The Agile Scaleup

Summer Thriller; Vacation Disconnected; Slowing Time Down; Language Training for Tots

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Fun Summer Thriller -- recommended by Seth Godin, I just finished Australian writer Max Barry's latest thriller Lexicon. If you're a student of persuasion (and the raw power of words) you'll especially love the underlying science behind this page-turner. Plus good to take a break from pure biz books! Enjoy.

Vacation Without Your Phone -- this latest Anne Fisher FORTUNE article highlights PwC's program to support all 37,000 employees to do just this - truly disconnect from work while on vacation. However, according to research cited in the article 62% expect to work while on vacation. The article outlines 3 steps for planning a vacation so you can truly disconnect (details in the article):

1. Involve clients, including in-house customers, in scheduling time off.
2. Anticipate problems that might come up and plan for them.
3. If it doesn't go smoothly the first time, try again.

Notes one of the PwC managers quoted in the article, "So much of the work people do on vacation is self-imposed. It takes self-discipline to put work completely out of your mind." It always comes down to discipline - even to relax. FYI, I'm disconnecting Aug 3 - 10 - no insights that week as well.

Slowing Down Time -- "It's simple: if you want time to slow down, become a student again," notes Richard A. Friedman, professor of clinical psychiatry at Cornell, in his Sunday New York Times Opinion piece. For those that feel like life is passing more quickly the older you get, Friedman shares some findings that shed light on this phenomenon. Explains Friedman, "Studies have shown that the greater the cognitive demands of a task, the longer its duration is perceived...repeated stimuli appear briefer in duration than novel stimuli of equal duration. Is it possible that learning new things might slow down our internal sense of time?" So, there you have it - take 3 minutes to read his piece - and keep learning!

Chinese (or any language) for Young Children -- preparing your children to do international business - or just want to improve their cognitive abilities? The LittlePim approach works. For children six months to six years old (the optimum age for a child to learn a second language), Julia Pimsleur Levine's company has produced a series of Entertainment Immersion Method-based programs (available on iTunes, DVDs, LeapPad) that teach children other languages the way they learn their native language. And learning a second language early in life provides all kinds of cognitive and social benefits.

Keeps Their Attention -- To test the process, my 5 year son and I have been taking the summer to go through her Chinese program - and sure enough, Quinn really looks forward to the 15 minute sessions together - and he's picking it up (faster than me, of course). Julia is an EO NYC member, award winning documentary film maker, and the daughter of Dr. Paul Pimsleur, who created the Pimsleur Method, the popular language learning program for adults. Slow down time and keep learning something challenging.

COACHING:

Need helping implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

THE Question; From “Oh F#@& to OK”; Keeping Clients; Daily Journaling Process

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

What's THE Question to Ask...when a gun is pointed at you! It's worth knowing! Mark Goulston, author of the huge bestseller, Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone, trains hostage negotiators and top executives (and parents and teachers) how to reach the people who don't want to listen. Go right to Chapter 1, skip in a few pages and read "Frank's story" of how a negotiator trained by Goulston kept a man from killing himself and harming others. Then skip to Section II of the book to dig into his Nine Core Rules for Getting Through to Anyone - starting with "Move Yourself from 'Oh F#@& to OK." Gazelles 200 CEOs and book club members will receive the book next week. Goulston is keynoting the upcoming Growth Summit Oct 22 - 23, Vegas along with Tony Hsieh, Ram Charan, Stephen M.R. Covey, Mark Johnson, James McQuivey, Kaihan Krippendorf, and Luke Hohmann.

The Impossibility Question -- for years we've been exclaiming that a key measure of leadership maturity is moving from statements to questions. So what are the best questions? That's what I love about Goulston's work - he provides targeted questions for a variety of situations in which we find ourselves as leaders and people. For instance, Chapter 12 discusses "The Impossibility Question," one of the most powerful tricks for turning a situation around if you're being held hostage by people who can't get past "can't." For me, his book is valuable reference guide. Right now I'm dealing with a tough situation with an extended family member and was able turn around a toxic situation (so far) following his step-by-step questioning process - his approaches really work.

SEC Approves Crowdfunding -- ...at least a key aspect of the legislation. To quote Jason and Sherwood, two of the guys that pushed through this historic legislative change "... one of the largest changes to securities regulation in nearly 80 years...U.S. private companies and entrepreneurs that need to raise capital, will now be able to market their company's investment opportunity publicly to "accredited investors" (individuals with over $1M in liquid net worth or incomes over $200,000/year) via social media, print materials, email and other means. This is a huge change. (Before) private companies were prohibited from saying anything publicly about raising capital and all solicitation had to be done in private. As soon as the regulations officially become part of the federal register (within the next 4 - 8 weeks) companies will be permitted to raise money publicly from accredited investors. Private companies can now publicly raise money from accredited investors." Take 3 minutes to read more details in Jason and Sherwood's latest Crowdfunding Global Update.

