Gal Borenstein is BusinessSummaries.com's Author of the Month for February 2009

Miami, Florida, February 2, 2009—BusinessSummaries.com, one of the leading e-commerce sites for business book summaries, announces that Gal Borenstein, acclaimed author of the book What Really Counts for CEOs (published by Borenstein Executive University Press in 2009), is the Author of the Month for February 2009.

At the end of the day, every CEO has to be able to find out which marketing strategies and tactics are working for in his or her company. Yet, trapped by old-school marketing practices that don’t fit and perpetuate finger-pointing between sales and marketing departments, it can be hard to find out for sure which marketing practices are really effective. That’s unless a CEO is able to quickly discern What Really Counts.

It’s a brave new world for CEOs. The move from old-school print advertising to Web 2.0 social networks and the emergence of digital strategies has left many CEOs in the lurch. Far too often, many of them have no idea which part of their marketing works and which part doesn’t. And neither do many of them know what they should invest in to enhance their company’s long-term success. This confusion leads to quite a few CEOs spending more marketing budget dollars than necessary – and by doing so, squandering profit margins and resources that could be used elsewhere.

If the CEO does not understand which parts of the marketing effort are producing the best ROI, there is a strong likelihood that in seeking to increase efficiency, he or she will cut the very infrastructure required to maintain or restore the company’s vitality.

In What Really Counts for CEOs, Gal Borenstein, founder and CEO of the Washington, D.C. integrated marketing communications firm The Borenstein Group, seeks to teach CEOs to ask their marketing, sales and communication teams the right questions that will produce better answers, those which lead to meaningful metrics resulting in marketing outcomes that can be repeated and adjusted accordingly. In short, they will find out What Really Counts and make it work hard for their money.

This book will help CEOs uncover the key challenges they must face, and will give them the tools needed to treat marketing as a science.

The BusinessSummaries.com editorial staff interviewed Gal about his book and the story behind it. Key excerpts from the interview are posted on the BusinessSummaries website. The summary of What Really Counts for CEOs was released to BusinessSummaries.com’s subscribers on January 5, 2009.

Every week, subscribers enjoy business book summaries of today’s business bestsellers in PDF, PDA, Powerpoint, audio, video and mindmap formats. The latest versions of the book summaries are all available online upon subscription to BusinessSummaries.com.

Sam Carpenter is BusinessSummaries.com’s Author of the Month for January 2009

Miami, Florida, January 7, 2009—BusinessSummaries.com, one of the leading e-commerce sites for business book summaries, announces that Sam Carpenter, acclaimed author of the book Work the System (published by North Sister Publishing in 2008), is the Author of the Month for January 2009.

There is nothing mystical in Work the System – no airy-fairy platitudes, no feel-good, unsupportable theories of reality that offer little more than immediate comfort. This book is not about right or wrong, religion or politics, or about turning our world upside down. Instead, it aims to give its readers simple and dispassionate direction for finding freedom and wealth in the world they inhabit.

Carpenter advocates the adoption of seemingly basic but exceedingly meaningful and effective steps that in his experience will allow those who implement them to bring about incredible change in their workplaces – and their lives as well. These steps are not to be taken lightly as those who undertake them will undergo elementary yet fundamental shifts in perspective and will also need to invest heavily in improving their lives, although this is of course a superb investment that will result in many rewards.

Carpenter’s method includes documentation, or the creation of written goals and principles to serve as guidelines for action; separation, dissection and repair of systems; and ongoing maintenance of existing systems. In addition, the actual steps “to work less and make more” themselves include such deceptively simple procedures as ceasing to simply “do the work” (focus on your proper job and delegate everything else) to wise usage of time, creation of written documentation, elimination of time-wasters, and working for 98 percent perfection instead of fixating on 100 percent all the time.

For small business owners, corporate ladder climbers, and nine-to-fivers, Work the System is no less than a down-to-earth, “boots-on the-ground” blueprint for breaking free. Work the System will help make a few simple but meaningful adjustments to the way jobs or businesses are approached – and also help them experience the freedom and wealth that come from working less and making more.

The BusinessSummaries.com editorial staff interviewed Sam about his book and the story behind it. Key excerpts from the interview are posted on the BusinessSummaries website. The summary of “Work the System” was released to BusinessSummaries.com’s subscribers on December 22, 2008.

