Monthly Archives: May 2016

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H3 Leadership – Be Humble. Stay Hungry. Always Hustle

As a new feature of Thinking Business Blog, I plan to publish a brief, one paragraph summary of the business books that I am reading. This will be a very high level synopsis of the book and what I gained from it. I will publish these summaries as I complete the books and not on a predetermined schedule. I trust you will benefit from them.

The first book I reviewed was Procrastinate on Purpose.

The second review was Bill Browder’s book, Red Notice

The third review was Atul Gawande’s book The Checklist Manifesto

The fourth review is H3 Leadership by Brad Lomenick

This is a great leadership book written through the eyes of Lomenick as he transitioned from leadership of an organization called Catalyst to a lengthy sabbatical and then back into the marketplace. It is packed with great stories, meaningful insights and stunning wisdom. My takeaway from this book is his 20 components of H3 Leadership:

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How A Power Gap Can Destroy You and Your Business

“The power gap created by hierarchical leadership results in followers not providing feedback or questioning the leader…leaving the leader isolated and the followers discontent….” Sam Adeyemi

 

A Power Gap is the gap that exists between a leader and their staff. This gap is caused by actions that the leader takes that drives a wedge between them and their employees. The larger the wedge, the larger the gap and the more isolated the leader becomes. Large Power Gaps result in isolation that is dangerous to the leader and to the organization! Power Gaps can create huge blind spots that can cause the leader and the organization to stumble, fall or even be destroyed.

A number of years ago, I reported to a leader whose philosophy was to lead by title only. He felt that because he had a leadership title that he could bark out orders and everyone would just do what he commanded. It was so bad that he rarely even came into the office and, when he did, he rarely spent any time trying to get to know his staff and understand the business. He just barked orders and expected people to do what he said.

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5 Simple Steps To Fail Your Way To Success

“The goal, then, is to uncouple fear and failure – to create an environment in which making mistakes doesn’t strike terror into your employees’ hearts.” Ed Catmull

 

Organizations that value growth and success encourage their employees to innovate, try new things and stretch the boundaries of the business. These organizations embrace failure because they realize without failure an organization cannot grow and reach new levels of success. They also know that if an organization is not growing then it is stagnating . . . and stagnating businesses fail.

My son and a few of his friends started a landscape and lawn care company this summer. They built a website, flyers, posters and brochures. They knocked on doors, distributed flyers and sold their services to as many people as they could. Once they landed enough customers, they went and rented an aerator and power rake and worked their tails off. At the end of the first day they had lost $15! Talk about a disappointing failure!

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The Checklist Manifesto – How To Get Things Right

As a new feature of Thinking Business Blog, I plan to publish a brief, one paragraph summary of the business books that I am reading. This will be a very high level synopsis of the book and what I gained from it. I will publish these summaries as I complete the books and not on a predetermined schedule. I trust you will benefit from them.

The first book I reviewed was Procrastinate on Purpose.

The second review was Bill Browder’s book, Red Notice

The third review is Atul Gawande’s book The Checklist Manifesto

I spent more time readying this book than most. It is really that good! Gawande’s entertaining writing style, engaging examples and the underlying message that we need to systematize as much of our business and activities as possible so that we minimize mistakes and maximize value is something that I really support.

My takeaway from this book is that an organization needs two types of checklists to be successful;

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10 Signs That Your Business Is Mired in Bureaucracy

“If we sense that our structures are rigid, inflexible, or bureaucratic, we must bust them open – without destroying ourselves in the process.” – Ed Catmull

To be successful in today’s highly competitive marketplace, your business must be flexible, innovative and customer friendly. Businesses that are inflexible and difficult to do business with are destined to fail.

Quite a few years ago, I was called by a client and asked to take over an engineering project that they had awarded to one of our competitors. This competitor was not meeting the requirements of the contract and not delivering on schedule or on budget. Once I got involved with the project and did some investigating, I discovered the biggest reason for their failure was they were stuck using their rigid project execution processes that added cost and complexity without returning any value. This competitor was stuck in their rigid, inflexible and bureaucratic structure and could not find a way to break out of it even though they were self-destructing!