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Posted May 19, 2009 5:03 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership by Steve Farber, Doubleday, 170 pages, $19.95, Hardcover, March 2009, ISBN 9780385522618
Steve Farber is a master storyteller, and he uses this skill to teach us about business through his well-crafted tales. It's not uncommon these days to see business novels, fables or allegories, but what sets Farber's books apart from the rest are the vibrant characters he creates. I gravitated to a character named Edg in Farber's outstanding Radical Leap; you'll be just as drawn to Big Jeff, Plumeria Maple and Sucky Chucky (a high school nickname) in this new book, Greater Than Yourself.
Greater Than Yourself (GTY) is a simple idea, as many of the best ideas are. If we focus on helping people to become greater than ourselves, Farber teaches, we all receive rewards. The three core principles of GTY are: Expand Yourself, Give Yourself, and Replicate Yourself. These three seemingly simple concepts help lead us toward a reexamination of our relationships which, in turn, maximizes our own potential. Since stepping down as president of our company, I have taken on the title of Chief Mentor. This isn't just some title to have on my business cards. Instead, it reflects my philosophy that it is now my job to share what I've learned about the business of business books over the past 25 years. So I was particularly drawn to Give Yourself, which is about "philanthropizing" your life, creating and giving to a GTY project and investing in that relationship.
In Greater Than Yourself, Steve Farber (he is his own main character) buys a used guitar and, finding a charming note in the guitar case, he embarks on a journey to find the original owner of the guitar. Along the way, he learns about GTY through a chorus of interesting characters. For example, the author of the note is a woman named Cat, and she is a brilliant, well-respected leader of a fast-growing company—and also a heck of a guitar player in her spare time. She explains to Steve that:
GTY is really just a form of very personal, one-on-one philanthropy. It comes from the same deep impulse, except that you don't have to be rich to undertake it ... The rest of us can give our talents, time, knowledge, contacts—whatever resources we have—to other worthy people in our lives at work and at home.
As you take this GTY journey with Steve, you too will learn the value of being Greater Than Yourself. Greater Than Yourself is one of my favorite books of this year: it is about a subject I strongly believe in and the presentation is perfect. As you take this GTY journey with Steve, you too will learn the value of being Greater Than Yourself.
A Guest Post from 100 Best Author Steve Farber
Posted March 30, 2009 6:11 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
In Leadership - 800 CEO Read Blog
Steve Farber, one of the best minds on leadership out there, and author of The Radical Leap (one of The 100 Best), has provided the article below. His new book is Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership, and it's out now. You'll find the story below contains some of the key lessons from that book.
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How Do You Get Back Up?
A Counterintuitive Approach to Thriving in Challenging Times
A while back, I received a distressed email from Ken, a young manager at a high-tech company.
Ken and I had never met, but he had read my first two books and had done his best to apply the ideas and practices of Extreme Leadership to the way he'd led his team. To their culture, their work ethic, their camaraderie. When necessary, Ken told me, they would band together and work hard—10 to 20 hours a day at times—to solve a problem or meet a pressing need. Ken's wife would cook food for everyone and bring it to the office. They felt like a family, he said, committed to doing great work and devoted to one another's success. No one ever complained, least of all Ken.
And then something happened. A downturn, a re-org, a shift in the management structure—we all know the drill. Ken still had a job, but his position was eliminated. New management full of old ideas came in to oversee the department's function and the emotional fibers that connected Ken's team to each other and to their work unraveled.
"Now," Ken wrote, "for the last 4 weeks I sat at my cubicle, web surfing for 8 hours a day at the same company where I once worked 39 hours straight with my team to make things right, never going home.
"I'm not a quitter; I don't want to leave. But—just or unjust—I feel stripped of everything we've done" he said. "So the advice I'm looking for is this:
"How do you get back up?"
