John Pearson's Buckets Blog

Leadership Core: Character, Competence, Capacity

Issue No. 460 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a comprehensive and convicting book on how to blend competence, character, and capacity. Might be my 2021 book-of-the-year! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my 2020 Book(s)-of-the-Year and Top-10 picks.


According to “The Iceberg of Ignorance,” just 4% of problems are known to executives, while 74% of problems are known to team leaders.

Dick Daniels Has Been in Your Staff Meetings!

Dick Daniels has an uncanny understanding of our organizations. How did he listen in on our staff meetings, our one-on-one performance reviews, our job interviews, our office gossip, and our board meetings? Yikes!

I’m out on a limb here, but not really. Leadership Core: Character, Competence, Capacity will likely be my 2021 book-of-the-year. It will take a phenomenal book to jostle this pick off its perch. Hot-off-the-press this week, this comprehensive and convicting masterpiece spotlights seven “leadership multipliers” with three strategies for building your leadership culture.

While most authors and leadership gurus focus on competence (and only punctuate the discussion with a P.S. about character), Dick Daniels convinces you that the high bar of competence must also be blended with serious attention to both character and capacity.

He warns, “When organizational culture only values the bottom line, three things result: (1) Leadership Competency is rewarded, (2) Leadership Character is assumed, and (3) Leadership Capacity is never fully realized.”

Are you thinking you don’t have time to go deep in 2021? Another warning: “Every leader will face at least one impossible situation during their leadership tenure. That time is described as having your back against the wall, with no way out, completely alone, and the feeling of gloom you have when it seems like the end is near.” (Don’t despair: Dick Daniels has deep insights and wisdom for you.)

Similar in format to his 2015 book, Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity (my pick for 2015 book-of-the-year), this powerful 2021 resource features 42 short chapters (just three to four pages each)—perfect for your weekly staff meetings. That is, if you still need a weekly staff meeting! (Read Chapter 27, “A Meeting Rhythm: Communicating With Clarity and Consistency.”)

Daniels notes, “The consensus about meetings from almost everyone is that you have too many and they are the biggest time waster in your workday.” He adds, “Meetings don’t need to be monthly or weekly or an entire hour.”

Here’s what’s so uncanny about Dick Daniels. You could ask me to address the problem of “Hierarchical Elitism: When Leaders Don’t Model the Way” (Chapter 10). No problem. I would list three or four solid guidelines. You could too. But ask Dick Daniels the same question and he delivers “Nine Pecking Order Rules of Grace for Senior Leaders,” including “In all social encounters, ask twice as much as you tell. Be an includer who knows how to interrupt the dominators so you can pull in the quieter introverts who won’t fight for equal airtime.” (Where does he get this good stuff? It’s off-the-chart insightful—and packaged brilliantly.)

Oh, my. When the book arrived, I checked 24 of the 42 chapter titles that intrigued me. Could you do a 10-minute talk on these topics—without preparation?

PART ONE: Core Character
#1. The Johari Window 360: Blind Spots
#4. Failure: Where Character Is Forged
#8. A Civil Workplace: Ten Culture-Climate Questions
#12. Blindsided: The Toxic Team Member

PART TWO: Core Competence
#17. Leaders Initiate Continual Change: Unavoidable Realities
#19. Your Personal Communication Audit: Six Reflective Questions
#23. Over and Under Styles of Management: Know Your Team
#28. Leading in a Crisis: When Everything Goes Wrong

PART THREE: Core Capacity
Intro: The Shadow Side of Capacity: Can I? Should I? Must I?
#33. Leading From Any Chair: Second Chair Has Influence
#35. Nine Box Revisited: Performance, Potential, and Personal Drive
#41. Hardwiring New Leadership Habits: Think, Talk, Act, Reflect

Two of his seven leadership multipliers focus on Core Character—the pathway to positive influence.
• Character Multiplier #1—Integrity: The personal side of character is what other people think about you.
• Character Multiplier #2—Respect: The interpersonal side of character is what you think about other people.

Did you know that “people lie more on Monday and Friday than Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday?” Daniels notes research indicating “people lie two to four times a day.” So the author discusses five times when your staff might lie: 1) Lying to land a job, 2) Lying to get ahead, 3) Lying to achieve work-life balance, 4) Lying with feedback, and 5) Lying during the exit interview. He notes that when leaders and managers are not trained in giving effective feedback, they “avoid telling the harsh truth” with direct reports—often because of a “too-nice culture.”

On my first pass through this incredible book, I made 65 notes on the blank pages in the front of the book. I should offer these notes for sale! Here is a baker’s dozen of my 65 take-aways:
   • The Humility Audit: 10 questions (p. 67-70)
   • The Ethical Leader Matrix (p. 84)
   • The Iceberg of Ignorance: Problems Known to Executives: just 4% (p. 110)
   • Seven Practices of Great Askers (p. 110-111)
   • The 24-25-51 Rule of Communication (p. 112)
   • Expectation levels: Exceeders, Meeters, Missers (p. 133)
   • Competency gaps: “The Stay Interview” (p. 142)
   • 10 Unavoidable Realities About Change: “Those who get on board early are not usually your best advocates.” (p. 154)
   • “Leaders also understand the why gets fuzzy every thirty days or so.” (p. 154)
   • “In considering the three hiring questions (Chapter 20, “Hiring the Best”), who on your team would you not hire today?” (p. 169)
   • Three decision-making tools in “Deciding as a Team: In Times of Uncertainty” (Chapter 24)
   • The shadow side of the author’s “Activator” strength (p. 228)
   • The Six Development Questions for Daily Reflection (p. 315)

Have you ever read anything on “executive presence?” Me neither! Chapter 30 references a fascinating TED Talk by Ann Curry, author of Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges. This Harvard prof says team members are always asking two questions: “1) Can they trust you, and 2) Can they respect you?” Click here for the TED Talk, “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.”

How do you engage team members who are not on the senior team—but, if asked, have so much to offer? Dick Daniels suggests you watch the most inspirational TED Talk he’s ever viewed. Click here for “The Transformative Power of Classical Music” by conductor Benjamin Zander and read Chapter 33 to learn how this conductor engaged the unhappy cellist assigned to the “insignificant” 11th chair. And in the TED Talk (LOL!), learn why a CEO wrote Zander after hearing his presentation: “I was so moved. I went back and I transformed my entire company into a one-buttock company!”


Click to view the 20-minute Ted Talk,
“The Transformative Power of Classical Music.”

Others agree on the changing role of leaders and managers. Read today’s “Future of Everything” section in the print edition of The Wall Street Journal, “All Together Now: A different model of the boss is emerging—a coach and nurturer, not necessarily a business whiz.” Click here to read the online version: “Your Next Boss: More Harmony, Less Authority. Prized for being ‘social-emotional experts,’ future managers may spend less time issuing directives and more time collaborating,” by Kathryn Dill (posted Jan. 12, 2021).

NEXT STEPS. Ask a team member to present a bite-sized summary of a chapter at every staff meeting in 2021. And don’t skip the eight questions in the “Final Exam” on page 303, including this poke-in-the-ribs: “Do you know the cost of justifying your executive rudeness in the name of importance and busyness?” Ouch!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership Core: Character, Competence, Capacity (Leadership Multipliers), by Dick Daniels. (And my thanks to the author for including my endorsement in his book. When I grow up, I hope I can write and think like Dick Daniels!)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Dick Daniels says that “Delegation is one of the most overlooked skills needed in every leader’s toolbox.” Amen! (Visit the Delegation Bucket.) He suggests some leaders invest one day a month offsite to focus on strategic issues—not operational urgencies. Are our senior leaders allocating appropriate time to strategy or day-to-day minutia?
2) My pick for the 2013 book-of-the-year was Marshall Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break. Named the #1 Leadership Thinker in the World (nice business card!), he also endorsed Leadership Core, by Dick Daniels. You can probably think of an annoying workplace habit a co-worker needs to break. But according to Goldsmith, smart, successful people are pitifully blind to their own annoying habits. So who will help you discern what habits you need to break?
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A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

“Communication is the primary competence of a leader,” writes Dick Daniels. “Just because something was said does not mean it was heard, understood, or agreed with.”

The core competency in the Printing Bucket (aka the Communication Bucket) reads, “We elevate the power of the written and spoken word and leverage our communication tools to create synergy and alignment between our mission, BHAG, strategic plans and programs.” Here are three resources to help your team members close the competency gaps in their communication skillsets:

#1. You’re Got to Be Believed to Be Heard: The Complete Book of Speaking…in Business and in Life, by Bert Decker. (Read my review.) “The most important dimension of communication takes place not at the conscious level, but the unconscious level. We’re talking about trust, believability and likeability—the emotional connection.”

#2. 15 Minutes Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, by Joey Asher. (Read my review.) A simpler method for an effective talk, says the author, is to begin, “If I were you, I would ask three questions about this topic.” He adds, “Then write the three questions on a flip chart. Answer the questions. Then stop.” Why might this method work?

#3. How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World’s Most Inspiring Presentations, by Jeremey Donovan. (Read my review.) The author researched hundreds of online videos of the most popular 18-minute TED Talks. In just 107 big-print, fast-reading pages, he boils it all down. But it’s not a speaking-tips-for-dummies blah/blah/blah book, it’s much, much better—and rich in detail where it matters.
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2021 BIG GIVE-AWAY WINNERS!
Congratulations to the three winners of our random drawing: Laurel Gaard, Kevin Keegan, and Art Snead. And thanks to everyone who submitted their picks for three books they plan to read in 2021. The winners will receive autographed copies of The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever, generously donated by Michael Bungay Stanier. If you didn’t win, you can still order the book by clicking here.

REMINDER: This month we updated our three book lists (as of Dec. 31, 2020) and you can download the lists (PDFs) by clicking on the Book Bucket here.
   • List #1: Books by Management Buckets Categories (450+ books)
   • List #2: Chronological List of 458 Issues of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (450+ books)
   • List #3: John Pearson's Top-100 Book List (updated 12/31/2020)
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. If you agree with Dick Daniels that “Communication is the primary competence of a leader,” you may be under-investing in your communication strategies and tactics. There’s 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.

10 Spiritual Growth Books I’m Reading in 2021

Issue No. 459 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a give-away and seven books I’m reading in 2021, plus three books I’m re-reading. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my 2020 Book(s)-of-the-Year and Top-10 picks.


Read Knight of the Holy Ghost: A Short History of G.K. Chesterton.
Sketch by Jason Pearson.

The Problem With the World Is Me

A year ago—when everything was just peachy—I devoted one issue to “2020 Spiritual Growth Books.” I asked, “In the next decade, what’s your plan for growing and enriching your walk with God?” (Click here for my 2020 list.)

