Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton

I recently read a book by Rebecca Shambaugh entitled "Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton".

For those of you who know me well, you know that I don't do politics. This is actually one of my Time Management tips because I have saved days or even weeks over the past number of years by not getting actively involved in politics.

I do this not only as a time management technique. I do this because I am likely going to annoy or irritate half of the population. This would alienate half of my customers, half of my suppliers, and half of my staff.

Perhaps it is a good thing that I have a healthy skepticism of all parties. I will also say that I am quite discouraged by special interest groups always lobbying to try and help themselves and not necessarily the greater good.

This being said, I still believe we can learn from everyone. And Hillary Clinton is clearly a great leader. What I like about this book is that it is not about Hillary Clinton's politics, but rather what leadership techniques we can learn from her.

The books chapters are divided into 7 different topics:

1) Being resilient
2) Being a continuous learner
3) Being "adaptively" authentic
4) Embracing change
5) Being connected
6) Being a great communicator
7) Having resilience and purpose (reminds me of Adversity Quotient, a book that teaches us how to improve our ability to thrive under or through adversity)

Each chapter expands on each topic. For instance, the 5 secrets of resiliency

1) Understand yourself
2) Control your immediate response and make a plan
3) Embrace change
4) Be courageous
5) Never give up!

Also, at the end of each chapter here is a questionnaire or self-survey to help bring home the points n the chapter. This helps to challenge what you think.

From an article Shambaugh wrote on Hillary:

"We all get discouraged at some point in our lives. We reach a point when we wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just give up. We begin to doubt our own abilities and lose faith in others. The "thrill of victory" is no longer so sweet, and the "agony of defeat" doesn't seem so bad. Our energy is drained, and we've stopped having fun. This is when you need to dig deep inside yourself and find that well of determination and inner strength that will help you face your fears, counter the ensuing complacency, and keep you committed to reaching your goals.

Having this sheer determination is one of Hillary's keys to success. Never being a quitter was wired into her DNA early on and was reinforced while she was still in college. When she first arrived at Wellesley, she struggled academically. She called her parents, hoping that they would tell her to come home. She told them that she didn't feel that she was bright enough or up for the academic challenge. Dorothy Rodham, her mother, told her that she had not raised a quitter and that dropping out of Wellesley would be a catastrophic mistake. Hillary stayed in school and, with her incredible work ethic, keen organizational skills, and sheer determination, stayed on top of her grades. In fact, she gained enough confidence in her scholastic abilities to take on political leadership roles and was elected president of the Young Republicans. Pretty impressive for someone who wanted to drop out of school! "

I most liked the last point in the book on leading a purpose, which is to "start now". The message is about the choices we have in life. We all make choices everyday, so make the right choices, and start now!

Time Management Articles

Noticed a good article on 10 Pitfalls to avoid in Time Management on a Time Management Software blog by my friend Alex Revai.

I have been adding to my "recent article" section on my resources part of my blog. Lots of time management and leadership articles and more to come. Mostly just collecting those that I have already written into one place (how's that for time management).

One thing I love about the internet is there is never a shortage of material or ideas on a topic. Google Time Management or Time Management Articles and you can waste a lot of time reading.

Success Made Simple

I read a fantastic book called "Success Made Simple an Inside Look at Why Amish businesses thrive" On the book jacket it says "discover why Amish businesses have a 95% success rate." Impressive.

It is written by Erik Wesner who spent an intensive period of time in the Amish community even though he is not Amish himself. He started by trying to sell them books which he did with some success.

I always had a bit of childhood fascination with Mennonites who lived nearby as I was growing up. They are similar in many ways to the Amish. They dress in black, drive horse and carriages, don't believe in cars or electricity and generally live life more like the turn of the 1900's than today.

I learned that the Amish are opposed to automation because they place such a high priority on family and they think things like cars would allow people to travel too far away from family.

The Amish success in my opinion is built on their great work ethic. In general I've seen most highly successful businesses, are lead by leadership with great work ethic. And work ethic permeates the culture. I often like hiring people that grew up on farms because the know how to work.

The Amish are highly religious. Because of that they can be quite calm in times of high stress. They turn there problems over to God rather than becoming twisted up inside.

There is an limit on Amish entrepreneurs because the church and the community frowns upon growing too fast and too big. guess as in any entrepreneurs' situation, entrepreneurs need to be there own people and recognize the peer pressure just is.

In one sense I thought the Amish would have many disadvantages because of their lack of automation, however in business they are not opposed to using equipment and computers. I think being Amish has some advantages though too such as: work ethic, community, and even the Amish name which is quite well respected.

It's an interesting book that gave me some fascinating insights into the Amish people and although it's interesting I don't think I will become one.

Alec's Run VI

No business lesson here so just skip it. This is just a race story.

As the title suggests, I ran a 4 mile race today. Beautiful weather for it. About 60 degrees at the 9:30 start. 40% humidity which is nice and low. Sunny so it did heat up a bit.

