Genuine Curiosity

Last night on the plane, I read Travis Bradberry, Ph.D.'s book, "Squawk! How To Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results." A reader of this blog was kind enough to send me her extra copy of the book a couple of weeks ago (thanks, Ashley), and I dropped it in my bag. This was a quick read, and a quaint way of dealing with a serious management topic.

You may have heard about seagull managers before - the legend goes that they fly in, dump undesirable stuff on you, then fly away and leave you with a mess. You may have had a seagull manager -- or maybe you are one. In either case, you'll probably enjoy this book and might learn a few things.

Meet Charlie

The book is presented as a fable about Charlie, a seagull who is managing his flock but encounters a mutiny when they begin to go hungry. They blame Charlie for miserable situation and plan to leave a month later, right after their new chicks are born. That means Charlie has 30 days to convince them he can change for the better and convince them to stay.

What follows is a series of coaching sessions from other animals (I mentioned it was quaint, didn't I?) to teach him 3 foundational lessons:

Solid lessons

The essence of these lessons ring true to me, and they reminded me of some of the great lessons I picked up from Rosa Say's book, "Managing with Aloha!." In particular, this approach fit well with the "Daily Five Minutes" model Rosa evangelizes, and brings about methods that can help you really connect with your employees and interact in a way that meets them where they are (in terms of needs, maturity, etc.) and helps you connect with them at a more meaningful level.

I recommend this book for managers who feel they need to take on lots of tasks because their team is "not ready," for managers who think they may be a bit seagull-like in their management style, and particularly for new managers.

Del.icio.us tags: book review, management, leadership, self improvement, Dwayne Melancon, Travis Bradberry Ph.D.

I had the honor of kicking of the new month at Joyful Jubilant Learning. This month's theme is "BLUNDERIFFIX!" which focuses on the good things you can learn when bad things happen to you (or because of you).

When you're in the heat of the moment, it can be tough to see your way out of a difficult situation, but I find that I get a lot of value out of reflecting on what went wrong to extract the learning. I encourage you to write - not just think - about a situation in your life that was a failure, near-failure, debacle, etc. and try to find a positive thing you learned from it. There is something focusing and cathartic about writing these kinds of things down. If you blog, please share you learnings with the world. If not, at least consider keeping a journal so you can codify some of your learning.

Coincidentally, I saw a fitting quote from @HowardBienstock on Twitter yesterday:

It promises to be a good month of sharing - and my story is about what I learned about relying on others when I realized I couldn't be a "savior" of a tough situation. Click on over today to hear my story, and keep clicking in all month long at JJL.

Del.icio.us tags: learning, Howard Bienstock, Dwayne Melancon, JJL, Joyful Jubilant Learning, mistakes

Stuart Finlay sent me a copy of his book, "What Would Churchill Do? Business Advice from the Man Who Saved the World" a couple of weeks ago, and I just carved out the time to read it. The book focuses on Churchill and how we managed things during the heat of World War II -- the period of the Greatest Tests for the Greatest Generation.

In this book, Finlay takes examples of Churchill's leadership and applies their principles to daily management and leadership. He does so with great effect, and the result is a very useful book on business improvement. There are 17 chapters, each focusing on a different lesson (and the reading is easy - these bite-sized morsels are each about 6-10 pages long).

Patterns for success

As I sometimes point out here on the blog, I'm naturally a "pattern seeker" and I look for models in one area of my life that I can apply in other areas. This book feel like a perfect fit for me since, throughout the book, Finlay identifies patterns of action, strategy, and philosophy from Churchill's life and discusses how we can apply those notions in the context of our everyday lives.

But it's more than just a "here's a lesson - learn it and do it" kind of book. I found that Finlay's portrayal of Churchill's unconventional solutions to difficult problems, and the way he was open to hearing and accepting the ideas of others was very inspiring.

For example, one chapter called "Stay Passionate for Things you Don't Agree With," deals with examples of something I've heard referred to as "disagree and commit" in which you support ideas that you don't agree with in order to support the greater good - this can sometimess be difficult due to ego, but Finlay's examples illustrate the importance of being willing to do this.

I think my favorite chapters are:

And there are more where those came from. And, speaking of more, Finlay refers to this book as "Volume 1," implying that there are more coming. I hope so - I want to learn more from Churchill.

