Thursday, January 28, 2010

Here's another take on the Apple iPad

http://www.challies.com/archives/articles/ipad-the-greatest-disappointment-in-human-history.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+challies/XhEt+(Challies+Dot+Com)&utm_content=Google+Reader
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A Personally Guided Tour of Al Mohler's Study

http://vimeo.com/8693850
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Apple's new iPad and the Kindle DX

I've been following the introduction of the new Apple iPad today.

Since I've been an early adoptor and enthusiast for the Kindle, I though I would share a few thoughts about this new addition to the "slate family" of tools.

1. There's no question that the iPad is beautiful. Apple always excels at product design.

2. Bringing out a color iPad at the same price as the 16-shade greyscale Kindle DX is a masterful marketing move.

3. For many users connectivity is an issue. The Kindle has unlimited connectivity at no cost. Unlimited annual connectivity for the iPad will add up to approximately the initial purchase cost of the machine. ($500)


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More Free Business Book Summaries

http://www.businesssummaries.com has free summaries of eight popular business books
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New Site for Business Book Summaries

This fits into the "now why didn't I think of that?" category.

I just found the web site called "Squeezed books". It contains user contributed business book summaries. Though the quality is uneven, it's good enough to help me glean insights from other authors, as well as point out titles that I might be interested in reading or buying.

Sign up at http://www.squeezedbooks.com/account/signup

Here are the titles they have started to summarize or have a full summary on:


Crossing the Chasm
by Geoffrey A. Moore
Growing a Business
by Paul Hawken
Little Black Book of Entrepreneurship
by Fernando Trias De Bes
Outliers: The Story of Success
by Malcolm Gladwell


The Wisdom of Crowds
by James Surowiecki
craigslist 4 Everyone
by Jenna Lloyd
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

New Books to Read and Listen To

I just received three books I'd ordered:

Topgrading by Bradford D. Smart.

This book was recommended as a "must read" by Steve Moore, CEO and President of The Mission Exchange. Jack Welch has been a model I've admired for his emphasis on leader development while CEO at General Electric. Welch's approach to leader development came from Smart, and so I wanted to know as much as I can about the practice.

Blogging for Dummies (3rd edition) by Susannah Gardner

Ii want to know as much as I can about how to be more successful as a blogger. I'm hopeful that this book will provide some additional information and knowledge.

Mind Maps for Business by Tony Buzan

Buzan is the "granddaddy" of mind mapping for organizational  thinking and planning. This is his latest book on the subject.

I also acquired two audiobooks::

Power, Ambition, Glory: The Stunning Parallels between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today...and the Lessons You Can Learn. by Steve Forbes and John Prevas


Based on an extraordinary collaboration between Steve Forbes, chairman, CEO, and editor in chief of Forbes Media, and classics professor John Prevas, Power Ambition Glory provides intriguing comparisons between six great leaders of the ancient world and contemporary business leaders.

Great leaders not only have vision but know how to build structures to effect it. Cyrus the Great did so in creating an empire based on tolerance and inclusion, an approach highly unusual for his or any age. Jack Welch and John Chambers built their business empires using a similar approach, and like Cyrus, they remain the exceptions rather than the rule.

Great leaders know how to build consensus and motivate by doing what is right rather than what is in their self-interest. Xenophon put personal gain aside to lead his fellow Greeks out of a perilous situation in Persia---something very similar to what Lou Gerstner and Anne Mulcahy did in rescuing IBM and Xerox.

Character matters in leadership. Alexander the Great had exceptional leadership skills that enabled him to conquer the eastern half of the ancient world, but he was ultimately destroyed by his inability to manage his phenomenal success.

The corporate world is full of similar examples, such as the now incarcerated Dennis Kozlowski, who, flush with success at the head of his empire, was driven down the highway of self-destruction by an out-of-control ego.

A great leader is one who challenges the conventional wisdom of the day and is able to think outside the box to pull off amazing feats. Hannibal did something no one in the ancient world thought possible: he crossed the Alps in winter to challenge Rome for control of the ancient world. That same innovative way of thinking enabled Serge Brin and Larry Page of Google to challenge and best two formidable competitors, Microsoft and Yahoo! (Summary by Audible.com)

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education. by Craig Mullaney


Craig M. Mullaney's education had been relentlessly preparing him for this moment. The four years he spent at West Point and the harrowing test of Ranger School readied him for a career in the Army. His subsequent experience as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford couldn't have been further from the Army and his working-class roots, and yet the unorthodox education he received there would be surprisingly relevant as a combat leader.

