John Pearson's Buckets Blog

The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities

Issue No. 481 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a serious (but also hilarious) book—the latest poke-in-the-ribs from Patrick Lencioni. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #7 below.

Order Chick-fil-A milkshakes and host a “Milkshakes and Motives” team meeting. Will you enjoy peach, cookies-and-cream, or chocolate?
 
Why Do You Want to Be a Leader?

Best-selling business author Patrick Lencioni’s latest book will shock you. (Don’t skip a page.) He calls for “the end of servant leadership.” And this priority: “If someone were to dive into a stack of my books for the first time, I’d tell them to start with this one.”

The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities is classic Lencioni. The “leadership fable” business story, plus end-of-the-book lessons, has a new twist—and it’s not subtle. The poke-in-the-rib: Why do you want to be a leader?

Lencioni: “…the majority of the other books I’ve written focus on how to be a leader: How to run a healthy organization, lead a cohesive team, manage a group of employees.” (All good, right?)

But he admits, “However, over the years I’ve come to the realization that some people won’t embrace the instructions I provide because of why they wanted to become a leader in the first place.”

And by the way, don’t invite Lencioni to your commencement program! When Lencioni hears a graduation speaker admonish students to “go out into the world and be a leader,” he says he wants to stand up and shout, “No!!! Please don’t be a leader, unless you’re doing it for the right reason, and you probably aren’t!”

I’ve read and reviewed my fair share of Lencioni leadership fables—and highly recommended them to others. So would I agree with him that new readers and both emerging and experienced leaders should read The Motive first? I get the importance of “why,” but don’t wanna-be-leaders need a good dose of “how” before they can fully understand the unhealthy “why” motivations they bring to the table?

My suggestion: ask your team members to read The Motive and then huddle over this question. Maybe call the event “Milkshakes and Motives.”

No spoiler alert here—because I don’t want to reveal the business story (two CEOs: one healthy, one not so healthy). The story is just 125 pages, including blank pages. The lesson section is just 40 powerful pages.(You can read this over a long lunch at Chick-fil-A—or listen to it in just 2 hours and 37 minutes.)

In the leadership fable, you’ll see two competing motivations for being a leader. If you’re a CEO, does your motivation for being CEO align with how your team views your motivation? Interestingly, writes Lencioni, “As passionately as I feel about all this I almost didn’t write this book because one of my heroes didn’t agree with its premise.”

The hero? Alan Mulally, former CEO at Boeing and Ford, disagreed with a key premise in Lencioni’s book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. You’ll love the scuffle between Mulally and Lencioni on pages 129-131 of The Motive. Gratefully, Lencioni did write his twelfth book and (okay, I’ll say it), it’s a must-read.

SURGERY AS DRUDGERY? Back in 2012, I picked The Advantage (a helpful summary of his earlier books) as my book-of-the-year. I recently quoted this gut-check wisdom to a leader:

Lencioni says that “bad meetings are the birthplace of unhealthy organizations and good meetings are the origin of cohesion, clarity and communication.” He adds, “If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would not ask to see its financial statements, review its product line, or even talk to its employees or customers: I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting.”

When discussing “the five omissions” of unhealthy leaders, The Motive enriches Lencioni’s very high view of the importance of well-led meetings—with these memorable metaphors:

“A leader seeing his or her meetings as drudgery would be like a doctor viewing surgery that way. Or a teacher thinking about class lectures that way. Or a quarterback seeing games that way. As I said earlier, meetings are the setting, the arena, the moment when the most important discussions and decisions take place. What could be more important?

“Think about it this way. The best place to observe whether a surgeon is good at her job, a teacher is good at his, or a quarterback is good at his, is to watch them during an operation, a class session, or a game, respectively. What is the best place to observe a leader? That’s right—a meeting.”

Read the book to learn the other four “omissions”—and then discuss all five topics at your “Milkshakes and Motives” team meeting. (I’ll have the Chick-fil-A peach milkshake please.) The business fable is hilarious at points (with a dose of locker room language) and it’s impossible to read it and not discuss it. Enjoy.

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities, by Patrick M. Lencioni. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (2 hours, 37 minutes). And thanks to Jeff Gerhardt for recently gifting the book to me.

P.S. In addition to The Motive and The Advantage, check out these other books from Patrick Lencioni (after you’re read The Motive!):

• Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business (read my review)
• The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues (read my review)
• The Five Temptations of a CEO (read my review)
• The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (and Their Employees) - (read my review)
Note: listen to the books at Libro.fm

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) Patrick Lencioni lists two unhealthy results when “leaders accept the less-than-amazing status of meetings.” Have we ever had an “amazing” team meeting? What’s your guess on the two unhealthy results that occur with “less-than-amazing” meetings?
2) Lencioni defines management: “…the act of aligning people’s actions, behaviors and attitudes with the needs of the organization and making sure that little problems don’t become big ones.” He adds, “Avoiding this is nothing but negligence.” Do you agree with his definition? Do leaders really need to “manage”? 
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Mistake #7 of 25:
Minimizing Murphy’s Law
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


You’d think the new leader of the Christian MANAGEMENT Association (now CLA) could have orchestrated a drama-free move from Illinois to California on time and under budget. Oops!

“I was not yet a believer that “If anything can go wrong, it will.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #7 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Read the story and cringe at John’s cross-country move in 1994! And speaking of cringing…“I cringe when I recall some of the horrendous mistakes I have made during my lifetime,” writes Ted Engstrom. His suggestion: be transparent, keep going, and call your mistakes learning experiences (his italics).

John learned this from Ted: “Experience teaches us to leave room for the unexpected or to isolate ourselves in order to minimize interruptions.” Click here to read John’s review of The Essential Engstrom: Proven Principles of Leadership, by Ted W. Engstrom (Timothy J. Beals, Editor).

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Patrick Lencioni preaches that CEOs must also be CROs: Chief Reminder Officers—constantly repeating, repeating, repeating the big ideas (strategy, etc.). If no one is listening to your “corporate speak” anymore—and you need some fresh communication tools— contact Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

A Comedian’s Prayer Book and 2 More LOL Books for Summer!

Issue No. 480 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends three LOL books for your summer lite reading from a comedian, a best-selling joke book author and cartoonist, and a historian. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #6 below.


What book will you pick? Funny, funnier, or funniest?
 
3 LOL Books for Summer Lite Reading!
It’s summer here in the Northern Hemisphere—and time for some lite reading (or listening). Pick one of these three LOL rib-ticklers:

LOL #1- A COMEDIAN’S PRAYER BOOK

British comedian Frank Skinner pairs his superb imagination to his faith journey and delivers (okay I’ll say it) a laugh-out-loud 106-page delight, A Comedian’s Prayer Book. He confesses, “The title is a worry, isn’t it?”

But no worries. No lightning strikes if you read it. It’s deep and wide—LOL-funny with poke-in-the-ribs (pie-in-the-face?) theological musings. He prays:

“One of the joys of prayer is that you get all my references. I could do a joke about El Greco or Efrem Zimbalist Jr, but there’ll never be any need for footnotes. It’s beautiful. You’re the audience I’ve always dreamt of.”

Using theatrical terminology, Skinner sets the stage: “…I’ve tried to retain the bare candour of the simple rehearsal-room improvisation, but infused it with all the production values required to make it a passable public entertainment. I’ve taken my convictions, my questions, my fears, my doubts, my elations, and presented them in what I think is an eavesdropper-friendly form. Hell, judgement, atheism, money, faith and the X-Men all feature.”

“So, this rich man, camel, eye-of-a-needle thing.” It’s probable that this thinking-man’s comedian has plumbed the depths of Matthew 19:24 far deeper than most of us. In his prayer, he admits “Yes, I have a few bob in my pocket…” so looking for loopholes, he wonders, “Imagine if there’s one word missing from the Gospel text, an exhausted scribe rendering an understandable error.” Maybe it really reads, “It’s easier for a camel eyelash to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven? At last, I could enjoy some of this money I’ve worked so hard for.”

Noting that the TK Maxx stores in Britain sell bargain buddhas (yet also flyswatters!), he suggests to the Lord, “So why didn’t I see a single Jesus for sale? I’m not here to lecture you about marketing, but it worries me that we’ve lost so much ground with the I’m-up-for-a-little-bit-of-spirituality crowd.” His prayer continues:

“I know our biggest seller is the crucifix and, of course, it’s been a Christian symbol for two thousand years. It is an enormous inspiration to me, personally, and I have, more than once, wept as I’ve knelt before it. I just wonder if it’s a symbol with something of a specialist appeal? Has an interior designer ever suggested a room needed something torture-themed?” (He suggests a more “user-friendly” symbol for people outside the Faith.)

He prays for “the chosen, the accepters and refusers. This is the kind of work I feel suited for, petitioning you on behalf of the heroes and the deserters, my eyes to the floor, last-three-pews.” He’s comfortable (but with guilt)—like many of us—with a self-conscious level of church involvement: “I’m a last-three-pews Catholic. I don’t want to be organising the Harvest Festival. I put money on the plate, but I don’t even want to be the guy who takes the plate around.”

Warning: your second read through A Comedian’s Prayer Book delights/convicts even more:

• The honesty—extraordinary.
• The humility—quotable.
• The humor—off-the-charts. (I’d fly to London for an evening of conversation between Frank Skinner and Father Darrin Merlino, CMF, author of 30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God.)

