How To Be Exceptional - book review

"Exceptional leaders are not perfect. Nor are they moderately good at everything.  Instead, they are really outstanding at doing a few things well. those strengths far outweigh any weaknesses they have.
"It's clear that if people spend all their time focusing on fixing weaknesses, they will never turn their potential strengths into profound strengths. It is that shift in focus -- from trying not to be below average on anything to being outstanding at relatively few behaviors -- that makes such a huge impact on others and causes these leaders to be viewed as exceptional.
"Why? Because there is a huge mound of data that proves that the people who have profound strengths produce the best results. Performance data from 24,657 leaders from a global database shows that as the number of profound strengths increases, the overall assessment of a leaders ability also increases. However, it is clear that going beyond five strengths cease to make much of a difference." (1)

This is the best business book summary that I have listened in a long time.  The book goes on to explain why focusing on strengths is more effective.  Without going to detail, we enjoy our working on our strengths. Studies show you can improve strengths 87% whereas you can only improve weakness 35%. In other words, you can make a strength exceptional whereas you can make a weakness merely mediocre.

The authors go on to list universal leadership strengths, how to improve, where to start, how to sustain, fatal flaws vs weakness, and building strengths at work. One final tip, when deciding which strengths to focus on, consider your company's needs.

Theses concepts fit nicely with other concepts that I have explored in my blog:

The Pareto Principle, or 80-20 rule. Your time is finite. You have to choose your time wisely. You get 80% productivity from 20% of your activities. Applying this concept to choosing between focusing your time on strengths or weaknesses, you will get much higher ROI from focusing on your strengths. Spend 80% of your time improving you strengths.

Value Disciplines. To be a successful company, it must choose to be exceptional at two of three value disciplines (operational excellence, customer intimacy, or product leadership). Again, focus on your strength, but be acceptable in other leadership areas.

Deliberate Practice is what separates the good from the great. Deliberate practice is specific and repeatable. And it isn't much fun. Picture Michael Jordan in the gym shooting the same jump shot over and over and over. Then picture him hitting a last second shot to win the game. Now picture Shaquille O'Neal practicing free throws. His teams won four NBA championships while his free throw percentage was around 50%.

(1) "How To Be Exceptional" AudioTech Business book summary.

Companies With Strong Cultures Outperform Those Without

It's only been a couple of years since Dan Pink extolled the benefits of a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE).  I was very critical of his book, Drive, in my review.  Just recently, Best Buy's CEO, Hubert Joly, ended its ROWE environment calling it, "fundamentally flawed" in February and wanting to "restore accountability". Marissa Meyer made headlines by declaring a no-working-from-home policy at Yahoo.

Most impressive is Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappo's, comments in a recent interview. Hsieh wrote the book, Delivering Happiness, in which shared his study of the science of happiness and how he applies it to his company, Zappo's. He is widely known for creating culture and attributing Zappo's success to culture. Where other companies seek to create happiness by giving employees freedom and space, Hseih creates culture by bringing people together. For me, his comments cannot be overlooked:

"Research has shown that companies with strong cultures outperform those without in the long-term financially. So we're big, big believers in building strong company cultures. And I think that's hard to do remotely.

"We don't really telecommute at Zappos. We want employees to be interacting with each other, building those personal relationships and relationships outside of work as well.

"What we found is when they have those personal connections that productivity increases because there's higher levels of trust. Employees are willing to do favors for each others because they're not just co-workers, but also friends, and communication is better. So we're big believers in in-person interactions. (BusinessInsider.com)

Habit Frees Your Brain So You Can Do More

I recently stopped reading the book The Power Of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  Although I stopped reading the book about 75% into it, I highly recommend it and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The book opens with several really interesting modern studies on habit. Eugene Pauly had a disease that destroyed his short-term memory.  Although he could not remember events from just 20 minutes prior which severely limited his ability to learn, he was able to function for many years. This gave doctors a chance to learn about habit and the brain.

Habit resides in one of the most primal areas of the brain. It is almost like instinct. Eugene would go for a walk and return home safe. However, if he got interrupted by a friendly neighbor or mail person, he would could not find his way home. By creating habits, he was able to live life at home after suffering major brain damage.

Other studies show that once a habit is formed, brain activity decreases during the action of the habit.  While learning the habit and practicing, brain activity increases. Habit enables us to get much more accomplished than if we had to think through everything we did such as brushing our teeth, driving a car, and eating.

