Get a Grip on Your Business

Author: Gino Wickman

Let me start by simply stating my own praise for this already highly recommended book.  I have read a lot of business books and Traction is definitely my new found favorite.  It packs in so much applicable content around 6 key factors for running a business; it is an excellent handbook to use for growing and leading any small to medium sized business.  It covers these components from the perspective of starting from the top in a business with the leadership team and expanding the concepts throughout the organization as the tools are implemented and proven.

Most books and many that Wickman references are excellent business guides for narrower topics and while agree with many of his references and have enjoyed those books as well, this one covers such a wide scope, yet with an incredibly strong focus on the leadership component itself and with what is called the Entrepreneurship Operating System (EOS).  The EOS is Wickman’s term for the overall system used to run the business and it is what the book teaches very well with example company implementations used throughout the book, with specific tools and implementation strategies and with outlines and samples available for every step of the implementation process.  This is what I like so much about Traction, it is more of a handbook and one that gives an excellent set of steps for implementation.

Wickman covers these 6 components:

• Vision
• People
• Data
• Issues
• Process
• Traction

Inside each component, he presents the strategy of why and how to implement changes to make each step of the EOS a success.  It typically takes anywhere from one to three years to fully implement and realize this EOS in a business and see the resulting change and/or growth as a result.

To give a bit more detail about one of these components, I particularly liked the component on issues as it is a strong area especially in engineering and software areas which I work in.  The issues component is certainly not new to me in my company but it is often an area we struggle with solving.  Wickman gives a framework to use for the issue solving track that is three mains steps:

1. Identify – This step involves examining an issue to discover the real issue that is faced by that can only be discovered by being honest and uncomfortable to peel back the layers to identify what the underlying problem really is
2. Discuss – Everyone involved has their say about the issue with a focused effort to discuss that issue alone (no tangents). Keep the discussion around what is right overall for the company (the greater good) not individuals or individual groups.  Once any discussion becomes redundant, it’s time to move to step 3.
3. Solve – This step is mean to conclude the issue and solve it once and for all.  The whole point is to make the issue go away forever and not come back.  You turn the discussing into one or more action steps and you decide to move forward to finally solve the issue.

So overall, this book is one I will definitely be using in business to implement much of this EOS as I see the value, am excited by the overall focus and approach Wickman has and very much like the components and implementation guide.  I’ll leave you with a final quote directly from the book near the end about putting this system all together.

Many books have been written on the topics of meetings, planning, solving problems, developing people, and prioritizing.  What is new about the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is the way these disciplines have been assembled into a complete system for running an entrepreneurial organization.  Each individual tool is not as important as the whole, and all six components that make us the Entrepreneurial Operating System and the EOS Model need to be understood and mastered in order to fully gain traction.  You can read more about the process and book at the website, www.eosprocess.com

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 2 Comments »

Leadership is not always about having people follow you.  It is also about being an example for others to look up to and about being a person of good character and morals.  There are many skills a leader must have and one of the most important ones is to be a strong listener.  Good leaders truly do listen more than they speak and they let people follow their actions, more than their words.  Listening is a skill that is not only difficult to do but humbling since it requires great discipline to simply be quite and talk less than you listen.  It sounds simple, it is, but that doesn’t mean it is easy.  Here are some ways to become a better listener and show leadership in that listening.

1. Segue Into Conversation
2. Purposefully Eliminate Interruptions (technology, multitasking, etc)
3. Hold Back the Urge To Speak
4. Interact Passively

Segue Into Conversation

In order to listen well in a conversation you must be able to focus on it.  When a conversation first starts, you are almost always already doing something with your mind thinking about that so it can be difficult to immediately be attentive in conversation as a listener.  That is where a segue comes in handy. A segue is simply a smooth transition from one topic to another, or in this case, from one activity to another. It can be a brief statement or action that you do to trigger your mind to switch towards the conversation so you can engage fully in listening attentively.  A number of things can work as a segue, you just need to find and use your own method for switching tasks into an active conversation.  It is best to find both an action and a statement to use.