On the Lord’s Prayer (“It’s that bit when you conduct an impromptu prayer-workshop, offering advice and examples for the would-be kneeler.”), this comedian prays:

“When someone asks me, directly, about doing a charity gig or opening a fete or something, I always tell them to speak to my agent. It gets me off the hook. I like the idea that, when you returned to Heaven, the Father said, ‘Did you tell them about prayer?’ and you said, ‘Yes. I told them to call you’. I imagine there was a resulting loud creak, like an oak tree splitting, as the Almighty’s eyebrows were raised, followed by a hurricane-like sigh.”

Enjoy this special book—and don’t miss Skinner’s running gag, “The Devil has all the best tunes,” deployed humorously across a hundred LOL pages. Click here to view a six-minute interview with the author, excerpted from the BBC’s Song of Praise telecast.


Click here to view a BBC interview with Frank Skinner (6 min.).

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for A Comedian’s Prayer Book, by Frank Skinner.



LOL #2 - LAUGHTER THERAPY: GOOD MEDICINE TO MAKE YOUR HEART GLAD

After COVID (we pray it’s “after” asap)…we’ll all need therapy and—just in time—my favorite joke book guru and bestselling author, Bob Phillips, has teamed up with cartoonist Jonny Hawkins to deliver the perfect summer read, Laughter Therapy: Good Medicine to Make Your Heart Glad. Here’s a funny one from the 168 pages of hot-off-the-press jokes and cartoons:

SHOCK! “A minister was asked to inform a man with a heart condition that he had just inherited a million dollars. Everyone was afraid the shock would cause a heart attack and the man would die.

“The minister went to the man’s house and said, ‘Joe what would you do if you inherited a million dollars?’ Joe responded, ‘Well, Pastor, I think I would give half of it to the church.’

“And the minister fell over dead.”

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Laughter Therapy: Good Medicine to Make Your Heart Glad, by Jonny Hawkins and Bob Phillips. And thanks to Bob for sending me this hilarious review copy!



LOL #3 - HUMORISTS: FROM HOGARTH TO NOEL COWARD

Here’s a third LOL option for your summer reading. Humorists is a very satisfying book/comedic journey from historian Paul Johnson who channels W.C. Fields: “We know what makes people laugh. We do not know why they laugh.” (Read my review from April Fools’ Day 2015.)

Johnson, with his unique style of short historical chapters, elegant writing, and deep insights, delivers a cavalcade of comedy—while spotlighting an amazing list of humorists and their secret formulas for making us laugh.

3 CLERGYMEN DON’T WALK INTO A BAR. If you’re looking for a joke book, this is not it. If you’d enjoy a deep dive into a British historian’s hunches on humor—have at it.

Johnson profiles 15 humorists including Benjamin Franklin, G.K. Chesterton, Toulouse-Lautrec, W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, James Thurber, Noel Coward, and others. He includes Groucho’s famous line, “I don’t want to belong to a club which would have me as a member.”

I started at the back of the book with Johnson’s four-page color commentary on how he came to write Humorists. Fascinating! (And...my thanks to David Curry, who often makes me laugh, for recommending this and all of Paul Johnson's books.)

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Humorists: From Hogarth to Noel Coward, by Paul Johnson. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (7 hours).



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) Comedian Frank Skinner prays and affirms Jesus’ request that “when we do charitable works, we should do them in secret.” His prayer acknowledges, “This advice makes complete sense, but it has, nevertheless, almost certainly cost me an MBE [Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire].” LOL! Okay, colleagues—let’s have a gut-check discussion about our motivations for charitable giving and acts of service. Is our generosity genuine?
2) Skinner prays further, “Early Christianity feels like a thin person’s game. Hence ‘enter by the narrow gate’. That would certainly explain why five loaves and two fishes was more than enough for the five thousand—‘Thanks, but I don’t really do bread’. I wish the Bible gave a name to the first fat Christian. It must have been like when Heaven’s entrance-conditions were broadened to include the Gentiles.” LOL! Do your prayers include humor? Does God laugh?
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Mistake #6 of 25:
Prioritizing Convenience Over Generosity
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


In 2004, the staff at CMA (now CLA) awarded John the first ANNUAL MEATLOAF AWARD—not exactly an honor (per Pearson’s Mistake #6).

“I failed to inspire and give permission for the staff to call audibles.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #6 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Ignoring the perfect time to be generous with his team, John describes “The Meatloaf Mutiny” that ensued when he prioritized convenience over generosity.

Too focused on production, John had not yet read the mistake-making insights from Leadership for Dummies, and this wisdom from Ken Blanchard and Don Shula: “Winning coaches make their teams audible-ready.”

For Mistake #6, John shares what he learned from two books:
   • Leadership Smarts: Inspiration and Wisdom from the Heart of a Leader, by Ken Blanchard
   • The New One Minute Manager, by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, MD

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Do your communication pieces include appropriate doses of humor—or is it stale, corny, or confusing? To explore the art and science of appropriate humor, contact Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Next Job, Best Job: A Headhunter's 11 Strategies to Get Hired Now

Issue No. 479 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a new street-smart guide for your “Next Job, Best Job.” It’s a must-read—even if you’re not yet in between jobs. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #5 below.


Imagine the chess match...if both the interviewer and the job seeker have read Next Job, Best Job!
 
Avoid Sameness and Nonstarter Resumes

In a perfect world, I would pay to be a fly on the wall and watch this job interview scenario:

MANAGER: Wow, Joe! Your impressive resume got you past the first obstacle (our HR team). Nicely done! But beware: I just read Next Job, Best Job—so I know all your clever tactics for this 30-minute interview.

JOE: Well then…you already know that I’m not your typical “Swiss Army knife”—hedging my bets by listing every job I’ve ever had. And you also know from my cover letter that my experience aligns extremely well with the specific needs you have. I’m guessing that your second quarter hiccup last year was a big challenge for your department? (LOL! I’ve read Next Job, Best Job also!)

Really…I’d pay serious money (or at least chip in a generous Starbucks card) to observe the jousting in a job interview where both the interviewer and the candidate were fans of this new truthteller, Next Job, Best Job: A Headhunter's 11 Strategies to Get Hired Now, by Rob Barnett.

Trust me. This is not your typical blah, blah, blah, blah bromide. Who should read this hot-off-the-press book?
   • You—no matter your job status.
   • You—if you’re not in your sweet spot.
   • You—because your position might be eliminated in the future.
   • You—because you’ll likely move on sooner than you think.
   • You—because your HR team probably won’t read this!
   • You (even if you’re retired)—because you’ll recommend Next Job, Best Job to dozens of family members, friends, and colleagues seeking your advice.

If you’re currently in between jobs again (the author’s label: #iBJA), this is a must-read. And good news! The author feels your pain (he’s been there). Before I give you my “Seven Best” (below), please note this caveat.

I had the privilege of leading three national/international associations over 25 years and—no surprise—about a dozen headhunter firms thought I worked for them! (That comes with the territory for association executives.) Some still email or call me: “John, who would you recommend as VP of Operations for XYZ?” Headhunters are a unique breed. Some are even good friends! But…

…when they read that Rob Barnett, the author and headhunter, only became a headhunter in 2018—whew!—one’s natural tendency will be to dismiss the book, his ideas, and his 11 strategies. My counsel: don’t.

Perhaps because he’s been on the other side of the desk for decades, and just more recently put out his headhunter shingle, I’ve discerned that the author’s unique background has powered fresh, original thinking, enriched his savviness, and fueled dozens (actually hundreds) of insightful tactics that make this book so worth the read.

Here are my SEVEN BEST for Next Job, Best Job:

#1. BEST CHAPTER. “The Perfect 30-Minute Interview” (Chapter 9) is unlike anything I’ve read on navigating your actual interview. Shocker: “…your number one goal in any first job interview isn’t to get hired.” (The goal: score that second interview.)

#2. BEST JOB SEARCH REGIMEN. Read the detailed three-page schedule for organizing your daily job hunt routine from 9:00 a.m. to 5:25 p.m. (10:20 a.m.—get off social media! At 10:25 a.m.—“I’m not kidding. Turn your social apps off.”) Did I mention the author could do stand-up comedy?

#3. BEST “WHEN TO WALK” ADVICE. When should you reject an offer—and how? The author delivers detailed nuances I’ve never, ever read before. When you say no to a new position—be prepared for four possible reactions from the interviewer, including this (the third version): “I respect your decision. I’m sorry we couldn’t make it work and I hope we stay connected.” Barnett calls this person: “A pro who took it like a pro.” And more good news: perhaps “that relationship can be revived again in another opportunity down the road.”

#4. BEST THERAPY. The author won’t let you wallow in your in-between-jobs-again (#iBJA) status, but he’s unusually sensitive to the emotional challenges of being #iBJA. In his twenties, he joined a Tuesday evening group of seekers with Father A.A. Taliaferro, who invited them to join a “secret group” called the Worrier’s Club. Just one requirement: “We would be allowed to worry our heads off, but only for five minutes each day, because worrying accomplishes absolutely nothing.” (Listen to this three-minute excerpt at Libro.)

