How the Mighty Fall

Surprise, surprise…I’m a little behind in my reading list ☺

My most recent read – How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins – was a quick but inspirational read. You’ve probably read some of his more popular books. Good to Great is a personal favorite of mine, but I haven’t read his old faithful, Built to Last. I actually found a copy of it at a used bookstore last weekend, so it will make its way to my list shortly, but I was excited about How the Mighty Fall because it is recent and reflects some of the challenges that have emerged in business as a result of the current economic climate.

The book is primarily a case study of a number of companies that were, at one time, considered great and powerful organizations and how a sequence of events led to their eventual demise. Big name companies are picked apart – Circuit City, Motorola, HP, Scott Paper, and Zenith, to name a few – and it is ironic to be introduced to similarities between such diverse and unique companies that brought about grave ramifications.


One piece of the book that stood out to me was the chapter that talked about denial. Collins outlined a number of characteristics that define teams that are on the way up versus teams that are on the way down. Team on the way up are honest, even when it’s uncomfortable, use high question to statement ration, challenge people to discover their own answers, gives credit to other people for their success, and argue and debate not as a way to improve their personal position but to find the best answers to further the overall cause. Team on the way down, on the other hand, shield people in power from grim fact, assert strong opinions without providing back up data, avoid critical input, shut down questions, seek credit only for themselves, and argue to look smart or to improve their own interests rather than argue to find the best answers for the team. I found application in those statements as I look at my current role with my small team and think of ways to make sure we are indeed making an upward climb as opposed to getting stuck in a downward spiral.

The final chapter of the book analyzes companies that have successfully steered their way through a season of genuine crisis and emerged into greatness again. Collins asserts that the defining factor in such climbs is leadership. “The right leaders feel a sense of urgency in good times and bad, whether facing threat or opportunity, no matter what. They’re obsessed, afflicted with a creative compulsion and inner drive for progress – burning hot coals in the stomach – that remain constant whether facing threat or not.” Makes me hope I am taking the right steps to develop such resolve in my own journey into leadership – I think I have a long way to go ☺

1000 CEOs - my next endeavor :)

It's mid-February and I am only three and a half books into my goal of fifty for the year. I like to use the excuse that I didn't start until half-way through January - but not sure that is a good enough excuse for being behind so early in the game!

I’ve already admitted that I have trouble finishing what I start – hence the reason I am forcing myself to blog as I read. It creates accountability regardless of whether or not people are actually reading what I throw up here. I just started a book that no doubt will take me quite some time to complete, but I’m particularly excited about this one. After half an hour of wandering through Borders last weekend I came across a copy of 1000 CEO’s and was immediately intrigued. The byline is ‘Proven strategies for success from the world’s smartest executives’. Since the entire purpose of this little reading mission I am on is to learn as much as possible about business this year and to push myself beyond just being “good” at what I do into the real of having the possibility to be truly “great”, it seemed like a great choice. It is made up primarily of case studies of great business leaders from both past and present and broken down into categories like innovators, motivators, rebuilders, visionaries, and a few others.



Beyond the case studies, a huge number of important topics are covered. Whether it is ‘The Diversity Dividend’, ‘The Art of Confidence’, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’, ‘Driving Efficiency’ or any other number of key topics, the same movers and shakers provide bite sized input into very massive topics. And on top of all of that, it is FULL of bright colors and pretty pictures, which always helps keep my attention!

The introduction dissects the question of what it takes to be a CEO (a topic I dare say peaks most of our interest), and he highlights a few key topics:

• Get your team right
• Find failure fast (even going so far as to say that as a CEO there should be zero-tolerance for failure)
• Align your team
• Manage global emotions
• Communicate…and communicate…and communicate
• Invest in talent management
• Stock up on your emotional intelligence
• Avoid the self-destruct button

As a side notes, did you know that as of 2009 only 12 Fortune 500 companies and 25 Fortune 1000 companies have women CEOs or presidents? Who says a glass ceiling no longer exists...



Since this massive hard-cover book that showed up in my mailbox yesterday is more than 500 pages, I dare say it will be awhile before I write any type of summary of take-away. But again, vowing that I WILL read it in its entirety means I’m committed ☺

How to Influence - not the most 'influential' read :)

It took some work, but I managed to get through How to Influence by Jo Owen. I don’t quite know how this one made it onto my reading list. Actually, I do. It was cold when I was in London last month and the magical train station I was wandering through was warm and filled with interesting stores, one of which was a great little bookstore that happened to have this little purple book in the middle of a display of business books. They were also running a “buy one get one half off” sale, and since I was already buying one book – why not!