Years later, after that unforgettable experience in Afghanistan, he would return to the United States to teach history to future Navy and Marine Corps officers at the Naval Academy. He had been in their position once, and he had put his education to the test. How would he use his own life-changing experience to prepare them?

The Unforgiving Minute is the extraordinary story of one soldier's singular education. From a hilarious plebe's-eye view of the author's West Point experience to the demanding leadership crucible of Ranger School's swamps and mountains, to a two-year whirlwind of scintillating debate, pub crawls, and romance at Oxford,

Mullaney's winding path to the battlegrounds of Afghanistan was unique and remarkable.
Despite all his preparation, the hardest questions remained. When the call came to lead his platoon into battle and earn his soldiers' salutes, would he be ready? Was his education sufficient for the unforgiving minutes he'd face?

A fascinating account of an Army captain's unusual path through some of the most legendary seats of learning straight into a brutal fight with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, The Unforgiving Minute is, above all, an unforgettable portrait of a young soldier grappling with the weight of his hard-earned knowledge while coming to grips with becoming a man. (Summary by Audible)
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Saturday, January 23, 2010

Reasons Virtual Teams Fail

Many ministries have cut costs by transitioning to virtual teams.

I found this article on Why Virtual Teams Fail to contain much wisdom that needs to be considered by ministry leaders who are considering moving toward virtual teams.

http://www.greatwebmeetings.com/files/docs/3reasonswhitepaperfinal.pdf
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Thursday, January 21, 2010

The West Point Way of Leadership (Book Excerpts)