Every week, subscribers enjoy business book summaries of today’s business bestsellers in PDF, PDA, Powerpoint, audio, video and mindmap formats. The latest versions of the book summaries are all available online upon subscription to BusinessSummaries.com.

What Do Leader's Need?

In today’s global business culture, organizations suffer from a common yet deadly malady. Hidden behind the hype of creative advertising campaigns and masked by a steady flow of financial reporting and a seemingly endless barrage of meetings, a serious shortage of competent leaders threatens every organization’s future success.

Leaders need to be Equipped to Lead for service. Leadership expert Dr. John W. Gardner had it right: despite what seem like a great many depressing aspects of management, leadership development is not one of them. The skills necessary for effective leadership are learned. In short, leaders are made, not born.

At the heart of the matter rests a universal truth that every stakeholder should embrace: long-term success is impossible unless leaders have a proven method for ensuring order and balance in organizational management. This truth disturbs us because most organizations these days reflect chaos and instability more than order and balance – a telltale sign of floundering leadership.

Different languages, lifestyles, and cultural influences are major obstacles to management. Leaders of organizations bog down in digesting such complexity, and they routinely opt to embrace the universal simplicity of numbers. Sadly, stakeholders fail to grasp this simple reality: it is people with knowledge who drive the bottom line, and therefore leaders must commit to people-first practices if they desire sustainable superior performance.

Nowhere is the tide of secular influence more dangerous than in the heart and head of an organization’s leader. When leaders fail to live by God’s natural laws and principles, organizational order and balance remains impossible. Leaders choosing to pursue this path will find an endless supply of chaos, restlessness, and instability.

Modern management requires leaders to resist the pull of societal culture and its growing willingness to exclude God and His natural laws and principles from organizations. Leaders must recognize the moral compass that is built into the soul f human beings and strive to instill the practice of ethical behavior.

Simply put, order will emerge when leaders subscribe to godly values. Without values and adherence to natural laws and principles, order cannot serve as an organization’s foundation. Similarly, without adequate focus on four universal components that are common to all organizations, balance cannot take shape.

Leaders must restore and maintain order and balance in their organizations by educating stakeholders on the importance of people, processes, and partners. Only then will organizations realize revolutionary performance, soaring beyond expectations to a place of realized potential. Businessman Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, says, “When you do something truly revolutionary, most competitors will never copy it; they won’t even understand it.”


In his groundbreaking New York Times bestseller Built to Serve, United Supermarkets CEO Dan Sanders showed how putting profits before people encourages organizational chaos, saps motivation, stifles innovation, and undercuts competitiveness. He also unveiled a revolutionary people-centered business model championed by United and challenged other business leaders to put the human factor first. For more book summaries, please visit http://www.bizsum.com.

Executive Warfare

Executive Warfare
Winning Your War for Success
by David F. D’Alessandro with Michele Owens

It's not enough anymore to be smart, hard-working, and able to show results – because nowadays everybody is smart, hard-working, and able to show results.

What really sets you apart are the relationships you build with people of influence. These people can include your peers, your employees, your organization's directors, reporters, vendors, and regulators – as well as the people directly above you in the organizational hierarchy.

In senior management, you no longer answer to just one boss. “Executive Warfare” offers concrete advice for handling all of them, including:

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: They won't judge you fairly if all they see of you are your PowerPoint presentations.

YOUR DIRECT REPORTS: These people are your vital organs, so treat them accordingly.

YOUR RIVALS: It's not always wise to shoot at them, but if you do, do not shoot to wound.


Why You Need This Book
In his bestsellers “Brand Warfare” and “Career Warfare”, author David D'Alessandro offered sharp advice for building a brand and building a career. Now “Executive Warfare” is the advanced class for the truly ambitious.


Attitude, Risk, and Luck: They Are the Most Influential Bosses

ATTITUDE: The Boss Within
It’s incredibly important to get your own head in the game if you intend to rise. If you are bossed around by your own greed, arrogance, or childish lack of discipline, you will give people reason to doubt you, and you will undermine yourself.

RISK: Slice It, Dice It, and If It Looks Good, Eat It for Breakfast
Higher management is all about handling risks intelligently and in a calculated fashion.