50 Ways To Keep Your Clients -- a few weeks into the second half of 2013, it's still not too late to structure a theme for this quarter or the rest of the year. Nashville-based WSW Certified Public Accountants launched their latest theme "50 Ways to Keep Your Clients" to Paul Simon's famous tune "50 Ways to Leave Your Lovers." To quote their version of the refrain:

You just pick up the phone, Joan Send an e-mail, Gayle You don't need to be coy, Roy Just listen to me Talk face-to-face, Chase We ain't got time to waste Just drop off the bill, Will Let yourself chill

With targets to touch base with existing and potential clients each day, they have a specific form for reporting out what each person has learned during the daily huddle. Prize money and surprise rewards are part of the fun. Thanks to Andy Bailey, their Gazelles coach, for sharing this example.

Journaling -- Important Daily Routine -- YPOer Steve Sansom (manages $2.8 billion of entrepreneurs' wealth) started a daily exercise of journaling about a year and a half ago. He uses a small Moleskin black notebook. He divides the small pages (page size is intentional) into 3 sections:

Today (this is a space he writes down what he has learned that day) To Do (this is the tactical top 5 outcomes for the day) Grateful (These are the things that day for which he is grateful)

Note's Sansom, "The value for me personally is focusing on the top 5 most important task/outcomes (I focus on descriptive outcomes), summarizing of daily learning, and reinforcing a sense of gratitude for things in my life. We all have a lot to be grateful for and it's great to reflect on those things at the end of the day."

Nov/Dec Workshop Dates -- the balance of Rockefeller Habits workshops for the year are now listed below. See if a workshop is coming to your town - and appreciate you encourage your business acquaintances to attend. Thanks for passing along the word.

COACHING:

Need helping implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

Global 500; LeBron James; Andy Murray; Problem with Shared Command

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: (Warning: lots of sports analogies - not normal for me)

Need Character Stories for Column -- for those who heard Jim Loehr (author of The Only Way to Win) speak at the Leadership Summit, I'm seeking stories where you've embraced his idea of using the business to build employee character, like he did with top sports performers, more below, but first...

Global 500 - Revenues Up 3%; Profits Down 5.5% -- FORTUNE's latest list is out and Royal Dutch Shell takes top honors with $482 billion in revenue followed by Wal-Mart with $469 billion. Most profitable is ExxonMobile at $44.9 billion. 8 of the top 10 are either petroleum or car companies. Take 1 minute to scan the list - and you can view additional data like # of employees (Wal-Mart #1 with 2.2 million). As biz leaders we should know some basic facts about our "industry."

Problem with Shared Command -- Ben Horowitz's (VC with Andreessen Horowitz) latest blog addresses the potential problems when a company has one person as Chairman and the other as CEO. Notes Horowitz, "Every employee in a company depends on the CEO to make fast, high quality decisions. Often any decision, even the wrong decision, is better than no decision. These decisions are pulse of the organization. Sharing command almost guarantees that the CEO position will perform poorly in this dimension." He does outline an exception to the rule and an important footnote. Always worth 3 minutes to read his blog.

"Play to Win" -- If you watched Andy Murray's straight-sets win in the finals at Wimbledon, you witnessed what it means to "play to win." Andy never backed off; stayed on the offensive; went for the winning shots; and ran down every ball. And you witnessed the most grueling battle with the inner-self during the last game when Murray blew three championship points but came back to win the fourth. In the end, it's all about overcoming self-doubt - which has a lot to do with your preparation and training.

Ivan Lendl's Honest Feedback -- ...and you witnessed the power that comes from having the right coach/master. Murray was a good player, but could never win the big matches. 18 months ago he brought on the great tennis player Ivan Lendl to be his coach and shortly afterwards took Olympic Gold, won the US Open, and now Wimbledon. Take 3 minutes to read this Telegraph article on how Lendl helped Murray win. Notes Murray, "I think he's always been very honest with me...He's made me learn more from the losses that I've had than maybe I did in the past," Murray said last night. "He's been extremely honest with me. If I work hard, he's happy. If I don't, he's disappointed, and he'll tell me." We all need someone to do this for us!!

LeBron James Master -- ...and it's no surprise that basketball great LeBron James won his fourth NBA MVP title. This 6 minute article outlines how LeBron James transformed himself into a point scoring/winning machine. The key, quoting the article, "He went to Houston in the summer of 2011 to learn from a master: Hakeem Olajuwon. "I wanted to get better," James said of his decision to work with Olajuwon. "I wanted to improve and I sought out someone who I thought was one of the greatest low-post players to ever play this game. I was grateful and happy that he welcomed me with open arms; I was able to go down to Houston for four and a half days; I worked out twice a day; he taught me a lot about the low post and being able to gain an advantage on your opponent. I used that the rest of the offseason, when I went back to my hometown. Every day in the gym I worked on one thing or I worked on two things and tried to improve each and every day." The article shows some fascinating visual shot charts pre- and post- working with Hakeem - and how he continued to transform his game.