#5. BEST NONSTARTER RESUMES. “Hiring execs want specialists—not generalists,” writes Barnett. “Don’t be a Swiss Army knife.” He lists 12 nonstarter career aspirations that should never see the light of day on your resume or on LinkedIn. Examples:
   • Seeking my next career opportunity
   • Storyteller
   • Creative People Person
   • Thought Leader
   • Freelancer
   • Consultant
   • Experienced professional, passionate, dedicated, driven to succeed

#6. BEST PROCESS. The author’s “North Star” theme oozes throughout the book and he walks you through a process to find your best job. “Branding yourself with a clear North Star in the headline of your resume and LinkedIn profile defines the role that best reflects your passion, expertise, and experience.” (Be prepared to toss your current resume and do a major rewrite of your LinkedIn profile.) What does your heart compel you to be and do? Barnett admonishes:

“If a company is looking to hire a butcher, saying you’re a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker doesn’t give you a leg up. Quite the opposite. You’ll be three times less likely to be hired if you tell everyone that you’re seeking three different jobs.”

#7. BEST REBRANDING. Oh, my. The author gives away the store—for just the price of a book. The 37-page chapter, “Marketing Yourself,” is a crash course in your professional rebrand: a new resume, the strongest LinkedIn profile, the perfect headshot, the right wardrobe, a new bio, convincing recommendations, and a killer cover letter. Follow his detailed/detailed counsel and your stale LinkedIn profile will be rescued from “the world’s largest pile of sameness.”

I could go on…but I hope you’ll read the book. In the BEST chapter, Barnett counsels you on how to answer the common interview questions as well as the curveballs that good interviewers will speed your way. One big idea: recruit “preppers” to conduct mock interviews. You must prepare your best answer to: “What’s your dream job?” He also helps you structure a memorable response to “What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?”

So…whether you’re interviewing or being interviewed, enjoy this book. Checkmate!

One More Caveat: In Next Job, Best Job, the author uses a few “non-church words.” (That’s how Trey Gowdy labels his own occasional word choice! See Gowdy’s recent book on persuasion—also a helpful tool for job seekers.)

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Next Job, Best Job: A Headhunter's 11 Strategies to Get Hired Now, by Rob Barnett. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 5 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR for sending me a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) Next Job, Best Job suggests (get ready for this!)…you review EVERY contact on your iPhone, plus EVERY friend and follower on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media accounts. Someone may be the perfect connection for you and your Next Job, Best Job.
2) Barnett urges, “Learn all you can about your next company’s social media policies before you start typing a single word.” Why might that be important for job seekers? And…is our organization’s social media policy clear to all insiders?
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Mistake #5 of 25:
Thinking Leadership Is Learned by Magic
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


“In my early years, you could have rubber-stamped ‘Mistake! Mistake! Mistake!’ over much of my work.” So grateful for Olan Hendrix, Peter Drucker, and other authors/leaders.

“I missed the memo about focusing on results and SMART goals.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #5 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. John describes the day that his wife, Joanne, rescued him from a low-priority workshop and redirected him to a management workshop led by Olan Hendrix. “That day-long crash course in Management 101 changed my life,” he notes.

John writes, “In my early years, you could have rubber-stamped ‘Mistake! Mistake! Mistake!’ over much of my work. My biggest mistake: not understanding the importance and power of SMART goals. And aligned with that mistake (or rather, misaligned)—a frenetic focus on activity instead of results. I learned the hard way—but you can learn the easy way: identify and get buy-in on three to five annual SMART goals and report on them monthly.

For Mistake #5, John shares what he learned from Peter Drucker and these two books:
   • A Year With Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness, by Joseph A. Maciariello (click here for the index to the 52-week blog series)
• Drucker & Me: What a Texas Entrepreneur Learned from the Father of Modern Management, by Bob Buford (foreword by Jim Collins)

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are your “Worrier’s Club” moments inappropriately focused on your communication strategy? Jason can help you with both therapy and creativity! Check in at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Live Large! 7 Lasting Lessons for Navigating Life’s Twists & Turns

Issue No. 478 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting shares a “slow down/stop rushing around” lesson learned by a now-retired CEO. Powerful! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #4 below.


Like this grandparent pictured here (not Bob Lonac!) you may also discover that something extraordinary can happen when we intentionally slow down.
 
“I Learned to Become Still”

Warning! Read Bob Lonac’s new book at your own risk!

Reflecting on his leadership career with Young Life, International Justice Mission, and then 13 years as CEO of CRISTA Ministries (1,800 staff members), Bob Lonac confesses in Live Large! 7 Lasting Lessons for Navigating Life’s Twists & Turns:

“…I never thought that retiring in January of 2019 would provide the opportunity to learn my greatest lesson about being still before the Lord. How was I to know my teacher would be a child not even old enough to walk?”

As COO of International Justice Mission, Lonac had learned from Gary Haugen, IJM’s founder, the powerful potential of giving staff “30 minutes of quiet time at the start of each workday.” He notes, “This daily ritual and rhythm of prayer sent IJM on a new trajectory of continuing to grow a culture of listening to God and acting on what He says.” (See my brief note about “8:30 Stillness” in my list of recommended spiritual growth books for this decade. Click here.) 

Yet…(perhaps you also have a “yet” in your daily discipline?)…Lonac admits, “Those 30 minutes of quiet time and being still in prayer continued to be tricky for me.” He adds, “…often it still felt more like an obligation than a joy.”

Fast forward. Grandpa Bob and his wife, Kathleen, volunteered for an 11-week stint as substitute nannies for their ninth grandchild, Keva. Just seven months old, this “gentle, beautiful, and precious” (the Gaelic meaning of Keva) granddaughter melted their hearts from the moment their son, Ryan, dropped her off at 7:15 a.m.—five days a week! Oh, my!

Read this poignant chapter and you’ll understand why the Lonacs were grateful that little Keva took several naps every day—yet something extraordinary also happened.

“I would prepare Keva’s bottle, and Kathleen would feed her sitting on the couch. I would then take Keva and walk with her around the house until she fell asleep in my arms. I started to sing the same song while I was walking her—one I liked by the Mills Brothers called “Across the Alley from the Alamo.”

Listen to the Mills Brothers sing, “Across the Alley From the Alamo” (2 ½ minutes).

“Each day little Keva fell asleep a little sooner. A few days after I started this routine, I sat down in my easy chair in my office (still singing along with the Mills Brothers, of course) with Keva on my chest. As she slept, I grew quiet.”

I don’t want to issue a spoiler alert here because you’ll reap the reward by reading this nuanced holy moment yourself. But you should know that Lonac “succumbed to the moment” and little Keva—asleep on his chest—slowed his breathing and the resulting epiphany was powerful. He writes,

“During those 11 short weeks Kathleen and I cared for Keva, I learned to slow down. In slowing down, I learned to become still. And in discovering a new capacity and desire to be still, God drew near to me.”

Whew. I’ve shared just one of the seven chapters from Live Large! 7 Lasting Lessons for Navigating Life’s Twists & Turns. Lonac is equally transparent in all seven chapters, including Chapter 5, “Bad Things Happen.” Just 115 pages, you’ll repeat the memorable stories and lessons to your family and your team members.

I’ll close with one more insight from Lonac: “During the entire time with Keva, no criticism or shame came my way from God, only affirmation and love. Thankfully, I had insights into things I had been thinking about and inspirations about current tasks. Now I try to pause before I start tasks like phone calls, errands, and most everyday stuff I do. I ask God to direct my path and my spirit. There is no rush. Sometimes even just waiting on God brought me peace and pure joy.”

NOTE: Lonac’s Live Large! stories and lessons have that familiar flavor of Henry Blackaby’s writings—“Find out what God is doing and then join Him.” Watch for my review later this year of the 2021 expanded edition of Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. Blackaby’s all-night prayer for his newborn son, Richard, is inspiring and convicting (ditto Lonac’s 11-week prayer sessions!). Richard now leads Blackaby Ministries International.

To order this book, click on the title for Live Large! 7 Lasting Lessons for Navigating Life’s Twists & Turns, by Bob Lonac. (Note: not available on Amazon.) And thanks to the author for sending a review copy.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) “There is no rush,” writes Bob Lonac. If (like me) you find slowing down almost impossible, read the four chapters in Part 5, “God Moments, Joanne’s Question, Dorm Room Evangelism, and Idolatry,” in Mastering Mistake Making. Mistake #19 suggests you begin by listening to Chuck Girard’s classic anthem, “Slow Down.” Click here.

Listen to Chuck Girard sing “Slow Down” (4 min.).

2) If we can’t spare four minutes to listen to “Slow Down,” what does that say about our pace of life in our organization and our own lives? Yikes!
3) Raise your hand if you’d hop on a short Zoom call just to hear Bob Lonac sing “Across the Alley from the Alamo.”
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Mistake #4 of 25:
Not Learning How to Listen
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

“Way too late in life I’m learning how to listen.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #4 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. John describes a wake-up call in 1993 when he was facilitating a Q&A with Lee Strobel and 920 church leaders in Auckland, New Zealand. (LOL!)

John writes, “I thought I was a decent listener, but I wasn’t. I had never read even one article, chapter, or book on effective listening. I preferred talking!”

Each chapter in Mastering Mistake Making features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books!

For Mistake #4, in addition to Strobel’s classic, The Case for Christ (over 5 million sold), John recommends The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier. The mistake chapter also quotes Ruth Haley Barton on effective listening: “Do not formulate what you want to say while someone else is speaking.” Whoa!

