Book Review: Mandela's Way

Today's book review is Mandela's Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage written by Richard Stengel.

In his introductory remarks, Stengel refers to Nelson Mandela as possibly the "last pure hero on the planet". Despite the laudatory remarks, one of the best things about this book is the it takes a realistic look at such a hero. 

There is no doubt that Mandela is an amazing human being who has helped his country and the world as a whole. Even so, Stengel does not shy away from showing Nelson's humanity. The hero of this book is not a picture-perfect cutout, but a human being who has suffered and learned so much - yet remains human in ways every reader can relate to.

For those who are beginning their leadership journey this book is an encouraging read. Nelson's leadership strengths are described in ways that make them accessible to newer leaders, but the depth of suffering and pain that forged the leader he became is also clear. 

Nelson's journey is relevant to everyone who wants to make the world a better place, even if the reader will not spend thirty years in prison for her ideals.

In his own preface to the book, Mandela talks of ubuntu, the African notion that "we are human only through the humanity of others." This profound humility is much of what makes Mandela an effective leader and also Mandela's Way a strongly suggested read for aspiring leaders.

Happy Reading,

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Management Mess-Ups

What Not to Do

Sometimes it's fun to define things by their negative...if you're not quite sure what you DO want, at least you can start with what you DON'T want.

I have taken this approach myself with a high-level look at management practices.

The subject of today's book review is the crown jewel of this strategy: Management Mess-Ups - 57 Pitfalls You Can Avoid (and Stories of Those Who Didn't) by Mark Eppler.

This is a great read for growing managers. Eppler provides an exhaustive list of essential management practices and real-world illustrations in a format that is easy to read and understand.

The 57 Pitfalls in Management Mess-Ups are organized into 13 sections including categories such as: Leadership, Communication, Motivation, Managing Change, Personal Development and, finally, "The Big One". More on this at the end the post.

Examples of specific pitfalls included in the list:

• Believing leadership is power instead of influence.
• Not meeting routinely with customers.
• Believing people will keep planting seeds if they don't participate in the harvest.
• Failing to manage conflict constructively.

The Big One

Eppler concludes Management Mess-Ups with a pitfall that garners its own section titled "The Big One". This management and leadership mess-up definitely deserves its own section and is particularly relevant for readers of this blog:

Failure to practice in reality what you learn in theory.

Final Thoughts

There is one danger in sources that tell us what to avoid - we can become so focused on avoiding trouble that we lose our focus on what we should be doing. (See I Looked for the Dry Places for more on this.) Management Mess-Ups is not one of these. Every mess-up is clearly related to what you DO want to do.

I strongly recommend Management Mess-Ups for any growing manager. It's fun and you'll recognize yourself in at least one or two stories.

Happy Reading,

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Love 'Em or Lose 'Em

In sales, there is a saying that keeping an existing customer is worth far more than attracting a new customer.

It is often the same with personnel. Every team, every organization relies on skilled and motivated people.

The first key to assembling a great team is to keep the great performers you already have. Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans tackle how to do this in: Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay.

Marketing copy on the top of my edition lists Love 'Em or Lose 'Em as "the bestselling employee retention book in the world." While I can't say whether or not that is true, I can definitely tell you that the principles in Love 'Em or Lose 'Em are very sound.

Kaye and Jordan-Evans lay out their 26 engagement strategies in sequence of the English alphabet. For example: (A) Ask what keeps you? (B) Buck stops here. (C) Careers - support growth. (D) Dignity - show respect... You get the idea.

Additionally, Love 'Em or Lose 'Em begins with the a fictionalized, but realistic, memo from an performing employee who decides to leave. The employee give an overview of the reasons they chose to depart. The book then reviews its 26 engagement strategies by starting with a segment of the resignation letter.

For beginning managers and business leaders, it is important to understand that money might initially attract someone or keep them from leaving, but it does not motivate. Newer managers are often surprised by this. But it isn't too surprising if you reflect on your own behavior.

We do our best work when the work is meaningful, we are engaged and share values with the people we work with, we feel valued, and we feel we are making a contribution.

When these things are absent, we might not leave...but, organizations are full of people who have "quit" without leaving.

Love 'Em or Lose 'Em discusses these principles and others with readable and practical suggestions you can begin implementing immediately. Kaye and Jordan-Evans provide straight-forward advice to help you keep your performing staff.

But this isn't a book of shortcuts. Real relationships are built on authenticity and integrity, not on manipulative tricks. You won't find those in Love 'Em or Lose 'Em. At its heart, this book means what it says, if you legitimately care for your team members - including making hard decisions like helping or removing those not carrying their weight - your team is far more likely to stay, be engaged, motivated, and productive.

I recommend Love 'Em or Lose 'Em for any leader or manager. Even if you're a pro at taking care of people, you'll likely find one or two good reminders here.

Happy Reading,

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Encouraging the Heart

Do you want to build a team with ownership, hope, results, and pride? If so, the subject of today's book review will help!

Encouraging the Heart: a Leader's Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others by James Kouzes and Barry Posner is a follow up resource to The Leadership Challenge.

For those familiar with Leadership Challenge, this book, Encourage the Heart, is an expansion on one of their five fundamental leadership practices.

At the core of Kouzes and Posner's leadership framework is the notion of influence founded on credibility. Leaders influence others and a leader's credibility is fundamental to their ability to influence. Leaders can develop their influence through five leadership practices including Modeling the Way, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Enabling Others to Act, Challenging the Process, and the subject of today's book review: Encouraging the Heart.

I appreciate the authors' emphasis on Encouraging the Heart as an aspect of leadership credibility. Leaders have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility - leaders can extend dignity, respect, and worth and genuinely make the world a better place.

Encouraging the Heart challenges leaders to care about their people, while maintaining focus on the team's ultimate objective: results. From the beginning, the authors emphasize that part of truly caring about your people is to set clear standards and expect the best. These are expressions of dignity and worth.

With that foundation, Encouraging the Heart challenges leaders to pay attention, personalize recognition, tell stories about success and values, celebrate together, and to be an example for others to follow.

The authors cover their material with many real life stories that add to the case and leave the reader motivated and ready to engage their team. I appreciate that the book concludes with 150 practical ways to encourage others with a variety of options for each of encouragement practices the authors recommend.

I strongly recommend Encouraging the Heart for leaders who want to grow in their care of people and for those who recognize that encouragement is not their strongest gift. Some people are born encouragers - if you're not one of them, this book is for you!

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: How to Win Friends and Influence People

There are few books in the self-help genre as widely known as the subject of today's book review: Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.

While it is a classic, I have to admit that I steered clear of it and did not read this one for many years. I found the title off-putting and perhaps manipulative. Some part of me just felt that we don't want to "win" friends as much as build friendships.

I'm reviewing How to Win Friends and Influence People because new leaders and managers are almost certain to have it recommended, there are genuinely helpful tidbits throughout the book, and I want to provide some information so you can prioritize it with your other reading.

The first thing to understand about Carnegie's classic is that it is written from a sales perspective. Whether you are corporate rep selling products, a fund raiser selling a cause, or a politician selling ideas, How to Win Friends is written with you in mind. You are not necessarily looking to build long-term friendships, but do need to establish rapport and trust if you are to succeed in your work.

That is what How to Win Friends and Influence People is really about. In my opinion it is a book on effective salesmanship, not necessarily effective leadership.

With that in mind, 80 years after it was written, many of Carnegie's concepts remain beneficial in most human relationships. A small sampling: show interest in the other person, help people get what they want, remember their name, admit it when you're wrong, be friendly and positive, don't argue, know your audience, etc.

On the topic of knowing your audience...there is one audience that will probably not care for this book: analytic personalities.

The writing style is packed with anecdotal stories illustrating concepts. It can feel like you're sitting with a friendly talkative uncle and at times you want to say, "Uncle, I get it! Can you move on to the next concept?" For analytic types, this way of writing can feel forced, disingenuous, and lacks the hard data to be convincing.

Carnegie even suggests that when trying to persuade, one should use stories, not logic. Again, for most people, stories that create emotional appeal or connection are legitimately more persuasive. But for some, the logic and data are vital.

Overall, I would recommend at least a quick skim of How to Win Friends and Influence People because it is so widely read and there are a number of common-sense suggestions which, if you aren't familiar with them, are very helpful. But when you read it, keep in mind it's goal is more about creating surface-level sales relationships than building deep friendships or establishing leadership credibility.

Happy Reading!

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: QBQ

For emerging leaders, the idea of personal accountability can be uncomfortable - particularly if you come from a background where "being accountable" meant being in trouble.

Real accountability, however, is an empowering experience. It's about realizing and owning your own responsibility and ability in the world - the exact opposite of the blame game that so often passes for accountability.

Personal accountability is the topic in today's book review subject: QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and In Life by John Miller.

The Question Behind the Question is a clever way of talking about how often we automatically cast ourselves as victims and how we can reframe our situation by asking a different question. Specifically, Miller suggests a formula for asking questions that puts you at the center of the action and highlights your ability to act.

This way of asking questions about our circumstances is transformational. At first, you might feel like a powerless victim of circumstances, but reframing your circumstances in the form of the QBQ puts the power to act firmly back in your hands. It is a simple process that yields huge benefits.

The QBQ is not a blame-shifting device. It is not a "blame the victim" way of thinking, but a "hey, I don't have to be a victim - I can do something here" change in thinking.

I recommend the Question Behind the Question if you:

• are a newer leader or manager
• feel trapped or helpless to outside forces
• feel overwhelmed
• feel ignored, taken for granted, or abused
• feel like you're going in circles

This book is a very quick read and it doesn't take long to grasp the main idea and method. Don't let the ease of the idea fool you. If you regularly experience the feelings I've described, this can be a life-changing book!

For an even more in-depth resource on personal empowerment and responsibility, you might try: The Oz Principle

Happy Reading!

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Management

The Book

A book with a one-word title like Management had better be the end all authority on the subject.

The subject of today's book review, Management by Peter Drucker, is exactly that. It has been hailed by many as the management bible. When he taught his university executive management courses, Drucker used this book exclusively for the entire course.

Such a weighty resource (608 pages!) is difficult to do justice in a single book review and I'm not even going to try.

I write this blog to help new and developing leaders and managers to grow in their skill and effectiveness. The entire text of Management is more than a beginning leader or manager needs or would find helpful. 

However, there is one section that I believe can be a huge benefit to all emerging managers. The section is listed as:

Part X: New Demands on the Individual

Chapter 45 Managing Oneself
Chapter 46 Managing the Boss
Chapter 47 Revitalizing Oneself
Chapter 48 The Educated Person

This is the best I have read when it comes to practical material on being effective at what you do.

Managing Yourself

Drucker begins this section by addressing self-knowledge. Who are you? What are your strengths? How do you work? Based on those answers, where do you belong? What are your contributions? How can you take what he terms "relationship responsibility"? 

Of particular interest is his discussion of whether you are a listener or a reader. There are so many practical applications of good self-knowledge...this may be the most valuable chapter in the entire book!

Managing the Boss

However, if one chapter is possibly as valuable - it is the very next chapter about managing the boss. In a compassionate turn of the golden rule, Drucker suggests we work with our supervisors in ways that play to their strengths, keep them informed, and protect them from surprises. 

After all, we would desire the same courtesy (and our supervisors are key to our own effectiveness).

In some organizations it may seem like a distant dream, but Drucker envisions a workplace where managers know themselves well and help others to work with them in their strengths AND the manager in turn learns the strengths of their team and supervisors and treats them according to their strengths. 

The idea is that everyone knows and works with the strengths of the other, regardless of position on the organization chart. It is a practical outworking of servant leadership principles in a management context.

Remaining Effective

The final chapters are also worth reading - they focus on the process of remaining effective over many years of knowledge work, through changes in technology, culture, and environment. Drucker shares stories from his own life that taught him principles of self-revitalization and can help us remain effective as the world around us changes. He concludes by underscoring the importance of being educated and helping our society to educate its members.

Overall, Section X is a great introduction to Drucker's magnum opus. If you are a serious student of management, purchase Management - you will read the remainder some day and it's inexpensive on Amazon. If you want to maximize your own effectiveness today, borrow this one from a library and read chapters 45-48.

More Resources

• If you are interested in more Peter Drucker, check out: The Effective Executive
• For more on servant leadership, check out: The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle

Happy Reading!

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Influencer

"But I told them!"

Many of my coaching conversations with leaders and managers eventually give rise to those words. The frustrated leader is confused as to why the team is acting as they always have despite a conversation or two about doing things differently.

Just about all of us have been a part of a good idea that is never really implemented - it might be talked about, maybe a few goals are set, and perhaps the group even takes action...and yet it soon fizzles out and things return to the way they were.

This weeks' book review subject, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler, tackles this challenge head on - and it does so on a massive scale.

Before getting to Influencer's content, I'll begin by saying what this book is not. It is not an easy or schmaltzy self-help, "think positive", or manipulate-your-way-to-success, type of book. The title makes some big claims (the power to change anything) and so can easily be misunderstood. In reality, the authors are out to help the reader learn how to influence large-scale organizational behavior. For example, one of the most powerful examples used throughout the book involves fighting a parasite in an African village. The principles discussed in Influencer are not quick-fix approaches. They require significant effort for those leaders and teams who really want to make meaningful changes.

Through a combination of research in psychology and organizational theory, as well as their previous work in Crucial Conversations, the authors present a theory of influence that goes something like this:

Change requires both motivation and ability. (Or will and skill). Both motivation and ability each have three centers: personal, social, and structural. That's a total of six different categories of influence (personal-motivation, personal-ability, social-motivation, social-ability, structural-motivation, structural-ability).

The bottom-line of Influencer is that if you want to maximize your chance for successful change, you will use at least four of these influence categories...and all six if you can. The concepts explained in Influencer are very powerful, but they require real effort and thought. You will not find quick fixes in the effort to create lasting and meaningful change.

If I have any criticism of Influencer, it is that the book could use better editing. It does drag in sections. The material can be incredibly powerful and deserves to be presented in a more focused style. If you are able to find it, the authors published a summarized version of their findings in the MIT Sloan Management Review. Once you've read the book, that article serves as a good summary tool.

In closing, I point you to a youtube video that demonstrates the power of the Influencer concepts in an easily understandable demonstration involving kids, cupcakes, and dirty hands. I should also note that the authors have released another book packaging this material for use by individuals seeking to use the six categories to influence their own individual behavior.

Happy Reading!

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Salsa, Soul, and Spirit

I hope that each of us eventually comes to that dawning moment where we realize that the world is a much bigger place than we ever realized. When it comes, it can be very humbling as we come to understand that our way of doing and thinking isn't everyone else's way, that our own personal history isn't entirely accurate, and that there is so much more to learn than we ever before realized.

If we are willing to listen and work at understanding, we enrich ourselves, can live more fully, and can become far more effective leaders. Today's book review subject, Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age - New Approaches to Leadership from Latino, Black, and American Indian Communities by Juana Bordas is one tool to help growing leaders along that journey.

A little transparency: Years ago, when I first picked up this book, I was concerned that Bordas was committing a blunder in reductionist labeling. After all, none of my brown-skinned friends reduce simply to a label of "salsa" and some of my african-american friends would not take it well if you assume they've all got "soul". However, I would encourage the reader who is concerned about simplistic stereotyping to move past these conventions. They are simply useful concepts for representing generalized culturally-relevant concepts. After reading Salsa, Soul, and Spirit, I do not for a minute believe Bordas would commit or countenance such stereotyping.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the book. Salsa, Soul, and Spirit is about effective leadership. Bordas describes her own life journey moving from Nicaragua to the United States and her experience growing up in the United States, learning the ways of her new home, and succeeding while remaining close to her own roots. Throughout the book, she draws out leadership values from various cultural traditions. At the top of the list are principles such as:

• Real leaders serve their community, not just themselves
• Leadership credibility derives from the people being led
• Effective leaders learn from the past and honor the values of those they lead
• Effective leaders value generosity, hope, thankfulness, and forgiveness
• Effective leaders work with the collective of which they are a part (the collective does not work for the leader)

Each of these concepts is examined through the lens of a cultural tradition where it is particularly valued and practiced. Put together, the list is not just a list of good multicultural leadership - it's good leadership, period. These are characteristics of true servant leaders. In fact, while the book's title describes these as "new" leadership approaches, they're not really new as much as neglected.