Amazon.com introduces Dr. Larry Donnithorne’s book this way: “West Point has bred more CEO’s than any business school, and the leadership skills taught there are truly matters of life and death. Bolder than Sun Tzu, savvier than Gracian—this is the book on learning to lead.”
My old boss, Dr. Ralph D. Winter, often described the structure of mission organizations by contrasting their “mission-oriented” structure with the “nurture-oriented” structure of congregational ministry. If the congregation is “the clan,” he would say; then the mission organization is “the army of the clan.”
So for those of us involved in leader development in mission organizations, one question is: what can we learn about leader development from the way the army trains leaders?
(Note: I consistently use the term “leader development” rather than the more common “leadership development,” because as missions leader development expert (and former US Marine Corps Officer), Dr. Bobby Clinton, of Fuller School of World Missions, pointed out, “the emphasis is on the person, not the performance, of the leader.”)
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West Point Way of Leadership
By Col. Larry Donnithorne
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At every Fortune 500 institution in America, people are taught ethics. At West Point, people are taught character. “Leader of character” is the phrase the Academy uses to describe the kind of leader it wants its cadets to become. A leader of character has all of the qualities we normally associate with leaders, ambition, confidence, courage, intelligence, eloquence, responsibility, creativity, compassion, and one thing more which we unfortunately overlook too frequently among civilian leaders: A leader of character is absolutely trustworthy, even in times of great stress, and can be depended upon to put the needs of others, the organization, the community, above personal considerations, not now and then, or when the spirit moves him, or when it will look good on his resume, but in every instance.
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But the leaders at West Point know something that may sound paradoxical: Rules, especially the rules of leadership, set the stage for initiative, loyalty, and teamwork of a highly powerful nature.
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The sergeant got it right. A West Point education is a powerful curriculum for meeting the demands of leadership. The system is as rigorous as it is thorough. It works on the body, the mind, and the heart. As leadership education, it can’t be smothered.
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From the very first day, cadets find themselves submerged in a cauldron of experiences, which are frequently complex and fast-paced. At first, there isn’t even enough time to think. But every one of these experiences, every aspect of every day of the cadet’s training, is designed to teach leadership.
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As organizational theorist H. A. Simon put it, “A good executive is born when someone with some natural endowment (intelligence, vigor and some capacity for interacting with his fellow men) by dint of practice, learning and experience, develops that endowment into a mature skill.”
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We teach leadership by teaching the raw recruit how to do everything, from eating to walking to thinking, in a new way, a way that will build his or her new stature. That process, and how it can be adapted to organizations outside the military, will become clear in the pages that follow. The core of our program is more than strategy or vision: It’s the philosophy and practice of a set of values.
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In the armed services, one notices the emphasis on subordination, not only to the will of leaders, but frequently of an individual’s desires and goals.
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This is not the prototypical military style, and I would go one step further to state that there is no established military style of leadership at all. Illustrating this point, John Gardner, in his book On Leadership, pointed to the diversity of leadership styles of military commanders. He described George Marshall as a “self-effacing, low-keyed man with superb judgment and a limitless capacity to inspire trust.” Douglas MacArthur was “a brilliant strategist, a farsighted administrator, and flamboyant to his fingertips.” Dwight D. Eisenhower was “an outstanding administrator and coalition builder,” George Patton “a slashing, intense combat commander,” and Bernard Law Montgomery a gifted and temperamental leader of whom Churchill said, “In defeat, indomitable; in victory, insufferable.”
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…observed that “there seemed to be no obvious patterns for [the CEOs’] success. They were right-brained and left-brained, tall and short, fat and thin, articulate and inarticulate, assertive and retiring, dressed for success and dressed for failure, participative and autocratic. There were more variations than themes. Even their managerial styles were restlessly different.”
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I would argue that executive styles are not very important. The roots of sound leadership, be it civilian or military,  are in ideals: moral principles (such as justice and beneficence), high-minded values (loyalty, integrity, consideration for others), and selfless service, all of which this book examines in practical detail. But these values hold no power unless they are practiced. The reader will see how to enact a self-disciplined leadership designed to go beyond personal ambition to serving the best interests of other people, to goals and commitments larger than oneself.
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Upperclass cadets don’t treat the first-year cadets, known as plebes, this way any longer. Today, the prevalent style of leadership in the Army has been evolving to a less autocratic one, which gives greater weight and respect to subordinates than has been the primary mode in the past. At West Point, the obligation emphasized for the upperclass cadet is to behave toward a plebe the way a leader should toward a subordinate. On the first day, the young man or woman in the red sash speaks very firmly, in businesslike terms, but without the bag-dropping exercise. He or she tells the new cadets what they need to know, where they need to go, and what they are going to do. The upperclass cadet makes sure the new cadet understands, and if anything has been left unclear, he or she explains again.
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Before plebes can learn the skills of leadership, the Academy must first remind them of all they don’t know.
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Because from this point on, the only thing that’s important is what they don’t know. Cadets don’t know how to lead soldiers well. They don’t know how to motivate or train or reward or discipline effectively. They don’t even know how to march, salute, or wear the West Point uniforms. The Academy makes it clear to them that they don’t know a lot. Starting from zero is not easy; it’s at best confusing, most probably frightening. Point Zero for new cadets is followership. Cadets spend a year learning the lessons of followership: self-discipline, stress- and time management.
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From there, the cadets embark on four passes of leadership training. The First Pass shows how the Academy forges the bonds that strengthen the organization. Essentially this is done by emphasizing teamwork and the satisfaction of absorbing an institution’s value system, one perhaps higher than their own. The Second Pass helps the individual begin to find his or her own voice in the organization by emphasizing direct or face-to-face leadership, an experience akin to first-level management positions in the corporate world, and moral reasoning, the basis of honorable leadership. The Third Pass teaches the self-reliance and leadership skills necessary to lead people who lead others. This is called indirect leadership. The Fourth Pass, executive leadership, which in corporate life occurs at the upper echelons of management, shows the cadets how to act in their organization’s long-term interest.
