Tom Peters Recommends

I am a big fan of Tom Peters and when he suggests something, I listen carefully. Below is the list of books Tom recently recommended:

• The Manager's Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies    S. Harrison
• Respect S. Lawrence-Lightfoot
• Hostmanship: The Art of Making People Feel Welcome J. Gunnarsson, O. Blohm
• The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything S. Covey
• The Dream Manager M. Kelly
• The Customer Comes Second H. Rosenbluth, D. McFerrin Peters
• Crucial Conversations K. Patterson, J. Grenny, R. McMillan, Al Switzler
• Crucial Confrontations The same four people
• Influence: Science and Practice R. Cialdini
• Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ D. Goleman

Enjoy!

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Coaching Vocabulary: Gremlin

It slowly creeps in... you thought you had it under control and yet again the internal chatter begins. What does your gremlin say today? Are you not good enough? Not smart? Not creative? We all know that this is not healthy. You need to stop it right now - but how?

Well it helps to know that none of the above is relevant -  you don’t have to be good enough, smart or even creative for that matter, to be successful in life. You have to work hard and smart at something you are crazy about and with time (approx 10,000 hours that is) it might turn into tangible and in some cases spectacular results. 

What works for me in keeping my gremlin in check, is staying focused on the journey and the learning process. When learning is all I’m after, I’m always happy with the end result. After all, every experience, good and bad, is going to eventually teach us something important (provided we take time to reflect on it).

Bear in mind though that it pays off to get to know your gremlin well. Acknowledge it, thank even for keeping you out of trouble on many an occasion. And then part ways - learn how to distance yourself and make it  external voice. It is up to you to decide when you want to listen. 

You can be whoever you choose to be and no one is going to stop you, not even yourself!

 

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What do you do when no one is looking?

I want to look at another angle of the story of Charles Perrault’s life and late literary success. Charles is the author of Cinderella and I am inspired by Daniel Pink's take on the subject of finding passion (you can check out the full article here).

In my post on legacy I summarized Charles’s story:

Charles was born in 1628 in Paris and worked as a civil servant in King Louis' Ministry of Finance. He lost his position there at the age of 67 and devoted the rest of his life to writing children's fairy tales. According to Wikipedia he published Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals in 1697 and "its publication made him suddenly widely-known beyond his own circles and marked the beginnings of a new literary genre, the fairy tale." Apart from Cinderella, his well known stories included Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots. Charles died in Paris at the age of 75, and enjoyed his fame for the last 8 years of his life.

Daniel Pink openly shares his attitude to the question of finding passion, and emphasises the role of looking at what one is already drawn to and does out of interest, for free, in spare time. It was also his personal experience in the beginning of his career, which started in politics:

“I wrote magazine articles about business and work, and formulated ideas for books. At one level, it was foolish. I lost sleep, sacrificed leisure, and probably distracted myself from my paid employment.”

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, who is quoted by Pink, sees more people going down that path:

"I'm seeing quite an increase in the number of people turning a hobby into a business," she says. "You start innocently by making cakes or taking photos in your spare time. Friends and family admire the results and recommend you to others. Before you know it, you are your own boss and making a living from what you do."

Finding and acting on one's passion might be a very frustrating process. As an Executive Coach I can testify to that sentiment - it is a subject of many a conversation with my clients. Not for their lack of passion though, but either an inability to look in the right direction or fear of unknown, letting go of what's familiar and comfortable. Stakes might be high sometimes.

In the case of Charles Perrault, I wonder why and when he first started putting his stories on paper.  Was it out of necessity at the end of his life, or was it his life-long passion, pursued quietly in his spare time. I can only guess that the latter is most probable. But if he were living today and followed Dan Pink's blog, he would  probably have realized the need to look more seriously at the activities he did when no one was looking - and do so much earlier in his life.

What are the things that you do when no one is looking?

ELLE DECOR

Why do you need to know Gary Vaynerchuk?

Every time it happens I am completely surprised - there are people out there who still don't know Gary or did not hear about his Wine Library. Since he is promoting his 2^nd book and his Wine Library celebrated its fifth anniversary earlier this year, it is a great moment to write about him.

