To My Delight ...

The Saturday Financial Times featured "Hang on Every Word," holiday reading chosen by the FT's critics. The Little BIG Things made the list with this description:

"The latest from the doyen of modern management: 163 short chapters drawn from Peters' blog, delivering pithy, epigrammatic advice. His tips would help any business from a global giant to a corner shop."

(There were 13 business books on the FT list, but just three, including TLBT, that were not analyses of the financial crisis.)

The Practice of Excellence.
Limits Thereto.
Or not?

As you doubtless know, one of my signature phrases is...

EXCELLENCE. Always.

I mean it! But what does it mean? Someone joked, "Excellence in leadership! Excellence in innovation! Excellence in management! Excellence in excellence!" That is, the phrase can readily be reduced to meaninglessness or even absurdity.

Fact is, some tasks are not worth pursuing to the point of excellence. (Maybe, more in a minute.) That is, life for all of us contains lots of B.S. that one must simply "get through." Or, as a work-at-home mom of two said to me, "surviving the next hour seems more than enough challenge." Amen!

Hence, on the one hand, I acknowledge reality—for you and me, let alone the beleaguered mom. But I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel.

Hall of Fame San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh sat for interviews shortly before he died. The result was a fine book, from Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison and Craig Walsh, called, magnificently, The Score Takes Care of Itself; that is, the organization culture and preparation, finished before the opening kickoff, are the determining factors in success or failure.

In 1979, Walsh took over an ailing franchise as head coach. His first year's record was 2-14. Two years later it was 14-2, and he went on to beat Cincinnati for the Super Bowl. What happened? Some fine talent was added—Walsh was a master of player selection. But mostly the team's approach to the "business of football" was altered dramatically. By "business of football," I don't mean profit and loss. I mean the demeanor on the practice field, the ethos of helping one another, even the travel dress code.

Which brings us back to "Excellence. Always."—and exceptions thereto. Again, I graciously and with hat-in-hand bow before the work-at-home mom praying for survival in the next 60 minutes. On the other hand, I am with Mr Walsh, whose goal was to establish the "24/7" habits of "professionalism" in his ragtag army in 1979. (George Patton did the same thing with the ragtag elements of his inherited army in North Africa in World War II; he began with the demand for better hygiene and snappy uniforms in the midst of crippling desert conditions. The score took care of itself: Soon, he was winning battles of strategic importance. Likewise, it is said that Admiral Horatio Nelson could alter the "small" habits of seagoing professionalism in a fleet within weeks of taking command; this was the imperative precursor to victory.)

Excellence—I've long argued that the only measure is "I'll know it when I see it." That is, it's as much, in fact far more, about the character of the team and the team's practice habits as the goals for and against. (Think of the recent French World Cup fiasco.)

There are good days and bad days. There are a dozen times a week when I join our mom-under-fire and offer prayers to survive the next hour. Such is life. Yet the devil is in the details—and so, too, Excellence. Another of my constant drumbeats is: "EXCELLENCE is not an 'aspiration.' EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes." That is, to join our Zen-practicing brothers and sisters, all we have is the moment.

Not surprisingly, Helen Keller and Mother Teresa put it in far more sublime words:

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble." —Helen Keller

"We do no great things, only small things with great love." —Mother Teresa

Your call, but for me these two profound and exhilarating quotes serve as decent analogues to "EXCELLENCE. Always."

I've had bad days and weeks and months and, indeed, years. Yet the measure of worth remains the attitude toward the next minute to come:

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble." —Helen Keller

"We do no great things, only small things with great love." —Mother Teresa

EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

EXCELLENCE is not an aspiration.
EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes.

All yours ...

(Above, Salpiglossis, or "tapestry flower," from Susan's garden)

The Military.
Life.
Politics.

The day General McChrystal was canned, I was in Baltimore Washington International airport. Putting on my shoes after security, I found myself sitting next to a USMC major. I commented about McChrystal's calling former USMC Commandant Jim Jones a "clown." (I have very strong USMC ties, including an uncle who retired as a lieutenant general and served as a lieutenant colonel on Guadalcanal.) I expected the major to erupt. Instead he said, "Once they become generals, they all are mainly politicians." He said it in a matter-of-fact fashion, with no discernable rancor.

