Posts in category Book Review

Book Review: Patriot Hearts by John Furlong

Jan09
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

A couple of weeks ago, a friend gave me this book Patriot Hearts by John Furlong with Gary Mason. She said, when I heard this guy speak and started reading his book, I thought of you and that you would enjoy it. Without question, I did enjoy reading this one. The general overview of the book takes an account of everything from the bid process, to winning the bid, to building and hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. When I was reading this book, I could easily related to much of what John and his team were doing. I grew up just 1 mile (straight across the St. Lawrence River) from the Canadian border. Most of my youth was spent in Canada. When he was talking about the spirit  and Canadian culture – I could easily recall all of that. Since it was about the Winter Olympics, it had plenty of sports references – another passion of mine (especially – hockey). Lastly, my wife and I were in Vancouver in October 2009, just months before the Olympics. We got to see much of the area. All making this book something to draw me in. To pull of something as large as the Olympics is not a small task. To pull of one of the best Olympic games, even tougher. I watched those games… I enjoyed those games as a fan… Even though I am not Canadian, I was still very proud of what was pulled off. I know many Canadians, I grew up very close. I attend my first outdoor rock concert in Ottawa. I watched my first professional hockey and baseball games in Montreal. I drank my first beer (a Canadian Molson’s) on a Canadian island on the St. Lawrence.  I was really pleased with how the country circled around the games as a whole. This book, let you into the stuff behind the scenes.

My key takeaways – from a leadership perceptive – are setting a very grand vision and not settling for anything less. John and the team want these games to make every Canadian proud. To show the world the Canadian spirit. To host the best possible games that they could. At every turn down that journey, there were potential to compromise or change for  political, social or financial reasons. These created opportunities for new and innovative ways to handle them. John and his team did that without losing sight of their vision. Sure, they had to make some sacrifices, but overall the vision and delivery of that did not change. Keep that vision at the forefront of your decision making!

They had their fair share of problems that they needed to deal with. Weather and the unfortunate tragedy with the luge competitor from Georgia. The team dealt with them the best that they could. The opening ceremony had that faulty arm of the cauldron. They turned that around with the closing ceremony. Turning lemons into lemonade. What they did was keep their vision in mind with everything, everyone did.

There is so much more to take from this book, that I did not write about. Examples of great leadership, motivating and problem solving techniques. Read them for yourself.

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Book Review: Do The Work by Steven Pressfield

Nov07
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

This weekend I finished up reading “Do The Work” by Steven Pressfield. I follow the Domino Project and saw this when it first came out. Do the work is definitely an eye catching title, especially for those of us that are kicking off several projects. So, I downloaded the book for my Kindle (unfortunately, the book sat waiting on me to clear my backlog of reading). Once I dove into reading the book, I truly enjoyed it. This is my kind of book. Short, direct and bold. This book is a wake up call for creative people. So, if you think you are a creative person, this one is for you.

I really enjoyed most, that the book addresses nagging and lonely thoughts that we all have about the resistance. Anyone who creates anything struggles with resistance. Presssfield refers to that resistance as a “dragons.” You must slay the dragon in order to move on with what you are trying to ship.

This is a very short book! Much like my book review. Go ahead and download it and you should be able to read it in an hour or two. So, if you are stuck in your project, business or whatever you doing… Then get this book, it will help you.

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Book Review: MOJO by Marshall Goldsmith

Nov04
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Timing is everything. This book has come in handy in many ways. Have you ever started to read a book and slowed down  to do what was asked of you in the book? MOJO How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith (affiliate link) is one of those books for me. Let’s set a bit of the background as to why. For those that are frequent  readers of stevebellnow.com you know that I retired back in January. After spending 28.5 years with my employer, I felt that it was time for me to do something different. Reading MOJO really hit home for me. I really could relate to ever section, chapter, case studies and exercise within the book.

