Rothacker Reviews

Remarkable Leadership

Remarkable Leadership by Kevin Eikenberry

Do you work for a living?  Buy Remarkable Leadership now!  Next.

"Jeepers Dave, we're not sure we got our money's worth with that review."

"Let me get this straight, you're paying me for this review?"

"Well, errr, uhhh..........no, but could you tell us a little more?"

Dave is a softy, he relents.

After reading Remarkable Leadership the first time, I closed the book and the first word that popped into my mind was prolific.  Remarkable Leadership is not just a book, it is a work.  Kevin focuses on thirteen core competencies.  They constitute Remarkable Leadership.  Each competency gets a chapter and Kevin weaves within each chapter components that entice you to participate.

"Participate Dave?"

Yes.  Kevin begins each chapter with a self-assessment.  This technique sets the stage for the book to become a conversation.  Then he provides in depth content on topics like continuous learning.  Kevin sculpts out each chapter with:

• Skill areas
• Your now steps
• Bonus Bytes
• Your Remarkable Principles
• Remarkable Resources

Bonus Bytes and Remarkable Resources direct you to an accompanying Web site that is packed with extra information.

If you are a teacher, mentor, manager, boss, coach, executive or otherwise bigwig, this book is for you NO QUESTIONS ASKED!  Jack Welch could benefit from reading Remarkable Leadership. 

"Daaaaave, we're feelin' a twist in the road ahead"

Do you know why Jack Welch could benefit from reading Kevin's book?  Because he isn't a bigwig anymore.  If you work, you need this book as much or even more than your manager does!!  Two reasons:

1. By understanding how your manager is trying to lead you, you'll become more effective.
2. You can become more effective.

Do you know that little guy who is dressed in white and sits on your shoulder?

"Now Dave, keep it together.  Don't loose it buddy."

Well, he kept asking me one question as I read the book.  He said, "Dave, what if you dropped the word leadership?"   I knew exactly what he meant.  I had the same thought myself.

"Your toast."

If  you approach reading Remarkable Leadership with the intent to become more effective, you will.   Nearly everything that Kevin talks about, can be instructive learning for every working person out there.  For instance, Kevin devotes time to the act of Listening.  Now, as much as you hope they would, do you think only leaders could benefit from advice on listening?  How about learning, dealing with change, communicating, telling stories, building relationships, networking, customer service, building values, creativity, innovation, collaboration, teamwork, problem solving, making decisions, responsibility, accountability, projects, processes and goal achievement?? 

"Dave!  You rebounded son!!"

Remarkable Leadership is a prolific book.  I would bind it with good, hearty stock, cover it in leather and cherish it for a lifetime.  But that's just me.

Remarkable Leadership was Smoked-n-Signed.

Hey Coach: Shouldn't we be running suicides?

Carla Rothacker:  "Hey coach, if girls were late last year Coach P made us all run suicides."

Vickie started playing softball in 1986.  Since then Rosemary and I have gone through twenty-two years of coaches with the girls.  They both played softball and basketball.  (Carla is a sophomore playing basketball for a Hillsborough county high school).  Last year she played for Coach P., who is in our top three of best all time coaches.  Coach P took over a troubled girl's basketball program.  He was tough love.  He left the program to pursue other scholastic athletic endeavors in the State of Florida.  We miss him dearly.

Carla's coach this year is well intentioned.  He wants to win and he wants the girls to do well.  I believe that this is his first year at the high school level.  He displays a public temper and lacks discipline amongst the troupes.  His temper is obvious.  That he lacks discipline comes from Carla's comment about the fact that she misses running suicides if girls are late.  Carla's remarks pierced my nearly thirty years of management experience like a hot knife cutting through soft butter.  My dear friend Rosa Say, from her book Managing With Aloha:

When a leader is respected, he will find that others want to be guided, and he's the one they choose to lead the way for them; he's the one that others are naturally compelled to follow.

Our young basketball coach will eventually learn this.  But his adventures cause me to look inside.  Is the grip that I have upon the helm of my own ship firm enough?  Honestly?  It hasn't been.  I've let the excuse of my health and nagging self doubt allow my grip to slip.

Note to dave in the future:  davie,  at this time you are working with the most passionate, hungry-to-learn group of people that have ever been under your tutelage.  You got your head out of your ass and recognized this.  You grabbed hold of the wheel...with conviction.  Your people loved that you would tell them to run suicides if you needed to!

Warrior Skills

Why must it take the skills of a warrior to obtain and retain customers?

I had an opportunity five years ago to take over a consultant's business.  The target market in this industry was less than five percent of the entire industry.  The actual users of this gentleman's service and others like him totaled less than one tenth of one percent.  I had asked my friend how did he do what he did?  To be on the road over two-hundred fifty days a year and maybe score a couple of new customers.  But mostly, how did he deal with all of the ignorance and resistance?

He said, "David, you've got to get in the ring and knock them upside the head. You have to battle and pound sense into them."

My friend loved that part.  He lived for the battle.

I am sure that it helps to be passionate about what you are selling.  For me, I long to sell a service or product that folks take delight in, that folks love to buy, that doesn't involve big corporation, that doesn't involve me conforming, that doesn't involve me dressing up like a monkey - where I can just be myself.

Here is a little story that involved me years ago, working in the aforementioned industry.  We had a customer who for years experienced extremely uncomfortable areas in his home that no other company could remedy.  We proposed a solution that he said was the equivalent price of taking his family of four to Disney World.  Comfort or Disney World?  This customer and his family chose to remain uncomfortable.

I just don't have the strength, stamina or will power to battle prospective customers.

Here is proof that this goes beyond my industry and actually inspired these words.

The Inside Advantage

The Inside Advantage by Robert H. Bloom with Dave Conti

Bob Bloom was once US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, as in advertising firms, BIG advertising firms.  One might think, "how could Bob relate to my company and its whopping seventy-five thousand dollars in sales?"  Bob is of the age and comes from the era where folks from different class and management levels did not associate with each other.  After reading The Inside Advantage however, I get the feeling that Bob would be open and share with others - even if they migrated to the round-table from the levels of subterranean management.

This point is important to me.  If the author is an arrogant snob, I don't care how poignant his message is, I have no use for him.  And I suspect that nearly all Gen X and Y'ers along with a few Boomers feel the same way.

This book is about growing your business.  Bob hooks me on page one.  He says that it is likely every company has at least one underutilized strength that can be the centerpiece of a powerful growth strategy.  This fact so resonates with me.

Now, pull your chairs in a little closer and listen up.  Or, put another log on the campfire and tighten up the circle, because Bob's discourse is conversation over lecture.  In the rest of the book Bob describes The Growth Discovery Process.  It is very simple, clear and not only pertains to both large and small companies, it pertains to the individual entrepreneur.  Basically it involves identifying:

Who is the core customer?

What is your uncommon offering?

How is your persuasive strategy different from others?

Own It! is the series of imaginative acts that will celebrate your uncommon offering and make it well known to your core customer.

The Inside Advantage is a no-brainer for companies of all sizes.  Reading along though, I couldn't help but to think, if applied, how Bob's strategy could help those of us with personal Web sites.  Think about asking these questions with your site in mind and ideas that you hadn't thought of before will come forth!

On one other note.  Good, clean design and graphics enrich my reading experience.  I love what Bob does with the graphic of a combination lock throughout this book.  It begins on the book's cover.  He then dedicates a single page graphic to identify each of the four questions.  It is simple, it is attractive, it is in black and white and it is very cool!

Here is a free e-book download of inspirational quotes from the folks who are helping Bob out.

Fun Works

Fun Works by Leslie Yerkes.

Dick Richards trumps the fish.  Browsing through Fun Works I notice the first story is about the fish place in Seattle.  I wanted to shelve the book.  Corporate America embraced the fish place.  It bought its workers the book.  "Read it.  We will be a fun place to work.  File a weekly report.  Fun surveys at month's end."

But, as is my custom, I read the pages towards the book's end.  (Rosemary hits me when she catches me doing this).  I notice that Dick writes a page on what fun is to him at work.  Dick trumps the fish.

Thank God for friends like Dick.  This is a good book.

Actually, there are two other reasons that I dug into this book.  Berrett-Koehler, the publisher.  And the fact that Leslie works in Cleveland.  I remember reading a Fast Company article in November of 2005, about BK.  (FC's archives are screwed up.  The article isn't available).  I believe it was how they interacted with their authors that caught my attention.

Leslie originally published Fun Works in 2000.  She discusses eleven principles that are found in fun companies to work for.  Here are a few:

• Give permission to perform
• Trust the process
• Value a diversity of fun styles
• Expand the boundaries
• Hire good people and get out of the way (my favorite!)
• Be authentic

Each principle gets a chapter and a case study on a company that best exemplifies it.  As the book was originally published in 2000, Leslie includes a 2006 update.  She includes a page of reflection following the updates.  This produces a nice, clarifying effect.

A couple more distinguishing characteristics of Fun Works.  Plenty of white space.  White space helps me get physical with my books.  Pictures, graphics and an overall clean design sets this book apart.

There is a fun / work fusion inventory at the book's end.  I see this survey as a perfect complement to Marcus Buckingham's Measuring Stick survey from First, Break all  the Rules.  The manager takes Leslie's test and the workforce takes Marcus's.

Pick up a copy of this book and see what kind of fun folks are having at work.