• Action – this could be something as simple as stepping or spinning away from your work area or computer to start a new conversation.
• Statement – the other part of a strong segue is to make a statement about starting a conversation.  This works well to help you shift your mindset and shows the other person(s) that you are truly listening attentively.  It might sound like, “OK, just one second here, let me step away from what I was doing, can you start again from the start and you now have my full attention”.

Purposefully Eliminate Interruptions

Interruptions in conversations are terribly distracting and disruptive to both people and quite frankly, they are often unintentionally disrespectful.  Everything from email and cell phones to bosses or other people stepping in to break a conversation that is already in place.  It is your job to eliminate these as best you can.  The segue can help if you have stepped away from your work area and computer, you can turn off your cell phone and leave it ‘out of sight’, and you can kindly ask people who do interrupt to wait or let you get back to them shortly after you have finished your conversation.  Every step you take to show you are focused on the other individual shows them respect and allows you to be a good listener, which you cannot do effectively with distractions.

Hold Back the Urge to Speak

Listening requires one really important point.  You simply need to shut up, and listen.  It’s simple but hard to do.  Listening really requires more than simply not speaking but also the urge to speak.  When we have the urge to speak even if we don’t open our mouths our minds are already thinking about what we want to say and we stop listening when we do this.  This is the danger of the urge to speak, long before we actually add our two bits to a conversation.  Learning to hold back the urge to speak takes a lot of discipline and practice.  The best way I’ve learned to do this is to focus on rewording what the other person is saying as they are saying it so our mind is busy really thinking about what they said instead of formulating our own response.  This ensures you are listening.  The only danger with this internal rewording is to get lost in translation and lose focus on continuing to listen.  I suggest you use verbal paraphrases and reflection with the other person when you need to slow them down or stop for thinking a bit longer on what they said.  This will also show you are really thinking about what they are saying and not just holding your tongue.

When you do finally have something to add or comment on in a conversation, ensure you wait for an obvious pause and count a few seconds before responding.  You want to ensure the other person is truly done expressing their thoughts and ready to stop and listen to you.  After all, what good will your comment have if they are not listening to you because you interrupted their thought.  Slowing down a conversation gives you more time to think about what you do have to say and a lot more time to think about and reflect on what others have to say.  This is a skill of all great leaders and one that is valuable in every relationship you will develop.

Interact Passively

Interacting as a listener must be done with careful skill to not interrupt or break the other person’s train of thought but still enable you to show interest and engagement in the conversation.  Interaction with the other person in conversation will help you stay focused on what you hear without having your mind wander from what the other person is saying.  Passive interaction can be many things:

• Nodding to show agreement or understanding
• Verbal cues like ‘uhha’, ‘OK’, ‘go on’, ‘hmm’, ‘I see’, etc
• Leaning toward the person to show interest
• Facial expressions to show reaction or impact to what was said

Keep in mind each of these interactions should be subtle and not distract the other person in their part of the conversation.  Show your interest, but don’t interrupt them or break their train of thought.  More interactive methods I mentioned earlier can be used but only at the appropriate time such as paraphrasing or responding with questions or reflection on their ideas to expand and explore a topic in more detail.  It allows you to have the person tell you more without putting your own ideas or opinions out their yet.  All these methods are important in conversation to keep a high level of interaction in place while remaining passive as a listener and not taking over a conversation.

Posted by Mike King under Learning | 10 Comments »

This article is a short story of the struggle that life can present and how it aligns with personal development.

A young man that had grown up with taking on new things developed a real love for adventure and uniqueness.  He was always comfortable doing things that others dare not do.  Some of these things were in regular activities like hobbies, sports and school.  School was easy since the teachers told him everything he needed and quickly realized that if he actually paid attention the content was easy to digest and understand.  This was especially true, as he was a audible learner so quickly picked up on the classroom teachings.  Sure, he had some learning talent and inspiration to start well in school but this become a much larger cascade effect.  In his case, school became easier and easier and it only continued to build his confidence and learning skills.  Doing well in school and learning quickly was his first obvious experience with going against the grain.  Others struggled to learn and had a hard time in school and that seemed to be the general theme for the masses.  This independent style he had in learning added more to his confidence and he continued to develop a sense of self that didn’t fit into the mass mentality.

