The AMA Handbook of Leadership
I recently read the
The AMA Handbook of Leadership by Marshall Goldsmith which is a collection of articles, similar to the one I recently
reviewed by Malcolm Gladwell (although these are each by different authors).
The book has five parts.
1 - Forging ahead - The Global Picture
2 - Developing People - The Key to the Future.
3 - Engaging People - Force of Change.
4 - Facilitating Change - The Leaders Role.
5 - Taking the Lead.
The articles are thoughtful, well chosen, well edited and for the most part interesting and thoughtful.
There was an article by R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. on Leadership and Diversity which tied into the book review I recently did on
The Loudest Duck. The gist of the article is similar to the book, diversity is good business and its the role of leadership to make sure that diversity is embraced.
There was an article on Asian and Western Executive lifestyles. This was of high interest to me since I have done a lot of business in Asia and since I am in the computer industry. This has been something that I have studied and any leader of a global business should understand different executive styles in different cultures.
There's an article by Marshall Goldsmith - Passing the Baton : Developing Your Successor. One of the toughest things for a leader to do is prepare to move on from an organization. I've done a lot of thinking about that lately since some people have talked to me about how SYNNEX has changed since I've left. I've come to the conclusion that when leadership leaves an organization, some of the leader remains on in the culture and some of it changes.
The article is a good reminder that succession plans do need to be done. I know for many leaders, this goes against their sense of immortality.
There are other articles on leadership, change, how to be an effective leader and situational intelligence.
I liked the short article format because I could read one article in its entirety in a few minutes and then come back and read another one. One Time Management
Success Habit I use is keeping reading readily accessible for any spare minutes I might have. This book is perfect for that - sort of like a magazine.
Performance : Your Guide To Personal & Professional Excellence
I recently read Diane Matyas Book -
Performance : Your Guide To Personal & Professional Excellence. It's summarizes most of what most great self-help books contain. One thing that resonated with me is her first few chapters involve talking about energy - spiritual, mental and physical. One thing I've increasingly been emphasizing in my
time management systems is that it's not about time management it's about energy management. So figuring out how to gain more energy, what gives you energy what takes your energy is an absolute must.
She then goes into a section on imagination and this would be similar to my
goal setting. Essentially if you can imagine and envision it, then you can create it.
She talks about creating a mastermind and mastering yourself. She has a section on relaxation (that's good for other people).
I like that she has a couple of chapters on fitness and nutrition. Ties into the section on energy.
The book covers all the basics of what people need to be high performance.
The Imposter
I read a great book on the weekend called The Imposter - How a Juvenile Criminal Succeeded in Business and in Life , a transformation memoir by Kip Kreiling.
The reason I say it was a great book is I founded a gripping and didn't put it down.
Although it's just a bit longer than most normal business books that I'm reading (285 pages), the font size is large so I had suspected its even less words.
As the title suggests, Kip is concerned that he is an impostor when he becomes a success in life. I think many people who are successful have that fear that perhaps they'll be found out someday.
I don't see this as all bad, perhaps it helps drive us. Kip had a horrific childhood and originally took that to drive into the world of drugs, juvenile and adult delinquency, but eventually he kicked his habits. Ultimately he became highly successful in life.
The gist of his message is if someone with his disadvantages can be successful, then anyone can and the main concept is that everyone can change if they want to. This sort of goes with "today's the first day of the rest of your life".
"Another path to success is to start small. For example, if you have challenges keeping commitments to yourself, learn to get up in the morning the very second your alarm clock goes off. Do not use the snooze button. This simple act, repeated daily, will build personal discipline and provide strength for larger changes. Action like this will retrain your brain.
Something else to try: Pick one new good habit or virtue that you want to master and that you know will transform your life. For instance, you may want to learn how to control your anger or learn to listen more than you talk. Focus on that habit for six weeks and you will find that new, ennobling behaviors will replace old, limiting ones."
He also talks about Benjamin Franklin tracking progress in a journal in order to help master the 13 virtues.
It's a good book.
Motivation and Ways to Wake Up Early
One of my readers sent me the following email in response to my
6 Reasons to Wake up Early article:
Feeling the annual winter-lack-of-motivation-I-don't-want-to-get-up blues...
Why do I want to get up early? Because by the end of the work day I'm exhausted, and have no interest in doing anything except lying on the couch and reading (which I think is okay, sortof). But I like the IDEA of using some time in the morning to clean, organize, write a note to a friend, search the web for fun, exercise. I somehow can motivate to exercise at night (usually, but not everyday and it should be), but that's all I do: Get up, go to work, walk the dog, exercise, read on the couch, go to bed. BLAHHHHH!
So I thought I'd do a little Dear Abby here and respond with ideas that might help.
Although I do have ideas, I will say I'm nowhere near perfect with any of this stuff. I'm still learning it. One of the reasons I write about stuff like this is the more I write about it, or teach, the more I learn.
