In Print

“You punk, if you don’t know how to lose, you’ll never know how to win. If you don’t know this, you shouldn’t be playing.” – Grace Welch

Jack Welch claims that his biggest influence in life came from his mother in the form of those words. When he lost a game of hockey at an early age of 11 and threw his hockey stick across the ice, his mother pushed her way into the boys locker room and severely scolded him. In that locker room, she taught him the value of competition, the pleasure of winning and the need to take defeat in stride. [Read more…] about Jack Welch: “Straight from the Gut”

What is it like to be a CEO of a company? I have wondered about this question for as long as I have dreamt to be in the position of a Chief Executive someday, somehow, somewhere. Ambitions of a current phase I suppose.

The more I read, the more I realize that this lofty ambition, held by millions of others, is more arduous than I may like to bargain for in a large corporate environment. Hard work does not turn me away so much as the fear of being misunderstood, not given benefit of a doubt, or being distanced by friends and colleagues when in position of authority. How to best fulfill all responsibilities with integrity? That is the curiosity that led me to Patrick Lencioni‘s second book, “The Five Temptations of a CEO“. Having thoroughly enjoyed his fable in “Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, I delved into this fable with the same anticipation. [Read more…] about Patrick Lencioni: “The Five Temptations of a CEO”

“We All Fall Down” was a slow start until I started to come up to speed on the British health care system, the associated deep-rooted problems and the bottlenecks in the general hospital system. I did not know the one single factor in keeping hospitals from serving the next patient is shortage of beds. As you can imagine, the brilliant problem-solvers who are quick to jump to conclusion suggest none other than getting more beds! In the span of 353 pages, the authors reveal Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC) into practice and show us in the process why more beds only creates more problems. [Read more…] about Julie Wright & Russ King: “We all fall down”

My Finder fan phase started with his less popular work, “Paranoia“, where he weaves a story about a particular Silicon Valley high tech corporation, one dear to my heart. I found I really like Finder’s writing style and story-telling voice. “High Crimes” is no doubt one of his most popular works, in no small tribute to the fabulous movie adaptation played superbly well by the lovely Ashley Judd and the dashing Morgan Freeman. [Read more…] about Joseph Finder: “High Crimes”

“The first person you lead is you”
How true indeed. How could we become leaders of others if we have no leadership over our own lives, our own deeds and direction?

John C. Maxwell is a leader in business books. He has written numerous books on business, leaderships, relationships, attitude, and management. If you are delving into a topic either by necessity or for love of learning, it is worthwhile to look into the most prominent figures in the field. At the time I came across Maxwell’s books, I was deep into developing my leadership and management skills, and hence the two glimpses into the Maxwell perspective.

“Attitude 101” and “Leadership 101” are pocket books, small enough to carry everywhere with you. They both are sensible short reads, packed full of sharp, memorable quotes and good fables. The writing style is very good for the abstract concepts of attitude and leadership. Maxwell draws on role model leaders as examples to further prove the point he is driving home. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

• Trust as the foundation of leadership – People will forgive occasional mistakes based on ability but they won’t trust someone who has slips in character
• If you have talent and have seen lots of motion without complete results, you lack self-discipline
  
• You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything
  
• A good attitude puts you in the place of greatest potential
  
• The evidence is overwhelming that you cannot begin to achieve your best unless you set some aim in your life
• Too often, we learn too late what is really important
• We can do anything, but we can’t do everything. Focus.
• The only way you can get ahead is to fail often, fail early and fail forward.
• Each fall makes you able to risk more.

I think most of us at one point or another have come across the ideas written in these books. They make up the core of conversations with our coaches, our bosses and our instructors in a leadership class. The trick is to really listen, understand and live them. It is a journey, a work in progress, never nearly complete and always with room for improvement. The point should be to move forward and to understand our failures for what they are so that we can embrace success when it meets us in our path.

Reading is the best pastime for an active mind! If you like to see the other book reviews, check the index of In Print.

One of the interesting ideas proposed by Maxwell is that of planned neglect. He tells us the story of the violinist who would return to her room after class, and start to clean up, organize, take care of all possible mundane efforts, and as a result procrastinate her violin practice. She realizes she was clearly not progressing until she reversed her tactics – purposefully neglecting that which is not important and critical in order to invest her energy in her rigorous, thought-provoking, intense responsibilities. I play the role of that violinist only too well.

With my long to-do list, I always set out to attack the easiest, the quickest, the least effort intensive task first. I linger, procrastinate, and tiptoe around the goals I have myself set for me without any pressure or obligation from anyone – I find every reason to do something else that I am certain of fully realizing to the end. Perhaps it is the quick sense of accomplishment that I crave. Or perhaps it is what I read about in “The Zahir” – the one thing I clearly remember. That we may be afraid of our own true potential to the point of creating these mental blocks. That if we accept and embrace that nothing is impossible, we will focus on the goals we are so desperately dreaming of realizing.

Maxwell has a strong ethical voice throughout his writings; his faith comes through clearly in both of these books. I found most of his beliefs to be universally respectable, and particularly remember one that I can identify with: “A life in which anything goes will ultimately be a life in which nothing goes.”

Reading these books did not change my life, or show me nuggets of wisdom I had not been exposed to before. All the same, I read them with focus and with intention to use the advice and to live a life with better attitude. I welcome even the repetition of invaluable lessons that are all but difficult to apply to my life. Knowing and becoming what we know we ought to be are certainly not the same. Reading Maxwell’s book makes the gap between the two smaller.