Issue No. 472 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a new book from Bob Phillips with 57 leadership success principles—and a 10-minutes-per-day challenge! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my 2020 list of eight leadership flicks (including comedy) with 11 ½ hours of movies, videos, and YouTube features.
“The worst mistake is to have the best ladder and the wrong wall.”
(from Rumsfeld’s Rules, by Donald Rumsfeld)
The Stunning Power of 10 Minutes a Day!
I’m a big believer in the power of a well-prepared 10-minute segment. And LOL—after writing this lead sentence, I wondered what might pop up if I googled “the power of 10 minutes!” Apparently, others have thought about this also, including a blogger who listed 50 things you can accomplish in 10 minutes or less.
#23. Call your grandparent!
#39. Do a whole-house declutter sweep.
So…I was thrilled when Bob Phillips sent me his latest book (March 2021), Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day. Brilliant! Here’s his big and helpful idea:
“Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day is a collection of thoughts about leadership written for both first time and seasoned leaders. These concepts can be read in ten minutes or less and then put into practice. The concepts are designed to alert you, encourage you, and challenge you not to quit as a leader.” He quotes Erwin Lutzer:
“Better to have failed when serving God than to have succeeded when serving the devil. What a tragedy to climb the ladder of success only to discover that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.”
With 57 succinct chapters, the wisdom, pithy quotations, charts, and practical leadership savvy is slotted under four major categories:
• Qualities Every Leader Needs (time management, courage, accountability, the power of faith, and seven more topics)
• Dealing With Leadership Challenges (bad news, problems, boredom, the ugly side of leadership, getting the monkey off your back, and 11 more 10-minute refreshers)
• The Life Cycle of Every Organization (getting ready to change and adapt—plus the four stages enroute to excellence)
• Tools for Every Leader (attitude checklist, 80/20 principle, leading vs. managing, delegation, conflict management, Godly leadership, and 19 more tempting topics)
CONGRATS! You Just Found Three Extra Months! I often appraise a book by what I find on page 25. By this point, many authors have delivered the intro, the outline, and the context—and page 25 often delivers a gem. Bingo! Chapter 3 (just three pages) gives several non-guilt producing “Managing Your Time” insights and this from Einstein, “Out of clutter, find simplicity.”
Phillips suggests you can find the equivalent of a free month by just getting organized. A colleague at a conference convinced him to go home and reorganize his life. “I cut my schedule back and began to say no.” He promises you two more months by getting up just one hour earlier every day. (The math works.) He suggests you set some new goals with this reminder from Benjamin Mays, “Not failure, but low aim, is a sin.”
Bob practices what he preaches. He went home from that conference—and 11 million books in print later (authored or co-authored), his definition of “avocation” is stunning! (I’ve reviewed four of his books including Overcoming Conflict and How to Deal With Annoying People.) Bob is also a licensed marriage and family counselor. He previously served as executive director of Hume Lake Christian Camps in California and is also a joke book author. (As a former camping guy myself, I’m thinking those two may be connected.)
ZOOKEEPER PRAYER. Every short chapter includes an opening quotation, practical content, a relevant Bible passage, and a prayer. In Chapter 22, “Getting the Monkey Off Your Back,” Phillips writes, “As a leader it’s not the best idea for you to readily become a zookeeper for everyone’s monkey.” And his closing prayer includes, “Thank You in advance for helping me clean the zoo of unnecessary monkeys. Amen.” (Note: for more on the monkey/delegation metaphor, read my review and order The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, by Ken Blanchard, William Oncken, Jr., and Hal Burrows.)
MY IDEAL JOB. The assignment in Chapter 11, “Creating Your Ideal Job,” was new to me (and just 50 years too late, but maybe not). Prepare three sheets of paper and number to 12 on each page:
1. My Ideal Job
2. My Present Job
3. Avocation
Then…list 12 aspirations for your ideal job, 12 responsibilities in your present job, and 12 possibilities in perhaps a new avocation or hobby—something outside of your day job that ignites your creative juices perhaps. Then—draw lines to see any connections between the three lists. In just three pages, Phillips just might inspire you to think differently about your future.
What distinguishes leaders from their followers? The author quotes Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus, “It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills…”
POP QUIZ! Stop reading—right now!—and create a blank Word doc. Now…make a list of “The Signs of Possible Decline From Excellence in Our Organization.” We’ll wait…and enjoy this music while you’re thinking and writing (click here):
Click here for the 30-second Jeopardy clock to start!
