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Posted March 5, 2003 4:30 a.m. by katie
This is a book that really gets to an issue that anybody in a leadership position needs to deal with: motivating an unmotivated employee/child/student. The author discovered the three keys that are common in 21 of the first 23 astronauts, 45 percent of the female world leaders between 1960 and 1999, 55 percent of the Supreme Court justices, 2/3 of the people listed in Whos Who and over half of the U.S. presidents. They are all first-borns. As the author states when it came to the differences between first-borns and the rest of the children in a family, there were three factors that stood above the rest. First-borns get more positive expectations, more responsibility, and more feedback. Expectations, responsibilities, and feedback are the three keys focused on in this book.
Tom Connellan is also the author of Inside the Magic Kingdom, which sold very well for us. Like that book, this new one is written in the form of a novel. In the book, a trainer has in his class a sales manager with under-performing sales people, a father with an under-performing daughter, a teacher trying to get the best out of his class, and an owner of a company trying to get a couple more points in his companies productivity. Its a very effective way of showing how the three key principles can be applied in the situations of different people.
Good business books almost always support part of the way you have always felt in your gut. But what makes a REALLY good business book is its ability to make you look at a familiar situation in a different way. This little treasure does just that.
Posted Feb. 23, 2003 4:27 a.m. by katie
Robert Galford, David Maister and Charles Green together wrote last years bestselling The Trusted Advisor. This year, Galford returns with co-author Anne Seibold Drapeau with an extremely well-written book about trust in respect to leadership. When I read a business book, I mark the pages that I find interesting or important with Post-It Notes so I can go back and digest the morsels later. This book is covered with my little blue Post-It Notes.
The authors have identified three areas of trust that leaders must accomplish. They are Strategic Trustemployees trust that mangers are correct on how the company is positioned, priced, and located in the marketplace. The second trust is Organizational Trustemployees trust the way things are being done in both processes and decision-making. The third form of trust is Personal Trustemployees trust the people leading the company. Later in the book, Galford and Seibold Drapeau list the top 10 benefits of trusted leadership with a thorough (sometimes lengthy) explanation. I found this section quite compelling because the authors gave me many more reasons to be a trusted leader than I came up with on my own.
Interspersed in the book are loads of perfectly selected case studiessome detail common management nightmares, others are inspiring successes. Chapter Two has a very complete self-assessment test that was very eye-opening for me. At the end, the authors give advice on how to follow through on the lessons offered in the book and refer readers to the books web site where one can find the self assessment test in order to take it twice a year like the authors recommend.
After the big corporate scandals, the issue of trust is an important one for any organizations leaders. This book goes right to the point and will help readers gain and maintain their employees trust.
Posted Feb. 20, 2003 4:25 a.m. by katie
At the end of the last decade, I decided to compile a list of The Bestselling Business Books of the 1990s. I was surprised to find that the same guy wrote #1, The Goal, and #2, Zapp!: Jeff Cox. One guy penning our top 2 books of the decade! Pretty impressive. Why is Cox such a successful business author? Essentially, he is an expert at novelizing (did I just make up a new word?) consultants philosophies. Eliyahu Goldratt and Bill Byham submitted their philosophies to his magic pen and found a great deal of success. Coxs newest collaboration pairs him with Dan Paul, producing the fantastic The Cure.
Most business novels are in fact not novels, but fables, with an imaginary guru who leads a company to the Promised Land of profitability. See either of the two Cox books listed above, if that is what youre looking for. But The Cure works a bit differently, and in my opinion, very successfully. This story features a company mired in the muck of corporate politics, a weak product line, no vision, and having to do creative bookkeeping to hit the monthly numbers. Defined by Paul and Cox, the company is sick. The cure to the companys ills is a change initiative that will create a boundaryless management culture. Thought only GE could succeed in creating such a reformation? Paul and Cox tell us that it is possible for every company, and shows us the model through this novel. The manuscript I read had the book broken down into four major parts: Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Cure. These sections effectively give the reader a way of understanding and participating in the process of change and the creation of a new management culture.
