Book Review: The Go Giver

The subject of today's book review, The Go Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea, written by Bob Burg and John David Mann repackages some enduring human relationship truths in a business setting.

In the popular style of the instructional fable, The Go Giver tells the story of a frustrated salesman who feels that he is working harder and harder, but not getting ahead. He eventually seeks the help of a mysterious "Chairman" who sends him to speak with different individuals, each of whom shares one of five "laws of stratospheric success". Ultimately, the hero learns the lessons and begins experiencing the success he's after.

The title turns the familiar label of a go-getter on its head and suggests that the route to business success is not in trying to turn quick deals, but in authentically giving of yourself, helping people, placing others interests ahead of your own, and being open to receiving what others have to offer.

The Go Giver is a short (one or two sittings) read, and the concepts are easy to grasp. The fictional stories are inspiring and the bottom-line message is plain: generosity of spirit and service to others will bring business success.

I have two concerns with The Go Giver. First, the atmosphere feels mono-cultural and may inadvertently discredit the concepts for some readers. Second, the message delivered is really one about being a good human being. It's a vital message and important in today's world.

Selling the idea as a way to personally enrich yourself is tough for me to swallow because:

a) It's contradictory - trying to give authentically without a profit motive (but with a profit motive).

b) While the principles discussed are clearly important, running a successful business requires additional knowledge and skills.

c) There are plenty of kind and giving people in the world who do not make a ton of money.

In the end, The Go Giver succeeds in providing valuable reminders that living authentically and helping others is simply a better way to live. I agree that these provide a good foundation and way to do business for any person, but I could not in good conscience tell anyone they can expect financial "stratospheric success" as a result.

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: 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.

It's Not About You

Photo by cobalt123

Have you ever found yourself intensely frustrated or angry at a team member?

Frequently, this happens because we take what they said, did, or didn't do very personally. Consequently, we start saying to ourselves something like, "How could that little so and so treat me like this!" It is not long before we're mired in anger and adrenalin.

Every emerging leader and manager I've worked with (and not a few veterans!) has experienced this. It takes many forms depending on our own reactions to frustration, but the pattern is the same: someone else does something we don't like and we conclude that they did it to us.

However, effective managers and leaders understand an important secret: it's not about you.

Most of human behavior is not intentionally designed to irritate you, to be disrespectful, or to make you angry. (For everyone starting to shout exceptions - please read on to the end.) To the contrary, most of an individual's behavior is about them - their problems, their needs, their pain, and their view of the world.

A quick example: It is common for a new manager to become frustrated with a team member who does not perform as the manager expects. Often, the manager assumes the employee doesn't respect them or that they're intentionally trying to undermine the new manager. However, the employee may not have performed as expected for any number of reasons:

• They might not have understood expectations.
• They might have had competing expectations from another source or previous employers.
• They might not have the skills to perform the task.
• They might not have adequate time given other demands.
• They might be in a position unsuited to their skills.
• They might have had a bad day personally. The day I found out my wife had cancer, my performance was not up to normal.
• They might not realize their behavior is off-putting or inconsiderate.
• They might not understand the importance of the task and so lack motivation.
• We might have inadvertently hurt them and they lack the skills to deal with this productively. (A partial exception to the "it's not about you" rule.) 

And so on - you can add many more items to the list. The point is that effective leaders and managers are able to step back from their tendency to personalize someone's behavior and investigate why it is taking place.

Please understand, these are not excuses for team members to under-perform. We want to help the individual either acquire the skills and motivation to succeed in this role or to help them find a role more suited to their skills and motivations. You simply cannot do this effectively if you're caught up in personalized anger.

Finally, yes, I know there are rare times where individuals are truly malicious, mean-spirited, and personally disrespectful. In these instances, however, it is often still about them. They have their own reasons, dysfunctions, and pain for acting the way they do. If we refuse to personalize these attacks, reinforce expectations, motivate, and equip for change, we still have acted with compassion and helped them - even if it ultimately means they need to leave the team.

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!

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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 World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle

There are two books I recommend for leaders who are starting their journey and want to get moving in the right direction. The first is The Leadership Challenge for its down-to-earth and accessible practices which help develop influence and credibility.

The second book is the topic of today's book review: The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant Leader by James C. Hunter. This one is a great combination of heart and results. What core are we leading from and what do we hope to accomplish? For Hunter, the answer to both these questions is simply: people. He contends that effective leaders care about people and develop influence-based authority because of their service to others.

There are many quotable lines in this book - good ones that will haunt you and float around in your head, calling you back to authentic, meaningful leadership when you start to get off balance. One of my favorites in the entire book is what Hunter calls the Ultimate Test:

"The true test of the effectiveness of the leader is this: Are your people better off when they leave than when they arrived?"

"Your people" can be teams, employees, or children. Are they growing? Are they more capable? More healthy? There are many ways to look at this question and it is a powerful lens through which to examine our own leadership effectiveness. Hunter's "ultimate test" of leadership provides the basis for the remainder of the book. In conversational and easy-reading style, Hunter examines leadership motivations, how to implement servant-leader principles, and leadership motivations.

This is a powerful, life-changing book and I recommend it for any growing leader or for those veterans looking to recharge their battery or refresh their soul.

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.

What Did I Know?

One of my favorite lines of poetry is from Robert Hayden's Those Winter Sundays. "What did I know, what did I know / of love's austere and lonely offices?" These lines tell us of a grown child who only now realizes his own ingratitude toward his father's sacrifice and love.

Recently, I was reminded of these lines by a woman who holds a position of leadership, but is still developing her influence. She was frustrated and wanted to give up because she did not feel appreciated by her team or the clients they serve.

Real leadership involves doing the right thing, supporting and serving your team, and holding on to your belief in the future even when no one else does. At times, leadership is lonely. To have a positive vision of the future, to work towards it, to serve and empower others, to tap into their visions as well - these things often take place "off stage" and can leave you feeling misunderstood.

When we struggle with feeling misunderstood or unappreciated, it is important to remember why we are doing the work in the first place. Is it for public praise? Or is it because we yearn to make a better world?

The best leaders I've ever met give the praise to their team and then get back to the often quiet, thankless work of changing the world.

David M. Dye

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Twitter: @davidmdye
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