I admit that I was loath to hand out that kind of potentially life-altering advice to someone I'd never met. After all, I had only the sketchiest of details about Ken's situation, and it seemed way too presumptuous to represent myself as the all-knowing answer man. But I did have an idea for him, and I really felt that it could make a huge, positive difference in Ken's life—and in the life of those he worked with.
And it wasn't the kind of advice you'd expect.
It's already become a cliché to say that we live in unprecedented, challenging times. We all know it. But the truth is, the world of work is always challenging. That's why they call it "work."
No matter the industry, market, or type of company you work in, you've had to deal with some combination of the classic work-place obstacles, issues, and barriers to a satisfying, fulfilling experience.
At some time or another, for example, you've reported to bosses or people in positions of authority who were self-centered at best, and idiotically egotistical at worst. They took all the credit and none of the blame and could care less whether or not you succeeded or failed. Or worse, they preferred that you'd fail, and took great pleasure in your struggles.
Or perhaps you worked in a company that, even though populated by terrific human beings, was so obsessed with the bottom line and shareholder value that they made executive, strategic decisions that compromised the employees' ability to serve the customer. And the customers, therefore, exited in droves.
You may have been in an environment that was hyper-competitive to the point of paranoid, risk-averse to the point of stifling, or so political that it made you consider running for local office just to get some relief.
We've all experienced some combination of these themes with varying levels of intensity. And we've all spent some amount of time and energy navigating our way through the personal challenges that the organizational pitfalls present. It's just the price we pay for hanging out with other human beings.
Now, add to that the current, sucking implosion in the economy, and it's easy to see why, with all our efforts to be positive, productive leaders, we still get knocked down from time to time. Sometimes way down.
The problem is in the way we typically deal: Our knee-jerk reaction in times of crisis is to hold on tighter, to be more cautious in our actions, and more protective of our resources. We think that our way out—or up—will come by virtue of shoring up and hoarding what we have.
There is, however, a much better, far more powerful alternative. A counterintuitive course of action based on this ageless reality of true leadership:
Your own greatness as a leader (or in just about any other role you take on, for that matter) lies, paradoxically, in your ability to cause others to be greater than yourself.
Said another way, your (and my) best way out of a challenge or crisis is not to focus on your own peril or rut, but, instead, to reach out and try to boost someone else over your head.
The idea should sound familiar. It's really just a variation on the "do unto others" sentiment of the Golden Rule, a philosophy that exists in virtually all religions, schools of thought, and philosophies on the planet. And in none of those versions—not one—will you find a footnote saying, "Does not apply Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 to 5 or any time you find yourself in a jam."
So the solution I offered to Ken was this:
Pick someone at work to invest in, with the intent of making that person greater than you are. Be a coach, guide, or mentor in the truest, most personal sense of the words by choosing someone to be your GTY (Greater Than Yourself) project, and see what that does to your own predicament, your own state of mind.
Maybe it was out of desperation, but as surprised as he was by the curve ball I'd thrown him, Ken took my advice and agreed to the challenge.
Two weeks later, Ken wrote to say that he'd thought deeply about our conversation and had come to realize that before he could lift someone else up by sharing his knowledge and experience, he needed to be sure that he had learned the right lessons from the recent team trauma. So he'd met with his boss, and asked for feedback on how he could have acted differently, what he may have done to contribute to the problem, and how he could be a better leader in the future. The "30 minute meeting turned into a 2 hour confessional," said Ken, which resulted in him learning some hard, "gold lessons" about himself.
"Now," he continued, "I've already started to work with a tech on my team who wants to be a manager. And I'm taking a vow," he said, "to make the people around me better—as I continue to grow myself. I'm going to teach my children about this, too." Ken, it seems, has gotten his energy back, and he's well on his way to getting back up.
We're all human, just like Ken. And just like him, we all get bashed down from time to time. So, the next time that happens to you, resist the temptation to pull yourself up by the proverbial bootstraps, and reach out to pull someone else up, instead. Go find someone to be your GTY project.