What’s Wrong With the World? Based on COVID and the news this week, heed the gentle reminder from G. K. Chesterton that our problems are not material, they are spiritual. Our solutions are not political, they are spiritual. In 2016, our son, Jason, presented a solo exhibition, “The Problem With the World Is Me.” It was inspired by G.K. Chesterton’s response when The Times of London invited intellectuals to respond to the question, “What’s the problem with the world?” View Jason’s three-minute video with Chesterton’s two-word answer, “Dear Sirs, I am.”

This past week an unprecedented number of readers asked me, “What are your 2021 recommendations for spiritual growth books?” (Well…to be honest…only one reader asked that question, but even that was unprecedented!)

So…I’m venturing into no man’s/no woman’s land here and “semi-recommending” seven books that I have NOT yet read.

7 Spiritual Growth Books
I Plan to Read in 2021

#1. Weakness Is the Way: Life With Christ Our Strength, by J. I. Packer (2013, 118 pages) - This giant of the Christian faith, and author of Knowing God, finished his race on July 17, 2020 at age 93. Order from Amazon. Listen on Libro.fm (2 hours, 12 min.)

#2. Invitation to Retreat: The Gift and Necessity of Time Away with God, by Ruth Haley Barton (2018, 146 pages) – Order from Amazon. Listen on Libro.fm (4 hours, 10 min.). Note: Barton’s masterpiece, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, was my 2009 book-of-the-year.

#3. The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, by Arthur G. Bennett (1975, 220 pages) - Jon Ortlip and the team at Ambassadors Football gave me this special gift several years ago, and while I have browsed this classic, this year I’m going deep. Read more about the book here. Order from Amazon.

#4. Mother Teresa's Secret Fire: The Encounter That Changed Her Life, and How It Can Transform Your Own, by Joseph Langford (2008, 313 pages) – This caught my eye (and my soul) in 2009 when The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan wrote, "2008 was my year of reading furiously. None of these books were more important than Mother Teresa's Secret Fire." – Order from Amazon.

#5. The Attentive Life: Discerning God's Presence in All Things, by Leighton Ford (2008, 225 pages) – Order from Amazon. In 2020, I reviewed Leighton Ford’s latest book, A Life of Listening: Discerning God's Voice and Discovering Our Own—and that prompted me to give attention to The Attentive Life.

#6. The Cure & Parents, by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and John Lynch (2016, 131 pages) – Order from Amazon. I’m a big fan of the TrueFace team and have read and reviewed many of their books—but not this one. Using humor and story, even the Acknowledgments pages invite you in! “Writing a book on parenting is not like writing a book on the future of plutonium. With a parenting book, individuals can comment from experience whether or not you know what you’re talking about. Like your own kids, for example.” Note: I may also re-read John Lynch's update of his 2013 book (new chapters!), On My Worst Day: Cheesecake, Evil, Sandy Koufax and Jesus. Read my review. Order his Nov. 2020 book here.



#7. The New Elder's Handbook: A Biblical Guide to Developing Faithful Leaders, by Greg R. Scharf and Arthur Kok (2018, 192 pages) – Order from Amazon. The massive 74-page chapter, “75 Questions for New or Prospective Elders,” is a treasure trove of questions-you’ve-never-thought-about with 75 practical/theological answers. Example: “How do you recognize false doctrine? How do you refute error? How do you rebuke or admonish people? How should you comfort the bereaved?” This is the perfect companion book to Lessons From the Church Boardroom.

3 Spiritual Growth Books
I Plan to Re-Read in 2021

#8. Harsh Grief Gentle Hope: From the Agony of a Mother’s Greatest Loss on Earth, Comes the Divine Comfort and Hope From Heaven, by Mary White (Oct. 15, 2020, 121 pages) – I read the first edition of this poignant true story on an airplane in 1995. I sobbed uncontrollably—alarming my seatmates. “On a dark spring night, Jerry and Mary White’s only son became the victim of a brutal homicide.” I will read this again in 2021 and write a review. Many are experiencing devastating loss during COVID. We need the deep faith and example of the Mary’s and Jerry’s to point us to Heaven. Order from Amazon.

#9. The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible: Practical Insights From Extensive Research on Over 1,000 Biblical Leaders, by Steve Moore – Order from Amazon. I reviewed this “Top-10” book in 2018 and promised to return to it again. It’s deep and wide. Get your underlining pen ready for gems like this: “The best way to find out whether you have a servant’s heart is to see what your reaction is when somebody treats you like one.” (Elizabeth Elliott) – Read my review.

#10. Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups (1990, 353 pages) – Order from Amazon. A gift from Bob Andringa in 1994, both Joanne and I have found joy and wisdom from this classic. Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, editors of this remarkable book, begin, “We today suffer from the unexamined notion that the more recent something is, the better, the more true it must be. This book is our attempt to counter this present-day myopia. It brings together fifty-two carefully chosen selections from the great devotional classics.” Read my review.

MUSICAL BONUS! During COVID and after watching the news, I often turn to an eclectic sampling of YouTube morsels. What ministers to you? I appreciate “Come, Ye Disconsolate,” by Acapeldridge, “Hear My Song, Lord,” by Gaither Vocal Band, “Anthem,” by Leonard Cohen (… “that’s how the light gets in.”), and most recently episodes of the BBC’s Song of Praise broadcast such as “The UK’s Favourite Hymn.”

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Win an Autographed Copy of The Advice Trap
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

What’s your 2021 reading plan? Email me with your list of at least three books you’ll read in 2021 and I’ll enter you in My 2021 Big Give-Away! Three readers, chosen randomly, will receive an autographed copy of my pick for 2020 Book-of-the-Year, The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier. (Thanks to the author for his generous and unsolicited donation!)

This week we updated our three book lists (as of Dec. 31, 2020) and you can download the lists (PDFs) by clicking on the Book Bucket here.
   • List #1: Books by Management Buckets Categories (450+ books)
   • List #2: Chronological List of 458 Issues of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (450+ books)
   • List #3: John Pearson's Top-100 Book List (updated 12/31/2020)

List #1 and List #2 also include the 2008 to 2020 Book-of-the-Year honors, and the Top-10 books of each year. List #3 features the 20 core competencies of the 20 management buckets—and the must-read books for each bucket (the Top-100 books I’ve reviewed).

Also at the Book Bucket webpage, download the bonus list, "30 Books to Delegate During This Crisis...and the Next Crisis," a 12-page PDF with links to 30 book reviews as of July 1, 2020.

I mentioned in the last issue that our granddaughter, Zuzu Pearson (age 18 and an occasional co-reviewer with me), read 175 books in 2020!!! (That’s not a typo!). What’s your 2021 goal for reading or listening to books?

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Need some marketing and communication fresh ideas (books, audio books, podcasts, Ted Talks)? 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.

Top-10 Books of 2020 and Book-of-the-Year

Issue No. 458 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting delivers my Top-10 book picks from 2020 and my Book(s)-of-the-Year. Also, Happy New Year! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my 2019 Top-10 picks.

TOP-10 BOOKS FOR 2020

This issue features books I reviewed in Issues No. 426 to 457. To read other 2020 book reviews from Your Weekly Staffing Meeting, visit the archives here.

In 2020, I published 32 issues. (But I thought Your Weekly Staff Meeting was published weekly? Fake news?) Certainly not all 10 books will have popular appeal—because all of us are at different levels of competency and curiosity across the 20 management buckets. As author Steve Leveen reminds us in The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, “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.” What were your Top-10 books in 2020?

2020 BOOK(S)-OF-THE-YEAR

Yes…in this crazy COVID year…why not? For the first time, I’m naming TWO books as my “Book-of-the-Year.” You have time on your hands—so read two books!

#1. THE ADVICE TRAP: BE HUMBLE, STAY CURIOUS & CHANGE THE WAY YOU LEAD FOREVER, by Michael Bungay Stanier. Read my review and view the author’s 14-minute TEDx Talk, “How to Tame Your Advice Monster.”



I began my review last March with this: “Hello. My name is John and I’m an Advice Monster.” Yikes! If you’ve got the guts to read this book, you won’t come out unscathed.

Best Quote. “Your job is to stop seeking the solutions and start finding the challenges.” The author adds, “You can be known as the person who helps articulate the critical issue or as the person who provides hasty answers to solve the wrong problem. Which would you prefer? Exactly.”

#1. DOESN'T HURT TO ASK: USING THE POWER OF QUESTIONS TO COMMUNICATE, CONNECT, AND PERSUADE, by Trey Gowdy. Read my review and view the author’s videos on persuasion. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 52 minutes), narrated by Trey Gowdy.



Trey Gowdy, who served eight years in Congress (2011-2019), confesses, “The mistakes made early in my career were many and largely rooted in two areas: not understanding the dynamics of persuasion and not understanding the nature and characteristics of those I was try to persuade.”

Best Quotes. “Persuasion is not debating.” And, “Debating is science. Persuasion is art.” And, “Debating is for the best talker. Persuasion is for the better listener.”

2020 TOP-10 BOOK LIST: The Other 9
(With brief excerpts from my reviews, these nine are listed in alphabetical order by author.)

#2. NON OBVIOUS MEGATRENDS: HOW TO SEE WHAT OTHERS MISS AND PREDICT THE FUTURE, by Rohit Bhargava. Read my review.



Best Quote. “When you focus on spotting stories that stand out, you gravitate toward collecting interesting ideas without understanding the broader context of what they mean. Calling the multitude of ideas spotted the same thing as a trend is like calling eggs, flour, and sugar sitting on a shelf the same thing as a cake. You can see ingredients, but true trends must be curated to have meaning just as a cake must be baked.”

#3. RUTHLESS CONSISTENCY: HOW COMMITTED LEADERS EXECUTE STRATEGY, IMPLEMENT CHANGE, AND BUILD ORGANIZATIONS THAT WIN, by Michael Canic. Read my review.

Best Quote. The author says “people are bloodhounds for inconsistency. The moment you say one thing but do another—boom!—they’re on it.” He describes a core value of “speed” at one organization, but it took accounting six weeks to send out staff expense reimbursements!

#4. THE AMAZON MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: THE ULTIMATE DIGITAL BUSINESS ENGINE THAT CREATES EXTRAORDINARY VALUE FOR BOTH CUSTOMERS AND SHAREHOLDERS, by Ram Charan and Julia Yang. Read my review.

Best Quote. On Amazon’s relentless drive to invent, “Seek and build big ideas continuously [using a brilliant press release process]…and construct cross-functional full-time and co-located ‘two-pizza’ team with the right project leader.” Why? If two pizzas aren’t enough, the team is too big!