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you dashing and racing to the finish line—rushing around without direction—in your communication strategies? Slow down…and check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

No Way Home: The Crisis of Homelessness and How to Fix It with Intelligence and Humanity

Issue No. 477 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a True or False Pop Quiz on a new book on how to fix homelessness. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #3 below.


“A homeless-industrial complex has arisen in California that acquires power and profit by pursuing an utterly dysfunctional strategy” and “has grown into a voracious leviathan, devouring billions in taxpayer’s money.”
 
TRUE or FALSE: We Can Fix Homelessness

Raise your hand if you’ve ever read a book on the crisis of homelessness—and how to fix it. (I thought so. Me neither until this month.)

One of the avoidable mistakes in my career was reading too narrowly—just stuck in my lane (see Mistake #3 below). So when John Ashmen, CEO of Citygate Network, invited me to join a panel on “mastering mistake making” at his CEO Summit in San Diego this week, I decided to read a new book on homelessness. Whew! I urge you to read it also.

No Way Home: The Crisis of Homelessness and How to Fix It with Intelligence and Humanity will shock you! The book quotes Edward Ring of the California Policy Center who warns that “a homeless-industrial complex has arisen in California that acquires power and profit by pursuing an utterly dysfunctional strategy” and “has grown into a voracious leviathan, devouring billions in taxpayer’s money.”

If you’ve got any kind of a heart for every precious person created in the image of God, you must read this important book—with just 12 short chapters (138 pages, plus appendix and notes). It’s readable, but also upsetting. Last week I described No Way Home to a colleague, “A journalist, a filmmaker, an economist, and an attorney…walk into a bar and have a robust conversation on homelessness in California.”

The four co-authors (not a typo: four!), Wayne Winegarden, Joseph Tartakovsky, Kerry Jackson, and Christopher F. Rufo, have street cred. As Stephen Moore notes in the foreword, this book project was organized by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI).

“The PRI team visited shelters, listened to those who work with the homeless every day, researched problems and solutions outside the state, and studied the methods of successful private organizations that are improving lives.” The result: “…a unique guide that state and local policymakers, social service groups, academics, and grassroots organizations could draw from…”

So how can I convince you to get unstuck and read outside your discipline? How about a True or False Pop Quiz?

TRUE OR FALSE?

_____ 1. “California has the worst homelessness crisis in the country [151,000 Californians were homeless in 2019]. More than 39,000, or 40.6 percent, of the nation’s more than 96,000 chronically homeless are located in California.” (Chronically homeless: “a person with a disabling condition who has been continually homeless for one year or more.”)

_____ 2. “Homelessness also puts the public at risk. This is particularly true in San Francisco, where the ‘streets are so filthy,’ reports National Public Radio, ‘that at least one infectious disease expert has compared the city to some of the dirtiest slums in the world.’”

_____ 3. In a Santa Clara County economic impact report on homelessness: “These costs arise because homelessness is an important risk factor for many adverse health outcomes. In part due to these health risks, the unsheltered homeless population die, on average, 20 years earlier than people who are sheltered.”

_____ 4. What would it cost to end homelessness just in the Bay Area “under the current methods of building and providing services?” To create “…a new unit of permanent housing (at $450,000 per unit) for each of the 28,200 people experiencing homelessness identified in PIT [point-in-time] counts…” the cost would be $12.7 billion. Plus: “Providing services (at $25,000 per person per year) to half of that population over 10 years would require an additional $3.5 billion.”

_____ 5. “Today, the old models of punitive workhouses and drafty police station ‘tramp rooms’ are memories of an unfeeling past. They have been replaced by ‘wraparound’ service shelters with professional staffs trained in medicine or social work.” Note: “In 2019, Los Angeles spent an average of $1.7 million a day directly on homelessness.”

_____ 6. “During the winter of 1935-1936, California and Florida set up border patrols to blockade indigents from entering.” Fast-forward to 2019 in San Francisco, where per Heather MacDonald, we find that “the city enables the entire homeless lifestyle”—and what the authors detail as “the mass migration of out-of-state residents in search of the ‘San Francisco Special’” (housing and generous benefits).

_____ 7. In San Francisco, “Harm reduction methods and treatment goals are free of judgment or blame and directly involve the client in setting their own goals.” When the coronavirus pandemic arrived in 2020, “San Francisco placed about 1,200 homeless people in city hotels…” According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city “provided these quarantined homeless with alcohol, tobacco, medical cannabis, and other substances ‘in an effort to prevent a handful from going outside to get the substances themselves.’”

_____ 8. “The Perilous Trifecta.” The data sheet “on the perilous trifecta is nothing short of catastrophic: there are 4,000 men and women in San Francisco who are simultaneously homeless, psychotic, and addicted to alcohol, meth, and heroin: 70 percent have been on the streets for more than 5 years; 40 percent have been on the streets for more than 13 years.”

_____ 9. In San Francisco, “The current policy regime can be divided into three domains—the hospital, the jail, and the subsidized apartment. Together, these institutions represent the new orthodoxy of the socialized state: they reduce homelessness to a set of social-scientific variables, to be manipulated through the intensive application of the medical and social sciences.” Yet…look deeper at San Francisco’s stats:
   • “…70 percent of all psychiatric emergency visits involved a homeless individual and…66 percent of all visitors had co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.”
   • Not 80/20! “In total, the top 5 percent of ‘super-users,’ the majority of whom fall into the perilous trifecta, accounted for 52 percent of total systemwide service use.”
   • “According to the San Francisco County Jail, the homeless account for 40 percent of all inmates.”
   • “The problem is that members of the perilous trifecta are the least likely to seek services.”

_____ 10. “Today, across Los Angeles’s 500 square miles, roughly 10,000 people live in some 5,000 vehicles.”

SPOILER ALERT: THE ANSWERS! How did you do on this True or False Pop Quiz? Sadly, all of the above statements are true.

Is there hope for California and other major cities? Part III of No Way Home devotes the final three chapters to “Innovative Ways to Reduce Homelessness Despite Budget and Legal Constraints.” But note this: when I finally read a book on how to read a book (see Mistake #3), the author gave me permission to skip around, so I read Chapter 8 of No Way Home first. It’s a short course on “Housing First”—“the political class’s primary mantra on homelessness.” (Per the authors: It’s not working!)

In 2015, the Washington Post crowed that the inventor of Housing First, Sam Tsemberis, had “all but solved chronic homelessness.” He boasted, “Give homes for the homeless, and you will solve chronic homelessness.” That was in 2015. The result now in 2021? Not so fast, Sam! Chapter 8 is a must-read—as is the entire book.

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for No Way Home: The Crisis of Homelessness and How to Fix It with Intelligence and Humanity, by Wayne Winegarden, Joseph Tartakovsky, Kerry Jackson, and Christopher F. Rufo. And thanks to Encounter Books for providing a review copy and to Jim Palmer, president of Orange County Rescue Mission, whose book endorsement inspired me to read the book!



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) According to a Housing First experiment in Ottawa, Canada, researchers divided up a study into two populations: an “intervention” group that received Housing First and numerous services, and a non-intervention “control” group that received no services and remained on the streets. Shockingly and sadly, after two years, “…doing nothing resulted in superior human outcomes than providing Housing First with wraparound services.” Question: before we trumpet our success stories, should we measure them against others who don’t receive our products, programs, or services?
2) Raise your hand if you’ve ever read a book on the crisis of homelessness—and how to fix it. In addition to No Way Home, click here for more resources from Citygate Network and the Invisible Neighbors book by John Ashmen and resource videos.

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Mistake #3 of 25:
Reading Too Narrowly—Stuck in My Lane
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

“I should have read a book on ‘how to read a book’ 50 years ago!” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #3 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.  John quotes Steve Leveen, author of The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books. To uncover the books that will change your life (the big idea of the book), the author suggests you have two libraries:
   1) The Library of Candidates (based on your List of Candidates)
   2) The Living Library (your library of well-read friends).

Leveen cautions: “Do not set out to live a well-read life but rather your well-read life. No one can be well-read using someone else’s reading list.”

Each chapter features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books! However, for Mistake #3, he couldn’t help himself and thus recommends TWO books! If you’ve been stuck in your reading lane too long, read “The Heroes Chapter” on Zheng He and Harriet Tubman in Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s book, Leaders: Myth and Reality.

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. As you evaluate the effectiveness of your products, programs, and services—are you using outside eyes and ears to weigh in on your sacred cows and dead horses? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Citizen Trump: A One Man Show - the 2021 book and 2020 documentary film

Issue No. 476 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a fascinating book just released today from Robert Orlando, filmmaker and author. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #2 below.


Orson Welles, writes Robert Orlando, “was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director.”
 
“Thank God for Movies!”

Filmmaker and author Robert Orlando confesses, “In the end, who’s to say this writer isn’t as subjective as [Orson] Welles and merely putting on another show just to entertain you? After all, just like Welles did with [Citizen] Kane, I am finding something familiar in Trump. As an author and filmmaker, I spend many hours competing for airtime and needing the stage as a place where we remind ourselves we are not alone.”

You gotta like this guy! (No, I don’t mean you gotta like Donald Trump. I mean Robert Orlando.) His fascinating book (and movie), Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, will challenge your deeply-held convictions—whether blue or red.