Who is your Master? What is the one or two things you need to work on this summer?

Congrats to Aussie Firms -- 3 of Gazelles' coach Ted Bonel clients made the Australia's 50 Best Places to Work. Notes Bonel, "They have taken the Rockefeller Habits and embedded it into their organisations extremely well. Employees are asked to complete an engagement survey which also includes a culture audit. The Gazelles methodology has been Key to keeping people happy & engaged in their work. The 3:

# 12 - TRC - recruitment company # 17 - ansarada - virtual data rooms for M&A only # 22 - SilverChef - equipment financing for hospitality industry

Stories for Growth Guy Column needed -- I'm writing an upcoming Growth Guy column for Smart CEO Magazine and other international outlets. This time I want to speak about how leaders achieve top performance by helping their teams build character. Those of you who heard Jim Loehr speak at our recent Leadership Summit in Orlando will remember his powerful message and the impressive results his approach has on elite athlete's performance. Have you run programs that helped your teams build moral character strengths (truthfulness, gratefulness, generosity, compassion etc.) and have reaped the benefits in terms of stronger culture and improved performance? Please share your experience by emailing me at [email protected]. Please include the number of employees (so the reader has an idea of the size of the firm). Thanks.

COACHING:

Need helping implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

One-Page Personal Plan; Sad Reality; St. Louis & Minneapolis FORTUNE Breakfasts

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

When asked how to get smarter, Buffett once held up stacks of paper and said "read 500 pages like this every day. That's how knowledge builds up, like compound interest."

One-Page PERSONAL Plan -- July is a good time to think about your personal plans - and to help, Gazelles has a One-Page Personal Plan, more info below, but first...

Two Free FORTUNE Magazine Breakfast Events -- St. Louis July 16; Minneapolis July 18 - 8am - 9:30am meet FORTUNE Trailblazer Dr. Mary Jo Gorman and FORTUNE Senior Editor Ryan Bradley, more info below, but second...

Key Interview Question -- Sam Goodner, CEO of Austin-based Catapult Systems (Microsoft's Worldwide Partner of the Year), is often asked to participate in the interview process even when the position doesn't report to him. In every case, "I always conclude the interview by asking the candidate to share the most recent nonfiction book they've read in their field -- and then something they learned from it," notes Goodner in his July 8 column in the Austin Business Journal. "I'll even broaden the question to the most recent article, blog post, or column they've read."

Sad Results -- take 4 minutes to read what Goodner hears most of the time, yet which position in his firm almost always has a great response!! His column highlights how most professions require continuous education, except businesspeople. Continues Goodner, "And the higher up in an organization, the more excuses I hear: too busy, can't find the time, client emergencies, email overload, hair on fire, dog ate my proposal. So as the leader of your company or department, it's your job to not only lead by example but to create a culture of continued professional learning." Goodner outlines how Catapult has tackled this challenge. Again, take 4 minutes to scan his column (and it might inspire other CEOs to write columns for their local biz journals).

Top "Leadership Summit" Speakers Now Online -- as Goodner mentioned in his column, he uses Gazelles' online presentations to enhance the professional development of his team. The keynote presentations by Jack Stack (Great Game of Business), David Marquet (Turn the Ship Around!), and Dave Kerpen (Likeable Business) are now produced and available online for those that missed the Leadership Summit or attended and would like to review with their team. Each incorporates their slides and includes their one-page summary handouts -- excellent professional development between now and the Growth Summit, Oct 22 - 23, in Vegas. For detailed info on each presentation go to:

Jack Stack David Marquet Dave Kerpen

One-Page Personal Plan -- here's a link to my July "Growth Guy" column that outlines the One-Page personal plan called "ME: Living Legacy." It guides you through four main decisions: Relationships, Achievements, Rituals, and Wealth which mirror the four business decisions People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. It's important for leaders to outline their personal plans to provide context to the business plan. And here's a link to the One-Page tool.

Fortune Breakfast Events -- FORTUNE is recognizing the Trailblazers that are paving the way to business success. Join FORTUNE senior editor Ryan Bradley for a live, expert conversation on innovation featuring Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, CEO and Founder of Advanced ICU Care. Gorman was recognized as a 2013 FORTUNE Trailblazer for her innovative use of technology.

St. Louis July 16, Marriott West, 8am - 9:30am -- RSVP: Minneapolis July 18, Minneapolis Club, 8am - 9:30am -- RSVP:

COACHING:

Need helping implementing the Rockefeller Habits?