#5. HOW WILL YOU MEASURE YOUR LIFE? by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon. Read my review and view the author’s TEDx Boston presentation in 2012. Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 34 minutes).

Best Quote. After meeting Christensen and learning about his three questions, co-author Karen Dillon recalls, “I stood in the parking lot of Harvard Business School a few hours later and knew I didn’t like my answers to those questions. Since then, I have changed almost everything about my life with the goal of refocusing around my family.”

#6. SERVANT OF ALL: REFRAMING GREATNESS AND LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS, by Ralph E. Enlow, Jr. Read my review.

Best Quote. “Are you kidding me?” Enlow asks. Why did Jesus organize an inner circle campout on the mountain top with just three of the disciples? “Nine of the twelve get excluded from the greatest private screening of all time.” I underlined this: “The emotional path between exclusion and resentment is exceedingly well worn.”

#7. TALKING TO STRANGERS: WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE PEOPLE WE DON'T KNOW, by Malcolm Gladwell. Read my review—and special thanks to Dave Barton for recommending this depressing book! To listen to the audio version (8 hours, 42 minutes), visit Libro.fm

This best-selling author says we’re rotten at spotting liars. Citing numerous studies, Gladwell notes: “What [the researcher] discovered is what psychologists always find in these cases, which is that most of us aren’t good at lie detection. On average, judges correctly identify liars 54 percent of the time—just slightly better than chance.”

He adds, “This is true no matter who does the judging. Students are terrible. FBI agents are terrible. CIA officers are terrible. Lawyers are terrible.”

Best Quote. “The issue with spies is not that there is something brilliant about them. It is that there is something wrong with us.”

#8. UPSTREAM: THE QUEST TO SOLVE PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY HAPPEN, by Dan Heath. Read my review and view the author’s 4-minute video on “upstream thinking.” To listen to the audio version (7 hours, 47 minutes), visit Libro.fm

Prophetically, the book is COVID-relevant: “You don’t want to be exchanging business cards in the middle of an emergency.” I listed 10 teasers in my review.

Best Quote. The Dutch bicycle company VanMoof reduced shipping damage by 70% to 80% when “they started printing images of flat-screen televisions on the side of their shipping boxes, which are very similar in shape to flat-screen TV boxes.”

#9. THE VISION DRIVEN LEADER: 10 QUESTIONS TO FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS, ENERGIZE YOUR TEAM, AND SCALE YOUR BUSINESS, by Michael Hyatt. Read my review. Listen to the book on Libro.fm (4 hours, 48 minutes), narrated by Michael Hyatt.

Best Quote. What if your boss (or board) is the Keeper of the Status Quo? Hyatt lists five critical steps for selling your boss on a new vision. And this wisdom when selling to influential stakeholders: “You may not always be able to get agreement, but you can get alignment.”

#10. OH GOD, I’M DYING! HOW GOD REDEEMS PAIN FOR OUR GOOD AND FOR HIS GLORY, by Terry Powell and Mark Smith. Read my review.

Best Quote. In “Releasing Resentment,” the fourth faith lesson, the authors quote St. Augustine: “Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.” Powell and Smith list eight very-very-convicting questions on releasing resentment, including this poke-in-the-ribs: “Have I stopped telling others what this person did to me?” (See Ephesians 4:29.)

Bonus Book!
#10. THE LITTLE GUIDE TO YOUR WELL-READ LIFE: HOW TO GET MORE BOOKS IN YOUR LIFE AND MORE LIFE FROM YOUR BOOKS, by Steve Leveen. Read my review.

Best Quote. The author quotes Mortimer Adler, coauthor of How to Read a Book: “Whereas a bookplate indicates financial ownership…writing in a book indicates intellectual ownership.” Leveen is encouraging. “If you have led an active reading life, your reading power at age eighty will tower over your reading power at age thirty.” And this: “If you are not setting some books aside unfinished, you are not sampling enough books.”
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The Zuzu 2021 Book-Reading Challenge!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

What’s your 2021 reading plan? Our granddaughter, Zuzu Pearson (age 18 this month, and an occasional co-reviewer with me), read 175 books in 2020!!! (That’s not a typo!). What’s your 2021 goal for reading or listening to books?

I love lists and the core competency in the Book Bucket, Chapter 5, in Mastering the Management Buckets is to create your Top-100 Books List. I’ve curated my list using the 20 management buckets categories. Download the template from the Book Bucket and start your list this week!

For more Books-in-the-Bunker ideas, check out these lists:
• 2020 Spiritual Growth Books – click here
• 2020 Leadership Growth Books – click here
• Best Board Governance Books – click here
• 30 Books to Delegate During This Crisis...and the Next Crisis (a 12-page PDF with links to 30 book reviews) – click here
• 8 Leadership Flicks – click here

LOL 2020. Hopefully, you found some humor in the midst of COVID in 2020. I did—right out the front door of my home office. Read about my letter to The Wall Street Journal, the writer’s response, a cartoon, and my front yard sign! Click here. LOL!

COMING IN 2021. Visit the Book Bucket webpage on January 8 to download three lists of books (updated through 12/31/2020) that I’ve reviewed since 2006, including my Top-100 books list.

I'm reviewing some fantastic books in 2021, including a must-read leadership book to be released by Dick Daniels, author of my pick for 2015 Book-of-the-Year, Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity, by Dick Daniels. (Read my 2015 review.)
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Have you been postponing critical branding in 2020? Don’t lose another year—thinking your communication strategy is low priority. For fresh and frank feedback, 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.

Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt

Issue No. 457 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting squeezes in one more book recommendation before 2021. Fast Times is “extremely useful and relevant” says the CFO of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and watch for the next issue with my 2020 book-of-the-year honors. Click here to check out the 30 books I reviewed in 2020.



“The Pace of Change Will Never Be This Slow Again”

Here’s your 2021 New Year’s Resolution: order Fast Times (quickly!) and delegate the reading of this transformational book to a senior leader. Or…if you follow the “Think Week” twice-a-year lifelong learning pattern of Bill Gates, add Fast Times to the stack of books you’ll read in your quiet quarantined cabin in 2021.

The four authors of Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt wrote this stunning book “for senior executives who are frustrated by the slow pace and limited return on investment (ROI) of their digital transformations, and are unsure what’s holding them back.”

All senior leaders at McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm (for-profit, nonprofit, government, etc.), the four co-authors are based in Paris, London, Copenhagen, and Germany. They warn late-comers to the digital world, “Fast movers win.” They caution, “Time and again we see companies that have taken a fast-follower strategy and not be able to move fast enough.”

The coffee table book’s format and shape is arresting and will be copied by other book designers: short four- to seven-page bite-size chapters, eye-catching graphics, fascinating sidebars from the trenches, ample white space, big quotable quotes, and “Food for Thought” short summaries. Better buy two copies. Your copy will get “borrowed!”

Whether your digital strategy is non-existent, just mediocre, or best of breed—don’t think this book is just about digital. If I were still a CEO today, I’d make this eye-opener required reading by every board member, senior team member, consultant, and middle manager. Example: You want speed? The founder of Spotify says, “We aim to make mistakes faster than anyone else.”

Best of all, in just 141 pages (plus oodles of reference notes), you’ll feast on 18 management practices, organized around four key areas—all perfectly sized for your next 18 weekly staff meetings or Zoom calls. Here’s a taste:

STRATEGY
Q1. Are you rushing your strategy—and slowing your transformation? “…our experience has shown that companies often have only a hazy view of how much value they can squeeze out of what they already do.” Did you know that John Deere, besides selling tractors, also advises farmers on weather conditions? Must read: six questions on “Are you a target for disruption?”

Q2. Are you confident that you have an accurate picture of how your organization is really doing? Is “internal naval-gazing” your challenge? Whoa! In a fascinating sidebar about Procter & Gamble’s effort to raise the company’s digital IQ, a senior VP started “with a digital IQ test to assess base-level understanding.” More than 50 percent of the leaders at the annual top-management meeting did not pass! The result: it put a spotlight on the case for change—and why their business leaders needed to “commit to meaningful digital transformation.” (And P&G was a leader in strategy issues. Read my review of Playing to Win.)

Q3. Will your strategy work in the real world? Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan ‘til they get punched in the mouth.”

Q4. Are you clear about which transformation model is best for your company? Can you name the four models? (Yikes! Four?) Learn why a European bank created an HR “war room” to focus on faster hiring of top talent—a big theme in Fast Times.

Q5. Do you know what great looks like? First, get outside “your own four walls to see agile companies in action.” Speed? “When the CDO of a large US retailer said he wanted to launch a new business, the CIO said it would take at least 500 people four years, and cost $100 million.” Instead, the innovative CDO hired a new team and moved to a new location. In just five months (not four years), the new business was generating $150 million per month!

What fast looks like:
• Product launch: 6 months (normal) vs. 2 weeks (fast)
• New hires: 6 months (normal) vs. 3 weeks (fast)
• Marketing campaign: 1/month (normal) vs. 24/day (fast)
• Code release: 1 every 6 months (normal) vs. 1 per day (fast)

CAPABILITIES
Q6. Have you made it safe to fail? The CEO of ShopRunner “has asked executives in their reviews to describe recent failures. If the failures hadn’t cost the company money, the executives didn’t get their bonuses.” Another CEO “mandated that decisions be made within 30 minutes of the start of any meeting.” Yet another CEO, plagued with low risk-taking, scheduled decision-making meetings at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings! “Not surprisingly, teams started making more decisions for themselves.”

Q7. Do you know what it takes to scale an agile culture? Worth the price of the book—the components of an agile budgeting process. Plus: “…the CEO of one of the world’s largest banks spends a day a month with the bank’s clients and encourages all members of the C-suite to do the same.”

Q8. Have you hired digital stars? Whew! “Get comfortable with bigger pay gaps” when hiring top digital staff. But they will be “magnets for successive waves of high-quality talent.” The authors quote Red Adair, the American oil well firefighter, internationally known for extinguishing and capping oil well blowouts. “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” Warning: the tenure of digital workers is 36 months—and shrinking.

Click here to visit the Fast Times website and complete the “Digital Transformation Health Check” on your organization’s digital program. You can also read Chapter 6, "Have you made it safe to fail?"

Q9. Is your workforce up to the task? The trend: customized and individualized continuous learning—in bite-size segments. P&G created an enterprise-wide Digital Genius Academy (DGA). Warning: when you’re successful, other companies will be recruiting your digital stars! (The book suggests how to “rethink HR.”)

Q10. Do digital stars consider your organization a graveyard? “…a RiseSmart study found that 84 percent of employees would consider moving to an employer with a fantastic reputation even without a big jump in salary.”