In going against the grain and knowing he could learn quickly, he also challenged himself to develop that skill in new uncommon sports, hobbies and skills.  Each of these presented a challenge to overcome and he developed an internal motivation to tackle any challenge head on and with full force to quickly overcome it and move past it.  Years went by mastering this skill and going against the grain of society’s seemingly normal outlook that life is bleak and tough.  He would have no part of that however, every challenge was welcomed and he continually overcame adversity with hard work, dedication and that massive motivation that was built up inside him to grow and conquer whatever he faced.  All this made him feel even more confident and satisfied by experiencing many successes in life through achievement.  He chased more and more achievements and as years started to pass, realized that the achievements were leaving him less and less content and that success had to be more than this.  He started to know that success was more than this but never realized what he was missing or what he was needing in order to have that.  For a some time, the confidence he had built up inside surfaced as arrogance and egotism which quickly impacted his influence on others and success was not something he could grasp when it came to his influence with others or even with himself.  Influence with himself is really one’s ability to change them self and grow.

Finally with the support of close friends, a deep spiritual journey and a number of significant events and training courses, he was fortunately enough to face the bitter truth which would reveal to him that his confidence had been shielding him from seeing what was really important in his life.  In fact, he had so much to discover about himself that he literally felt like a different person.  He changed drastically and stepped away from directly chasing success and started applying his learning skills to learning more about his influence on others and how to interact, work with and to connect with others at a deeper level.  It wasn’t until he was able to get past the confidence shield that self-discovery was even available to him.

So, with having a new appreciation for no limits learning, it became a much more valuable area in life and the realization that the best things to learn and experience are only available when he gets past his own limits, whether they are known or not.  Often the limiting beliefs are unknown without stepping out of the common safety box we live in and seek out adversity, challenges and all the other skinny branches of life.  He put this into action and started taking on new things not previously explored and putting his opinions on the back burner in order to have a more open mind for new activities and connections with people.  It was in these new adventures, new challenges and areas previously unexplored in life that really helped him to enjoy more, learn more and experience the best things in life.

With all these changes, the change itself actually becomes the journey of his life, since the value of change becomes more and more apparent he’s realized that it is the one factor that limits people more than anything else.  His own shift has changed him, created new beliefs around the fact that change is required to create opportunities, experiences and improvements in life and should not be avoided.  If improvements come about from change, then to improve is to change.  Both for himself as a person and in how he can impact the world, these beliefs have changed and the fear and limiting beliefs around it have faded away and completely out of mind and consideration.  His now strong beliefs in the ability to change is what makes improvement and personal development easier for him.  And he knows this is necessary to impact the world.  It’s this ability to go against the grain, learn from it and eliminate the fears of facing new challenges and instead learning from them.  This same belief bleeds out to the process of changing the world and improving it as well.

Morals of the story:

1. Success should never be measured by self achievement or at a single point in time
2. Confidence is the biggest shield against self discovery
3. The “skinny branches” in life are where the fruit is
4. The belief of change enables changing the world

Posted by Mike King under Success | 20 Comments »

Why it is so hard for companies to find great leaders?

A guest post by By Dan MacDonald

When leaders are chosen, the decision is often based on the wrong criteria. Many look to people with strong, charismatic personalities, or passion for personal achievement. They may also look to people who are commanding or who manage the efforts of others well. Some people even look to physical attributes as an indication of leadership ability.

The misconceptions of what makes a person a good leader are not limited to these factors, nor a particular field of business, they can apply to everything from educational leadership to business administration. They also include our choices of personality characteristics. Some see great leaders as people who can mesmerize a crowd with their stage performance, who can make those around them relax with their confidence, or who can think circles around other senior people in the organization. In reality, these traits and characteristics are not indicators of great leaders. Rather, great leaders are characterized by their focus on integrity over stage performance, passion for what is best for the company over self-importance, humility and passing forward credit over ego, and empowering their people over making decisions on their behalf. There have been numerous books written, researches conducted, and data compiled that point to these findings; however, even extraordinary companies with insightful, intelligent, and experienced boards of directors and senior executives have erroneously chosen leaders based on their perception of leadership capabilities.