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West Point’s proven methods of leadership development are not merely applicable to the civilian world; I believe they offer an important corrective to the world of organizations that has come to accept chaos as naturally as we accept the air we breathe. Chaos may be pervasive, but it needn’t be accepted as inevitable. West Point’s traditional understanding of the value of rules, the value of honor, the point of living by your word,  all of these are fundamentals that bring stability in the midst of chaos, provide a shelter from the storm, and will surely benefit any leader in any business.
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Followers’ jobs are at their essence to do as they are told. They are asked to surrender, for a time, their independence and devote themselves exclusively to practicing the values of the institution they have joined.
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These rituals reinforce the intense concentration required to open the plebes’ minds. Because they have to rethink the most basic aspects of their behavior, their character changes in response from one of self-limiting certainty to awareness, questioning, wondering. West Point is preparing them to change their lives. These rituals teach the basic skill necessary for the first phase of leadership development, self-mastery.
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This is the West Point standard for excellent followership. There is no time to be wasted making excuses for not performing, no time to lose covering up your tracks. There is only time to do the job, for success.
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This is the extension of the four answers: “No excuse, sir.” West Point had trained me to understand that my superior officer only wanted results.
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MAKING A HABIT OF SUCCESS West Point does not teach cadets to listen merely for the good of their souls. It does so because a cadet’s success depends on his understanding of the demands being placed on him.
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LISTENING AT A GUT LEVEL West Point believes there are clearly times when leaders have the responsibility to tell subordinates exactly what they are expected to accomplish, and subordinates have the responsibility to do exactly as they are told.
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FOLLOWING THEM During Beast Barracks such a high volume of information must be absorbed, and so many tasks must be accomplished, that there is not even time to think. Plebes are kept so busy, and have so little time, that free choice is not even an option. They are simply learning what their business is, and how to follow its rules accurately and instantly.
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Honor Is the Language We Speak The cadet’s moral education, as with many other aspects of the Academy’s program of leadership, begins with rules, with the honor code. When they enter, these budding leaders receive as their first and most important matter of business this law, which is short, sweet, and to the point: “A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do.” The language of honor is spoken in this code.
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West Point believes that an organization, like an individual, can fulfill its highest function only when guided by moral principles. Creating this particular sort of high-performance organization, in which every member is guided by the same bedrock principles, is not easy.
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These three stages take the cadets from simply obeying a moral rule for reasons of self-interest to something much more vital in a leader of character, the ability and will to make a moral decision springing from her deepest personal values and conscience.
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At the first stage, the self-serving stage, one obeys the code for survival; if you don’t, you’re out.
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In this second stage,  the social contract stage, people follow a moral precept because they are pleased with the resulting increase in collective prosperity, not simply to avoid punishment. Still later comes the autonomous stage. One gradually comes to believe through the force of independent intellect that a life lived without moral guidelines is not worth living. This may not even occur until after graduation, indeed, some may never reach this stage of independent moral reasoning at all.
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BECOME YOUR WORD Once the code has been introduced, the Academy teaches cadets how to become their word; how to live as if everything they say is as important as everything they do, because it is!
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The poet Byron said that we lie more to ourselves than to anyone else. So these earliest lessons in leadership are based on language. The reason this is so important is that words are the medium of action for any leader. Promises must be fulfilled. Requests must be acted upon. Empty words cause failed actions. We must live by what we say.
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HOW HONOR BUILDS SHARED VALUES The majority of the cadets say they have no trouble learning to observe the first three tenets of the honor code, living a life without lying, stealing, or cheating. But the fourth tenet “”not tolerating those who do, presents them with a moral conflict.
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And this means that cadets may face the difficult situation of having to put the values of the institution ahead of a personal and strongly felt bond.
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At West Point, the importance of the honor code’s fourth tenet is to insist that, in the final analysis, the shared values of the organization are a more important bond than loyalty to one’s peers.
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CHOOSING GOALS THAT BREED “DOUBLE LOYALTY” A leader can foster double loyalty, to a team and to an organization, by inspiring in subordinates the sense that they are the organization. That the company is not “it” but “us.” The leader can do this through language, by specifically referring to the organization as “us,” because indeed it is the employees who make the organization.
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We had to put our institution’s highest goals, to serve all the people of this region of North Carolina, above our own college’s self-interest.
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The harder right here means not giving in to expediency. It means living out what West Point’s program of moral education taught me: that survival and profitability are not ends. They are only means to the end of serving the public good. Leaders of character serve the public good, and go beyond not only their personal horizons, but even past the horizons of their colleagues, to serve everyone whose interests are affected.
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This brief moment represented a giant step for me. In that instant, I had the profound realization that when individuals agree to behave with a prescribed set of high values they can have a much finer life than if they merely follow orders only because they have to, always looking for what they can get away with.