Q11. Do you know how to use new tech to rebuild your core IT and data platforms? Oops!
“Imagine a modern-day Formula One team that chooses to seat its driver in a race car from the 1990s.”

Q12. Are your own people developing your most important tech? Re-think outsourcing. “This ‘build-it-here’ approach is a key characteristic of successful digital companies.”

Q13. Is cybersecurity part of your IT transformation team or simply a control function? The authors note a popular axiom. There are two types of companies: “those that have been hacked, and those that don’t know they’ve been hacked. And things might be getting worse.”

ADOPTION AND SCALING
Q14. Is your transformation team filled with change bureaucrats or builders? The Western Union Way team—WU Way—created “capability-building teams” with 10 high-potential team members from around the company. Transformation began with 10, then to a first wave of 50, then 200, and ultimately to all 12,000 people.

Q15. Can everyone in your company easily access everything your people have learned? Are you good or guilty? “All that learning isn’t worth much if no one can find it.” Another axiom: “If my company only knew what my company knows.” P&G launched a video platform called “Fastest Learner Wins”—five-minute or less “snackable” content. Amazon has an internal wiki site and an internal video site, “Broadcast.”

Q16. Does your commitment match your bold statements? Are you gutsy enough to pull the plug on new projects run by stars? Check out the five questions under “A Litmus Test for Commitment,” including “Are you spending at least 20 percent of your working day on your digital transformation?” Also, have you made any big bets? (However, let me push back a bit. Don’t discount the wisdom of Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries. Read my review.)

Q17. Are you communicating in a way that’s meaningful to your people? I’d encourage every major city mayor and state governor to read this chapter. During COVID, I’d give our political leaders a C+ (at best)—on their communication competencies (preachy, incoherent, inconsistent—yikes). The authors quote Virgin’s Richard Branson, “Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess.” Plus, read why one CEO invests an hour per week calling former customers.

Q18. Are you ready to see your transformation through to the end, no matter what? Warning signs: transformation fatigue, devising too many metrics, absence of explicit buy-in from the board, and not hitting the tipping point for a successful transformation (10 percent must hold an “unshakable belief”). And this: “We had more people talking about coding than actually coding.” LOL!

Suggestion: pick one of these 18 questions and pilot-test a short “Fast Times” segment at your weekly staff meeting. If it engages your team to think differently about the digital landscape, you’ve got the fixin’s for 17 more weeks. Plus—don’t skip the innovative final two pages. Rather than impress readers with co-author bios, each McKinsey senior leader shares his “parting thoughts” in a brief personal perspective. Brilliant.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt, by Arun Arora, Peter Dahlstrom, Klemens Hjartar, and Florian Wunderlich. And thanks to Fortier Public Relations for sending me a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) “Failing is not always acceptable” in the pursuit of speed, say the Fast Times authors. They list three times “it’s plain wrong” including when “the thinking is lazy or flawed.” What is our team’s culture concerning speed, competencies, failure, and risk?
2) On July 9, 2004, Amazon banned PowerPoint presentations at the core executive team level—and honed the “Six-Page Narratives” (sometimes two pages) approach. Click here to read my review of The Amazon Management System. What’s our approach for vetting new ideas and enhancing speed?
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Systems That Serve People—Not the Bureaucracy!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Here’s the core competency in the Systems Bucket: “We are passionate about systems thinking and process management. We encourage systems people to use their gifts and mentor others for the benefit of our Cause and our Community arenas. We are careful not to tinker or over-tweak, yet we are tenacious about tickler systems. We have a heart to create systems that serve people, not the bureaucracy!”

Nick Nicholaou of Ministry Business Services says there are three reasons you should never create your own software solution: 1) it will never be completed; 2) it will be difficult to support (and maybe your developer will die, without leaving any documentation); and 3) it will be very expensive.

That’s from my 2016 review of his book, Church IT. Good news, the publisher, Christianity Today International, released an updated edition of Nick’s book last year.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Church IT: Using Information Technology for the Mission of the Church, by Nick B. Nicholaou (2019).


For more resources in the Systems Bucket, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Nick Nicholaou says there are “four disciplines” of church IT, including web and graphic design. Do you have the right person leading all four disciplines? Ask 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.

Ho! Ho! Ho! This is funny!

Bonus Blog! Enjoy this bonus blog post with a funny cartoon and a WSJ writer's response to my letter to the editor. You won't believe it! I posted this sign in my front yard this week with this memo and cartoon!

HO! HO! HO!

DATE: December 14, 2020

TO: All Neighbors, Dog Walkers, & Cell Phone Conversationalists!

FROM: John Pearson’s Home Office (overlooking Calle Guadalajara!)

RE: Laugh-Out-Loud! (…or maybe TALK-Out-Loud!)

This is funny! On Dec. 9, The Wall Street Journal featured a fascinating article by Alexandra Samuel, “How to Protect Your Privacy When Working From Home.” It suggested you walk around the neighborhood and make your office calls then. I couldn’t resist—so I submitted a letter to the editor with a tongue-in-check mention about listening in on YOUR calls! LOL!

The Editor
The Wall Street Journal

RE: “How to Protect Your Privacy When Working From Home” (Dec. 9)

During this coronavirus marathon, dozens of my work-at-home neighbors have been following Alexandra Samuel’s advice for sensitive office calls: “a walk around the neighborhood—out of earshot of my neighbors as well as my family—allows me to speak freely and get some exercise, too.” But, hello? My home office faces the street and with my office window open, I can hear every “sensitive” office call! Unfortunately, the neighborhood dogs have designated my mailbox area as their favorite rest stop—so I hear everything. “Hey, Joe! Just deal with it. Stop whining to Pedro about Jennifer’s Zoom manners!”

John W. Pearson
San Clemente, Calif.

Amazingly, the writer emailed me on Dec. 10—and sent a cartoon!

Oh gosh, John— you have made me realize I am a blight on the neighborhood!

Your description of the predicament was so vivid that I commissioned the attached cartoon for you from my husband and in-house cartoonist, Rob Cottingham. Perhaps if you post it on your front gate, the neighbors will get the hint?

Thanks so much for writing!

Alex

Laugh-out-loud! I thought you would enjoy her response—and this hilarious cartoon from her husband and "in-house cartoonist," Rob Cottingham.

P.S. Merry Christmas and enjoy your walks along Calle Guadalajara. Maybe some day—after COVID—we can get acquainted! (And, by the way, your sensitive office call conversations are safe with me!) Read Alexandra Samuel’s article online.

How to Protect Your Privacy When Working From Home
There are ways to keep colleagues from intruding on your home life, and family members from intruding on your work life

“Walk it off: For sensitive office calls, take a walk around the neighborhood with your phone and headset so that you can talk freely out of earshot of your family and neighbors. You’ll get some exercise, too.”

P.P.S. That’s me in the cartoon, in my second-floor home office—listening in on your “sensitive” phone calls! LOL!

Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank

Issue No. 456 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a page-turner that checks all the buckets. Read Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my previous review (giving equal time to North Korea!), The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un.



Therapy for the Negotiator’s Nightmare: Whac-A-Mole!

After the co-chairman of the private equity firm Newbridge Capital (now TPG) interviewed Weijian Shan, former professor at the Wharton School, David Bonderman told a colleague, “This guy has no clue what private equity is about.”

But he liked Shan’s personality and hired him anyway. “I figured you could learn,” the chairman told Shan years later! And, oh my, he did learn. As a partner at Newbridge and co-managing partner of what became TPG-Asia, Shan led the team that facilitated a huge buyout deal—the acquisition of what used to be South Korea’s largest bank.

Honest (honest!)—this is a riveting read! If you’ve ever negotiated anything—or plan to—you and your team members must read this hot-off-the-press page-turner, Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank, by Weijian Shan.

First—some fascinating facts for context:
   • The Asian Financial Crisis (starting in July 1997) had devastated the economy of South Korea—and the profitability of their nationalized banks was extremely low. The return on assets “was just one-tenth that of world-class banks.”
   • South Korea was on the verge of defaulting on its foreign debt—money was fleeing the country and “its foreign exchange reserves had plummeted to just $8.9 billion by December”—just enough to last a week or two.
   • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank offered a $58 billion rescue package—but with “conditions on austerity and restructuring, including a mandate to sell off to foreign investors two failed banks, Korea First Bank and Seoul Bank.” A new credit culture was desperately needed in the banking system.

Yikes! The author’s firm had been invited to buy a bank—but what was the upside? The author asked himself, “Who would want to buy a failed bank in a failed economy in the middle of the worst economic crisis the country has ever experienced?” I’m not a finance guy, but this technical term came to mind: lose/lose/lose!

Yet, “David Bonderman, co-chairman of Newbridge, had experience with failing banks.” His colleagues appreciated his contrarian style—“buying businesses most other investors would shun.” And if you’re still reading this review, indulge me with at least one more paragraph on why you and your colleagues must read this book.

In the contrarian book, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, Steven B. Sample, the former president of USC, writes about the discipline of reading outside your routine—and why younger leaders, especially, should look for ideas outside of their established fields. So don’t reject Money Games because it appears to be a finance book. It is not. Money Games literally checks all of my 20 management buckets (core competencies). Check. Check. Check. It’s amazing! I couldn’t put it down. Here’s why:

STREET CRED. The author, Weijian Shan, is now chairman and CEO of PAG, a leading Asia-focused private equity firm that manages US$40 billion in capital. Prior to his role at Newbridge (the book’s setting from 1997 to 2004), he was a managing director of JP Morgan, and an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His previous book (2019) chronicles several years, in his youth, working as a laborer in the Gobi Desert of China—and his journey and career in America. Shan holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco.

METICULOUS METAPHORS. Concerned you won’t understand the financial terminology? No problem. In addition to his helpful appendix, “A Primer on Commercial Banking,” the author is a master at meticulous metaphors—serving up understandable pictures of complicated scenarios. Stunning, actually! Example: when the government lawyers wanted to use legal language unacceptable to Newbridge, Shan’s team added the phrase “to enable…” The author explains the term to the reader with a running shoes metaphor. (Shan’s a disciplined morning runner). Ah, now I understand! Brilliant!

WHAC-A-MOLE! Have you ever been up to your eyeballs in a never-ending negotiation only to groan—as Shan did when rushing to close the deal? “Hashing out deal terms with the FSC [the government regulators] was like playing Whac-A-Mole: As soon as we agreed on one issue, another would pop up.” Enriching the book’s novel-like suspense (deal or no deal?) are dozens of negotiating tactics (wrapped in integrity).