Teaching is a great way to learn.
We take action if it's more rewarding than not taking action, or we take action if it's uncomfortable for us to not take action. So the best way to get action to happen is to add to the pain, or add to the pleasure.
So some ideas include:
1. Adding a reward to an activity is a great way to get it done. So think of the things that you can use as rewards and allow yourself to do those if you get it done. For me, I like drinking tea and I don't drink tea until I get certain tasks or chores done.
2. Think of things you can do to add punishment and add punishment for not doing things. So if you like to read a particular book, don't let yourself read that particular book unless you've done something else. Figure out a few punishments you can use.
3. One thing that causes me to take action is if I understand my WHYs well, So I like making a list of the whys because that increases my drive and my motivation.
4. Often analyzing why we are not doing something is a great way to move us forward. For example, if you wake up in the morning and don't hop out of bed because your bedroom is cold, perhaps you should have a setback thermostat that turns the heat up before you get up.
I often find I procrastinate on projects because I'm missing a piece of information or don't know how to do something. Identifying why I'm not doing something is a great way of moving me forward.
5. Recognizing your limits is also important. Especially when I was younger would often have completely unrealistic goals and therefore I would not accomplish as much as I thought I would. One thing that's given me great hope though is we tend to accomplish less in a day than we think we can and do accomplish more in a year or a decade.
So what I'm saying is if you can't do your goals, perhaps you're trying to be too disciplined and perhaps you're not giving yourself enough "time off".
When I'm working on my goals, I delete from my list anything I'm not prepared to spend at least an hour a week on and what I often have is something on my goals list, wake up 3 or 4 weeks later and find I haven't spent the hour so I take it off my goals list and it becomes a not now.
6. Tracking is another trick on getting things done. The simple act of writing down things you want to do and giving yourself your own little star can be motivational enough to do it. Sounds strange, but it works.
7. I like making games of things and one of my favorite games is chaining. What I try to do is build a chain of doing things right. So I try to build a chain of number of days I get up before a certain time, or number of days that I work out and then if I break the chain, then the next chain I try to build it longer. This gives me something to keep striving for.
Any more Dear Jim letters I should answer?
Leading the Disciplined Life
I've always found I'm more productive when I lead a disciplined life.
For me that includes things like getting up early (and this means I have to discipline myself to go to bed at at a reasonable time), working out daily, and staying focused on the highest priority items.
Although I say this is leading the disciplined life, I realize from studying success habits, really that is simply leading a habitual life. In the end it's all about habits.
I also like to lead a frugal life.
I actually find the internet allows me to be a little bit more frugal, using things like free coupons (one site that has them is http://www.dealtattle.com/). It has coupons and deals and allows users to post the ones they find. There are a couple of press releases on that service. See
DealTattle.com Coupon Codes
It's interesting that they use a pig as their logo, the same as PigSpigot,(an online service that allows people to send cards).
Roll Up Weekly Reports
One management technique that can be used to run a larger organization is what I call roll up weekly reports.
The reason they are called roll up is they start at the bottom or mid-level and everyone sends their report to their supervisor, sends it to their manager, sends it to their VP, till eventually it hits the CEO's desk.
One principle is the weekly report is a maximum of 24 lines long (that's how long my screen is and I don't like using the scroll button).
The weekly report is very specific in what it addresses:
1. The organization typically has 3-5 large goals and there should be something addressing each one of these large goals.
2. The individual has 3-5 weekly goals, each one of those weekly goals should be addressed.
3. In the weekly report, the goals for the next week are also laid out.
4. I like a short section on things I don't know that the numbers don't say. For example information on a customer, opening a new location, or a competitor letting go staff or something else in the industry.
5. What you need from me. This is one way to get action from the manager or leader to help the person shake through and get things to the next step.
Roll up weekly reports are a great way to keep a sense of urgency in an organization as well as keeping things focused on the goals.
The Loudest Duck - diversity
I recently read
The Loudest Duck - Moving Beyond Diversity While Embracing Differences to Achieve Success at Work by Laura Liswood.
It's interesting when I moved to New York, I joined an Angel Investment group called Golden Seeds (I was very impressed with their due diligence process). One of their mandates is to only invest in women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs. To some extent this provides me with a little bit more portfolio diversity since most of my investments are in male-owned and operated businesses (I like to think not by design, simply by seeing businesses as genderless and making business decisions based on what I thought were the right businesses).
As the title suggests, the book is about diversity. The obvious case is that discrimination still exists and this discrimination actually hurts companies.
The book did touch on the damage the efforts of trying to legislate things has because simply trying to fill numbers ignores the real skills and needs of a company.
One point the book made which I thought was excellent is leaders often tend to surround themselves with people who look like themselves.
