Here is another round up of my favorite articles, blogs and resources I found during February and March.

My Leadership Series (along with my other series) is now available in my free-resources page as a single download-able Leadership PDF ebook .� Please feel free to grab it or pass it along (and the other free ebooks there) to anyone who might enjoy it!

Another change I’ve made to my site here is putting up an Amazon bookstore for all the books I’ve reviewed and highly rated/recommended.  If you’re interested in ordering any of these books, feel free to order them through my bookstore !

Great Articles / Blogs

• Taking care of Business by Bunny
• Change This Manifesto: Self Importance (many more great manifestos here if you haven’t visited before, definitely worthwhile!)
  
• David Zinger pointed out this great article on 10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy
• Great guest post at the Change Blog about Success in Life. Written by Michael at Effortless Abundance
• I’m continually reading amusing and helpful articles on Tim Brownson’s Blog:� A Daring Adventure
• The Definitive List of Free Personal Development Ebooks at The Change Blog
• How to Be Charismatic at The Positivity Blog

Cool Products

Adam gave me a free copy of his IQ Matrix MasterMind Mindmap to review and here is what I thought.� To be honest, I’ve never really spent much time looking at someone else’s mindmap even though I use them myself quite often.� This one is a gigantic mindmap with so many paths to explore you really do have to keep coming back to it.� The drawn beautifully and has a lot of areas obviously well researched to fit them in as it seems to cover the topic quite well.� In fact, it gives me a lot of ideas for topics to write about as well which perhaps many of you would find in it also.� Check out his site and free maps if you want to get a better idea and actually read one completely through, they have a wealth of knowledge in them. check it out .

Blog Lists

• I’m honored to have LearnThis.ca included in these great lists.� Please check them out for many more great sites and blogs.
• The Career 100 list – I ranked #32 of 369 blogs and would love if any of you could help rate my site for having regular, high quality writing!
• 100 Blogs that Will Save You Time and Make You More Productive
• Top 100 Leadership Blogs

Carnivals

I’ve published articles through the following blog carnivals this last month as well.� Many great articles and blogs to follow though all of these.

• Blog Carnival on Personal Power February 1, 2009
• Carnival of Personal Development
• February Leadership Development Carnival (and March here )
• February 10th Edition of The Better Life Blog Carnival
• Sparkle Roundup! – Personal Development Articles

Posted by Mike King under Learning | 12 Comments »

The Starting Point of Great Companies

Author: Nikos Mourkogiannis

To brilliantly match the title of the book, there is a single strong message through this book, that is: for companies to be successful, they must have a purpose that drives the strategy and values through all levels of an organization.

Purpose is explored with a moral avenue far beyond that of the typical mission and value often on display in companies.  It is presented by looking at four specific examples:

Discovery: Adventure’s Challenge

Mourkogiannis explores the way companies can make purpose and morality rooted in the adventures that they take through intellectual curiosity.  It ties closely to innovation and I love how the author relates discovery to a choice that enables freedom and opportunity to discover a new world.

Company example: Tom Walton’s IBM

Excellence: Virtue’s Fulfillment

Excellence means holding up high standards and great expectations of performance both internally and in the community of the business.

Company example: The Economist, Warren Buffet

Altruism: Empathy’s Justification

When a business exists primarily to serve its customers beyond the normal expectation or obligation tied in by a contract.

Company example: Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Nordstrom

Heroism: Power’s Effectiveness

Heroism is when a company can demonstrate great achievement and success despite the challenges and setbacks it faces.

Company example: Henry Ford and Microsoft

Final Thoughts

While those are the four themes carried through the book, it is done well with many segments of practical advice and guidelines for discovering purpose and especially for turning that into strategy.  The third part of the book explores the areas that I was most captivated by.  It looks at purpose from each of these perspectives:

• Morality
• Innovation
• Competitive Advantage
• Leadership
• Action

These wrap up the implementation of purpose into strategy very well and give the reader a lot of food for thought on their own business strategies.  There is plenty of wise advice throughout this book and one that you will certainly enjoy if you are planning strategy and guiding any significant portion of a company.  There is certainly a lot of wisdom for an individual perspective as well, even for entrepreneurs, but it is never really explored in that sense within the book, which is something I would have liked to see more of as I think it is much more common with that segment of business on the rise.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 9 Comments »

