The Trust Edge

I am thinking about writing a book called the 2 minute solution (or perhaps the 3 minute solution). Fill it with habits that take 2 minutes. Suggest people adopt only a few. So I am experimenting with some. For example, I never shower (and I like to shower daily) without doing 2 minutes of hard exercise first. This can be pushups (and I am sore after doing only 100 pushups for 3 days), lunges, squats, squat jumps(if I have no weights), or run 1/3 mile. I am not sure why but I am finding even that simple habit to be daunting.

Another 2 minute idea - write a list of what I am grateful for (and I know that would take way more than 2 minutes but ...).

Still thinking about it and for that matter I need to decide if writing a book is my best use of time. To a large extent, writing has been commodicized (and worse, some writers even make up words like commodicized). And I am too much of a business person to not look at where the value choke points are. I also do not want to contribute to the "noise" if I am not adding enough value.

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I am sure it will surprise everyone that I read a book.

The book was "The Trust Edge - How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships and a Stronger Bottom Line" by David Horsager. I love the way the full titles of books these days describe the book. "Trust, not money, is the currency of business and life".

The gist of the message is leaders need trust and there is a lack of trust in the world today. Horsager cites numerous examples of low trust and explains the damage that causes. He also describes the value of having high trust. He goes on to explain how to gain trust.

I know that with trust, leaders can do great things and with low trust, nothing happens.

He talks about the 8 pillars of Trust. One I particularly liked was 3 - Character - People notice those who do what is right over what is easy.

There are sections in the book that echo those found in most self help books (like my Time Management book). It even has a section on time management and how to handle email more efficiently. He includes what he calls magnetic traits with corresponding repellant traits. Things like Grateful vs Thankless, Good Listener vs Talker, Optimistic vs Pessimistic, Honest/real vs Exaggerating. I can identify with each trait. I do not see them as black and white, rather they are all on a continuum.

I loved the many quotes throughout. Gives me many more to tweet. There was even another quote for me about habits by Charles Noble "First we make our habits, then our habits make us.

The book is well researched with 13 pages of footnotes.

Merry Christmas to all.

Why People Fail

Today will be a great day. I am already feeling productive. Ran 5 miles. Read a book. Life is good.

Part of what added to my productivity this morning was planning ahead(said redundantly for emphasis). I planned last night what I was going to do today. I even had my running clothes set out. Makes it all happen seamlessly.

I worry a bit that I am a busyholic. I always seem to be swamped. I know that it is my choosng though so I must like it like this.

The book I read was Why People Fail - The 16 Obstacles to Success and How You Can Overcome Them by Simon Reynolds. I normally like reading about success although I do always say Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap.

I loved the book. It starts with a chapter "Unclear Purpose". It is so obvious - the main cause of failure is not lack of clarity. "Vagueness leads to failure". The chapter goes on with concrete examples of how you can set your purpose. It even suggests setting a purpose for the week. For me, purpose comes before goals. The book tends to lump them together.

There is a good chapter on low productivity and what to do about it (perhaps a trick like planning ahead might work).

And one of my favourites - Daily Rituals (or habits). Something that I have blogged a lot about.

I guess if I have any beef with the book, it is the negativity of the title. It really is a success book.

Just Tidbits and Links

I notice there is talk of a total cell phone ban while driving including handsfree and with a headset. I have mixed feelings. I am such a productivity person that it would make car time even less productive. Not sure how much safer it would make things (although I hate unsafe drivers too). I do think it will drive voice technology (voice dialing).

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Hatsize (one of my investments) is giving away a free Cloud Automation Guide.

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Honestlynow (one of my investments) now has no password required. Will be interesting to see how that impacts the numbers.

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My brother Glen published his solar results on his blog (supporting another investment Estill Energy).

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Karma411 (you get the idea - another investment) got good mention in an article on crowd sourcing.

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I was interviewed by Collaborative Innovation.

Reviving Work Ethic

I read a short book - Reviving Work Ethic - A Leaders Guide to Ending Entitlement and Restoring Pride in the Emerging Workforce by Eric Chester.

Sometimes I like short books as they suit my short attention span.

I love the topic. One of my strengths and one of the things that I attribute my business success to is my high work ethic. I have often wondered why I am so driven. Interestingly, the people I seemed to attract in business also had tremendous work ethic. EMJ and SYNNEX were high work ethic companies.

For me, work ethic is about hours and time but equally importantly about focus and productivity with that time.

I was correctly "called out" for a previous post that implied that young people feel entitled and are not willing to do the work to get the reward. There is a perhaps a part of us that wants to think "when we were young, we worked all the time and walked uphill both ways to school - not like the young kids today".

I do know that work ethic is partly tied to energy. And as people age, their energy decreases. I wrote a guest post on "Ways to keep your work ethic".

I know my work ethic is less now than when I was in my 20s. I am wondering if I need to change my list of strengths and remove that one (by choice). I ask myself if I really want to be the hardest working. It has been a competitive advantage but...

Reviving work ethic talks about 4 quadrants of workers - the Idle, the Lucky, the Cheating and the Valued. (Sad that 3 of the 4 quadrants seem negative).

Chester then writes about how to move employees to the Valued quadrant by techniques like find your style, develop trust, value tact and timing, tell stories and cast a vision.

It is a good and thought provoking book.

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I wrote a post on Market Research on CMA Blog.

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I have long known that email is a productivity tool but also a huge time suck. A multi billion dollar French company - Atos is doing away with email! Banning it. And they are a tech company. Will be an interesting experiment.

I have blogged previously on How to Deal with Email Volume.

I would worry that they would become insular without it.

Eat More Kale

I love early mornings. There are so many things I like to do (work out, journal, occasionally blog) and I seem to be more productive then. The problem is I also like late nights and the two do not mix well.