Leadership Development at HP

Take Hewlett Packard for instance. In January of 1999, Hewlett Packard’s board of directors met in the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto, California to discuss, among other things, the rapid changes in business caused by the unsubstantiated growth of internet IPOs. There was concern among the board that changing times may call for a leader better suited to lead the company into the future. In his book, How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins summarizes this concern best, stating that, “HP’s stalling growth and languishing stock price relative to the skyrocketing technology sector lend credence to a growing worry that HP needed an entirely new type of leader”. At the meeting, Lewis Platt, then CEO of HP, suggested he retire early to make room for an appropriate leader. The board accepted and replaced him with Carly Fiorina, announcing in July of that year, that she would become the next CEO of Hewlett Packard.

Lewis Platt and the board of directors believed that a new CEO with a fresh perspective would help mobilize the company towards the rapidly-changing landscape of the technology industry. Fiorina, who once held Forbes magazine’s ‘Most Powerful Woman in Business’ title and had an impressive sales background as Executive VP at AT&T, was just the type of executive HP was looking for. In retrospect, it seems as though the board of directors may have erred in its judgment; during Fiorina’s tenure HP realized its first loss, its stock price fell from $45.36 to $20.14 and heavy job losses were incurred. In comparison, Platt, the Ford Taurus-driving down-to-earth former CEO, grew HP’s annual sales from $16.2 to $42 billion and earned Chief Executive Magazine’s distinction as the 11^th highest wealth creator of all time.

After closely examining HP, it becomes evident that leadership plays an important role in the rise or fall of an organization. Leaders can either drive organizations to market capitalization of hundreds of millions dollars or to losses as equally great. It is hard to dispute that leadership does not play a vital role in the success of a company, yet many organizations do not have systems in place to identify and develop potential future leaders.

Leadership Development at Wal-Mart

Consider Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. From a young age, Walton displayed a natural ability to lead. In high school, he was the starting quarterback of the football team and never lost a game. He was Vice President of the student body in his junior year and President his senior year. He was voted ‘Permanent President’ of his graduating class in university. But Walton didn’t fit the standard description of a leader. He was not an Ivy League school graduate and did not hold an MBA. Walton was a humble, scrappy, pick-up driving country boy.

Walton went to work as a manager trainee at JC Penney three days after graduating university, marking the beginning of a passionate love affair with the retail industry that would help shape the remainder of his life and affect the lives of millions of people. At JC Penney, Walton embraced the customer centric JC Penney approach to retailing – especially JC Penney Ideas #2 and #3, guiding principles related to giving the customer the most value for their money. But Walton was not the most thorough employee; he hated making the customer wait while he completed paperwork, so his books were a mess. His boss often threatened to fire him, saying he was not cut out for the retail business. Walton managed to keep his position due to his ability as a salesman. After only eighteen months with the company, Walton resigned.

If JC Penney had systems in place to identify the leadership potential in Walton, they may have been able to entice him to stay and develop him into their future leader. Instead, he started his own department store which would rival and eventually surpass JC Penney in the quest for retail dominance. As many companies begin to adopt the ‘promote from within’ mindset, leadership development systems are becoming more and more common. The problem remains that many companies base their criteria for identifying future leaders on misconceptions of what makes a great leader.

Identifying Leaders

So the question remains—how do we create a system for identifying great leaders in the early stages of their development? Do we use psychometrics profiles to identify the leaders with the best traits and fast track them on a path to more senior roles? Do we let people inside or outside of the organization decide who will be the next leader?

Many experts have spent countless hours researching enduringly successful companies in order to develop a list of traits that might be an indicator of an individual’s leadership potential. These experts paid close attention to key characteristics commonly held by the leaders of these organizations. Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, and Jason Jennings, in his book Think Big, Act Small, discuss the patterns that emerged in their research.