STOP! Pencils down. How many “signs of possible decline from excellence” did you list? Five? Ten? Fifteen? Yikes…Bob Phillips lists 30 signs of decline in Chapter 32, “Stage Four [of the organizational life cycle]: Coping With Challenges.” Ask your boss for a Starbucks gift card if you listed at least three of these signs. (Read the chapter for the complete list of 30 convicting signs.)
• Demands for service decline
• Leader not the right fit
• Living in the past
• No succession plan
• Ostentatious facilities
• Pride and arrogance
• Stops taking risks
• Well-oiled social club
And speaking of conviction, this amazing book includes zillions of quotations, including the following in the first chapter, “Essential Traits of a Great Leader.”
“One man [woman] with conviction will overwhelm a hundred who only have opinions.”
(Winston Churchill)
“Hold strong to your convictions. Remain humble in your speech. Let your actions tell your story.”
(Pope Francis)
“God’s calling requires action. When God calls you, he calls collect…you better be willing to accept the charges of your calling.”
(Steve Maraboli)
FORMULA FOR CHANGE. “Change is the price we pay for growth,” writes Phillips. And Chapter 46, “Dealing With Change,” is a must-read. He adds, “The rate of change will be faster than in the past.” I agree. See my recent review of Fast Times which notes, “the pace of change will never be this slow again.” Phillips list 10 reasons that people (your team members?) resist change, including “people are afraid of the unknown.”
The “formula for change” concepts on pages 202-203 are just begging me to create two-by-two quadrants! Quadrant #1: Four factors: The Change Agent, The Main Person, The Decision Makers, and The People Affected by Change. And here’s a second quadrant idea on timing:
• “The wrong decision at the wrong time is a DISASTER.
• The wrong decision at the right time is a MISTAKE.
• The right decision at the wrong time is UNACCEPTABLE.
• The right decision at the right time leads to SUCCESS.”
With apologies to the author, here’s my completed homework!
UGLY SIDE OF LEADERSHIP. When is the last time you’ve read a chapter on “The Ugly Side of Leadership” (Chapter 21)? Probably never? Phillips quotes James Baldwin: “The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” That coming crisis is not if—but when—and the author quotes the brother of Jesus in James 3:17-18 (TLB), including this: “And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.”
To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership Success in 10 Minutes a Day, by Bob Phillips. And thanks to the author for sending me a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) Bob Phillips includes TWO chapters on conflict management (maybe it’s a problem for leaders?). Chapter 45, “A Matrix for Understanding Conflict,” includes a helpful lexicon and a three-column chart on four levels of conflict: Spat, Quarrel, Fight, and War. Do we have agreed-upon “rules of the road” for addressing conflict on our team?
2) Phillips is blunt! On the “Sandwich Technique” of addressing employee performance (two positive statements, one negative statement, then one or two more positive statements): “It doesn’t work.” He labels it a “Baloney Sandwich” and suggests a better way in Chapter 13. Do we need more training (or more guts) in addressing employee performance issues?
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10 Minutes for Governance in Every Board Meeting
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
Bob Phillips believes that leaders can become more effective with a daily dose of leadership principles. (“These concepts can be read in ten minutes or less and then put into practice.”)
Ditto your board of directors! Lesson 39 in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings, by Dan Busby and yours truly, is another must-read. Click here, courtesy of ECFA, to read and share: “Invest ‘10 Minutes for Governance’ in Every Board Meeting. We are all guilty of bringing our delightful dysfunctions into every new board experience.”
We write, “The number of years served on boards may not be a good indicator of meaningful board experience. That’s why board members must be lifelong learners. That’s why many boards enhance the board member experience by featuring a ‘10 Minutes for Governance’ segment in every meeting.
“The big idea: In every board meeting, we want to remind board members that good governance does not happen by osmosis. It happens only with intentionality, training, and keeping critical governance topics (like focusing on policy, not operations) on everyone’s radar.”
The chapter suggests possible topics for each board meeting’s 10-minute segment. And this reminder: “There are no dysfunctional organizations—only dysfunctional boards.”
For more resources, visit the Board Bucket webpage here.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Confused about your communication strategies? Need help with “the right decision at the right time?” Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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