Robert Orlando focuses in on the dilemma of leaders who “lose awareness of their own corruptibility,” and the archetype of “the leader as trickster (or shapeshifter), one who can hold an audience without restriction.” He notes, “I wanted to capture that in this book, not only for those in my age group but with millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.”

“What I want to tell them is to be like Welles, bold and independent-minded. Forget the herd and find your own voice. And for God’s sake, watch the great films, the stories about ourselves and the hero’s journey. Thank God for movies,” he adds!

Last September 2020 (before the U.S. presidential election), Robert Orlando released his film, Citizen Trump, contrasting Trump with Citizen Kane—Trump’s favorite movie. Orson Welles’ acclaimed film received nine Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Writing.

The 2020 release date for Citizen Trump was intentional—before the election. Would the real ending matter? Would Trump rise or fall? Would the fall of the fictitious character, Charles Foster Kane (a composite character based on William Randolph Hearst and others), foretell Trump’s fall?

BREAKING NEWS! “Cancel culture” isn’t new. Hearst prohibited the 1941 film from being mentioned in his newspapers. Fast forward: many critics today still consider Citizen Kane to be the greatest film ever made.

View the trailer for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show here:


Click here to view the 90-second Citizen Trump trailer.

No spoiler alert needed. The 2020 election is history—and we know the results. Or do we?

Gratefully, Robert Orlando has now written the book (with 2020 in the rear-view mirror). And so with a historian/filmmaker’s insights, he spotlights key events in the Trump saga—skillfully positioning his camera to illuminate the Trump persona and the Trump/Kane contrasts. Did I mention it’s fascinating?

I’m addicted to U.S. presidential biographies (with Winston Churchill thrown in to properly position the grading curve). And while we don’t have five, 10, or 20 years for a proper look-back, Citizen Trump is a page-turner—and Orlando’s new book (just released today, June 15, 2021) prompted me to watch the Citizen Trump film one more time.

I’m more of a reader than a listener or viewer—so the Citizen Trump book is the perfect companion to the film. (Hmmm. The bibliography is immense. I wonder what all those authors think about Trump’s persona?) Orlando has done his research—extensive research—on our 45th president and it shows.

Orlando, the filmmaker and author of other works including Silence Patton and The Divine Plan, brings a unique voice to 2021. In my Sept. 9, 2020 review of the film, Citizen Trump (see the second article), I mentioned that Josh Shepherd, who covers culture, faith, and public policy for several media outlets (and previously worked at The Heritage Foundation and Focus on the Family), had recently interviewed Robert Orlando for The Federalist.

The headline: “Is Donald Trump Today’s ‘Citizen Kane’? ‘Citizen Trump’ Film Suggests Yes. Through the lens of the 1941 classic 'Citizen Kane,' a documentary filmmaker seeks to understand the life journey of President Trump and his successful venture into politics.”

Shepherd: “Watching the film, I kept waiting for it to shift. I thought, ‘This is where it’s going to become a Trump hit piece.’ Or, ‘Now it’s going to be a Trump ad.’ But it seemed to stick to facts and let the chips fall where they may. Why did you seek to avoid either extreme?"

Orlando: “As a filmmaker, I’m just telling a story about a person, warts and all. Why wouldn’t a documentary about real-life events reveal all sides of the narrative? It’s not for me to tell you how to make a political decision about it.”

The chapter titles in Citizen Trump are just too tempting! Thought-provoking chapters!
   • A Modern-Day Kane
   • Reality TV Kingpin
   • The Trickster Candidate
   • Channeling Trump
   • The Faceless Enemy
   • And more…

Many readers, I’m guessing, will equally appreciate the jam-packed appendix—with surprising background information and context. Orlando notes Trump’s appreciation for Carl Jung from Trump’s 2004 book, How to Get Rich. Trump writes, “I have to stress that I am not cynical, but I am aware. I hate being in situations where I’m asking myself, How could this have happened?" Trump adds, "This reminds me of my favorite quote from Napoleon about being surprised: A good leader shouldn’t be.”

So…if you’re a leader, maybe you won’t be surprised with the jewels in the appendix! Check out the mini-chapters:
   • Rosebud Works
   • The Mask Is the Message
   • The Forgotten City on a Hill
   • It’s the Media, Stupid!

Again, whether you lean red or blue—I urge you to read this book. Orlando’s intentions are trustworthy: “…my aim was not to produce a political film. As an independent filmmaker, I was more interested in pursuing a deep character study into one of the most controversial figures of our time. My template was not a Right vs. Left, faith vs. nonfaith, or even madness vs. sanity paradigm, but to explore the archetypes of storytelling as expressions of interior character, especially where Trump and Kane were so amazingly similar.”

After you read Citizen Trump (or view the Citizen Trump film), you’ll find it impossible not to view Citizen Kane again. Both films lend themselves to the perfect case study for your next weekly staff meeting—or perhaps late-night viewing at your next staff or board retreat.

Orlando writes, “My fascination with Kane began in film school when I first felt the power of sound, light, and action in the hands of a master. Welles—to me—was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director. He was also a theater and radio star.”

Orlando, again: “My pick for best film of all time goes to Citizen Kane, a seamless visual masterpiece and a technical inspiration. In this one film, Welles introduced myriad innovations, breaking form and storytelling in new ways. It was incomparable at the time, almost docudrama in style.”

He adds, “The film is a work of genius and also a cautionary tale.” We’ll wait another 80 years to see if the Citizen Trump film and book qualify for “a work of genius.” But…the Trump saga is clearly a cautionary tale. As I mentioned in my review and pop quiz of the book on White House staff conflicts, Fight House, remember this wisdom from Ecclesiastes:

“There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, ‘Hey, this is new’? Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.”

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, by Robert Orlando. Are you a listener? Pre-order the audio book on Libro.fm. And thanks to the author for sending me an advance manuscript.



Click here to view the film:
Citizen Trump: A One Man Show.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) According to a CBS News interview in 2008, Joe Biden’s favorite movie is Chariots of Fire (1981). Donald Trump’s favorite movie is Citizen Kane. Does this give you any clue about these two leaders? What’s your favorite movie—and why?
2) Robert Orlando writes with “millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.” Why might the millennials on your team benefit from viewing Citizen Kane and Citizen Trump? And what movies might millennials recommend that old geezers view?
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Mistake #2 of 25:
Reading…But Not Learning
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

“I’ve always been a reader, but not a lifelong learner.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #2 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Writing on “Reading…But Not Learning,” John quotes Peter Drucker:

“In the knowledge society, people have to learn how to learn. Indeed in the knowledge society subjects may matter less than the students’ capacity to continue learning and their motivation to do so. Knowledge society requires lifelong learning. For this, we need a discipline of learning.”

The Mistakes book also notes that “Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, reads three hours per day. His goal is to find just one idea he can use to give him and the over 150 companies in which he’s invested an edge in the marketplace.”

Each chapter features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books! The recommended book for Mistake #2 is My Ideal Bookshelf (read John’s review here).

Now you and your team members can avoid these 25 mistakes by leveraging the workbook format for your own professional development or at your weekly staff meetings. This “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook” includes a bonus chapter, a “Do-It-Yourself Mistake-Maker,” with a template for inviting your team members to present one of their memorable mistakes at future weekly staff meetings!

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
___________________________________________________________

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the power of storytelling to lavishly communicate your organization’s message and mission? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams

Issue No. 475 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a must-read book about anxiety at work—and why managers and bosses must talk about it. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #1 below.


Think of staff growth as a climbing wall. “The only thing you can’t do on a rock wall is just hang there.”
 
Anxiety at Work: “Generation Paranoia”

Yikes! According to the hot-off-the-press book, Anxiety at Work, “In America, workplace anxiety is estimated to cost some $40 billion a year in lost productivity, errors, and health-care costs, while stress is estimated to cost more than $300 billion.”

It gets worse! “Though the problem is becoming more serious with older employees, it’s been particularly acute with millennials and Gen Z. According to a 2019 study published in the Harvard Business Review, more than half of millennials and 75 percent of Gen Z reported they had quit a job for mental health reasons.” But…apparently many bosses don’t want to talk about it.

According to co-authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (along with Anthony Gostick’s very transparent contributions to the book), “We’ve found that most young people want to be able to discuss their anxiety at work. Said one twenty-something employee in an interview, ‘My generation talks about anxiety all the time to each other.’ Rightly so, they believe that it’s impossible to fix something we are scared to talk about.”

They add, “And yet in a 2019 survey of one thousand employed adults with anxiety, 90 percent judged it would be a bad idea to confide their situation to their bosses. Sad.”

Attn: Bosses and Managers! This doesn’t work anymore:
   • “Don’t bring your personal problems to work.”
   • “Just fix yourself!”
   • “Of course you’ll fit in here. We have a great culture.”
   • “If you’re not physically sick, you must clock in.”

In early 2020, the authors were scheduled to speak to a company’s leadership team. The fast-breaking COVID news distracted the group from their scheduled topic and instead—prophetically—the authors talked about the workplace anxiety to come. Anxiety at Work is COVID-relevant with amazingly fresh insights and solutions. The subtitle is aspirational for every manager: “8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done.”

I had high expectations for this book, just published in May 2021, because I continue to appreciate and recommend the list of 125 practical employee recognition ideas from their 2007 book, The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance. (Idea #54 is my favorite: “Print out and present a team member a ‘long lunch’ certificate for a two-hour lunch.”)

