Tag Archives: Larry Bossidy
A Training Session is Just the Beginning
The problem is simple. Too many employees are not fully developed. In fact, too many employees develop very little after they are hired.
And this is a problem.
So, how does a company do a better job at developing employees? Here is a line from the 2002 book that kind of launched the “Execution” discussion of the last decade, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.
Teach your people – but remember, 80% of learning happens outside of the formal learning situations.
If 80% of learning happens outside of the formal learning situations, does this mean that the formal training, the formal sessions, are a waste of time? Yes – and no.
The formal training sessions are essential to jump-start the conversation, to give the “basics,” to “teach” the principles that need to be worked on. In other words, if the 80% of learning is outside the formal learning situations, you still need the formal session to start the process effectively. It is only a start – but it is an essential start.
But, after the session, the real learning begins. As the employee “works on” this new development area, a manager has to provide feedback, coaching, constructive criticism. It has to be someone’s job to help each employee take the next step.
So, in other words, without the training session, it is a much harder task to demonstrate just what needs to be worked on. But just to “say/present/teach,” even in a well-designed and well-led training session “this is what you need to work on,” without effective follow-up feedback and coaching, then, yes, training sessions can be a waste of time and resources.
In other words, it takes work; ongoing work, a lot of work, and teamwork between employee and managers, to develop the skills and capabilities of employees.
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At Creative Communication Network, we have recently experimented with a new “Individual Action Plan,” that each participant completes at the end of each training session. Then, it is up to that employee to share that plan with his/her manager, and together they can tackle the ongoing feedback and coaching needs.
The training sessions alone are good, valuable. But, not enough! We are fully convinced that it is the “next steps” that make all the difference.
Here’s a Suggested Reading List for Leadership Development (for 2011) – Now, with Update
Let me help you plan your reading for 2011.
The issue is… Leadership Development.
Look at those words. Think about them. They say a lot. Mainly they say this – leaders have to be developed, and leaders have to focus on, and work on, continual development. This does not happen by accident. Some leaders may be “born,” but most leaders are “developed.”
And one practice of ever-developing leaders is that they read. They read books for the purpose of personal development.
I thought about all of this after a great conversation over breakfast with my blogging colleague, Bob Morris. We talked about a lot. We share a love of reading, we share a deep appreciation of good authors and good books, so we are probably a little “biased” in our view of leadership development. But I think the evidence is on our side – leadership development does not happen by accident, and reading good books is a critical and time-tested path to leadership development.
So – assume that you are leader, and that you want to work on leadership development. What should you read? I’ve got a suggested list. If Bob, or my First Friday Book Synopsis colleague Karl Krayer were to suggest a list, it would be a different list. These are mostly books that I have read. It is my list of “areas of focus.” Some of these books are not new. But they are all worth reading, and if you want to get serious about leadership development, I think this is a pretty good list to start with.
Of course, there are other areas of focus that need/deserve/beg for attention — and other truly deserving book titles. This list is only a beginning…
So – here it is – my suggested reading list for leadership development. It includes seven areas of focus, with a total of eleven books. That is one book a month for 2011 (giving you either July or December “off”). Whether you choose these titles or not; whether you choose these areas of focus, or not; this I recommend: follow a leadership development plan. It is worth the investment of time!
| As you focus on: | A good book to read is: |
| The Right Values | True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series) by Bill George and Peter Sims |
| The Right Strategy | The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by Roger L. Martin and Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm by Verne Harnish |
| Effective Leadership | (note: this was a tough “focus” for which to choose the “best” book(s). I absolutely would include this Kouzes and Posner book: it is practical, and extraordinarily valuable).
Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst “Best” Practices of Business Today by Susan Scott |
| Effective Communication | Words that Work by Frank Luntz and Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath |
| Functional, Effective Teamwork
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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni |
| Cultivating Creativity and Innovation | The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp and Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson |
| Successful Execution | Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan |
I hope you succeed at your attempts at leadership development in 2011.
Note: this is not my first attempt to suggest a reading list. Earlier, I posted this: Build Your Own Strategic Reading Plan — or, How Should You Pick Which Business Book(s) to Read? It has other suggestions, for other areas of focus.