Your mojo is described that inner spirit or drive we have to do what we do best starting from the inside and expressing that outward.  I think this is because I actually really love the concept of mojo and internal motivation that drives us to excel. For me, I really did pause and answer the questions about me. Goldsmith’s keys in the book are identity, achievement, reputation and acceptance. Starting with identity, there is a very tough question to answer, “Who do you think you are?” For me, pausing there definitely was a sole searching adventure. I had plenty to think about (past, present and future). When it comes to achievement, you are asking, “what have you done lately?” Really focusing in those things that made you most excited internally. The third element is reputation. It is that all important question of “what do others think you are?” All to easy to really give yourself what you “think” people think of you. What is really in their heads? The last element is acceptance. It really centers on what change you change and what is beyond your control. Questions that you must be completely honest with yourself. Took me sometime to ground myself, but afterwards I was moving full steam ahead.

There is an excellent section on maintaining your mojo and being consistent with yourself and others to ensure nothing prevents your mojo and he explores 10 reason you can quickly lose your mojo which are particularly useful to avoid.  Goldsmith  covers through repeated example a concept of “change it” or “change you” which is really saying that you must decide to change something about your situation to move towards more mojo or you have to change yourself to have different motivators or expectations.  And finally in the book, mojo is explored by using a technique of framing it and naming it.  If you recognize bad habits that kill mojo and give them a name to remind you of that, you can use that name yourself or teach others to use that name to help point that behavior out when it occurs and snap you out of a situation killing mojo.  The section on the tools is particularly helpful for you to really step through the process. Like I said earlier, I paused a great deal during my reading of the book to work on my mojo as it goes with the book. I probably just need to reread the book for enjoyment.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the book. I felt it was something that I needed for myself at this particular time in my life. I need to get my mojo back… I know of a few of my ex-coworkers that could use this book as well. I already have purchased another book for someone that is about to retire as well. This was a help to me, maybe it can be a help to him.

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Book Review: The Art of Non-Conformity

Feb24
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Not sure where all my time is going. I thought I would be better at reading more books, since my retirement. One that has been waiting for me to read is The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. Maybe my slowness to get through the book, has been that I have been using the book to help me navigate the book with my personal life today. I have been very slowly and methodically going over each chapter and apply most of his concepts to my current situation.

For those that don’t know.. I am retired from corporate America. I used Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pam Slim (see my book review) to get me started down the path of getting out of the cube farm. Apply many of her steps to helping make that jump. I am now, using Chris’ book to help me jump forward. The Art of Non-Conformity is based on his popular blog with the underlying message of “You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.” I am working on my second life or second career and I am not going to follow the path of others or what is expected of me. I am doing this my way!  His book, walks you through some very common sense approaches to getting what “you” want out of life.

I found that while reading his book, I would stop and take notes and work on some of my own ideas. I quickly learned that I was just not going to sit down and read this book. I actually was applying his concepts or answering his questions while I was reading. Got me thinking and writing… Which I guess, made my time reading the book – longer. For me, I highly recommend that you read this book. You don’t have to be retired to go out after your unconventional  path. In fact, I wish I would have read this back 10+ years ago, hell maybe 20+. I think stuff would be much different today.

Thanks Chris for writing this book!

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Book Review: Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Oct18
2010 4 Comments Written by Steve

 

Another vacation completed and another book read. I have had this locked and loaded on my Kindle for quite sometime, but just have not been able to get to it. Now I have and boy was I glad that I read this one. This book review is on Seth Godin’s, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

I definitely will come out and say it – I would flat out recommend this book to everyone! I have many reasons for that recommendation. I have read other books by Godin and this one is by far his most personal one. I thought he was sitting on the airplane, cruise ship and beach talking to me as I read. I spent many a moment during my reading of it, to stop and think about it more than any other book I have read.

Within those parts, I feel they are brilliant – they changed how I think about my core message. They made me think back over the past year, and help me put into perspective the actions I wanted to take and what I am doing with my next chapter in my journey. I was able to have some real discussion with some of the folks on vacation around what a Linchpin is, what that looks like to me and them. Helped to really reinforce my decision to retire from Intel now, rather than later.