Finding Your Tune

Please read this  Download SSRN-id229931.pdf and then come back.

Thank you!

This paper was written by Robert F. Bruner, Dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia.  Is the anecdote that Robert leads his paper with precious or what?  To those of you who are not teachers, I bet you couldn't help but to substitute your present position for that of teacher.  I couldn't. 

Here are a few words extracted from Robert's work:

That teaching should be the hidden dimension in a summary of professional work is curious.

Finding the tune in teaching should be a matter for both individual candidates and institutions. 

An excellent vehicle for this is the teaching portfolio...

It surveys teaching assignments, philosophy, style, accomplishments, innovations, and evidence of teaching effectiveness.

...and perhaps argues for better work to come.

So, what is your tune?  What is that internal tune, when deployed, makes you most effective?

Robert's blog
Robert's home page
Robert's teaching portfolio paper: Download SSRN-id230099.pdf
Robert's paper are logged with the:  Social Science Research Network  (more resource info than you can use)

Robert's home page is a blueprint (or most excellent idea) for personal branding.  If you have an opportunity, scope out the information contained in his Resource section.  And, if you are not a teacher, pretend that it is directed to you, a biz coach, a marketer, a manager, a designer.

I attempted with this post to move away from our biz-as-usual world. That Robert is Dean of the Darden Graduate School of Business, keeps us in the same solar system but offers an alternative perspective.

Don't Treat Them Like Children

Allan Chochinov is a partner at industrial design firm Core77.  He writes an essay here titled Those Who Can, Teach.  1000 words of advice for design teachers. 

I am going to assume that undergrad students in design school mostly fall into the Connected Generation.  Even if you are not a design teacher, you probably either work with or manage folks in this age group.  Read this article through those lens. 

Along with this Allan tip: Talk to undergrads like they're grads; talk to grads like they're undergrads: This one is my favorite:

Don't start your class with your lesson.

There is only one way to start a design class: Ask your students what they did the past week, what they read, what design shows they attended. Communicate that design learning is not confined within class (or campus) walls, and give them license to go out and learn all the things we don't possibly have enough semesters to teach. I go so far as to say "You can bring in less homework next week if you just go see something." And some of them take me up on it. (Precious few, sadly.)

Remember, read this article and substitute your current role for that of design teacher.  Great stuff!!

   

Six Disciplines For Excellence

You sit upright and move closer to the edge of your seat.  Your heart starts to beat a little faster.  Your level of excitement starts to elevate.  And then your imagination kicks everything else out of your brain.  Bob's Ten Steps to Effective Management Process tour is coming to town!  Hot dog!

The excitement overtakes you.  A couple of breaths into a brown paper bag saves you from passing out.  As you take a moment to bask in your new found wonder, you look at the bookcase directly across the room.  There is Suzie's Get Motivated tape set, and Billy's Psychoanalyzing Your Staff For Dummies book, and Don's Financial Education for Harvard Dropouts DVD and workbook, and Christy's Banish Kindercare Empower Your Associates book set.  You know.  Well, you and Sally in purchasing know.  Together, both of you know that not one other person in your company knows anything about the latest and greatest business books and seminars you've collected and gone to.  And you own the company.

Six Disciplines For Excellence is a book and business methodology that focuses on a business system and its implementation.  Implementation is the stuff you do after you've read the book and gone to the seminar.  I experienced three strong reactions after reading this book.

1) The Six Discipline Methodology begs for help with facilitation.  I think this is the root of the system's success.  If you don't get help, the secret is still between you and Sally.
2) Six Disciplines For Excellence is what the E-Myth Revisited wants to be when it grows up.  The impact of this thought hit home after reading Chapter Three: Align Systems.
3) A sense for what an incredible amount of work it was that went into developing the entire system.  Author Gary Harpst founded Solomon Software in 1980, a company that specialized in business management software, and used twenty years of successful business as a foundation for his book and corporation. 

I am not going to discuss the innards of this book's content.  Instead, I will direct you to a Web site that links out to some very well written reviews of Six Disciplines For Excellence.

I look at this book as the opportunity for a glimpse into the framework of an excellent company and the opportunity to ask yourself, as a business owner, do you want your company to be excellent?  Two ultra-cool and encouraging attributes to Six Disciplines For Excellence: 

1) It is geared for small business.
2) It will work with any type of business.

One gets a peek into the system and possibilities of processes via the book's very format.  A separate chapter is dedicated to each Discipline.   Gary Harpst provides an overview, outlines a process of implementation and provides tips for implementation.  Charts and checklists reinforce a clear sense of structure.

The last thought I would like to leave you with, is what an incredible job that Skip Reardon, Director of Marketing for the Six Disciplines Corporation, does in support of the book and his company via the Be Excellent Web site.  Skip provides invaluable business information and insight as well as reinforcing lessons from the book.  Scroll through Be Excellent to find those well written book reviews that I told you about.