In fact he's right. McChrystal was a career special ops guy, and, as is characteristic of the genre, was known for being blunt and impolitic—it's a miracle he made it as far as he did. General Petraeus is, to the contrary, know as a superb politician. Many attach automatic opprobrium to the term "politician." They are sorely mistaken. General Powell was a masterful politician, as was General Eisenhower, whose political skills in holding the Allies together for the assault on the European mainland were far more important than his tactical skills. All the above pale by contrast to perhaps America's greatest political general—George Washington. In David McCullough's masterful 1776, we find Washington virtually every night alone in his tent writing numerous letters to members of the Continental Congress. Garnering their support for his faltering efforts was as important as fending off the British.

Implementation—at the level of "chief" of a 4-person project team in IS—is and always has been and always will be primarily about politics.

In fact it is axiomatic: Effective implementers are effective politicians, regardless of any synonym you may choose to substitute for politics.

My dentist in Boston doesn't think much of my former dentist (and college roommate) in San Jose; and she makes no bones and minces no words about it. So, too, most specialists. And that includes generals. World War II was marked by a clear focus, unlike, say, Vietnam or Afghanistan. And yet the generals battled with and disparaged one another constantly. I am highly amused by the following quotes from one of my favorite books, David Irving's The War Between the Generals: Inside the Allied High Command:

"A man of great mediocrity."—General George Patton about General Omar Bradley (Bradley commanded U.S. ground forces on D-Day and beyond)

"A third-rate general. He never did anything or won any battle that any other general could not have won as well or better."—General Omar Bradley about Field Marshall Sir Bernard Montgomery

"If you want to end the war in any reasonable time, you will have to remove Ike's hand from the control of the land battle."—Sir Bernard Montgomery about General Dwight Eisenhower

"One thing that might help win this war is to get someone to shoot King."—General Dwight Eisenhower about Admiral Ernest King, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations

"Eisenhower, though supposed to be running the land war, is on the golf links at Rhiems—entirely detached and taking practically no part in running the war."—Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of Staff, British Army about General Dwight Eisenhower

"If the unhelpful British attitude continues, then I shall go home."—General Dwight Eisenhower

Thus is the nature of human affairs, in peace or war. As I hinted before, if you don't want to participate in the politics, then choose to follow a path that is not associated with leadership, or pretty much anything else—e.g., I've seen politicking for a Nobel prize up close, and it's not pretty.

(You may find exceptions to this rule, but if you do, be sure to specify the planet or galaxy from which they emanate.)

(FYI: You might look at Thomas Ricks' related "Lose a General, Win a War," in yesterday's New York Times.)

Helping.
The Manager's Job 1.

From a student of renowned Harvard zoologist Louis Agassiz, as reported in Lane Cooper's 1917 Louis Agassiz as Teacher:

"I had assigned to me a small pine table with a rusty tin pan upon it. When I sat down before my tin pan, Agassiz brought me a small fish, placing it before me with the rather stern requirement that I should study it., but on no account talk to anyone concerning it, nor read anything relating to fishes until I had his permission to do so. To my inquiry, 'What shall I do?' he said in effect: 'Find out what you can without damaging the specimen; when I think you have done the work I will question you.' In the course of an hour I thought I had compassed the fish. I was anxious to make a summary report and get on with the next state of business."

But Agassiz paid no attention to his student that day, the next, or during the following week. So the novice, after suppressing his impatience, took another look, and then another. To his surprise, he learned more: "I set my wits to work upon the thing, and in the course of 100 hours or so though I had done much—a hundred times as much as seemed possible at the start."

Agassiz eventually responded: "On the seventh day came the question, 'Well,' and my disgorge of learning to him as he sat on the edge of my table puffing his cigar. At the end of the hour's telling, he swung off and away, saying, 'That is not right.'"

Reluctantly, the student went back to his rusty tin pan. After another week of hard, silent labor, he had results that astonished him and passed muster with his taciturn teacher. Agassiz acknowledged the student's success by bring him a big pile of bones, with the order to sort them out.

Much more agonized examination was in store, with stupendous results: "Two months or more went into this second task with no other help than an occasional looking over my grouping with the stereotyped remark: 'That is not right.' Finally the task was done and I was set upon a remarkable lot of specimens representing 20 species of the side swimmers. I shall never forget the sense of power which I felt in beginning the more extended work on a group of animals. I had learned the art of comparing objects, which is the basis of the naturalist's work."

The manager is in fact a teacher, akin to Louis Agassiz. She or he has, in effect, only one objective: pursuing improved performance by fostering long-term personal (and team) engagement, learning and continuous development. There is in fact no other path than deep immersion and indeed frustration to master any topic, in 1917 or 2010, from the nature of a lab specimen or the intimate workings of some small part of the firm's purchasing activity. Hence the de facto goal of the superior manager is to more or less create a workplace that mimics the peerless Agassiz's lab.