After seriously reviewing books for almost 15 years now, rarely does a book exceed my expectations—but this did. The authors knocked it out of the ballpark. I made more than 40 specific notes for this review, but I can only mention a few. You must read this book—and implement the practical strategies. Five big ideas:

#1. THE DUCK SYNDROME. This term “was coined at Stanford University to describe the masquerade of students at this high-pressure school, as at many colleges, working mightily to appear as though they’re doing just fine, gliding calmly along like a duck on a pond, keeping up with all of their work with effortless grace.” But—look under the surface—and those “smoothly gliding ducks are paddling like mad—just as these students are manically pushing themselves, frantically trying to stay afloat.” What’s needed? A new leadership style that combines “vulnerability with care for the individual.”

Managers: How would you know if the duck syndrome is alive and well in your organization? (Read the eight strategies.)

#2. GENERATION PARANOIA. “The fact is, this rising generation is a much more anxious group as a whole. Some have termed them ‘generation paranoia.’” The authors note an Atlantic article that “described a generation of young people who scan any room they enter for exit points and game out how they’d survive an active-shooter scenario.” According to Forbes, “four times as many millennials as Gen Xers list ‘fear of losing job’ as one of their top concerns at work.”

Managers: Since it’s inappropriate to ask, “Do you have anxiety?”—what should you do? Read Chapter 2’s “Six Methods to Meet Uncertainty Head-on,” including Method 1, “Make It Okay to Not Have All the Answers.” (See page 51 for creating a learning environment where making mistakes are standard practice. See “mistake-making” below!)

#3. COACH OPTIMIZERS TO BECOME TASKERS. “Crunch time has become the standard,” note the authors—and that’s not healthy. Taking a page from those who survive the Navy Seals “Hell Week,” managers can coach younger team members to be “taskers” (focus on the job at hand), not “Optimizers” (those who visualize and hyper-plan every job and every step). “The secret of success for the Taskers is they take this monolithic thing and break it down into chunks.
               It’s task, rest.
          Task, rest.”
The Taskers survive “Hell Week.” Optimizers don’t.

Managers: Don’t believe the myth that “overload is good for productivity.” Instead, read page 73 and a mid-level leader’s confession: “I made a mistake in pushing my team so hard on the last upgrade.” (They worked 16-hour days.) See the five check-in questions on page 87, including “What have you learned that we might do differently next time we are up against a task like this?”

#4. THE MOTIVATORS ASSESSMENT. “Employees who feel anxious about their career path may actually be on the wrong path,” note Gostick and Elton. They suggest that “caring managers can often help them know if that’s the case.” How? Collaborating with the authors of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, they built a very, very helpful Motivators Assessment tool—and urge managers to “Help Employees Assess Their Skills and Motivations” (Method 3 of 8 in Chapter 4). Click here for more information or to take the assessment.

Managers: Read Chapter 4 to help team members avoid mismatches in their work. Try “job sculpting” with three options: transferring work, altering work, or adding work that motivates each unique employee. (And this is obvious, but take the assessment yourself to see if you are in the right slot! Even at my age, I learned something new about myself when I completed the assessment this week.)

#5. DR. NO! I mentioned I wouldn’t list all 40 of my book review notes, so I gotta stop. But let me sneak in several more here:
   • Page 109 gives coaching suggestions for how to leverage the “Dr. No” persona on your staff. “Instead of coaching Brian out of that habit, a talent magnet leader [great concept!] would work with it.”
   • Page 139 is worth the price of the book to listen in on a goal-setting review between a CEO and the organization’s founder/board chair. The CEO reported that two goals were “epic failures,” but the founder’s response? “Darcy, if we had achieved all our goals, that would have been an indication that we weren’t dreaming big enough.” He added, “And I’m guessing we will apply the lessons we learned from any mistakes we made along the way?” The CEO said “yes.” Then exiting, the chairman said, “Awesome. Carry on. See you next quarter.”
   • If you avoid giving constructive feedback out of fear that a team member will react badly, read page 59 on why you should not use the “sandwich” approach of “offering a negative between two positives.”
   • At a hospital: “Each week one staff member received what they called the Grace Under Fire trophy, a fire hose mounted on a block of wood.” (See the five practical methods in Chapter 9, “Turn Doubts into Assurance,” including the fork-in-the-road difference between recognition and celebration.)

Managers: if you’re guilty of fostering a “socialism of gratitude” culture, see page 223—before you create more havoc by ignoring Method 4: “Provide Gratitude to High-Flyers, Too.”

Did I mention? This is a Must-Read—especially as you’re adapting to the realities of COVID, and we pray, post-COVID.

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done, by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton with Anthony Gostick. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (6 hours, 29 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and Harper Business for sending a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1)The authors quote the CHRO at Keurig Dr Pepper: “For a long time we thought about career paths as a ladder. It was all about how you move up. The imagery we’re moving to is a rock wall, where a person can move up, sideways, a little up, and a little sideways. Everybody can have their own destination. The only thing you can’t do on a rock wall is just hang there.” How could your team use the rock wall metaphor to create opportunities for growth in your organization?
2) The section, “Millennials and Conflict,” in Chapter 6, “From Conflict Avoidance to Healthy Debate” includes a 17-word text conversation between a boss and employee late on a Friday afternoon. It spoiled the millennial’s weekend, but the boss was clueless that he had created any anxiety. The authors noted the boss needed to update his “texting awareness.” Rate our communication effectiveness here: A, B, C, D, or F? 
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Mistake #1 of 25:
Neglecting the Mistake-Making Literature
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

“I needed more practice and more laps in the mistake pool.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #1 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Writing on “Neglecting the Mistake-Making Literature,” John confesses:

“'Don’t make mistakes!' has been drummed into our DNA since childhood. For many years, I was too careful and avoided risks. Later, as I read the mistake-making literature, I understood the value of taking calculated risks—and that failure is not final.”

John notes that BMW gives a “Flop of the Month Award” to employees whose innovative ideas fail during implementation. He quotes John C. Maxwell, “To get maximum attention, make a big mistake. To cause maximum damage, fail to admit it.”

Each chapter features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. (He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books! The recommended book for Mistake #1 is Call Sign Chaos, by Gen. Jim Mattis.)

Now you and your team members can avoid these 25 mistakes by leveraging the workbook format for your own professional development or at your weekly staff meetings. This “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook” includes a bonus chapter, a “Do-It-Yourself Mistake-Maker,” with a template for inviting your team members to present one of their memorable mistakes at future weekly staff meetings!

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering-Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you learning from your own communication mistakes and the hilarious missteps of others? Jason has stories for you! Check in with Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Memorial Day Masterpiece: Call Sign Chaos

Issue No. 474 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks that you join me in this USA Memorial Day tribute to the heroes who keep us safe. If you missed my 2019 book-of-the-year, here are the highlights from Call Sign Chaos, by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. With Israel and Palestine in the headlines recently—this leadership-savvy book will also shed light on a general’s in-the-trenches insights on the Middle East. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of another hero's insights in Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t.

Memorial Day Masterpiece

EDITOR'S NOTE: Memorial Day Blessings! This review was first published on Oct. 18, 2019. Call Sign Chaos was my 2019 book-of-the-year.

Wow. This morning I just finished one of the most powerful, insightful, leadership-savvy books I’ve ever, ever read. I will read it again. It’s remarkable on many, many levels. Jim Mattis, former U.S. Secretary of Defense (Jan. 20, 2017 to Jan. 1, 2019), writes:

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate—you can’t coach and you can’t lead.”

To read the full review, click here.

2019 Book-of-the-Year! 

2 Books: Rooting for Rivals and Rethinking Competitive Advantage

Issue No. 473 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting suggests you stage a big fight at your next staff meeting between two books—contenders between two leadership philosophies (or not?). Come out debating at the sound of the bell! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of Fight House.

Are You Ready to Rumble?

Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you reeeeeeeady to rumble? From Lancaster, Pennsylvania, IN THE BLUE TRUNKS, it’s the counter-intuitive book that packs a punch, weighing in at 240 pages from the dynamic duo of Peter Greer and Chris Horst—it’s Rooting for Rivals!

AND IN THE RED TRUNKS…it’s the hot-off-the-press pugilist from humble beginnings (12 siblings and cousins living under one roof in a small town in northern India)…and now the bestselling author of more than four million books. He’s the author of The Attacker’s Advantage and numerous other brawling business books…please welcome Ram Charan! Weighing in at 224 pages—this strategic must-read for marketplace menaces has some new moves. It's……Rethinking Competitive Advantage!

Sorry. I couldn’t resist, but keep reading because you might discern that these two books are at war with each other: Rooting vs. Rethinking. Collaboration vs. Competition. Rivals vs. Relationships. (Or…can we learn something from both books? Hmmm.)

IDEA: WEEKLY STAFF MEETING DEBATE! Stage a robust ruckus between these two books at your next staff meeting. Debate these two sluggers!

   [ ] BLUE CORNER: Rooting for Rivals: How Collaboration and Generosity Increase the Impact of Leaders, Charities, and Churches, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Jill Heisey

   [ ] RED CORNER: Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age, by Ram Charan with Geri Willigan

ROOTING FOR RIVALS:
Cheat sheet for blue team debaters!

