Kiss That Frog

Missed a promotion at work?  Leading a team of employees that is frustrating you?  Out of work and searching for a new job?  Mind full of negative thoughts?

Then, take a couple hours to read the Brian Tracy's newest book, Kiss That Frog!

In the book, Tracy and co-author, Christina Tracy Stein, present a step-by-step plan that addresses the root causes of negatively to help you:

• uncover blocks that have become mental obstacles
• transform those obstacles into stepping-stones to achieve your fullest potential at work and in your personal life

"Perhaps the greatest discovery in psychology and individual fulfillment is that the biggest obstacles that stand between you and an extraordinary life are usually negative mental attitudes toward yourself and others," explains Tracy.

The authors also explain that:

• One of the most helpful habits you can develop is choosing to seek the valuable lesson in everything that happens to you, especially negative experiences.
• It's not what happens to you in life that determines how you feel; it is how you respond to what happens.

Kiss That Frog! is an inspiring, motivating and uplifting read.  A good reminder of the importance of removing negativity from a leader's work and personal life.

Thanks to the authors for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Book Review: The First-Time Manager

Amacom (of the American Management Association) has just released the sixth edition of the best-selling book, The First-Time Manager -- originally published in 1981.

The book covers eight core responsibilities of a new manager, including:

• Hiring
• Communicating
• Planning
• Organizing
• Training
• Monitoring
• Evaluating
• Firing

Expert advice is additionally provided regarding:

• Using Your New Authority
• Managing Your Mood
• Building Trust

One of my favorite sections of the book is the one about class in a manager:

• Class is treating people with dignity.
• Class does not have to be the center of attention.
• Class does not lose its cool.
• Class does not rationalize mistakes.
• Class is good manners.
• Class means loyalty to one's staff.
• Class recognizes the best way to build oneself is to first build others.
• Class leads by example.
• Class does not taken action when angry.
• Class is authentic and works hard at making actions consistent with words.

The First-Time Manager is an excellent how-to guide for anyone new to managing people.

Other books for new managers include any from the Top 20 list of Leadership Books, as voted on by LinkedIn Linked 2 Leadership group members, who were asked the question:

• What's the first leadership book you would give to a new manager?

Taming The Email Monster

According to internal communication expert and consultant David Grossman of The Grossman Group, and as recently reported on NBC Nightly News, workplace email is out of control. 

• And, it's time to tame the email monster explains Grossman.

"You'd love to spend your day doing your job so that maybe, just maybe you could get home and enjoy uninterrupted time with your family or get out with friends," says Grossman.  "Instead, you spend so much time every day managing your inbox that everything else in your life--real work, family, play--is practically an afterthought."

Grossman has written a new free ebook where he tackles the email beast--showing what some companies are doing to:

• rein in the email monster
• make better use of working hours
• cut back on the stress on employees caused by a 24/7 cycle of endless emails

The ebook also includes tools and strategies for managing email in your workplace, and explains when it makes sense to use email--and when we should take advantage of the myriad other communication tools at our disposal.

Finally, in the ebook, Grossman talks about the CEO of French technology giant Atos, who plans to phase out internal emails by 2014.  The moved is a result of internal research that revealed time spent on emails by employees lessened time needed to be spent on management.

How To Create An Effective Company Blog

If you lead a business and aren’t among the many companies using a blog for marketing purposes, your business likely will within the next year.
Awhile back, Emarketer estimated that the proportion of all U.S. companies that will use dedicated blogs as a marketing channel will reach 43% this year.


Businesses using blogs for communications, lead generation, customer service and branding primarily do so for these reasons:
• corporate control of the tool
• its integration with company web properties
• no limits on post lengths
• the ability to maintain a full, searchable repository of information

Successful blogs generally follow these tips and guidelines:
1. Make your blog as non-promotional as possible.
2. Keep it relevant to the reader.
3. Answer your customers’ questions or address their pain points.
4. Be sure it’s well-written.
5. Make it relevant to your company or products.
6. Offer proof or third-party validation to claims you make.
7. Keep each blog posting under 500 words.
8. End each post with a question that encourages dialogue with your readers.
9. Post regularly. Shoot for at least three times each week.
10. Talk in your normal voice.
11. Use real language. Don’t talk over people’s heads.