In a corporate environment, habit enables companies to become lean and efficient. Every activity can be broken down into manageable chunks. Then these chunks can be taught and practiced. To quote W Edward Deming, "If you can't describe what you're doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing."

Growth Necessitates Change. Not All Change Is Growth.

Change has two characteristics: progress/regress and organized/disruptive.  In other words change can either move you forward or backward and be either welcome or painful. This can be presented in a change matrix with four quadrants:

	Growth	Decline
Organized	I	III
Disruptive	II	IV

The goals, therefore, are to create orderly, progressive change internally that adds value to your customers.  This may cause dirsruptive, damaging change for your competitors. In other words, you want to be in quadrant I while putting your competition in quadrant IV.

For example, the change from portable CD players to Apple iPods was an easy and welcome change for customers, but a very disruptive for competitors.  The change from film cameras to digital cameras was embraced by consumers, but catastrophic for Kodak.

If you find yourself losing market share and adapting to competition, make sure you are in quadrant II, not quadrant IV. You won't survive long in quadrant IV, like Kodak or Blockbuster.

The worst place to be in is quadrant III. This is caused by change for change sake. If it's not broke, don't fix it. If you find yourself in this quadrant, you have a leadership crisis and you need to move to quadrant II. You need short-term disruptive internal change for long-term health.

How do you create orderly internal change that propels your company forward? Creativity, communication, consistency, and common sense.  Develop a strategic plan. Set SMART goals. Be disciplined. Stick to a communication plan. Reign in mavericks. Remove cancers. Get everyone aligned.

Communication Matrix

My inbox has gotten out of control. Email is so overused. Email etiquette no longer exist. Inbox zero is a never-ending pursuit. There must be a better means of communication. There are so many communication tools today. Stop using email for everything. 

Email has been around since 1982; telephone since 1876; mail since 6th century BC. Advances in technology coincide with advances in society and communication. The hunter-gatherer age used smoke signals; the agricultural age used mail; the industrial age used telephone; the information age used email. And now the knowledge age has the vast array of social media communication tools. As we move from information to knowledge, communications are moving from information to conversation.

In this age of knowledge, we must start using a mix of all communication tools. We must move beyond the command and control business model to connect and collaborate; from return on investment to return on people. Before sending that next email, ask whether it is the best method of communication. Ask whether it is informational or conversational. If trying to start a conversation, don't send an email. Is this tactics or strategy? If it is anything more than tactical, don't send an email. How disruptive it is to the end user? If it's disruptive, schedule a meeting. Phone calls and drop-ins are the most disruptive. Keep them to a couple minutes and use them to schedule a longer call or meeting.

Experiment. Don't be afraid of trial and error. Depending on your team and your company, some methods will stick, some won't. You will never know until you try.

Leadership Paradigm: Who You Are & What You Do

Trust
I don't trust my wife. Now that I have your attention, let me explain. When it comes to character, my wife is the most trustworthy person I know. She is honest, transparent, selfless, patient, and kind. I trust her with my feelings, with my kids, and with my life. But I don't trust her to do our taxes.

Character + Competence = Trust [1] 

Trust is comprised of both character and competence. Competence consists of education, intelligence, training, and experience. Since my wife has never completed a tax return, never taken a tax class, and has absolutely no drive to do so, I do not trust my wife to do our taxes.

Here are a couple more examples. I trust my attorney to write our will, but I don't trust him do my taxes. I trust my CPA to do our taxes, but I don't trust her to write my will. I trust my parents to watch kids, and so on.

Google's dictionary defines trust as "Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something." In order to rely on someone to do something, they must possess both truth and ability, integrity and strength, character and competence.

Performance
The NBA finals are going on right now. I haven't watched an NBA game in years. I lost interest after the strike and after watching a couple of live games. It was frustrating to watch the greatest basketball talents in the world lolly-gag up and down the court for three quarters only to take it up a notch the fourth quarter.

Motivation + Competence = Performance [2] 

With over 80 games a season, I can't blame them. I can also understand their motivation. It seems there is an unwritten respect among the players to reserve their energy for not only the fourth quarter, but the traveling to over 80 games. But when the game or trophy is on the line, they 'step up their game'.