I've noted in business that true maturity is being able to accept people who don't have the same characteristics and being willing to value them similarly to ourselves. The biggest example I saw in business is the accounts receivable people all think the sales people don't care about selling to customers who won't pay their bills on time and the sales people think the credit department is simply making their life miserable and adding to their challenge in selling. Truly mature people realize there is great value in a sales person and an accountant.
In my view, the ideal team should be made up of people which have the right diversity of views, background, experience and the appropriate mix of skills, regardless of their race, gender, religion, etc.
So as the book suggests, the ideal is to be able to look through any of these natural biases.
The book concludes with: "It is by no means easy to create a successful Noah's ark of diversity, yet once accomplished - and with much sustained consciousness - the rewards are enormous."
The Other 8 Hours
I read a great book by Robert Pagliarini -
The Other 8 Hours - Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose.
When I first heard of the book I thought. Oh no, now a time management system that figures out what to do instead of sleep - which for me would be the other 8 hours (well actually, I would rarely sleep that long).
But the gist of The Other 8 Hours discussed in the book are the hours that you're not sleeping and not working. So it's time after work essentially.
I think the book would be more appropriately targeted to those who have a job. To those who, like myself, work for themselves or are serious executives, working much more hours than full time jobs, the book is not as appropriate.
The gist of the message I completely agree with and that is get off the couch and learn something or do something with the other 8 hours. That's the best and easiest way to get ahead. One of the reasons this works for getting ahead is so many other people simply sit on the couch with the channel changer.
In addition to that basic thesis, the book is chock full of time saving ideas, like use two monitors. I learned this from my years at SYNNEX and it's very tough to work with just one monitor after you've used two.
The book talks about the things that steal productivity, listing a huge long list of things that maybe don't need to be done.
One reason might be appropriate for people who have a job is much of the talk is about money and how to make more or save more money, with lots of tips.
It's a good book, well written, well organized, easy to read.
Whenever I give my Time Management presentation, my goal is always to have people leave with two or three habits that they continue doing and are doing six weeks after the presentation. I don't consider my presentation to be a success unless this happens.
This book has so many ideas I would think only people who use the most polished of systems wouldn't be able to get a few ideas they could use.
I found the book very reinforcing.
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
I recently read What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell.
It's really a series of stand-alone stories. They're not fiction, they are true stories. Some of them are fascinating, others I found not as interesting.
Gladwell is a great writer.
According to E. Bukowsky (booklover10) on Amazon:
""What the Dog Saw" has some intriguing passages that will impel readers to say, "I never thought of this subject in quite that way before." The provocative Gladwell enjoys toying with conventional wisdom and challenging our preconceived notions. For instance, in one article, he defends certain forms of plagiarism, a transgression that many would consider indefensible. In another, he states that tragedies such as the Challenger disaster are unavoidable, since for a variety of reasons, "we don't really want the safest of all possible worlds."
This water-cooler book will have people arguing vehemently that Malcolm Gladwell is either out of his mind or, conversely, that he is a courageously honest writer who dares to tell it like it is. "
Simplifying Innovation, a 5-step system for doubling speed to market and new product profits with your existing resources
I recently read
Simplifying Innovation, a 5-step system for doubling speed to market and new product profits with your existing resources by Michael Dalton.
He calls it a theory of constraints business model.
"Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity" - Albert Einstein
This is one of those books that is written in storybook style. I'm not a big advocate of this type of writing, following fictitious people around and figuring out how they like their steak is not particularly interesting to me.
That said, the book is interesting and has a number of valid points. If you just wanted the business points of the book, you could quickly read through it and find the summaries which are italicized.
The theory of the book is that there are always bottlenecks in any innovation. The key is to identify those bottlenecks and figure out how to get through them more quickly.
One other part of the thesis is high focus pays and having less people on a project, spending more of their time on it, is likely to get better results than having more people spend less of their time.
As I'm reading the book, I'm thinking of how this plays with my Fail Often. Fail Fast. Fail Cheap. mantra that I often repeat. Where I think it's used slightly differently is the innovation the book is talking about is primarily development, not necessarily the pure research, or alternatively it's the execution or the implementation which is often a shortcoming in companies.
Fail Often. Fail Fast, Fail Cheap is one way to generate a lot of ideas, then figure out which ones are working and put more resources into the ones that are working.
The book did talk about DADS (Device Attention Deficit Syndrome), caused by Blackberries and cell phones. Ironically, even though I am a huge Blackberry user and a big advocate (and I sit on the board of RIM), I do see some validity to DADS. If DADS is a problem, it means the device is not being used as it should be used - as a productivity device.
"Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."-Frederic Chopin
It's a good book, appropriate for anyone involved in the development of products.