I have become obsessed with the idea and professional practice of helping, partially as a result of ingesting Ed Schein's magisterial book Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help , mentioned here before. Helping is a profession, in fact the primary task of the manager. Helping, like listening, can be mastered—through hard and sustained work, not unlike that of our budding professional zoologist.

The Manager's Job

Help/10X harder-more subtle than you think.
Listen/Engage.
Thank/Appreciate.
Apologize/Nurture accountability.

New Audio: Tom Reads The Little BIG Things

This week's additions to the audio files on the book page are in the section titled "Leadership":

#53. To Lead Is to Measurably Help Others Succeed.

#54. At Their Service.

#55. Have You "Hosted" Any Good Employees Lately?

#56. A Sacred Trust.

#57. Rat Psych Rules!-Or: Deploying Positive Reinforcement's Incredible Potency.

Collect them all, and when we're finished, you'll have an audio version of the entire book.

Strategy: Space Matters

Who sits next to you? In this video called Strategy: Space Matters, Tom explains why who sits next to whom in your office can make a huge difference. The video is part of the The Little BIG Things Video Series.

You can find the video in the right column here at tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 41 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Strategy: Space Matters.

Service.
A Beautiful Word.
Skip the Modifiers.

I may have been misunderstood when I wrote/Tweeted that we don't need "Wow service" (Peters), "Raving fans" (Blanchard) or "Memorable experience" (Pine and
Gilmore). The word "service," all by its lonesome, will more than suffice.

I was not dissing myself or Ken or Joe or Jim. I like and think important and have written extensively about all of the above formulations.

But here's my deal (I repeat):

Organizations exist only to serve.
Leaders exist only to serve.

That is "service"—WITHOUT MODIFIERS—is a sacred word.
To "be of service" is the highest aspiration possible.
To have "been of service" is the highest tribute possible.

Ponder the word service.
Have you, boss or non-boss ... BEEN OF SERVICE ... today?

That is: To the extent possible, review every transaction-exchange today or in, say, the last 3 hours. Even the most fleeting transaction. Have you unfailingly offered support or acknowledged a good effort or in some way nudged the person you were with forward just a smidgeon—i.e., have you ... UNFAILINGLY & PRO-ACTIVELY ... been "of service"?

Be tough on yourself. Or, at least, honest with yourself.
Every opportunity to "be of service" that you miss is gone for eternity.

More.

From The Atlantic/"The End of Men":
"Men seem 'fixed in cultural aspic.' With each passing day, they lag further behind." Numerous college women assume they'll be primary bread winner; guys "are the new ball and chain."

"I Know This Guy Joe ..."

My economics prof introduced me to "Joe" years ago. He called it the "I know a man who" theory. I'll comment, "Statistically more lefthanders per capita get into injury-causing accidents." To which you respond, "Yeah, but my best friend, Alonzo, is a leftie without a mar on his record at age 32." In your mind, Alonzo overrides my analysis based on, say, a 3,000-accident sample.

I felt like Man-who Joe had me in an armlock the other day. I was tweeting about the economic value of kindness, thoughtfulness, etc. To which someone responded with a short list of names of wildly successful entrepreneurs and artists (symphony conductors) who are out-and-out jerks.

I know such folk, too. Many thereof. Yet my "defense"—which I fervently believe—was: "Yup, X & Y & Z are indeed v. successful jerks.

"But ...

"But you and I and the vast majority of us are simply not good enough to be able to overcome significant jerk-hood. That is, for those of us who are mortal (let's say 99% ++), thoughtfulness-kindness-attentiveness is a winning strategy, perhaps the only possible winning strategy."

I refuse to be trapped by "I know this guy Joe"!

The Letter Laws

3H

Howard-Hilton-Herb. Howard Schultz, Starbucks founder, visits 25 stores a week. Master hotelier Conrad Hilton says his only advice is "Don't forget to tuck the shower curtain into the bathtub." Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher says his only advice is "You have to treat your employees as your primary customers."

My translation, more or less "all you need to know to succeed":

Stay in touch. [Howard]
Sweat the details. [Hilton]
Put your people first. [Herb.]

KRP

K = R = P
Kindness = Repeat business = Profit

LTYA

Listen.
Say "Thank you."
Apologize.

If you can become a full-fledged "professional" listener and master the arts of appreciation and apology [accountability], you will be 75 yards down the 100-yard path to success.