How does one 'step up their game'? Is competence greater during the last five minutes? I'm reminded of some of Michael Jordan's incredible finishes. I can't believe that his competence increased during the final ticks of the clock. It must be that drive to win a championship, that motivation to finish the game with the most points. Motivation increases performance, whereas demotivation decreases performance.

From Maslow's hierarchy of needs to Reiss' 16 Basic Human Needs, the study of human motivation is becoming more tangible and making its way into business management. Tools like the Predictive Index can improve hiring decisions, employee engagement, and corporate leadership by accurately predicting human behavior.

There are universal needs such as respect, appreciation, understanding, trust, and value. Then there are basic needs that each of us have in varying degrees that make up our unique personalities: power, independence, knowledge, acceptance, order, money, honor, idealism, social contact, family, status, competition, romance, eating, physical activity, and tranquility. [3]

Virtue
I learned the above two concepts independently. As I reflected on them, I noticed the common link of competence. Having three characteristics to work with, I put them in a Venn Diagram. I needed to fill in the overlap where motivation meets character. I wrestled with this for a while, but settled on virtue.

Motivation + Character = Virtue 

Everyone needs food. Stated another way, food motivates everyone. We can obtain food in basically three ways: grow it, buy it, or steal it. Those with bad character will lie, cheat, and steal as a means to obtain food. Those of good character will be honest, hard working, and diligent to obtain food.

Virtue is defined as a "behavior showing high moral standards". Every major religion has a list of virtues, but virtue is not religious. There is a universal code of ethics that can be discovered through right reason. It is a natural law that all humans are bound by and must live by.

Sean Cover puts it this way, "It’s a natural law or principle. Just as there are principles that rule the physical world, there are principles that rule the human world. Principles aren’t religious. They aren’t American or Chinese. They aren’t mine or yours. They aren’t up for discussion. They apply equally to everyone, rich or poor, king or peasant, male or female. They can’t be bought or sold. If you live by them, you will excel. If you break them, you will fail." (emphasis added) [4]

Virtue is a behavior, or an action. Performance an is an action. Trust is an action. Character, competence, and motivation are who we are. Together, they make up the total person. Persons lead. Leadership is the development, growth, and maturity of individual persons.

Notes:
[1] Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey
[2] Predicitve Index Workshop at The Oliver Group in Louisville, Kentucky
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation#Intrinsic_motivation_and_the_16_basic_desires_theory
[4] The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey, Location 615, Kindle edition.

Not Just Bean Counters: CPA.CGMA

What do CPAs do? That was a question I posed on Titter. As expected, the most popular response was taxes. It is the one tangible for most people. Other responses were accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, and bill payment. Ironically the one service not mentioned was audit, which is the one service only CPAs can perform. Other services not mentioned were estate planning and succession planning.

What do CFOs do? CFOs oversee all of these functions inside one company. CFOs are also strategic leaders helping to establish the vision and mission, executing broader objectives, and aligning financial strategy to meet these organizational goals. It requires cross-functional collaboration and leadership. CFOs are also responsible for budgeting and forecasting, banking and financing, risk management, compliance, and designing financial systems.

Many CFOs are CPAs, but are as CPAs in business and industry, or management accountants, as opposed to CPAs in public practice. Now there is a designation, CGMA, that helps to differentiate the two. Chartered Global Management Accountant is the new designation resulting from a joint venture between the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and London-based Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). The purpose of which is to "elevate management accounting and further emphasize its importance for businesses worldwide." [1] The CGMA  acknowledges the strategic role and leadership role that CPAs perform inside companies.

Tom Shreridan at Maryland CPAs wrote, "Modern accounting goes way beyond the numbers. Business today is global. The really good CPAs add context to the numbers . . . and help their organizations navigate an ever-changing world. In short, CPAs and management accountants today are more than number-crunchers. They're strategic business partners. Now, they have a designation that reflects that role." [2]

“The new CGMA is the culmination of a longstanding effort to help companies experience maximum integration between financial and non-financial information to drive a business’s growth, and to include that information in the financial reporting process,” AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, said at the launch. “CGMAs will accomplish that by managing change, risk and uncertainty; promoting operational efficiency and effectiveness; and protecting corporate assets.” [3]

[1] http://www.cgma.org/AboutUs/Pages/default.aspx
[2] http://www.cpasuccess.com/2012/01/new-cgma-designation-puts-cpas-on-a-global-pedestal.html
[3] http://www.cgma.org/Magazine/News/Pages/20125084.aspx