Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
I’ve always found all the talk about how to learn to be a leader amusing. That’s because all the book learnin’ doesn’t mean squat unless it accurately translates to actions. Even studying real life leaders only takes you so far, since they approach situations based on who they are and their life experiences and you aren’t them and never will be.
That’s why no matter the expert or their success you still need to at least tweak their solutions to fit your situation and your MAP.
And be sure to read the comment’s at both Steve’s site and mine.
Today Steve Roesler wrote a terrific post briefly recapping a Peter Drucker article in the Harvard Business Review called “Managing Oneself” (Steve included a link to the full article).
A part of that article is The Act of Noticing and it really resonated with me.
“While everyone is blogging, Twittering or tweeting, linking in, booking their faces, and coming up with other digital ways to “connect”, it would be good to ask: “Am I too busy to notice?”
I bookmarked an article last week that included solid research about the bulk of the population preferring to buy goods and services through face-to-face contact. Now I can’t find it because I was so darned connected online I didn’t actually pay attention to the title or where I filed it.
This leads into the video below. I was reminded of Emotional Intelligence pioneer Daniel Goleman’s TED talk a couple of years ago. If you want to know the connectedness between emotions, business, and “noticing”, this will be time very well spent. Close your door. Now. Tell you’re boss you are doing professional development. You are.”
I recently wrote that“No one is expecting you to solve the problems, but you can reach out and touch just one life. If everyone over 21 did that we would be well on the way to change.”
All I can add is that we better start noticing before all the lights are turned off for good.
Now go see your friends and tell them; have a ‘noticing’ contest together with a ‘doing’ contest.
It comes with the impeccable credentials of TED and is called, rightly so, TED-Ed.
It’s a link to a world for you to explore with your kids and other learning-oriented friends.
It’s one of those links that you should blast out to everyone in each of your networks and Tweet so the world will know.
“Our goal here is to offer teachers free tools in a way they will find empowering,” said TED Curator Chris Anderson, on the new TED Ed site. “This new platform allows them to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s, and easily create a customized lesson plan around it. Great teaching skills are never displaced by technology. On the contrary, they’re amplified by it. That’s our purpose here: to give teachers an exciting new way to extend learning beyond classroom hours.”
Yes, it’s a fantastic tool for actual teachers (send those you know the link), but, in the end, we are all teachers and learners.
Saturday I recommended spending some of your valuable time on TED, so I thought I’d offer a sample of it that I really liked.
Derek Sivers received a standing ovation for his 3 minute talk on leadership using the video below.
Too often people over focus on the moving pictures, so be sure to pay full attention to what Sivers is saying in conjunction with what is happening in the video.
Because the words are so important you can read a transcript at Siver’s site (along with other good stuff). I hope you take a moment to do so.
I’m not backing down on my contention that leadership is for all, but I completely agree that everyone can’t be leaders simultaneously and that following is just as important, if not more so.
Leadership is over-glorified.
Yes it started with the shirtless guy, and he’ll get all the credit, but you saw what really happened:
It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader.
There is no movement without the first follower.
We’re told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective.
The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.
When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.
I’m not sure whether it’s amusing or ironic (or both) but breakout companies all seem to be focused on culture. And when they are successful, no matter the business, they are immediately in high demand to tell others how they do it—think Tony Hsieh and Zappos.
Last Saturday I told you about Nick Sarillo, whose two pizza restaurants in Chicago do $7 million a year with 20% turnover vs. the casual dining industry average of 200%. As a result of the Inc magazine profile he is keynote speaker at the Pizza Executive Summit this summer. I’m sure he’ll be in demand other places. I love the title—“Culture 2.0: Branding your company’s way of life;” think about it.
Along with being a culture fanatic I also believe that anyone can lead given the opportunity, challenge and a supportive culture in which the messenger is never killed.
An NYT interview with Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive of Zynga offers insight into his approach of making all his people CEOs.
“I’d turn people into C.E.O.’s. One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets, and I said, “By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.” And that way, everyone knows whose C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me. And it was really effective. People liked it. And there was nowhere to hide.”
Stories from CEOs of their most life-changing day in their careers. Sometimes the result was promotion to the upper reaches of business, and sometimes a steep fall from grace.
TED has become a phenomenon and it’s on now. Plan to spend some time listening to an eclectic group of creative thinkers.
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.
The annual conferences in Long Beach and Oxford bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
In a final tip of the hat to Valentine’s Day tomorrow, check out substitutes for Viagra that taste great.
I love brain science. Not the neurosurgical kind that McDreamy practices on Gray’s Anatomy, but the research being done into the WHY of what we do and our reactions to others.
And react we do; we also judge both their words and actions.
As a result of my fascination with this, I was delighted by this TED video and thought you would enjoy it, too.
“Rebecca Saxe shares fascinating lab work that uncovers how the brain thinks about other peoples’ thoughts — and judges their actions.”
Monday Steve Roesler wrote a terrific post briefly recapping a Peter Drucker article in the Harvard Business Review called “Managing Oneself” (Steve included a link to the full article).
A part of that article is The Act of Noticing and it really resonated with me.
“While everyone is blogging, Twittering or tweeting, linking in, booking their faces, and coming up with other digital ways to “connect”, it would be good to ask: “Am I too busy to notice?”
I bookmarked an article last week that included solid research about the bulk of the population preferring to buy goods and services through face-to-face contact. Now I can’t find it because I was so darned connected online I didn’t actually pay attention to the title or where I filed it.
This leads into the video below. I was reminded of Emotional Intelligence pioneer Daniel Goleman’s TED talk a couple of years ago. If you want to know the connectedness between emotions, business, and “noticing”, this will be time very well spent. Close your door. Now. Tell you’re boss you are doing professional development. You are.” x
I recently wrote that“No one is expecting you to solve the problems, but you can reach out and touch just one life. If everyone over 21 did that we would be well on the way to change.”
All I can add is that we better start noticing before all the lights are turned off for good.
Now go see your friends and tell them; have a ‘noticing’ contest together with a ‘doing’ contest.
Before you can practice random acts of kindness you need to notice.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
I have only 
I love brain science. Not the neurosurgical kind that McDreamy practices on Gray’s Anatomy, but the research being done into the WHY of what we do and our reactions to others.
