Friday, March 31, 2017

Great CEOs and How They are Made - The 7 Imperatives

I recently read a book by John Wilson - Great CEOs and How They are Made - The 7 Imperatives.

The first imperative - EQ.  I have long known EQ is critical for success.  I also believe in AQ (ability to deal with adversity).  I know my IQ is not as high as many people (hopefully than most of my staff) so have to make up for it with EQ.

The Second is Ability to Inspire.  I have thought often how I manage to do that and there is not a simple answer.  Part of it is having a great vision for the company.  Part of it is constant communication.  And part of it is "do the right thing".

The third chapter talks about team.  Clearly I believe in team.  Where I diverge is there was a lot of reference to A players - as if they just are A players.  I believe the job of a good leader to to make people into A players by process, systems, training, mentoring, inspiring and slotting people in the right job for them.  If I have C players it is my fault for not making them better.

The 4th is accountability followed by 5 - tools and KPIs.  In my mind these tie together.  You need the measures to tie with the goals.  He recounts a cute story:

”An Accountability Fable”
Four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody, have an important job to be done…and Everybody was asked to  do it.  Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.  Somebody got angry about it because it was Everybody’s job.  Everybody though Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.  It ended that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done….and thus accountability was born”


Dan McCarthy, Director of Executive Development Programs, University of New Hampshire, Whitmore School of Business

And 7th is CEO connection.  No CEO should be alone.  CEOs need peers.  CEOs learn from other CEOs.  John runs CEO Global Network so has seen the power of CEO networks first hand.  And of course his book would speak to that.

Good book - fast read.

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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Linch Pin Habits

I think a lot about my habits (of course thinking about them and doing them are not always the same).  When I get a good Success Habit, I work hard to make it into a habit.  It got me thinking on why some habits stick and others fall by the wayside.

I have found I have certain linch pin habits.  If I do them, then I do the rest of the habits or if I do them, I fail or do things that do not help my productivity.

I know one thing that helps my productivity is sleep.  At one time, I preached "sleep is for wimps" but I now believe it is vital for health and productivity.   Interesting that now I believe that when I am sleeping worse than I did when I was young(er) (I still refuse to be old).

I try to get 6 hours per night or sometimes even a luxurious 7 1/2 hours (they say sleep cycles are 90 minutes so multiple of that).  For me, that means getting to bed early.

The linch pin for me to get to bed early is to not be on my computer.  Even though I do dim the blue light with f.lux software, I still sit at the computer too long.  Ironically when I am too tired, I will often sit at the computer instead of going to bed.

I also know being on the computer often makes my mind race or makes me think so I am too engaged to go to bed or to fall asleep.  Email particularly can raise issues that need dealing with or worse - cannot be dealt with until day so simply cause stress.

A similar "don't do" linch pin is exercise.  If I exercise less than an hour before I go to bed, I cannot get to sleep.

The simplest linch pin for working out for me is going to the gym.  If I simply get there - I work out.

So think of your habits and your linch pins to doing or not doing them.  Work on the linch pins and the habits follow.
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And I declare today as "National Steal a Habit Day".   The habit I am going to steal comes from the owner of Sweet Kyla.  Each day do just 1 thing new to move the business forward.

And since it is Steal a Habit Day - the nuns better lock their laundry up.

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I am thinking of running the Stirling Marathon although I am not doing enough running these days to even complete one.

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No blog is complete without kid pics.  I wonder when they are going to grow hair.


Thursday, March 02, 2017

Lent - Buy Lettuce

Lent made me think.  "not doing something is a decision and can often have more impact than actually doing something".  We make decisions by lack of action.

It is interesting that people give things up for lent and not take up doing something new.

Either can have a positive effect.  Give up eating sugar or add lettuce to every meal (yum - goes great on oatmeal).  Give up alcohol or take up drinking more water.  Give up wasting time watching TV, take up research and study on a new topic.  Give up fried foods or eat more lettuce (As you can likely tell, I am long on lettuce and trying to start a run on it so my lettuce stocks go up)

The Telegraph already reported on the shortage of salad ingredients on February 3rd.  I must have a leak in my blogging organization that tipped someone off that I was doing this post.

Most "stop doings" have a "start doing" that would have similar effect.

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I have a grand daughter (yes hard to believe).   My daughter was explaining the concept to giving something up for lent.  She thought about and said "I am going to give up wearing clothes for lent".

I wonder if she will speak to me when she is 16 and this blog is still out there for the whole world to see.