WDYT

What.
Do.
You.
Think.

"What do you think?" = Arguably the four most important words in business/leadership success.

RR

Resilience.
Relentlessness.

The successful person's "top 2" key traits.

RFA

Ready.
Fire.
Aim.

Vigorous action-relentless experimentation = [Only] effective foundation of progress, personal or organizational.

FFF

Fail.
Forward.
Fast.

(This is RFA's necessary handmaiden.)

ROIR

Return On Investment in Relationships.
Medium- to long-term: Relationships = Everything.
Hence: Purposeful investment in relationships is the most important "ROI."

C(I)>C(E)

Internal customers are more important than external customers when it comes to execution.

And, of course, always to be repeated in this space as my "signoff":

EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

Read it!
Absorb it!
Ponder it!
Take Advantage of It!

Most important article I've read in a long time/The Atlantic July-August 2010:

"The End of Men: How Women Are Taking Control—Of Everything"

Opening lines/précis:

"Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For years, women's progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn't the end point? What if modern, post-industrial society is simply better suited to women? A report on the unprecedented role reversal now underway—and its vast cultural consequences."

Other:

"Man has been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. But for the first time in human history, that is changing—and with shocking speed."

[There are examples from around the world not just U.S. In the likes of Korea, desire for a child to be a girl is soaring.] [In the USA, efforts to improve the odds of conceiving a girl rather than a boy are now commonplace.]

"As thinking and communicating have come to eclipse physical strength and stamina as the keys to economic success, those societies that take advantage of the talents of all their adults, not just half of them, have pulled away from the rest."

"The evidence is all around you [e.g.] in the wreckage of the Great Recession, in which three-quarters of the eight million jobs lost were lost by men. The worst-hit industries were overwhelmingly male and deeply identified with macho: construction, manufacturing, high finance."

"Of the 15 job categories projected to grow the most in the next decade in the U.S., all but two are occupied primarily by women."

"Women hold 51.4% of managerial and professional jobs—up from 26.1% in 1980. ... In 1970, women contributed 2 to 6 percent of the family income. Now the typical working wife brings home 42.2%—and four in 10 mothers are the primary breadwinners in their family."

"What's clear is that schools, like the economy, now value the self-control, focus and verbal aptitude that seem to come more easily to young girls."

"Increasing numbers of women—unable to find men with similar income and education—are forgoing marriage altogether. In 1970, 84% of women ages 30 to 44 were married; now 60% are."

More Blame!
(This Time, I'm Really Pissed Off.)

Friday a week ago, I had the honor of giving the Olin lecture on alumni weekend at Cornell. It'd been a long time since I'd been back, and I was taken aback by the beauty, mostly unmarred by new construction, of the Ithaca NY campus.

But in a way that was the least of it. The powers that be (president David Skorton) arranged for me a lengthy tour of the engineering school by the Dean of Engineering and the Dean of Civil Engineering. (I am a Cornell civil engineering grad.) Not only was I taken aback by the extraordinary work going on, which was mostly beyond my comprehension, but by the discipline and tradition of engineering of which I am the smallest part. The experience bordered on the mystical; though I went on to get business degrees and make my name, such as it is, around management, I realized some odd genetic-like tug to my engineering roots—it in fact felt very good, a coming home of sorts.

But it also got me thinking about the Gulf oil spill. (It's hard to go more than a few minutes without that disaster intruding on one's thoughts.) There is more than enough blame to go around from BP and hapless Tony Hayward to Deepwater Horizon to Halliburton to the pathetic dis-incentivized federal regulators.

And I want to pile on.

In my recent book, The Little BIG Things, one item, #56, in the section on leadership was titled "Sacred Trust," and it began like this:

"As I see it, anyone who takes on any leadership job, minor or major, assumes no less than a ... Sacred Trust. I know that's extreme language. But I stand by it. This sacred trust is all about what organizations are all about: the professional (and, to some extent, personal) development of people. Sure, the boss's job is to 'get the job done,' and done effectively. But 'boss-hood' primarily entails an abiding responsibility for the people under your charge. ..."

Leadership is a sacred trust. As is the practice of law. And medicine. And any of the other recognized professions.

Including engineering.

Certified engineers, like certified docs and lawyers, mostly take oaths to live up to the responsibilities of their disciplines. Rights and responsibilities: These pros have the right to declaim with some degree of certitude about their discipline, and/but the responsibility to ensure that the boundaries of said certitude are not violated.