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 “The Harder Right” The Academy teaches that a life directed by moral guidelines promises deeper, richer satisfactions than a self-serving, self-absorbed life. Many people, in asserting their justifications for immoral actions, claim they see no payoff from moral behavior.
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Before a leader makes a decision, she must imagine her range of influence as a circle. “The harder right” is usually the decision that most positively affects the widest possible circle of people. This requires a type of moral math that isn’t instinctual, it must be practiced.
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But at West Point we urge that our leaders draw the circle ever wider, and take into consideration not just those nearest to them, but those in the Army, the community, the nation, the world. It takes years, and considerable devotion, to do this. It is a continual process of raising one’s sights to include more and more.
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Indeed, if one has any doubts about a moral decision, here is a step-by-step series of questions that will sharply increase a leader’s ability to reach for the harder right: What are the relevant facts of the situation? First, a leader must clearly assess the situation at hand. What is the decision that has to be made? Who and what are involved, and how much is at stake?
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What are the alternative actions available? Honorable leaders don’t make decisions solely on impulse. Even if there’s only a moment to ponder, a leader should, as definitively as possible, balance the different choices available.
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Who will be affected? An honorable leader tries to make the decision that will be most advantageous for the largest number of people. Not attempting to repair the bridge wouldn’t have helped anyone, except Presley.
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What moral principles are involved? In this case the dominant principle was beneficence, doing good for others. But also, the leader must ask herself if there are any morally debatable aspects to the choice she makes.
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How would these principles be advanced or violated by each alternative action? A leader thinks through each choice and its potential results. If we had not advanced to the bridge, we would not have been doing our jobs. We would not have been helping the greatest number.
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CHARACTER IS A PREREQUISITE FOR GREATNESS
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Learning to Be a Team Member During their first daunting year at West Point, plebes pursue one and the same goal: to be such exemplary followers that they can avoid the unwanted attention of the upperclass cadets whose incessant corrections and memorization assignments make plebes’ lives difficult. Plebes work together with strength and determination to defeat this common
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The importance of sharing is reinforced as often as possible. For cadets, there are no individual incentives, only team incentives. If a team member shows up on time for inspection with his belt buckle polished, his shoes shined, and his plebe knowledge perfectly memorized, but other members of his team show up late, not only is he not rewarded for his individual achievement, he is berated, even punished, for abandoning his team when they needed his help.
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OBSTACLES TO TEAMWORK Trust is the glue that holds a team together. A leader forgets this at his own peril. If we can make it perfectly clear to leaders-in-training that there are many instances in life where you must entrust your destiny to someone else, we’ve taught them more about teamwork than any assignment or joint project will ever teach them.
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In this context, two roadblocks to successful teamwork recur again and again: 1) technical problems, in the case of our first team crisis, how to get from the ground to the top of the platform (the team boosts up the tallest member who then reaches down and helps everyone else climb up), and (2) human dynamics problems, in this case how to compensate for individual weaknesses, say a shorter or heavier cadet, how to make sure that everyone’s ideas for solving the problem are heard, and how to choose the best solution, all the while retaining enthusiasm for the task at hand and good group spirit.
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LEADERS’ RESPONSIBILITY AND CLASSIC PITFALLS It is surprising how many leaders forget that the high performance of their team is their own responsibility. Instead, they blindly expect the concatenation of the team’s members to naturally produce results. While nearly
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There are four classic pitfalls that many leaders are unfortunately prone to: The autonomy syndrome. Many leaders believe that they alone must have the solution to every problem, the answer to every question.
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The paranoia syndrome. Many leaders jealously guard management data as if they were TOP SECRET Pentagon documents, for fear that someone will exploit the information against them.
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The bully syndrome. Some managers believe they have to “rough people up” verbally or emotionally to get them to perform.
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The “every man for himself” syndrome. A manager may naively believe that if every employee simply does his job, everything will work out fine, no matter how his work affects the big picture, or his colleagues. This approach can never achieve synergy. Only when each individual feels a part of a distinct, more meaningful goal can high performance be achieved.
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The most effective leaders understand the power of a highly productive team working with them. Weak leaders think of their team members as merely extensions of their own hands and feet.
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Rather than giving them missions to accomplish and the freedom to decide how to do them, he simply prescribed one task after another. His subordinates were merely added sets of hands and feet for him to do his bidding. His best subordinates were so miserable that he drove them away, and he had to replace them with lesser people who were willing to be mere gofers.
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The leader of a high-performance team begins with the basis of a high regard for the team members.
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The leader of a high-performance team elicits the team members’ commitment by enabling them to share in the organization’s success.
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A leader can set (or, even better, lead his team to set) collective goals for the team. Stressing that their individual evaluations will be interpreted through the success of the achievement of collective goals,
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The leader of a high-performance team encourages members to participate jointly in analyzing problems and offering solutions.
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When the leader of a high-performance team gives directions, he also provides opportunities to clarify matters in case they are not understood.
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Through establishing open communication, a leader creates an environment in which team members are willing to mutually assist one another, reflecting the team’s cohesion and loyalty.
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Team member performance evaluations use criteria that have already been agreed upon jointly by leaders and team members.
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