Eric Jacobson

Archive for the ‘Leadership Training’ Category

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Book Review: Change-friendly Leadership

In Company Culture, Corporate Culture, Effective Communications, Employee Satisfaction, Engaging Employees, Eric Jacobson On Corporate Culture, Eric Jacobson On Leadership, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Quotes, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Management, Motivating Employees, Setting Goals, Team Building on November 18, 2012 at 10:27 am

Because Dr. Rodger Dean Duncan delivers so much timely, straight-forward and relevant wisdom in his new book, Change-friendly Leadership, reading it is like talking with your trusted best friend. Or, listening to your favorite teacher.  Or, soaking in the thoughts from your respected mentor.

That’s why you’ll want to spend plenty of time reading the book.  Reflecting on the messages.  Absorbing the discussion,  And, then likely re-reading it.  Or, at least certain sections.

Duncan demonstrates in the book how humanness, approachability, and friendliness are necessary but often overlooked elements of making change successful in an organization.

He teaches leaders the foundation for effectively engaging people’s heads, hearts and hopes — all necessary to enable effective and lasting (sustainable) change in today’s constantly changing world.  Duncan refers to this as leading the whole person.

According to Duncan:

  • Change must accommodate people’s feelings–feelings that involve trust, confidence, passion, and all those other intangible but very real things that make us human.

Duncan’s change-friendly leadership approach includes knowing how to leverage the Champions, Agents, Sponsors and Targets within your organization.  And, how to combine tough love elements into the process while always operating from a platform of respect and caring, not intimidation and contention.

Readers will appreciate the “Bonus Points” offerings at the end of each major section of the book where they learn how to access free white papers, diagnostic tools, videos and other items by going to a URL or using a QR code via their Smart phone.

You’ll also likely enjoy as I did all the great leadership quotes sprinkled throughout the book, such as these:

  • Losing good people is costly.  But the number one most expensive thing that can happen to your organization is for your best and most capable people to quit and stay.
  • It’s often the stress that people resist, not the change itself.
  • A transactional leader focuses on routine and regimented activities.  A transformational leader focuses primarily on initiating and “managing” change.
  • It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change — Charles Darwin.
  • The key to change is to let go of fear — Roseanne Cash
  • Amateurs practice until they get it right.  Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.

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

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Book Review: Practice Perfect

In Eric Jacobson On Corporate Culture, Eric Jacobson On Leadership, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Management, Setting Goals, Team Building on October 23, 2012 at 9:06 pm

42 Rules For Getting Better At Getting Better is the sub-title of the new book, Practice Perfect.

This is an interesting book because it is co-authored by three teachers and clearly it’s a book for and about teachers.

But, as the authors remind us, as leaders, we are also teachers.  And, that’s why Practice Perfect is a valuable read for everyone who wants to help their employees grow and excel through practice.

And, although there’s a handy three-page summary of the 42 rules toward the end of the book, take the time to read about each rule covered in the chapters:

  • Rethinking Practice
  • How To Practice
  • Using Modeling
  • Feedback
  • Culture of Practice
  • Post-Practice: Making New Skills Stick

Key lessons and takeaways for me from the book include the following tips for providing effective feedback when working with someone who is practicing a skill:

  • Correct instead of critique.
  • Ask participants to redo an action differently or better rather than just telling them whether or how it could have been different.
  • Focus on the solution rather than the problem.
  • Give feedback right away, even if it’s imperfect.
  • Remember that a simple and small change, implemented the right away, can be more effective than a complex rewiring of a skill.

Additional advice from the authors is that:

  • The more consistently you give and get feedback, the more normal it is.
  • What people do right is as important in practice as what they do wrong.
  • Coaching during a game/exercise can be helpful, but teaching during a game/exercise is distracting and counterproductive.

Practice Perfect‘s authors are Doug Lemov, Katie Yezzi and Erica Woolway.  Lemov’s previous book is Teach Like a Champion.

Finally, the book is packed with stories of practice masters like Coach John Wooden, surgeon Atul Gawande, and basketball star Michael Jordan.

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

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Kevin Cashman On Leadership Versus Management

In Eric Jacobson On Corporate Culture, Eric Jacobson On Leadership, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Quotes, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leadership Versus Management, Leading By Example, Management, Management Versus Leadershp on October 10, 2012 at 8:04 pm

Today, I share some of my favorite  quotes from Kevin Cashman’s new book, The Pause Principle.

  • “What sleep is to the mind and body, pause is to leadership and innovation.”
  • “Managers assert drive and control to get things done; leaders pause to discover new ways of being and achieving.”
  • “Managers require competency to drive results; leaders embody character to build a compelling, sustainable future.”
  • “Managers accelerate to keep pace with the competition; whereas leaders paradoxically step back to go beyond the competition.”