Needless to say, this little purple book did not turn out to be the highlight of my reading list thus far. I am fascinated by the concept of influence. It goes beyond leadership and certainly beyond management into a mystical sort of area that is hard to quantify and even harder to learn or teach. Maybe I should cut the author some slack, considering what an intangible concept he was attempting to enlighten me on ☺

Throughout the book the author constantly refers to influence as a “art”, and I am prone to agree. He talks about concepts like commitment and loyalty, building trust, creating strong networks, vulnerability, generosity, the principle of partnership, and even learning to understand the various personality types that make up your team in order to connect in a way that works for them as individuals. One section that I found particularly interesting was his discussion on building credibility. It’s easy to see how important it is to build credibility with people – whether you’re talking about sales, management, or virtually any form of relationship. The part that is less easy is understanding how to build it. In its essence, credibility comes from actions as opposed to works and is built slowly and incrementally. The challenge most leaders face is the necessity of building both credibility and trust quickly. If we want to influence our people, we rarely have the luxury of waiting five years to build up a track record of success with that person in particular We have to create environments and make decisions that make credibility and trust happen in the short term as well. A few keys that are pointed out are selflessness, active listening, asking smart questions, and capitalizing on crises and conflicts.

“Influence is like air: it is both invisible and essential. As the world shifts from traditional command-and-control hierarchies to networks which depend on each other, so influence becomes ever more important.”

The Tipping Point

I enjoyed Outliers so much that I decided to knock out another Malcolm Gladwell book that was on my list. The Tipping Point is on all kinds of reading lists, and after reading it I can understand why it became such a phenomena after its release in 2000. It is all about epidemics and the small things all around us that can make a very big difference. He spends a good bit of time digging through how we define epidemics, but more importantly how they are created (or where they start).



The premise that ideas, products, and messages spread the same way viruses do forms the foundation of the book, with three theme running through it:

1. Behavior is contagious
2. Little changes can have very big effects
3. Big things happen in a hurry

All epidemics can be traced back to a ‘tipping point’ – something that pushes people over the edge and into a dramatic, new direction. But determining exactly what causes such tipping points is not as simple. Two questions lie at the core:

1. Why do some ideas or behaviors or products start epidemics and others don’t?
2. What can we do to deliberately start and control positive epidemics of our own?

He argues (rightly so, in my opinion) that social epidemics are almost always driven by the efforts of a handful of exceptional people, set apart by things like how sociable they are, how energetic, how knowledgeable, and how influential.

Context plays a huge role in the start and spread of epidemics. To illustrate this point, Gladwell takes us back to the Broken Windows Theory, which explains that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. Seemingly less consequential crimes like graffiti and broken windows create an environment of disorder, where more significant crimes flourish. These so called quality of life crimes seem to be the tipping point for violent crimes in most cities – again reminding us how much the littler things really do matter.

Once you understand that context matters – that specific and relatively small elements in the environment can serve as tipping points – our defeatism is turned upside down and we realize how much control we actually have. This leads us to believe that crime, for example, can be prevented. Your environment changes everything – your field of view, your capabilities, and your perception of what is in fact possible.

A case study on Gore & Associates (they make Gore-Tex and hundreds of other products in a multitude of industries) was particularly interesting to me. I am in the processes of seeing what other articles/books I can dig up on their organizational structure. It is an almost entirely flat organization – no titles, no chain of command, and no manufacturing facilities larger than 150 people. Bill Gore (founder) believed that people were not capable of building a sense of team and loyalty to groups larger than 150, so at that point of growth within any of his facilities they break off and form a new plant. Definitely an interesting concept that I’d love to read more about. Check out their website if you’re interested - http://www.gore.com/en_xx/aboutus/

A sentence near the end of the books seems to give a solid summary of what The Tipping Point is really all about: “What must underlie successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or belief in the face of the right kind of impetus.”

One thing I've learned about myself during this journey towards 50 books is that I am great at great at starting new books - but that does not always translate into finishing them once I start! I am currently half way through The Partnership, How to Influence, and The New Art of the Leader. Let's see which one I get through next :)