FULL REFUND OFFER. This one is spectacular! At one point, the negotiations had slowed to a snail’s pace because the government’s bureaucrats and lawyers were painstakingly reading every sentence and obsessing on every word—for fear they would “make costly and irreversible mistakes.” So the author made a radical offer. “We would not mind if they retracted their decisions if they later thought they had made a mistake; meanwhile, our side would keep our word for whatever we proposed.” (His metaphor to the reader: the “full refund offer” he gave his wife—she could return any gift he bought her when she didn’t like it, which was apparently often!)

THERAPY. Whew. You think your negotiations have been arduous? This book is helpful therapy for all negotiators. Your life is easier! The Newbridge deal to buy Korea First Bank was breathtakingly complicated—and involved painstaking detail with hundreds of people. There’s the teaser invitation, then the MOU, then the TOI (Terms of Investment), then the final document 15 months later (not a typo). Add in missed deadlines, marathon all-night sessions (pizza for lunch and dinner—three days straight!), conference calls at inconvenient hours (Hong Kong, London, Seoul, and San Francisco time zones—all hands on deck!), innumerable international flights, and one officer’s preference for faxes. (Oops— the hotel's fax is on the fritz. Oops—no paper in the receiving fax machine. Oops. Oops. Oops.)

THORNY. “Even though the TOI served as a basis for the final agreements, the documentation process was like turning a book outline into a real book. Imagine the thorny process of two proud co-authors who must agree with each other on every word. Now imagine if each author also had to consult a team of editors and assistants who also had to agree.” (As the co-author of five books, I now wonder what my co-authors really felt about me!)

Here are more leadership gems—don’t skip ‘em!

Seriousness Meter. Hong Kong’s weather service measures typhoons on a scale of intensity: 1, 3, 8, 9, and 10 (10 is the strongest). When the author (who lives in Hong Kong) decided not the take an official’s “seriousness serious anymore,” I thought…maybe leaders should use those numbers for a “Seriousness Meter” when negotiating.

Push Back. I won’t divulge the details or issue a spoiler alert here, but there’s a fascinating chapter, “The Hard Part,” that discusses a leadership misstep based on a cultural norm prevalent in Korea, also discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers. Shan pushes back on Gladwell’s analysis—another reason to learn from contrarian thinkers. (Click here to read my review of Outliers.)

SMART Goals. In the chapter, “Change Agent,” read how one bank CEO set an easy-to-remember corporate target and how he would “explain it in meeting after meeting with both executives and employees, for hundreds of hours, until everyone was on board with his objectives.”

Slow. Normal. Fast. Was it a negotiating tactic, or did the South Korean regulators seek to slow down the sale of Korea First Bank for other reasons? They should have read this 2020 book (had it been written!): Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt, by four McKinsey & Company leaders. Example: a normal product launch takes six months, but per Fast Times, a “fast” product launch should take only two weeks. (Watch for my review this month.)

The fast pace at Newbridge reminded me of Patrick Lencioni’s comments on “urgency” in his HBR article on core values (read my review). “The CEO who claimed his company’s core value was a sense of urgency, for instance, was substituting an aspirational value for a core one.” Newbridge actually lived their values!

Rocket Science. I had the privilege of serving on the Supervisory Committee and then the board of Christian Community Credit Union from 2007 to 2019, including six years as board chair. I’m not a finance guy (I’m a governance guy), but I did manage to pass the U.S. regulator’s financial literary examination. So I suppose that perspective heightened my interest in Money Games, but—trust me—your CFO, your CEO, your board members, and any curious leader or manager will appreciate this fast-moving book. (Did I mention “riveting?”) With 400 bank branches, you’ll learn why the new CEO formed a “Decision Science Department” (aka Rocket Science Dept. or today—AI Dept.). Stunning!

Finally, I was unprepared for the author’s “James Bond movie” reference when a banker showed Shan photos of a damaged car, riddled with bullet holes and a car seat stained with blood—the banker’s blood! (He had been HSBC’s bank head in Argentina.) Shan writes, “I had never thought of banking as a life-threatening occupation.” Ditto and Yikes!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank, by Weijian Shan.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) When you study the relational interactions (think the four social styles) and the cultural nuances in Money Games—you’ll experience a crash course in all 20 core competences (the management buckets). For example, the author learned (after a negotiating session) that his forceful defense of a methodology left little room for the other side to challenge him. But when a colleague told Shan that his methodology was incorrect, the author immediately apologized the next morning. How do you invite feedback—and what do you do with it?
2) Weijian Shan is a master at metaphors especially when explaining complex information and scenarios. Example: “…instead of cutting the oversized clothes to fit the body, he would grow the body into the clothes.” Think back over recent staff meetings—what was the most helpful metaphor someone used to explain a complex issue or challenge? 
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Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands?
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Weijian Shan, the author of Money Games, has an artist’s eye for detail, and an entrepreneur’s nerves for deal-making. Every chapter is embellished with fascinating cultural references and there’s something for everyone: Asian food delicacies, Hong Kong architecture (his 57th floor office overlooked Victoria Harbour), why the eldest Korean is given deference, the credit culture (few had checking accounts and credit cards in Korea in 2000), and much more.

When working internationally, understanding your customer is crucial. I’ve been blessed to visit more than 50 countries (often working with nonprofit ministries) and I’ve found two books, especially, to be immensely helpful:

• Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More than 60 Countries, by Terri Morrison and Wayne A. Conaway, will help you avoid the proverbial faux pas. In South Korea: “Be careful not to overly admire an object belonging to another person. He or she may feel obliged to give it to you.” And “do not sign a contract or write a person’s name in red ink. This indicates that the person is deceased.”

• Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church, by James E. Plueddemann, asks what if your church desires to “partner” with a church in another country? Watch out, warns the author. “The idea of ‘equal partners’ is foreign to most of the world. Partnership in much of the world assumes a junior or senior member.”

For more resources in the Customer Bucket, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. As you grow, are you planning to partner, locally and internationally? Don’t go it alone! 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.

The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un

Issue No. 455 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a Pop Quiz on an absolutely fascinating book on North Korea, The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for another unconventional book pick in 2009 on the second largest country in the world, Being Indian: The Truth About Why the 21st Century Will Be India’s.



Succession, Self-Criticism, & Dennis Rodman!

Looking for Christmas gifts for the readers (and listeners) in your circle? The Great Successor checks all the boxes and it arrives with a Christmas-red book jacket:
   [x] Page-turner! Couldn’t put it down.
   [x] Absolutely fascinating leadership biography!
   [x] Memorable and eye-opening stories! Unbelievable! Concerning.

How will the White House team relate to North Korea and Kim Jong Un in 2021 and beyond? Stay tuned, of course—but this 2019 bio by Anna Fifield (former Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post) is off-the-chart captivating. Once you read her subtitle, “The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un,” you’re hooked. How’d you like “Brilliant Comrade” on your business card?

POP QUIZ! I’m thinkin’ the best way to lure you into the book is to surprise you and your classmates with a True or False Pop Quiz. (See below.) But first…you can cram for the exam with this helpful guide to the three main characters—Grandpa Kim, Father Kim, and Grandson Kim:
   • KIM IL SUNG (1912-1994) founding Supreme Leader of North Korea at age 36—ruled from 1948 to 1994. Died in office at age 82.
   • KIM JONG IL (1941-2011), named Supreme Leader at age 52 and ruled from 1994 to 2011. Died in office at age 70.
   • KIM JONG UN (born 1984), named Supreme Leader at age 27 in 2011 (He will be 37 on Jan. 8, 2021.)

FACT OR FAKE?
How Much Do You Know About North Korea and Kim Jong Un, “The Great Successor”?

___True or False? 1) YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE. North Korea’s equivalent of a defense minister disappeared in 2016 “and was reported to have been executed for insubordination and treason,” including “falling asleep while Kim Jong Un was speaking.”

___True or False? 2) TEN COMMANDMENTS. North Koreans are required to memorize the “Ten Principles on the Establishing of the Monolithic Ideology of the Party”—and “be able to recite them on demand.”

___True or False? 3) SELF-CRITICISM SESSIONS. “Every Saturday, and sometimes more often, citizens must also attend self-criticism sessions, where they are required to detail their own short-comings of the previous week and often offer up those of the people around them.” Per the author, the sessions can also be helpful when retaliating against an annoying neighbor!

___True or False? 4) DICTATOR-FOR-LIFE. The Kim family’s durability is stunning—compared to other dictatorships. During Kim Il Sung’s reign (1948-1994), the U.S. said hello and goodbye to nine presidents (Truman to Clinton). “Japan cycled through twenty-one prime ministers. Kim Il Sung outlived Mao Zedon by almost two decades and Joseph Stalin by four. North Korea has now existed for longer than the Soviet Union.”

___T or F. 5) CHRISTIAN ROOTS. Kim Il Sung, the grandfather, was born on April 15, 1912—the same day the Titanic sank. “At the time, Pyongyang was a center for Christianity, so much so that it was called the Jerusalem of the East. He was born into a Protestant family, and one of his grandfathers served as a minister.”

___T or F. 6) AMATEUR HOUR. On Sept. 9, 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was founded and Kim Il Sung was installed as its leader. “No sooner had he been appointed than Kim began a personality cult so pervasive it would soon make Stalin look like an amateur.” Soon, statues of “the Great Leader” began to appear—“and history began to be rewritten.”

___T or F. 7) BAD TIMING. In 1991, Kim Jong Il was named Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army. “It was hardly an auspicious time to cement the succession. The Berlin Wall had just come down. Just two days after his promotion, the Soviet Union collapsed. The Communist Bloc that had supported the North Korean regime, both economically and ideologically, was no more.”

___T or F. 8) AND HE NEVER TOLD A LIE. “To bolster the case for hereditary succession in these challenging circumstances, the regime created a fantastical story about Kim Jong Il’s provenance that borrowed heavily from both Korean mythology and Christianity.” Example: “They said Kim Jong Il was born in a wooden cabin [not quite a manger!] and that a single bright star shone in the sky at his birth.” The author adds, “But, for good measure, they added a double rainbow spontaneously appearing over the mountain.”

___T or F. 9) SORRY. THAT’S TAKEN. To prepare for the succession to Kim Jong Un, the regime began calling Kim Jong Il’s son, “Beloved and Respected Comrade General.” Next, “the authorities reportedly ordered that no babies from then on could be called Jong Un, and any North Koreans who already had that name [a relatively common name]…had to change it.”