LUCK: Smarter Than Reaching for the Brass Ring Is Letting It Slap You in the Nose
Nobody gets to the top without being lucky. Luck happens to the most deserving of people and some of the most undeserving.


Bosses: You Need a License to Cut Hair, but Not to Manage and Control Thousands of People
The first rule of your relationship with your boss is to understand that it’s a business transaction. If you are willing to give the boss the truth, you’re probably going to engage in some spirited debate with your boss as part of the decision-making process. No matter how incompetent or unpleasant he may be, never tell stories about your boss. Never make the boss feel betrayed – unless, of course, you are ready to grab the boss’ job.


Peers: Understand That They Are Your Most Valuable Allies… or Your Most Dangerous Enemies
You can identify the consiglieri by their unfettered access to the boss. These are the people able to walk into the office of the executive director or president or CEO on a moment’s notice and just glide past the assistant, with or without an appointment.

Cultivating the consiglieri is not just a smart defensive move. The key thing to understand is that such a relationship only works if you are willing to be generous with the credit for your great idea.


CAREFULLY REMOVE ALL TATTOOS
Be smart. Place some of your trust in people who will tell you when your face is dirty, as well as when it’s clean.

Be discreet.

Anticipate cross-cut attacks that will make you seem sanctimonious or false.

If the rumor is a lie, calmly make the facts known. If there is a crumb of truth in it, though, be humble enough to admit it and see if you can’t improve yourself.


Rivals: Defeat Them with a Siege, Not a Coup
ALLOW YOUR RIVALS TO BE SHORT-SIGHTED. A lot of short-term rivals wind up being short-term by doing dumb things. So time is on your side. Relax and behave like a leader.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE POINTED QUESTION. You are subtly demonstrating how terrific you would be as their boss – and hopefully, planting this idea in the minds of the decision makers.

IF YOU CAN’T RESIST A SHOW OF AGGRESSION, MAKE SURE IT’S LETHAL. If you must shoot, do not shoot to wound. Finish the person off as a rival.

IF YOU ARE THE SNAKE IN THE NEST, STRIKE QUICKLY. Act quickly, before your boss’s paranoia has a chance to flower, because dawdling is dangerous. Your boss has more access than you do to the CEO and the board.

IF YOU LOSE TO YOUR RIVAL, EITHER LEARN TO LIKE EATING CROW, OR GO. If you do stay on as a loser, you generally either have to find another place to go within the organization that offers you another chance to rise, or wait out your rival’s tenure – five years, seven years, ten years – for a second shot at the job you wanted.

WITH FORMER RIVALS, IT’S KISS OR KILL. If you win the race, you either embrace your rivals or kill them. There’s nothing in between, because nothing is more dangerous than allowing the defeated to remain rivals.


The Team You Assemble: You Risk Your Reputation with Every Hire and Fire
The truth is that when you are the boss, it’s really hard to hire people unlike yourself, either in personality or in expertise. Why? Do it anyway if you think they are right for the job. Hire for candor. Look instead for seasoned, confident people, courageous people who will take the personal hit of telling you the truth rather than feeding you pleasant lies.

Develop a reputation as somebody who not only can build a strong team but also can bring in people who can build strong teams.


The People You Have to Motivate: You Are a Fool if You Think They Love You
You can get people to work very, very hard because they are proud of your organization or because they want your organization’s prestigious name on their resume. Sometimes what people need most is respect for the fact that they have personal lives. They are far more effective if they feel respected that way. You are winning people’s loyalty in action. Treat the people who work for you with respect and start building that loyalty today.


Outsiders with Influence: Be Wary, Be Right, and Be Prepared to Prove It
Make sure your people understand that if there is any hint of a problem, you’re to know about it. And if there is a serious problem, be prepared to get on a plane in order to soothe the savage beast.

If the client really counts, make sure that she has your home phone number, not just your cell phone. Say to that client, “If there’s a problem, call me any time.”

Help them solve problems, not just in their businesses and careers, but also in their lives. Treat them as human beings, and use your influence to help them.

Never lie to them. If your company has screwed something up, tell them you screwed it up.

Everywhere you go, there is a chance that you will run into somebody who has some influence with the powers that be in your organization. Random strangers to you are not always strangers to the people who hold your career in their hands. So it is smart to conduct yourself, in public at least, as if there is always somebody in the audience who matters.

