Category Archives: Book Reviews

Is it time for a Reality Check?

Posted on October 6, 2009 | Leave a comment

Ok ok… Too many book reviews! I know. Unfortunately this last book that needs to go back to the library TODAY is going to drive many many more of them. I just finished Guy Kawasaki’s Reality Check. reality-check. Full disclosure, I *love* Guy Kawasaki and I have ever since I read “The Macintosh Way” back in 1993 when I worked for IBM. My team was trying to learn how to evangelize products like the did at Apple – and Guy was the best.

He still hasn’t changed. He is funny, he uses great stories to illustrate his points, AND he brings in a lot of published experts to help him make his case. Hence my realization that I will be reading more books – many many more books. This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants to start or run a company. A bit of the content in here can be found on his blog as well as some in the presentation “The Art of the Start” which you can find on my twitter feed.

One of my favorite quotes is “If the two most popular words in your company are “partner” and “strategic,” and “partner” has become a verb, and “strategic” is used to describe decisions and activities that don’t make sense, it’s time for a reality check.” This is so true. If the partnership doesn’t enhance BOTH of your bottom lines in some way then it isn’t worth doing!

Other concepts that I have seen in real life before include:

  • For a new product – add 6 months to a year to your scheduled ship date depending on the status of your prototype.
  • For new product sales – take your “conservative” top down estimate and divide it by 100!

Yep, sounds crazy but I’ve worked for companies creating very complex new products that were well over a year late! One was a startup, one was a big company that should have known better.

I’ve also been in all hands meetings where month after month the sales pipeline looked so huge, but nothing ever managed to close. Because the sales projections were so high we all felt like a bunch of losers. It takes a lot of time to sell a new product if you are an unproven startup!

This book is great. It talks about raising money, planning and executing, innovating, marketing and much much more. I highly recommend it.

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The Inspiring Leader

Posted on October 6, 2009 | Leave a comment

Continuing on my book review binge – today I’ll talk about “The Inspiring Leader” by Zenger & Folkman. inspiring This is a followup book to their Extraordinary Leader tome that I recently read. I have to say that I was a little bit disappointed by this book. On the whole, it wasn’t bad, but it was very predictable. There was really nothing in it that made me go “AH HA! That’s the key!” I found it to all be common sense and many of the studies and literature that they referenced were things that I have already read. I do think that this book has value, especially for someone who hasn’t been in the management trenches for a long time or for someone who really isn’t big on reading management theory or self-help books in this area. It’s a good concise read that gathers a lot of loose ends together.

I do think that one thing really bears repeating. Extensive studies show that positive communication is critical to high performing teams. As in marriages, the ratio of positive comments (approval, praise, support, compliments etc) to negative ones was one of the highest predictors of success or failure for a team effort. The best performing teams received positive-negative feedback in a 5-1 ratio. The worst performing teams received 1 positive for every 3 negative comments. As a leader you have a lot of control over that. You set the stage. You are the role model that the team follows.

Have you ever worked for a leader who was critical of everything that you did? I have. That sure didn’t make me want to work harder because it really didn’t matter what I did, it was wrong, bad, not good enough. Maybe I am a little sensitive, but it made me want to curl up into a ball and go into protective/defensive mode. On the other hand, when I had a leader who recognized the difficult things that I did, or pointed out specific – very concrete – behaviors and accomplishments that they appreciated I would double my effort to help them be successful.

Another thing that I thought was valuable and too infrequently used is leader visibility. If you want to drive certain behaviors in your company you need to walk the talk and you need people to see that you do that. There should be no double standards for you versus them. Hold all hands meetings and be transparent to your employees. Allow them to interact with you and answer the tough questions honestly, don’t dance around issues. Practice management by walking around. Talk to your employees, show and interest in what they are doing, ask how they are. If your organization is divided across multiple locations – visit – FREQUENTLY. Out of sight = out of mind. A visit from a leader can have a strong positive motivational impact. Of course this depends highly on the leader’s behavior while in the remote office. Even though you are the leader, you are still a guest in that office. Show up on time based on the local conventions – do not force the entire office to bend to your whims and time frames when you are there. Be a true role model.

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What makes a company great?

Posted on October 2, 2009 | 3 Comments

My book commentary continues this week. You may be wondering what is going on with this… Well, after years of not living close to a public library I discovered one right next to my veterinarian. It’s not that convenient, but its not that far either. I picked up 5 books that I thought I could finish before their due date. It seems that I bit off a little more than I can chew, but never being one to give up – and refusing to succumb to “online renewal” I am plowing through. I am finally reading some classic business books (and some new ones too) that I just haven’t had the time for. This installment features “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. goodtogreat

This book gets my dander up for a lot of different reasons. Some are logical and some are a little irrational. My first issue with the book is that the world has changed so much since it was published. (2001) I like the concepts and all, but when I am reading about Fannie Mae, Nucor, and Wells Fargo as great companies there’s this little voice in the back of my mind saying “these guys all *screwed* up – does this research make ANY sense anymore???” Funny thing is that in the Epilogue the author addresses questions about his research. This was one of the questions – what about the companies that aren’t so great anymore? He acknowledges that it never is easy for companies to stay great and sometimes leaders let their egos get involved to cause this. I wish he would have put this in an introduction instead. That would have made reading this book a lot more pleasurable for me.

This book is also going to make me revisit my “Are you a hedgehog or a fox” post at some time. Clearly I need to do more research in this area because when it comes to leading a great company, being a hedgehog (albeit in a slightly different context than my previous post) is a GOOD thing. Companies who are singlemindedly driven toward a goal they are passionate about and that they can be the best at in the world are successful. None of that namby pamby running from idea to idea trying to jump start success happens in great companies. This hit home for me and it made me really angry. I’ve worked for those companies (more than one!) that tried to buy success in this way. What they ended up doing was frittering away millions of dollars of money that could have been used to build what they were really strong at and had people that were passionate about(and actually could be very successful selling). Instead, their leadership went on a huge ego trip and there was a flavor of the week idea that had to be implemented “now”! Talk about crazy.

The final thing that I appreciated is the concept of a Level 5 leader. We surely could use more of them running our companies in this country. Humble, modest, “we” focused, not “I” focused, has a goal of being the best, driven to succeed. This leader is not your charismatic leader. They don’t have to be. Their job isn’t to motivate their staff, but to make sure that they have the right people in the company who are willing to confront the circumstances – “the brutal facts” – and work to be successful despite of them.

“Now, you might be wondering, “How do you motivate people with brutal facts? Doesn’t motivation flow chiefly from a compelling vision?” The answer, surprisingly, is, “No.” Not because vision is unimportant, but because expending energy trying to motivate people is largely a waste of time. One of the dominant themes that runs throughout this book is that if you successfully implement its findings, you will not need to spend time and energy “motivating” people. If you have the right people on the bus, they will be self-motivated. The real question then becomes: How do you manage in such a way as not to de-motivate people? And one of the single most de-motivating actions you can take is to hold out false hopes, soon to be swept away by events.” Amen brother.

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Different Leadership Styles

Posted on September 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

I just finished the revised and expanded edition of “The Extraordinary Leader – Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders” by John Zenger & Joseph Folkman. extraordinaryleader I found it to be a very worthwhile read and enjoyed it very much. For once I’ve found a management book that really doesn’t push one leadership style or behavior over others. What they found is that there is a set of competencies that are important. However, strangely enough, no one competency is more important than any of the others. Additionally a great leader doesn’t have to be good at all of them. A good leader just has to be exceptional at a few in order to be considered great. This determination wasn’t come about through “gut feeling” or their experiences, but through a very large study.

There were a number of takeaways for me. The first is that sometimes an organization will attempt to force fit leaders into a mold. If you don’t lead a certain way, no matter how good of a leader you are, you won’t be successful there. That is really a shame. “Rigidly defined competencies also may have the unintended consequence of creating cookie-cutter people inside the organization. If the competency system was implemented, would everyone appear to be cut from the same mold? How, then, does the organization attract and retain the maverick who is so valuable in challenging the status quo? Are the wild ducks killed just after they hatch? The concern is that, over time, sameness creates a homogeneity that becomes mind-numbing, and the culture devolves into one of anti-innovation.”

One organization that was studied that allowed leaders to find their own strengths and not be forced into a mold is one that most people would not expect to exhibit those characteristics. That organization was the US Marine Corp. I was completely impressed by the ways that the Marines cultivate leadership throughout their organization. Leadership training is something that everyone receives and it is ongoing. This is not an 8 hour seminar or a one week class like the corporate world provides. “Rather than being rigid and insisting that everyone perform in a similar style or process, the Marines understand that there are many effective leadership patterns. The Marines have discovered that some of their leaders succeed because of their technical expertise. Others are powerful team builders. Still others excel in their organizational skills. Some are extraordinary in their ability to see the potential in people and their ability to bring it out. Rather than force-fit their leaders ino any one mold, those responsible for leadership development observe the natural strengths and encourage the leader to magnify that quality.”