Who is Gary?

Gary is a young entrepreneur from New York who successfully grew his father’s business almost entirely using video (Wine Library) and social media to spread his message. It helped that the business was already established - his father's liquor store was bringing in $2 million in annual revenue. But Gary's contribution was impressive nevertheless - he has grown the business to $60 million in an astonishingly short time.

Why is he important?

I have not read Gary’s latest Thank You Economy yet, but I found Crush It!, his first book, really interesting. For me, it nicely complemented Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation and after reading it I felt that I had a much broader and clearer picture of the social media phenomenon, as well as the process of building a personal brand via this medium. Gary is really good at nurturing his brand and he is a patient teacher. He also embodies the idea of thinking big, which is inspiring.

Additionally, Gary is very intentional about not selling wine via his Wine Library video episodes, which is a novel idea to some. He educates his audience on wine and that’s all there is to it. He builds his brand as an expert and engages his tribe of followers in a passionate and authentic way.  As the result of that, sales have soared.

If you are Gary’s fan already or just interested in getting to know him more, here is an interesting article and a recent interview.

ELLE DECOR

Coaching Vocabulary: Gratitude

There is a lot of noise in our life. And I mean A LOT OF NOISE. Interestingly, that noise seems to intensify as we grow older. We have families, serious responsibilities, and very little time - especially to ourselves. And when we get that stolen moment, do we not usually run errands that are overdue? We are busy, with no time to reflect.

How often do we get time to switch the noise off? Completely off, so we can hear the sound of silence, be in the moment. Is it when we’re caught off guard – something happens unexpectedly and we are forced to pause and think? Suddenly we see things for what they really are. Do we like what we see? It’s not even relevant - when we start paying closer attention and notice life as it unfolds, we usually come to that basic realization that there is always plenty to be thankful for, no matter what.

Why not pause without a reason?

ELLE DECOR

Coaching Vocabulary: Reflective Practitioner

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier, authors of Rework  believe that learning from mistakes is overrated. They advise to not listen to fail early and fail often, and argue that the only thing that you learn from a mistake is what you should not do again, but you are no wiser about what you actually should do. 

Failure does not make us more successful second time around

 “Failure is not a prerequisite for success. A Harvard Business School study found already-successful entrepreneurs are far more likely to succeed again (the success rate for their future companies is 34 percent). But entrepreneurs whose companies failed the first time had almost the same follow-on success rate as people starting a company for the first time: just 23 percent. People who failed before have the same amount of success as people who have never tried at all.” 

Success makes us less reflective

Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pissano agree, but raise an interesting point and an obvious obstacle - success makes us less reflective. In their recent article the authors say: "We all know that learning from failure is one of the most important capacities for people and companies to develop, let surprisingly, learning from success can present even greater challenges."

It is called the failure-to-ask-why syndrome

One of those challenges, according to the authors, is the failure-to-ask-why syndrome: "the tendency not to investigate the causes of good performance systematically." (...) "When you're confronted with failure, it's natural to ask why disaster struck. Unfortunately, success does not trigger such soul-searching. Success is commonly interpreted as evidence not only that your existing strategy and practices work, but also that you have all the knowledge and information you need." 

Taking time to reflect is the answer

Regardless of whether we failed or succeeded, it is the process of taking time to reflect and learn from those experiences that seems to be the key ingredient here, and a way to predict our future performance. This is an area where we are all gifted to a different degree, but the good news is that the ability to reflect is a skill that can be honed. Should you be interested, you can start by trying out this Free Reflective Practice Course from MIT.

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Fast Company Leadership Hall of Fame

Fast Company has a Leadership Hall of Fame. Below are the authors who I admire from that list. The links take you to excerpts from their books, as well as to an interview with each author. It is good to see what they are up to and what books they would recommend you to read:

Tom Peters, In Search of Excellence

Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Seth Godin, Purple Cow

Tim Ferris, 4-Hour Workweek

Dan Heath, Made To Stick

Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone

I have to be honest here - I have not read anything by Richard Florida yet. He is on my list though. If you don't know him either, you can check what Fast Company recommends:

Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class

Enjoy!

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