“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

Each year I read approximately 30 books for the pure pleasure of creating in my imagination the sights and sounds and smells of the world that the author has created in the pages of his book. I enjoy fiction and non-fiction alike.

I also read around the same number of “educational” books each year. I read these to challenge myself out of complacency and to spur growth, to resist stagnation and to broaden my horizons.

In 2019 I was fortunate to have read many compelling and thought-provoking books. Here are five that I found particularly noteworthy. In fact, I’ll likely revisit each of these again in the future – they are that good.

1. Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits by Greg Crabtree

Owning and running a small business can be rewarding, fulfilling, and even energizing if it is aligned with your passions and personality. But it can also be nerve-racking and anxiety-producing, often requiring you to make important decisions based on imperfect and incomplete information. When should you hire your next team member? Should you reinvest your profits? Are you even profitable to begin with? How can you be sure?

In Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential, Greg Crabtree offers succinct and clear guidance for running your small business. As an accountant and Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) implementor, this book is concise and well-written. Not a word is wasted. There’s no fluff.

Some of the gems of this book include:

• Use a forecast, not a budget
• Know your salary cap for your labor force
• Monitor your Labor Efficiency Ratio
• Pay yourself a competitive wage or your financials are misleading.

If you own/run a small business, this should be required reading.

2. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

As a young entrepreneur, I was confident in my abilities and astute in my observations. I could quickly recognize a potential client’s primary challenge and chart a path to overcome it. I could see where others could not. In short, I could be the hero I thought they needed.

Now, some twenty-plus years later, I realize that I was fortunate to have survived that period. That approach didn’t help me to connect with my potential customers. It placed me in the limelight and ignored their real needs. I slowly learned this the hard way by trial and error. Well, it was mostly by error.

I wish Donald Miller had written Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen sooner. It could have saved me from many of those errors.

Miller draws parallels between marketing and storytelling and shares how everyone, from a giant corporation to a small solepreneur can create a meaningful brand that connects with customers.

3. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

“Never talk about money, politics, or religion.” Many of us were taught this principle as a kid. Talking about these, especially money now feels wrong and uncomfortable. But, when you run a small business, you must learn to talk about money early and often.

In Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, former FBI Hostage Negotiator Chris Voss shares principles he and his team learned while negotiating some of the most extreme and contentious scenarios imaginable. The book is replete with concepts and tactics, including:

• Negotiation is not an active battle; it’s a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible.
• “No” is the start of a negotiation, not the end of it.  It seldom means, “I have considered all the facts and made a rational choice.”
• You are not going to logically convince someone that they are safe, secure, or in control.
• The more a person feels understood, and positively affirmed in that understanding, the more likely they are for agreement and change.

Whether you’re an accomplished and skilled negotiator or someone who actively avoids negotiations because it creates stress and conflict, you’ll likely find this book helpful.

4. Spy the Lie by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, and Susan Carnicero

You’re sitting across the table from some who keeps touching his face and covering his mouth as he speaks. He doesn’t make consistent eye contact with you. He’s obviously lying to you, right?

Conventional wisdom holds that he is being deceitful. The facts are not his friend. But, wouldn’t someone who is lying also know the conventional wisdom and make a gallant effort to overcome the traditional indicators? So maybe it’s the person who keeps his hands on the table and stares unrelentingly into your eyes that is lying?

Spy the Lie: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception tackles this question head-on. The three former CIA officers share their experiences in detecting deception and spotting lies. They offer proven techniques for asking questions and observing responses that will help to uncover when a person is being forthright and when she is avoiding an uncomfortable truth.

In my 27-year career, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve worked closely with trustworthy colleagues and clients who earnestly seek to do the right thing. Nevertheless, I found this book insightful and engaging. It’s a good read.

5. The Only Sales Guide You Will Ever Need by Anthony Iannarino

Much has been written in the technical world about the “Accidental DBA,” that unfortunate IT Professional who is deeply skilled in one area such as System Administration or Application Development yet finds herself also responsible for keeping the SQL Server databases running. (In fact, our business is predicated on helping companies with Accidental DBAs.)

I am not an Accidental DBA. I’ve doing DBA work professionally for over 20 years. But I am an Accidental Sales Professional. I’m not particularly skilled in sales, yet it’s an integral part of any business, including The SERO Group.

