Hire the best, let them do their jobs and great work ensues. If you try to micromanage then employees won't feel as motivated as they don't feel they Hire the best, let them do their jobs and great work ensues. If you try to micromanage then employees won't feel as motivated as they don't feel they own the process (according to Reed). I like the book although I am not sure if this formula can be generalized for every business. Elon Musk seems to run a business the opposite way and yet he is very successful. ...more
"If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts"
Amazing. Great advice. Solitude is essential for critical thinking and for would b"If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts"
Amazing. Great advice. Solitude is essential for critical thinking and for would be leaders. It's hard to know what you actually think if you are perpetually bombarded by other peoples ideas. You can read the full lecture here: ....more
There is an endless discussion going on between my father and me regarding the value of history. Is it just 'one damned thing after the other'? What iThere is an endless discussion going on between my father and me regarding the value of history. Is it just 'one damned thing after the other'? What is the point of studying it? And how can we be sure that we really understand historial epochs?
In Kissingers latest book he discusses 6 different world leaders in order to get at the essence of what good leadership is. I didn't find the different leaders to be especially interesting seeing as how I've already read much about them and it is hard not to laugh when he writes about Nixon showing "courage" and "character". Its also slightly infuriating how Kissinger ingratiates himself with these leaders (having met them all). ((What Kissinger means with it is something closer to good judgement when it comes to foreign politics i.e. the capacity to act in the best interest of ones own nation.))
What was interesting however was Kissinger cultural analysis. Kissinger makes a compelling case that today's educational system doesn't produce enough good citizens and instead produces egotists who want to have a successful career in multi-national corporations. Merit today is defined as intellect compounded by effort whereas leaders need more than that. They need courage, character and sharp analytical faculties. For these 6 leaders education was "not merely a credential to be obtained in one's youth and set aside: it was an unending effort with both intellectual and moral dimensions" (p.400) This is one of the reasons for the decline which people have in leaders today and therefore also the decline of confidence in the political system as a whole.
The shift of emphasis from the written word to image has also skewed leaders and favored those who are perhaps are less thoughtful. Leadership becomes more about packagin and advertising, rather than actually having any actual value to people. In social media there are no 'leaders', only influencers and followers. At times I think that Kissinger is being too critical of today's technology and sees only its downsides. But I too find it deeply problematic that solitude and deep thinking are becoming all the more rare.
To get back to my question at the start of this review: reading up on history can provide one with analogies that are needed as a statesman and 'readership also creates a 'skein of intergenerational conversation', encouraging learning with a sense of perspective" [...] When combined with reflection and the training of memory, it also provides a storehouse of detailed and granular knowledge from which leaders can reason analogically" (p. 406) And not only that but also: "deep literacy supplies the quality Max Weber called 'proportion' or 'the ability to allow realities to impinge on you while maintaining an inner calm and composure'" (p. 405)
I will end on this note: "Leadership is most essential during periods of transition, when values and institutions are losing their relevance, and the outlines of a worthy future are in controversy." (p. xvi) Which of our current leaders have the capacity for abstract thought, vision and erudition to really handle the challenges of today?...more
Do not be so sweet that people will eat you up, nor so bitter that they will spit you out (old Pashto folk saying).
I have always been interested in nDo not be so sweet that people will eat you up, nor so bitter that they will spit you out (old Pashto folk saying).
I have always been interested in negotiating as it always seemed like a game you entered into and as long as I kept to that perspective it seemed fun. I lived in Shanghai (when I was 15) and used go to the market each day to negotiate. It seemed impossible to lose (seeing as how I didn't really have anything to lose but everything to learn from the experience). This year however I started my own company and found myself in tough negotiating positions. This forced me into thinking more carefully about strategy and how I should conduct myself in a bargaining situation. What is the optimal outcome?
This is a book about just that. The author basic premise is that you should first know yourself before you can start negotiating with other people. Based on your personality type you can then decide what the best strategy is. There are 5 personality types according to mr. Shell - competitive, cooperative, accommodating, compromising and avoiding. This can be seen as a spectrum where you have a competitive person who likes to win and enjoys conflicts to achieve that goal on one side and a person who will avoid conflict at any cost on the other. (I found my personality type somewhere between competitive and compromising).
Mr. Shells other key tips are: focus on your expectations, use your relationships, probe the other side's interests, and work on your leverage. This is key to achieving the optimal outcome out of any negotiation. This may seem like common sense but you would be surprised how often people forget to use it once they are put in that situation. I have tried to use these tips in order to not become so emotionally involved in the process as to lose sight of my own values. If one is ready to get a few bruises here and there, then I find negotiation a most rewarding experiences as it forces you to lean just beyond your edge.
I will end this review with a quote from John K- O'Loughlin (from some insurance company): "Most people I play cards with I trust, but I still want to cut the cards"...more
Interesting portrait of the late great finnish General Mannerheim.