Well, in my newfound/renewed ardor for engineering, I also find myself beset with newfound anger-outrage at numerous engineers employed by BP, et al. (Many an "al." it would appear.)

Outrage not at "BP engineers," but outrage at Arthur N. Smith [fictitious name], certified and licensed engineer. And doubtless dozens and dozens, probably hundreds, of his cohorts.

BP seems to have gotten it wrong on a dozen dozen dozen engineering dimensions. In the name of cost control or whatever. I don't give a shit about the cost control issues, real as I know they are. I give a hundred shits about the fact that Arthur Engineer and Ralph Engineer and Mary Engineer, cross-pressures notwithstanding (that's life), abrogated their professional responsibilities as ... individuals. Arthur and Ralph and Mary are probably good parents—but professionally they screwed their fellow citizens to a fare-thee-well.

And I'm pisssed off.

Very pissed off.

Arthur and Ralph and Mary have bills to pay. And the economy is tough. And their bosses, responding to their bosses, doubtless did put merciless pressure on them.

Hence my empathy is high.

But in the end I am appalled. They have cost us lives and economic and environmental damage of epic proportion. Because they lacked the will and integrity to blow their professional whistles and stand up for the discipline to which they have sworn allegiance.

They are (individually) a disgrace to the great tradition of engineering of which I am the smallest part. So I'm taking this personally.

This disaster, regardless of certain companies' headquarters addresses, occurred in the United States. Among nations, we try to live to a higher standard of individual accountability than most. We are (properly, for the most part) known as an individualistic nation—it has been our strength among strengths. Back to: rights and responsibilities. Our individualism gives moral and other supports (effectively, "rights") to our peerless entrepreneurial behavior, for example. But along with those peerless rights of individualism come an equally profound set of responsibilities. If you are encouraging me to "do my thing," you are also making it clear that the practice thereof is, unequivocally, a form of "sacred responsibility."

Well, my beloved engineers-of-the-Gulf, it was not only HTH, Hapless Tony Hayward, who let us down. It was you engineers as well one at a time, name by name. In fact my fury at you is stronger than my fury at Hayward. After all, he was merely a corporate shill—you are professionals, the latest in a magnificent tradition that you have now sullied.

For shame.

NB: Am I exceedingly harsh in my judgment here? Perhaps. But, upon substantial reflection, I think not.

The Tragedy of the Fools.
(Economists, That Is.)
(As Usual.)

I know I've heard this one before, or some close kin. But I laughed anew (that's better than crying) at this ha ha from Saturday's Wall Street Journal:

"An economist, a chemist and a physicist are marooned on a desert island. Their only food is a can of beans, but they have no can opener. What are they to do? The physicist says, 'Let's try and focus the tropical sun onto the lid—it might melt a hole.' 'No,' says the chemist. 'We should first pour saltwater on the lid—maybe that will rust it.' The economist interrupts: 'You're wasting your time with all these complicated ideas. Let's just assume a can opener.'"

WSJ author Anatole Kaletsky continues: "This little joke tells us more about the causes and consequences of the 2007-2009 crisis than any number of ministerial speeches, Wall Street research reports and central bank monographs. The propensity of modern economic theory for unjustified and oversimplified assumptions allowed politicians, regulators and bankers to create for themselves the imaginary world of market fundamentalist ideology, in which financial stability is automatic, involuntary unemployment is unimaginable and efficient omniscient markets can solve all economic problems, if only the government will stand aside." (The WSJ piece is a book excerpt from Capitalism 4.0; Kaletsky is editor at large of the Times of London.)

Discount my discounting of economists if you will. It is true that I've always thought the discipline a bit of a joke. (Though only when it matters, at times like the present. The economists do quite well in the good times, when the stakes are minuscule.)


Happy Monday!

Happy summer!

Banners

If you're a frequent visitor to tompeters.com, doubtless you've noticed the lovely banners that change seasonally (click here for the archive). As today is the summer solstice, we'd normally have a new banner. However, we've decided to keep the banner that's currently at the top of the site up there for a few more seasons. We think it so thoroughly reflects the spirit of Tom's new book that we'd like it to stick around. Hope you agree.

Excellence: Language Matters

In a new video for the The Little BIG Things Video Series called Excellence: Language Matters, Tom asks that you pay attention to the language you use. "If you want an energetic place, use energetic language." Are you measuring whether things are "Insanely Great"?

You can find the video in the right column here at tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 45 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Excellence: Language Matters.

