On a recent stroll through Barnes and Noble, I picked up The Lombardi Rules: 26 lessons from Vince Lombardi, the Greatest Coach for what I thought would be a recreational read.
I find Lombardi’s quotes and wisdom smart and inspiring. The new book by Vince Lombardi Jr. uses his father’s quotes to reinforce that leaders, in both athletics and business, are made, not born. The book is less of a glance into what Lombardi achieved, but more how he achieved it through his leadership.
I would say that the quality of each individual’s life is the full measure of that individual’s commitment to excellence and to victory—whether it be football, whether it be business, whether it be politics or government.—Vince Lombardi
At first glance, Lombardi’s 26 lessons seem ordinary, but they’re told in a succinct, relatable way and capped with one of his uniquely wise quotes (I’ve posted the lessons in the expanded entry).
The 26 chapters are short, relatable and real. It’s a simple read (one of Lombardi’s fundamentals in itself) and can likely be finished over lunch hour—and if you read it over lunch you’ll come back feeling like you just had the best half-time locker room talk of the year.
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A client forwarded this the other day …
Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, offers his five rules for better PowerPoint. All good advice. We’d also direct him (and you) to our principles of PowerPoint, and many of the .PPT-related posts that have graced this page over the past few years.
As I skimmed through the USA Today I found sitting outside my door this morning, I came across an interview with FedEx CEO Fred Smith.
The story of FedEx and Fred Smith has always intrigued me, so I checked it out. They focused most of the interview on Fred’s love of history and his view that you can learn more about leadership and business from history than from many popular leadership books. One of the leaders I admire most gave me the same advice a few years ago, so I thought I’d pass along Fred’s other tips:
Tips steeped in history from Fred Smith
* There are only about six business books worth reading. For enduring lessons, read history.
* The great conquerors of the past treated the conquered well. Remember that next time your company makes an acquisition.
* The most risky course is often inaction.
* When things go wrong, take responsibility.
Strategy + Business (the business magazine / PR tool of Booz Allen Hamilton) has an article up on “the value of corporate values.” It’s the reusult of a moderately robust research effort (300+ completed surveys but only 20 interviews) about “how companies are dealing with the challenges of managing values.” (Link here; PDF file here; free registration required.)
The findings are what you’d expect: lots of firms state similar values (”integrity,” “commitment to customers,” “commitment to employees”); the rub is in living them. Of course, we believe there’s another rub as well: not confusing value messages with strategy messages. At CRA, we encourage clients to communicate values as “how we play” or “how we work” and strategy as “how we’re going to succeed” or, if there’s a vision for the company, “how we’re going to get there.”
The challenge with values is that they’re not terribly actionable from a planning perspective. As a mid-level manager it’s hard to look at the next 12 months and plot (or articulate) how my team is going to “do” diversity or “do” integrity.
A strategy message fills that gap: If you tell me our strategy is to “improve customer service, improve reliability, and manage costs” … those are things I can take action on, whatever my level. I can then invoke values by saying: “And as you do so, act with integrity and encourage diversity.” Mission, vision, values, and strategy each have a linked but distinct space in the strategic message heirarchy. Strategy is the game plan; values are how we play the game.
Several things worth noting over at Fast Company’s blog, FC Now, today.
The first is the blog itself: It’s a nice example of a single blog authored by multiple folks with similar but varying content expertise. It also reflects sound blog practice (first person voice, brief and pithy entries, links, un-spun and candid information … see Jeff Jarvis’ excellent take on blog ethics here).
Most interesting, however, is how the blog — which uses Movable Type’s standard software (as does CommLog) — incorporates so well into the rest of FC’s site and web branding. We’re often trying to convince IT and Corp. Comm. folks that they don’t have to use a $400,000 piece of content management software for blogging functionality – that the standard (and dirt cheap) software that’s out there easily allows for incorporation into nearly any existing site or page. FC’s blog is a great example.
Steve Crescenzo wants to slaughter the “fun page”. And in his sentiment, he’s right. Of course, making the “strategic direction” page the fun page … there’s the rub.
My colleague Robin passed this Jack Welch-authored Newsweek article around the other week. In it Welch summarizes his eight “rules” of leadership, and it’s worth reading. My favorite line from the article isn’t actually one of his rules:
Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.
It seems I express the same sentiment most often to folks entering the GM / Managing Director ranks for the first time. It’s a big shift to make, from superstar to the creator of superstars, but it’s absolutely one of the things that separates admired leaders from the rest of the crowd.
We regularly keep an eye on Internet message boards for information about our clients of which they should be aware. Here’s one such site you might want to add to your list of regular web reads: Vault.com. Much of the site is subcription-only, but recent messages and other features are rich enough that it’s worth a regular visit.
High Point Regional Health System recently began to prescribe weblogs for post-treatment therapy.
The research suggests that by expressing their emotions through writing, patients help to reduce anxiety and other ailments, said Anthony Newkirk, a licensed professional counselor in the hospital’s behavioral health department.
“It allows patients who are going through a medical situation or crisis to put things into perspective,” he said. “We get more and more truthful through writing and we gain insight into who we are and our situations.”
The Marketing Department hopes that it will draw attention to their website.
For more information, check out the article from the Greensboro News.
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