Anthony Iannarino’s book The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need was written for people like me. It’s for honest people who truly want to help other businesses succeed. There are no manipulative tactics or unscrupulous presentations described. Rather his approach is one of learning to listen to your potential customer to determine if your product or service may help them reach their goals.

I’m not a connoisseur of sales books. I’ve only read a few. But this one has proven helpful to me.

A Few Honorable Mentions

There were many other books I read in 2019 that I’d recommend adding to your list. In most any other year, these would have made my Top 5 List.

• The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
• Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella
• The Go-Giver by Bob Burg
• Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle

I’m always looking for suggestions for books to read. Let me know if you’ve found a book particularly compelling.

The post 5 Books I’m Glad I Read in 2019 appeared first on The SERO Group.

It’s what you learn after you know it all that really counts. – John Wooden

As an avid reader and life-long learner, this quote by Coach John Wooden really speaks to me. I don’t want to wax too philosophical here, but life is a journey and we owe it to ourselves and those we influence to stretch ourselves and continually renew our minds so that we can be our best with our God-given talents.

There are a lot of ways to do that. One is to read voraciously. Each year I try to read or listen to at least 50 books. Some books I read for fun and entertainment. Many I read to learn something – how to be a better speaker, how to learn a new outdoor skill, how to better hobby farmer, and yes, how to be a better leader in my business.

Recommended Reading

I’m often asked to recommend books on specific topics. That’s why I created a Recommended Reading list. Each year I add a book or two to the list. 2018 was a banner year for my reading; I added four books to the Recommended Reading list. If you only read a few books each year, read these.

• It’s Your Ship by Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff. The United States Navy doesn’t have a monopoly on the highly-regimented, top-down leadership style. In fact, many companies still have this corporate culture. In It’s Your Ship, Abrashoff recounts how he was able to take a below average ship and turn it into one of the best ships in the Navy. His crew developed a sense of ownership and pride in their work. His bosses recognized Benfold’s accomplishments and rewarded the crew with additional liberty and flexibility. Abrashoff’s approaches work in the corporate world as well. This book is a must-read for leaders.
• Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. In the book, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin share some of the leadership lessons they learned on the battlefield where a minor mistake could have grave and lasting consequences. They distill the lessons into principles and share how they can be applied to business and everyday life. This book should be required reading for all high school seniors and business majors.
• The Like Switch by Jack Schafer. Jack Shafer spent years with the FBI, preparing spies for their missions and helping to recruit spies from other countries. During his career, he developed strategies for reading people, building trust, and developing long-term relationships. This is not a book about deceitfully manipulating people. This book shares how to build better and stronger relationships.
• Permission to Screw Up by Kristen Hadeed. Many business and leadership books are sanitized and polished. The authors share their successes without revealing the many painful mistakes and setbacks that plagued them along the way. This is not one of those books. In her book, Permission to Screw Up, Hadeed shares how she inadvertently started and grew a business hiring only millennials. She tells her engaging and personal story in an entertaining and thought-provoking way. In the end, the leadership lessons she shares seem more real and less academic, more applicable and less theoretical, more heartfelt and less boastful. Entertaining and informative, this book will help you build a better team.

Other Books Worth Your Time

I also read a lot of books that narrowly miss being added to the list. They are really good books but just don’t quite make the “hall of fame.” Here are the Top 5 Books I read in 2018 that didn’t quite make the Recommended Reading list but are still worthy of your time.

1. Crucial Confrontations by Kerry Patterson, et al. The authors provide sound tactical advice for handling difficult situations with others. They explain why these conversations are important to have and offer guidance on how to approach them.
2. Leadership and Self-Deception by Arbinger Institute. Written as a fable, the book illustrates how we frequently trap ourselves in a “box” of self-justification. We create an internal narrative that places blame on others and blinds us to what is really happening.
3. Finish by Jon Acuff. According to the author, 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. Many people start something, a personal goal at home or a professional project at work, but tend to lose interest or find it too challenging to finish. In this humorous book, Acuff shares ways that he’s found to finish what you’ve started.
4. Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I’ve read a lot of books on productivity over the years looking for how to accomplish more in a shorter period of time. McKeown contends that this is the exact wrong approach. We should focus on getting only the right things done and eliminate everything else.
5. The Bullet Journal by Ryder Carroll. For years I’ve searched for a way to manage my To Do list. I’ve tried paper-based systems (ala Getting Things Done), electronic methods, and everything in between. I’ve written about my attempts in the past. I’ve finally found a system that works for me – The Bullet Journal.