Put yourself into position. Make it known that you want a revenue-gathering job. Don’t just raise your hand when a job comes up, when people are already thinking of other candidates. Raise your hand in advance.

Then dive right in. if it turns out that you have no appetite for the hunt, you can always come back to the staff job later.

Work out a plan in case you lose your job.


Culture: Before You Sign on, Make Sure it’s a Culture, Not a Cult
You must know the unwritten rules of your organization’s culture so that you don’t break them unwittingly.

Be sure also that the culture of your organization allows for forward motion – that it will give you the opportunities you deserve. If not, make a deft exit as soon as you can.


The New Bosses: It’s Not the Same Old Twentieth-Century Game
If you want to rise, you have to demonstrate leadership to many different audiences. These include the people above and below you in the organizational hierarchy, the people who are competing with you for the next job and those resentful because they cannot compete for it, the outsiders and insiders and shareholders and donors and disinterested observers only looking for a juicy story to alleviate the tedium.

In today’s world, you have to be alert to win.


BusinessSummaries.com is a business book summaries service. Every week, it sends out to subscribers a 9- to 12-page summary of a best-selling business book chosen from among the hundreds of books printed out in the United States. For more information, please go to http://www.bizsum.com

Executive Warfare

Executive Warfare Winning Your War for Success By David F. D’Alessandro with Michele Owens It's not enough anymore to be smart, hard-working, and able to show results – because nowadays everybody is smart, hard-working, and able to show results. What really sets you apart are the relationships you build with people of influence. These people can include your peers, your employees, your organization's directors, reporters, vendors, and regulators – as well as the people directly above you in the organizational hierarchy. In senior management, you no longer answer to just one boss. “Executive Warfare” offers concrete advice for handling all of them, including: THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: They won't judge you fairly if all they see of you are your PowerPoint presentations. YOUR DIRECT REPORTS: These people are your vital organs, so treat them accordingly. YOUR RIVALS: It's not always wise to shoot at them, but if you do, do not shoot to wound. Why You Need This Book In his bestsellers “Brand Warfare” and “Career Warfare”, author David D'Alessandro offered sharp advice for building a brand and building a career. Now “Executive Warfare” is the advanced class for the truly ambitious. Attitude, Risk, and Luck: They Are the Most Influential Bosses ATTITUDE: The Boss Within It’s incredibly important to get your own head in the game if you intend to rise. If you are bossed around by your own greed, arrogance, or childish lack of discipline, you will give people reason to doubt you, and you will undermine yourself. RISK: Slice It, Dice It, and If It Looks Good, Eat It for Breakfast Higher management is all about handling risks intelligently and in a calculated fashion. LUCK: Smarter Than Reaching for the Brass Ring Is Letting It Slap You in the Nose Nobody gets to the top without being lucky. Luck happens to the most deserving of people and some of the most undeserving. Bosses: You Need a License to Cut Hair, but Not to Manage and Control Thousands of People The first rule of your relationship with your boss is to understand that it’s a business transaction. If you are willing to give the boss the truth, you’re probably going to engage in some spirited debate with your boss as part of the decision-making process. No matter how incompetent or unpleasant he may be, never tell stories about your boss. Never make the boss feel betrayed – unless, of course, you are ready to grab the boss’ job. Peers: Understand That They Are Your Most Valuable Allies… or Your Most Dangerous Enemies You can identify the consiglieri by their unfettered access to the boss. These are the people able to walk into the office of the executive director or president or CEO on a moment’s notice and just glide past the assistant, with or without an appointment. Cultivating the consiglieri is not just a smart defensive move. The key thing to understand is that such a relationship only works if you are willing to be generous with the credit for your great idea. CAREFULLY REMOVE ALL TATTOOS Be smart. Place some of your trust in people who will tell you when your face is dirty, as well as when it’s clean. Be discreet. Anticipate cross-cut attacks that will make you seem sanctimonious or false. If the rumor is a lie, calmly make the facts known. If there is a crumb of truth in it, though, be humble enough to admit it and see if you can’t improve yourself. Rivals: Defeat Them with a Siege, Not a Coup ALLOW YOUR RIVALS TO BE SHORT-SIGHTED. A lot of short-term rivals wind up being short-term by doing dumb things. So time is on your side. Relax and behave like a leader. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE POINTED QUESTION. You are subtly demonstrating how terrific you would be as their boss – and hopefully, planting this idea in the minds of the decision makers. IF YOU CAN’T RESIST A SHOW OF AGGRESSION, MAKE SURE IT’S LETHAL. If you must shoot, do not shoot to wound. Finish the person off as a rival. IF YOU ARE THE SNAKE IN THE NEST, STRIKE QUICKLY. Act quickly, before your boss’s paranoia has a chance to flower, because dawdling is dangerous. Your boss has more access than you do to the CEO and the board. IF YOU LOSE TO YOUR RIVAL, EITHER LEARN TO LIKE EATING CROW, OR GO. If you do stay on as a loser, you generally either have to find another place to go within the organization that offers you another chance to rise, or wait out your rival’s tenure – five years, seven years, ten years – for a second shot at the job you wanted. WITH FORMER RIVALS, IT’S KISS OR KILL. If you win the race, you either embrace your rivals or kill them. There’s nothing in between, because nothing is more dangerous than allowing the defeated to remain rivals. The Team You Assemble: You Risk Your Reputation with Every Hire and Fire The truth is that when you are the boss, it’s really hard to hire people unlike yourself, either in personality or in expertise. Why? Do it anyway if you think they are right for the job. Hire for candor. Look instead for seasoned, confident people, courageous people who will take the personal hit of telling you the truth rather than feeding you pleasant lies. Develop a reputation as somebody who not only can build a strong team but also can bring in people who can build strong teams. The People You Have to Motivate: You Are a Fool if You Think They Love You You can get people to work very, very hard because they are proud of your organization or because they want your organization’s prestigious name on their resume. Sometimes what people need most is respect for the fact that they have personal lives. They are far more effective if they feel respected that way. You are winning people’s loyalty in action. Treat the people who work for you with respect and start building that loyalty today. Outsiders with Influence: Be Wary, Be Right, and Be Prepared to Prove It Make sure your people understand that if there is any hint of a problem, you’re to know about it. And if there is a serious problem, be prepared to get on a plane in order to soothe the savage beast. If the client really counts, make sure that she has your home phone number, not just your cell phone. Say to that client, “If there’s a problem, call me any time.” Help them solve problems, not just in their businesses and careers, but also in their lives. Treat them as human beings, and use your influence to help them. Never lie to them. If your company has screwed something up, tell them you screwed it up. Everywhere you go, there is a chance that you will run into somebody who has some influence with the powers that be in your organization. Random strangers to you are not always strangers to the people who hold your career in their hands. So it is smart to conduct yourself, in public at least, as if there is always somebody in the audience who matters. Put yourself into position. Make it known that you want a revenue-gathering job. Don’t just raise your hand when a job comes up, when people are already thinking of other candidates. Raise your hand in advance. Then dive right in. if it turns out that you have no appetite for the hunt, you can always come back to the staff job later. Work out a plan in case you lose your job. Culture: Before You Sign on, Make Sure it’s a Culture, Not a Cult First, you must know the unwritten rules of your organization’s culture so that you don’t break them unwittingly. Be sure also that the culture of your organization allows for forward motion – that it will give you the opportunities you deserve. If not, make a deft exit as soon as you can. The New Bosses: It’s Not the Same Old Twentieth-Century Game If you want to rise, you have to demonstrate leadership to many different audiences. These include the people above and below you in the organizational hierarchy, the people who are competing with you for the next job and those resentful because they cannot compete for it, the outsiders and insiders and shareholders and donors and disinterested observers only looking for a juicy story to alleviate the tedium. In today’s world, you have to be alert to win. BusinessSummaries.com is a business book summaries service. Every week, it sends out to subscribers a 9- to 12-page summary of a best-selling business book chosen from among the hundreds of books printed out in the United States. For more information, please go to http://www.bizsum.com

Lessons from the book "When Fish Fly"

These are notes based on the book:

When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace from the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market by John Yokoyama and Joseph Michelli, Ph.D.

The Big Idea
People come from far and wide to the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, not only to witness the hilarious spectacle of fishmongers throwing slippery salmon to one another, but also to share in the joyous atmosphere generated by the company’s uniquely vital culture.

