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.”
Friday, February 12, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
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:
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 :)
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:
- Behavior is contagious
- Little changes can have very big effects
- Big things happen in a hurry
- Why do some ideas or behaviors or products start epidemics and others don’t?
- What can we do to deliberately start and control positive epidemics of our own?
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 :)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
1 down...49 to go :)
Only a few days in and I’ve made it through my first book. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell seemed (based on the back cover of course) to be an engaging read. I have heard good things about other books by him, but must confess I had never made it through one.
The book revolves around two simple questions:
Examples are pulled from a variety of places. He looks at geniuses, business tycoons, rock stars, programmers, lawyers, and pilots. The reader is taken on a journey of discovery, beyond the typical rags to riches celebration or the “it was all about how hard he worked to get there” argument and into a deeper level of analysis. What we discover is that there is one thing that virtually all impressive people have in common in one form (or more often in a multitude of forms): opportunity. There are always pivotal moments within a life that define it. A few of the examples used are Bill Gates being in one of the first schools with a certain type of computer at an early age. He was given opportunities to practice his programming skills at the age of 13, and by the time a handful of other high schools and universities in America had similar machines he had literally spent thousands of hours behind a computer learning to program. Another example was several trips that the Beatles to a small town in Germany while they were a young, struggling band. They were forced to play eight-hour sets for weeks solid. They played for almost nothing and didn’t gain much in terms of popularity, but this rigorous schedule taught them to work as a team and made each one of them into phenomenal musicians and performers. We all know what happened from there once they were literally forced to become great by an unexpected opportunity in Germany.
The author goes on to tell many similar stories, both about individual opportunities and the legacies that are left behind by cultures and people groups around the world. He examines the concept of “practical intelligence” and how deeply it is woven through our lives.
The most fascinating concept (in my opinion) that is discussed relates to class and education in our country. The reality is that a majority of children in America that come from low class families live a life containing very few of the opportunities that some of us are presented with. A group of children with IQs that were off the charts were selected at a very young age and studied in depth throughout their lives (check out the work of Lewis Terman for more – super interesting stuff). After literally a life’s work attempting to understand the consequence of “genius” upon individuals the results were surprising. There were various things used to measure success in the individuals, but in the end “success” seemed to have almost nothing to do with intelligence but everything to do with the family and culture environment that the children were raised in. The middle and upper class parents seemed to expect something different of their children. They were engaged in adult conversations, taught to ask questions and solve problems, and often emerged in a much more rigorous schedule filled with sports, music, and any host of other opportunities that the children from lower class families did not have access. Again, it seems that success can always be traced back to opportunity, which many children in our country and around the world do not have access to.
The premise really lies in the fact that there are a handful of people that are born at the right time, into the right family with the right set of circumstances around them (all of which are much more complex than simple economics), but if we as a society could identify and help to create more of those circumstantial opportunities then our society would look vastly different than it does today. Of course that premise led me to look at my own life. I feel as thought I have been given so many “golden opportunities.” I have a very rich set of circumstances, if you will. But what can I do to create similar opportunities for others? From there I thought about the team I work with every day. Is it possible that I can, in some small way, orchestrate the type of opportunities that could open a multitude of yet unimagined doors for them? How can I help them tap into the opportunities that surround them every day and make the most of the circumstances they have been given? Very challenging question…
The book revolves around two simple questions:
- Why do some people achieve so much more than others?
- Can they really lie so far outside of the ordinary
Examples are pulled from a variety of places. He looks at geniuses, business tycoons, rock stars, programmers, lawyers, and pilots. The reader is taken on a journey of discovery, beyond the typical rags to riches celebration or the “it was all about how hard he worked to get there” argument and into a deeper level of analysis. What we discover is that there is one thing that virtually all impressive people have in common in one form (or more often in a multitude of forms): opportunity. There are always pivotal moments within a life that define it. A few of the examples used are Bill Gates being in one of the first schools with a certain type of computer at an early age. He was given opportunities to practice his programming skills at the age of 13, and by the time a handful of other high schools and universities in America had similar machines he had literally spent thousands of hours behind a computer learning to program. Another example was several trips that the Beatles to a small town in Germany while they were a young, struggling band. They were forced to play eight-hour sets for weeks solid. They played for almost nothing and didn’t gain much in terms of popularity, but this rigorous schedule taught them to work as a team and made each one of them into phenomenal musicians and performers. We all know what happened from there once they were literally forced to become great by an unexpected opportunity in Germany.
The author goes on to tell many similar stories, both about individual opportunities and the legacies that are left behind by cultures and people groups around the world. He examines the concept of “practical intelligence” and how deeply it is woven through our lives.
The most fascinating concept (in my opinion) that is discussed relates to class and education in our country. The reality is that a majority of children in America that come from low class families live a life containing very few of the opportunities that some of us are presented with. A group of children with IQs that were off the charts were selected at a very young age and studied in depth throughout their lives (check out the work of Lewis Terman for more – super interesting stuff). After literally a life’s work attempting to understand the consequence of “genius” upon individuals the results were surprising. There were various things used to measure success in the individuals, but in the end “success” seemed to have almost nothing to do with intelligence but everything to do with the family and culture environment that the children were raised in. The middle and upper class parents seemed to expect something different of their children. They were engaged in adult conversations, taught to ask questions and solve problems, and often emerged in a much more rigorous schedule filled with sports, music, and any host of other opportunities that the children from lower class families did not have access. Again, it seems that success can always be traced back to opportunity, which many children in our country and around the world do not have access to.