Constant Learning - Deciding What to Learn
I was interested in an Harvard Business Review article on "
Should you Sack Yourself". The gist of the message was that often people fall in love with their own strategy and methods even though they are not working. Sometimes the company would be better off without them.
I have seen many cases where a company outgrows people. Perhaps this is because I have always been involved in growth businesses or perhaps because I have always been in the technology business which is naturally high change.
Change is inevitable and therefore people need to adapt. I have long believed that proper adaptation or the "right" changes can be studied and learned.
I have constantly set myself with the challenge of "what do I need to know" and "what will I need to learn". I then devise learning programs around it. For me, much of the studying is reading books but some is setting myself with the question and then I find that material I feed myself becomes relevant - eg - the article a friend forwards hits home or a passage in a book triggers a thought pattern.
People often ask me how I managed to run a start up from the trunk of my car and also a Billion $ plus business. For me, it was this deliberate study.
I am a life long learner.
Learning By Teaching
We've all heard it said that the best way to learn is to teach. I'm a big believer that this is absolutely true. I think this is probably one of things that inspired me originally to start teaching my
time management seminar.
When I first started preparing my time management seminar (and this came before my
time management book), I did what I often do and I chose to study it. For me, this meant getting most of the books at the library. Listening to the audio programs, watching the videos and I even went to a couple time management seminars.
The more I study the topic, the more excited I got and the more I incorporated a number of the
success habits in my life. The more I did this, the more success I had.
This became the start of momentum that built to eventually not only doing the seminar over a hundred times, but
writing the book,
publishing the audio cd and the
time leadership eBook.I know time management much better because I studied it and I taught it. Your tip for today is if you want to learn something well, teach it.
I think this works because all of us want to do a good job so we don't want to go teach without preparing.
I think there is a tendency of people when they teach to set a little bit better example (although people are better to do as I say and not examine me too closely in what I do, I'm still a work in progress on the time management front).
A Soldier First and Still Alice
Over the holidays I finished two non-business related books.
One of them was General Rick Hillier's book
A Soldier First - Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War. I know Rick so the book was doubly interesting to me. I also have a daughter and son in law in the Canadian Navy.
At one point in the book he talks about expecting to have a break between postings of six weeks and what he planned to do is golf in the mornings and putter on his household chores and get his house all in order before his next posting. Then what happened is he got a call on Monday saying that he was going to have to leave on the following Monday to start his new mission.
So we can guess what happened, he then threw himself into accomplishing his list of chores and sure enough he got them all done. Then ironically he got the call that he wasn't needed for another 4 weeks, so he was able to truly relax having finished most of his "work" list.
One thing I noticed about productivity is when we absolutely need to get things done, we can be tremendously high productivity and like the old saying goes, "the work expands to fill the time available".
The second book I read was
Still Alice by Lisa Genova which, although it is a novel, it is a well researched book written in the first person about a woman who has early onset Alzheimers. She is a Ph.D who advances through multiple phases of dementia. A very moving story.
Both books were entertaining, thought provoking and interesting.
Using Books For Inspiration
Anyone who's read this blog for any period of time knows that I'm a voracious reader. I believe one of the best values in North America is the library card. I read a statistic that only 3% of the population has a library card. It seems to me it's likely those 3% are some of the more successful, since it not only helps with the quest for knowledge but it also helps with the law of savings.
It would be interesting to commission a study to see where library users stand relative to the rest of the population on success and economic scales. Would be tough to grade but also where they stand on just "being interesting" scales as well.
Of course it's also possible among the more successful might be some of the people who buy some of the books so library correlations might not apply.
I have long used books for inspiration using the following simple exercise:
1. I write down what it is that I'm trying to do or what I want to accomplish.
2. I start to read and choose an appropriate book close to the topic I wish to study or gain inspiration on. Seems obvious but starting is half the battle.
3.I highlight or make notes either in the book or on a separate journal.
The simple act of knowing what I'm looking for when I'm reading a book often inspires me to find the answer.
A simple example of this is I was preparing to do a seminar on
Goal Setting and in order to do that seminar since it was longer than my usual, I needed to come up with more material. So I started to read more books about success and
success habits and sure enough the presentations flowed.
Thought Provoking Videos and Snippet Learning
A friend of mine sent me a link to a few thought provoking videos. (Thanks Jackie at
Recruit My Friends. )
The YouTube videos talk about the changes that are happening in our world and the state of our educational system. They talk about learning.
I'm a big believer in change. I believe
change is opportunity and when I can't find change I try to create some. One thing I like about change is it actually helps smaller companies and entrepreneurs gain their place in new world order.
I am definitely a
constant learner. My chosen way to learn is mostly by reading but I am certainly open to learning in any way I can. I love
audio books because they suit my sense of time management.
I'm also a believer in Microlearning or Snippet Learning (that's learning in short snips), or perhaps I should call it A.D.D learning.
Hope you enjoy the videos.