The patterns that emerged were often surprising even to the researchers. The researchers determined that great leaders were passionate about doing what was best for their companies. This drive for the advancement of the company took precedence over their drive for personal advancement and recognition. The leaders of these companies also exercised personal humility by passing forward credit and accepting blame. Additionally, they asked questions as often, if not more often, than they gave answers. This empowered their people to make important decisions which increased their confidence, skills, and commitment to the organization. These leaders also exhibited commonalities within their personal lives. Many of the leaders studied were extremely modest. They often preferred domestic cars or pick-up trucks over exotic sports cars. They also had a tendency to live in moderate houses instead of sprawling mansions or estates. Though humble and modest, these leaders were not meek. They tended to be stoic when it came to important business decisions. They would make tough decisions without great emotion and fanfare but rather with quiet resolve and determination. In short, great leaders are defined by their humility, integrity, determination, and strength of character, not by their stage presence and strength of personality.

The characteristics described above help in the development of a personality profile which can be used to identify strong leaders. Companies need to work to determine which other qualities are required for their particular company or industry. Once the leadership profile is complete, a company can begin building systems that identify these characteristics in its employees. There are many effective tools available to assist in this process including psychometric testing, 360 degree feedback, personnel assessments, and employee surveys. To achieve the best results, it’s important to combine a variety of these tools. As Shane Sabatino, Senior Vice President of Human Resources for The Brick LP Group said, when it comes to identifying potential leaders, “There really is no silver bullet”. Sabatino recommends incorporating a variety of assessment tools into the hiring and strategic planning processes. These processes should continuously evolve, however, they should continue to focus on identifying and developing leaders who possess the required traits.

Lasting Leadership

The question remains, “How do I know the right combination of assessment tools to implement?” To answer this question, it may be useful to examine companies which have experienced enduring success regardless of changes in their leadership. The Fortune 500 list is a great place to being your research. This annual ranking of America’s largest corporations has chronicled the spectacular rise and fall of hundreds of companies. If you compare the first Fortune 500 list published in 1955 to the most recent edition, you will find only 68 companies appear on both lists. Some of these companies have even appeared on this list every year. The exclusive list of companies who have achieved this continued success year after year include General Electric, Procter & Gamble, and Marathon Oil. It is no surprise to learn that each of these companies invests heavily in leadership development.

General Electric is world renown when it comes to leadership development. It is considered to be one of the greatest leadership development schools in the world, which is impressive for an organization that is not an educational institute. General Electric invests hundreds of millions of dollars in the continual development of their potential leaders and even has a school in Crotonville, New York, that is dedicated to achieving this objective. As part of their employment, senior leaders in the organization must dedicate time to teaching or learning at this school.

A.G. Lafley, former CEO and President and current Chairman of the Board of Procter & Gamble, takes leadership development seriously. He views leadership development as a source of competitive advantage for P&G. This makes it easy to understand why he spends over thirty percent of his time on leadership development. Lafley views effective leadership development as one of the most important components for the future success of Proctor and Gamble therefore, he is supporting a full leadership evaluation program that assesses how people lead and manage within the P&G organization.

Marathon Oil in another Fortune 500 company which invests heavily in partnerships with leadership and management training companies to help develop their executive team. They constantly conduct 360 degree evaluations and provide classroom training and online support to their management and leadership teams in efforts to help them develop.

Unfortunately, many organizations do not invest in leadership development until there is a pressing requirement for it. This is a poor and often ill-fated approach. A company cannot afford to be partially engaged in the development and identification of its future leaders. As JC Penney learned, great potential leaders can be overlooked by failing to fully engage in this process.

Dan MacDonald is President of Business Improvement Solutions (BIS), an Alberta based training and development company. He is the co-author of three books: Leadership, Management, and Success. To find out more about BIS visit www.bisconsulting.ca

 

Sources:

CNNMoney. (2009). Fortune. CNNMoney. Retrieved September 19, 2009 from the World Wide Web: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/full_list/401_500.html

Collins, J. (2009). How the Mighty Fall. USA: Harpercollins.