• GOAL. “The goal of this book is to equip leaders of faith-based organizations to become exceptionally generous leaders through a posture of radical openhandedness.”

• METAPHOR. “…in the curious, upside-down way of the Kingdom of God, God converts our competing into rooting and our rivals into allies. Rooting for Rivals is an invitation…to view our organizations not as grand murals but as pieces of a mosaic created by and for our Master Artist.”

• SHOCKER! When Hope International created a video of their Rwanda country director’s devotional on Exodus 4:2, “What is that in your hand?”—Peter Greer was shocked at the response from a “competitor.” They received “a voicemail from another organization with a very clear request to stop using this video. The reason?” The “rival” said that “they had trademarked the question God asks Moses.” (Greer was stunned and wondered, “Doesn’t God hold the copyright?”)

• BEST PUNCHES. What’s not to love about two-by-two quadrants that summarize the big ideas in a book? Greer and Horst deliver not just the one-two punch, but pummel faith-based leaders with four whacks and four quadrants with these competing values: Kingdom vs. Clan and Scarcity vs. Abundance.
   Quadrant I: Excessive Love (Scarcity + Clan)
   Quadrant II: Misdirected Love (Scarcity + Kingdom)
   Quadrant III: Deficient Love (Abundance + Clan)
   Quadrant IV: Loving Generously (Abundance + Kingdom)

• MOST CONVICTING CHAPTER. Whew! You may want to skip Chapter 4, “Seven Vices vs. Seven Virtues.” That’s the intro to the next seven wallops: Pride vs. Humility, Greed vs. Temperance, Gluttony vs. Temperance, Lust vs. Love, Envy vs. Contentment, Vengeance vs. Grace, and Sloth vs. Steadfastness.

• BEST EXAMPLE. Instead of clobbering each other to get the upper hand (or duplicating services), the authors affirm the 2017 partnership collaboration of 10 Bible translation agencies. Stunning! By working together (a New Testament concept!) under the banner of illumiNations, the 10 have accelerated the translation of the New Testament into 99.9 percent of the world’s population by 2033 (100 years ahead of the original timelines!).

Blue Team: good luck and may the best book win!

RETHINKING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:
Cheat sheet for red team debaters!

• GOAL. “This book has two main purposes: to fully explain the sources of a digital giant’s formidable competitive advantage [Amazon, Facebook, Google, Alibaba, and others], and to help other companies see a path to building theirs.” Ram Charan adds, “These new rules explain what any company—whether it is a digital giant or a traditional company—must do to prosper in this digital age.”

• 6 NEW RULES. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every book has six this, seven that, and eight axioms…yada, yada, yada. But…the author argues that when thinking about your “competition” (or rooting for your rivals per Peter Greer), the world has changed so dramatically that Chapter 2, “New World, New Rules” is a must-read. (And just in time. This hot-off-the-press book was published just last month.)

Attn: Old School Leaders! “The old adage, ‘stick to your knitting,’ for example, a colloquial version of ‘build on your core competence,’ tends to narrow a company’s imagination.” As much as I appreciated In Search of Excellence, Charan is very convincing on this point. Wake-up call!

• THE ECOSYSTEM. Rule 3 is also noteworthy: “A company does not compete. Its ecosystem does.” Hmmm. Ram Charan wants your organization to rethink competitive advantage—and he focuses on customers and ecosystems. What’s an ecosystem? “In the digital age, competitive advantage goes to those who build an ecosystem, or network, that leverages digital technology for the benefit of the consumer and paves the way to multiple streams of revenue.”

His counter-intuitive message: “Digital giants pay no attention to what industry they should or should not be in. They focus relentlessly on the consumer and are determined to provide a new consumer experience when they see an opening.”

• STARBUCKS. Maybe you should have this debate at Starbucks, but is the line at your Starbucks too long? Perhaps it’s because “…it offers 170,000 possible beverage options at its stores, according to the company’s website.” (Attn: Nonprofits! While you’re rooting for rivals, you might also want to give your donors and clients more choices, maybe?) Charan notes that the use of data by Starbucks, plus “…sensors, the cloud, and artificial intelligence now allows it to engage with customers in an even more personalized way.”

• MIND-BENDING! Almost taking a page from Rooting for Rivals, Ram Charan features the dramatic changes in the auto industry—and get this—how they are collaborating with competitors in new and stunning ways. (The full-page chart on page 90, “A Complex and Changing Ecosystem,” from Drive Sweden is mind-bending! Did I mention I’m Swedish?) Using graphic symbols and interconnecting lines, the chart documents how BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, GM, Tata Motors, Honda, and other auto companies are now partnering!

Charan mentions this 2018 Bloomberg article, “BMW, Mercedes Pivot from Enemies to Partners in a New Auto Era.” Hmmm—even for-profits should partner?

The point? It’s about the customer. “The famous line from professor and marketing guru Ted Levitt in 1969—that nobody really wanted a quarter-inch drill, they wanted a quarter-inch hole—became newly relevant.” Today, says Charan, “People didn’t necessarily want to own a vehicle; they simply wanted to get from one place to another. The ride-hailers met that need with algorithmic platforms that matched people who needed to go somewhere with drivers who were willing to take them there.”

PUNCHIEST CHAPTER. The winner is…Chapter 7, “Teams Instead of Organizational Layers.” In fact (don’t quote me, please)—read this chapter first and you’ll have a born-again awakening about the new rules for teams, including this team project:

   • THE 20-FOOT SUSIE! The section on “Reinventing the Workplace at Fidelity Personal Investing” is a must-read and features “customer design personas.” The team researched every aspect of “Susie,” who was 37, digitally-savvy, and married with two kids. “Her life was mapped out on a twenty-foot stretch of wall covered with charts and dozens of Post-its. The pain point in her journey was identified, as were the metrics associated with them.” It is a team member’s “full-time job to curate the wall and keep it up-to-date.” (By the way, that “Susie” is a go-getter. While writing this blog, “Susie” called me about my vehicle’s warranty program! Honest!)

   • HARRY AND SALLY. FPI also created two more personas: “Sally,” a widow from Scottdale, Ariz., and “Harry,” an active trader. (Reminds me of Lee Strobel’s early book, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary.) At Fidelity, “Those three personas…became the reference points for mapping the end-to-end customer experiences of three major segments of customers.”

   • 250 SQUADS. Instead of multiple organizational layers, the author highlights “A Three-Layer Team-Based Organization” at FPI that includes the president, 10 domains, 60 tribes, and 250 squads. “The work of the domain is divided into tribes, each of which focuses on an objective that its domain is trying to fulfill.” (What a concept! Organize your team around your objectives!)

   • DIFFERENT ASSUMPTIONS. Digital giants, says Charan, have “fundamentally different assumptions” about their people and “how best to lead them.” As you lead your teams, don’t risk ignoring those assumptions. “A boss with a command-and-control leadership style is likely to drive them right into the arms of a recruiter.”

Note: Watch for a future review of The Phoenix Encounter Method: Lead Like Your Business Is on Fire!, also by Ram Charan, and three others. Recognizing that “sustainable competitive advantage is a myth,” the book offers a new methodology for orchestrating a radical debate around strategy.”

Red Team: good luck and may the best debater win (or maybe…it’s not a debate?).

Hmmm. As you prepare for your debate, consider this: Maybe it’s not as much about rooting vs. rethinking—as it is about more collaboration between nonprofits and for-profits—and learning the best from both? Bob Buford quoted Peter Drucker in the foreword to Mastering the Management Buckets. Drucker: “The purpose of management is not to make the Church more businesslike, but more Church-like.”

To order these books from Amazon or Libro, click on the links below:

[ ] Rooting for Rivals: How Collaboration and Generosity Increase the Impact of Leaders, Charities, and Churches, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Jill Heisey. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 45 minutes). Check out the three-minute audio teaser.



[ ] Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age, by Ram Charan with Geri Willigan. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 17 minutes). Check out the three-minute audio teaser. And thanks to Fortier PR for sending a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) The authors of Rooting for Rivals quote Jesus from Matthew 5:9 (MSG): “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.” Share an example when we collaborated with a “rival” recently.
2) The book, Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope Through Kingdom Partnerships, by Phill Butler, lists 15 critical partnership questions. Can you name five? (Read my review.)
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The Digital Dozen: Rethinking Leadership
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook



In the powerful chapter, “Leaders Who Create What’s Next,” Ram Charan delivers a dozen bullet points on “What Is a Digital Leader?” He says it has to do with “their cognition, skills, and psychological orientation.” They can “link big-picture thinking with pragmatic matters of money-making, execution, and speed.” (See pages 164-168.)

Plus, in the chapter on “Teams Instead of Organizational Layers,” Charan writes:

“Digital giants expect people to be idea generators, problem solvers, team players, and learners. At Netflix, for example, the stated expectations for salaried employees are not what you would see among most Fortune 500 companies. They explicitly include things like:
• ‘You create new ideas that prove useful.’
• ‘You inspire others with your thirst for excellence.’
• ‘You are ego-less when searching for the best ideas.’
• ‘You learn rapidly and eagerly.’
These traits are recurring themes in the digital world. They guide hiring decisions, and their frequent repetition helps shape the culture.”