I also talk about change in my
Are You Galvanized or Paralyzed article.
Super Freakonomics and Unintended Consequences
This post was written a few days ago.
I am just through airline security. No carry on by order of security. I did bring a book (
The Tristan Betrayal - by Robert Ludlum - yes - just a mindless spy thriller). I have long read while I am in airport lines but these days it is even more important to develop the skill and focus to do this.
I read just Levitt's new book
SuperFreakonomics (I love it) which delves into "unintended consequences". One consequence of 9/11 was 10,000 more traffic fatalities. I wonder what the consequences of the current crackdown will be.
I am thinking video conferencing will become even more pervasive. Interestingly, travel has always been very costly (mostly from a time and energy perspective). Executives that run larger companies have paid the highest price. They might actually get a productivity boost by having less travel. I know from experience the inefficiency of travel.
Conference calling with PPT will also increase. Perhaps my investment in online meeting company
Calliflower (
low cost Webex) will take off.
I think less people will travel. Will we become more local?
I also think executive jets will have a surge.
I used to have a rule, if I could drive it in 5 hours, it was more efficient not to fly. Thinking I will need to expand that to 8 hours or longer. So I wonder if audio book sales will increase. Perhaps I need to stock up on my
Time Leadership CDs. Hire a few more people to handle the shipping.
SuperFreakonomics challenges some climate myths. Like buy local is not better for the environment. My brother Lyle (who wrote "
Small is Possible") will no doubt have arguments with that. Perhaps the buy local will be pushed more for diversity and lifestyle than environment.
He also has some radical environmental proposals - some of which scare me to death (like releasing sulphur into the atmosphere to combat global warming). The book will be controversial and I hope is not used as an excuse by some to just keep damaging the environment on the theory that science can save us.
Goal Setting and New Year's Resolutions
I love New Year's, because I love setting New Year's Resolutions. I credit much of my success in life to setting goals and New Year's Resolutions are really not much more than setting goals.
For me, they fall into two categories.
2. Some of my resolutions are actual goals or things that I want to accomplish.
I have long practiced goal setting using my goal setting exercise
60 Minutes to Clear Goals.
This year will be no different - I will set goals. I will review how I did compared to what I thought last year. I will try to learn and refine my systems.
Have a great New Year.
Relentless Change
In my
post on Article Marketing yesterday, I was remiss to not mention my friends'
Chris Knights
ezinearticle site. This is one of the best organized and legitimate article sites on the internet. And Chris is one of the best
networkers that I know. He puts me to shame.
I find that most of the books I read are about Leadership and Business, although occasionally I do just read a book for recreation.
One of my friends Joe Martin wrote a book called
Relentless Change – A Casebook for the Study of Canadian Business History. Read sort of for just recreation but it is also business focused.
I know Joe fairly well, since he sat on the board of
Angoss Software for about 10 years.
Relentless Change, is a study of Canadian business history.
Joe is a Historian / Academic / Ph.D / Professor, so the study is absolutely a great work of research. This certainly is not as shallow as many of the other business books I read.
Being Canadian, I find it fascinating all the references to the companies I have heard about and know of.
The book starts in 1850 and lays out the Bank Act, which he calls 'The Origin of Our Financial Stability'. It also talks about Hudson's Bay Company and the first great Canadian manufacturing enterprise, Massey-Harris.
Then it moves on to 1905-1955, talking about the CNR and the rise of the automobile industry as well as Eatons. I took particular interest in the Eaton's story since in the 80s Eaton's was in the computer business and was a customer of ours. Eaton's treated suppliers so poorly at time that my brother
Glen refused to buy anything from them. Of course, he thinks the reason Eatons eventually went bankrupt was because of their arrogance, which I believe is the major challenge that large companies face.
Part 3 was the period 1955-1980 with discussions of Inco and oil. Then part 4 is called the challenging years from 1980-2005 talking about the Free Trade Agreement, the collapse of Fed Life and discussion about RBC.
Although the book is a series of case studies as would be used in a University M.B.A. class, each one of these stories are stand-alone. Joe is not the author of all the cases although in many cases he is the co-author.
I think it's a fascinating book for anybody interested in Canadian business history.
Article Marketing and Free Content
I am often asked how to inexpensively promote a product or service. One of my favorite ways is article marketing. There are tons of free article sites that accept articles from anyone. These are "Free content" so anyone can use what is written in their blog or newspaper. Because they are also free, they can be an easy source for blog inspiration if I cannot think of anything to say. I almost never use them as is but I edit them and use parts occasionally. Or mostly they just inspire my ideas.They are not even bad to surf if you are looking for information on a topic.
One of the Free content sites I use is A1 Articles. The site is well organized, easy to use and although it has lots of ads, they tend to be inobstrusive. They have over 10,000 articles on a wide variety of topics.
