more toward his personal commitment to help each player perform at his best."
This described shift is more than a nuance. Notice where the manager's action is placed.
Focusing on the team on a shared victory makes the goal amorphous and intangible for the members.
When focusing on the individuals and creating a situation where each can succeed, superior team performance (and the subsequent victory) is merely a byproduct.
October 1, 2008
Exciting Book News
Amazon now shows the cover of our new book. Check it out here. Thanks Jeff.
Also, we're sending out month two of our 6-month Countdown Book Club later this week.
Guest Post - Lee J. Colan, Ph.D.
Over the next few days, we will have a series of guest-posts from Lee Colan, the author of Engaging the Hearts and Minds of All Your Employees: How to Ignite Passionate Performance for Better Business Results, recently released by McGraw-Hill. To read this post in it's entirety, click the "continue reading" link at the end of the entry.
Couple this shortage with technology advancements nearing the speed of light, there are no sustainable competitive advantages anymore... except for your people. Engaging the hearts and minds of your team is the only sustainable advantage left in today's hyper-competitive world.
The bottom line - Leaders must engage their teams to win the talent war! It's the only winning strategy to get and keep your people long term.
For starters, leaders must see the person behind the employee to see universal human needs at work. There are three intellectual needs (Achievement, Autonomy, and Mastery) and three emotional needs (Purpose, Intimacy and Appreciation) that must be fulfilled. The mind and heart go hand in hand when it comes to igniting Passionate Performance. Engaging the mind builds performance. Engaging the hearts ignites passion. Only together can a leader create a passionately performing team.
Traditional competitive factors like product design, technology and distribution channels are harder to sustain in a super-fast, mega-networked world. In fact, the good old "Four P's of Marketing"--product, price, promotion and placement--are having much less impact for companies competing in today's world.
However, a fifth "P"--people--has become an increasingly important competitive factor. Consider this: About 70% of customers' buying decisions are based on positive human interactions with staff. Add to this the fact that 83% of the U.S. gross domestic product comes from services and information that are created and delivered by people. The bottom line is that people buy from people, not companies. So, your people--and the performance they deliver--are the defining competitive advantage for your organization.
After the jump, I will share how you can leverage the 5th P--your people--to create what I call Passionate Performance. Please let me hear what you are currently doing to create a selling situation where your customers are buying from your people, not your company.
September 30, 2008
Snowball or Avalanche?
I am annoyed by the newswire stories that each day report causes for stock market fluctuations without any real substantiation.
I am surprise no one has connected some aspect of the 777 drop in the Dow Jones Industrial yesterday to the release of The Snowball, the new biography about Warren Buffet.
In writing about the new book, Marketwatch did manage to call out Buffet's Goldman Sachs investment as an example of his prowess for finding bargains.
Should you have any attention left to devote to the coverage of the 976 page biography, The Financial Times and The New York Times both ran reviews over the weekend, complimentary of author Alice Schroeder and the work she did creating a portrait of the "Oracle of Omaha".
I got my copy today (thanks John!) and will have more to say after I get done checking the latest from AP.