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was born into a Swedish noble family in Finland in 1867.Interesting portrait of the late great finnish General Mannerheim.
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was born into a Swedish noble family in Finland in 1867. His father left his family with his mistress in 1880 which really put the family in financial straits. Mannerheim decided to get into a military academy in Russia and ended up as a lieutenant general in the russo-japanese war.
After the russian revolution Mannerheim returned to Finland and it was at this point that he began his career as a true statesman. Ahlander does a great job in providing the culture shock between Russian and Finland; few people in Finland really understood the russian mentality and this knowledge would greatly help during the winter war, the continuation war and the second world war. Mannerheim basically created the modern day Finnish army out of nothing and thereby helped defend Finland as a sovereign state. If it wouldn't have been for Mannerheim then Finland would have met the same fate as the Baltic nations (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
Mannerheim valued cosmopolitanism and liberal values at a time when they were questioned on all fronts. He despised Hitler (but had to make a deal with him in order to defend Finland against the Soviet Union) and throughout his life enjoyed the French cuisine. He spoke French, German, Swedish, Russian and a little Finnish. A great many fins questioned his loyalty as his Finnish wasn't perfect and he was seen as a Swede.
Unfortunately his contribution is largely forgotten in Sweden. If Finland would've become satellite state and in that case the risk of Sweden becoming one as well would be greatly expanded. I therefore greatly enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in Finnish history (and who can read Swedish)....more
Two shorter essays on the value of managing oneself and leading others. Although the advice sounds like good solid common-sense, it is far from applieTwo shorter essays on the value of managing oneself and leading others. Although the advice sounds like good solid common-sense, it is far from applied in reality. Druckers main point is that we should focus on our strengths and then delegate our weaknesses to others. Write down what you think will happen after you make a big decision and then review it ater 8-12 months to see if your prediction was true. This is one way to create a feedback loop which will let you know your strengths and weaknesses.
I would recommend it to managers as well as those who are keen to find out what place they could fill in the work place....more
There is so much useful information in this book I wish I had it when I was first starting out in business. Ben Horowitz is a former CEO and founder wThere is so much useful information in this book I wish I had it when I was first starting out in business. Ben Horowitz is a former CEO and founder who created a software company which was eventually bought by Hewlett Packard. He now runs a venture capitalist firm. When he isn't busy doing that, he writes books on management to share what he has learned through the years.
Key takeaways:
- When recruiting value strength rather than lack of weakness. This is not all that obvious seeing as how it is a much more risky decision to make but all the more rewarding. This leads to the second point: - Don't hire for a generic position - Colin Powell: "Leadership is the ability to get someone to follow you even if only out of curiosity (one of my favorites) - There are no silver bullets. Only lead bullets. Meaning there is no one solution which will solve every problem, you really have to dig in and do your best to solve the small problems which will eventually lead you where you want to go. - It's easy to get hung up on mistakes and think that everyone is noting how bad you are at what you do. In those typs of situations its important to note what the owner of a football team told his head coach: "Nobody cares. Just coach your team". - The most difficult CEO skill is handling your own psychology which leads to the last point and perhaps this confirms what I've always been convinced of:
"Over the years, I've spoked to hundreds of CEO's, all with the same experience. It's like the fight club of management. The first problem is that everybody learns to be a CEO by being a CEO. No training as a manager, general manager, or in any other job actually prepares you to run a company"...more
This biography has a more positive attitude to Jobs than the one by Walter Isaacson. The author - at times - strained his efforts to turn Jobs into a This biography has a more positive attitude to Jobs than the one by Walter Isaacson. The author - at times - strained his efforts to turn Jobs into a more "nice" guy (even though I don't believe that business leaders necessarily need to be nice to be supremely successful.) The book basically tells the story of how Jobs became the leader he was when he returned to Apple after having got fired from the company he helped start. Jobs learned how to manage people and focus instead of micromanaging projects like he did at the start of his career. By learning what his strengths where and what a CEO should really focus on (providing a vision for a company and hiring specialist for each department( he managed to turn Apple from near bankruptcy to one of the most valuable companies in the world.
I would've liked to get even closer to the man Steve Jobs. How did his "spirituality" affect his life in general? The impression that I got was that Jobs used meditation as a way to improve his intuition. But as its the ethical implications, the author does not at all delve into that. One gets the impression that the author - a journalist - is a person who thinks he is a friend of Jobs. He wants to belong to the cool click in school (but he doesn't really)....more
This is basically a book on management by the former CEO of General Electric. It contains the kernel of Welchs views on what leadership is all about. This is basically a book on management by the former CEO of General Electric. It contains the kernel of Welchs views on what leadership is all about. Its about finding the right people for the right job and giving them the right incentive to keep working. Having started my own business last year I needed some form of guidelines as to how to lead people to a success. This certainly gave me some inspiration but I would say its mostly for managers in larger companies....more
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