No matter your superpowers, you can always learn something new. And these books can help.

What about you? Read any good books lately?

The post The 9 Best Books of 2018 appeared first on The SERO Group.

Have you ever been asked that question? If you’ve worked for a large organization, I bet you’ve seen that question on a formal Employee Satisfaction Survey. In smaller companies, the question may come from a manager who has Googled “Good questions to ask during an annual review.” In both cases, the company wants to learn what makes an employee happy. Happy employees don’t leave a company; dissatisfied and disengaged employees leave.

When an employee leaves, it’s costly. The hard costs of finding and onboarding a replacement are bad enough, but when you factor in the opportunity costs of deferred projects, the lowered morale of having to cover the responsibilities of the departed employee, and the reputation of being a place with high turnover, the costs are even higher.

Often when an employee leaves, she is asked why, either by her manager when she turned in her notice or by an HR Rep during the exit interview. “They offered more money” is a common excuse. So is “it’s more convenient to where I live.” In almost every case, those answers are disingenuous, or incomplete at best. Happy employees aren’t looking for another job nor do they listen when called by a recruiter.

So why do they leave? 

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, once the fundamental physiological and safety needs are met (typically with financial compensation), the higher level needs of social belonging, esteem, and self-actualization become more of an influence on motivation and behavior. Notice that these are not dependent on financial compensation, rather they are concerned with the workplace environment and corporate culture.

So, if your team is fairly or even generously compensated, yet are unhappy, are disengaged, and are leaving the company, the glaring question is: why. Why are they leaving and what can you do about it? (By the way, the only thing worse than an unhappy and disengaged employee who leaves is an unhappy and disengaged employee who stays.)

The answer will vary by organization. however, the following are frequently cited as key desires by IT professionals. 

• “More autonomy in what I’m working on.”
• “More flexibility on when I’m working.”, 
• “A better work/life balance for my life”

Less often explicitly stated, but just as important nonetheless, are:

• “Knowing that I’m making a difference to my team or customers.”
• “Feeling that I’m known, that I’m respected, and that my contributions are valued.”
• “Being able to tell when I’m doing a good job.”

So, what can you do to help your team feel engaged and valued? According to Verne Harnish and his team at Gazelles in their book Scaling Up, managers are responsible for 70% of the variances in employee engagement scores. That’s good news. It means that we, as IT managers and leaders, have the ability to influence our team through our own behaviors to create a better and more engaging environment for them. We are not helpless and impotent, subject to the whims of the marketplace and to the confines of our corporate policies. We can make a difference for our team. 

In the book, Harnish goes on to say that to help their teams stay engaged, managers should:

1. Help people play to their strengths. 
2. Don’t demotivate; “dehassle.”
3. Set clear expectations, and give employees a clear line of sight. 
4. Give recognition, and show appreciation. 
5. Hire fewer people, but pay them more. 

Depending on your company, you may not have a lot of control over number 5, but the first 4 are something you can do. It may not be obvious to you at first. It may not be easy for you, but learning to motivate and engage your team is something that you, as a leader, must learn to do.

IT leaders who come from a highly technical background are often ill-prepared to lead a team of IT professionals. This is particularly true when the new leader is promoted and asked to lead a team of former peers. Leadership is a completely different set of skills than those which made him successful as an individual contributor. However, leadership is a skill that can be learned. With our coaching clients, we find that new leaders can leverage the same tenacity and drive that propelled them to success as an individual contributor to become a great leader of IT professionals.

Don’t know where to start? Have a look at our Recommended Reading list. Still have questions, give us a call or send us an email. 

The post What Does Your IT Team Really Want? appeared first on The SERO Group.

That question haunted me some twenty years ago while I was in the early stages of building The SERO Group. I wanted more experience to better serve my clients and to better understand how to lead my employees and contractors. I wanted to be stretched. I wanted to be challenged and to be mentored as I assumed more and more responsibilities both from a technical and from a business-leadership perspective. Yet, as a young entrepreneur, I didn’t where to start.

