Nine Lives of Leadership: Keith Ferrazzi

I tore into Lisa Haneburg's new book, Nine Lives of Leadership and got stuck in the first chapter titled Go Deep Fast.  This chapter is about Keith Ferrazzi's book Never Eat Alone .  I have yet to read Keith's latest book so pardon me if I get a little excited. 

Lisa relates that Keith says to "get past the idle chitchat and dive into topics that mean something."  This is quite possibly my greatest business pet peeve!

"Hey Tony, how ya doin'?"

"Great Franky, how you doin?"

"How's business Tony?"

"Great Franky, how's your business?"

"Weather's bad Tony."

"Yeah Franky, weather's bad buddy."

I used to try and take conversations with Franky's and Tony's beyond the idle chitchat.

"Hey Davie, how ya doin' man?"

"Great Tony.  Hey man, I just heard about a guy who offers this great cutlery service.  He comes into your restaurant and services your knives and silverware.  Bob over at the Hambone says he's never seen anyone deliver this kind of service.  You ought to check him out."

Tony's eyes begin to glass over.  His body sways from side to side.  Just when he looks like he's about to go into a complete epileptic fit, he inhales deeply on his stogie, regains his balance like a champion fighter and says,  "Hey Davie, how's business man?"

It never fails, the Franky and Tony's of the world are like wind up dolls.  Crank em' up and let em' go.  Sure, they'll hit the wall.  They just bounce off it a couple times until they are turned around and go their merry way. 

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhh!!

In all fairness to Keith, I had heard the buzz about his book before.  It's been on my "to buy" list for sometime.  I do believe that Lisa has just rekindled that buzz.  I can hardly wait.

Comments

[Rosa Say]

I don't blame you for getting excited Dave - I love Ferrazzi's book: it is one of my most recommended books for business people these days. Networking well is an acquired skill, however I think Ferrazzi does an exceptional job at talking about the why we need to do it so it becomes a character goal for us, not just a job chore to learn.

[Dave]

When you place networking in the framework of character goal over job chore to learn it takes on greater significance. Thanks for pointing that out Rosa!