Steve Jobs TED talk.
Getting things done
Every no and then I got across people who uses David Allen´s «Getting things done», so I would like to introduce him for my readers.
This is some of the reviews on Amazon.com.
David Allen, a management consultant and executive coach, provides insights into attaining maximum efficiency and at the same time relaxing whenever one needs or wants to. Readers learn that there is no single means for perfecting organizational efficiency or productivity; rather, the author offers tools to focus energies strategically and tactically without letting anything fall through the cracks.
As whole-life-organizing systems, David Allen’s is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can’t junk, The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant «in-basket»
That’s where the processing and prioritizing begin; in Allen’s system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price.
Start with ordering the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248197209&sr=8-1
Just Do It!
Think now of one thing that will make you successful. Write it down and ask yourself what feelings it will allow you to achieve this (eg. To be promoted will make me proud, confident and happy).
Decide to feel the emotions instantly!
RIGHT NOW! JUST DO IT!
The Four Types of CEOs
Every year, Booz & Company takes an intensive look at CEO turnover among the world’s top 2,500 public companies. Their research now reaches back to 2000, giving us over a decade of perspective on the tenure and job functions of these global business leaders. Annually, it´s consider a new dimension of transition and change, looking deeply into such topics as the evolution of corporate governance practices, the special pressures on new CEOs, or the role of the corporate core and its effect on tenure and turnover.
They are doing a very good job and therefor I give you the link to this pdf file: http://www.booz.com/media/file/BoozCo-CEO-Succession-2010-Four-Types.pdf?cm_ven=ExactTarget&cm_cat=Booz+News+Alert+-+CEO+Succession+(Multi-List)+-+June+2&cm_pla=Function+-+Enterprise+Strategy+(Public)&cm_ite=http%3a%2f%2fwww.booz.com%2fmedia%2ffile%2fBoozCo-CEO-Succession-2010-Four-Types.pdf&cm_lm=teg@trainifique.com&cm_ainfo=&att1=%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute1%%&att2=%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute2%%&att3=%%__
Paulo Coelho
I had to post this image, it is so good. It is important to have a work you are happy in, every day is a good day.
What can be at the leaders to-do list?
John C. Maxwell says leadership is just as much about developing your team’s talents as it is about nurturing your own leadership skills. The best-selling author of Talent Is Never Enough reminds us that growth is modeled after and expected from leaders. As a successful leader, you must do eight things.
1. Find your own personal strength zone.
A successful leader is a person who knows what they do well and does it, but they also know what their people know well and help them practice it.
2. Help others find their strength zone.
What is their special ability? You can’t make others good at something you are bad at. You can only increase a person’s giftedness by helping them answer important questions of themselves. What is their temperament? What is their passion? What choices are they making in their life? Help them with these things and there’s no limit to how much someone can improve in these areas.
3. Help them define success.
Success is hugely subjective. Knowing your purpose in life, growing to your maximum potential or sowing seeds that benefit others are all great definitions of success.
4. Help them understand how to be successful.
The secret of our success is determined by our daily agenda. Decision-making is important and the management of the decision-making is even more important. Do the right thing today to be in a good place for tomorrow.
5. Teach and practice the four pillars of success.
• Relationships
• Attitude/Tenacity
• Leadership/Influencing people
• Equipping and developing other people
6. Teach your team the 20/80 principle, or the Pareto principle.
Within this, prioritize life. What is required of me? What gives the greatest return? What give me the greatest reward? When these three line up, then life becomes wonderful.
7. Provide resources for them.
There are only three times when people change. When they’ve heard enough that they have to change; they learn enough that they want to change; or receive enough that they are able to change. Put those resources of change in their hand.
8. Require them to reproduce themselves.
They have to teach someone else what they learn. Don’t spend valuable time with people who want to consume but not share. Share the knowledge. Share the wealth.
As I can see is number 1-6 about mentoring, either yourself or other. So I can say that Maxwell have 6 very good points on the leaders to-do list.