Some of my "free articles" are:The 8 Rules of Time,6 Reasons to Wake Up Early and Secrets to Help it Happen, (cannot really write this and sleep in)12 Tips on Developing Self Discipline, (reminding myself how to do it)How to Write and Article in 20 Minutes, 13 Easy Tricks to Stay Motivated to Work out, (written because I needed help myself)How a Small Business Can Thrive Through Nichemanship Innovative Hiring - Barbershop Marketing (it was a different time in the job market)The Power of QuestionsAre You Galvanized or Paralysedand the list goes on...Some of these were written to "softly" promote my Time Management Book. Some of them were just articles that I had in me that I thought I would share. Some of them were off topic for my blog so I did not blog about them. Some of them were blog entries that were almost ready to be articles so I turned them into articles.Some of these articles are my better works. I would not bother to turn something into an article if I did not think it was good at the time.So the word on free content sites is use them by contributing or use them as a source.
Good Procrastination - Constructive Avoidance
We finally got a bit of snow in Long Island.
Today, I want to get my home made Christmas gift done. It is a tradition in our family to draw names and make a gift. So - top priority today. Get it done.
But what have I done? I have done just about everything but that. Not that what I have been doing does not need doing - like shoveling the snow, putting some weather stripping on the front door, catching up on some emails, working out, finishing a book review and now blogging.
What I call that is constructive avoidance. I avoid what I want to do by doing other things.
At least it is constructive.
The War of Art
I listened recently to a CD series (which is actually a book as well) called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. The audio version can be found here
I loved the program. The gist of the message is in all things great we face resistance and resistance stops us from doing our art. Although Pressfield is an actual writer and so uses the word artist for writers and painters, etc. I would apply the same lessons to those of an entrepreneur.
He was briefly a marine in the US Marines. He said it's not necessarily that Marines are any better, but they teach the Marines how to deal with pain and live under adverse circumstances and that's very good life training. Part of success is being able to deal positively with adversity.
The gist of his message is we need to be disciplined, we need to recognize that we will have resistance to doing what we need to or should be doing. To get over that resistance we need to develop systems to deal with it. Successful people are able to do things that don't give immediate gratification. I wrote a blog on Delayed Gratification and the Economy last year.
It is a good book. He is a writer so it is well written (despite the fact that I listened to it and did not read it).
Pomodoro Time Management Timer System
All Time Management systems are based on the same principles (including my own
Time Leadership one). Basically - list what needs to be done (the old fashioned TO DO list), Prioritize it then do it.
What "new" systems tend to offer are tricks. I am playing now with the
Pomodoro system. The Pomodoro system is based on using a timer and breaking everything into 25 minute blocks called a Pomodoro. In order to use the system, you need to know what to do (the to do list) and it needs to be prioritized.
The trick of this system is it helps with focus. For a 25 minute block, 100% focus on one task. Then take a 5 minute break.
I bought an
inexpensive timer from Amazon. What I like about it is no batteries and it ticks. What I don't like about it is that it ticks. The ticking can help me focus but sometimes it distracts me.
What I have learned in doing this system for a couple of weeks are:
1 - I often get interrupted. Fortunately many of these interruptions are of my on making and can be avoided (like reading the email that comes in).
2 - I have less 25 minute blocks in a day than I thought. Simple maintenance (like email again) can suck a lot of time from my day.
3 - 5 minutes is a long break.
4 - I can get a lot done in 25 minutes of high focus. (like
write an article)
5 - in order to be high focus and high productivity for the 25 minute, I need to be well prepared. Often the preparation itself can take 25 or more minutes.
Interesting system and I think I will use it some.
Tribute to Jim Rohn
Jim Rohn, one of the great motivational speakers of our time
died on December 5, 2009.
Jim's contribution to the motivational speaking arena was tremendous optimism and the ability to reframe things, constantly looking for the positive in everything.
He was a prolific author, some of his books include:
The Art of Exceptional Living7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness: Power Ideas from America's Foremost Business Philosopher Five Major Pieces to the Life PuzzleAll worth reading.
Jim Rohn is also known for his motivational and inspirational quotes
"
Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion. ""Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.""Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. ""Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day." (clearly he was a believer in Success Habits)"Either you run the day or the day runs you. "
He will be missed.
Y-Size Your Business
I recently read
Y-Size Your Business - How Gen Y Employees Can Save You Money and Grow Your Business by Jason Ryan Dorsey.
The Y generation comes after generation X and is often referred to as those being born between 1977 and 1992. That would put them between the ages of 17 and 32. They are also referred to as The Millennial Generation, being shaped heavily by the rapid growth of the Internet, cell phones, Twitter, blogs (I did not know I was shaping a generation)etc.
The book has a number of practical ideas and suggestions on how to recruit, train and get the most out of Gen Y. One of the best chapters I liked was Day 1 is all important. The title says it all - basically make the first day a good one. Common sense (which often is not that common).