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The Best Times To Coach. The Best Times To Counsel.

In Coaching, Counseling, Effective Communications, Employee Retention, Engaging Employees, Eric Jacobson On Leadership, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Management, Motivating Employees on September 23, 2012 at 9:25 am

A good manager is both a coach and a counselor.  Generally, coaching should precede counseling.

As a coach, a manager:

  • identifies an employee’s need for instruction and direction

and this need is usually directly related to his or her performance or career goals.  Coaching is collaborative. It relies on mutual, progressive goal-setting, personal feedback, and an ongoing, supportive relationship.

You coach to help retain employees and to show you care about your employees as individuals.  It’s best to coach when a new procedure is introduced, a job is changed, and/or a skill gap is identified.

As a counselor, a manager:

  • first identifies a problem that interferes with an employee’s work performance and then helps the employee to define specifically what behavior he or she needs to change in order to improve his or her performance or resolve a problem.

So, the difference between coach and counselor is subtle, but important.  And, as Sharon Armstrong further shares in her book, “The Essential HR Handbook,” a good manager who is both a coach and a counselor:

  • Motivates employees to do good work
  • Reinforces good performance
  • Encourages employees to stretch
  • Sets clear expectations
  • Provides positive feedback on an ongoing basis
  • Provides constructive feedback on a timely basis
  • Acknowledges employees’ progress toward their goals


Leadership Insights From Top Business Women

In Company Culture, Corporate Culture, Effective Communications, Employee Engagement, Employee Satisfaction, Engaging Employees, Leadership, Leadership Quotes, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Listening Skills, Management, Mentoring, Team Building on September 6, 2012 at 5:22 pm

Every year, the Kansas City Business Journal honors 25 women business leaders in the Kansas City metro in its “Women Who Mean Business” awards competition.

The winners are identified as those women in the community who:

  • are outstanding in their business accomplishments
  • have growth plans for their companies
  • contribute to the community
  • improve the climate for women in business

Key insights from this year’s recently announced winners include these comments and observations:

  • “Listen to people who know the business.”
  • “I’ve learned when I’m angry to walk away, calm down.  Never, ever, ever react in anger to anybody.”
  • “Loyalty is not something you can spot right away; attitude is.  Attitude is something you can’t teach.”
  • “Mentoring is opening doors for younger people.”
  • “Work hard, but enjoy what you do”
  • “If you don’t give back to the community, how can you be a whole person?”
  • “Our job as business leaders is to bring out the best efforts from the most people.  Give them something purposeful and meaningful, and great things will happen.”
  • “I try to find people that I respect not only professionally, but personally.”
  • “You have to be a good listener and a good problem-solver.”
  • Pay attention and enjoy where you are instead of worrying about what’s 10 steps ahead of you.”
  • “I’m always focusing on what is this decision going to look like five years from now.”
  • “I will not pretend I have all the answers.  I will seek input from others so I can develop the right answers.”

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Leadership Lessons From “Moral Of The Story”

In Company Culture, Corporate Culture, Effective Communications, Employee Engagement, General Leadership Skills, Guiding Business Principles, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Quotes, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Management, Motivating Employees on September 6, 2012 at 5:19 pm

I’m a big fan of best-selling author Harvey Mackay.  He writes about business, sales and leadership and typically ends his articles with a moral of the story.

Culled from his writings of the past three and half years, here are some of my favorites of his moral of the story endings:

  • Change your thinking, change your life.
  • It’s not enough to know how to do things – you must know why you do them.
  • If you live in the past, you won’t have much of a future.
  • If you want to outsmart the competition, you have to outthink the competition.
  • Don’t be afraid to make a decision.  Be afraid not make a decision.
  • What you learn on your first job will last through your last job.
  • Minds are like parachutes – not much good unless they are open.
  • If you can’t be an expert, hire one.
  • People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be.
  • It only takes a little spark to ignite a great fire.
  • Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing to do.

Mackay’s best-selling business books have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. They have been translated into 37 languages and sold in 80 countries.

Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive was a groundbreaking New York Times #1 best seller for 54 weeks.