Do you have some other things on your to-do list?
How to find the right mentor
The topic is still very important, how do you find the right one. The question isn´t IF you should have a mentor or not, but how to find the right mentor.
But it is not that easy… 
Here is the crash course from Leslie Rapp the director of training and development at Menttium, a provider of corporate mentoring services and research metrics on business mentoring based in Minneapolis.
What is your experience, tell us here at www.mentorguru.info about how you will find the right mentor for you.
Good luck!
Character
“Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.”
How a leader deals with the circumstances of life tells you many things about his character. Crisis doesn’t necessarily make character, but it certainly does reveal it. We choose our character. In fact, we create it every time we make choices. The respect that leadership must have requires that one’s ethics be without question. A leader not only stays above the line, between right & wrong, he stays well clear of the “gray-areas.”
What must everyone know about character?
- Actions are the Real Indicator of Character
- Talent is a Gift, but Character is a Choice
- Character Brings Lasting Success with People
- Strong Character is the Foundation on which to Build Success
The 21 Day Leadership Challenge – What now?
My favorite law, the umbrella under which all of the other laws fall, is the Law of Process. Leadership can’t be developed in a day or a week. Instead, it grows and becomes refined through a lifetime of self-management, skills acquisition, and relationships:
If you continually invest in your leadership development, letting your ‘assets’ compound, the inevitable result is growth over time. What can you see when you look at a person’s daily agenda? Priorities, passion, abilities, relationships, attitude, personal disciplines, vision, and influence. See what a person is doing every day, day after day, and you’ll know who that person is and what he or she is becoming.
Often, when I speak to people about leadership development, someone in the group will ask why a new graduate or a employee in the first few years should be concerned with leadership development, since they’re at the bottom of the totem pole. My answer is three-fold.
First, it’s critical to lead oneself and develop a strong foundation in self-management. Second, usually even «bottom of the totem pole» employees soon have an opportunity to lead something, whether it’s a small project or a intern meeting. And third, as Maxwell writes, «champions don’t become champions in the ring – they are merely recognized there.» If a employee waits until a leadership position is on the horizon to begin developing good leadership skills, the position may never present itself, or if it does, the employee will lack the necessary skills to thrive in that position. (Incidentally, point 3 is well illustrated in Maxwell’s first law, the Law of the Lid.).
Good luck everyone to become a better leader AND Thank you Maxwell for giving us The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
The law of legacy
– A Leader’s Lasting Value Is Measured by Succession
(DAY 21 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)
Eventually, someone else will do what you’re doing right now. More than building other leaders, more than being a mentor, you have to build the leader that can take care of and do everything you can do. Start building a leader you can pass the baton to.
Dig into it:
- What do you want people to say at your funeral? If you want your leadership to have real meaning, you need to take into account the Law of Legacy. A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession.
- If you desire to make an impact as a leader on a future generation, then become highly intentional about your legacy. We have a choice about what legacy we will leave, and we must work and be intentional to leave the legacy we want. Here’s how:
a) Know the Legacy You Want to Leave – most people simply accept their lives – they don’t lead them. I believe that people need to be proactive about how they live, and I believe that is especially true for leaders. Someday people will summarize your life in a single sentence. My advice: pick it now!
b) Live the Legacy You Want to Leave – I believe that to have any credibility as a leader, you must live what you say you believe. If you want to create a legacy, you need to live it first.
c) Choose Who Will Carry on Your Legacy – A legacy lives on in people, not things. Too often leaders put their energy into organizations, buildings or other lifeless objects. But only people live on after we are gone. Everything else is temporary.
d) Make Sure You Pass the Baton – No matter how well you lead, if you don’t make sure you pass the baton, you will not leave the legacy you desire.
- Our ability as leaders will not be measured by the buildings we build, or institutions we established. We will be judged by how well the people we invested in carried on after we are gone.
- Jackie Robinson observed, “A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.” In the end we will be judged according to the Law of Legacy. A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession.