Book Review: Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

A few weeks back, my friend Becky Robinson at Mountain State University gifted me with a copy of John C. Maxwell’s latest book “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect”. The book, as the title suggests, is all about establishing meaningful connections to build great relationships at work and in personal life. The book introduction says,

“Connecting is the ability to identify with people and relate with them in a way that increases your influence with them. And the ability to communicate and connect with others is a major determining factor in reaching your potential. to be successful, you must work with others. To do that at your absolute best, you must learn to connect”

It was interesting to note the difference between “communication” and “connection”. I learned that communication is about content and connection is about relevance of that content and how it is received by others. Connecting with others is more than just transactional communication. It is about seeing others as human beings, understanding them, their energies and establish a deeper connection.

I have observed that all great “performers” are great connectors too. A singer has to understand the taste of audience and sing accordingly. A trainer has to connect with participants. An actor has to truly connect with the character being played. A blogger has to connect with the readers. An organization needs to connect with the customers.

Ability to build meaningful connections is the first step towards engaging others and building an influence. Connecting with others accelerates learning and spreads the ideas.

Maxwell’s book offers useful ideas for connecting with a group, connecting one-on-one and connecting with audience. The book does not offer any ground breaking ideas – we all know that we need to connect effectively. Still, the book does a GREAT job of outlining and reinforcing the fundamentals of connecting through explanations, stories and action points at the end of each chapter.

If you are a leader, an aspiring one or a professional who wants to make a big difference, this is a great book to pick up and read.

Have a GREAT week ahead!

Are You An Artist? A Review of Seth Godin’s LINCHPIN

Seth Godin's Linchpin

Over last couple of weeks, I was reading and re-reading Seth Godin’s remarkable book “Linchpin”. I have been following Seth’s blog and books since last 4 years. This book has brilliant ideas that can change the way you work, how you work and most importantly, why you work.

Linchpin urges us all to be artists – to be the best we can, to take our work to such a level that it is viewed as an art. Seth says that manufacturing world required cogs – people who follow the instructions, were compliant, low-paid and replaceable. New world of work needs people who care, who are original thinkers, risk-takers, provocateurs – Linchpins, who are difficult to replace.

Linchpin is about being remarkable – being different and being original.

On being an artist – Seth says:

‘You can be an artist who works with oil paints or marble, sure. But there are artists who work with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances.”

This book also introduces us to “Lizard Brain” – a little voice inside our head that prevents us from being different. This voice convinces us to stick to old ways of doing work – because doing it differently is a risk, of failure and embarrassment. Lizard brain thrives on our strongest emotion - fear.

Organizations need more linchpins to deliver more value – and for people, their jobs are a platform to deliver value, to be generous, to express their unique skills and be an artist.

The book also made me realize that doing “emotional labor” is extremely important to be a linchpin. Emotional labor is the task of doing an important work, even when it is not easy. It is about walking that extra mile, when you don’t feel like doing it. A larger part of work involves doing things we don’t particularly love doing. But unless that is done, art cannot happen.

The book is a GREAT read (also a NY Times bestseller), because it drives important points home with brilliant examples and stories along the way. I specially liked the diagrammatic representation of ideas – making it simple and easy.  A blog post is way too short to express the profoundness of messages this book encapsulates.

Most people don’t know about their unique gifts – their art. It sometimes takes a lifetime to discover what their art really is. This prompted me to ask a question to Seth. Here is the question and Seth Godin’s response:

Tanmay: Being a Linchpin is impossible without actualizing with one’s gifts (that we are all born with). How does one discover these gifts and unwrap them for the world?

Seth Godin: To use your analogy, if you want to find gifts, you have to look under the tree. And if you don’t know which tree, look under all of them. Too many people want a promise that the effort will be instantly rewarded. It won’t. Fail frequently. That’s the only way I know.

Tanmay: Thank you so much. “Fail Frequently. Ship Early. Ship Often. Realign” that is my takeaway and probably the only way to discover your gifts.

Seth Godin: Thanks Tanmay! Keep Shipping.

Thanks Seth, for that insightful conversation through your book and your response.

Linchpin is a wake-up call – to stop being ordinary and compliant and start being remarkable. Life – as Seth says – is too short not to do something that matters!

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P.S: Check out Carnival of Management Improvement at Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog by John Hunter – fantastic collection of posts on leadership, improvement, lean and quality. Carnival includes my post “Building a Culture To Promote Differential Thinking“

Book Review: The Leadership Test by Timothy R. Clark

Businesses today are plagued by people who are "installed" in leadership positions just because of their prior performance as a "worker". I have seen some excellent technical brains failing miserably as project leaders. Why so?

The answer is simple - they got into a leadership position as a natural progression without any reality check on their aptitude, skills and capability to lead.

When I interview people for technical positions, one question I invariably ask is - "Where do you see yourself two years down the line?". Most of these would answer that they want to be a team lead, manage people and projects. That is a noble aspiration, because business needs good leaders. But why do they want to lead? There are plenty of resources available to address "How to lead?" aspect. But a very few touch upon "Why do you want to be a leader?"