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I believe in protecting intellectual property. I encourage all my companies to have good processes in place to keep things a trade secret or patent them. I also believe in having a brain though. Chick-fil-A is suing a tee shirt producer who is making tee shirts that say "Eat More Kale" saying it confuses people with their slogan "Eat Mor Chikin". I suspect they are losing tons of business. I know I always confuse kale with chicken.

I am wondering if there is a course they can take on common sense and perhaps spelling while they are at it.

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Speaking of courses, Execusense has a course for CEOs on iPad tricks and tips that I might do Friday.

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Speaking of kale, the garden continues to produce even though it is almost December! Carrots, parsley, squash and leeks are all still great.

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I notice that Linkedin has gone viral (or perhaps I have reached the tipping point for me where the network effect has kicked in). I get 3-5 or even more invitations to connect daily. The interesting thing is I thought it already was viral.

I read a Carmine Gallo book - "The Power of foursquare - 7 innovative ways to get your customers to check in wherever they are". I liked his book on Steve Jobs Presentation secrets. I like this one even more.

I often try new technologies. Some I stick with and others I drop as "not for me". Foursquare is one I dropped. Perhaps I am not the right demographic. I thought it would not go. So much for predicting the future.

The Power of foursquare explains the success of foursquare - 0 to 10,000,000 users in 2 years.

Gallo creates an acroymn - CHECKIN to explain how companies should connect with with people where they are:

Connect your brand
Harness new fans
Engage your followers
Create rewards
Knock out the competitors
Incentives your customers (seems a bit of repeat of create rewards)
Never stop entertaining

Gallo explains each step with interesting case studies. I particularly liked the case study about a nonprofit that raised $50,000 using a "check-in" campaign. I have an interest in social media for fundraising since one of my investments - Karma411 does this.

Good book. Worth the read.

Best Business Book to Buy this year

My grandson, Josh, is doing great. No longer premature. Growing.

Photo of Joshua and his beautiful aunt Laura.

I do have some concern that he might be trying to hone in on my business deals though. Perhaps it is the way he dresses.

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My current pet peeve is technology that does not add value. My current frustration is logging into a wireless network in an airport lounge. Why should it take 3 minutes? Why is it locked - do people try to use it instead of the free service the airport provides?

And how about a motion sensor tap that almost never responds unless you wave your hands under it an stand on your head (which is likely a good yoga move - so perhaps they do it so people get more exercise).

Technology application should enhance - not detract. It is an embarrassment to the tech community when it is poorly applied.


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I really enjoyed Steve Job's autobiography. It is my pick of the best business book to buy. I suggest it should be required reading for anyone in business, technology, or just anybody. It is well written and captivating(reads like a good novel). And from what I know - mostly accurate.

I have thought about writing a long blog entry on my experiences with Jobs and Apple through the years.

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I posted an article on "Why companies should not do B rounds" on the Canrock blog. I am sure it is sufficiently controversial to stir some comment (or flaming).

Speaking of controversy, there is a great Video on Occupy Wallstreet that is worth watching.

Philadelphia Marathon Weekend 2011

I ran a half marathon(21.1 Km) in Philadelphia today. It was a good day.

The race started at 7. Sunrise was 6:50.

I used a new anti chafe cream that worked great. No chafing which is good.

I like the race culture and the people who race. Good camaraderie. I arrived at the starting corrals at about 6 - about a mile walk from the hotel. There was already quite a crowd.

It was in the low 50s (and a bit windy) so I was wearing a sweatshirt over my singlet and had a space blanket to wrap in. It was the one I used was the one I was given at the finish of Boston 2005 which I considered to be lucky. I left it at the start (but got a new Philly one at the end so am break even on the space blankets for the weekend).

There were 25,000 runners.

The race countdown started at 6:59:50. At 7, I started to walk/run. It took 6 minutes to get to the start line.

After less than half a mile, I was warm so shed my sweatshirt (they collect the clothes for charity). The runners were thick so running was tough. The crowded running continued for the full race.

It was an easy downhill for the first couple of miles but I was feeling heavy and not running fast.

It was feeling warm despite the temperature only raising to the mid 50s (13 degrees C). So dumped the water from the water stop on my head.

The course was supposed to be flat but trust me, it was hilly after the first 2 miles. Bridges are aggressive hills.

Mile 3 and 4 clicked by. Still not easy. I was thrilled to miss the 5 mile marker. Was thinking mile 5 was long but the mile marker was 6!

By mile 7, I was thrilled to be over half. And resigned to just finish. No personal records. Just plod.

I sometimes count steps but know when I reach that point that I have issues. I run about 500 steps per mile. By mile 10, I was counting.

In the end, my slowest half ever at 2:03:47. 9:28 pace which seems way slow. Still hit the top half for age but disappointing. Need to train harder.

My goal is always to be in good enough shape to run a half (and have to train for a full). I think I need to change this to run a half in a certain time.

I have run about a dozen half marathons and 6 marathons (so technically, 24 half marathons). Thinking about my future runs and racing.

Speed Reading, Steve Jobs etc

The garden continues to be prolific (despite snow a couple of weeks ago). The carrots could not be sweeter. Leeks are great. Parsley has even come back strong.

The picture of an orange (I did not grow that), an Apple (also did not grow it) and a tiny but cute pumpkin(that I did grow).

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A friend recently suggested that we have a reading speed contest. Upon reflection, I am not sure I read that fast (although I am a big fan of Speed Reading). What I do well is filter. So if a book (or article)is well organized or if I can organize it, I can pull out the key points quickly.

