Issue No. 143 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting gives you a book with a zillion stories and anecdotes to spice up your talks and presentations. You’ll be tempted to schedule two staff meetings a week just to share the memorable stories with your team members. And this reminder, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Let’s Write a Swimming Pool
Go Lakers! But…to be fair and balanced for Orlando Magic fans, this week’s book was written by Pat Williams, senior vice president of the NBA team he co-founded in 1987. If you’re always looking for captivating illustrations and amazing real life stories for your speaking engagements or department meetings—this book delivers the goodies.
Williams take important issues and unpacks them with dozens of memorable stories. The measure of a great anecdote is whether I can repeat it to my wife and she can pass it along, facts in tact, to her friends. For example, in his chapter on the futility of chasing fortune, Williams’ stories and quotations hit the mark:
• Did the music of the Beatles really reject the materialistic values of the culture? Not really. Thinking of the money they’d make, John Lennon and Paul McCartney literally used to sit down and say, “Now let’s write a swimming pool.”
• “A checkbook is a spiritual document,” said Billy Graham. “It tells you who and what you worship.”
• When industrialist J.P. Morgan died at age 75 in 1913, a newspaper reporter asked one of his associates how much money Morgan left behind. “All of it,” the associate replied.
• And this from John Wesley, “When I have any money, I get rid of it as quickly as possible, lest it find a way into my heart.”
• “Nothing that is God’s is obtainable by money,” observed Tertullian, the third century Christian theologian.
That’s just a sample of the wisdom and the take-aways from Pat’s prolific pen. The author of more than 50 books, Pat and his wife are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations. Pat Williams’ bio is amazing—and reason enough to read one or more of his books. He’s a sports guy—but a renaissance man.
To order this week’s book from Amazon, click on this title: What Are You Living For? Investing Your Life in What Matters Most, by Pat Williams with Jim Denney. He tackles big issues: fortune, fame, power, pleasure, character, influence, parenthood and faith. He then wraps it up with an intriguing final chapter, “What Are You Dying For?” He notes that, sadly, while Bill Gates won dinner in Seattle’s Space Needle for memorizing the Sermon on the Mount as an 11-year-old church attender, today Gates says there is no room for faith in his life.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) At Arthur DeMoss’ funeral, Bill Bright asked, “Would everyone here who is going to heaven because of Arthur DeMoss please raise your hand?” So how many people will be raising their hands at your memorial service?
2) Will Rogers said, “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like.” Do you agree? Why?
His Highness, Our CEO - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in the Culture Bucket, Chapter 8, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is that when your culture and values are crystal clear, your new people will embrace them with confidence.
What happens when team members who don’t walk the talk line their walls with your plaques and awards? What do reserved parking spaces communicate to your employees, customers and visitors? (“This Parking Space Reserved for His Highness, Our CEO.”) Is your leadership group named the “Management Council,” the “Management Team” or the “Leadership Cabinet?” Does it matter?
Why do people leave your organization? Do you ask them? Are they honest? When you announce the next great idea, are naysayers valued or quieted? Is there a trash can underneath the bottomless suggestion box?
If your corporate culture is not crystal clear to new employees (or new volunteers), appoint a small task force to assess the culture and write a brief document that defines the cultural reality. Here are two ways to conduct the research:
• Narratives. When you’re interviewing your next potential employee, ask several team members to describe the culture at your company for the job prospect. You might be surprised at their answers, but write them down and add the narratives to your research.
• Written Surveys. Distribute a survey (online or paper) to your staff, board members and volunteers. In addition to the rating scale (1 to 5), leave space for open-ended responses.
For a sample survey, download Worksheet #8.1: Our Corporate Culture - Your Confidential Assessment from the Culture Bucket page at my Management Buckets website. Plus, check out the book recommendations listed for this bucket.
NEXT STEPS: I can help you integrate these leadership and management best practices into your unique setting and help you assess your competencies in the 20 management buckets. Email me at John@JohnPearsonAssociates.com or visit my website at www.JohnPearsonAssociates.com and my book website at www.ManagementBuckets.com. Look for me on Facebook and tweet me at http://twitter.com/JohnWPearson.
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