Pike Place Fish was not always World Famous, however. In this remarkable business-advice book, owner John Yokoyama tells the story of how he transformed a small company on the verge of bankruptcy into an extraordinary model of success. It all began with a vision: By declaring themselves “World Famous” (before it became a reality), Yokoyama and his employees made a conscious decision not just to seek fame but to make a positive difference every day in the lives of each of their customers, suppliers, and colleagues.


Why You Need This Book
This book offers stakeholders – owners, managers, and front-line workers alike – strategies for achieving world-famous results in any kind of business by developing a culture that leads to excellent customer service, legendary employee morale, and a fun and energized work environment.

After all, if Pike Place Fish can make a world famous difference from a small storefront, with zero advertising, in a smelly, physically challenging profession, then the same is possible for any company.


Creating a Vision of Power and Possibility
With the declaration of “World Famous Pike Place Fish”, the company evolved from one that existed totally to sell fish to one that was interested in extraordinary service to its customers and its world. Merely selling fish was no longer the main reason it was open for business.

It generates a more meaningful reality for all of the employees, who are not simply fish salespeople; they are agents of change. Anyone can sell fish – few can make a world-famous difference while doing it.

A purposeful vision has power like nothing else – breakthroughs happen as a result. Looking past the everyday demands of the bottom line, every employee continually seeks to love the company’s vision, World Famous Pike Place Fish. For them, the vision is the bottom line. If World Famous Pike Place Fish is present through them, all else falls into place.


THREE PLEDGES OF AN OWNER
It is very clear to John Yokoyama what World Famous Pike Place Fish means. From his perspective as the company’s owner, he aims to:

Make a world famous difference in the lives of everyone who comes into his business;

Empower the creative people he works with so that they can make a world famous difference for each other, the customers, the community, and beyond; and

Demonstrate what is possible when one empowers one’s employees. (Originally, John’s desire was to demonstrate this only to small-business owners. These days, he also finds himself sharing these possibilities with executives in large corporations, as well as with organizations and community leaders.)


Achieving Individual Commitment and Team Alignment
At Pike Place Fish, people are viewed in a very different way. People are not objects to be motivated or persuaded into action. Fundamentally, people are creative beings and they should be treated as such.

Once the powerful creativity of employees is accepted, you simply need to present the opportunity for them to grow. In a general sense, this is the new reality John offers at Pike Place Fish.

You can come to work and affect the world for the better. You can matter in the lives of others. You can share a powerful vision with our team and create breakthrough success, and yes, you can do all that while throwing and selling fish.

I also affirm that I am devoted to having my business and the people in it make a profound difference.

We are committed to this, and everybody who works here has personally taken responsibility for participation and for being on this boat.

Committing to working here means you are not just accepting a job. If you take a stand to be on this team, you are declaring that you will make a difference for every customer and have a positive, world famous impact on the world at large.

If you say “yes” to working here, you become an owner and creator of this vision. What that means personally for you is that you are World Famous Pike Place Fish.


Focusing on the Process for Achieving Success
Through management’s intention to use World Famous Pike Place Fish as a way to serve other people, and the subsequent process that that declaration called forth, the company’s crew has made a difference in people’s lives and in the success of the market. Being is strategy in action. We create intentions and commit to them. Change really happens naturally, just out of who you’re being. You will create your own way, and you’ll create doing what you do. Our secret to success lies in our commitment to being who we say we are.


Choosing Powerful Conversations
When you shift conversations and explore the greatness of your team members, you’re likely to be a person who creates opportunities for their strengths to show up on the job.

What conversations are automatic for you? How do you and those with whom you work yield to power-limiting conversations? By stopping automatic, passive, and power-reducing conversations, dynamic and generative forces are unleashed, and these forces drive their success and fuel their ability to make a difference.

Creating deep and powerful conversations works at Pike Place Fish, and powerful conversations have positively transformed the lives of the employees’ families as well.


Making a Difference by Listening Intently
When staff members feel that their manager listens to them, they are more likely to listen to their co-workers as well. Listening gives people access to their creativity and assists them in relating to one another.

When you live your life with a genuine interest and concern for others, it’s clear to you when members of your team aren’t listening to make a difference. It’s easy to coach them and receive coaching from them to make sure that they are listening to one another and to those who come into contact with your business.