Why don't I think I read particularly fast? I am reading Steve Job's biography which I find compelling and interesting (and largely accurate from what I know). But the reading is slow. The reason could be partly that I am savouring it but it is partly because of the nature of it. I am not trying to glean knowledge, mostly it is for interest. And as I read it, I am aware that I do not read as much for interest as I once did (although I still love my business books and find them interesting - just in a different way).

And in reality, it may not be about reading speed but reading well.

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My book is out. Ok - not my book but I did contribute a chapter to James Bowen's book - Entrepreneurial Effect - stories by entrepreneurs in the Waterloo region. I look forward to reading the full book.

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I have always been a fan of failure as in the fail forward type of failure. My Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap is often quoted.

There is a good article in Forbes on how to turn failure into success.

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I wrote a blog post on the Canrock blog on why VCs do not sign NDAs.

Act Like You Mean Business Review

A book review: "I'm Helping Build a Cathedral"

I read an entertaining and useful book over the weekend on communicating - Act like You Mean Business - Essential Communication Lessons from Stage and Screen by Rob Biensenbach.

The author is an actor turned communications strategist. Where these two roads of his life intersect, he's written a book in which he creatively applies techniques from the theater to communicating off stage. As one might expect from a communications strategist, Rob's writing is very well organized and clear. Every three chapters he includes a numbered list of “X Ways to do Y” or “Seven super-hidden secrets about using comedy that the comedians won't tell you (unless you ask),” for example.

Probably most valuable are the anecdotes he brings from his careers in acting and PR: they captivate your attention in while you’re reading them, they demonstrate his points (i.e. “Show—don’t tell”), and they’re memorable.

My favorite anecdote comes from a section titled: “Don’t Settle for Rock Breakers.” It demonstrates how better communication can inspire and drive your workforce.

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Back at the PR firm, we used to tell this story when talking about the employee communications practice:

A man walks pas a construction site and sees three people doing the same job. He asks each of them what they're doing.

"I'm breaking rocks," said the first.

"I'm earning a living," said the second.

The third one replied, "I'm helping build a cathedral."

That story has become a bit of chestnut (believe me, back in the day it was groundbreaking stuff), but more than anything else—more than diagrams and flow charts and bullet points—it captures the power of internal communications to transform organizations.

Cathedral builders are always going to be more engaged, more effective, more valuable than rock breakers.

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As leaders—and each of us are—we need to know our own passions and those of our audience (i.e. coworkers), so we can summon them to action for cathedral-like causes. Reading this book made me realize there are many things I don’t know about my coworkers that would help me be a better communicator. Some of the questions the author suggests the reader asks themselves and others are: Who are your heros and why? Where does your job fit in the big picture? What makes you proud?

The book is full of thought-provoking questions and useful advice that ranged from specific—such as a reference to a software program (Bullfighter) that identifies and removes useless corporate jargon from typed documents—to big picture—how to create a cathedral builder. After reading the book, I added at least 7 items to my to do list on ways to improve my companies websites and relationships within the firm. But back to the story—

Why are stories so effective in communicating? Rob cites an interesting scientific study by Kendall Haven as “evidence that our brains are hardwired for stories.”

"The steady diet of stories that children experience modifies the brain to render it more predisposed to think in story terms" (Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story)

This got me thinking…if I read my newest grandson Time Leadership every night for the next few years, will it modify his brain to think of time in 25-minute blocks?

The Power of LEO and BEG for Candy

I read a great book with an acronym in the title. The Power of LEO - The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results by Subir Chowdhury.

From the publishers web site:

L is for Listen. Observe and Understand – To obtain a deep understanding of the issue at hand, assumptions must be put aside and interaction with all relevant parties – including customers, suppliers, and employees – is critical. “You must get up close and personal and go to the source,” explains Chowdhury. That could be the factory floor, a call center, or a customer’s home. And listening is not only about asking questions, but about observing — whether that means watching a worker perform a task or a customer use a product.

E is for Engage. Explore (JE - I prefer to call this explore) and Discover – Once the real nature of the problem is uncovered, the next phase is about searching for the best solution. Chowdhury advocates a special type of brainstorming session that encourages people to relax and try to come up with numerous ideas, no matter how far-fetched they may seem. An informal environment where every idea receives a full and respectful hearing is key. “To get the most out of the Enrich process, you need to embrace change and the idea that what you have now, and what you have done up to this point, simply isn’t good enough,” the author writes.

O is for Optimize - Improve and Perfect – During this phase, participants review the solutions that have already been proposed. They look for flaws and find ways to improve the solutions, making them even more effective. This is a step that some organizations think they can skip. But it is essential, because good-enough no longer works, contends Chowdhury. Everyone needs to strive for the highest quality possible. “If you want to turn out the kind of products or services that will truly delight your customers and attract new ones, you need to keep raising the bar on quality,” he writes. Once the Optimize stage is complete, and only then, can the solutions be implemented."

The book is full of examples which as I noted in other reviews keeps things interesting.

I liked the final chapter that talks about continuous improvement in general and how it not only applies to companies - it applies to individuals. This is one concept that I totally buy in to.
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So I was inspired to do my own acronym for Halloween Candy control - BEG.

Halloween - a time for discipline (and tricks). I tend to eat healthy food because that is what is in the house. But for Halloween the kids would not particularly like health food and the Health Bars I got were actually Heath Bars (the wonders of speed reading) and they are addictive.

B is for Brush. So the trick I do is to brush my teeth. When I have done that, I tend not to eat candy (at least for a while)

E is for Equivalents - I also calculate equivalents. 1 small bar (70 calories) is .7 miles or 5 minutes of hard running or 10 minutes of walking. Not a big deal - just need to schedule 2 hours of extra exercise to eat the number I am tempted to eat.

G is for Give Away. And then of course give all the surplus candy away fast.

For health - BEG for Halloween Candy.

Now the question - should I turn it into a book?

The Performance Pipeline

Beautiful day here. It was snowing late last night when I was on a short run. And some of it stayed. Snow in New England and area made the news primarily because 2.3 million people are without power.

I was a bit surprised by the snow. It is still quite warm. Still have to harvest carrots, leeks and squash.

Today I did a longer run but inside on a treadmill. Thinking I am getting soft.

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I read "The Performance Pipeline - Getting the Right Performance at Every Level of Leadership" by Stephen Drotter.

I had read and reviewed his previous book - "The Leadership Pipeline - How to build a Leadership Powered Company"

As you can deduce from the titles, Drotter feels that almost everyone in a company should be a leader.

The introduction "Dealing with pervasive uncertainty" talks about all the unknowns of the current situation. Although I feel these uncertainties, there is a part in everyone that wants to think that the current time has greater uncertainty than others. I have found we always feel that way though.

He talks about not only having good leadership skills but applying them properly for optimum performance.

Of course he also touches on succession planning. This is the key role for any board. Also key for any organization to have long term staying ability.

Performance Pipeline draws on decades of experience and research so has many interesting stories. The best learning is often gained through stories (and they keep it interesting).

This is an HR book of sorts. There is a great list of interview questions in the appendix. I always find it easiest to pick questions from such a list.

Good book - too much to summarize. Best to just read it.

Now off to read another book.

Something Ventured

Random tidbits:

There is starting to be a chill in the air but the beans continue to yield well. The growing season in Long Island is at least a month longer than Guelph.

I did not interview for Brainlogic that ended up on Collaborative Innovation.

I have been sore from added weight lifting. Good sore and self inflicted in any event so tough to complain. I am actually thankful that I am able work out.

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Wednesday night I attended a Cinemonde screening of "Something Ventured - Risk, Reward, and the Original Venture Capitalists" (not to be confused by the autobiography on CM Woodhouse called Something Ventured)

It is a great documentary film. Particularly captivating to me since I knew some of the players and knew of all of the companies.

It told of the early days of Kliener Perkins and the funding of Steve Jobs - including interviews with some people who turned him down because he was "arrogant, hippy and smelled bad". At one point, 33% of Apple could have been bought for $50,000.

It included stories of the founding of Cisco (and the firing of the founder by the VC), Atari, Genentech, Tandem, Intel and others.

I found the film inspirational since what I now do is early stage venture funding.

I was struck by the fairly long timeframes for success. Most "overnight successes" took 25 years.

The Compound Effect

I love Malcolm Gladwell and think he is one of the great thinkers of out time. I like his book "Blink". It talks about the power of the unconscious mind and how we make snap decisions and conclusions and usually they are right.

There is another great thinker, Daniel Kahneman, who wrote an outstanding article in the NY times that challenges Blink.

In the article he talks about the stock picker and fund managers and the people that manage them. How they are paid huge bonuses, thinking they are contributing when in reality, their results are actually random. This is a phenomenon I call "when you think you are brilliant in the stock market, then stop investing in the stock market".

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I read a great book by Darren Hardy called The Compound Effect.

Hardy is a motivational speaker in the Tony Robbins style of motivation (Robbins even wrote a special introduction for The Compound Effect). I sometimes find their motivational style to be off putting (too rah rah and too much "I grew up eating dirt and now own 100 ferraris and you can too"). But there is great validity in the simple underlying message.

Life and success happen over the long term. And small changes daily determine long term success. Small good things now create big good things later (and small bad things create large bad things later).

He talks about the microwave mentality of instant success. Clearly people want it instantly but this is just not the way success happens.

Like Aristotle said "We are what we repeatedly do".

I have often talked about success habits and the book inspired me to look again at my habits.

I have often called this compounding effect momentum. He even has a chapter titled "momentum". The more success you have, the easier it is to get things done and have more success. I have been fortunate to have had success early in life and that good fortune continues to follow me.

Breaking the Fear Barrier

Beautiful weekend in Long Island this weekend. Cool and perfect for running.

Apparently the weather in Toronto was a bit nasty for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. People have a very small range that they are comfortable. But there is no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.

I love CBC but they blew it on the live coverage that they promised. Just did not happen.

I was inspired by Fauja Singh who finished the marathon is 8 hours. He is 100. I best get training now if I am going to beat that. I smiled when I heard that he said "it was one of my lifetime goals".

And following from World Business Forum, Jill Hart posted an article on "Great hiring decisions" on her blog at Brain Logic.

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Occupy Wall Street is on my mind. I am glad it has been peaceful so far.

People are afraid. The problem with fear is it is not actionable. There is nothing you can do with. To harness it requires thought and energy that most people simply do not have since the fear itself saps energy and creativity.

It is a mature person who can sit back and formulate a plan for positively harnessing fear. For me, the first step would be to manage the stress that fear causes.

I am proud to have been a CEO (I even call this blog CEO blog) and now the world seems to be vilifying CEOs. I agree with some of the views put forward (many CEOs are outrageously overpaid). I do not think all CEOs are bad or have bad motives though.

I read a good book on fear in companies - Breaking the Fear Barrier - How Fear Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What To Do About It by Tom Rieger. Not sure I like such a negative title.

It talks about the causes and damage that fear cause and what to do about it.

According to Rieger fear stems from bureaucracy:

Parochialism - The tendency to force others to view the world from only one view.

Territorialism - Hoarding and micromanaging. In short, not being a team player.

Empire Building - which is self evident.

And fear can be overcome by overcoming those 3 factors and:

Building Courage Enablers (and making sure there are not courage stoppers)

It then goes on to talk about the Leadership Imperative and the Fearless Company.

One great point he makes is "since fear is created internally, it can be extinguished internally".