I recommend Salsa, Soul, and Spirit for any leader or manager who wants to lead effectively and particularly for those from any background who are just starting to realize how big our world really is.

For more on servant leadership, read: The World's Most Valuable Leadership Principle

For more on a practical application and the value of teams, read: Help Is Available!

Happy Reading - and here's to that journey!

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Strengths-Based Leadership

Only strengths are useful for building - nothing is built on weakness. This is another of Peter Drucker's succinct messages to managers. Quit fooling around trying to eliminate people's weaknesses and begin building on their strengths. It is a vitally important message made all the more so because emerging leaders and managers often do not recognize their own strengths and spend tons of emotional energy trying to be something they're not. In the process, they lose credibility - much like the middle age father that tries to throw around teenage slang with his kids' friends.

If building on strengths is important for every leader and manager, then today's book review subject: Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie is a blue print for the building's foundation.

Strengths-Based Leadership is another product of the Gallup groups extensive research of effective managers and leaders. On the basis of this research they identified three common practices of effective leaders:

1) Effective leaders recognize and build on strengths in themselves and others.
2) Effective leaders ensure they have people with the needed strengths in the right positions on teams.
3) Effective leaders are aware of team members' needs and ensure they are met.

On the surface, these may not seem like profound truths, but think about the normal employee performance appraisal - how often is it a conversation about how to leverage your strengths? Or about how you can help leverage the strengths of your team members?

The key to these practices is found in the Strengths-Based Leadership's identification of the many many strengths people possess. The book includes a code to access an online StrengthsFinder survey which identifies your top five leadership themes as well as a guide in how to effectively apply and lead from these strengths.

If you are not fully aware of your own leadership strengths, I recommend Strengths-Based Leadership as a good starting point to begin the process of self-discovery. Once you begin to value your own, it becomes easier to identify and value the strengths in others and know how to support them.

As a bonus for those interested (and some incentive to read the book), in the Strengths-Based Leadership model my top five are:

1) Learner
2) Intellection
3) Relator
4) Input
5) Achiever

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

There are a number of different team-work formulas that have circulated over the years. Some of them rhyme, some require sophisticated knowledge of varied personality profiles, and some rely on boundary-pushing activities to bring members together. Most of these frameworks have an element or two that are worthwhile, but none of them have the simple elegance of this week's book review subject: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni.

Like all of Lencioni's books, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team begins with a fable. In this case we follow the journey of a supervisor who has just been hired into a new team. Lencioni's five principles of successful teaming (and their corresponding dysfunctions) are illustrated through the story. Following the fable, the book concludes with a more formal analysis of the five dysfunctions and their remedies.

What I most appreciate about The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is that the framework makes sense, the key elements are communicated quickly and clearly with a minimum of abstraction, and that the model can be implemented in just about any team setting. This book is an easy read - you can do it in one or two sittings if you desire. But don't confuse brevity and clarity for lack of impact. The five fundamental elements of successful teams are easy to grasp, but they require real work to consistently implement over time.

I want to be careful not to reveal the choice material, but The Five Dysfunctions of a Team really shines in its discussion of the role of conflict in healthy teams. This book, paired with the tools found in Crucial Conversations, give teams an incredibly powerful set of tools to consistently produce results. Lencioni is not suggesting we build foo-foo, hold hands and sing songs teams. His framework aims for teams featuring healthy relationships and a strong commitment to meaningful results.

I recommend The Five Dysfunctions of a Team for any leader, manager, or team member wanting to learn the critical elements of building a high caliber team. For those who might want to work through this material with a team, I can also recommend the companion field guide or facilitator's guide.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Getting to Yes

Recently, I observed two business professionals get locked into a heated exchange that went something like this:

A: "I want you to give me cookies."