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The Skill that Separates the Near-Great from the Great

Posted on September 21, 2009 | 2 Comments

“The ability to make a person feel that, when you’re with that person, he or she is the most important (and the only) person in the room is that skill that separates the great from the near-great.” from What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall GoldsmithWhatGotYouHere_100

I have to say that this quote is what really made an impression on me in this book. I can see so many applications of this in my day to day life – both at work and in my personal life. For the curious – the workplace habit to break in this instance is Habit #16 – Not Listening.

I think that many people are attentive only when they think it is in their best interest. Who wouldn’t pay close attention to the CEO or to a key interviewer? The power of a conversational partner will make a lot of people turn up their skills a notch. I think what is really impressive is when someone does that regardless of who they are talking to. This is clearly a way to make everyone, from a receptionist, to a new hire, to a difficult customer feel valued and respected.

A key aspect of this skill is the ability to focus and really hear what a person is saying. This includes both verbal and non-verbal communication. Sometimes reading the non-verbal is much more important because it will provide clues to what the person is really thinking.

This level of focus can be very difficult. Most of us have a running dialogue in our heads – formulating what our response will be. Many times we are concentrating so hard on what we should say next that we stop listening to the other person. Other times we are worried about something else entirely and we just want the conversation to end quickly. I don’t know about you, but I can tell if someone is not really listening to me. It doesn’t encourage me to continue sharing information.

The next time you’re talking to someone try this. Ask a question – and really listen to their answer. It might surprise you. Stay engaged.

On the whole – I enjoyed this book. I was surprised by how much the author suggested that to become more successful as a leader that you need to talk less and listen more. I tend to agree.

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Knowledge Management

Posted on January 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

This weekend I finally got around to reading a book that I have been meaning to spend some time with for a while now. It is “Knowledge Management” by Carl Frappaolo. knowledgemanagement
This book can pretty easily be digested in an afternoon and it presents the reader with an overview of knowledge management concepts and some interesting case studies. Additionally different types of technology that foster knowledge exchange are considered and the use of web based portals for accessing information is discussed.

The most fascinating aspect of this book to me was related to how culture (corporate as well as geographic) drives the attitudes of the individuals involved in sharing information and knowledge. Subtle management behavior and attitudes can foster knowledge transfer or it can create a competitive environment in which knowledge is hoarded.

If you are looking for an in-depth guide to applying knowledge management to your organization I would not recommend this book. However, if you are interested in becoming conversant in the topic and are looking for a starting point to learn more this is a good book.

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Mustang Sally

Posted on November 16, 2008 | Leave a comment

On the flight to California to pump myself up for the IGDA conference I reread one of my favorite books:

Mustang Sallies by Fawn P Germer (you can buy it on Amazon)

mustangThis is especially a great book for women who have always been told that they are too opinionated or  too abrasive or maybe too aggressive. It has some really great interviews with some very influential women. These women share their stories about reaching high level leadership positions in politics, Fortune 500 companies etc.

I guess the thing that really stood out for me is this:

Hold out your arms parallel to the ground, outstretched about 4′ apart. This is range of acceptable behavior for men in business.  This ranges from shedding a tear when times are tough to being a screaming asshole.

Hold your hands about 6″ apart. that is the range of acceptable behavior for women in business. Go outside of that and you’re either labeled weak or you are labeled a bitch.

Generally I think that this is true. Well, at least it has been for me in my career at times. I hope that times are changing.  I have to say that the folks who have come out of college in the last 10 years seem to be a whole lot more enlightened. This makes me really happy.  I just want to be myself.

Another key point which I have heard made over and over again is that women have to support each other as they progress. What is it with the cat fighting ladies?  It isn’t helping things.  It keeps both parties from really being successful.  In some ways I am really happy that I work in a male dominated industry.  This doesn’t mean that I haven’t run across these women. I surely have. What it does mean is that most of the women that I run across are used to dealing with men, and I believe that is the reason they actually treat each other better and with more respect. This isn’t a dump on men – not at all – it is a statement on treating everyone fairly and generally equally. Women in a man’s world tend to be a bit better at doing that.

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