The premise really lies in the fact that there are a handful of people that are born at the right time, into the right family with the right set of circumstances around them (all of which are much more complex than simple economics), but if we as a society could identify and help to create more of those circumstantial opportunities then our society would look vastly different than it does today. Of course that premise led me to look at my own life. I feel as thought I have been given so many “golden opportunities.” I have a very rich set of circumstances, if you will. But what can I do to create similar opportunities for others? From there I thought about the team I work with every day. Is it possible that I can, in some small way, orchestrate the type of opportunities that could open a multitude of yet unimagined doors for them? How can I help them tap into the opportunities that surround them every day and make the most of the circumstances they have been given? Very challenging question…
Saturday, January 23, 2010
My 2010 Mission Begins...
One of the goals I set out to accomplish in 2010 was reading more. More specifically, I wanted to read more business and leadership books. I have spent the last two years toying with the idea of going back to school and the overwhelming awareness that I am not pushing myself to learn at the rate that I know I am capable of. My job teaches me immense amounts about business and leadership on a daily basis, but it seems very obvious that the people that make themselves truly great at anything are bullish in their pursuit of knowledge and understanding and push themselves miles beyond what is simply thrown at them on a daily basis. I have known since that first grand plane ride across the Pacific just over ten years ago that I wanted to be one of those people, someone that lives beyond the ordinary and accomplishes something legendary.
That being said, one of my major focuses in 2010 is going to be reading. I feel like it is a major piece that is currently missing if I am going to develop into the type of businessperson I want to become, but like any goal or “resolution” it must be both defined and specific in order to be attainable. I considered how many books I should read in 2010, what topics I should focus on, and whether I should have a specific order. Considering the laziness in this area that seems to have developed since finishing school almost three years ago, I didn’t want to be unrealistic. My initial thought was that twelve would be a good accomplishment, giving each month a specific target. I had almost settled on that goal until I read about a prominent business author and consultant that read 200 books each year over the last decade. Is it any surprise that he has accomplished fairly spectacular things in both business and in the literary world? Since 2000 this man has consumed 2000 books in their entirety. That made my goal of twelve seem a bit trivial and un-ambitious.
After a bit of thought and analyzing what I would like to learn over the course of the year I have settled on 50. That means I will need to read roughly one book each week, which, while lofty compared to my recent track record, seems attainable. Of course, it is quite likely that I will get either bored or simply pre-occupied over the next twelve months, so putting my goal in writing online and committing to updating it with each book along the way seems like an excellent step towards holding myself accountable to actually follow through with my plan.
I have outlined 20 books so far that I want to read this year, so I will begin tackling this list immediately as well as do some research into other business classics that would help build the knowledge base I am looking for. The initial list is as follows:
1. Outliers by Malcolm Galdwell
2. How to Influence by Jo Owen
3. The Partnership:A History of Goldman Sachs by Charles Ellis
4. Love Leadership by John Hope Bryant
5. Strategic Negotiation by Brian J Dietmeyer
6. Creativity Today by Ramon Vullings
7. To Big to Fail by Ramon Vullings
8. False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World by Alan Beattie
9. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Fried
10. Rework by Jason Fried
11. The Little Big Things by Tom Peters
12. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
13. The Radical Leap by Steve Farber
14. The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
15. How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey Fox
16. Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
17. The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander
18. Up the Organization by Robert Townsend
19. Viral Loop by Adam Peneberg
20. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
Wish me luck :)
That being said, one of my major focuses in 2010 is going to be reading. I feel like it is a major piece that is currently missing if I am going to develop into the type of businessperson I want to become, but like any goal or “resolution” it must be both defined and specific in order to be attainable. I considered how many books I should read in 2010, what topics I should focus on, and whether I should have a specific order. Considering the laziness in this area that seems to have developed since finishing school almost three years ago, I didn’t want to be unrealistic. My initial thought was that twelve would be a good accomplishment, giving each month a specific target. I had almost settled on that goal until I read about a prominent business author and consultant that read 200 books each year over the last decade. Is it any surprise that he has accomplished fairly spectacular things in both business and in the literary world? Since 2000 this man has consumed 2000 books in their entirety. That made my goal of twelve seem a bit trivial and un-ambitious.
After a bit of thought and analyzing what I would like to learn over the course of the year I have settled on 50. That means I will need to read roughly one book each week, which, while lofty compared to my recent track record, seems attainable. Of course, it is quite likely that I will get either bored or simply pre-occupied over the next twelve months, so putting my goal in writing online and committing to updating it with each book along the way seems like an excellent step towards holding myself accountable to actually follow through with my plan.
I have outlined 20 books so far that I want to read this year, so I will begin tackling this list immediately as well as do some research into other business classics that would help build the knowledge base I am looking for. The initial list is as follows:
1. Outliers by Malcolm Galdwell
2. How to Influence by Jo Owen
3. The Partnership:A History of Goldman Sachs by Charles Ellis
4. Love Leadership by John Hope Bryant
5. Strategic Negotiation by Brian J Dietmeyer
6. Creativity Today by Ramon Vullings
7. To Big to Fail by Ramon Vullings
8. False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World by Alan Beattie
9. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Fried
10. Rework by Jason Fried
11. The Little Big Things by Tom Peters
12. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
13. The Radical Leap by Steve Farber
14. The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
15. How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey Fox
16. Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
17. The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander
18. Up the Organization by Robert Townsend
19. Viral Loop by Adam Peneberg
20. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
Wish me luck :)
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