And once you’ve launched your blog, follow these tips for promoting it:
1. Promote your blog URL on your website.
2. Include the blog URL in your email signature. Encourage your employees to do the same.
3. Put your blog URL on your business cards, direct mail and print advertising.
4. Post your blog on Facebook.
5. Post your blog to your LinkedIn status.
6. Put your blog URL on company invoices as well as other correspondence to customers.
7. Talk about your blog when you speak at events.

Finally, remember that your blog is a promise to customers that you will communicate with them honestly and regularly. So, before you launch a blog be sure you have the time, staff and resources to post consistently and for the long-term.

Are Your Supervisors Driving Away Your Employees?

One section in Richard Finnegan's book called, Rethinking Retention in Good Times and Bad, compares traditional thinking versus new ways to think about retention and the vital role supervisors play in retaining employees. For example:

Traditional Thinking: Human Resources-driven programs like pay and recognition are essential for retention.
Rethinking Retention: Ineffective supervisors trump programs and drive turnover.

Traditional Thinking: All aspects of company culture contribute equally to retention.
Rethinking Retention: Supervisor-employee relationships have a disproportionate impact on retention; the supervisor is the company.

Traditional Thinking: Centralized communication and career programs impact all employees equally.
Rethinking Retention: Supervisors drive what employees know and learn and help them prepare for careers.

Are your supervisors helping to retain employees or driving them away?

Leadership And Communication Quotes From John C. Maxwell

The real gems in John C. Maxwell's book, Everyone Communicates Few Connect, book are the abundant leadership and communication quotes, such as these:

To add value to others, one must first value others.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

All good communicators get to the point before their listeners start asking, "What's the point?"

The first time you say something, it's heard. The second time, it's recognized, and the third time it's learned.

In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand.

People pay attention when something that is said connects with something they greatly desire.

Maxwell also says that:

Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.

The book covers five principles and five practices to help readers so they can connect one-on-one, in a group, or with an audience.

Leaders: How Will The Value Of Your Days Be Measured?

I recommend that all leaders every so often read the What Will Matter poem by Michael Josephson. 

It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of unselfishly serving and leading with character.

I've highlighted in bold and in color my favorite parts of the poem:

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

50 Ways To Brainstorm

According to Brian Cole Miller in his new book, Quick Brainstorming Activities For Busy Managers, there are 50 ways to improve your brainstorming at your company or in your organization.

My favorite is the Paper Swap brainstorming activity:

• A brainstorming technique where participants write their input on separate pieces of paper; then they swap papers and continue to add input.

Miller provides 49 other techniques in his book (released by Amacom last month), all of which take less than 15 minutes to complete. 

For all brainstorming sessions, Miller reminds leaders that you should:

• Focus on quantity not quality
• Don't allow criticism
• Encourage wild ideas
• Combine ideas for more ideas

Miller also suggests that the best starting question for a brainstorming session is a Focus Question -- one that:

• Uses the participants' own language
• Is personal to the participants and not the organization
• Evokes responses with imagery

This is a must-read book for any manager who needs to effectively lead brainstorming sessions.

Thanks to the author for providing a preview copy of the book to me.

How To Make E-mail Communication More Effective

Are you leading an organization where e-mail communication is ineffective?

Here are some wise guidelines that Verizon Wireless has used to promote effective, efficient and responsible e-mail use within its company.

You can find these guidelines in the book, Managers, Can You Hear Me Now?, written by Denny F. Strigl, former CEO and President of Verizon Wireless.

