From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership

Posted on May 24, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The most exciting – and challenging – promotion is often your first one into a leadership position. But your colleagues are still in the same positions; and now you need to shift the dynamic in order to accomplish a new set of goals. Where do you start? From Bud to Boss (2011, Jossey-Bass), gives readers the roadmap they need to make this pivotal transition.

This book may as well have been called a course or program, because the authors take you through the important transition to leadership from the moment that the new job has been offered, and helps you take your first steps in the new world. It includes self-tests, summaries at the end of each chapter, and numerous links to online resources that will help you explore the areas that you find the most challenging.

Here is an overview of the topics covered:

  • Common concerns about the transition to leadership
  • Confronting important changes you face as a new leader
  • How to interact with your new peers
  • Understand the ‘wake’ you leave behind you
  • How to diagnose why people won’t change
  • Kick Start to Winning Presentations
  • Learn to use various types of feedback
  • Learn to handle conflict
  • Apply assertive communication techniques

One of the most notable sections was the frank chapter about goals. The authors’ advice belies their wealth of experience, when they tell readers that many of us are like Goldilocks when it comes to goals: we want each one to be ‘just right.’ The reality is that no goal is ‘Goldilocks perfect,’ and as a leader – especially a new one with the weight of extra focus on performance – it’s important not to use realistic goal setting as an excuse for avoiding goals altogether.

The bottom line is that team and organizational accomplishments start with the leader setting goals and committing to heir achievement. Kudos to Eikenberry and Harris for giving it to us straight.

With From Bud to Boss, you don’t have to face your transition alone.  In this book you’ll find a wise and reliable mentor to help you along the path to Remarkable Leadership.

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The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership-Powered Company

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The Leadership Pipeline, by Ram Charan, Steve Drotter, and Jim Noel (Second Edition, Jossey-Bass, 2011), gives readers an in-depth look at the status of leadership development today – and what it takes to select and develop world-class leaders in the current economic and business climate. The Leadership Pipeline is an invaluable handbook for hiring, selection, and development at the executive level. It starts off by helping us understand how globalization, the new economy, and evolved organizational perspectives have changed the way we do business – and what is now necessary for successful leadership:

  • Founders and CEOs must shift their priorities as the company grows.
  • More leaders are needed to support larger, more dynamic systems – and they need to be grown internally.
  • New horizontal leadership skills are necessary.
  • Old economy companies are competing for new economy talent.

According to the authors, successful leaders must make six specific transitions to ensure that they take their place with world-class leaders. This nuanced viewpoint sets leadership development within a timeline of ‘passages.’ They encourage the reader to make these turns themselves, and to use them as a structure for developing the next generation of leadership. This progression is at the core of this in-depth look at high-level professional development:

  1. From Managing Oneself to Managing Others
  2. From Managing Others to Managing Managers
  3. From Managing Managers to Functional Manager
  4. From Functional Manager to Business Manager
  5. From Business Manager to Group Manager
  6. From Group Manager to Enterprise Manager

While the authors outline various behavior, priority and values changes that occur at each passage, the last one is the ‘holy grail’ of personal development and development of others, and requires an intentional shift in values in order to be successful. What is that shift? You will find out when you pick up this useful resource!

Do you struggle with how to select and train capable first-line managers? Have you experienced the let down of moving from business manager to group manager? Have you ever thought you had selected the right person but it became apparent that the decision was a mistake? All of these experiences are addressed in detail with logical, thoughtful explanations and case studies.

The Leadership Pipeline is a comprehensive leadership development book for the experienced professional.

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The 85% Solution: How Personal Accountability Guarantees Success

Posted on April 9, 2012 by | Leave a comment

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

When you consider the idea of accountability, what comes to mind? Perhaps, like most people, you think of punishment, blame, or guilt. According to Linda Galindo, author, educator, and expert in executive leadership development, “Until leaders and, subsequently, their followers, collectively stop acting victimized and experience accountability in a relevant and useful way — believing ‘it starts with me’ — they are fooling themselves about how their definition of success can be achieved.”

In the first few pages of The 85% Solution, Galindo makes a convincing case for all of us to step up and take 100% ownership of our projects, even if we’re working with or for someone else. Her message can be put to work in any setting. We all engage in team activities – from household chores to large projects at work.  Regardless of the task at hand, people who experience the success and freedom associated with The 85% Solution take ownership of the entire project’s success, not just their own slice of the pie.

Here are the three most important steps to taking on The 85% Solution:

  1. Be responsible for the success of everything you do. Stand behind your choices, behaviors, and actions, before you know how it all will turn out.
  2. Empower yourself to succeed. Take the actions and the risks that you need to in order to ensure that you achieve the results you desire.
  3. Be accountable for your actions. Demonstrate your willingness to answer for the outcomes that result from your choices, behaviors, and actions, without fail, blame, or guilt.

Linda Galindo uses her own journey from living as a victim of circumstance to taking responsibility for everything in her life – whether it succeeds or fails – as a platform for her message. She entreats the reader to join her, and the compelling case she makes gives us plenty of fuel to plow right through the entire book in one sitting. The 85% Solution gives us all a benchmark for taking ownership and a ticket to freedom from victimhood. This book will transform the lives of those who take on Linda Galindo’s challenge, forever changing the way they communicate, consider their own choices, and move through their lives, both personally and professionally.

Whether you’re looking to improve your performance at work, or in in life, The 85% Solution may just be the solution for you!

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Instructional Design: Following the Process, Not the Product

Posted on March 29, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Rapid Instructional Design: Learning ID Fast and Right, 2nd Edition, by George M. Piskurich (2006, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), is an effective, practical primer on how to make both the learning and the doing of instructional design faster.  Are you looking for theory?  Then Rapid Instructional Design is not for you. Would you like to walk away with practical checklists and insights on how to design better and more quickly in this age of technology-based training?  Then you have found what you’re looking for.

A curriculum designer who is asked to design a course with limited time and resources is left to grapple with questions such as, “What can I skip in the design process?” or, “Can this course be rapid and still be effective?”  The author, George Piskurich, dares to ask these questions and help guide designers through the process of making the best decisions for the courses they are designing.

Component-Based Information

This book is designed like a web, meaning that readers do not have to read it in a linear fashion.  Instead, readers may find it helpful to begin designing their course simultaneously with other components such as analysis.  While Piskurich warns that some rewriting may have to be done in the end, he still encourages the dynamic use of this book.

The main components cover: pre-instructional design, instructional design, critical design issues, delivery issues and decisions, program implementation, evaluation, and a section that focuses on the details of various rapid design techniques.  To cap it off, chapters on asynchronous and synchronous e-learning give consideration to two newer and widely used delivery systems.

What You Will Learn

If you are new to instructional design you will find the answers to questions such as, “Why do I need instructional design, and what are the advantages?”  Experienced instructional designers will find the detailed lesson plan development job aids and lesson plan reviews, as well as discussions on how to decide the best delivery method, engaging and helpful.  As an experienced author of five books on topics from e-learning to self-directed learning, George Piskurich provides all of the information one needs to get up to speed – and more, with Rapid Instructional Design!

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Build Long-Term Relationships by Letting Yourself Get Naked

Posted on March 15, 2012 by | Leave a comment

In Patrick Lencioni’s latest title, Getting Naked (Jossey-Bass, 2010), he shows readers how to transform client relationships by taking the “naked” approach. This method takes any business to a new level of authenticity by helping to develop lasting, long-term client relationships. He works past typical advice, such as creating PowerPoint presentations and presenting ROI data, to reach a more meaningful aspect of client relations. If you are in the business of building relationships, then this book is an invaluable asset. Here are the basic tenets of Getting Naked:

  1. Rather than sell ourselves, always provide immediate value to those we serve
  2. Give ourselves (the business) away without holding back for something else first (fees)
  3. Tell the “kind” truth and don’t sugar-coat the obvious
  4. Enter the danger (our zone of discomfort) rather than avoid it
  5. Ask the dumb (the right) question that no one else ever asks
  6. Make unusual (even if impractical) suggestions that stimulate thinking rather than suggesting the obvious
  7. Celebrate our mistakes and our failures, as these are key lessons learned for growth
  8. Take a bullet for a friend (our client), as taking responsibility and sacrificing are the greatest things we can do for another
  9. Make everything about the client; focus on the “other”
  10. Honor the “other’s” work
  11. Roll up our sleeves and do the dirty work
  12. Admit we are human and have our own weaknesses and limitations

Patrick Lencioni, author of Getting Naked

Lencioni’s message is wrapped in an engaging story of two firms, very different from one another, that are trying to find a common language and build trust as they merge into one organization. This engaging and humorous story is worth reading in itself, but the lessons imparted make it even more difficult to put down.

In Lencioni’s words,

“Naked service boils down to the ability of a service provider to be vulnerable – to embrace uncommon levels of humility, selflessness, and transparency for the good of a client.”

Pick up this book and learn how most service providers are susceptible to the three fears that sabotage client loyalty – fear of losing business, fear of being embarrassed, and fear of feeling inferior. More importantly, learn to embrace the honesty and authenticity that results from letting go.

Looking for more resources on company culture and building relationships?  Try the Values Edge System, from HRDQ.  Discover your values, the values of your organization, and explore both to establish a common organizational language. The Values Edge System is an excellent catalyst for gaining personal insight, coaching individuals, sparking employee engagement, improving teamwork, and aligning culture.