Here is Godin’s bottom line from the book:

“I didn’t set out to get you to quit your job or to persuade you to become an entrepreneur or merely to change the entire world. All I wanted to do in this book was sell you on being the artist you already are. To make a difference. To stand for something. To get the respect and security you deserve. If I’ve succeeded, then you know that you have a gift to give, something you can do to change the world (or your part of it) for the better. I hope you’ll do that, because we need you. (p. 230).”

  • I already decided to retire. I had been really thinking about leaving for quite sometime. Fear of the economy, fear of job availability and overall fear – kept me from acting. That lizard brain doing all the thinking for me. Well, if I would have read this book when I first downloaded it, I would have been acting differently. Would I have not retired? No! That is the decision that needed to be made.

 A linchpin is someone that is remarkable. They bring the emotional labor to their work. They pour themselves into what they do because they know it is the right thing to do, and they become better people for living and working this way. This also makes them very scarce, and that scarcity makes them valuable – indispensable. He also adds, “You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to become indispensable is to be different. That’s because if you’re the same, so are plenty of other people.

  • I have tried to be an artist or a linchpin! As a manager to all of the teams that I have been part of. I have been rewarded throughout my career for doing many of those actions that were mentioned in the book. I want more of that! I am hungry for more… I have enjoyed teaching the “New to Management” series – which has allowed me to give back to the overall Intel Community (at least the “newbie” managers).

There is so much more to this book that I could go on with – but that would not be right. This book has given me a better understanding of myself (and some of the whys I do what I do); what I want to do and what makes me happy. I have an outline for my map…

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Book Review: The Truth About Leadership

Aug13
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Sorry for the delayed posting – last book on my read 3 books on sabbatical.  This book was The Truth About Leadership by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.  One question that they get is “What is new in leadership?” Context has changed, but content has not. The fundamental behaviors, actions and practices of leaders pretty much remained the same. I really enjoyed seeing “The NO-FADS Heart-of-the-Matter FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW” – eye catching. From their research over the past 30 years, over a million responses to their assessment – comes the book and the ten truths!

  1. You Make a Difference. Before you lead you have to believe that you can have a positive impact on others. This is one of the first things I want to hear from anyone that wants to lead. I will be teaching a few New Manager classes over the rest of the year, I wonder how many times I will hear make a difference?
  2. Credibility Is the Foundation of Leadership. If people don’t believe in you, they won’t willingly follow you. You must do what you say you are going to do. Actions speak much larger than words. Just think for every person that you have in your organization, multiply by 2… That is the number of eyes watching you.
  3.  Values Drive Commitment. You need to know what you believe in because you can only fully commit to the organization or cause when there is a good fit between what you value and the organization values. Many companies have their own set of values that you should follow – that is always a good starting point.
  4. Focusing on the Future Sets Leaders Apart. You have to be forward looking; it’s the quality that most differentiates leaders from individual contributors. You need to spend time reflecting on the future. Blocking time on your calendar for reflecting is critical. Leaders that just run from meeting to meeting – really are either in the day to day or worse – the past.
  5. You Can’t Do It Alone. Leadership is a team sport, and you need to engage others in the cause. You need to enable others to be even better than they already are. Insuring that your team is built on many different strengths (and having the weaknesses of others covered) – will make the overall team powerful. Getting that power fully engaged  will be something to see.
  6. Trust Rules. To enlist others, you need trust. Build mutual trust; you must trust others too. I had an experience, during a trust workshop that the orgs leader actually committed on I should not have to worry about this. Wow, that set a tone for me.
  7. Challenge Is the Crucible of Greatness. Great achievements don’t happen when you keep things the same. Change invariably involves challenge, and challenge tests you. Most people just would rather have their teeth pulled than to change – one way to make change happen is to set challenging goals – make a game out of it. 
  8. You Either Lead by Example or You Don’t Lead at All. You have to go first as a leader. That’s what it takes to get others to follow your lead. All eyes are on the leader – think of it as a mirror – what the leader projects’ will be what others do. Make sure you project the right image you want!
  9. The Best Leaders Are the Best Learners. Learning is the master skill of leadership. Leaders are constant improvement fanatics. Never stop learning… The content has been around awhile – how you use it will be what is important. It is taking the learning’s and applying to action that counts.
  10. Leadership Is an Affair of the Heart. Leaders love what they’re doing and those they lead. Leaders make others feel great themselves and are gracious in showing their appreciation. 

