Issue No. 92 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting has a practical tip for you—and anyone—when you answer the phone at work. When the light comes on to indicate there’s an in-coming call, calm yourself first and get ready to offer legendary service. If someone calls with a complaint, you’ll bless them more with your calm demeanor. And this reminder: to review the books I’ve recommended in back issues, visit the archives here. Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of new resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings—and my new online “TV spot.”
The Power of Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
Leadership alert! Before you read one more book, attend one more seminar, or even listen to one more sermon, read this book—and read it four times!
Ken Blanchard, Paul J. Meyer and Dick Ruhe have packaged the solution to a nasty problem in just 104 quick-reading, but pragmatic pages. To order from Amazon, click on this title: Know Can Do! Put Your Know-How Into Action.
“The gap between knowing and doing,” declares one of the characters in this short business story, “is probably wider than the gap between ignorance and knowledge.” The gap solution: the power and practice of repetition, repetition, repetition. Plus, “people should learn less information more often, rather than learn more information less often.” Read fewer books, they preach, and read them not once, but four times. Follow-up seminar attendance with a weekly one-hour coaching call for six weeks.
In their story, about 20 percent of each manager’s performance evaluation is based on successfully conducting one-on-one meetings (every other week) with direct reports. (Three cheers for that one! See my template for one-on-one meetings in the Meeting Bucket chapter in my new book.) Why? Because great managers don’t practice “seagull behavior” (read the book!), but are coaches and mentors in a partnership relationship with their team members—helping to close the knowing-doing gap.
The Blanchard bottom line: this is a foundational book that will impact everything you read and learn—from this day forward—for the rest of your leadership/learning life. It’s a must, must, must, read, read, read.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1. Tell the person next to you, in this staff meeting, why you think there is such a huge gap between what we know and then what we actually do.
2. The authors suggest on your fourth read through a book, you do it with a learning partner. Why might that be a valuable process?
Cause, Community and Corporation - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
In the introduction to my new book, Mastering the Management Buckets, I begin with “Buckets 101,” a description of the three major management arenas: Cause, Community and Corporation. Like a three-legged stool, every organization must balance the competing demands of Cause, Community and Corporation.
Your Cause is all about your mission, your customer, your strategy, your programs, products and services—and your results. Your Community is about building, equipping and celebrating team members—for the sake of your Cause, but also because honoring and mentoring your people is the right thing to do. Your Corporation arena is about fiduciary responsibilities, hiring and firing employees, organizational charts and budgets—not as relational or inspiring as the others, but no less important to the health of your organization.
A one-legged stool (Cause only) tips over. A two-legged stool (Community and Corporation) doesn’t work either. The effective leader balances all three—and doesn’t tilt towards just one. And there’s the rub: leadership and management is just plain hard work. But it can also be immensely satisfying and fulfilling—when your team understands Cause, Community and Corporation and how all 20 management buckets can be integrated. So build a balanced organization—and close the knowing-doing gap.
FALL 2008 WORKSHOP DATES ANNOUNCED. Join your colleagues at one of our Buckets or Board workshops this fall:
Mastering the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
September 16-17, 2008 (Colorado Springs)
October 14-15, 2008 (Chicago)
November 18-19, 2008 (Orange County, Calif.)
Nonprofit Board Governance Workshop
September 18, 2008 (Colorado Springs)
October 13, 2008 (Chicago)
November 21, 2008 (Orange County, Calif.)
For more details, download the workshop announcement and email us today to hold a space.
Comments