I’ve since learned that many technical professionals wrestle with the same question. “How can I prove myself without being given the opportunity to do the job?” 

Fortunately, I stumbled upon a great opportunity. As the leader of a local SQL Server User Group, I was presented with a complimentary registration to the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Community Summit. At the time, PASS was a fledgling group started by key individuals in the SQL Server community with the organizational backing and financial support of Microsoft and Computer Associates.

While at the association’s second annual conference in San Francisco, I met and got to know some of the leaders of the group. They asked me to help the organization grow by volunteering some of my time. I started by communicating with other local user groups from around the nation. Later I served on the Board of Directors and was responsible for conference operations. After five years on the board, I became the organization’s Vice President of Marketing and eventually the Executive Vice President of Finance. 

During my tenure on the Board of Directors, I was presented with the exact opportunities (aka challenges) that I had so desperately sought before. I was stretched beyond my comfort zone and guided in my growth. Before passing the baton to the next generation of leaders, I had: 

• Helped set the strategic initiatives and direction for a 250,000 member global organization.
  
• Provided the financial oversight and fiscal responsibility for a multi-million dollar budget.
• Worked with an incredibly astute group of colleagues to fundamentally transform the association’s management which helped to create a budgetary surplus for the first time in the organization’s history. 
• Gained a better understanding of business, leadership, and team dynamics.  
• Become an 8-time recipient of the prestigious Microsoft MVP Award for sharing my knowledge and experiences with the SQL Server community.  

Most years, it was time-consuming. Often, it was stressful. Sometimes, it was frustrating. But, looking back it was one of the most rewarding professional experiences of my career and provided an opportunity for unparalleled growth that I could not have achieved on my own.

Why volunteer your time?

I would encourage you to look outside their day jobs for career-enhancing experiences and opportunities. Why?

1. Gain and share your technical experiences. Local non-profits are often in need of professional assistance yet do not have the financial resources to pay for them. By volunteering your time with a local charity, you may have access to technical projects that are not available to you at work. Perhaps you can offer to help a local organization with some data analytics so they can better understand their donor demographics?
2. Grow and develop your leadership experiences. Leadership is a skill that can be learned and developed. However, this skill, like all others, requires practice and patience. Volunteering your time with a local Boy’s or Girl’s Club, the Boy Scouts of America, or Trail Life USA Troop can help you observe accomplished leaders in action while doing a good deed.
3. Broaden and share your business insights. Although charities and non-profits exist to serve their constituents, the organizations must remain solvent in order to accomplish their missions. By volunteering your time with a non-profit, you’ll be exposed to the business challenges and decisions that the organization is facing. 
4. Strengthen and extended your project experience. One of the benefits of working with multiple organizations is that you see different ways of doing things. Different strokes for different folks as the saying goes. By volunteering, you can quickly see a variety of different approaches to business and technical situations.
5. Make professional and personal connections. The world is full of really great people who want to “pay it forward” by unselfishly helping others. By offering your time and experiences to others, you’ll undoubtedly meet people like this. You can learn from them, perhaps even teach them something, and do more good together.  
6. Broaden and share your perspectives. Although we can learn from others, being immersed in an environment and personally walking through an experience further underscores and solidifies in your mind the lessons learned. With more exposure, you’ll have a broader set of experiences from which to draw. Plus you’ll be able to share your experiences with others. 
7. Create shared experiences. Life is enriched by the shared experiences we create. Social media is no substitute for a personal interaction with others. By volunteering your time, you’ll create more shared experiences with and for others. 

Don’t know where to start? I’d suggest starting with what interests you. Have a passion for helping local youth? Volunteer for Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Want to get into information security? Check out your local ISACA chapter. Love backpacking, contact the local hiking group. Follow your interests. 

By the way, the organization where I got started, PASS, is currently soliciting applications to serve on the Board of Directors. If you’re interested, check out the application form. 

Have a volunteer experience that you’d like to share, drop me a line or leave a comment. I’d love to hear it. 

The post How Can I Get the Experience I Want When My Current Job Won’t Let Me? appeared first on The SERO Group.

As part of her latest leadership development venture, she is working with a small group of already established young leaders as they continue to broaden their leadership horizons. I was humbled that she’d ask for my input on the books I’ve found to be of value.