It is Coxs writing style that really drives the story and serves to make the reader a part of the conversion. By giving each key character a distinct voice, we are reminded of people whom we have met and may even sit in the desk next to us. These characters interact realistically and act pragmatically, and as a result we are invested in how these people tackle their challenges and create real solutions. The company does hire a consultant who helps uncover the hidden issues and agendas of the senior and middle managers, and serves as a catalyst for change. But it is the fictional employees who do the work, and inspire readers to reflect on what our own employees or departments can do to facilitate and sustain change. A guru is all fine and good, but true change has longevity, and to solidify that change, youve got to get down and dirty and do it yourself.
To give you an idea of how good this book is, I stayed up late last night to finish it. Think about that: postponing sleep over a business book! Just like a novel, and just, I would imagine, as Jeff Cox planned.
Posted Feb. 19, 2003 4:22 a.m. by katie
When you have a book with this kind of title you can be assured that youre not dealing with chaos theory as applied to management. However, that does not diminish the value of the book. In fact, if you read it, youll find it is a huge positive. While this book is not targeted at a specific area of business (or even at business at all), I sure found tips that were applicable to my little enterprise.
This is a slim volume that will load you with fun, yet valuable insights into this journey called life. The authors are great storytellers and have designed the book for busy people. Each of the nine chapters that correspond to the 9 Reality Rules has a really concise synopsis of the points in the chapter. I found myself copying them in my notebook to look at later. As I mentioned, the authors are great storytellers, but what moves you forward is how you can relate to each story and each point the authors are making.
The book is chock full of semi-cutesy catch phrasesbut they work: Working hard at what doesnt work, doesnt work. To win, you have to begin. My favorite: Some get it, some dont. Some will, some wont. Those that do, do. Those that dont, dont.
This review isnt long because the book isnt long, but it sure has value. If you need something to start you up besides your double vanilla latte, here it is.
Posted Feb. 10, 2003 4:19 a.m. by katie
Hewlett-Packard grew up as an old-school, old fashioned family business with strong values and integrity. So much so that their value as a tech company was compromised at timesproducts had to be perfect before they could be shipped out of the plant. By the time some products made it out of the shop, they were already obsolete, or the market rush had already passed it by. Then comes Carly Fiorina. She changed the whole philosophy of HP without sacrificing its integrity.
George Anders book is a fast-paced, detailed story of Carly Fiorinas induction into HP and her later transformation of the company. Fiorina, who had great success at AT&T and its spin-off company Lucent, came into the stiff, old fashioned corporate environment at HP and found herself warmly welcomed by the board. They desperately wanted her to change the company aroundgive it the youth and passion the company had been missing for so long. She immediately went to work, giving whirlwind speeches to the employees and asking them for things like lists of the Ten Stupidest Things We Do. She went to work on reducing brand clutter and created one strong brand based on the companys culture and history of extreme quality and performance. Soon after, Fiorina made changes to the HP gene pool by changing the kinds of people who were hired and the kinds of people that were let go. Most of the changes were made in the top 300 executive level positions. The next step was restructuring the board room, reducing the number of directors from 14 to 10, eliminating many of the Hewlett and Packard family members from their positions. By early 2000, stock went up by 40% since Fiorinas 1999 arrival.
Her seemingly small decisions also helped to change the company. When the picture of the board of directors was to be taken, she asked everyone to dress casually; instead of standing in a straight row, she had them stand in clusters of three. In her cluster, she stood with chairman Dick Hackborn and board member Walter Hewlett, one of founder Dave Hewletts sons. Her representation of herself as being with the company and the family was an important message to convey to the employees and the world.
Fiorinas biggest feat was the HP merger with Compaq. Not only did she have to negotiate with the people at Compaq, but she had to face harsh internal scrutiny from Walter Hewlett. The skills Fiorina had to use in this battle really showed her value and worth as an exceptional leader, strategist, and over-all human being.
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n this book, readers will find out how Fiorinas motto of perfect enough led HP to actually become a virtually perfect, innovative, thriving company. She is an awe-inspiring leader who we could all learn something from.
