The Secret to Good Communications


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Sunday, January 16, 2011 | 11:46 AM


The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.

— George Burns

Of course there is nothing to say that this brilliant snippet of communication wisdom should be limited to sermons. It is also the secret of a good speech, a good presentation, or even a good email.

Net it out, people.

What I Read in 2010


04

Tuesday, January 4, 2011 | 7:55 PM



2010 was a good year for reading. I read 14 great books (well actually, 13 great books and one that wasn’t so great). The year was filled with a wide variety of insights on coaching, executive development, and building strong organizations.

(A note: I don’t actually “read” non-fiction books. I devour them. I engage with a book as if it’s the backbone of a graduate-level independent-study course and I am preparing for an oral defense. I create a note in Evernote for each chapter. I highlight. I transcribe my highlights into Evernote. I make notes. I memorize. I capture the outline and the best ideas and I interweave them with my own ideas and reactions. I don’t just “read” books. I make them my own and integrate the models and the ideas into the services that I provide for clients. Books are good stuff.)

And now, for the 2010 book list . . .
in the order of completion

1. The March: A Novel — E. L. Doctorow

Rating: * * * * * (out of 5)

The previous year (2009) was a full year of studying the American Civil War. The March, the first book I finished in 2010, is the final seal on that wonderful year of learning. It is the story of General Sherman’s march across Georgia and up through the Carolinas, bringing the South to its knees and ultimately an end to the Civil War. As a testament to how much I enjoyed this book, even a year after I finished it, I can still conjure in my mind, image after vivid image of the scenes that Doctorow painted. Highly recommended for anyone with even a vague interest in the Civil War or a nostalgic appreciation for Gone With The Wind.

2. The Elephant and the Flea: Reflections of a Reluctant Capitalist — Charles Handey

Rating: * * * * *

Charles Handey is a role model, an inspiration, and a man ahead of his time. In this autobiographical exploration of the future of work he makes a living case for a model that balances free agents with large corporations. We need them both in their own way. As he says on the back cover, “This is not another ‘how to start your own business’ book, but rather one man’s struggle to find meaning and fulfillment in work, latching onto elephants (big corporations) when needed, but mostly flying solo without a net.” Recommended for other aspiring free agents and reluctant capitalists.

3. Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time — Keith Ferrazzi

Rating * * * * *

This is one of the seminal books that shaped the rebirth of my career several years ago. (You can read my full review over at Rizers.) I re-read this book every couple of years and this time I tried something new. Instead of reading it alone, I lead a group through a “virtual book club.” Since Never Eat Alone is so neatly structured with 31 short chapters, almost a dozen of us read a chapter a day for each of the 31 days in January. Concurrently, I posted discussion questions in a private LinkedIn group and we actively discussed, debated, and digested Ferazzi’s ideas. It was great fun and great learning. Look forward to more virtual book clubs in 2011.

4. Your Next Move: The Leader’s Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions — Michael Watkins

Rating: * * * * *

This book is a perfect follow up to Watkins’ previous gem, The First 90 Days. Your Next Move offers a very good framework for the different environments in which a new leader might find himself. Are you in a start-up organization? Rapid-growth? Or sustaining success? Watkins offers a wealth of information on everything from eight classic career moves to five conversations to have with your new boss.

This is an important book for any executive coach. Also critical for any ambitious professional working their way up the corporate ranks.

5. Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life — Steve Martin

Rating: * * * * *

Steve Martin is amazing. He is smart, funny (d’oh), and has my deep respect for the way he follows his passions. He has managed his career with aplomb, from stand-up comic, to actor, to writer, and now to tweeter par excellence. (He likens Twitter to old time radio in which he can tell a story to a broad audience.) Born Standing Up is a short, easy-to-read, and inspiring book. I am sure that you will be moved, as I was, by the thousands of hours he trudged through smokey clubs, polishing his act, until he found his voice and his audience found him. Persistence FTW!

6. The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership-Powered Company — Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel

Rating: * * * * *

I’d give it 10 stars if my scale went that far. The is the most valuable leadership book I’ve read in years, and one of the triple-crown of great books that I read in 2010. According to the authors’ model, there are six major “turns” in the corporate ladder. At each level of leadership, success comes from embodying the appropriate values, executing with the right skills, and managing your time appropriately for that level. Read this book if you are an aspiring corporate leader, an organizational development expert, or an executive coach.

7. Oprah, A Biography – Kitty Kelly

Rating: * * * *

Reading this book was more than a guilty pleasure. I am by no means an Oprah fan. However, Oprah is extremely successful and has been for years. This well-written and easy-to-read book gives you a peak behind the curtain. Oprah’s drive and extreme self confidence have been evident since she was a toddler. Once again, persistence FTW!

8. Blackberry: Inside the Story of Research in Motion — Rod McQueen

Rating * *

I am living in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada this year — the corporate headquarters for Research in Motion and the home of the birthplace of the BlackBerry. Understanding RIM was required reading.

9. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime — John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

Rating: * * * *

Game Change was my vacation read this summer. This page-turner helped while away the hours as I ambled across Canada from Vancouver to Toronto on the Trans Canada Railway. Game Change deserves all the accolades it has received. It is a delight to get the inside scoop on the campaigns and “the race of a lifetime.” Read this book if you’ve ever wondered how a nation-wide American political campaign really works.

10. The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger — Marc Levinson

Rating: * * * * *

I have a confession: I absolutely love logistics. If you share my fascination with the complexity of supply chains and moving stuff around the globe then you will love this book. Venkat Rao has written an excellent review of this book on his blog at Ribbonfarm.

11. Bonfire of the Vanities: A Novel – Tom Wolfe

Rating: *

Apparently this book defined a generation back in the 80′s. I understand Wall Street and the whole “greed is good” delusion. However, looking back over 20+ years and reading Bonfire of the Vanities now, I am not sure that Wolfe captured it all that well.

12. Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Need It — Marshall Goldsmith

Rating: * * *

Marshall Goldsmith is the king of executive coaches. He’s very good. I aspire to his ranks.

This is his latest book on leadership and coaching, imbued with his experience and his research. Mojo has some good ideas, particularly around owning your identity and building your reputation. While I only gave it three stars, it was good enough to make me want to read his previous book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. The best thing I learned from Mojo is that, by reading between the lines, I have all the makings of a top-notch executive coach.

Recommended if you’ve lost your Mojo, or if you’re a coach.

13: Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable – Patrick Lencioni

Rating: * * * * *

This is the second book in the leadership triple-crown that I read this year. It expanded my coaching perspective to include helping leaders build strong organizations.

In a nutshell: healthy organizations are built on a foundation of Trust. If they have trust, they are free to have healthy dialogues and, when necessary, Healthy Conflict. With healthy dialogue, everyone is heard. When everyone feels heard — even if they don’t completely agree — Commitment to a common agenda is possible.  With commitment to a common agenda people hold each other Accountable. And when peers, as well as leaders, are holding each other accountable extraordinary Results are achieved. These are the five functions of a strong organization. It is a beautiful model and a powerful lens to strengthen an organization.

14: Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Rating: * * * * *

This is the third leg of the triple-crown of great books in 2010. Jeffrey Pfeffer is my idol. He has been speaking the truth about power for decades. Unfortunately, the word “power” has negative connotations for too many people. According to Pfeffer, get over it. Power is simply the ability to influence … and influence is the way things get done. The box you occupy on the organization chart doesn’t matter near as much as your ability to influence.

The precursor, and powerful complement, to Power is Pfeffer’s previous masterpiece Managing with Power. Together they deliver a one-two punch —  understanding how power works in large organizations (Managing With Power), followed by building and maintaining personal power (Power).

I am proposing this book for a virtual book club in 2011. There are 13 great chapters. Reading and discussing one chapter per week would take us through in a calendar quarter. Let me know if you are interested in participating. In the meantime, don’t wait. Get this book and read it now!

What’s Next?

It is interesting to note that all but two of 2010′s books were on the Kindle, and now even one of those is now available on the Kindle. It’s a great way to read.

The queue for 2011 looks equally as rich as the 2010 list. I am in the final pages of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom at the moment. And the first few chapters of The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs is spurring me to think about leadership on new and different planes. Next up also includes a great biography of Winston Churchill and All The Devils Are Here by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera.


I’ve said enough. I gotta go, my Kindle is calling . . .

Top 5 Guiding Principles of 2011


01

Saturday, January 1, 2011 | 12:03 PM


I have always found myself operating from a core set of operating principles — or “first principles,” if you will. Here are my guiding principles for 2011.

1. Do the important stuff first

Where does the time go? Can it really be noon on a Sunday morning and I am still surfing aimlessly? When I sit down to a new day — or catch myself drifting throughout the day — I return to this simple mantra. What is important? What is important today? What could I be doing right now that is more important that what I am currently doing?

While this is a simplistic, and painfully obvious, personal mantra, it helps me to set priorities every moment and fend off the curse of procrastination and the demon of dilly-dallying.

2. If I want to read more, read more

I have an insatiable desire for input … but not just any input. Life is too short to spend meandering through Facebook or an endless stream of RSS feeds. What I crave most is well-thought-out, well-researched, and well-written ideas. This explains my ever-expanding reading list of books. And yet, even with an insatiable desire to digest more books, I never seem to have enough time to read. How can that be? I know I want to read more … and yet I don’t.

Funny, though, how I always seem to find time to check my Google home page, or follow the weather, or check the latest updates on Twitter. We spend time on the things we deem important. Actions speak louder than words. If reading is important to me then I intend to make it important. See #1.

3. Pay attention

Look with a photographer’s eye. As a newly reborn amateur photographer, I find that looking at the world with a photographer’s eye draws me into reality with a level of intensity that I love. With a camera nearby I am not just looking out the window, I am looking out the window to see the way that light is catching objects. I am looking for a scene or a composition that would make a great shot. As I move about my day I am not just in a room or in a public space. I am looking intensely and listening and smelling and feeling and asking myself, “what is the essence of this moment?”  And, “how could I capture it in a photo?” Living with a camera nearby is to live with a heightened sense of awareness.