If you are going to listen powerfully to your customers, you can’t do it in order to make more money. If you do listen for that reason, it is just a form of manipulation. When you truly listen to someone, you hold that person in high regard. Has someone has truly listened to you lately? Do you typically listen to make a difference, or do you usually listen to defend yourself?


Coaching for Greatness
Let’s look at some conversations that interfere with coaching:

“Why should I coach them? “I don’t want to change. “I don’t like the way you are coaching me, so I am not listening.”

When it comes to coaching, Pike Place Fish is a strange place. Defensiveness and resistance to change have melted away, and people see coaching as an opportunity for growth.

As a result, things get done better than ever before, and the Pike Place people are at their creative best. The success of the company’s coaching starts with the staff’s intention to make a world-famous difference and their commitment to care enough to consistently share supportive, compassionate comments and ideas with one another.

While unusual, their culture is available to any workplace. It’s just a conversation away.

While it is difficult to separate out the key components behind any company’s success, the following elements are behind Pike Place Fish’s success:

Creating a vision of power and possibility as a team

Enrolling and formalizing individual commitment and team alignment to the vision

Helping team members distinguish between the state of being and the state of doing

Having the leadership redefine themselves as effective agents of change

Assisting team members in letting go of internal and external conversations that rob them of their personal power

Guiding team members to listen to make a difference instead of listening to defend or blame

Helping the crew live their commitment to one another through effective coaching

Assisting crew members as they turn snags into breakthroughs

How empowered, energized, and alive can you make your workplace? If Pike Place Fish can make a world famous difference from a small storefront with zero advertising in a smelly, physically challenging profession, then what’s possible for you, your business, your family, and your community?

BusinessSummaries.com is a business book summaries service. Every week, it sends out to subscribers a 9- to 12-page summary of a best-selling business book chosen from among the hundreds of books printed out in the United States. For more information, please go to http://www.bizsum.com

5 Steps to Successful Business Leadership

VIRTUALLY ALL PEOPLE HAVE THE SKILL.

WHAT AFFECTS PERFORMANCE MOST IS THEIR ATTITUDE.

Having the will to succeed is as important as having the skill, for with will, skill is often acquired. But even then, circumstances can conspire against one’s best efforts. External circumstances can and do impact on business results. So, despite the focus in the last section on managing our minds and lifting our own game, circumstances can and do make things tough from time to time.

When judging others who are expected to achieve a result and do not, the reaction is to look to them and their performance. When judging ourselves, the tendency is to look for the reasons that stopped us, and it is the exception to examine first our own attitude. But it is common for the attitude to be a major cause of results that do not come up to what is expected. If the targets are ridiculously high, then shortfall could be expected. But most businesses today understand the process of involvement and ownership to ensure that the targets are achievable – but at a stretch. It is the last bit that can and does cause the problem.

What attitude is a problem? Any that undermines our giving of our best. A perennial problem encountered is in commission sales teams and with some mature people. Assume someone is 45 years old – male or female, it makes little difference. They are very skilled and capable. They own their home, their partner works, a modest income is all they need, so £40,000 is easily achievable for them, when with some stretch, they could make £100,000. But they do not do it. The management of the company can become frustrated, tensions set in and it falls apart. The person is on commission and sees him or herself as self-employed. Who is right? There is no simple answer. Both sides need to make concessions to the needs and pressures of the other. Perhaps a target income figure of £60,000 could be set, and the problem then put from people’s minds.

It should be your consistent experience that you know in your heart when your attitude lacks the vigor it otherwise could have. Where we choose to cease striving just before you are really sure that the result is impossible. It is at those moments that only a thorough-going intellectual honesty, a brutal honesty with yourself can save your efforts.

Management leadership is not conceptually difficult to understand. What must happen is that the concepts should be kept simple and focus on the truly difficult aspect, which is living out the concepts. If there is ever any conflict between the complexity of the concept and ease of living out the concept, then the concept will be simplified to encourage and support action.

Set yourself sensible goals, plan how you will remind yourself of the goals and the actions to achieve the, review progress regularly, reward yourself for gains, forgive yourself for slipping back into old ways (just start again), be persistent and be patient with yourself, very patient. Also, be sure to apply your learning to the people in your team as they also strive to change.

Would you like to see the full summary of the book written by Graham Little? Please visit http://www.bizsum.com.