In our most recent leadership discussion, we continue the conversation around the difference between perfectionist leaders and imperfectly excellent leaders through the lens of how they lead their teams. An aspect of leading with imperfect excellence is focusing on both the outcomes and the process by which the outcomes are achieved. A book that we frequently refer to is, What the CEO wants you to know: How your company really works by Ram Charan. All businesses fundamentally work the same, so it is important that leaders truly understand some of the common business principles Ram Charan lays out in this book. Our favorite parts of the book are chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 speaks to understanding the whole business and how all the moving parts work together. By including some basic questions to guide the business leader through, the chapter helps the leader understand how well the business is really working. Chapter 5 is a favorite because it addresses that in this new reality, it is about priorities necessary to cut through the complexity to focus on the things that really matter. It means, by definition, that the business leader must say “no” to something in order to say “yes” to the priorities that matter most. Click here to read more. Enjoy the book!
A little over four years ago, we wrote a short piece about citizenship and made our recommended reading at that time to be the U. S. Constitution. It gets thrown around in conversations rather loosely and it is apparent that many have not read it either at all or in the last ten years. As we approach another highly contested political climate, the term “rights” is getting thrown around quite liberally by all sides of the political discourse. With that in mind, we are recommending this month’s reading of the Bill of Rights, also known as the first ten amendments to the constitution. We said it then and we’ll repeat it here, leaders read ! Regardless of where you land in the debate, be there because you read the source material and are informed rather than merely repeating what someone else said or wrote! Click here to be informed. Lead Well!!
Still More Revelations for Making Leadership a Way of Life Every five years since we started RPC Leadership Associates, Inc, we’ve published a collection of our most popular articles along with several never before published articles. These quick reads are geared towards helping leaders become the most effective leaders they can be through the lens of individual leadership, leader relationships and organizational leadership. Our third installment, “ Here’s What I’m Sayin’: Still More Revelations for Making Leadership a Way of Life” is now available on Amazon here. What makes this edition special is that we had a lot more to choose from because of the pandemic. During that time, we doubled down on our writing to help inspire and support those leaders who were navigating unfamiliar territory. It was actually harder this time to pare down to the most popular articles to make way for four new, never before published articles in support of leaders in their own unique leadership journeys. Order a copy for yourself or maybe you know a leader who may benefit from a gift of leadership insights that can support their success! Lead Well and Enjoy the Book!
This month, we highlight the value of tactical communications in the planning process around goals, metrics and desired results. With the focus on knowledge-based decision-making, we also highlight a book that has helped us become more comfortable with communicating numbers as leaders. In, “ Making Numbers Count ”, Chip Heath and Karla Starr outline a process that helps leaders not only understand the numbers, but more importantly communicate the numbers in a way that resonates with the audience both logically and emotionally! Our favorite section of the book is titled “Use Emotional Numbers ~ Surprising and Meaningful ~ To Move People to Think and Act Differently”. It is a powerful set of ideas in short and easy-to- understand chapters that help the reader quickly understand the authors’ idea. The authors use plenty of examples that also aid in the reader grasping the main idea in a way that also makes it easy to apply to their business. For instance, in the chapter on comparatives, the authors suggest instead of saying “Their center is 7’8” tall”, use the phase, “Their center is 2 inches taller than Yao Ming”. These types of examples are peppered throughout the book to make it easy to understand and apply! Enjoy the Book!
This month, we tackled the issue of burnout from an organizational point of view. We know the modern workforce is drawn to organizations with a clearly defined purpose and have a strong foundation of values. We talked specifically about one of the causes of burnout is lack of purpose or meaning. Last year, friend and fellow business coach Alan Kovitz published, “A Book of Values” outlining 52 distinct values for leaders to reflect on. As I read the book through the lens of this month’s topic, my favorite values are Fairness and Wellness. Fairness in the sense of leveraging the uniqueness and individual differences in the organization to the greater good of the team. Wellness in the sense of ensuring self-care of an organization’s most valuable resources, again to the greater good of the team! Click here to get your copy! Enjoy the Book!
..The Impact of Effective Communications on Sustainable Success This month, we are proud to announce our 7th book is now available on Amazon! As we navigated the pandemic and continue to support leaders across all business model and industries, we realized that effective communication continues to be a common challenge to leaders at all levels. Thus, “Finding the Missing Piece, The Impact of Effective Communications on Sustainable Success” was born. The book addresses key issues at all three levels of leadership we previously outlined in our “Missing Piece” series of books previous published for Entrepreneurs, Non-Profit Leaders, and Corporate Leaders. The book continues to leverage the Business Alignment Maturity Model to ensure that effective communications not only occur at each level of leadership while also aligning throughout the organization from Vision to Desired Results and embedded in the organizational culture! Enjoy the Book ! Lead Well!
During these uncertain times when many are in some degree of self-isolation and working remotely, it makes sense that there might be some time to catch up on reading. One of the leadership challenges we see, especially in an election year as we are in now, is the level of citizenship demonstrated across the landscape in the United States. When we speak of leadership, we often speak of the ground rules of effective leadership. As we’ve spoken often, “Leaders read!” When we speak of citizenship, the same idea applies. It is those ground rules that are behind our recommendation for what to read this month. If you have not yet read, or recently read, the Constitution of the United States, this may be a great time to begin. Click here to begin reading! Lead Well!
This month we focused our discussion on strategic leadership and the key skills necessary to effectively lead a 21st Century organization. Given that organizational leadership is a team sport, it is only fitting that we highlight a new book by Gordy Curphy, Dianne Nilsen and Robert Hogan, “ Ignition , A Guide to Building High Performance Teams” The authors set out to create a very practical book to help teams develop regardless of the type of team they are. The book aligns nicely to their research-based Team Assessment Survey as well as the Rocket Model which I use specifically in both my business and leadership coaching as well as my graduate teaching of MBA students. My favorite chapter is Chapter 10 where the authors spend an entire chapter specifically talking about C-Suite Teams. These are the top leadership teams in any business, for-profit or non-profit who essentially guide the strategic direction of the business. It is the team that likely has the highest collection of egos, experience and alpha personality. The authors do a great job of addressing these and other issues such that any team can benefit from a greater sense of self awareness and practical ideas on how to become high performing teams! Enjoy the Book!
With a theme of adaptability in this month’s post, it is only fitting to review this author’s latest book. I’ve reviewed Dr. Max McKeown’s books before and his latest does not disappoint. “The Innovator’s Book – Rules for Rebels, Mavericks and Innovators” is unique in that is does not at all read like your typical business book. Yet it is the kind of book that with few words gets one thinking about how they are thinking about and implementing their strategies for sustainable success. My favorite page in the entire book is titled “What you know can hurt you” When I read it, it struck me how tritely we use phrases like “continuous learning” and “we need to innovate” without really understand what we are asking ourselves to do. With that, I listed most of the page below to give an idea of how the book is set up to generate new thought: “If you think you know something then it is hard to be open to learning. But the problem is that eventually what you know may be wrong, old-fashioned, outdated, unhelpful and finally dangerous. People can attack new ideas just because they are new. And defend old ideas because they are familiar. Saying you are always right can stop anyone telling you when you are wrong. Infallibility is an error. Better to ask stupid questions and keep learning than stop learning and stay stupid.” There is more to the page, but you get the idea! Enjoy the Book!