dispatches from the new world of work

Excellence Is Where You Find It

Will be speaking in Chicago/McCormick Place, to thousands of managers, along with the usual suspects ... Welch, Giuliani, Bossidy, Hamel, et al. But I may have inadvertently tripped over the pick-of-the-litter of management-leadership ideas while browsing the fabulous Borders across from the Sears Tower.

Brad Gilbert is a former World #4 pro tennis player, now a coach (Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, among others). His book, I've Got Your Back: Coaching Top Performers from Center Court to Corner Offices, is a gem. Here's how it starts: "Show me a coach (or a boss) who doesn't listen—really listen—and I'll show you a loser. Show me a coach (or a boss) who domineers and demeans, who manages through fear, and I'll show you an accident waiting to happen. Show me a coach or boss who doesn't think it's just as important to empower the lowliest scrub on the team as it is to cater to the star, and I'll show you a real short timer." One nice (charming, really) thing about the book is that Gilbert learned about 100% of his coaching lessons the hard way, from error and trial—and he freely shares his learning process with us.

Tom Peters posted this on 11/17/04.

Comments

That point on 'boss... not listen... domineers and demeans' is a great one.

Personally, I'm all in favor of 'hoedown rather than showdown - be gentle and co-operative' as counter to the 'struttin around like Capt Invincible horse-in-my-shorts testosterone-overload male-macho-bullshit trip power behaviour' nonsense.

There's an old Sam Keen line about 'We reduced our world to an arena within which [virtues like]... patience, honesty, kindness, contentment ... wisdom are not cultivated.'

What's my point here?
Hell - I dunno. Perhaps someone better-skilled than I can help elucidate.

Posted by gulliver at November 17, 2004 11:49 AM

gulliver:you have a point w/that "Capt Invincible horse" vs "gentle and co-operative" buzz..

Posted by /pd at November 17, 2004 1:19 PM

Thanks, Peter.

Upping-the-ante a little... we're all human - something of which we we sadly/laughably lose sight when in 'business mode'.

Personally, I'd rather be a Radiator (give out warmth) than Gladiator (nail the other guy to the floor).

Honest question for any-and-all so-minded to answer... can commerce be 'a springtime top-down cruise along the coast road, rather than a speed-dash down the freeway'?

Posted by gulliver at November 17, 2004 5:27 PM

gulliver: We now have a situation that we might call trickle-up economics.

Posted by /pd at November 18, 2004 12:45 PM

>trickle-up economics

pd... to aid this elderly Englishman (and others) can you please clarify or suggest an appropriate link? Thanks.

Posted by g at November 18, 2004 1:26 PM

G: go here. Have a great intense read !! :)-

Posted by /pd at November 18, 2004 8:14 PM

Thanks. Good piece.
And, in an attempt to blow wind into the corpse of a never-really-started thread, I'll posit:

And (that piece is) stunningly indicative of perhaps 'the world's worst kept secret'. We're all f***ed. The US. Europe. And those rising Eastern hotshot economies once they've leapfrogged the dead and dieing westerners.

In no way wishing to jive sideways into rantland, there's an obvious truth from which we shy. 'Economic progress' - as currently practiced - is unsustainable. And always has been. A mindset that puts personal gain so ahead of common wealth cannot be other than a doom ticket. Rather than stairway to heaven, we're ridin' the hotrail to hell.

I guess there's a simple choice... 'get your slice while you still can and retire to the gated community or tropical island... or trade some personal shorter-term glory for longer-term greater good.

Hawken, Roddick and others far more able than I have written long and loud on this. A message still largely lost in an age of greed and stupidity. Read them or just take a look around - it ain't complicated.

Constructively, I'll close on this clip from Father Don JosÃ© MarÃa Arizmendiarrieta - Conceptual Creator of the Mondragon Cooperative System...

"Nothing differentiates people as much as their respective attitudes to the circumstances in which they live. Those who opt to make history and change the course of events themselves have an advantage over those who decide to wait passively for the results of the change".

So yeah. 'Hammer? Or nail?'

Posted by g at November 19, 2004 6:40 AM

hammer or nail ?? Same cross..different nails ..zats all !! :)-

Posted by /pd at November 19, 2004 10:26 AM

"Can commerce be 'a springtime top-down cruise along the coast road?"

Sure, with luck and focus, after Henry Ford has been an SOB inventing and building the car, and the Scottish clearances have driven a race of road and bridge builders to the New World, and the enterprising empires have opened up the worldwide oil fields, and an advertising and media industry has cultivated the imagery and demand for the convertible and the girl (or in today's media, the boy...)

prescription free viagra

In the slipstream of those willing to speed-dash and slog, occasionally there is a moment when we cruise, and have the quiet and luxury for conventional, theoretical laments about the greed and ungentleness of our system, which, by the way, we're afraid might fail.

Posted by AH at November 23, 2004 5:36 AM