Related items:

I was just reading an article from Dave Crenshaw's latest newsletter about organizing your clutter around the office. It's about creating (and labeling) "homes" for all your stuff and committing yourself to stick to only putting things in their homes.

This is a tough one for me, and I know it. I have my sprints of success (generally every time I do an overhaul of my GTD habits) but I find that I eventually go back to my disorderly tendencies.

How about you? Have you found a way to conquer this yo-yo organizing syndrome? And "just do it" (apparently) is not enough for me to overcome my chaos inertia.

Anyway - check out Dave's article - it is a good reminder that "a place for everything, and everything in its place" can make your life a lot easier.

Del.icio.us tags: organization, Dave Crenshaw, gtd, productivity, Dwayne Melancon

I just watched the movie "Bobby," a movie about the assasination of Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) and it's put me in a philosophical mood. The movie was pretty good, but what struck me was the intermingling of actual speeches by RFK. He was truly an idealist and a visionary. The brought hope and a vision of a better future to the people he touched, and is famous for the quote:

This kind of thinking is what success is made of. By envisioning wild success for ourselves and others, we set in motion a stream of events that changes outcomes. By acting on our beliefs and visions, their power increases.

This is why so many "self help" books start with coming up with an aspiration, vision, or mission, and why so many of us are encouraged to repeat positive affirmations to support our visions.

RFK was a visionary when it came to civil rights, and RFK said a lot about this subject. If your vision is big enough and positive enough (and you share it with enough people), it will live on just as RFK's vision did.

Look for the good

Coincidentally, I re-watched my favorite movie ever with my family Friday night: Pollyanna. It's about the positive impact of one person on an entire town, and it is a wonderful movie.

A great quote from the movie is something from Polyanna's locket:

I've heard it put another way by a friend of mine who always says, "Inspect what you expect - you might be getting exactly what you're looking for."

Scott Karstetter is keeping it real for the Getting Things Done (GTD) crowd.  Here are a couple of examples:

GTD all over the wall

Scott has created (like the one at the right) and aggregated a number of good GTD-related desktop wallpapers to help keep you motivated and enthusiastic throughout the day.  My favorite is the one with the clouds and the workflow diagram, which you can see in Scott's post - that's what currently graces my Vista desktop.

Smart To-Do List gets even smarter

Scott also recently updated his free, Smart To-Do List software to version 1.2, adding more features to help you improve your GTD skillz.  Among the new capabilities:

For more info and an overview of the functionality, check out Scott's blog post about the new version.

Technorati tags: gtd, productivity, Dwayne Melancon, Scott Karstetter

My "Make It Great!" pal Phil Gerbyshak pointed out a company called "UBrand" that makes 3D, self-stick decorations to help you customize your luggage, gear, etc. to make it stand out from the crowd.

I think this is a great idea - how many similar pieces of black luggage do you see on the luggage carousel at baggage claim in the airport? How can you tell your laptop, phone, or music player from someone else's? UBrand provides you with a way to personalize your stuff in a way that reflects your personality. They also sell some professional-looking monogram letters if you want a more dignified look.

Sure, you could use regular stickers, but these are designed to be tough and (as they say) "semi-permanent."

Check them out and see what you think - and if you want a chance (through September 25) to win 3 monogram letters, check out this post at the Business Opportunities Weblog.

Technorati tags: travel tips, luggage, gadgets, Dwayne Melancon, Phil Gerbyshak

An increasing number of locales are beginning to require drivers to use hands-free devices while driving, which prompted me to look for a good in-car Bluetooth solution. I tried a few that didn't work very well, and have settled on the BlueAnt Supertooth 3.

This is a compact, Bluetooth-based handsfree device that attaches to your visor. It comes with two visor clips (to which it attaches magnetically) making it easy to move it between a couple of cars. It is also small enough that you can tuck it in your bag and take it along when you travel. I've even taken it out of the car and used it as a speakerphone for a conference call, and it worked great.

Here are some highlights:

If you're looking for a good handsfree device for using your Bluetooth phone in your car, I recommend the BlueAnt Supertooth 3.

Del.icio.us tags: blueant supertooth 3, Dwayne Melancon, gadgets, bluetooth