I like to have a company that has a high tolerance for failure. I always say "fail often, fail fast, fail cheap". Companies that embrace this as a method for innovation and growth need to have people who are not living in fear.

So you Think You are an Extraordinary Leader

This is a Guest Post by Joe Folkman

So You Think You’re an Extraordinary Leader?

How good are leaders at predicting their own overall leadership effectiveness? Are they more or less accurate than other raters? At Zenger Folkman, we calculated the overall rating for 27,000 leaders. We then determined how effective a leader’s manager, peers, direct reports, others, and the leader themselves were at predicting the leader’s overall effectiveness. Our measure was the amount of variance in the overall effectiveness rating that each person could predict. The Graph below shows the results.

The leaders themselves were only able to predict about 15% of the variability. The leader’s manager was the most accurate predicting 32% followed by Direct Reports 29%, Peers 28%, and others at 25%. This is a strange phenomenon because the person with the greatest amount of information is the leader themselves. After all, they were there the whole time, they saw ever interaction, they were in every meeting and discussion shouldn’t they be a better judge?

There are a lot of dynamics in our evaluation of our strengths and weaknesses. Psychologically, a person’s ego may need protection when others don’t think that they are very effective. When people feel valued and that they are making a contribution, a person might be far more humble about their capability. To understand the phenomenon, we compared the self-rating against the average ratings from others. As can be seen from the graph below, the worst leader (as perceive by others) tended to substantially overrate their ability, while the best leaders tended to underrate their ability.

This phenomenon has been noted in other research by Dunning and Kruger, who were awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Psychology for their report, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments." Basically, these researchers found that people with poor skills consistently overrated their ability.

When we are lost, a GPS can guide us to our desired location. In order to provide an accurate prediction of our current location, GPS needs signals from multiple satellites—at minimum, four separate satellites. In order for an individual to get an accurate reading of their effectiveness as a leader it also requires feedback from four different kinds of raters.

1. Managers: Our managers are the best predictors of our promotion potential.

2. Peers: Our peers help us to understand how we interact with other groups across the organization

3. Direct Reports: Our direct reports know us well and see us in both good and bad situations. The direct reports provide the best prediction of how well we can lead and manager a team.

4. Others: Feedback from others is also very helpful to give us insight into our interactions with other group.

Great leaders are constantly looking for an accurate measure of their current location. Feedback from others is critical. Occasionally doing an anonymous evaluation of our leadership capabilities is needed to fine tune our true location.

Joe Folkman

Joe Folkman is the co-founder and President of Zenger Folkman, a leadership development firm focused on building strengths of individuals, teams, and organizations. Joe is a co-author of the recent Harvard Business Review article “Making Yourself Indispensable.” To learn more leadership tips from Joe, subscribe to his leadership blog or follow him on Twitter: @zengerfolkman.

Kruger, Justin; David Dunning (1999). "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (6): 1121–34. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121. PMID 10626367

Gary Hamel - The Future of Management

Still reporting from #WBF11. The sessions are awesome and inspirational.

I had lunch with the people putting on C2-MTL, a creativity conference being held in Montreal in May of next year. Their program looks great. Cohosted with Circ du soleil so should be inspirational. Hopefully they will ask me to join them as either a blogger or presenter.

Listening to Gary Hamel - visiting professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School. Wall St journal calls him "world's most influential business thinker". Some quotes:

"deep change takes a crisis" (Seems to me this often happens in personal health situations)
"think like an engineer, feel like an artist"
"less than 25% of the CEOs said they were happy with their innovation pipeline - and they are benchmarking against lackluster peers"
"When you limit an individual's autonomy, you also limit their passion" (As a CEO, I tried very hard to give my people autonomy - perhaps that is why we were successful. And perhaps if you ask my people, they would say I should have tried harder to give them autonomy (I became better over time))
"it is not that work sucks it is that management blows"
"Only 14% of the staff are highly engaged, 62% moderately and 24% disengaged" (Which confirms what I already knew. The key to business success is greater staff engagement)


Solution:

Rethink first principles. Answer the question "What is the ideology of management". We need to think more autonomy than control of staff.

"We have a hard time thinking of a world without bureaucracy"

He is an inspirational, energetic speaker. (I notice a theme. Great speakers are energetic)

Tamara Erickson - Managing Across Generations

Still live at #WBF11. The speaker now is Tamara Erickson who is speaking about what happens at different ages.

The 11-15 year old time period tends to influence the lifetime. We are influenced by the news, our parents, our national context, our religion etc. Because we share the same national/news context then people of the same age share a lot of commonality.

EG - people born from 1928-1945 saw the birthing of suburbs, increased availability of consumer goods, new technology. Exciting times (except for the start of the cold war) Their common characteristics is they are joiners, loyal to institutions and respect hierarchy and rules. They respect positional authority.

Next - the boomers. 1946-1960. They saw Vietnam, civil rights, womans lib, assassinations of Kennedy and King, protests. Watergate and Nixons' resignation. I am wondering if my Canadian experience differs much from the US experience she is speak of. They want to make a difference, they do not want to join. They worry that they will lose their spot if they slow down. Hard working/driven - staying on top of their game. Idealistic.

Gen X - 1961-1979 Troubled economy, layoffs, rising divorce rates, CNN and electronic games. The first Gulf war. Challenger blew up - a symbol of an institution that let people down. Less loyalty by companies - you are fired, not just laid off to be the first called back. Many women entering the workforce so latch key kids. Their conclusion was "look after yourself". They like to feel that they have options "I am doing this today but...". Parenting has everything to do with helping "my child".

Gen Y - 1980-1995. Terrorism, Columbine. They see the world as unpredictable. This has not scared them - they want to live in the now. Shaped by digital technology - unconsciously competent. More spiritual. Family centric - they love their parents. They trust authority. This can conflict with "Success from delayed gratification"

Understanding generational difference can help to understand other peoples' view.

I love the topic. Thought provoking.

America Needs More Jobs

I am saddened by the death of my friend Steve Jobs.

Perhaps not a friend but a business acquaintance. I met him several times and traded calls and emails over the years.

EMJ (My Canadian technology distribution company) and later SYNNEX sold hundreds of millions of dollars of Apple products. We first signed Apple in the early 1990s when "Apple was going bankrupt". It turned out to be a good decision.

It was before Apple had the iPhone and even before the iPod. I got involved with RIM after signing Apple. It was not until much later that the two companies started to overlap.

Jobs was an icon. He was a legend.

His innovation shaped the technology business.

We need more of his type of innovation and innovative thinking.

He left a mark on the world.



His innovation

The Art of Possibility

Benjamin Zander - The conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra did more than speak. He sang and played the piano. He is hugely high energy and hugely positive. It drives home to me that energy and positivity are part of success.

His topic was the Art of Possibility(the title of her book). I previously reviewed it. Had I heard him before I read it, I suspect I would have been more effusive.

He spoke of giving students an A at the first of their class then ask them to live up to it.

"The secret of life is it is all invented" referring to how we create our life in our mind. And we control our mind. It is not what happens to us, it is how we view it. He advocates having a perfect life.

It is tough to write how energetic and inspirational Zander is. He uses music (and I always say I am not musical - but I can always change my mind - what is the point of having a mind if you cannot change it). If you ever have the opportunity to hear him - go.

And remember rule #6 - Don't take yourself too seriously. (there are no other rules)

Lunch with Malcolm Gladwell #WBF11

I attended a small lunch with Malcolm Gladwell. The focus was Canada.

What does Malcolm have in common with Einstein?

I bet you said the hair but no, it is the genius. He is truly genius. His simple clarity is inspiring.

He has been thinking of "what is the advantage of being marginal" (meaning not the number one player, or leader etc). There are many advantages:

1 - The ability or privilege to observe and learn.
2 - Being non-threatening (this is why there are disproportionately more Canadian comedians (or Jewish, gay, indian or some other minority) - they are just not threatening.

The converse of that is "Leader pressure" which comes with high obligation.

He spoke of the health of countries. This can be measured by the distance between the 80th percentile and the 20th. As the distance gets larger (as it has in Canada), society becomes unstable. There is less common ground. I am part of the privileged top 20 but strongly agree that this is a problem. The riots in London and the protests on Wall St are worrisome.

He also says it harms innovation. This may be true but I challenge him to think that perhaps the ability of people to change their wealth might be the driver of innovation. So the American dream (Start with nothing and end up rich) would drive innovation.

He explained the reason Canadians' tend to have a larger view of the world than Americans. "You simply cannot fill 30 minutes with Canadian news so they fill it with international news".

And the reason advertisements are quirkier in Canada is the population is smaller (and the ad budgets) so there can be more "in" jokes.

When asked about "Blackberry's demise" by one of the audience, he replied "it is not patriotic not to have a Blackberry. Blackberry is way more efficient for email and for many people, this is what they need." So true -I agree with him.

#WBF11 Gary Burnison - Korn Ferry and Angela Ahrendts - Burberry

The next speaker was Gary Burnison from Korn Ferry. I did not recognize the name although I certainly knew the company. Burnison was a great speaker. I guess that should not surprise me - most CEOs are. (One suggestion I have for any aspiring leader is to join Toastmasters)

I think part of the reason he is a good speaker is he uses stories.

"Ceo is in the what business and the how business...but now it is much more about the people business".

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Angela Ahrendts CEO of Burberry. Burberry is a leading UK consumer brand of clothing, handbags etc. $2.5B in revenue. It is the 4th fastest growing global brand (although I am sure that will increase when people read this blog entry)

She moved Burberry from a struggling company that was known for trench coats to a highly successful mid/highend brand.

She did that by pushing innovation. She hired a Chief Creative Officer to vision where the company should go.

The Chief Technology Officer has mission to get the word out. Of course they have done this through social media. "more people come to our internet site than to any of our stores". Burberry has more facebook fans than any other global brand. They have even launched products solely through social media.

She wants her people to "not do it for me, not do it for you - do it for the brand".

"Dreams are your most exciting thoughts, your future life in 3D, and by envisioning in your mind you are creating your life roadmap"

"Lead with intuition. Intuition fosters creativity"

Howard Shultz - Starbucks at #WBF11

Howard Shultz from Starbucks spoke. No one can deny that Starbucks has built a great company. I wonder if selling an addictive product helps?

"To exceed customer expectations starts with exceeding expectations of the staff first". People need believe in the leaders of their companies first.

He spoke about the truisms of social media. First establish relationships then you can sell to them - but only a bit. One of my views in social media - try to add value first. Good way to act in life. Add value.

I do not drink coffee so have less appreciation for Starbucks than many people. I do drink tea but find I can boil water about as well as anyone else (and for good tea, the water needs to be boiling). As a frugal guy, I only pay for tea when I feel a need from convenience (I am not near home) or I want the experience (meeting with someone or doing email).

I was impressed that Shultz was brave enough to get political. I do not do politics and in the US particularly, being political will alienate half of the populace. According to Shultz, he became overtly political after the debt ceiling crisis. "All political decisions today are made looking towards the election".

"Leadership is about courage."

#WBF11 Blogging Live from World Business Forum

The day is starting off with "True Leadership & Purpose". Tough topic not to like.

First speakers are Bill George, Malcolm Gladwell and Tal Ben-Shahar. All authors that I like.

"We cannot build our own spirit without building that of others" Bill Clinton

"Learn from great people but do not emulate them. Be yourself. Be authentic." Bill George (author of Authentic Leadership)

From Malcom Gladwell, I learned that I am "profoundly happy". He spoke about entrepreneurs being "Profoundly happy, work harder and longer than most people and they take enormous social risk." "The do not care what people think of them" (JE but I still hope you like me). "We are hard wired to want to be liked." "Entrepreneurs tend to take no operational risks but huge social risks (not caring what people say about him". "Teen agers take large operational risks (do dangerous things) but take no social risks"

Tal Ben-Shahar spoke about the science of Well Being. Positive psychology suggest we focus on what is going well compared to much examination which focuses on what is going poorly.

The key is to ask the right questions. Traditional psychology asks "Why do people fail". Positive psychology suggests we should ask "What makes some people succeed despite unfavorable circumstances". This is because resilience is one of the great keys to success.

"Focus on your strengths for success". Focus on assets - not liabilities.

"Questions create reality." We see what we look for.

"People who write down 5 things you are grateful for each day, you are healthier and happier. When you appreciate the good, the good appreciates"

Goof Off - The Miracle Remover

I saw a product - Goof Off - The Miracle Remover. It is interesting because goofing off can definitely remove miracles. I find the less I goof off, the more miracles happen.














And speaking of miracles, the garden (what is left from the hurricane) continues to do well. Tomatoes that were not damaged are almost done. Only problem is they attract fruit flies. Now I need to figure out how to get rid of fruit flies.

Carrots are awesome - huge and sweet.

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Interesting article on Women Lead Startups have less Failures.

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And an article on America's most inventive cities.

The Diversity Index review

I read an interesting book by Susan Reed called The Diversity Index - The alarming Truth About Diverstity in Corporate America ... and What Can Be Done About it.

The book is full of statistics about how many women and different races are employed in various places and how that has changed over the years. I assume similar stats apply to Canada.I wish it also had statistics comparing the demographics in general to the overall statistics.

I know where I grew up in small town Ontario, Canada, there was very little racial diversity (unless you count Italian, Scottish, Irish etc) , so it would not be reasonable to have a lot of racial diversity in most of the businesses. (of course not true of gender diversity, since half of the people were women)

I like to think of myself as gender/race blind. By this I mean that I simply want to have the best person for the position, regardless of the race or gender.

There is an uncomfortable catch 22 happening though. I was asked to join a board several months ago. I decided not to (at least not at that time) due to time constraints. I had been made more aware of the lack of women on corporate boards so thought I would suggest some woman to them. I reached out to my network to see who might be appropriate and found few women with enough similar background to mine that I could put forward. So should the company hire a woman with less experience and a weaker background? Tough question.

I think the best way to solve this catch 22 is through entrepreneurship. When you run a business, you are dependent on no one else to hire or evaluate you. It is unlikely that I would have been the CEO of a $2 Billion business had I not started and grown my own business.

This is where it's tough because governments like to bring in quotas and introduce bureaucracy. It's tough to legislate against bias though.

I do not think it would feel very good for someone to get a position just because of a quota system. In my own case, I am a member of Golden Seeds, and would hate to think that I was a member just to make up a male quota of that group. (Golden Seeds invests only in female entrepreneurs)

I think businesses will change when they recognize that they get more value by having diversity. One part of wisdom and maturity is learning from people with different views and backgrounds. We all tend to like and value people who are more similar to ourselves, and part of the reason we are the way we are is because we value the traits that we have. But for success, we need to be challenged.

The book starts discussing The Plan for Progress, which was the plan introduced in the 60s. It shows how companies that adopted a Plan for Progress ended up with more diversity in their companies. It ends ends with a new Plan for Progress, which has the following steps that successful companies followed:

1. They developed a core mantra that fused their diversity goals and ethical principles with their business strategy. Leaders articulated this vision in every internal speech and company communication. They demonstrated congruence.

2. They created a secure, reliable feedback system through which employees from all over the world could communicate safely and directly to a company executive, expressing their concerns over how they were being treated by other members of the company.

3. They provided diversity training to employees and fostered a culture of learning.

4. They administered 360-degree performance measurements to managers in which they were evaluated by subordinates, peers and superiors. Managers' pay was partly determined by how they were rated and how they developed diverse employees.

5. They cultivated and harvested new talent. They offered summer internship and contributed to funds that enabled underprivileged students to go to college. They widened their talent harvest to historically black and women's colleges.

6. They developed, supported, and funded extensive affinity groups. They made it mandatory for managers and officers to be involved in these groups.

7. Companies invested in local communities to improve public school education and opportunities.

8. Executives promoted women and people of color, as well as employees with an international perspective, thereby demonstrating their commitment to the core diversity mantra.

9. Chief executives opened themselves to negative feedback about what was not working by holding regular meetings with managers and employees.

10. They never stopped trying new ideas to foster integration because they realized that companies are highly changing environments.

I think it is also great for minority groups to help themselves within the group. There is a natural affinity to like people who are in the same group and it makes logical sense to help each other.

Interestingly we recently had diversity training at Canrock Ventures. And what came out of it was we needed to have social get togethers Friday afternoon. Not sure how that was arrived at...

Discover Your CEO Brand - book review

I have been thinking a lot lately about my brand - specifically, my CEO brand. I developed it over a 30 year period during which I was much younger and less experienced. Some parts of my brand may not serve me as well as they once did. Partly due to circumstance, location, age, and what I want to do and be.

My brand includes things like highly creative (from a business view), high work ethic, time management guru, reader/constant learner, passionate about self development and maximizing people to be the best they can be, health guy, tech nerd, investor, social media expert etc.

So of course I turned to a book. Discover Your CEO Brand - Secrets to Embracing and Maximizing Your Unique Value as a Leader by Suzanne Bates. She is a best selling author of Speak Like a CEO so must spend a lot of time studying CEOs.