Looking back at the truths, these should be the motivation behind the right kinds of behaviors that go with good and sustainable leadership.

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Book Review: Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation

Jul28
2010 1 Comment Written by Steve

Another one of my reading list down!

About two weeks ago, I completed Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, by Sally Hogshead. When my wife asked me what I was reading, she did a double take after I mentioned the title. After I explained the book, she just said another marketing read, I see. The research that went into this book is outstanding. She really took a hard look at what makes us fascinated.

Sally Hogshead  recognizes that for companies and their brands, it is simply not enough to offer quality, or even a unique product or service. If a brand is not fascinating to people, it will suffer low sales volume, and perhaps even complete business failure. No longer is a good idea or a good product enough. The company and its brands must be found fascinating and trigger at least one of the seven emotional triggers of fascination. Those seven triggers are:

  • Lust – creates craving for sensory pleasure
  • Mystique – lures with unanswered questions
  • Alarm – threatens with negative consequences
  • Power – commands and controls
  • Vice – tempts with “forbidden fruits” causing us to rebel against norms
  • Trust – comforts us with certainty and reliability
  • Prestige- earns respect through symbols of achievement

For me, I enjoyed how Sally Hogshead combined her scientific research with real world examples to present her case. I am a sucker for the pairing of theory and practical ideas, for understanding the power of fascination in both our personal and professional lives. While reading I was visualizing how the concepts would work for both an individual and businesses. I would recommend this one highly!

Do you want to know your F-Score? Go ahead and check it out. I did and found out that my primary fascination is MYSTIQUE. My secondary trigger is POWER.

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Book Review: Accountability Important? Hell Yes!

Jul26
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve
One of my goals of this sabbatical was to do some reading. I have accomplished that – read three books (other 2 book reviews to come). The book, Sam Silverstein’s The Five Accountabilities,  that I just completed, was on a subject that I have written from time to time on accountability (What No Personal Responsibility and Staying in Touch).  Reading this book, I was definitely excited to see that he has put to action some of the items that (from my experience) are talked about but rarely implemented. The five accountabilities are: 
  1. Doing the Right Things. Begin by identifying your strategic intent. What are you trying to accomplish and by when? We are accountable for understanding and identifying our strategic intent—and the activities that support it.
  2. Managing Your Space. We are accountable to create the new space we need to grow and innovate in our own lives, which sometimes means taking space from something else that we’re doing. “Force of habit prevents us from giving ourselves the physical, mental, financial, or emotional space necessary to shake things up a little bit and put something new in our lives—something that could provide growth and improvement.”
  3. Managing the Process. We are accountable for creatively making progress toward whatever it is we are trying to make happen even when we hit an obstacle. It means not throwing up our hands and saying, “If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be.”
  4. Establishing the Right Expectations. We are accountable for establishing the right expectations, that reflect our values, that are properly benchmarked, and are a bit of a stretch.
  5. Contributing to Your Relationships. The success or failure of our relationships depends entirely on the contributions we make. We are accountable for giving to our relationships—without keeping track. “In fact, the quickest way to kill a relationship is to start keeping track of all the reasons it’s not your turn to give to it and support it.” Sam adds, “We should constantly be looking for ways to invest in the relationship and enhance the value of the relationship over time.”

For me, I worry that too many times accountability is passed off to others, rather than just assumed and accepted. If you truly give service (not lip service) to these 5 items, I bet your people will follow you anywhere. That they look up to you, as a mentor and coach. Over at his website SamSilverstein.com - he has all the contact information and free tools and exercises to help you implement the Five Accountabilities.

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Book Review: Social Networking for Business

Apr16
2010 1 Comment Written by Steve

 I just completed Social Networking for Business, Choosing the Right Tools and Resources to Fit Your   Needs, by Rawn Shah. This book would have been handy a couple of years ago, when I started down the social  computing path inside of my employer. The book is very well organized and is detailed enough to pass onto the reader the how to’s.