Have you articulated what you’re looking for in your next hire? For more resources, visit the People Bucket and the Team Bucket webpages. And read my review of You're Not the Person I Hired! A CEO's Survival Guide to Hiring Top Talent. Note the list of “Useless Interview Questions.”

More Boxing!
BILLY CRYSTAL TRIBUTE TO MUHAMMAD ALI



“Board experiences should leave all participants better than they were,” is the big idea in Lesson 40 of the Busby/Pearson book, More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. We borrowed that thought from what Billy Crystal said in 1979 to boxing great, Muhammad Ali, along with 20,000 of Ali’s closest friends! Click here to read. To view Billy Crystal’s tribute, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Do your communication vehicles embody a spirit of collaboration or competition with your “rivals?” Do you know what your donors would desire about your partnership strategies? Need help? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Citizen Kane: Millennial Must-View

This Special Edition of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog features a fascinating book coming June 15 from Robert Orlando, filmmaker and author. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and, speaking of filmmaking, click here for my 2020 list of eight leadership flicks (including comedy) with 11 ½ hours of movies, videos, and YouTube features.


Orson Welles, writes Robert Orlando, “was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director.”
 
“Thank God for Movies!”
Note! The updated review of this book was posted on the book's release date, June 15, 2021. Click here.

Filmmaker and author Robert Orlando confesses, “In the end, who’s to say this writer isn’t as subjective as [Orson] Welles and merely putting on another show just to entertain you? After all, just like Welles did with [Citizen] Kane, I am finding something familiar in Trump. As an author and filmmaker, I spend many hours competing for airtime and needing the stage as a place where we remind ourselves we are not alone.”

You gotta like this guy! (No, I don’t mean you gotta like Donald Trump. I mean Robert Orlando.) His fascinating book (and movie), Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, will challenge your deeply-held convictions—whether blue or red.

Robert Orlando focuses in on the dilemma of leaders who “lose awareness of their own corruptibility,” and the archetype of “the leader as trickster (or shapeshifter), one who can hold an audience without restriction.” He notes, “I wanted to capture that in this book, not only for those in my age group but with millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.”

“What I want to tell them is to be like Welles, bold and independent-minded. Forget the herd and find your own voice. And for God’s sake, watch the great films, the stories about ourselves and the hero’s journey. Thank God for movies,” he adds!

Last September 2020 (before the U.S. presidential election), Robert Orlando released his film, Citizen Trump, contrasting Trump with Citizen Kane—Trump’s favorite movie. Orson Welles’ acclaimed film received nine Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Writing.

The 2020 release date for Citizen Trump was intentional—before the election. Would the real ending matter? Would Trump rise or fall? Would the fall of the fictitious character, Charles Foster Kane (a composite character based on William Randolph Hearst and others), foretell Trump’s fall?

Note: “cancel culture” isn’t new. Hearst prohibited the 1941 film from being mentioned in his newspapers. Fast forward: many critics today still consider Citizen Kane to be the greatest film ever made.

View the trailer for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show here:


Click here to view the 90-second Citizen Trump trailer.

No spoiler alert needed. The 2020 election is history—and we know the results. Or do we?

Gratefully, Robert Orlando has now written the book (with 2020 in the rear-view mirror). And so with a historian/filmmaker’s insights, he spotlights key events in the Trump saga—skillfully positioning his camera to illuminate the Trump persona and the Trump/Kane contrasts. Did I mention it’s fascinating?

I’m addicted to U.S. presidential biographies (with Winston Churchill thrown in to properly position the grading curve). And while we don’t have five, 10, or 20 years for a proper look-back, Citizen Trump is a page-turner—and Orlando’s new book (coming June 15, 2021) prompted me to watch the Citizen Trump film one more time.

I’m more of a reader than a listener or viewer—so the Citizen Trump book is the perfect companion to the film. (Hmmm. The bibliography is immense. I wonder what all those authors think about Trump’s persona?) Orlando has done his research—extensive research—on our 45th president and it shows.

The filmmaker and author of other works including Silence Patton and The Divine Plan, Orlando brings a unique voice to 2021. In my Sept. 9, 2020 review of the film, Citizen Trump (see the second article), I mentioned that Josh Shepherd, who covers culture, faith, and public policy for several media outlets (and previously worked at The Heritage Foundation and Focus on the Family), had recently interviewed Robert Orlando for The Federalist.

The headline: “Is Donald Trump Today’s ‘Citizen Kane’? ‘Citizen Trump’ Film Suggests Yes. Through the lens of the 1941 classic 'Citizen Kane,' a documentary filmmaker seeks to understand the life journey of President Trump and his successful venture into politics.”

Shepherd: “Watching the film, I kept waiting for it to shift. I thought, ‘This is where it’s going to become a Trump hit piece.’ Or, ‘Now it’s going to be a Trump ad.’ But it seemed to stick to facts and let the chips fall where they may. Why did you seek to avoid either extreme?"

Orlando: “As a filmmaker, I’m just telling a story about a person, warts and all. Why wouldn’t a documentary about real-life events reveal all sides of the narrative? It’s not for me to tell you how to make a political decision about it.”

The chapter titles in Citizen Trump are just too tempting! Thought-provoking chapters!
   • A Modern-Day Kane
   • Reality TV Kingpin
   • The Trickster Candidate
   • Channeling Trump
   • The Faceless Enemy
   • And more…

Many readers, I’m guessing, will equally appreciate the jam-packed appendix—with surprising background information and context. Orlando notes Trump’s appreciation for Carl Jung from Trump’s 2004 book, How to Get Rich. Trump writes, “I have to stress that I am not cynical, but I am aware. I hate being in situations where I’m asking myself, How could this have happened?" Trump adds, "This reminds me of my favorite quote from Napoleon about being surprised: A good leader shouldn’t be.”

So…if you’re a leader, maybe you won’t be surprised with the jewels in the appendix! Check out the mini-chapters:
   • Rosebud Works
   • The Mask Is the Message
   • The Forgotten City on a Hill
   • It’s the Media, Stupid!

Again, whether you lean red or blue—I urge you to read this book. Orlando’s intentions are trustworthy: “…my aim was not to produce a political film. As an independent filmmaker, I was more interested in pursuing a deep character study into one of the most controversial figures of our time. My template was not a Right vs. Left, faith vs. nonfaith, or even madness vs. sanity paradigm, but to explore the archetypes of storytelling as expressions of interior character, especially where Trump and Kane were so amazingly similar.”

After you read Citizen Trump (or view the Citizen Trump film), you’ll find it impossible not to view Citizen Kane again. Both films lend themselves to the perfect case study for your next weekly staff meeting—or perhaps late-night viewing at your next staff or board retreat.

Orlando writes, “My fascination with Kane began in film school when I first felt the power of sound, light, and action in the hands of a master. Welles—to me—was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director. He was also a theater and radio star.”

Orlando, again: “My pick for best film of all time goes to Citizen Kane, a seamless visual masterpiece and a technical inspiration. In this one film, Welles introduced myriad innovations, breaking form and storytelling in new ways. It was incomparable at the time, almost docudrama in style.”

He adds, “The film is a work of genius and also a cautionary tale.” We’ll wait another 80 years to see if the Citizen Trump film and book qualify for “a work of genius.” But…the Trump saga is clearly a cautionary tale. As I mentioned in my review and pop quiz of the book on White House staff conflicts, Fight House:

Remember this wisdom from Ecclesiastes: “There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, ‘Hey, this is new’? Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.”

To order this book, to be released on June 15 from Amazon (available for pre-order), click on the title for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, by Robert Orlando. Are you a listener? Pre-order the audio book on Libro.fm. And thanks to the author for sending me an advance manuscript.



Click here to view the film:
Citizen Trump: A One Man Show.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) According to a CBS News interview in 2008, Joe Biden’s favorite movie is Chariots of Fire (1981). Donald Trump’s favorite movie is Citizen Kane. Does this give you any clue about these two leaders? What’s your favorite movie—and why?
2) Robert Orlando writes with “millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.” Why might the millennials on your team benefit from viewing Citizen Kane and Citizen Trump? And what movies might millennials recommend that old geezers view?
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Leadership Case Studies
From 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook



After a heart attack in 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower complained that the doctors had told him to take it easy—and in that we get a humorous picture of Ike. He wrote a friend that he had been ordered “to avoid all situations that tend to bring about such reactions as irritation, frustration, anxiety, fear and, above all anger.” So he had snapped at the doctors, “Just what do you think the presidency is?” (See Eisenhower 1956 below.)

I mentioned above that I’m addicted to books on the U.S. presidency and White House “gatekeepers” and more—and I have at least one more "White House" leadership review coming this year. If you enjoy the ultimate in leadership case studies—delegate your reading to a few wanna-be leaders on your team. Read my reviews for:

[ ] Eisenhower 1956: The President’s Year of Crisis—Suez and the Brink of War, by David A. Nichols (read my review)

[ ] Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump, by Tevi Troy (read two reviews)

[ ] The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, by Chris Whipple (read two reviews, plus view a four-hour documentary)

[ ] Barack, Inc. – Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign, by Barry Libert and Rick Faulk (read my review)

[ ] The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity, by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duff (read my review)

[ ] How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions, by Susan Eisenhower (read my review)

[ ] Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life, by Donald Rumsfeld (read my review)

For more resources, visit the Crisis Bucket webpage here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is your organization’s storytelling focused on your customer or yourself? Need help? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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