Leadership Books

A few months ago, I was asked to take on a position at work that involved managing a group of about 35-40 people. I blame this new job for my lack of blogging. It has been extremely taxing on me personally and professionally.

When I first took the job, I began to devour books on leadership and management, trying to find good models I could emulate. Some of my favorites were:

Influencer by Joseph Grenny, et al
Lincoln on Leadership by Donal Phillips
Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, et al
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Slack by Tom DeMarco
The Goal by Eli Goldratt
It's Not Luck by Eli Goldratt
Critical Chain by Eli Goldratt
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath

The Art of War isn't really a book about leadership; it's about military strategy, but a lot of businesspeople have applied it to the business world in recent decades. I'd rather not do that. But still, it was an enlightening book.

Of all the things I learned from those books, I think the most important one is the critical importance of trust. Before taking this new job and the reading binge above, I had read Steven M.R. Covey's The Speed of Trust, which I highly recommend. In my business, we try to develop long-term relationships with customers. When trust is established, it's easy to keep business going. Without it, we just look like another expensive vendor. Cold calls and responses to open solicitations rarely lead to contracts, but when a customer trusts us, money shows up sometimes without our even asking.

I think there are three elements of trust. In order for someone to really trust us, they have to trust:

1. Our word,
2. Our intent, and
3. Our skills.

In order to achieve #1, we have to demonstrate integrity continually. A single deception can wipe out trust very quickly. In order to achieve #3, we should demonstrate excellence in all we do. We don't have to be perfect; we just have to do the best we know how to do in every situation. It's so easy to slack off, but that destroys peoples' trust that we are competent to do the job.

For #2, intent, I think we need to dig deep and discover what's really important to us. If people think we're only out for ourselves, they won't trust that we'll have their best interests at heart. Whether they are customers, employees, vendors, or whoever, we have to demonstrate that our philosophy puts people first. We should also be looking out for ourselves, but if we can put our customers' interests on a level with our own, I think that comes across in our words and actions without our even trying. You can hide your true intent for a little while, but eventually it comes out, so working to build others' trust in our intent takes a bit of soul searching on our part.

Recently, because of the stress of my new job, I did a little searching and found a couple books about work habits and finding satisfaction in our careers. Those books are:

So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport
The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

I liked them both a LOT! Here's a summary of each:

So Good They Can't Ignore You

The first book I mentioned starts off by debunking the myth that you can find happiness if you just center your career around your passion. Personally, I think that's a good place to start, but you also have to consider what people will pay you for. If you're not able to earn a living, it's possible that you aren't adding a lot of value to others. Regardless, it's hard to build a career without income. He discusses many examples from people he interviewed and studies that others have done to illustrate the dangers of what he calls 'The Passion Hypothesis'.

The author then considers what makes for a satisfying career if passion is not the answer. Some things he comes up with include 'creativity', 'impact', and 'control'. The last of those comes to those who become so good at what they do that they can buy their way into the kind of situation they want - where they're too good to be let go. He also discusses the importance of associating your career with a mission that you find meaningful.

One of the cool things I got from the book, among many, is one man's method of managing his time commitments. On page 89 of the book, we see Mike Jackson's work-hour allocation including 7.5 hours for email, 4 hours for lunch breaks, 1.5 hours for planning/organizing, etc. He identifies those things he can't do much about and then lists the things he does that can vary dramatically in terms of the time he allocates to them. Each week, he tracks his time so he can use that feedback to modify his plans and work toward goals regarding where he focuses his time and energy.

One of the sections of the book is entitled 'Turn Down a Promotion'. It focuses on the importance of control in your career, but it reminded me of The Peter Principle. It also made me think about my own professional situation. I've enjoyed many of the aspects of my new job as a manager. I feel I've made a positive impact on our group and I think I've helped build our business. I enjoy leadership, creating a shared vision, strategic thinking and planning, and interacting with customers and employees. I don't enjoy the managerial minutiae, suboptimal processes or absence of useful processes and tools, and I hate politics. It may be that I'm misplaced right now, but I think I still have value to offer and maybe I'll take the author's advice and turn down the promotion I accepted previously.

The One Thing

This is one of the best books I've ever read. The author's premise is that there is one thing you can do right now that will make all of your other tasks either easier or less important. Finding that ONE THING takes some work, but when you do, focus your energies on that and exclude all distractions. He recommends allocating half of your day (at least four hours in a working day) to your ONE thing.

He discusses some myths including the effectiveness of multitasking. I loved that part. Spreading your focus across a dozen different things usually means you're doing a dozen things really badly. Other myths include the idea that 'everything is equally important', 'willpower is always available when you need it', and 'a balanced life is the goal'. The last one seems confusing on the surface, but his point is that you often have to swing far out of balance in work and personal life with the idea that you'll swing back. Trying to perpetually balance involves seeking something that is impossible to maintain. So, sprint when you need to, but take breaks when you need to too.

By asking the question 'What's the ONE THING I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?', we can work to find the most important thing among our many tasks or focus areas. He discusses in some detail how we can use this question and variants of it to identify long term strategies and short term goals.

He also discusses the importance of purpose. It sounded a lot like the previous book's focus on mission. While most of us seem to seek happiness as the highest good in life, many of us have a hard time finding it. He shares an ancient tale of a beggar who shows a king a bowl that sucks up everything you put in it. The bowl, he says, represents human desire. Our desires are often insatiable leading to perpetual unhappiness ... unless we change our focus. He comments that happiness happens on the way to fulfillment. And he claims that financially wealthy people are those who have enough money coming in without having to work to finance their purpose in life. And so, according to Keller, in order to be financially wealthy (secure, satisfied, fulfilled), you must have a purpose. Otherwise, whatever you acquire just goes in that beggar's bowl and leaves you unsatisfied.

There are lots of other good ideas in the book, but one last, practical one I'll share has to do with planning. The first priority is to plan your time off, your vacations for the year. Second, you block off time to work on your ONE THING. Third, you block off time to do regular planning and goal setting. He also discusses planning daily rejuvenation activities including:

1. Meditate and pray for spiritual energy.
2. Eat right, exercise, and sleep sufficiently for physical energy.
3. Hug, kiss, and laugh with loved ones for emotional energy.
4. Set goals, plan, and calendar for mental energy.
5. Time block your ONE Thing for business energy.

Coming from a guy who helped build the Keller-Williams realty empire, and knowing that he used the concept of 'The One Thing' in building his business, makes me want to pay attention to the author's ideas. He speaks practically and cogently and although I checked this book out of the library, I think this is one I need to own. I need to review it again ... and again. It's that powerful for me.