 Since Rawn works for IBM, he has much insight into a large enterprise and how they are using their social tools for overall collaboration for their employees, work teams and large innovated activities. He highlighted that collaboration can bring together skills and knowledge in more permutations than members might imagine. Drove home the point that social computing depends on the human factor. For me, I help out many teams or organizations with using our internal social tools to communicate and collaborate. The one point that really is hard for folks is using these tools is work. This is not Field of Dreams, just because it has been built, they will not come (back).

Rawn has broken his book into logical sections that if you are already engaged – you can skip to parts that you or company are struggling with.

  • Overview of Social Computing
  • Sharing the Social Experience
  • Leadership in Social Environments
  • Social Task (collaborating on ideas and creating and managing information)
  • Social Ecosystem
  • Building a Social Culture
  • Engaging and Encouraging Members
  • Community Management
  • Measuring Social
  • Social Computing Value

For me, the areas that really stood out are the Leadership, Engaging and Encouraging Members and the Community Management. Leadership is key to overall success. Don’t let anyone fool you, without leadership in this space, nothing will work well. I have witnessed the struggles of teams and organizations due to overall minimal leadership when applying the tools. Engaging and encouraging members will always be a point of emphasis (from the start and throughout the community life-cycle). There are many ideas in this section to get the braincells moving. Lastly, the community management chapter was extremely helpful for me.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. Rawn Shah definitely got me thinking about my activities within the internal social teams I lead, participate in or just read from time to time. This book will be on my bookshelf in the office as a resource and reminder to me…

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Book Review: Tribes

Aug27
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

tribes_01I finished reading Tribes (We Need YOU to Lead Them)by Seth Godin a few months back.  First, I would like to say that this book was not at all what I expected. Maybe I expected much more – as it was one of the top business books for 2008. Maybe I set my expectations a bit higher than they should have been. I have to say that the book did make me think about it – which is good.

He first sets the stage on what is a tribe. They are groups of folks that have a shared interest and a way to communicate (with the Internet and social computing software – that has been made simple).  He further explains that shared interest or what gathers the tribe for their beliefs. There are three things that happen for solid outcome.

  1. We all work a lot (well, most of us anyways). If we work on the stuff we believe in, it is much more satisfying than just getting a paycheck or waiting to get fired (or die).
  2. Many organizations are realizing that the factory centric model of producing goods and services is not nearly as profitable as it used to be.
  3. Many consumers have decided to spend their money differently. No more buying off the shelf – they really are looking for stuff with stories and things they believe in. For example of this – look at the focus on green rather than non-green goods.

The factory model mentioned early – is not really the heavy machinery and such – but look at it as an organization that cranks out products or services with measurable output and tries to reduce cost along the way. It also centers on the boss tells you what  to do and how to do it. The factory is not a bad thing. It comes with a very rich history. The converse is true as well, there are shortcomings. Just depends on which side you want to be on.  I use the question “How was your day?” as a gauge to where you feel you are at.

Godin also talks about something that I have written in one of my posts – a ways back. Leadership is not management. He dedicated a chapter on it. He points out some solid examples:

  1. Managers manage a process they have seen before and they react to the outside world striving to make the process go as fast and as cheap as possible
  2. Leadership is about creating change.

The book has plenty of examples of tribes and their leaders. Where I think it falls short is providing many of the how to’s and tips on turning this into reality. Maybe that was is the point that he is trying to make – that the how to’s depend on YOU!

Like I wrote earlier in the post, I enjoyed reading the book and it made me think about myself, my team and the tribes that I follow or lead. There is much more in the book!

I did get a few quotes or phrases that I enjoyed and share below.

  1. “The secret of being wrong isn’t to avoid being wrong!”
  2. “If your organization  requires success before commitment, it will never have either.”
  3. “Stuck on Stupid” – have to explain this one a bit… Centers on the world changes, the rules change – if you are still following yesterday’s rules – you are stuck. “Stuck on Stupid”
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