Tag: leadership

Categories
Education Google Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Trillion Dollar Coach

Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle. This is one of a few books that I recommend without hesitation to anyone. In addition, you do not need to be a manager to benefit from Bill’s coaching others to wild success.

Trillion Dollar Coach

Surprisingly Bill Campbell spent five years coaching football at Columbia. Then he coached many of the most successful technology teams driving innovation across Silicon Valley.

This book was written by three Google leaders in other words, based upon their coaching relationship with Bill over many years.

Eric Schmidt is the former Executive Chairman of Alphabet and ex-Google CEO. Jonathan Rosenberg was a Senior Vice President at Google. Today he is an advisor to the Alphabet management team. In addition, he ran the Google product team from 2002 to 2011. Alan Eagle is Director of Executive Communications at Google. He has been working at Google since 2007. As a result, all three grew as leaders via Bill’s wisdom.

Similarly Bill was a driving success for several prominent companies including Apple, and Intuit.

Bill’s relationships with Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and many more CEOs throughout the book reveal Bill’s coaching mantra.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Trillion Dollar Coach”
Categories
Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Infinite Game

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. During my read of Start With Why it was natural to seek Simon’s view of long term leadership. A few hits and misses along the way but it was another enjoyable read.

the infinite game by simon sinek

Simon introduces the theme contrasting finite against infinite. In other words, simple examples of football or chess, these games have time limits, rules are standardized and the players are known to the opponent. It is easy to find a winner and loser at the end of similar finite sporting events.

However the focus of his book is on infinite games, business, war, politics, and even our own personal lives. There is no time limit, rules change over time, and the players as well. No winners or losers appear on an infinite stage, above all, movements are forwards or backwards.

However, with my deep interest in learning about the long US war in Vietnam it was a bit surprising to see Simon tee off his book with the 1968 Tet Offensive. This was his pinning idea of infinite. While the US involvement in Vietnam extended back to the 1940s, and French colonial rule began in the late 1860s, it was a shame China’s 1000 year rule over Vietnam was not mentioned.

Continue reading “Latest Read: The Infinite Game”
Categories
Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Sway The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman. Ori also wrote The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. Both are good reads and worthy of your time.

The opening chapter set the book’s tone for great learning. Why do we fall for irrational behavior? There would be no excuse for experienced, well educated professionals to stumble so badly? Are we really that close to irrational behavior that could actually endanger the lives of others?

When you want to tell a convincing story you start off with a homerun statement. This captures the attention of everyone.

Ori does this for instance, by sharing the story of an educated, deeply experienced professional. Highly regarded by colleagues both internally and from other companies as a voice of reason and industry leader.

In other words, what changes in behavior allows one to commit such an irrational action that results in the deaths of 534 people? Sway examines in chapter one the deadliest aviation disaster in history. It happened on the small island of Tenerife.

Similarly, this was one of the first investigations to conclude “human factors” as a cause. The investigation suggested his reputation, captain’s seniority, and being one of the most respected pilots working for the airline. The apparent hesitation of the flight engineer and the first officer to challenge pilot Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten contributed to the crash.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Sway The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior”
Categories
Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Leading Change

Leading Change by John P. Kotter is a much respected book. There are indeed solid points. However there are no case studies or source companies named. Regardless of the lessons, without fully understanding the company or executive this seems somewhat less credible. John is professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. So, my expectations were extremely high.

The opening chapter set the book’s tone for great potential. There is much to consider when addressing the need for change within any organization. John provides good insights and his lessons are true to form.

In addition, Leading Change provides a foundation for shifts across companies that require tackling pain points. Businesses must shift to remain relevant in a competitive global marketplace.

John proceeds to explain his eight-stage process of creating major change. there is no need for me to lay out the key framework for his process. There are plenty of resources that address his work.

So, each of his eight stages are broken down into three manageable segments. The introductory segment is to create a climate for change. The largest challenge is who the company or organization’s leadership views change as risk. In addition, the second segment requires the strong, powerful engagements with employees to set up success for changes coming across the board. Finally the last segments is implement and sustaining change.

The book seems to favor large, global corporations. There are elements of the book however that seem to be set in a pre-iPhone era. The book was based upon his 1996 article in the Harvard Business Review This includes stage three, developing a vision and strategy.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Leading Change”
Categories
Design Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Execution

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Bossidy served as Chairman and CEO of Honeywell and held executive roles at General Electric for over 30 years. Ram Charam spent 35 years working with executives at GE, Bank of America, DuPont, Novartis, EMC, 3M, and Verizon among others.

Chapter two reveals many strong points about company failures due to a lack of leadership. From Xerox, EDS, and Lucent. So many glaring mistakes top executives.

The lack of key knowledge regarding P&L or supply chain can kill. Yet those promoted into senior roles resulted in quarterly sales slumps. Bossidy shares firings began after two slumping sales quarters.

Looking back one can wonder how did they actually hold a job so valued yet be so inaccurate in leadership. Bossidy and Charan provide the insights needed.

Hiring during a pandemic? Execution can provide valuable insights to efficient execution by Baxter and Duke Energy. Bossidy took personal time to ensure executive and senior management hiring was a success. His spent time calling candidate references.

Execution also reveals HR should be honest in rethinking hiring timelines. This must include support by senior management in order to stay afloat or thrive.

To be fair, Bossidy also rewrote the executive’s rules on promoting long time managers. A company open to honest, critical analysis proved a key indicator when search was moving external.

Continue reading “Latest Read: Execution”