It was a chip timed race but there was not mat at the start - only the end. So I started near the front of the pack so I would not lose time crossing the start line. I was passed often in the first mile even though I ran a 6:48. I knew that was too fast although at some time I have dreamed of keeping a 7:00 pace for all 4 miles.

The second mile melted easily although there was some up hill. I skipped the water stop knowing I could run 4 miles without water easily.

The third mile was tough and I lost time. While running I was kicking myself for doing 30 minutes of weights (including legs of course) before the race. Should have saved my energy.

The fourth mile was easier although you could see the finish about half a mile out and that is way to far to sprint. I always like to give a little kick at the end but usually only for the last 100 yards.

The course was mostly flat. It started and ended at the same place more or less but it still seemed to have more uphill than down. Amazing how that happens.

In the end, my time was 29:36 or 7:24 per mile which beat my 30 minute goal. I always set 3 goals and 30 was my top goal. Time to move it down.

Great run. Well organized. Glad I did it.

Exceptional Service - Exceptional Profit

Exceptional Service Exceptional Profit - The Secrets of Building a Five-star Customer Service Organization is a book by Leonardo Inghiller and Micah Solomon.

When I first picked up the book I was some what skeptical. I am a big believer in customer service I also believe customer service can be over done. What I have found is consumers are frequently driven to the lowest price yet expect five star service to go along with the lowest price. I know this is not the case in all businesses but in many businesses it is the case.

In some cases, superior services clearly does cost more to deliver.

One phrase caught my eye. Keep a firm eye on lily gilding. This comes from a Shakespeare phrase, the "lily gilding" means overdoing something that's already perfect. In customer interactions, it often takes the form of fancying up your offerings beyond what the customers are interested in. Lily gilding has both obvious and hidden costs, including excess features that can make your offering less attractive by complicating it for customers or that imply to customers that they're paying for something they don't need.

As an aside, I often find people who write tend to lily guild.

Value is relative. Customers often judge your value relatively. That is, they judge each interaction with your company against their previous interactions with you-and with your competitors.

To make sure you understand the competitive expectations of your customers, shop the competition-your best competition. Don't let resentment lead you to dismiss a competitor's innovations. Think rationally about whether there is value there that you could make use of for your own customers.

Pricing is part of the value proposition. Not everybody values money the same. If value was all about low pricing, there would be no space for retailers like Nordstrom; everybody would be shopping at Wal-Mart. A reliable equation is "Value=Personal Benefit-Cost and Inconvenience." Therefore, in product and service design, it helps to focus on the personal benefit you provide for customers in return for the price you charge.

A loyal customer is the least price-sensitive customer of all. So think "what can we do to create loyalty".

One great quote was "Don't charge a customer for performing the Heimlich". A touchstone in pricing is that your charges should demonstrate that you care about the customer. Among other things, this means you should never surprise your customers with charges they wouldn't commonly expect. Avoid nickel and diming customers.

Internet for Nonprofits Management

I read a book for Internet for Nonprofits Management-Strategies, Tools & Trade Secrets. So why would I be reading a book about Nonprofits? One of my claims to fame was having 99 consecutive quarters of profit before we sold to Synnex but I suppose it's not about that type of nonprofit.

The book is edited by Philip Geier who is a friend of mine and one of the articles is written by people involved to with Karma411 -John Murcot, Mark Fasciano and Russell Artzt.

The article they wrote was called Social Collaboration and Productivity- How web 2.0 tools help raise funds and awareness more efficiently. And of course I am a big believer in social media and the tools of web 2.0 so I enjoyed the chapter.

As the title implies, the chapter was all about the electronic tools and social media that can be used to help in fund raising efforts.

There was a discussion of project management tools like Computer Associates Clarity, Base camp, Wikis etc. There was also a discussion of real time collaboration tools like Voip, Skype and Goggle Wave.

The chapter not only discusses the tools but used real life example of how those tools were used.

It seems logical to me that nonprofit fund raisers would definitely want to use social media because it's economical and it's easy to use and because what nonprofits need to do is create communities of stakeholders who can feel aligned more with the nonprofit group.

The book would be primarily of interest to people who are in the nonprofit fund raising field which includes many business people as most business people are involved some point or another in some philanthropy.

Much of what is discussed though also applies to any business or marketing effort, for example there is a chapter on effective web page design, e-governance, recruiting, how to protect your organization and donors from identity theft and lots more.

It's a good book!

The First Followers make the Leader

I saw a poorly produced Youtube video called Dancing Guy. It shows a leader dancing alone who is joined by another person. The leader is brave to dance alone. To look ridiculous. To stand out. To not care what others think.

But the same is true of the first follower and the few after that. They brave ridicule. But as others join and it becomes a group, many more will join because to not join is to stand out as more now than joining.

People then praise the leader but it is the first followers who should get the credit. Followers make the leader.

Interesting Leadership Lesson.