So many books…so little time!
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Here are three ways we can help with your leadership development efforts:
#1: You can bring me, or my colleague Karl Krayer, into your organization to present synopses of these, and many other books. These synopses provide the key content, and facilitated discussion of the implications. Contact me at .
#2: You can purchase our 15 minute version of these synopses, with audio + handout, from our companion web site at 15minutebusinessbooks.com. (Most of these were presented live at the First Friday Book Synopsis in Dallas. Be sure to read the faqs).
#3: Our blogging colleague Bob Morris is an accomplished business consultant, and can help your organization tackle these (and other) issues in an extended way. Contact Bob directly at .
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Update: My blogging colleague Bob Morris, added some worthy volumes to this list. Check out his expanded list by clicking here.
Here’s his expanded list:
The Right Values
True North by Bill George and Peter SimsMY ADDITIONS:
The Executive’s Compass by James O’Toole
The Highest Goal by Michael Ray
The Heart Aroused by David WhyteThe Right Strategy
The Opposable Mind by Roger L. Martin
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne HarnishMY ADDITIONS:
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Unstoppable by Chris Zook
Enterprise Architecture as Strategy by Jeanne Ross, Peter Weill, and David RobertsonEffective Leadership
Fierce Leadership by Susan Scott
Encouraging the Heart by James Kouzes and Barry PosnerMY ADDITIONS:
Maestro by Roger Nierenberg
True North by Bill George and Peter SimsEffective Communication
Words that Work by Frank Luntz
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan HeathMY ADDITIONS:
Influence by Robert Cialdini
The Back of the Napkin and Unfolding the Napkin by Dan Roam
Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
Functional & Effective Teamwork
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick LencioniMY ADDITIONS:
Organizing Genius by Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman
Collaboration by Morten Hansen
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Cultivating Creativity and Innovation
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven JohnsonMY ADDITIONS:
Freedom, Inc. by Brian M. Carney and Isaac Getz
The Idea of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation by Thomas Kelley
Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono
Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind by Guy ClaxtonSuccessful Execution
Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram CharanMY ADDITIONS:
Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki
The Other Side of Innovation by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble
Open Innovation and Open Business Models by Henry ChesbroughPlus two additional categories:
Leadership Development
MY RECOMMENDATIONS:
Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice co-edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana
The Talent Masters by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan
The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development co-edited by Ellen Van Velsor, Cynthia D. McCauley, and Marian N. Ruderman
Extraordinary Leadership co-edited by Kerry Bunker, Douglas T. Hall, and Kathy E. Kram
Employee Engagement & Talent Management
MY RECOMMENDATIONS:
A Sense of Urgency and Buy-In by John Kotter
The Art of Engagement by Jim Haudan
Engaging the Hearts and Minds of All Your Employees by Lee J. Colan
Growing Great Employees by Erika Andersen
Jason Kidd summarizes success: “Read, React, Execute” — one of the jewels from What Americans Really Want…Really
What do Americans Really Want? – One thing that they want is success, without paying for it…
I’m working my way through the new Frank Luntz book, What Americans Really Want…Really. It is my selection for this Friday at the First Friday Book Synopsis. I heard him interviewed on the Krys Boyd Think program on KERA (NPR in Dallas—listen to the interview here), and she described it this way to Mr. Luntz: “Your book concludes that we are a nation of well-meaning hypocrites.” Luntz agreed, admitting that we want small government, lower taxes – but better government services. (See my earlier post, To be Rich without Being Greedy — What Americans Really Want…Really by Frank Luntz about this book to see another example of this of this “hypocrisy” – or, at the least, inconsistency).
The book has much to offer as we think about success in business and in life. Here’s an excerpt:
You can learn a lot from listening to accomplished individuals talk about their craft… Among the most memorable conversations of my career was one with Jason Kidd, one of the great basketball point guards – not just of our time, but of all time. He had three simple words to explain the success on the court: “read, react, execute.” Read the basketball court not just as it looks at that instant but as it will look a split second later; react to the opportunities in front of you as they develop; and execute so that those opportunities are realized.