B: "We don't give out cookies."

A: "If you don't give me cookies, I won't work with you."

B: "We don't give out cookies. I have repeatedly found it is bad for business."

A: "Fine, I'm leaving."

I've replaced the actual subject matter with cookies to illustrate a concept known as positional bargaining. Rather than focusing on what both parties really wanted, the focus was on a position - the cookies. They reached an impasse and their discussion rapidly deteriorated.

Overcoming this challenge is one of a number of important concepts discussed in this week's book review subject: Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Fisher, Ury, and Patton. This book is a classic. First published in 1981, it has continued to sell and serve people in all walks of life.

All of us find ourself in negotiations of one sort or another. Getting to Yes is a guide to successfully navigate those negotiations as well as to diagnose when things are not going well and take steps to correct it. One of the most valuable lessons in Getting to Yes is to focus on interests and not positions. In the example above, Person A's interest in having the cookies is never stated. Had the reason behind the request been made clear, the two of them could have focused on addressing the issue and explored solutions that could meet both their interests.

I just want to tease some of this subject matter - my goal with these book reviews is always to encourage leaders and managers to read and absorb the material. The book itself gives a much deeper explanation and is full of additional useful tips. I highlight one of the most important.

One criticism I've encountered Getting to Yes is that it is too idealistic. These critics will often poise a scenario:

Person A: I want you dead.
Person B: Well, I want me alive.

Hmm...is this an irreconcilable difference of position? Maybe...but not necessarily. Again, what are person A's interests? If they truly are mutually exclusive with Person B staying alive, then sure, negotiation probably won't work. But in my professional life I have very very rarely encountered anything approaching that kind of scenario. In general, people do have interests that can be met if they will put the work in.

I recommend Getting to Yes for team leaders, managers, and anyone involved with regular negotiations of any kind - and yes, that includes all of us.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Leadership and the One Minute Manager

Last week's book review included the concept that effective managers treat different people differently. This week, we look at a resource that suggests effective leaders and managers also treat the same person differently. The book is Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership by Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi.

Anyone familiar with the One Minute Manager will be familiar with the format of this book. It is short - easily readable in one sitting if you are so inclined. As with the other books in the One Minute... series, the principles are communicated through a story where a struggling business person visits with a mentor and various people in the mentor's organization. The format is always a little contrived - yet it works. It is readable, easy to understand, and communicates a significant amount of information in a very short amount of time.

In Leadership and the One Minute Manager, Blanchard shares a basic premise about leadership and management: an individual requires different things from their leader or manager in different situations. Effective leaders and managers help team members grow by using varied strategies depending on the team member's demonstrated abilities, recent performance, and goals.

This may seem like an intuitively simple concept, yet in practice I have observed many emerging leaders and managers struggle because they have not yet learned that different situations require different strategies. It seems that most have learned how to successfully use only one or two of these concepts to help their team. If you've heard the old saying "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" - then Leadership and the One Minute Manager is access to a full tool belt and a concise explanation of when and how to use each tool.

One final thought about this book: I appreciate how the authors demonstrate that effective managers are also effective leaders in their development of people. I recommend this one for new managers as well as managers frustrated in their leadership and people development.

Happy reading!

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post, please retweet, like, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: First, Break All the Rules

Today's book review features a title specifically targeted at managers: First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

One distinguishing feature of this book is that it's based on a huge sample of interviews conducted with managers - over 80,000 of them, as it says on the cover. From this huge data set, the authors analyze the questions and answers which most strongly correlate to great organizational performance.

It turns out, there are only twelve key questions. If an organization's employees can answer these in the affirmative, odds are you have a very effective organization / team. The authors identify these twelve questions, discuss their meaning and significance, and, most important, the practices managers can undertake to create alignment with these twelve principles.

Effective veteran managers have probably picked up many of the lessons in this book. However, if you are a newer or struggling manager, First, Break All the Rules is full of helpful wisdom. There are two bits I want to highlight because they are so foundational to effective management.