___T or F. 10) STICKS & STONES... Apparently, dictators work hard at branding. While the butt of many jokes outside his borders, Kim Jong Un enjoys many honorary titles today:
   • Invincible and Triumphant General
   • Guardian of Justice
   • Best Incarnation of Love
   • Decisive and Magnanimous Leader
   • Guiding Ray of the Sun, the Sun of the Revolution, the Sun of Socialism, the Bright Sun of the Twenty-First Century, and the Sun of Mankind

Yet…in China, “he was quickly named ‘Kim Fatty the Third,’ despite the belated efforts of the Chinese censors to scrub the moniker from the internet.” (Read the story here.) For more Onion-like “true” stories (scaling mountains in dress shoes!), don’t miss Chapter 5, “A Third Kim at the Helm.” Oh, my.

___T or F. 11) LET THEM EAT CAKE. Anna Fifield interviewed a “money transfer merchant” who was unconvinced that the Great Successor could raise living standards. “When Kim Jong Un said he was going to make the country strong and prosperous, no one believed it. How could we be strong and prosperous if we didn’t even have toilet paper?”

___T or F. 12) DICTATOR DICTUM. Kim Jong Un “had to embody the dictum laid out five centuries earlier by the Italian politician Niccolo Machiavelli in his book The Prince: that it is better to be feared than loved.”

___T or F. 13) SPECIAL, SPECIAL. “Every home, every school, every hospital, every public building, and even every subway car must contain framed photos of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, which must be cleaned every day with a special cloth that is kept in a special box.”

___T or F. 14) BIG BROTHER’S BROADCAST. “Every household has a radio attached to the wall that can never be turned off and can never be tuned to a different station.”

___T or F. 15) WHAT? NO INTERNET? “There is no alternative point of view [from the Brilliant Comrade’s regular commentary and advice on everything from catfish farming to bean paste to missile programs]. And, for all but a handful of the elites who get Kim Jong Un’s explicit permission, there is no internet access. Cell phones are not connected to the outside world.”

___T or F. 16) WILL THIS BE ON THE TEST? When the Brilliant Comrade became leader, high schools added a new curriculum—81 hours of lessons on Kim Jong Un, in addition to the existing courses on his father, grandfather, and grandmother!

___T or F. 17) BRUTAL. There is no orthodox rule of law that “the outside world would recognize as a fair trial. There’s no defense attorney, no jury of one’s peers.” And “severe beatings and torture are commonplace, including pigeon torture, whereby prisoners’ hands are tied behind their back, and they’re hung from a wall, forcing out their chest. They’re made to stay that way for hours, often until they pass out or vomit blood.”

___T or F. 18) LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION. South Korea’s intelligence agency estimates that Kim Jong Un has at least 33 homes in North Korea. His main compound in northeast Pyongyang covers almost five square miles.

___T or F. 19) IT NEVER HAPPENED. While the official government salary remains at about $4 a month (taxi meters start at one dollar!), the creativity of many to earn money on the side is stunning. Not legal, but stunning. The author interviewed a “North Korean Fat Cat,” now living in Virginia. “Every North Korean breaks the law. Kim Jong Un breaks the law as well. Because everyone does it, the authorities just close their eyes,” he told her. The Great Successor keeps his supporters happy by keeping them rich. (Must-read: Chapter 8, “The Elites of Pyonghattan”)

TRUE OR FALSE? All of the above statements are TRUE and these are just a small sample of the unbelievable perspectives you’ll gain by reading the entire book.

So…from Kim Jong Un’s private schooling in Switzerland to his addiction to basketball and his bizarre relationship with former NBA star Dennis Rodman (Rodman was on Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice show twice), to the execution of Kim Jong Un’s uncle (a high-ranking official), and the 2017 poisoning of his older half-brother at the Kuala Lumpur airport—what should one make of the Great Successor?

The author quotes Ian Robertson, a clinical psychologist and professor of neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He believes Kim Jong Un is not a madman, but a “reasonably psychologically stable individual”—but he is a “classic narcissist.” Robertson added, “Most people who don’t get scared off by their conscience or the stress of being a leader develop narcissism.” Fifield summarized Robertson’s thoughts: “Because it’s an acquired narcissism, it’s a personality distortion rather than a personality disorder.”

Think Lord Acton’s insights, she adds: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Hence—nuclear ambitions (joining the H-bomb club in 2017), American hostages (including the tragedy of Otto Warmbier) and more.

Chapters 14 and 15 are prescient. One expert doesn’t believe that Los Angeles will be bombed by North Korea and explains why. (Whew!) “The Charm Offensive” is fascinating with commentary on the First Sister (“the Ivanka Trump of North Korea”) and why no traces of DNA are left when Kim Jong Un or his family stay at hotels outside North Korea. He even brings his own portable toilet.

So who’s the successor to the Great Successor—and can he keep this family gig going? The next leader won’t be a woman, say the South Korean experts. And according to Yale scholar Milan Svolik, who studied 316 dictators, “more than two-thirds were overthrown by their rivals.” Think how Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 and Robert Mugabe in 2017 both lost power. “Their one-time allies seized it from them.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, by Anna Fifield. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (11 hours, 37minutes), narrated by Olivia Mackenzie-Smith.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) In his brilliant chapter, “You Are What You Read,” in The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, Steven B. Sample, the former president of USC, writes on the importance of reading outside your routine—and why younger leaders, especially, should look for ideas outside of their established fields. What’s the value of one great idea gleaned from a source your colleagues will never discover?
2) Are our tribal stories, passed from generation to generation in our organization, still legit, or—embellished by repetition and our founder’s or copywriter’s rhetoric—do they tilt toward the fantastical?
3) TRUE or FALSE? Is your succession plan current? Click here for a resource.
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50 Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Henry Kissinger and President Richard Nixon pioneered a stunning breakthrough between the U.S. and China in 1972. No one thought it was possible. Could a similar breakthrough happen in North Korea?

In the Customer Bucket, we urge you to become zealots for researching and understanding your markets. If—miracle of miracles—North Korea opened up, how much do you know about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)? How about India? Check out:

• Open Doors World Watch List: The 50 Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus (Click here to download the 13-page 2020 list. North Korea is rated #1: the most dangerous.)

• CIA World Factbook: One Page Summary of North Korea (as of September 2020)

For more resources in the Customer Bucket, click here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. A frank outside assessment of your branding and communication pieces will often cause you to make important tweaks that will generate significant upsides. 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.

Ruthless Consistency

Issue No. 454 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting quotes the author of Ruthless Consistency: “What matters more than anything you do is everything you do.” And this reminder: click here for my May review of Non Obvious Megatrends: How to See What Others Miss and Predict the Future.

Best 2020 Book Title: “Ruthless Consistency”

You’re the field goal kicker for your NFL team. It’s overtime and the score is tied 6-6. Which coach would you prefer to play for? Michael Canic (a former football coach) favors Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll:

“Surprisingly, each team’s kicker missed what should have been an ‘automatic’ game-winning field goal in overtime. After the game, when asked about his kicker’s performance, Phoenix coach Bruce Arians [now Tom Brady’s coach at Tampa Bay] responded bluntly, ‘Make it. This is professional; this ain’t high school. You get paid to make it.’

“And what did Seattle coach Pete Carroll say about his kicker? ‘He’s been making kicks for us for years. He’s gonna hit a lot of winners as we go down the road. I love him, and he’s our guy.’”

Michael Canic, the creative author of Ruthless Consistency, says that “constructive accountability and compassion are not mutually exclusive.” My suggestion: his five powerful principles for holding team members constructively accountable should be posted on every office wall (and visible during Zoom calls!). He urges all leaders and managers to change their mindsets: “You’re Not a Manager; You’re a Coach” (Chapter 11). He preaches, “Look in the mirror, Coach. It starts with you.”

If you’re looking for fresh insights and memorable leadership lessons—wrapped around a comprehensive plan for building and enriching your organization—this is the book. I’ve named it my “Best Book Title” of 2020. And the subtitle to Ruthless Consistency is both practical and aspirational: “How Committed Leaders Execute Strategy, Implement Change, and Build Organizations That Win.”

Canic quotes Jim Collins: “The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.”

In his convicting chapter six, “Climb the Right Mountain,” Michael Canic warns that the wrong BHAG could destroy you. “When I was young and foolish,” he begins, “my buddy Ken and I decided to test our rock-climbing skills on Cascade Mountain in the Canadian Rockies. Having done almost no research, we arrived at the mountain, picked out a route that looked promising, and began to climb. Without ropes, of course.

“It was all going well. Until it wasn’t. The climbing got increasingly difficult, and we soon realized we were at the limit of our abilities—and our risk tolerance. Just one problem: We now had to downclimb. Hmmm, hadn’t planned for that.”

Spoiler Alert! The author survived—but he’s never forgotten the big lesson: not every dream is worth pursuing. Canic quotes Alfred Adler: “Follow your heart, but take your brains with you.”

Canic says that leaders must address the three Rs: Rewards, Risks, and Requirements. Canic lists four strategic positioning questions you must answer, including how your brand commitment addresses this: “What makes us desirably different?” (His word choice is stunning.)

Whew! Amazingly comprehensive for a 250-page treatment, Canic allocates his 20 short chapters across five major sections:
   1) The Reality (“What matters more than anything you do is everything you do.”)
   2) The Right Focus (“Stop Strategic Planning” and “Do Less, Use More Resources . . . No, Really”)
   3) The Right Environment (“The Value of Feeling Valued”)
   4) The Right Team (“Hire for What You’re Likely to Overlook”)
   5) The Right Commitment (counter-intuitive wisdom on three enemies you must defeat)

Anytime I find a book that challenges my conventional thinking—I’m in. I was hooked by page two. “Strategic planning? It was a charade. A waste of time, money, and effort. And our experience wasn’t unique. Published failure rates for strategic planning range from 70 to 90 percent.” Yikes!

It gets worse on page three! “When SCIs [strategic change initiatives] fail, you create a track record of failure.
   • You create an expectation of failure.
   • You create an acceptance of failure.
   • And you create a culture of failure.”

Then Canic clocks you with this jab: “Failure becomes the norm.”

In addition to the comprehensive insights on how to build and grow a healthy organization (from his years at FedEx, The Atlanta Consulting Group, and as a member of the Marshall Goldsmith’s global 100 Coaches project), Canic’s tasty morsels, snippets and bonus insights abound. Examples:
   • How to leverage the “One Team Meeting” concept (page 44).
   • The “Ruthless Consistency®” model chart (This overachiever delivers the goods on page 11, not waiting for my “Page 25 Take-Aways” rule-of-thumb.)
   • The psychology of inconsistency and why “people are bloodhounds for inconsistency” (page 20).
   • How he helped a region of the National Kidney Foundation answer the core question, “What business are we in?” with this “what we do” statement: “We help people pee.” (LOL on page 68).