Goodbye Cathy

After over a decade of dedication to Excellence, Cathy Mosca will be departing at the end of June. Her time with Tom has been devoted (and I don't use that word lightly) to ensuring that tompeters.com as well as all the books, slides, and documents that Tom has written are of the highest quality, and she has rarely missed the mark. As the primary contact behind the tom@tompeters.com email address, Cathy has gone over and above for anyone needing help, especially if it's finding an obscure quote (some say she knows Tom's books better than he does). To say that she will be missed is a gross understatement. We invite you to take a moment and wish her well in the comments.

Closing Comments

Tom has always enjoyed the interchange of ideas in the comments area of his blog. He's actually included some of what's been written here in The Little BIG Things. All of us here at tompeters.com feel that our community has been enhanced and enriched by so many who have shared their thoughts with us. But for several reasons, not least of which is the amount of time it takes to battle the recent increase in contextual spam, we have decided to close comments on future posts as of this Friday, June 18. (Along with that, the comments RSS feed will end, as will the RSS feed for the Free Stuff page) All of the comments on past posts will remain.

Rest assured that Tom will continue to blog and you'll still be able to contact him. He's on Twitter daily (@tom_peters) and that's the most direct way of connecting with him. If you're new to Twitter, or would rather read only, try something like Seesmic Look (software that helps you get started by reading only rather than engaging) or Tweetree (a site that allows you to read the ongoing conversations). And don't forget the old standby, email (tom at tompeters.com).

For those of you who have taken the time over the years to let us know what you think, thank you. For those loyal readers who have never felt drawn to comment, we invite you to say hello this week. Whether you comment or you don't, thank you for reading!

Changes Afoot!

Good Friday brought a bit of a health scare. In the subsequent two months things, though perhaps more troublesome, have come more or less fully under control as best anyone can tell. Hence there are only a few wee absolute constraints on my daily routine. Nonetheless, the "event" was a wake-up call to pay more attention to the cumulative impact of a schedule and level of continuous intensity, since 1974, that buggers the imagination. (George Clooney's character in "Up in the Air" is a piker by comparison.)

It was a wake-up call that, with much and often rude urging from friends and associates and family and docs, I've decided to tend to. Which in turn alters "the business case" and priorities list at tompeters.com and elsewhere in my personal and professional life. Hence you can expect forthcoming announcements of changes to be made with some dispatch.

I underscore that it's in no way professional "sayonara." I am "open for business"—but not as much business. I had an absolutely lovely time giving the Olin lecture at Cornell this past weekend. It was my first speech in two months—my longest hiatus in about 35 years. I realized how much I still love what I do, and just how much more I can appreciate it when the stress of continuous travel and frantic preparation has been dramatically reduced.

New Audio: Tom Reads The Little BIG Things

This week's additions to the audio files on the book page are in the section titled "Initiative":

#49. Make That "Three-Minute Call"! Today! Now!

#50. Show Up! (It's a Start.)

#51. Get Up Earlier Than the Next (in This Case) Gal.

#52. Make an Insane Public Effort.

Collect them all, and when we're finished, you'll have an audio version of the entire book.

Leadership: Building Success

There's a new addition to The Little BIG Things Video Series called Leadership: Building Success. Tom shares Dave Liniger of RE/MAX's philosophy: your goal should be to make the people who work for you successful. That increases the odds of your own success.

You can find the video in the right column here at tompeters.com or you can watch the video on YouTube. [Time: 2 minutes, 2 seconds] You can also download a PDF transcript of the video's content: Leadership: Building Success.

Books That Matter 2010
(To Me)

Peerless:

Enough. True Measures of Money, Business, and Life/Jack Bogle

Decency Pays:

Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation/George Washington
Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct/P.M. Forni
The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness/Linda Kaplan Thaler & Robin Koval
The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It/Christine Pearson & Christine Porath

The Real Work of Leaders:

Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help/Ed Schein
Listening Leaders: The Ten Golden Rules to Listen, Lead & Succeed/Lyman Steil & Richard Bommelje
Smart Questions/Gerald Nadler & William Chandon

Small Is Beautiful
Cool & Uncool:

Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America/George Whalin
Dry Basement Science: What to Have Done ... and Why/Larry Janesky
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big/Bo Burlingham

Innovation:

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves/Matt Ridley

Healthcare:

Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Healthcare Is Better Than Yours/Phillip Longman
Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer/Shannon Brownlee
Wash Your Hands!/Frédéric Saldmann

What Matters Most:

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide/Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

The Human Condition:

The Cellist of Sarajevo/Steven Galloway

Excellence Oath and Credo

Tom has been developing the "Excellence Oath and Credo" for a time. He blogged about it, included a version in The Little BIG Things, and has now added the Oath of Office for Managers/Servant Leaders. According to Tom "It is a set of ideas ("Principles for doing business well and profitably"? "Elements of Excellence"?) worthy of attention and emulation."

