Posts Tagged ‘Book Review’
|The Power Of Many
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
By Dr. Carolyn Anderson, MD
Meg Whitman was the CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008, growing the company from a business with 30 employees to a business with 15,0000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenues during her tenure. She has an esteemed 30 year career in business and is one of the most respected and successful businesswomen in the world. She holds the distinction of being one of the first women to be a self-made billionaire.
She recently wrote a book called, The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life
Meg Whitman discusses the challenge of balancing career and family life with humor and honesty. She also describes with candor the values such as integrity, authenticity and courage that drove her leadership and her strategic success. She begins the book with a simple yet unfortunately uncommon question “What is the right thing to do?” and from there she goes on to describe the 10 core values that could steer anyone to success in business and personal life.
Meg Whitman’s Top 10 Core Values:
1) Trust that people are basically good
2) Take Action
3) Be Authentic
4) Conserve resources
5) Be Accountable
6) Listen
7) Focus
8) Teamwork
9) Courage
10) Flexibility
Trust That People Are Basically Good
Meg believes strongly in leading with old fashioned basic values. And then by implementing the communication and networking powers of modern technology you can unleash the “Power on Many”. It was refreshing to see that she believed value focused management was a great way to lead, that people are basically good, to respect everyone as a unique individual, and to believe that everyone has something to contribute. Instead of seeing the digital age as isolating she feels technology properly managed can amplify humanity in extraordinary ways.
Take Action
The bias for action is a huge component of success. But it alone is not enough. It must be paired with the analytical skill of iteration (the process of developing by improving). This combination insures that you don’t wait until everything is perfect to take action. If you try to anticipate all the problems in advance the cost of delay will be too high.
Be Authentic
The topic of authenticity resonates throughout the book. Make sure that what you do in life aligns with who you are.
Conserve Resources
Conserving resources is crucial for business success. An efficient organization runs lean. Make sure you analyze the value of everything.
Be Accountable
Results do matter and you need to be accountable. Values although important are not enough for success. To be a success you must identify a goal with a measurable outcome and hit that goal, every day, every month, every year.
Listen
Listening is the most important communication skill. Everyone has something to contribute if you take the time to hear them. If you really listen the emotional components of any enterprise will resonate. You can more deeply connect with people’s hopes and dreams.
Focus
Focus your attention. Always realign your efforts with your core mission and strategy.
Teamwork
Teamwork is paramount. You can get people to do what you want not because you tell them to but rather because you listen and enlist them in your vision. Always validate what people in your team did first and then work with them to make it better.
Courage
Be brave. Most things worth doing are hard. You need to stretch goals but take the larger goals and break them down into smaller manageable goals.
Flexibility
Be flexible. You can’t predict every eventuality. You often must go with the flow and adapt to the changing landscape.
Meg Whitman closes the book with a mention of her interest in politics and how all success in life demands constant reinvention. Read Meg’s book, The Power of Many
*Disclosure Policy* I purchased my own copy of this book and I have not been paid or otherwise compensated for this review. If you decide to purchase the book from Amazon using the above links I will receive a small commission.
Tags: Book Review, Business
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The 5 Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
By Carolyn Anderson MD FRCSC
Best-selling author and renowned international speaker, John Izzo, has gathered an extensive collection of wisdom from over 18,000 years of experience. He interviewed over 200 people between the ages of 60 and 100 who were voted as the wisest people by their peers.
All this insight is gathered in an incredible book
5 Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die
1) Be True to Your Self
Wise people continually ask themselves whether they were living the life they wanted to live and truly following their hearts. As Socrates so brilliantly stated “The unexamined life is not worth living”. The message was to live your life with intention and ask yourself…Is my life focused on the things that really matter to ME? Am I the person I want to be in this world? Happy people know what makes them happy and they continue to make this a priority. I think a lot of people forget what makes them happy and they stop doing it. Take time to hear the small inner voice that tells you if you are missing the mark on your deepest desires.
2) Leave No Regrets
What we fear most is not having lived to the fullest extent possible, having to say “I wish I had”. We must live with courage, moving toward what we want rather than away from what we fear. At the end of our lives we will not regret risks that we took that did not work out the way we hoped. We only regret the risks we did not take. The message from all those interviewed was to take more risks. More risks of the heart and the risk to truly reach out for what you want in life. I think after we have lived a long life we begin to realize that there was much less to lose than we thought there was. Ask yourself what step would I take in my life right now if I were acting with courage not fear?
3) Become Love
The giving and receiving of love is a fundamental building block of a happy and purposeful life. Be a loving person. Love is a choice not just an emotion. Although we may not have the ability to “feel” love at will, we have the power at every moment to choose to become love. The power to choose to love transforms us.
4) Live the Moment
It all goes by so fast. We believe we have forever and we soon realize this is not so. To live in the moment means to be fully in every moment of our lives, to not judge our lives but to live fully. Wise people see each day as a great gift. Seneca, the Roman philosopher said that “we should count each day as a separate life” Each day is not a step on the way to a destination. It is the destination. Do not rush through moments of joy. Breathe them in. Experience them. Live fully.
5) Give More Than You Take
What matters most at the end of your life is what you leave behind. That something was different because you were here. The message is to leave the world better than you found it. It is those who give the most that find the greatest joy.
These 5 secrets are words of immense wisdom. They are beneficial to all of us no matter what age we are. John Izzo makes an interesting point in the conclusion… sometimes when he talks to people in their 40s or 50s they talk as if their life were over. But really they have only been an adult for 25 years. It is not very much time to figure life out. And if you live to be 90 or 100 you may have another entire adult lifetime or maybe two before you die. Don’t give up on yourself or life. It is never too late. Hold on, keep growing, you will find your dreams and make a difference while you are here.
Armed with these 5 secrets we all have a much better chance of finding our dreams and impacting the world. Read The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die
*Disclosure Policy* I purchased my own copy of this book and I have not been paid or otherwise compensated for this review. If you decide to purchase the book from Amazon using the above links I will receive a small commission.
Tags: Book Review, success
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