The first idea is simple, yet many managers struggle with it for years. The concept is simply that you don't change people. Natural consequences might help a person decide to change, but most behavior change in adults occurs at the margin. So hire for what you need - don't expect an introverted engineer to excel at sales and don't expect a highly social marketer / net-worker to sit quietly at a cube for days on end managing a database. The authors illustrate this concept with a memorable folk-tale involving a fox and scorpion.

The second concept relates to the title of the book. The "rules" that are supposed to be broken are those social conventions which might be "common sense", but aren't effective. Chief among these is the idea that managers should treat everyone equally. The authors argue that managers need to dispense with this "rule" because people are not the same and trying to treat them the same is ineffective.

Applications are easy to make. For instance, most everyone likes affirmation of some kind, but privately acknowledging the team member who craves public recognition or publicly recognizing the person who prefers a quiet pat on the back are equally ineffective. Trying to treat both people the same will quickly end in frustration.

For emerging or struggling managers, concepts like the two ideas I've shared are invaluable. First, Break All the Rules is full of this kind of practical wisdom. It's a little like sitting down with a group of effective veteran managers and getting to soak up their experience. I strongly recommend this book for new managers or those looking to increase their effectiveness.

Happy reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.
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Book Review: The Oz Principle

Today's book review is The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability by Hickman, Smith, and Collins.

The Oz Principle is an entire book thoroughly exploring one concept: responsibility. I appreciate this book for its laser-sharp focus on helping individuals and organizations recognize that they are responsible for their own reactions, decisions, behaviors, and ultimately, results. The Oz Principle's greatest strength is in the methodology it gives the reader for assessing a situation and determining what action they can take to produce the results they want to see. This is a valuable and needed process - especially for emerging leaders who haven't yet grown into their own influence.

The "Oz" reference is a metaphor for those who abdicate their own responsibility and hope that a wizard (such the one Dorothy seeks in the Emerald City) will solve their problems for them. In the end, the lion, tin-man, and scarecrow realize that they provide their own solutions. The power of the metaphor comes in realizing that we can have amazing influence on the world around us and on the results we desire.

If I have any criticism of the book's message, it is that the personal/organizational responsibility mantra can be taken too far if removed from a context of strong personal and organizational values. For instance, I may very well be able to take action on one hundred different issues that concern me. However, just because I can doesn't necessarily mean I should. The Oz Principle's message is incredibly valuable - if you have done the work to prioritize your own values and know what is most important. Without doing that work, the message of personal responsibility can be overwhelming.

I recommend The Oz Principle for leaders and managers who have a strong internal compass and want to increase their influence.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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Twitter: @davidmdye
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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Crucial Conversations

Today's book review does not feature leadership or management in the title or table of contents. Even so, I personally consider the contents of this book to be among the most critically important skills any leader or manager can learn.

The book is Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler. This is one of the few books I would recommend for anyone regardless of career, role, interests, or background.

I will start with my own observations about why this is such an important topic. None of us are born with the knowledge and skill to have meaningful and productive conversations - especially when the subject matter is difficult and emotions run high. The dialog skills we are born with might keep us alive, but they do not help us thrive, grow close with others, and work together to accomplish dreams.

Those skills we must learn. The tough part is that we need to learn them from people who know them and are able to transfer that knowledge to others. The even tougher part is that there just aren't that many of those people around. So many people live in fear that silences their voice or causes them to silence others.

That's where Crucial Conversations comes into play. The book itself defines a crucial conversation as one where opinions vary, the stakes are high, and emotions run strong. If we consider any of the meaningful areas in our life - whether personal or professional, it's easy to see that the most important parts frequently entail these types of conversations. If we are interacting with people and we care, we need these skills.

This book is essentially a how-to manual that helps the reader diagnose conversations that aren't going well, learn the reasons why this happens, and, most importantly, learn the tools of effective dialog. The tools are easily understood and explained with multiple sample conversations. This is material that you can't read just once and master. Each tool takes time to incorporate into our own conversation tool-belts - it takes practice and reflection.