Six Disciplines : The company.
Six Disciplines For Excellence : The book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kevin Eikenberry: Vantagepoints on Learning and Life

Kevin Eikenberry's latest book is titled Vantagepoints on Learning and Life. It is a collection of fifty-six essays that consist of Kevin's Vantagepoints on Learning and Life.  That's it.  Kevin's title is clear, succinct and tells you exactly what his book is about. 

I have read Kevin's book twice and there is one word that keeps rising to the surface of my conscience: Connections.  Kevin possesses that rare ability to observe life's moments, learn from them and connect them to objects of relevance via the written word.

The page turner for me in this book is Kevin's connections to life's moments that most of us have experienced.  For instance, he talks about a game that his family plays in their car when going on trips.  I am not going to reveal the game at this time, but I have been familiar with it all my life and I bet you are as well.  If you have admired a night sky crammed with stars; if you enjoy hand-cranked homemade ice cream; if you thought rainbows were magical; if you've been to a Jimmy Buffett concert...  The list goes on and on.

Kevin's connections delve into associative memories and pave the way for a learning experience.  Your brain is stimulated when hearing the story about hand-cranked homemade ice cream.  It races to make connections with memorable experiences.  Once your brain has made the connection, it is primed for additional learning.  Now, the lesson from Kevin's ice cream story will not fade away very easily.

Vantagepoints are an outlook on learning and life.  But one doesn't simply plop down on Earth and suddenly have vantagepoints of merit. This leads to another fascinating factor that surfaces in Kevin's work - his upbringing.  A solid family upbringing on a farm in Michigan with a Purdue education, a thriving consulting practice, a blossoming family of his own and the influence of many wonderful people who no doubt recipricate Kevin's own goodwill, lead to the outstanding fruit that can be found in Vantagepoints on Learning and Life.

Go here  to buy your copy today.

High Impact Middle Management

Quick, when is the last time you read a book targeted to help middle managers hone their craft?  A magazine article?  Information on middle management is often over shadowed by the Amazonian volume of material directed towards company leaders.  Leadership can plot the course and sometimes steer the ship, but it can't coordinate all the functions necessary to keep a large ship steaming the seas.  It takes middle management.

Lisa Haneberg wrote High Impact Middle Management to provide a systematic process for implementation of planning, goal setting, performance management, problem solving, process improvement, relationship building, analysis, communication, budgeting and decision-making.  This process is called the H.I.M.M. system and is built on principles lasered at what is unique about middle management and how this professional can produce significant results.

The Engine's Oil:  Producing Results

I love RORs!  Results-oriented-responses are oil.  Lisa injects RORs into the middle manager's work.  No matter what the process, RORs will help to peak performance.  Examples are:

• Being an owner
• Being active
• Generating
• Keeping promises
• Influencing through enrollment
• Being service oriented
• Being coachable
• Practicing quality dialogue

Success

H.I.I.M. is also a great educational experience for the middle manager's manager.  When success is defined by middle managers:

• Being accountable and taking ownership
• Making a positive contribution
• Being outstanding role models
• Obtaining results
• Being flexible and nimble
• Managing people for optimal productivity and satisfaction
• Being responsive to other's ideas and concerns

When viewed this way, how could the manager's manager not want to invest in the educational process?

The Playbook

This is sweet!  Lisa has developed outlines for a business playbook, which she likens to playbooks used by sport teams.  Think of planning for your department, goals, implementation, tracking, measuring performance and optimizing workflow - all laid in simple fashion.  She also provides downloadable templates from her Web site. 

Mucky Muck

This sounds like something nasty and smelly that you step into at work.  It is.  I used to call middle management, a position that I've personally held for over twenty-eight years, the fire hydrant.  Picture your reports and bosses as dogs.  Enough said.  Lisa provides invaluable insight into keeping your own fire hydrant dry! 

Smooth

Whole chapters are devoted to organizational alignment, work flow inhibitors, time management, management myths and optimizing individual performance.  This is nuts and bolts management, stuff that you can actually use.  No fish, cheese or minutemen here.

To Coach & To Be Coached

Lisa provides clear information on the art of coaching along with some most excellent questions to help the coaching process.  And to coach you must be coachable.  Lisa says, "Coachability is the degree that you are open to what your environment can offer, or the extent to which you will accept and consider input and ideas."  Lisa offers a fresh and unique perspective here.

Go Buy The Book

High Impact Middle Management isn't one of those books you can read and retire to the den bookshelf.  Not if you're interested in improving as a manager, that is.  Stop by Lisa's Web site Management Craft for links to her book and volumes of more useful information on management.