Any one who aspires to be a leader must read "The Leadership Test - Will You Pass?" by Timothy R. Clark, Ph.D. (His Blog) The book is organized in form of conversation between a teacher (named Isadore Kroll, Izzy) and his former student (Marcus), who is now facing a dilemma of whether he should accept a leadership position being offered to him by his company. The teacher takes Marcus through a soul-searching process to address "Why" aspect of leadership. At the end, teacher puts Marcus through a leadership test. Quite a revelation!

Here are a few very important excerpts from the book on spectrum of leadership -

“Leadership is a business of influence, but what kind of influence? Think about it on a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum is manipulation. At the other end is coercion. In the middle is persuasion.”

“All three may be considered to be forms of influence, but only persuasion is leadership. Only persuasion really helps people. The other two hurt people.”

“Leadership is based on influence-through-persuasion at the front end, combined with accountability at the back end.”

Most important of all leadership test questions is the fourth question “Take the Oath” – a personal oath to act with honesty and integrity at all times. The organization or society may not need it, but it is up to you to take that oath and enforce it. I find this more important because private virtue is the most important factor that determines growth/health of a team, organization or a society. No point in having leaders who are self-centered or dishonest.

At the end of all this, the book emphasizes the most important fact - “Leadership is about RESULTS”. Leadership is an applied-science. You can think about leadership, but that won’t help until you practice it to execute and deliver.

Reading this book cover to cover took me 30 minutes, but story of Marcus and Izzy still occupies my mind space. The more I think about it, the more it reveals.

That, to me, is a power of well written book. Go, read “The Leadership Test” to kick start some serious soul-searching and self-assessment on leadership.

Have a happy Monday and a great week ahead!

Book Review – ‘There’s An Adult In My Soup’ By Kim and Jason Kotecki

I am currently reading a simple yet amazing book titled “There’s An Adult In My Soup” by Kim and Jason Kotecki. Thanks to Kim and Jason for sending me a signed copy. They are on a mission fighting “Adultitis” – typical adult syndromes that infect us as we grow. In that process, we loose our child-like qualities that made us happy and jovial. Our daily conundrums trap us and we forget that life happens to us when we are busy making other things happen. This book is a gentle reminder to remain open, optimistic and child-like to enjoy the simple joys of life.

Excerpt From chapter “Trading the Cracker Jack Prizes for the Peanuts”

God has scattered these free prizes all around us: a watercolor sunset, the smell of fresh cut grass, the intricacy of a snowflake. We’re so busy being self-absorbed and stressed-out that we miss them all because they’re hidden just below the surface of our hurried consciousness.

Any book that relates well with your current circumstances will quickly hit you. So if you are going through a “busyness” syndrome and looking out for more from life, this book will quickly break the ice and become a good guiding friend. Better yet, this book will lead to some self-revelation if you are suffering from adultitis but don’t know about it yet! Jason’s illustrations in the beginning of every chapter makes it more interactive and light-weight.

Excerpt From chapter “While you were busy, life passed by”

Here’s what’s really happening: life is passing us by. We miss out on important stuff because we’re convinced that the busyness is a standard operating procedure. And we’re deceived by the mirage that someday, if we work hard enough, our to-do list will be cleared. As David Allen reminds us in Getting Things Done, you will die with things STILL in your to-do list. This never-ending hamster wheel is a part of adulthood we need to escape from now and then.

If you like the book, you will also love reading Kim and Jason’s Blog. 

Book Review - “ThinkTweet” by Rajesh Setty

If you ever thought that 140 characters were not enough to convey powerful thoughts - think again!

If you ever thought Twitter is a tool for mindless chatter or personal updates - think again!

Rajesh Setty (@upbeatnow on Twitter) has recently published a collection of 140 insightful tweets in form of a book titled “#TH!NKtweet - Bite-sized lessons for a fast paced world.“ The best gift you can give someone is the gift of ideas - and that’s what Rajesh Setty does so effectively via his books, blog, tweets and speaking engagements. I have been an ardent follower of Rajesh’s thoughts on management, leadership, relationships and networking.

The book is incredibly simple - yet incredibly profound! 140 key insights in less than 100 pages. It cannot get any simpler than this. Every page has one or two tweets and every tweet will stop you there for a while and make you think. ThinkTweet is a tweet that makes you think. The tweets are insightful, surprising and provocative - leading to some great thinking. By the way, this is the first book ever that was written entirely on Twitter.

Here are a few #ThinkTweets for you as a preview. If you like them, you can buy the book.

• Really good help may not be available even if you pay a premium. You have to earn it.
• You have a “problem” when you don’t know the solution. You have a “bigger problem” when you don’t know about the problem.
• Do you have any gaps in your organization? If yes, start filling them and you are on your way to becoming a leader.

ThinkTweet is one book you can read over and over again - and everytime you read, you will find something new and be wiser than what you were before you picked up the book. When you interact with Rajesh Setty, ROII is guaranteed. Not sure what ROII means? Check it out here.

Thanks Rajesh for your valuable contribution by sharing these very useful insights.