We're now in a culture where we can expect to have four generations working in many businesses, often with different or unique values. I think it's critical for any manager or leader to understand some of these generational biases in order to run their company well.
I loved the book, even though I don't like to categorize people and don't consider myself to be within a certain class of people (like boomers). Very early in the book, Jason handles this by saying "A generation is not a rigid box that every single person of a certain age will fit nearly inside. Rather I see generational identity as simply a clue –a big clue–about where to start to more effectively connect with, engage, and lead people of different ages. A clue–not a box."
He talks about the Y-Generation having a feeling of entitlement, but places a lot of blame where it should be, on the parents. He says "I know how off-putting Gen Y's attitude can be, but before we condemn my generation as a bunch of spoiled brats (something that I find personally offensive and plan to tell my mom about) we should consider for a moment that entitlement is 100 percent a learned behavior. You are not born entitled. You have to be raised that way.."
He talks about how Gen Y looks for fun and excitement in a job and tells the story of Coldstone Creamery, a 1400+ store ice cream franchise (with locations in 12 countries) who have repositioned their job interview as an audition.
One thing I love about the Y generation is they're ease of use with technology and how they do Internet research and the use of techno gadgets comes so easily and naturally.
The book did have a section that pointed out that the boomer generation was the generation of workaholics (this is one I'm in)
--------------------------------
There is an interesting interview on
CBC - The Current on the fraud of Management Consulting. It is an interview with
The Management Myth, authour Matthew Stewart.
How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Other Social Networks
I recently read How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Other Social Networks
by Brad and Debra Schepp.
It's interesting because I'm not necessarily looking for a job, but more what I want is a passion.
I've come to use LinkedIn fairly extensively and often LinkedIn to people when I meet them at shows, events etc. and encourage them to linkedin to me as it's one of the simplest ways to keep in touch with people.
I did learn a few LinkedIn tricks that I hadn't used. One of them is LinkedIn questions. To show expertise and build profile - they have a question and answer section.
A lot of the book underscored the need to be organized in networking (which I think applies not only to finding a job, but to finding new customers and new suppliers). I've always been very systematic in my approach to networking, the book simply reinforces that this is an excellent idea.
The book emphasizes the need to have a good LinkedIn profile and pointed out that changes in status get seen by people on your network.
At one point, I decided I needed to expand my network on LinkedIn and I soon learned the network effect. When I had less than 500 LinkedIn contacts, I made a habit of adding 5 new ones a day and when I hit 500 all of a sudden I was getting invited once a day by new people and now I'm a little bit concerned I'm going to go over the 3000 contact maximum that LinkedIn allows because I get invited so often to connect.
The book is a good refresher for those who are familiar with social networking and a good starter for those who are not. Although the gist of it is how to find a job, I think the book would be useful for general networking. I wrote an article on this very topic called 9 Ways to Network Easily.
Changing topics, I had a guest post on marketing posted at Hilary Toppers' blog.
Success Habit - Mantras
Ok - I admit it, I talk to myself.
Mantras are talking to one’s self is a tool to keep on track. I am not talking about meditation mantras. (although I am also a believer in meditation).
I am a great believer in self-talk. We tend to listen to what we have to say. Self talk can be positive and reinforcing or it can be negative.
I do not talk to myself all the time and I tend to change what I say to myself depending on the circumstances and what I want to accomplish.
Some of the simple mantras that I use:
"Successful People do Tough Things" – When I dread something but need to get through it regardless. I view myself as a successful person so this prompts me to get going and keep going.
"What the heck, go for it anyway" – This one is useful when building up courage to do something. The scenarios are endless, negotiating with a company about a charge or cost of an item, making new friends, starting a project even when a odds may be stacked against you etc.
"I am very healthy, I heal very quickly" – Half the battle with regard to health is in the mind. I am by no means making the suggestion to forgo medical treatment if there is something legitimately wrong with you, but a little positive reinforcement can go a long way.
"Garbage in, garbage out" – Useful for poor eating habits, media garbage (not meant to slam all media - some is good), bad TV (that would be most of it which is why I watch very little), bad reading etc.
"I honor my mind and body" (or when I am in Canada "I honour my mind and body") - same as the Garbage in, garbage out one.
"Back to Work" This simple mantra helps me regain focus. Often I can become distracted from my top priority. This gets me back on track.
So think "talk to yourself" to get on track.
Success Habit - Every Day is Thanksgiving
I lead a charmed life.
Today is Thanksgiving in the US. This is a great day to count our blessings. One trait I have seen in successful people is they are always grateful. This is often called "have an attitude of gratitude".
Anyone who is reading this has many reasons to be grateful. Obviously they can read (in countries like
Afganistan, it is only 28%). They can read English. They know how to use a computer and have access to one. These simple things are already way beyond simple food and shelter which are challenges for so much of the world population.