Plus: Pop Quizzes, Feedback Questions, and a Delegation Chart!
   • Two pop quizzes with 22 questions each—and this poke-in-the-ribs: “What do you think is a good score? Here’s a hint: What’s the title of the first chapter?” Answer: “What Matters More Than Anything You Do Is Everything You Do.” Idea: Highlight one question at your next 22 weekly staff meetings (pages 109 and 182).
   • Big idea: 20-minute micro-training single-topic modules (page 126).
   • The “One Thing Better” brilliant feedback question (page 166).
   • The search for universal success traits (six traits) and the assessment, High Potential Trait Indicator (HPTI). (See pages 203-204.)
   • And…another brilliant one-page chart, “4D Prioritization Process,” to enrich your core competencies in the Delegation Bucket (page 239).

I agree with the endorsement from Marshall Goldsmith (author of my 2013 book-of-the-year pick): “This is the ultimate guide to implementing real, positive, and lasting change in your organization.” I urge you to read Michael Canic’s book (or delegate the book to a team member)—and then highlight his wisdom at future staff meetings.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Ruthless Consistency: How Committed Leaders Execute Strategy, Implement Change, and Build Organizations That Win, by Michael Canic. (And thanks to the author for providing a review copy.)

EXTRA CREDIT! Read chapter 21, “The Five Coaching Conversations,” in It’s the Manager, from the Gallup team. (Read my July 2020 review.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) The author says “people are bloodhounds for inconsistency. The moment you say one thing but do another—boom!—they’re on it.” He describes a core value of “speed” at one organization, but it took accounting six weeks to send out staff expense reimbursements! OK, Team—candor will be rewarded. Describe one of our inconsistencies and how we could do one thing better.
2) Michael Canic says “rip the script” during job interviews—and lists five questions to jolt candidates out of their rehearsed answers. Example: “Describe the culture of a company in which you would be a poor fit. (Why would you be a poor fit?)” Why must we practice ruthless consistency when recruiting the right team members here?

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Mount Everest…or Mount Failure?
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Speaking of mountain climbing and strategic plans (per the Strategy Bucket), I’m indebted to David Schmidt, friend and consulting colleague, for his insightful wisdom:

“Your strategic planning consultant/facilitator/volunteer
will use different tools to get you to the top of Mount Everest (a completed plan).
But it’s important to let your facilitator use his or her own tools!”

The “Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan Placemat” (a one-page 11” x17” summary of a strategic plan) is adapted from Schmidt’s helpful model. David knows how to get clients to the top of Mount Everest! Click here to visit Wise Planning and click here for David’s white paper on “Embracing Redemptive Disruption.” He outlines three possible planning paths during this COVID marathon.

Reminder: every strategic planning model will have strengths and innovative nuances. Just pick one—and trust your guide! Failure will result when you inflict your planning tools on your experienced guide! Pick one:

[ ] Ruthless Consistency, Michael Canic, President & Chief Flag-Bearer at Making Strategy Happen®
[ ] Wise Planning, David Schmidt
[ ] Breakthrough: Unleashing the Power of a Proven Plan, by Randon A. Samelson
[ ] The Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan Placemat
     • Tool #14 of 22 tools in ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson
     • Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018)

For more resources in the Strategy Bucket, click here.   
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Before you go public with your strategic plan, you’ll improve your odds for success (and not failure) by involving your outside communication specialist—early in the process. 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.

How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions

Issue No. 453 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a timely new book by Susan Eisenhower on her famous grandfather, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. My grandfather (less famous, but an Oregon delegate to the 1956 GOP convention), ensured that I proudly wore “I LIKE IKE” buttons during Ike’s campaigns. (My sixth birthday was just two days before Ike’s 1952 landslide victory.) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my 2016 review of The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity.

“Let’s not make our mistakes in a hurry.” 

Attn: Grandparents! Could one of your grandchildren write a 387-page book about you? A fascinating book? A book about leadership?

Attn: Grandkids (and Parents)! Read Susan Eisenhower’s account of her famous grandfather, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the U.S. (1953-1961). (Then tell your Grammy that when she becomes U.S. President, you’ll write a book about her!)

How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions covers some tumultuous decades in the world, including World War II when “Ike” was a five-star general in the U.S. Army and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.

But, as Susan Eisenhower relates, the war hero turned politician wasn’t really a politician at all. (Sounds good! Tell me more!) Both Democrats and Republicans vied for his loyalty and Ike, reluctantly at first, agreed to run as a Republican. He championed the “Middle Way” and defeated Adlai Stevenson twice to serve his nation eight years as U.S. President.

And speaking of ballot counting, look at these stunning Electoral College numbers:
   • 1952 Electoral Votes: Eisenhower (442) vs. Stevenson (89)
   • 1956 Electoral Votes: Eisenhower (457) vs. Stevenson (73)

The author wastes no time in describing the principles that guided Ike’s leadership style. While his military background obviously influenced him, he didn’t surround himself with “Yes” men. She quotes Gen. Andrew Goodpaster (“Ike’s trusted White House staff secretary and defense liaison”), noting the President’s bias toward “the long haul.”

Gen. Goodpaster: “It is critical to determine which of all the areas of national affairs are the ‘long poles’ and which ones are the ‘short poles.’” She adds, “It should be noted that the long poles, if they are not kept sturdy through reinforcement and timely maintenance can bring down the whole tent.” (Memo to self: use this metaphor!)

Goodpaster, who worked with the author at the Eisenhower Institute, often recalled Ike’s maxims:
   • “All generalizations are false including this one.”
   • “Let’s not make our mistakes in a hurry.”
   • “Take your job seriously, but never yourself.”
And the question most often asked by the President at cabinet meetings:
   • “What’s best for America?—for the country as a whole?”

SOUL-WRACKING PROBLEMS. Ike gave a 1960 speech “in which he eloquently recalled the airborne and the weather decisions he had made on the eve of the Normandy invasion, only sixteen years earlier. He noted that ‘for years thereafter I felt that only once in a lifetime could a problem of this sort weigh so heavily upon a man’s mind and heart . . . but I know in this age the President encounters [such] soul-wracking problems many times in a single term of office.” (Memo to self: pray for our presidents.)

CHARACTER CLUES. “Corporate boards, consulting work, accepting speaking honorariums ‘I could decline out of hand,’ he wrote later. ‘I did not believe it fitting for me, a man who had been honored by his government with military responsibilities, to profit financially for no other reason than that my name was widely known.’” His granddaughter adds, “Aside from writing, this was a policy he adopted in the immediate aftermath of victory in Europe and retained for the rest of his life.”

COMRADES, NOT CRONIES. A cabinet official described Ike’s relationships with his team members, “We were comrades in arms, but not cronies.” And Ike leveraged the nuances of word choice. Susan Eisenhower writes, “The respect the president afforded his colleagues could be discerned in the way he would respond to an issue. Ike did not say at press conferences, ‘I have directed the Secretary,’ but rather, ‘I have approved the Secretary’s proposal.’” Ike once said, “It is better to have one person working with you than three working for you.” (Italics added by the author.)

DON’T BE CUTE. The author notes that Jim Hagerty, Ike’s press secretary, recalled that Ike had several fundamental rules for press conferences: “[One], if an error [is] made, admit it in detail and spell it out so that it [tells] the complete story of the error, and two, . . . show a plan for preventing the recurrence of any such error. Then stand your ground. Be dignified but tough. Say it was an error. Say it won’t happen again and don’t say anything else. [And three,] Don’t try to be cute or cover up. It you do, you will get so entangled you won’t know what you’re doing.”

DON’T CRITICIZE PUBLICLY. “As his presidency progressed, the president would also refuse to counter his critics, and would not criticize them publicly.” (Memo to self: practice this!)

A FEAST! This book (published in August 2020) is a feast of leadership principles. I wrote 35 notes—all important—that I wanted to share with you, but I’ve run out of room. For example, the family snippets from Susan Eisenhower are poignant and memorable:
   • The letters between Ike and his younger brother, Milton (president of three universities including Penn State), are revealing. When Ike encouraged Milton to skip athletics and be the family’s intellectual, Milton later told Susan, “In effect, your grandfather gave me permission to be myself.”
   • “…the Gettysburg vegetable garden at their personal farm, often yielded produce that Ike and Mamie [the First Lady] sent to the White House, at no cost to the taxpayer, for state dinners as well as family meals. Mamie clipped coupons for the White House shopper and could often be heard to say, ‘Don’t run it on the eagle’—which meant not to waste taxpayers’ money.”

   • And don’t skip the “baby letter” account on pages 115-116. During the 1952 campaign, Ike personally signed as many letters as humanly possible—including hundreds to proud parents who wrote, “Our little Herman looks exactly like you!” At whistle-stop rallies, supporters would shout out, “General, we got your letter!” The “battered letters” had been “all over town—to various clubs and churches so others could see the general’s reply.”
   • And LOL! The Republican National Committee complained about Ike’s excessive postage budget! After a second complaint letter from the RNC, “he quipped that [an aide] ought to write to the RNC and ask them: ‘How long has it been since you had a winner!?’” (Ike was the first Republican to win the White House since Herbert Hoover in the 1928 election.)

Note: My grandfather, Arthur B. Carlson, urged Scandinavians to vote for Ike. He often wrote weekly letters to the President and Vice President and received numerous personal responses. Note the 1960 first class four-cent postage stamp!

While there’s little mention of Ike’s VP, Richard Nixon, be sure to read why the touted “missile gap” in the 1960 Kennedy vs. Nixon campaign was actually fake news. And if you want to go deeper on the 1956 global crisis over the Suez Canal (see Chapter 11, “Principles and Tenacity in Times of Crisis”), read Eisenhower 1956: The President’s Year of Crisis—Suez and the Brink of War, by David A. Nichols. (Read my review.)

Plus, ponder Ike’s deep insights about the Holocaust—and how he strategically illuminated the horror. Finally, learn how Ike balanced risk and reward in the Delegation Bucket, when—addressing Far East issues early in his career—he dispatched an entire division (15,000 – 20,000 men) to Australia without asking for permission. “Rather than taking offense at this, [Gen. George] Marshall determined that Ike was exactly the kind of man he was looking for: someone who could make decisions and live with the consequences.”