Entrepreneur. (2009). Sam Walton. Entrepreneur. Retrieved September 8, 2009 from the World Wide Web: http://www.entrepreneur.com/growyourbusiness/radicalsandvisionaries/article197560.html

HP. (2009). Executive Team. HP. Retrieved September 8, 2009 from the World Wide Web:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/bios/fiorina.html

May, R. (2005, November 15). Leadership Development as a Competitive Advantage. Business Pundit. Retrieved September 19, 2009 from the World Wide Web: http://www.businesspundit.com/leadership-development-as-a-competitive- advantage

Siegel, B. (2009). A.G. Lafley P&G. Siegel Innovations. Retrieved September 19.2009 from the World Wide Web: http://siegelinnovations.blogspot.com/2007/10/leadership-ag-lafley-procter-and-gamble.html

Walton, S. (1992). Sam Walton: Made in America. USA/Canada: Bantam Books.

-10.324 m

Posted by Mike King under Learning | 18 Comments »

Author: Dave Esler and Myra Kruger

How an Underdog Company Defied the Odds,
Won Customers’ Hearts, and Grew It’s Employees into Better People

I was sent an advanced copy of The Pursuit and Something Better and while I generally don’t like to read new books until I’ve had them recommended and ravely reviewed by others first but I’m glad I didn’t wait for this book, its absolutely brilliant! I read it back to back with The Adversity Parodox and both books are now in my definite top 5 for business and personal development books.  The Pursuit of Something Better is a story of a CEO who takes a mediocre company with high turnover to a thriving culture rich customer focused success.  Jack Rooney is that CEO of the company, U.S. Cellular and he comes in with a passion and belief in culture change being the cornerstone of the company’s success and that belief drives new systems and focus that is unstoppable.  There is more story and insight and example in this book than many others combined and it shows what can be done not only from top down, but also in other levels of the organization, your life and individual self improvement so don’t think this is an executive book only, its much more than that!

Rooney comes into U.S. Cellular and introduces a new concept known as the Dynamic Organization (the D.O.) which he lives and breathes by example and immediate sets new standards and expectations that all associates in the company will also start living that DO culture.  He delivers these systems with a proven track record and overcomes significant hurdles along the way.  I found these hurdles and ways they were addressed to be most inspiring as I see the same items in my work and often they feel like impossible roadblocks.  This story and book are proof and guidance to get past that!

So, I found there are 4 main themes to the Dynamic Organization in the book  and I’ll cover some specific things from each in this review.

Culture

This book outlines an impressive transformation that is built upon a new culture for U.S. Cellular, one far from the conventional business wisdom.  The culture is one that shifts toward a customer focused, caring and value based company.  One that seeks motivational leadership, provides impressive personal development systems and engages and expects every employees to contribute to these new cultural initiatives.  Among these deep messages built into the company come a focus to always do the “right” thing and expect that of all its associates, especially its leaders.

Rooney puts many stages of culture change into place and he does so with much resistance, as would be expected, but his systems built over time and prove themselves to be valid in building a better company and all of the culture changes become sought after both internally between departments and regions within U.S. Cellular and eventually outside the company as well. All three areas below are embedded into the culture and the core to making it all work is that this culture is actually what defines the business strategy.  In fact, it IS the business strategy.  Everything that is promoted in the dynamic organization and the culture for it, are actually the business focus to Rooney and all of the systems, decisions, leadership, and financing is put towards these cultural aspects.  This was the most exciting part to me, to see how the success of a company can come by focusing strategy on things that matter to the employees and customers, that things are done with moral leadership and that the company can focus on initiatives that lead to profits, without directly being steered by profits.