Come to think of it, why wait?
About the Author
Steve Farber, author of Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership, the president of Extreme Leadership, is a leadership consultant and speaker, and the author of the national bestseller The Radical Leap, and The Radical Edge. He lives in San Diego, California.
Copyright © 2009 Steve Farber
Indexed, Farber and Charity
Posted Feb. 27, 2008 8:41 a.m. by kate
In Misc. - 800 CEO Read Blog
Three notes, not quite related.
1.
Jessica Hagy's book Indexed is out today.
She shares stories via index cards. This past month, we published her ChangeThis manifesto. You can follow her on a regular basis at her blog.
2.
As I've mentioned before, Steve Farber who wrote two fables, The Radical Leap and The Radical Edge, is back to the writing board. His next book is due out in January of 2009 (seems like eons away). There's an unedited prologue over at his blog.
3.
More than 160 people have taken part in our Mystery Box offer with the money going to Room to Read. That's over $3000 that will be donated to help children around the world learn to read. Thank you for all your help! If you'd like your own Mystery Box (three books, all a surprise), read on.
Friday Links
Posted Nov. 9, 2007 5:58 a.m. by kate
In Friday Links - 800 CEO Read Blog
* The Chief Executive of Nestle Waters explains that people will keep buying bottled water no matter how much criticism bottled water receives. Hat tip to FastCompany where Charles Fishman's fascinating expose (e should have an accent mark) on the bottled water industry can be found.
* The U.S. dollar keeps falling, partly because of China's clout (from NPR).
* Steve Farber, author of The Radical Leap and The Radical Edge is giving away his audio series for a limited period of time. Get your own here.
* Publisher Simon & Schuster (known for publishing Stephen King, David McCullough and Bob Woodward) recently announced their greening plans.
* Gladwell's third book is nearly complete.
* Chris Resto, author of Recruit or Die, tackles How to Manage Generation Why.
* Grist helps us recycle sneakers, computers, cell phones and PDAs.
* Meet Wind. He's found his place among the energy generators. Take a break and check out the award-winning ad on wind power.
* Mentalrobics for Friday on writing a letter to help solve a problem.
: : : :
What did you follow this week? If you have Friday links to share, drop me a note at kate [at] 800ceoread.com. Cheers.
The Radical Edge reviewed by Nathan Gilliatt
Posted June 8, 2006 5:12 a.m. by kate
In Book Reviews - 800 CEO Read Blog
by Steve Farber, Kaplan, April 2006
I read a lot of non-fiction, and I don't usually have much patience for business books written as stories. In fact, I wasn't sure what word to use to describe the genre until I looked up Farber's other book after reading this one. Ah, here we go: business fable. Also known as writing 150 pages of story to deliver 11 pages of ideas.
I came into this book cold. I didn't know anything about Farber. I hadn't read The Radical Leap. (Aside: When you take a Radical Leap over the Radical Edge, do you fly, or do you crash to the Radical Ground?) And I started with very low expectations of getting any useful substance from the book.
One thing about the business fable style: it's quick and easy to read. You can start it before takeoff on the East Coast and finish it before landing on the West Coast (eastbound, you might need to start in the waiting area). I read it in one evening at home. The characters are fun, the story is engaging, and Farber slides some interesting ideas in there, too. You can tell when he's getting to the point, because he's also a fan of capitalizing his Big Ideas. The thing is, the story really works to illustrate the specific techniques and thought processes. You could describe them in a few pages (which he does at the end of the book), but the story really does help them sink in.
The message of The Radical Edge is pretty simple: pay attention to the world around you, know what you're really about, and change the world. Oh, and it involves using a notebook. The ideas (and techniques) are few and deceptively simple, but they just might have the potential to lead to powerful change. As with any Big Think book, the results depend on what you do with what you learn.
I ended up liking The Radical Edge, and I'm going to try some of his ideas.
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Reviewed by Nathan Gilliatt