On behalf of grandparents everywhere, thank you, Susan Eisenhower, for a spectacular book! I like Ike—even more. (And thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions, by Susan Eisenhower. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (12 hours, 24 minutes), narrated by Bernadette Dunne and Susan Eisenhower. (This includes a newly remastered version of President Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Ike’s military staff engaged brilliant wordsmiths to draft the “victory” press release—signaling the end of World War II. General Eisenhower rejected every self-serving draft and, instead, he wrote one sentence to the Combined Chiefs of Staff! “The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945.” So…when should brevity punctuate our successes in our organization?
2) Susan Eisenhower quotes General Goodpaster who once said to President Eisenhower, “It must take guts to delegate.” Ike’s reply quoted the 19th century German general Helmuth von Moltke, “Centralization is the refuge of fear.” So…on a scale of one to five (five is excellent), how gutsy are we in the Delegation Bucket?

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"You Can't Do a Thousand Things"
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Speaking of presidential transitions (Oh, my!), here are two excellent books that all leaders in transition (now or later) should read:

#1. To read my review and order from Amazon, click on the title for The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity, by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duff.

On President Lyndon B. Johnson, the authors note: “He moved Eisenhower’s portrait to a more prominent position, so that it would be visible in the background of pictures of Johnson greeting various White House guests.”

#2. President Jimmy Carter’s chief of staff called his position, “Chief Javelin Catcher!” Here’s another must-read book. Jam-packed with leadership insights, I wrote two reviews for The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, by Chris Whipple. To read my review and order from Amazon, click on the title.

When Erskine Bowles served as President Bill Clinton’s second chief of staff, he “carried around a card with the president’s top priorities written on it—and rebelled when Clinton tried to go off script. ‘One day the president came out of his office and he had another one of his great ideas,’ he recalls. ‘And believe me, they were unbelievably great ideas. And I turned to him and said, ‘Mr. President, you have got to go right back into that Oval Office, right now!

“‘You’ve got to look at this list of things that you and I agreed you wanted to get done. Not that I wanted to get done, but you wanted to get done. If you will stay focused on those three or four things, I can set up the organization and the structure and the focus to make ‘em real. But you can’t do a thousand things.’”

   

For the master list of my book reviews (segmented within the 20 buckets/core competencies), visit the Book Bucket.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Ever had outside eyes give you frank feedback on how you’re positioning your leader and your senior leaders on your website, in eNewsletters, or in print? 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.

Oh God, I’m Dying! How God Redeems Pain for Our Good and for His Glory

Issue No. 452 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a leader’s very transparent personal journey through pain and suffering. It’s sobering, but soothing. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my 2016 review of Serve Strong: Biblical Encouragement to Sustain God’s Servants, also by Terry Powell. He writes that Merrill C. Tenney once told his class, “The devil never opposes insignificant work.”



Tire Tracks to Transparency

Hey! Quit your whining, complaining, and yammering. You’re not on a 40-year wilderness trek with Moses—and you’re not Mark Smith.

OK, let me soften that a tad. Perhaps you are experiencing pain—emotional, physical, relational, and more—but, good news, the authors of Oh God, I’m Dying have encouragement for you. Terry Powell and Mark Smith believe you can learn “how God redeems pain for our good and His glory.”

If you’re a leader—and you’re learning that leadership is challenging, you’re not alone. The authors note, “For a Christian leader—whether the venue is a church, parachurch organization or a school—the job description often comes wrapped in a burden.”

But there’s help! This book is a page-turner and could be a game-changer. I read it slowly over multiple mornings of quiet and reflection, but the back cover says you can read it in just 144 minutes. I don’t recommend a speed-reading marathon. This is a deep dive. Here’s why:

WHAM! “Oh God, I’m dying!” was Mark Smith’s helpless cry to God. Life looked good at age 30, then WHAM—a 1996 horrific car accident changed his life forever. After 45 minutes in his mangled Ford Taurus, rescuers used the “jaws of life” to extract this young leader. His body and his future looked bleak and painful. Doctors predicted months and months in the hospital.

A car swerved into his car and “the head-on collision sounded like a small bomb detonating,” and “the impact knocked Mark’s car a total of 80 feet off the road” and into an Indiana cornfield. (The other driver also survived.) Regaining consciousness, Mark “wasn’t sure he had a future on earth, but Mark felt the overwhelming presence of the One who controlled his future.”

Yet, this young college administrator, pastor, husband, and father (blessed with a one-year-old son), wondered if his walk with God and the sermon on grace and weakness he had just preached hours before (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)—would be sufficient for the long days and nights ahead.

POP QUIZ! I asked myself—and you may want to ask yourself—could you pass this test? Would your answer echo the Apostle Paul’s courageous response?

“It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” (The Message)

Whew. Page after page, I cautiously wondered. Did this book interrupt my comfortable routine to prepare me for something coming? Do I want to endure pain to learn strength? Not really…but I continued reading. Maybe you should read this too. Ten reasons:

#1. MAXWELL ENDORSES. John C. Maxwell’s endorsement: “This book teaches you how to learn from and how to persevere in tough times.”

#2. MEMORABLE STORY. Amazingly, co-author Terry Powell (click here for my review of Powell’s book, Serve Strong) convinced Mark Smith to tell his story. Everyone has a story—but in just 169 pages (plus notes and resources), you’ll never forget this story—and the leadership lessons.

#3. MORPHING PAIN. Even today (24 years later), “What starts in the afternoon as a throbbing ache morphs into a burning sensation within a couple of hours. By eight p.m., he labels it a ‘roaring pain,’ as if an accelerant had been injected into the fire already glowing in his neck, left arm and hip. By 10:00 p.m., the ferocity of the pain generates tears.”

#4. MARK’S DAY JOB. You’re not gonna believe this! Dr. Mark Smith’s day job is president of Columbia International University in South Carolina. What’s a tougher job than leading an institution of higher education? Leading a university while coping with debilitating pain—every day.

#5. MIDNIGHT BALM. The long nights in those early days of unbearable pain pointed Mark Smith to the Scriptures he had previously memorized. You’ll delight in the powerful words of God generously sprinkled across the pages. And get this—dozens of Bible verses are highlighted with unique graphics above and below the Scripture—black tire tracks!

“The text most precious to Mark during his recovery was Psalm 34, especially verses 1-7.”

#6. MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL. The authors quote Marsha Hays, “Music is medicine for the soul.” In the brilliant last half of the book, the authors highlight 10 “Faith Lessons.” Lesson 5, “Using Music to Soothe the Soul” notes that when Mark’s spirit sagged, “God’s Spirit used hymns to massage his mind and restore his focus on the gospel.” When I read this short chapter—I couldn’t resist: “Alexa, play ‘My Faith Has Found a Resting Place.’”

#7. MORE LESSONS. The 10 short faith lessons for helping “God’s people deal with pain and suffering” are both soothing and sobering. (Feature one-per-week at your weekly staff meeting.)
   • Faith Lesson 1: Clinging to God’s Word
   • Faith Lesson 2: Pleading With God
   • Faith Lesson 3: Embracing Brokenness
   • Faith Lesson 9: Comforting Persons Who Hurt
   • Faith Lesson 10: Redeeming Pain

#8. MATURITY CHECK-UP. “Releasing Resentment,” the fourth faith lesson, quotes St. Augustine: “Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.” Powell and Smith list eight very-very-convicting questions on releasing resentment, including this poke-in-the-ribs: “Have I stopped telling others what this person did to me?” (See Ephesians 4:29.)

#9. MONEY MIRACLES. I hesitate to mention Chapter 9, “Nowhere to Look but Up!” because my nonprofit CEO and fundraising colleagues will immediately read this chapter first—but please don’t. Terry Powell chronicles God’s blessing on the fundraising initiatives of Mark Smith over his career at three universities. Talk about miracle stories! Wow! But, if you skip Mark’s journey from a mangled Ford Taurus to the leadership of a major Christian university (Chapters 1 to 8)—you’ll miss the big idea of this book. They quote D.A. Carson:

“One of the things held out to grieving or suffering believers is the prospect of being more fruitful than they could have ever imagined.”

#10. MINISTRY GUTS. This story—this book—in the wrong hands with the wrong words could have been an egotistical tribute to a self-absorbed leader. It’s not. It took guts for Terry Powell to ask Mark Smith to share his story. And it took guts and transparency for Mark Smith to let us in on God’s grace in his life. The two of them—beautifully—contrast human frailties and weakness with God’s grace and power.

This is a very special book and I urge you to read this wisdom and share it with others.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Oh God, I’m Dying! How God Redeems Pain for Our Good and for His Glory, by Terry Powell and Mark Smith. Note: the paperback ships on Nov. 24. Click here for the Kindle Edition (available now).

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) The authors quote Charles H. Spurgeon: “Within the Scripture there is a balm for every wound, a salve for every sore.” Mark Smith found solace in Psalm 34. What Scripture refocuses your mind from your self to your Savior?
2) The authors write, “The library shelves of Christian colleges and seminaries sag with the weight of pastoral and theological tomes on the issues pertaining to suffering and faith.” But gratefully, the authors list 16 additional books on the topic, plus organizations that help people address pain and suffering in God-honoring ways. What resource have you found helpful to understand pain and God’s grace? 
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Attn: Fundraisers! Never, ever, ever…send the same donor appeal to donors and non-donors. Never!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Speaking of fundraising (see above) and the Donor Bucket, I recall attending a direct mail fundraising workshop years ago. The Big Name Consultant recommended that U.S. nonprofit leaders schedule their year-end fundraising appeals to arrive—get this—on the day after Thanksgiving. Not sure if that’s still good wisdom or not. (I’ll be waiting by my mailbox on Nov. 27 for your letter!)

But here’s some reliable take-it-to-the-bank wisdom (no pun intended): Never, ever, ever—send the same donor appeal to donors and non-donors. If I had $10 for every donor letter that THANKED me for my previous giving (when I’ve never/ever given to that organization), well…you know the rest.

Instead (at least) try simplified segmenting:
   • Letter A is written to current donors.
   • Letter B is written to prospects who have never/ever given. The goal: cross the line into the giver’s circle. (Then, customize the receipt/thank you letter to acknowledge the first-time gift. Get creative!)

It’s pretty simple—but my mailbox reports that no one’s attended my Simplified Segmenting Workshop. When you’re ready for the advanced workshop, segment your Letter A group into four segments, per R. Mark Dillon’s counsel in Giving & Getting in the Kingdom: A Field Guide. He divides current givers into four groups:
   • The Gifted Giver (2-5% of givers)
   • The Thoughtful Giver (15-25% of givers)
   • The Casual Giver (35-50% of givers)
   • The Reluctant Giver (perhaps 33% of givers)

And—this is encouraging—the Gifted Giver will show up at the dedication of a new building and ask, “What’s next?” Dillon says “the gifted giver seldom needs to be asked.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Giving & Getting in the Kingdom: A Field Guide, by R. Mark Dillon. Click here to read my review.

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Do your fund development materials and videos need a refresh? Are you segmenting your donors and your customers effectively? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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