Perhaps the best recommendations I can offer for Crucial Conversations come from some of my co-workers. We give this book to every employee when they join our organization and we frequently discuss the tools. Over the years, several people have approached me to share that this resource has definitely helped them at work, but that it has transformed or saved their marriage.

Finally, I include such a far-reaching book as a leadership / management recommendation because these roles always involve relationships with others. Any leader or manager wishing to be effective will need the ability to have difficult conversations. I know of no better resource to learn these skills.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: The Effective Executive

This week's book review is a classic: management guru Peter Drucker's The Effective Executive.

Don't be put off by the title - as Drucker makes very clear early in the work, his definition of "executive" includes almost anyone with management responsibilities in a knowledge work environment. This work is a distillation of some of the most important messages Drucker has to offer managers. For anyone unfamiliar with Peter Drucker's work, The Effective Executive is an excellent introduction.

The book succinctly summarizes the greatest challenges managers face - often things we are vaguely aware of, but haven't put a name to. Just knowing and being aware of these obstacles to effectiveness is valuable as they can quickly become a whirlpool of activity without any purpose.

Drucker provides a great selection of practical guidance on where effective managers put their energy and time, how they interact with people at every level of the organization, and how they perform their critical responsibilities. In fact, there are so many valuable bits of advice that it is impossible to incorporate all of them after one reading. This is a book that growing leaders and managers can return to at least once a year (if not more often). This is the book equivalent of spending the weekend with a wise and experienced grandparent.

For the price of a paperback, I highly recommend The Effective Executive to any knowledge worker, manager, or leader wanting to acquire practical wisdom on becoming more effective. This one will become a reference you return to time and again.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: The Leadership Challenge

Today's book review is The Leadership Challenge written by James Kousez and Barry Posner.

I have owned several copies of this book and continually lend it out. Sometimes those loaners are returned, though often they are not - and I can't blame the person for hanging on to it. The Leadership Challenge is a standard of leadership develop texts and is a worthwhile read for anyone wanting to grow in leadership. It is used by many companies and organizations (including my own) and with good reason.

The authors' approach to leadership is not complicated. Leadership is influence. Effective leadership relies on the leader's credibility. Alone, these concepts are not new. What sets The Leadership Challenge apart is its focus on five leadership practices through which we grow our influence and credibility. These practices are easily grasped and can be learned by anyone. They are explained with ample real world examples. These are not abstract theories - the five leadership behaviors described are accessible, practical, and can be implemented by those serious about increasing their influence.

It is also important to note that these practices center around authenticity. This is not a road map for shortcuts to power. This is a set of practical real-world behaviors that help us invest in ourself and in others. Learning the practices takes a day or two. Mastering them and incorporating them into our everyday behavior is the work of a lifetime.

Kousez and Posner have expanded the Leadership Challenge library to include a version students, a faith-based version, a workbook, and books specific to some of the practices. These are good resources as well for those who want to learn more. However, The Leadership Challenge is the place to begin and one of my strongest recommendations for anyone wanting to grow as a leader.

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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Twitter: @davidmdye
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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Mandela's Way

Today's book review is Mandela's Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage written by Richard Stengel

In his introductory remarks, Stengel refers to Nelson Mandela as possibly the "last pure hero on the planet". Despite the laudatory remarks, one of the best things about this book is the it takes a realistic look at such a hero. There is no doubt that Mandela is an amazing human being who has helped his country and the world as a whole. Even so, Stengel does not shy away from showing Nelson's humanity. The hero of this book is not a picture perfect cutout, but a human being who has suffered and learned so much - yet remains human in ways every reader can relate to.

For those who are beginning their leadership journey this book is an encouraging read. Nelson's leadership strengths are described in ways that make them accessible to newer leaders, but the depth of suffering and pain that forged the leader he became is also clear. Nelson's journey is relevant to everyone who wants to make the world a better place, even if the reader will not spend thirty years in prison for her ideals.

In his own preface to the book, Mandela talks of ubuntu, the African notion that "we are human only through the humanity of others." This profound humility is much of what makes Mandela an effective leader and also Mandela's Way a strongly suggested read for aspiring leaders.

Happy reading!

David M. Dye

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.