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The Bottomline on ROI: Benefits and Barriers to Measuring Learning, Performance Improvement, and Human Resources Programs

Posted on March 2, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Now more than ever, training managers are asked to demonstrate exactly how — and how much — performance improvement and educational programs contribute to their organization’s financial success, yet too often they find themselves unprepared to do so. As a result, training budgets are being cut, programs eliminated, and staff laid off. Don’t let this happen to you! Instead, pick up The Bottomline on ROI, a comprehensive guide to measuring and demonstrating your program’s results in terms that hold up to executive scrutiny. Patricia Pullman Phillips brings a clear, methodical approach to the issue of program evaluation through the lens of the training manager, while clearing up misconceptions about the ROI Methodology and its value for training professionals:

  • Misconception: Training has benefits far beyond the financial. If you’re asking for the ROI of a training program, you’re missing the point.
  • Fact: The ROI Methodology considers all costs and benefits of a program — even those that can’t be converted to monetary value. Its main purpose is to use financial values to provide a measurable and repeatable method for evaluating what works and what doesn’t, while acknowledging that some things aren’t convertible to money.

  • Misconception: We don’t have the technical skills to measure ROI.
  • Fact: You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to implement a rigorous, well-designed evaluation process. The calculations are simple and the steps logical — and Phillips will guide you all the way!

  • Misconception: If we measure the ROI of our programs, senior management will use the data to cut our budget.
  • Fact: Most executives do understand the importance of training, but they want to be sure it is done efficiently. When they have evidence that you identify the best methods and programs, and eliminate those that don’t perform, they’ll have more respect and trust for your division or organization’s role in helping their company succeed. The ROI Methodology is a process improvement tool — not an individual performance evaluation. The point is to improve your methodology with an eye on the bottom line.

Patricia Phillips, author of The Bottomline on ROI

Phillips, president and CEO of the ROI Institute, explains how to tailor the ROI Methodology to all types of organizations, how to align your business needs with the evaluation process for the most useful results, and how to determine whether your organization is ready to implement an evaluation program at this level. Using visuals, cogent explanations, quizzes, and worksheets, she guides us through the ROI Methodology and its evaluation framework, shedding light on each stage of the process and its importance. As she explains, a truly worthwhile analysis looks at a program at every level:

  1. Participant satisfaction and relevance of content (Reaction and Planned Action)
  2. Knowledge/skills retention (Learning)
  3. Actual implementation of learned skills or knowledge in a work environment (Application and Implementation)
  4. The effect of implementation on aspects of performance, such as improved time management or enhanced customer service (Business Impact)
  5. The monetary cost benefits of enhanced performance compared with all costs of the program (Return On Investment or ROI)
  6. The intangible benefits of the program

Phillips’ gift is to render the process user-friendly and clear, guiding us through each step, why it’s important, and how to implement it. She knows the issues facing training and development professionals, and lays out key concepts with their needs in mind. Examples and industry comparisons, combined with worksheets, case studies, and tips on reporting results and reducing costs mean that you’ll gain an in-depth and applicable understanding of how to determine and demonstrate your program’s value. Whether you’re learning about ROI for the first time, trying to build support, or looking to refine your process, The Bottomline on ROI is the go-to guide on making measurement work for you!

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Cultural Change in Organizations: A Guide to Leadership and Bottom-Line Results

Posted on February 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

In this new title, Cultural Change in Organizations: A Guide to Leadership and Bottom-Line Results, Robert Crosby, leadership aficionado and Renaissance man, has renewed and expanded on the ideas presented in his watershed book, The Authentic Leader, published 11 years ago. According to Crosby, “The way we approach cultural change should be changed.”

The first section of the Guide uses a compelling business case in story format to demonstrate how a cultural change can begin, and show its progression to a successful organizational shift. Crosby sets his message within the story of “Peter” who learns from his mentor Art Merlin, how to lead his company through the necessary cultural shift and ultimately boosts sales.

Merlin’s three simple rules start the ball rolling on initial cultural shifts:

  1. The leader leads. Like Columbus, the leader sets the course  - and stays the course – in a non-reactive way against the inevitable resistance.
  2. The leader communicates. Leaders should meet with all employees in small groups, even if there it is a large organization. In the beginning stages of an organizational shift, the leader should share information with employees, but stop before fielding any questions. Instead, keep focused on streaming real data and information to them, so they are gaining trust and understanding.
  3. The leader initiates a self-renewing process in all intact groups (bosses and employees) and in cross-functional groups (projects and task forces). The critical “self-renewal” process is how managers and leaders are able to arrest disengagement; meeting with staff to ask what is working, what isn’t, what they need more or less of, and figuring out how their opinions can fit into the new culture of the organization.

Robert Crosby continues by breaking down these rules into practical steps. He walks the reader through conflict resolution, employee autonomy, structural changes, and other topics, before giving us more case studies in the form of short stories at the end of the book. If you are looking for flash and a 30-second fix to your organization’s cultural change challenges, then this is not the book for you. If you are ready for real, practical information that is embedded within an engaging real-life story and is followed up with hard-earned wisdom, then this one is a must-have for your bookshelf. Order your copy today!

Check out Robert Crosby’s other book, Walking the Empowerment Tightrope.

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