4. Listen to my own voice

As far as dysfunctions go, the family of my childhood could rank up there with the best. It took my 20′s to break free of the dysfunction of my youth. In my 30′s I invested heavily to get myself on the path I wanted to follow. I did the hard work. Now is the time to trust my inner voice. I know where I want to go and I know what I want to do. There is a new brand of hard work ahead. This is my year. I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and, doggone it, people like me.

5. Relationships matter

Success is communal. Successful individuals occur only in the context of a community. And in the 21st century our communities are virtual. The good news is that with a little effort and a few tools I can build and maintain a rich web of professional relationships. As a recovering introvert™ I sometimes have to remind myself to invest the energy in strengthening and maintaining the relationships that are important to me, to my growth, and to my friends’ success.


I am not one for New Years’ resolutions, per se. (Whenever I decide to change a behavior I start that day. As mom always says, “there’s no time like the present.”) So these aren’t really “New Years’ Resolutions.” But they are the way I operate. And they reflect how I want to focus my energy for the coming year.

What are your guiding principles? I would love to hear what guides you and drives you. I will tweet the best responses.

Life is what you make it. Let’s all have a great year!


Books Are Back, Baby


04

Monday, January 4, 2010 | 7:17 PM


While there were always plenty of books in the house growing up, I was never a voracious reader. Then, somewhere after college, I got the reading bug. I devoured books — fiction, non-fiction, classics, contemporary — I read them all. I had so much lost ground to make up for. There was one year in my late twenties in which I read fifty books! While I have yet to exceed that high water mark of almost a book a week I continued to read extensively for years.

That is, until Internet came along. My pace of reading dropped to a trickle in the last few years. Between 2004 and 2008 I read less than three books per year, and one year I read only one book. Ouch!

I am proud to report that in 2009 I got my reading mojo back. I read a dozen books this year. I don’t think it is a coincidence that 2009 was also the year that I got a Kindle (even though only half of the books I read were available in Kindle format). In the age of gadgets and electronics, the Kindle has made reading fun again. After almost a decade of wandering aimlessly in the Internet wasteland of too many RSS subscriptions I have rediscovered the depth and quality of well-written books.

Here are the books I read in 2009:

With the exception of The Lost Symbol, I would highly recommend each book on the list. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Outliers. Wow! The the ideas in that book turned my head inside out. An excellent read.

I am already three-fourths of the way into two books and it is only January 04. If all goes well, 2010 promises to be a rich year for reading as well.

We Pay For What’s Important


09

Friday, October 9, 2009 | 1:01 PM


On Wednesday, in his NY Times editorial, Nicholas Kristof cited an article by the American Journal of Public Health stating that 45,000 uninsured people die annually as a consequence of not having insurance.

We accept that life is unfair, that some people will live in cramped apartments and others in sprawling mansions. But our existing insurance system is not simply inequitable but also lethal: a very recent, peer-reviewed article in the American Journal of Public Health finds that nearly 45,000 uninsured people die annually as a consequence of not having insurance. That’s one needless death every 12 minutes.

Today Paul Krugman has an editorial on the demise of American education.

[F]or the past 30 years our political scene has been dominated by the view that any and all government spending is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Education, as one of the largest components of public spending, has inevitably suffered.

Until now, the results of educational neglect have been gradual — a slow-motion erosion of America’s relative position. But things are about to get much worse, as the economic crisis — its effects exacerbated by the penny-wise, pound-foolish behavior that passes for “fiscal responsibility” in Washington — deals a severe blow to education across the board.

Krugman goes on to comment on the recent job loss numbers. Of the 273,000 jobs last month, he says, “29,000 were in state and local education, bringing the total losses in that category over the past five months to 143,000.”

These two stories bounce around my mind in the context of a renewed debate on what our next steps should be in Afghanistan and Iraq. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year on our military operations. In my personal life, when money gets tight I prioritize my spending. If it is important, I spend it. If it isn’t important, it doesn’t get funded.

By not funding health care and not funding education we are saying that these things are not important. How can that be? This is baffling to me. How can they not be important?

Silence is Golden


12

Friday, June 12, 2009 | 8:01 AM


I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

— Unknown

For the last few weeks I have been intensely focused on the launch of the web site for Rizers, my new company. I haven’t had much to add to the daily quote file. Stay tuned for the official Rizers’ announcement.

Bailouts and Begging


30

Saturday, May 30, 2009 | 8:09 AM


It is only the poor who are forbidden to beg.

— Anatole France


Klipstein’s Third Law of General Engineering


29

Friday, May 29, 2009 | 8:00 AM


Dimensions will always be expressed in the least usable term. Velocity, for example, will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.

— Applied Murphology


Running the Country III


28

Thursday, May 28, 2009 | 8:00 AM


Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.

— H. L. Menken


Running the Country II


27

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 | 8:00 AM


If I wished to put a curse on a nation, I would invoke the gods to decree that it be governed by those who consider themselves to be the only true patriots in it.

— Sydney J. Harris


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