I was surprised there was a big enough market for CEO Branding but it really is about leadership branding in general so the potential audience is much larger.

"Your Brand is in essence your reputation. It is not who you are, it is what others believe you are".

The book cites many examples of great CEO Brands. Using real life examples helps with the impact.

It has a number of exercises to help discover your brand.

It also has a number of possible brands you can add to your list. The one I loved and can identify with and think all CEOs need on their list is Healthy Leader Brand. She is referring to physical health so eating right and exercise although she also has one for emotional health too.

There is a chapter on Social Media and Brand. It does tackle the tough question any leader needs to ask - value vs time trade off. It could have touched more on efficiency (how to get the value without the time) but that is not the purpose of the chapter.

The book is scattered throughout with great business quotes which of course I love. One of them by an acquaintance of mine - Jeff Bezos - founder of Amazon:

"A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well"

When I read a book, I always like to ask before reading "what do I hope to get from this book?" In this case, I wanted more clarity into what my brand should be. The book helped although like Bezos says now I need to "do hard things well" myself. The book can inspire though and help with some tools but now I have to do it.

I enjoyed the book.

The Progress Principle - Particles move faster than the speed of light

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken. It is interesting that scientists seem to have broken the speed of light throwing into question the basic laws of physics. Thinking they will take my engineering degree back(although I have not done any real engineering for years anyways).

So is that progress?

Speaking of progress, I read a book - The Progress Principle - Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement and Creativity at Work by Thereas Amabile and Steven Kramer.

The problem I see with creativity is it is subtle. I consider myself to be highly creative (not in the artistic way, in the business way) but even I cannot say "have a creative idea". And increasing creativity is tough to measure. For example, this morning I feel 80% inspired?

The Progress Principle talks about 3 interrelated components that can be built to increase creativity - Perceptions/Thoughts, Perceptions/Feelings and Motivations/Drive. They have compelling research on the connection between mood and creativity or progress.

One principle the book pushes that I totally believe in in momentum. Small wins lead to big wins. Small inspiration leads to big inspiration.

They also advocate keeping a journal as a way to inspire progress. I have done this on and off for years. The trade off for me is the 20 minutes to journal which means I lose 20 minutes vs the increased productivity that I get due to the focus that keeping a journal causes. There is a good short section on "guidelines for daily journaling" that is worth reading.

I have long thought about having the appropriate culture that celebrates failure (I always say "Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap")


This is a well researched book (16 pages of citations, 20 pages on their research methods).

Good book. It inspires me which means I will be more creative today, get more progress and therefore, it has served its purpose.

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Part of my success has been in identifying and capitalizing on trends. One trend I see is greater movement to video on the internet increasing in importance. Partly because Google says it is so they rank video high in search results. Partly because bandwidth is high and pervasive. And partly because such a high number of people are video learners.

I also think video can be a "lazy" thing for people to do.

Canrock Ventures invested in American Health Journal, a video site with hundreds of high quality videos on health issues from alcohol addiction to allergies to Liver Cancer etc. It is not the sort of site that people would go to unless they have an issue. So search is the way to do it. Tough to make it go viral.

It's Not About You

I am just back from travel. I stayed in a Delta Hotel. Delta is a midsize middle to high end Canadian hotel chain. The missed on 2 counts this time. There was no regular tea in the room. Bigger and tougher to solve, there was no easy way to plug in the iron.

The former (tea) is just poor execution and the latter (no plug) is poor planning. It takes great planning and great execution to succeed in business.

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I read a short book - "It's Not About You - A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business" by Bob Burg and David Mann. As the title suggests, it is a short book - 120 pages.

I love the title. Ties into the Humility Imperative site I spoke about earlier.

The book is written "storybook style". Not my favorite style but i do know people learn from stories. And it is cute and well written.

It tells the story Ben who learns a number of powerful business/leadership lessons:

1. Hold the Vision - clearly I agree with this one. Vision is the first step to success.

2. Build your People. Again, the only way to succeed is by leverage.

3. Do the Work. Stating the obvious. Do the work to succeed. Work ethic was one of my competitive advantages.

4. Stand for Something. And this does not mean just standing from more profit or more sales.

5. Share the Mantle. Success always involves way more than the leader despite the popular business press often trying to make a hero out of just one person.


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And of course, no post is complete without some bragging about how advanced my grandson is. He is way ahead for his age. He acts like a teenager - he sleeps all the time. Or perhaps he is acting more like an adult - he sleeps when I talk about Time Management.

The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan

One of my friends is taking on a new leadership position so my instant thought was what would be the best book for him to read. So when "The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan - How to Take Charge, Build Your team, and Get Immediate Results" came to mind.

I have long been an advocate of 90 day plans. Or really 3 month plans. 100-day is the same thing. 90 days is long enough to accomplish something but short enough to be urgent enough.

This concept is discussed in the book "You're in Charge - Now what".

I liked the table of contents. It describes each chapter well. One principle of speed reading is pre-reading and in this case, the table of contents makes a good pre-read.

I find one of the most important things for a new leader is early wins. It creates the momentum that makes others wins easier. It also helps reputation early and reputation helps future wins. I always suggest that new leaders plan no holidays for the first 90 days and that they plan on having high presence - so arrive early and leave late. Part of that speaks to good advance planning so the personal situation/living etc is all in place.

I liked to propensity for action advocated by the book - complete with lists and charts to assisting in developing the action plans.

Clearly The New Leaders 100-Day Plan is becoming a classic. The Third Edition is coming out on Oct 10th.

This is a great book that any new leader needs to read.

Unrelated, there is a post on Hiring a Good Leader that quoted me. Seems to me that hiring right is the first and most important step.