• E-mail should bring closure to work, not create more work.
• Before you write an e-mail, ask yourself if calling or visiting the recipient will bring better communication.
• Keep e-mails short. Make your point in just the subject line or the space in the preview pane.
• Don't assume other people are staring at their screens, waiting for your e-mail.
• If just one person needs information or clarification, don't send your e-mail to a group.
• Never send e-mail when you're angry.
• Assume anything you put in writing will be leaked to the press or to your competitors.
• Stay accountable. Sending an e-mail doesn't transfer responsibility.
• E-mail is never an acceptable excuse for not getting something done. If you need a reply to an e-mail before you can do your job, get the information another way.
• Don't spend more than five minutes dealing with an e-mail. When you go over this limit, stop and make a phone call.
• Don't judge how much you've accomplished by how many e-mails you've sent.

Great Leaders Grow. Guest Post By Author Ken Blanchard

On Monday, February 26, Ken Blanchard's and Mark Miller's book, Great Leaders Grow, hits the brick and mortar and online bookstores.

In honor of the book release I welcome guest blogger Ken Blanchard.

How to Evaluate Your Leadership StyleBy Ken Blanchard,
Co-author of Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life

Today, I'm going to give a short, one-question quiz. Here's the question: How do you rate as a leader?

I don't ask this question flippantly. It is a question I've asked countless people at the leadership seminars we conduct.

As leaders, most people rank themselves as being very close to a minor deity or at least Mr. or Ms. Human Relations. Seldom do leaders give themselves low marks. Strangely enough, when the tables are turned and people are asked to rank their boss's leadership style, we often find many supervisors graded as being adequate, merely OK, or at worst, office autocrats who depend heavily on the often-referenced "seagull management" technique as their sole line of attack -- they leave their people alone until something goes wrong, and then they fly in, make a lot of noise, dump all over everyone, and fly out.

More often than not, we find that leaders lull themselves into thinking they are top-flight leaders because they think they use a supportive or coaching style, which someone told them are "good" leadership styles. Not too surprisingly, this isn't the way they are seen by those in their department, office or store.

To get a true and accurate answer about the question above, it is necessary for you as a supervisor to honestly determine how your employees perceive your leadership style. These are the folks who know you best. They have first-hand experience with your leadership style and operate on their own perceptions about it. They are the best judges of your managerial effectiveness. However, getting an employee or subordinate to give his or her honest feedback on your leadership style is difficult. People fear being the messenger who will get shot for bearing bad news. Hence, they are naturally reluctant to be totally candid.

Employees are sharp observers. In the past, they may have gone to their leader and made an honest suggestion such as, "Ken, I think our Thursday afternoon meetings are a waste of time." If the supervisor answers with an outburst by saying, "What do you mean a waste of time? Are you kidding? Those meetings are important," it doesn't take a genius to figure out that one thing the leader doesn't want to hear is the truth.

It is important to remember that when people you supervise tell you what they honestly think about your style of leadership, they're really giving you a gift. When someone gives you a gift, what is the first thing you should say? "Thank you," of course! Then it's a very good idea to follow up by saying, "Is there anything else you think I should know?" When a person learns that you won't become defensive or hostile when he or she gives you an honest evaluation about your style, you'll find that you'll be given many nuggets of truth which are extremely valuable. My advice would be to encourage people to give (feedback) at the office, and to give often!

Just remember, what you think about your own leadership style really doesn't matter. In addition, there is no one correct style, nor is there a "good" or a "bad" style. Rather, style is judged by those immediately influenced by it. It's your people's response to your style that matters. If you are getting the right response consistently -- high productivity and morale -- then you're doing just fine. If not, then perhaps it's your style that needs changing, not your employees.

Ken Blanchard, co-author of Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life, is cofounder and chief spiritual officer of the Ken Blanchard Companies. He is the author or coauthor of 50 books that have sold more than 20 million copies, including the iconic One Minute Manager®.

As originally published on "How We Lead"
© 2012 Ken Blanchard, co-author of Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life