Customer Service

The customer deserves the focus and the customer gets priority are also embedded into this Dynamic Organization and it is taken to great extremes in many cases with long term benefits that certainly didn’t seem profitable in any way when first introduced.  Much of these initiatives in the story were created at a time when there was huge growth in the cellular industry and most companies were purely after capturing market share quickly to expand and take advantage of the available growth.  While this mattered to U.S. Cellular, it wasn’t a focus and the customers were treated better than competitors, service was of its highest quality and the company had expectations from every employee that decisions and actions were taken to ensure the customer would benefit as a result.  Many of these things were costly in the short term but they slowly saw the market shifting to recognizing this customer service and the loyalty of their customers grew.  It allowed them expand and ultimately hang on to market share while their competitors were still struggling to capture new markets without a loyal customer base.  The long term benefits of this payed off and the book outlines many of the challenges that were faced in doing this and how this customer focus was created and maintained at U.S. Cellular.

Leadership

None of this great change could happen without great leadership and there are impressive stories and systems employed that can be modeled to help companies build stronger more focused leadership.  The Dynamic Organization expected drastic contributing to the new culture and that was reinforced with regular leadership development and feedback systems.  Peer based feedback systems for all leaders drove much of these expectations and it allowed all associates to identify the desired leadership factors which seemed to enable more and more grass roots leadership.

Ethics

I think the sheer volume of attention put to ethics in the Dynamic Organization was impressive and one of the most inspiring aspects of the book.  It shows how a company can still operate (and do so very successfully) with strong ethical boundaries and expectations.  Business competition often stems unethical behaviors and greed that dominate our news and media channels which is so obvious today.  These kind of stories and examples of doing the right thing no matter what the costs and the way U.S. Cellular put ethical boundaries and expectations into a company’s core culture is something to be honored and admired.

So, I’d highly recommend The Pursuit of Something Better to anyone interested in culture change, leadership, ethics and moral leadership and customer service.  I believe some of these changes can occur at any level of an organization but its especially useful for driving systemic changes and strategic change in your company.  I can’t say the book is really a clear guide of exactly how to do this, but the stories are inspiring and many of the systems and actions are described in detailed and will be easy to use as a model for similar systems in your own company.  I know I can use some of these in mine!

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 16 Comments »

Author: Seth Godin

We Need You to Lead Us

I recently read Tribes and its the first book I’ve read by Godin, believe it or not.  I definitely want to get into a few more of his titles now since this book had some real gems in it on leadership.  The message throughout that book is that there are many ways to connect a group of people together for a common purpose and today’s technology, especially the web enable so much of that to happen.  It allows the formation of like minded people or “Tribes” that can collectively work together and create a movement for change.

Godin highlights a few areas of why business has changed and what Tribes enable people to do now.  A few points here really stood out for me and they are about how companies expect more people to lead than they ever used to.  Leaders are expected much more now at all levels than classic organizations where only few were expected to lead everyone else.  This is encouraging to anyone to be more involved as a leader.  Another point is about, how much influence and impact individuals actually have now on areas needing leadership, new products and just the rate that business operates.  Things change much more quickly than ever before in business and this opens many doors for new leadership to exist at all levels.  The final one of these points for me was about how exciting and fun leadership and new innitiatives can actually be and that so many people want to be involved in them.  This leaves many opportunities for anyone to help collect and lead a tribe toward a common goal and common passions and aspirations.  All these points show the benefits and need for more and more tribes and Godin does a fantastic job of calling out his readers to step into these so called “Tribes” and make an impact directly.

If you are interested in leadership and new business practices and in any way wanting to expand your own influence, then “Tribes” by Godin is a worthy book.  It was packed full of good advice and great challenges to help intice you to do more than learn about it, read a book about it and understand tribes, but to actually go and get involved in them and to become more of a tribal leader yourself.  The content of this book is really packed in and condensed as well, which makes for a short read yet there are many key messages and phrases that really deliver a powerful punch to inspire more leadership. Keep this in mind as Godin leaves out any practical advice on HOW to lead or make these tribes a success, he simply puts the challenge out their and leaves the responsibility solely up to each tribal leader, just how it should be.

I definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for more leadership ideas, inspiration and simple to those who wish to explore a bit more of the social media and internet style of communities, as this is explored throughout the book.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 9 Comments »