Read — react — execute. There’s Ram Charan’s Execution in three words…
If you are in our area, come join us. We meet this Friday, 7:00 am. Register here.
“Execution is what brings the results in.” — So says the CEO of Dr Pepper
Execution is not just tactics – it is a discipline and a system. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture.
And the leader of the organization must be deeply engaged in it. He cannot delegate its substance.
(Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan)
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Texans know -- this is the best soft drink!
Those of us from Texas have always known – Dr Pepper is the superior soft drink. I don’t drink coffee, but my morning beverage has pretty much always been Dr Pepper. I sadly confess that as I have gotten older (and a little larger) it has transitioned into their diet version, and my current drink is Diet Dr Pepper Cherry. By far, the best diet drink ever!
Dr Pepper, though always great, has not always been run like a great company. But CEO Larry Young, a break from ownership by a British company, and a good strategy (healthier products, with catchy names, like Mott’s for Tots), have all made a difference. This is chronicled in the article Why Dr Pepper Is in the Pink of Health: Freed from Cadbury in 2008, it has been cutting costs while building up brands and sales from Business Week.
The article concludes with a key quote from CEO Young about the most critical issue: you guessed it, it’s execution.
But the biggest key to success is distribution. Recently Dr Pepper scored a coup: a fountain spigot in McDonald’s (MCD) 14,000 U.S. restaurants. And staffers like Tony English, DPSG’s director of supermarket sales in Dallas-Fort Worth, where people drink more Dr Pepper than Coke, spend their days hustling from one store to the next. His team’s only day off: Christmas. Young would have it no other way. “Strategy is fantastic,” he says. “But execution is what brings the results in.” (emphasis added).
Yes, strategy is fantastic. But without the ability to execute, strategy is just wishful thinking…
And by the way, the NFL has about half of its teams each week lose, not because the strategy was bad, but because the execution wasn’t there. I forget who said it, but yesterday in a post-game interview, there was the familiar mantra: “we failed to execute.”
The lesson is clear, and it is reinforced time and time again: “Execution is what brings the results in.”
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To purchase my synopsis of Execution, with audio + handout, go to our companion website 15minutebusinessbooks.com.
Once you Decide and Plan — It’s All About Execution
Yes, plans can be tough to make. Planning done right is hard work, and a failure to plan leads to ongoing failure down the road. But most business failure has more to do with a failure to execute than it does with a failure to plan.
This message was stated clearly in the Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan book: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. They wrote: “Many people regard execution as detail work that’s beneath the dignity of a business leader. That’s wrong. To the contrary, it’s a leader’s most important work… Putting an execution environment in place is hard, but losing it is easy… When a company executes, its people are not victims… When a company executes well, its people are not brought to their knees by changes in the business environment.” Here’s their definition of execution: Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.
A few other books have picked up and built upon the execution theme. Notably, Six Disciplines Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem that Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier by Gary Harpst. In this book, Harpst quotes from business guru Michael Porter: “It’s better to have grade-B strategy and grade-A execution than the other way around.” I like Harpst’s simple reminder: STRATEGY: DECIDING WHAT TO DO — EXECUTION: GETTING IT DONE. “Of the two, execution is far more difficult to achieve.”
Another volume to consider is the one by Amir Hartman, Ruthless Execution: What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit The Wall. He finds execution especially valuable when a company hits a tough spot: “Ruthless execution is the method and strategies that business leaders employ to break through performance walls.”
I thought of these books in church this morning. We had a guest preacher, the regional Bishop for the Methodist Church, Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe. He asked a simple question: “What is unfinished? What unfinished business do you need to finish?” The text was from 2 Corinthians 8:11 — “Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it.” The subject at hand dealt with helping those in need. But the underlying principle was unmistakable: finish what you start. Finish what you plan. Plan — then execute your plan.
So, yes, I confess that my mind drifted to these business volumes in the middle of church. Why? Because the truth is inescapable — for business, and for my own life. Starting is relatively easy. Finishing strong, finishing well… executing. That’s where success is truly won.
{To purchase my synopses of Execution and Six Disciplines Execution Revolution, with handout + audio, go to our 15 Minute Business Book site}.