1 - Keep a separate section in a journal with a list of all you have to be grateful for.
2 - Set a time each week to go through this list.
3 - Help someone or some group less fortunate than you. Nothing drives home how lucky I am more than helping someone who is disadvantaged or challenged. And it feels good.
4 - Have
mantras that remind us how fortunate we are. I often say "I lead a charmed life".
Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
On a recent flight, I read "
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs - How to be Insanely Great in front of any Audience" by
Camine Gallo.
It comes at an interesting time when I am doing a lot of speaking gigs.
Jobs is clearly one of the most captivating speakers of our day. He has been able to attract almost a cult of followers because of his ability to public speak.
I recommend the book, just like I do Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie courses, because I think everyone in business should be able to speak well in front of audiences. It is one way that a leader can gain leverage.
The book covers why he is a great speaker and gives a ton of tips to help any reader to also become a great speaker. It covers things like the 10 minute rule (people drift after 10 minutes so you need either a break or major shift).
One interesting comment. "People have forgotten how to listen and take notes instead". Then it goes on to explain how bad PowerPoint multi bullet slides are. Slides attract note taking. I, on the other hand, think note taking can increase retention.
In any speech - answer the one big question. At most have 3 main points - often supporting the one big question.
The book talks about passion. Clearly Jobs is the king of this. Passion sells and passion makes for great speeches.
Simplicity is key. According to Jobs, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
The book does not speak about how the credibility of the speaker greatly enhances the receptivity of the audience. One reason Jobs can captivate an audience if because of what he has accomplished - people listen.
I have thought about becoming a professional speaker but have concerns that my message (which is about how to run a business, efficiency,
time management, entrepreneurship) would become weak over time if I am not actively involved in other things.
Good For Business
"Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of - for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. " -Socrates
I recently read a book called
Good for Business: The Rise of the Conscious Corporation
by Andrew Bennett, Cavas Gobhai, Ann O'Reilly and Greg Welch.
The gist of the message in the book is that it's smart for business to be socially [and environmentally] conscious and the company should do good because it's smart business..
From the book:
"Today, the notion that corporate "do-gooding" is antithetical to profits has been turned on its head. AS we will discuss in this book, study after study has shown that reputation and a more ethical approach to business reap riches. That is why as many as nine in ten fortune 500 companies now have dedicated initiatives focused on corporate social responsibility. And it is why risk to a company's reputation is now seen as important to guard against than any other risk, including regulatory, credit, and market risks....The fact is that corporate reputation matters more today because brand matters more."
The Internet and social media and social media is helping to drive the necessity for business to be socially good. It is so easy for a reputation to be sullied by poor corporate actions that's absolutely critical for companies to try to build a corporate goodwill account.
The book has an interesting story of innocent ??drinks, who lives by "leaving things a little better than we find them". This company managed to gain 72% market share in the UK, smoothing market by interacting with their consumers in a friendly, familiar and fun way and emphasizing honesty, community and charitable values.
From the book "In our work with different industries and with all sorts and sizes of companies, we have come to view the following actions as essential to success:
-Find the right fit
-Commit the appropriate resources
-Build alliances and get your halo certified
-Be ever vigilant
-be loud and proud
-keep pushing forward
-get consumers involved
Some companies are even moving from a mission statement to a we believe statement.
"Twenty-first century CEOS will be judged not only by how well they changed their industries, but also how well t hey led their companies to have positive impacts on the world."-Hector Ruiz, chairman and CEO, Advanced Micro Devices.
Inflation and the Canadian / US Dollar
I am likely more aware than most people on the exchange rate between Canadian and US dollar. I have income, expenses and assets in Canada and the US.
The US Dollar has weakened considerably in the last few months by almost 15% compared to the Canadian dollar.
I have a concern that current government spending will cause inflation. One way for government to deal with debt is to expand the money supply, creating inflation. So, if inflation starts to happen, how is the best way to deal with?
Ways to deal with inflation:
1. During inflationary times, it's good to own things so this would speak to stocking up on inventory and real estate.
2. If we go into a period of inflation, as prices rise it makes sense to lock things in. This would speak to locking in your lease rate, electricity prices, signing more longer term contracts.
3. In times of inflation, interest rates tend to rise, so it's a false economy to buy a lot of inventory now on credit and end up paying a higher interest rate, so consider locking your interest rate in longer term. The problem with locking in your interest long term is that the markets have figured out this is likely to happen, so longer rates are considerably higher than short term rates.
4. Regardless of whether there is inflation, it's always a good idea to have fewer expenses than income or revenue. This speaks to simply running a good business, leading a smart life.
Inflation is just one other turbulence in the market. Something that can be dealt with, not something to be feared, but it is something to consider.