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15 Quotes For Leaders From Phelps, Truman, Cosby, Drucker And Others

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Quotes, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Management on August 4, 2012 at 11:40 am

Some of my favorite quotes for leaders are:

  • A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit — Arnold H. Glasgow
  • I praise loudly, I blame softly — Catherine II of Russia
  • Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress — Mohandas Gandhi
  • A long dispute means that both parties are wrong — Voltaire
  • The least questioned assumptions are often the most questionable — Paul Broca
  • The best way to predict the future is to invent it — Alan Kay
  • Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty — Winston Churchill
  • I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody — Bill Cosby
  • The greatest accomplishment is not in never failing, but in rising again after you fall — Vince Lombardi
  • The one thing that’s common to all successful people:  They make a habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do — Michael Phelps
  • The leader of the past was a person who knew how to tell. The leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask – Peter Drucker
  • It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit –Harry S. Truman
  • No man becomes rich unless he enriches others — Andrew Carnegie
  • Perception, visibility, and influence will help you stand out from the gifted group of stars that surrounds you –  Joel A. Garfinkle


Book Review: Rapid Realignment

In Company Culture, Corporate Culture, Effective Communications, Employee Engagement, Engaging Employees, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Listening Skills, Making Decisions on July 15, 2012 at 5:31 am

Spend some quality time with the new book, Rapid Realignment, and you’ll learn how to ensure that your strategy, customers, processes and people work seamlessly together in the service of customers and that those four elements continually realign in the face of constant change.

The authors, Dr. George H. Labovitz and Victor Rosansky, share throughout the book a series of case studies from Federal Express, Quest Diagnostics, Navy Hospital at Camp Pendleton, Farmington Savings Bank and a host of other organizations who have stepped up to the challenge of rapid realignment.

Key takeaways from the book include:

  • Vertical alignment describes a condition in which every employee can articulate the enterprise’s strategy and explain how his or her daily work activities support that strategy.
  • Each organization must have a Main Thing.  That Main Thing as a whole must be a common and unifying concept to which every unit can contribute.  Each department and team must be able to see a direct relationship between what it does and this overarching goal.  And, the Main Thing must be clear, easy to understand, consistent with the strategy of the organization, and actionable.
  • Growth and profits are surely the ultimate aim of every business organization, but they are outcomes of succeeding with the Main Thing.
  • Good bosses understand the value of giving subordinates a long leash.  In addition, best bosses listen, back up their employees, trust and respect their employees and provide feedback to employees.
  • Leaders foster engagement when they listen to their employees, create a common purpose, and give people greater ownership of their work.
  • Corporate culture is the product of four dynamically related components:  attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior.
  • The fastest and most  effective way to change attitudes and beliefs is to change people’s behavior and show them the beneficial results of the new behavior.
  • Organizational culture is revealed in artifacts and symbols, the stories people  tell, relationships, and the rituals and rules that guide behavior.

You’ll appreciate the Key Points summaries and the Things To Do suggestions from the authors at the end of each of the nine chapters in the book.

And, particularly timely are the book sections where the authors teach readers how to:

  • bring the customer voice inside your company through social media
  • use social media and digital technology to quickly identify points of misalignment

Labovitz is the founder and CEO of IDI, an international management training and consulting company, and professor of management and organizational behavior at the Boston University Graduate School of Management.

Rosansky is co-founder and president of LHR International, Inc.  He has more than 25 years of experience as a consultant, helping Fortune 500 clients to drive rapid strategy deployment and alignment.

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


Leadership Tip: Explain Each Person’s Relevance

In Company Culture, Effective Communications, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Management, Motivating Employees on May 20, 2012 at 5:16 am

Your employees appreciate clearly knowing how what they do each day specifically contributes to your company’s or organization’s success.

So, it’s important that you explain the relevance of each person’s job. Help each employee or team member to understand how what they do makes a difference.

Answer their questions about the significance of their work. Demonstrate how if their job isn’t done well, or isn’t fully completed, how that negatively impacts the rest of the process or your business’ overall product or service.

Sometimes in organizations too much time is spent explaining the relevance of sales positions or management positions. But, everyone on the team needs to understand their relevance and the importance of what they do.


Spot-on Advice From Geoffrey James On Extraordinary Bosses

In General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Leading By Example, Management on May 12, 2012 at 1:35 pm

A friend shared with me a spot-on article by Geoffrey James the other day. In it, James explains the difference between averages bosses and extraordinary bosses. He demonstrates why the best managers have a fundamentally different understanding of workplace, company, and team dynamics.

His insights are based on his interviews of some of the most successful CEOs. Read his article in its entirety. The eight points he explains are:

1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.

2. A company is a community, not a machine.

3. Management is service, not control.

4. My employees are my peers, not my children.

5. Motivation comes from vision, not from fear.

6. Change equals growth, not pain.

7. Technology offers empowerment, not automation.

8. Work should be fun, not mere toil.

James writes the “Sales Source” column on Inc.com, the world’s most-visited sales-oriented blog, which features the best ideas from dozens of sales experts and executives, along with James’ unique take on the business world.

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