"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
| "I wanted a happy culture. So I fired all the unhappy people." |
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A very successful CEO (who asked not to be named) |
Need Stories for Next Fortune Column -- topic is "recharging your batteries" - full request below, but first...
The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business - this is the book I've been waiting for from Patrick Lencioni, the famous author of eight of the greatest business fables of our time including his all time classic Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Released this week, Pat's latest isn't a fable but a comprehensive "how to" implementation guide that integrates the best of all his frameworks and shows why a healthy company trumps a smart company every time. Real world (sad) example at the end of the insights.
Three Biases -- Skip right to the first two pages of Chapter 1 "The Case for Organization Health" and learn why you must Stoop to Greatness (love his opening story) and the three biases that get in the way of organizational health - the sophistication bias; the adrenaline bias; and the quantification bias. Then Pat jumps right into execution -- building trust, clarity, and accountability throughout the organization. Book Club members will be getting a copy next week. I know I've pounded you with three books in the last three weeks including Abundance last week (you did order it), but these are three important books out of the 8000 biz books expected to be published in 2012.
These Three People Destroy Health -- The Victim, The Non-Believer, and the Know-It-All. Mike Maddock describes the three people you must fire immediately in the most tweeted column in BusinessWeek history. These three mindsets both destroy organizational health and innovation. Mike is the co-author of the first book we sent out three weeks ago, Free the Idea Monkey, and he contributed the opening quote above.
Latest FORTUNE Column is Online and On the Newstands -- "5 Ways to Healthier Employees" - consider this important KPI (key performance indicator), Productivity/Healthcare Dollar. There is no question that healthcare costs are skyrocketing so we might as well get a huge bang from these increased bucks. What's sad is when all this expenditure on healthcare (really "sickcare") fails to support healthier, more productive employees. If it did, then these costs could be seen as an investment vs. an expense.
Blunt the Blow -- please take three minutes and review the five ideas outlined in my FORTUNE Venture column for getting more outcomes from your healthcare dollar - whether it's finding a way to upgrade to a better healthcare plan for the same expenditure or focusing on improving the general health and energy of your employees. As business leaders, if we can increase productivity faster than healthcare costs, we'll be ahead of the competition - so it's time to become proactive. It's all about energy management vs. time management this century!
12 Greatest Entrepreneurs of Our Time --Steve Jobs and Bill Gates come in at #1 and #2. Take another 4 minutes and click through the dozen entrepreneurs FORTUNE chose - and the quick advice of each (highlighted at the front of each description, so in literally one minute you can click through and pick up some great tips) i.e.advice from Fred Smith, FedEx: Rely on "first level" managers. I couldn't agree more which is why the development of your managers is crucial!!
Ideas: Recharge Your Batteries -- my next FORTUNE column will focus on how to recharge your battery. As a leader, it's important to step out of the fray at times and find ways to energize yourself, so you can bring fresh and innovative thinking to your business. Other than vacation, what are some of the most effective ways you have found to "reboot?" Are there particular activities or practices that help you? Materials you read or programs you watch or listen to? Events you attend? People you see? What is the most surprising and counter-intuitive way you have found to get energized? When you respond, please include some background info on your company, such as what it does, how long it has been in business and size (revenues if you can share) - [email protected].
Sad "Organizational Health" Story -- this brilliant local entrepreneur in Barcelona, whom I dearly love, has an equally brilliant #2. For reasons I don't fully understand, they have added to their inner circle a 3rd executive who thinks he's brilliant but has a "Topgrading" track record that fails to show any pattern of success worthy of the serious efforts of the organization. Worse, this "bad apple" has singlehandedly poisoned what was a healthy culture and infected it with politics, mistrust, and confusion - and the other two don't see it for some reason. That's the amazing thing to me. I'm curious how this will play out over the next six months (yes, I've shared my thoughts but maybe I need to be more forceful).
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