With a focus on the development of your team's talent and considering leadership a sacred trust, Tom encourages you to be "explorer-adventurers proceeding toward individual and collective growth.". He puts it this way, "Our job as leaders—the alpha and the omega and everything in between—is abetting the sustained growth and success and engagement and enthusiasm and commitment to Excellence of those, one at a time, who directly or indirectly serve the ultimate customer."

Joy Stauber worked her magic on the design of this piece. We hope you enjoy it. You can download the PDF; it will reside on the Free Stuff page, which is chock full of other Excellent PDFs.

George Eliot

A discussion with our friend Trevor led me to the best George Eliot quotes. (It's a long-ish story.) At any rate, I loved what follows:

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

It's never too late to be who you might have been.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

There's folks 'ud stand on their heads and then say the fault was i' their boots.

The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth.

What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

Tweets+

Here are a few things I believe are central to success, personal and organizational. In this (selfish) instance, the author is me (some emerged from the gorgeous brevity of Tweets):

EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration."
EXCELLENCE is not a "journey."
EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes.

Organizations exist to serve. Period.
Leaders exist to serve. Period.

Service is a beautiful word.
Service is a beautiful word. Service is character, community, commitment. (And profit.)
Service is a beautiful word. Service is not "Wow." Service is not "raving fans." Service is not "an experience." Service is "just" that—SERVICE.

K = R = P
Kindness = Repeat business = Profit.

No Surprise!

We are speechless at the ability of China to use/exploit its bottomless labor pool. Well, guess what. Just like the U.S.A., the UK, Japan and the rest of the developed world, as Chinese workers prosper, they want what all who have come before them want. This quote from a worker in an FT (0601) article, "Chinese Workers Swap Angst for Anger":
"We're different from our parents' generation. Their wishes were simple—earn some money and return to their hometown. We want to stay in the cities and enjoy our lives here. But we demand respect."

Chapter & verse & punctuation marks, that's what our (USA) workers said in, perhaps, the 1930s, eh?

Half (Quarter) Baked

What follows is not meant to be inclusive. It is meant to be what it is, reflections from a 40 mile round trip from Tinmouth to Manchester Center and back. Thoughts on Federal/Local policy flowing, as it were, from the BP fiasco:

D-Day2010 for Energy Independence/Conservation: A Few Ideas*

• Return to '73. 55mph speed limit implemented within 60 days or less, save thousands of lives, huge amount of gas. EVERYBODY participates/sacrifices, easy-ish to do.


• Return to '73. Winter double daylight savings.


• Summer Jobs Service Corps, to be implemented immediately. 10K kids to Gulf of Mexico to fend off the spill. Pay for with temporary 25-cent gas tax or cigarette tax. (Kids Krusade is Kool.)


• Campaign 60/75. Winter thermostats never higher than 60 degrees, summer A/C never lower than 75. Public ads/blog/tweet/support groups/local campaigns.


• Extend Bush tax cuts, but balance half of lost tax $$ by raising gas tax $1.00 or some such per gallon.


• States: Immediately double registration fees for gas guzzlers, quintuple within 5 years. (Remove when fleet MPG standards reach a specified point.)


• 150-day 80% government-funded home energy efficiency payment (for specified activities); at end of 1 year begin penalties for those who have not taken certain steps.


• Graduated penalties for building energy efficiency deficits, material/painful by year 3 or 4.


• Water conservation rules/penalties/bill reductions. Effect on water but also energy use associated therewith.

(*Must have several implementable ASAP. Must induce shared pain-contribution by ALL.)

(ABOVE: Rare Clematis. BELOW: Serious work gloves.)

The Tough Task of ...
Epigraph Selection

Few things are more difficult than choosing a book's epigraph—a very few words that capture the spirit of a rather complex enterprise. The task, re The Little BIG Things, was indeed painful. I eventually settled on ... FOUR. But was "encouraged" (beaten about the head and shoulders) to pick ... ONE. For those who've read the book you'll know the choice, with which I am delighted, was #1, from Mr. Clay. Nonetheless, I'm offering up all four here, FYI.

"Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart." —Henry Clay, American Statesman (1777-1852)

"We don't take people to the elevator—we take them down to the street." —David Ogilvy

The art of war does not require complicated maneuvers; the simplest are the best and common sense is fundamental. From which one might wonder how it is generals make blunders; it is because they try to be clever." —Napoleon

From NPR: "A man approached J.P. Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, 'Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly sell you for $25,000.'

"'Sir,' J.P. Morgan replied, 'I do not know what is in the envelope; however, if you show it to me, and I like it, I give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.'

"The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope. J.P. Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper back to the gent. And paid him the agreed-upon $25,000.

"The contents of the note:

"1. Every morning, write a list of the things that need to be done that day.

"2. Do them."

Did I make the correct choice?

Steal This!

I assume virtually all of you are familiar with Zappos—and its unusual and potent people practices. Nonetheless, I'm offering a reminder here from a great article I happened across in The Korn/Ferry Institiute mag, Q2.2010.

Zappos 10 Corporate Values

1. Deliver "WOW!" through service.


2. Embrace and drive change.


3. Create fun and a little weirdness.


4. Be adventurous, creative and open-minded.


5. Pursue growth and learning.


6. Build open and honest relationships with communication.


7. Build a positive team and family spirit.


8. Do more with less.


9. Be passionate and determined.


10. Be humble.

I suggest stealing intact!

Service.
Leader's Role #1
(And #2 & #3 & ...)

I have a slide that I invariably use at the top of a presentation:

Organizations exist to serve.

Period.

Leaders exist to serve.

Period.

My abiding penchant for leadership-as-service was supported in Jim Strock's superb Serve to Lead. (He will soon be one of our "Cool Friends.") Here are the bare-bones basics:

Ten Principles of Twenty-first Century Leadership

1. Everyone can lead because everyone can serve.


2. The most valuable resource of any enterprise is its people.


3. We are in transition from a transaction-based world to a relationship-based world.


4. Leadership is a relationship between empowered, consenting adults.


5. Leadership is a dynamic relationship.


6. There is no universal leadership style.


7. Leadership roles are converging.


8. A leader's unique task is to imagine and advance a vision.


9. Love is the highest level of leadership relationships.


10. Character is a competitive advantage.

The Four Questions

1. Who are you serving?


2. How can you best serve?


3. Are you making your unique contribution?


4. Are you getting better every day?

TLBT Video: Graniterock

The latest addition to the videos of Tom is Service: Graniterock Company, in which Tom tells the story of this construction materials company that has found a unique way to remind customers that they intend to deliver Excellent service every time. You can watch the video here (1 minute, 42 seconds), or get a PDF transcript: Service: Graniterock.

Tom's filmography at YouTube is growing! There are over 25 videos in The Little BIG Things series alone, and many more videos of Tom to choose from there.

There are new selections of audio files on The Little BIG Things page, as well. Items 41 through 48 represent the sections titled "Performance" and "Work." Listen with the links below, or find all the little BIG things up to #48 at the audio player on our book page.

#41. It's Showtime! All the Time!

#42. Work (Like a Demon) on Your First Impressions.

#43. Work (Like a Demon) on Your Last Impressions.

#44. Work on Your Presentation Skills. (Or: 17 Minutes Can Change the World!)

#45. On Being a "Professional."

#46. "Everything Passes Through Finance" (and So Should You).

#47. What's on the Agenda? Why Don't You Decide?

#48. We Are All in Sales. Period.

Link Roundup #16

This link came to us in the emails. A conceptual artist named Nico Simpson has posted a slides presentation for which part of the inspiration was Tom's "Sixty" book.

"The Little Things That Lead to Excellence" is the featured interview for June 2010 in a publication called Associations Now. Read the online version of this interview that Tom did with Gerry Romano from the American Society of Association Executives.

Have a favorite management author from the UK? CMI is running a competition that you may like to weigh in on.

Tara Parker-Pope at the New York Times wrote about the mental health risks of performance reviews, and the new book Get Rid of the Performance Review by UCLA professor Sam Culbert, one of our Cool Friends.

Another Cool Friend, Bob Sutton, wrote to us saying that his publisher wanted him to do a sequel to his last (prize-winning) book, The No Asshole Rule. However, Bob said, he didn't want to do a sequel to that book. "But," he continued, "the experience of writing it got me very interested in bosses, as they were the main culprits and heroes in most stories I heard, and also, I heard from so many bosses in so many situations about how they not only wanted to be civilized, they wanted to be generally competent." The result? His new book—expect it in September 2010—Good Boss, Bad Boss (or GBBB).