Author: Robert I. Sutton

Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t

First of all, if you weren’t thinking it already, let me say, I think the title of this book drastically limits sales. I for one, was very reluctant to pick up this book simply because of that first impression from the title.  I’m not a fan or user of harsh language and so I was a bit skeptical of the book because of the title.  Even still, I try to accept people and what they want to express in their own way and I can say that Sutton definitely does this in his book.  Not only does he express his book in his own style and language, he does it very well with a strong message and point portrayed, despite some of the harsh expression.  If anything, the language Sutton used actually made me laugh out loud a number of times throughout the book.  This is partly due to what he has to say, but also in the humorous (and harsh) language to express it.  I think I’ll translate in this article to “Jerk” despite Sutton’s claim that it just doesn’t have the same ring of authenticity or emotional appeal.  Perhaps he’s right, but too bad, its my article!

Identifying One

Sutton first defines what a jerk is, the kinds of things they do in the workplace and how you can easily identify them.  He lists and explains several methods with some things that stand out as such an obvious sign right down to the everyday things like interruptions, personal insult and flaming emails.  These things done consistently are sure signs of that jerk mentality.

Avoid Being One

Sutton explores many ways that a jerk can surface and the types of situations that make this behavior reinforced and dangerous to you if caught up in it.  It can literally be contagious so avoiding these situations in the first place a sure method to deal with it.  Here are a few more covered in the book:

• Walk away from gossip and other bad situations
• Focus on similarities to others, not differences
• Recognize when you are being a jerk yourself
• Don’t ever play power cards over others to get your way
• Focus on win-win negotiations with others

Dealing With One

Again, various techniques and behaviors are explored for dealing with a total jerk at work.  Lower your expectations of the person but still hope for the best, you don’t want to get sucked into their vortex of despair.  Another technique explored is to avoid dealing with them or even working to expose them for their poor choice of actions.   He touches on the advantages of looking for tiny bits of progress or wins when dealing with such a person and he even goes so far to mention some of the advantages a total jerk has, or you might have in being one yourself.  Personally, I think he spent too much time on the book and the toxin of thinking for months about total jerks spilled over, I didn’t agree with that area much as I believe there are better ways to handle his suggestions.

Ruling Them Out

The book is really about keeping these types of people out.  Out of your organization that is.  Sutten looks at how this can be done with existing jerks and then how to stick to that plan and ensure no new jerks get in.  It applies across all areas of the organization as well, employees, vendors, contractors, everyone.  Since they can so easily spread, this rule must be applied swiftly and across the board.  It’s like exterminating a bad insect or clearing out some toxin.  Best to do it suddenly and all at once.

Summary

So, the book does explain the problem of these total jerks well and it answered all of my questions around finding them, dealing with them and also then in keeping them out of your life and organization.  The advice here is very helpful, and you don’t have to be a total jerk in the process, it’s quite the opposite!  I always enjoy books with humor and many personal stories, and this one is no exception to that once again.  Stories shed example on what impact some of these jerks have in organizations and on the people as well.  In addition, there are positive stories where corporations have turned around their business by implementing the title of this book.  It’s great to see a business book that is entirely written about relationships and the people factor and I’m thrilled to see the interest it’s generated and I respect Sutton for the guts it took to be so bold to put out a frontal attack against the type of people that consistently belittle others and cause pain in the organization simply for their own pleasure and gain.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 12 Comments »

Regular commenter here, Karl of Work Happy Now , posted this article about making friends at work over at Chief Happiness Office. I read both of these blogs and they have a lot of great content to ensure you bring and promote a happy workplace into your life. Karl had some great tips covering ideas to make friends at work despite differing personality types.  Many of the ideas are simple to do and I agree with all the advice he’s outlined.

I think there is much value in making friends at work but also in taking that beyond the workplace and building friendships that last regardless of where you work or if you change jobs.  I know many of my friendships have been made in the workplace and the best of those have lasted years, long after working together.

What Makes a Friendship?

To me, a friendship is a relationship between two people who are both willing to share their time and experiences with each other simply for the sake of doing so. The key word there is “willing”.  Sometimes people do share time with others because of some default role or workplace environment but it doesn’t mean it is a real friendship.  Often it is simply being friendly or even polite in order to work together.  Friendship goes beyond that.

Friendship must involve some level of willingness to share time on it’s own.  No other purpose.  A personal choice with a purpose no other than that of spending time together.  If you have that, you have real friendship.

In the workplace those friendships can be a choice in who you choose to work with, or work the most with.  You make preferences about the people you spent time with at work and you learn quickly to develop a helping attitude where you do choose to help others, be helped or in some other way, spend time together outside of what is simply required to do your job.  Perhaps it is in your break time or lunch break with who you spend time with.  Those breaks or gap from an objective typically means time spent without that work purpose getting in the way.

Make Friendships Last Beyond The Workplace

While there are many friendships that occur in a workplace, all too many of them stay there, in the workplace.  They don’t extend into your personal life and unfortunately they often dwindle away once those people are no longer working together.  Sometimes this happens when people leave companies, but unfortunately it even happens more often, such as when people change departments, roles or even projects.  That common goal was what drew them together and there was nothing to base the connections on beyond that.  So, what can be done to extend a friendship and make it last?

Connect at a Personal Level

A personal connection is extremely powerful.  It lets you immediate draw upon something in each other’s worlds outside the workplace and gives a common ground to know each other at.  If you have personal connections, you can find and share more about your lives together outside the office.  Make an effort to know and show genuine interest in the other person’s life.  This allows you to relate to them in new ways, find similar interests and give topics of discussion that extend beyond the day to day work.

Give Selflessly to the Friendship

This is a given for a friendship in any situation.  If you can truly give without expectations to another person, it is by far the easiest way to make friends with them.  It shows you care about them instead of yourself.  Make an effort to offer your time or help and don’t ever expect anything in return.  This will deepen a friendship so that it can last beyond the workplace.

Connect Outside of the Office

Finally, once you have some connection and have given into a friendship look to extend that once step further.  Connect and build that friendship outside the workplace.  This can be the most powerful of the three here in making the connection last beyond the work as it opens an avenue of communication in your personal lives.  You can start this very simply and it makes connecting after a workplace separation (for whatever means) much more comfortable.  Here are a few things you could use to do this:

• Use each other’s personal email for talking about some non-work related subject.  This might list be sharing of links, videos, pictures or some other simple item, start small.
• Get together for a sports event or other public gathering
• Join or create a sport team together
• Have lunch or dinner (perhaps a BBQ)
• Invite each other’s families to meet and get together
• Ask or offer to help for a personal favor (moving, construction, advice, etc)
• Host a party or event

Virtually anything can be used and I know that making that connection outside the office makes friendships lasting to be far more likely than those build only in the workplace.  Once you have that friendship established, the time may come when you no longer work together and then it will be easy to continue to keep those activities outside of work occurring.  That disconnection from work can even be used as a reason to connect more often outside of work.  I like to get friends together who have worked together in the past or meet for lunch or a drink somewhere ever couple months to stay in touch.  So, I encourage you to take a step and look at the available friendships you have in your workplace and make some effort to step that beyond the workplace to ensure you have a lasting friendship that you can enjoy beyond your current work.  Do it before the opportunity is taken away and then hold onto it!

Posted by Mike King under Relationships | 8 Comments »

There is a massive shift in today’s society in thinking that every individual has everything in them that they need to be successful, be happy and to achieve, no matter what they want in life.  I certainly believe in each person having a great ability to accomplish things they desire and I also believe that that ability is not entirely driven by one self.

Societal Shift

Society in North America and other 1st world nations is all about enabling individual control, power and ability.  This is further extended by continual shift that is marketed, publicized and encouraged for independence and individualism. People strive for this, believe in it and I believe at the cost of burdening themselves.  There is less and less dependence on each other and even on systems that have long been depended on like community, family, agriculture, and especially, spirituality. This continual drive to control life and become everything you want on your own is obviously one that ties in heavily with personal development as well.  I try to encourage that relationships, community, people and God are foundations for many of these things and I believe it’s important to keep those things real even among any desires to become the best person you can be.  I think there is a need to realize the connections to each of those and how they are necessary.

Self Pressure of Failure

When a person spends a great deal of time on there own attempting to live up to some great expectation, there is often a great sense of pressure on that person.  This is common for creative folks, artists and authors, especially ones who have create great works and have further works to produce.  They have this continuous pressure to outdo and produce something at least as good and the creativity that might otherwise drive them to a new area can become a huge burden driving them into a pit of despair.  (You may want to view this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert for her perspective on that topic, as it is what triggered me here).

The Creative Mind

Gilbert looks at how a person in this state of mind must separate themselves from the creative aspects and realize that the creativity will come and go and should not be expected.  I like this perspective and think that creativity must be left on its own to surface as it is something that cannot simply be turned on and off.  I’d consider myself a creative person and while there are always things I can do to help spark creativity, my best creative moments are still never controllable and I must allow that to be separated from me as a person hoping to be creative on demand.

Escaping the Burden of Self

So, I believe there is a way to escape this burden of self.  It’s in looking at the source of our desires, our talents and our creative juices. Those things do not come from within, we are given our talents by God, our desires are triggered by actions and influences in our environments and we learn how creativity can be revealed in our lives through interests, mindsets and understandings of everything around us, whether that is the work of others or Nature itself.

We must allow ourselves to avoid the self pressures, self expectations and self love that can drive us to a world of disconnected independence and despair. Those are often led with a message of achievement and success at the expense of others.  Escape those burdens by basing your achievements, your relationships, and your creativity on the One who empowered you with those abilities through His gentleness, kindness and love.  Know that who you are and what you are capable of is not your own doing, but by the hand of God.

Talking of a meek man…

“He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is, in the sight of god, more important than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto.”
A.W. Tozer’s classic “The Pursuit of God.”

Posted by Mike King under Life | 10 Comments »

Image by orvaratli via Flickr

Jay over at InnerNoodle has a great perspective and discussion on the search for Life Purpose and how it’s not as difficult as it’s often made.  He elaborates on his journey in this and I figured I’d prefer to write a bit more then a short comment on the subject and here’s the result.

Searching for Purpose

I definitely agree with many of Jay’s points.  I feel too many people spend (should I dare say waste) time searching for what they wish to find as a life purpose and they ignore for years some obvious known life purpose at that time. Some people spend years of their lives searching for a life purpose.

I think they find many things that could be purposeful along this path, but they either refuse to accept it or simply want to find something that attracts them more.  Often people are so connected with their material world, the same notions bleed into their soul searching so the status and glamor of their purpose is highly important to them.  This ultimately leaves them searching, taking little action and ultimately feeling lost and inadequate from not being connected to something with meaning in their lives.

Living Your Purpose

The point that people are always searching for something that has some, “cool factor” is a massive roadblock to people taking action and simply living what they know best at that time. If you were asked, “What is your purpose?” and you have no response, I can assure you that is because you are thinking you have no response because you’ve trained yourself to wait for a purpose that you want.  Well, what if you purpose is something that you don’t know yet, or really don’t want?  Is that still a purpose?  Do you decide your own purpose or is it something you find by searching?  Is it something that is revealed through experience, through others, through God?  How do you live your purpose if you don’t fully know what it is.

My suggestion is this.  Instead of thinking that you don’t know your purpose, break the habit and develop a new belief that you will only find your true purpose by taking action on what you feel could be your purpose at this point in your life. Act on what you feel, don’t analyze it too much or criticize it, just explore.  Stop and let yourself examine those feelings and desires.

1. What are your strongest desires or feelings in your life right now?
2. What action can you take right now to explore that further?
3. With what you know right now, is it possible that this feeling ties to a purpose in your life?
4. Would it hurt anyone to follow your gut with this and see where it leads?
5. If this is your purpose, could you live it more fully right now?

This type of questioning can help you to explore new areas in safety by using just the imagination at first.  Visualizing yourself take on new actions and living in a way driven more by purpose can enable you to avoid the seeking and start living for what you know at this point in time.  It helps you open your mind to new possibilities of purpose and to discover new and more defined purpose than what you currently know. Getting out of that trap of trying to find a perfect, well defined purpose by living with what you know right now, will give you far more opportunities to know your life purpose, but to actually live it!

Purpose Does Change

I also believe you don’t have ONE set life purpose, your life purpose changes as does your life.  No life is static, nor is any purpose.  If you actually do something for what you feel in your gut at any point in your life instead of just thinking, dreaming, and hoping to discover something greater, then your life purpose will change as you do.  It is something that grows with you and it is something you discover along your journey of life.

Purpose is connected deeply with your spiritual centers and most people seek out purpose to a point where they can find a morally accepted purpose.  To me, this is driven entirely by your connection to God and your faith in that allows you to experience the joy of purpose, with hope for returns outside the worldly temporary things so many cherish in life.  This is exactly why I think so many people struggle to find a purpose, they don’t have the faith or spiritual beliefs that let them connect to a moral purpose, separately from the material temptations.

So, I encourage you to let your heart and mind wander.  If you follow your heart, believe in your ability to find happiness in purpose and accept the journey of discovery, it will lead directly to the purpose you have been seeking.  Just make sure you get your mind out of your own way!

Posted by Mike King under Life | 12 Comments »