As I began thinking about my top five books, I turned to my list of Recommended Reading and Resources. This list includes books on becoming a better leader, on building a thriving business, on networking with your peers, and on developing other skills that will prove useful in the business world. I thought it would be easy to simply pick five from this list.

I was wrong.

As I browsed through the books, I realized that many of them were written from a business perspective. For example, The Phoenix Project is an excellent book on leadership that I recommend to every IT leader that I work with in my consulting practice. However, the concepts and applicability may be lost on a 19-year-old without the experience of working in a rather dysfunctional IT shop, one where Murphy’s Law reigns and politics abound.

So as good as The Phoenix Project is, I culled it from my list of books I would recommend in my Top 5. Also gone were Dave Ramsey’s Entreleadershp and most of the books by Patrick Lencioni for similar reasons.

I looked for books that teach leadership principles without presupposing use in growing a business or managing a specific environment. I also considered books that, while not specific to leadership, would be helpful for developing leaders.

Top 5 Leadership Books

So, what are my Top 5 books I’d recommend to developing leaders? Five books that I think all leaders should read at some point in the careers, and the earlier, the better? I’ve compiled the list below. These books are listed in the order I’d suggest reading them, not because of their level of influence or degree of greatness, but rather, because of the order of the concepts presented.

Here are the concepts that influenced my selection:

1. You must understand that truly great leaders are flexible in the ways they lead and serve their teams.
2. To best serve your team, you must understand them and their preferences.
3. You must acknowledge that you cannot do it all and that your team has a near limitless potential if you only unleash it.
4. Adversity will come. It always does. But a good leader can shepherd his team through the difficult times.
5. You must accept responsibility for every facet of your team and your role.

And now for the Top 5 List.

1. Leadership and the One Minute Manager

In his classic book Leadership and the One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard debunks the concept of a one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. We know this intuitively. You would not lead a six-year-old the same way you would a 66-year-old. Yet for some reason, many people buy into the notion that they should adopt a single approach to leadership. In this short and easy to read allegory, Blanchard shows how we should adapt our leadership style to best serve those we are leading.

2. Taking Flight!

Have you ever completed a task that wasn’t on your To-Do List and then added it just so you could experience the satisfaction of checking it off the list? Or does that sound completely nuts to you? If you are a High D like me, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

The DISC profile is a great, easy to use tool for quickly identifying your communication and behavioral preferences. With a little effort, you can begin to understand others’ preferences as well, and that will help you to better communicate and work with others. Sound dry and boring? It could be. But Merrick Rosenberg makes it interesting and easy to understand in Taking Flight!

In the short and simplified fable, a group of birds is challenged and must figure out how to respond. As you read, you learn that each species represents a different classification in the DISC model – Dominant, Influential, Steady, and Compliant. The birds must use their strengths to work together and overcome the challenge. In the second part of the book, the concepts are explained in detail.

Understanding the DISC profiles can help you to better communicate with your team, to offer constructive feedback in a more effective manner, and to delegate in a way that helps your direct reports to succeed.

3. Turn the Ship Around!

As leaders, we’ve been told that the buck stops with us, that we are responsible. Period. As a result, many attempt to control all aspects of their teams. They make all decisions. They become experts in every area. They micromanage everything, suppressing the voices and ideas from their teams and relegating them to a bunch of task-takers rather than leveraging their God-given abilities and harnessing their enthusiasm.

That’s what almost happened to USN Captain David Marquet when he was put in charge of his first submarine. But a last-minute surprise force him to adopt a new style of leadership, one that helped him to transform the worst submarine in the fleet into one of the best. In his book, Turn the Ship Around!, Captain Marquet recalls just how he did it. It’s an interesting and informative read.

4. Shackleton’s Way

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton assembled a small crew of able-bodied seamen in hopes of becoming the first team to cross the barren and fridged landscape of Antarctica. His attempt, however, was thwarted when his ship, the Endurance, was trapped in the frozen waters of the Weddell Sea. As the ice crushed the ill-fated ship, Shackleton and his team were left floating aimlessly on a small sheet of ice on the harsh and unforgiving seas.

For over a year, Shackleton and his crew endured the hardships of being lost at sea and forgotten by those they left behind. Assumed dead, they faced overwhelming odds and were forced to make difficult decisions in an attempt to survive and effect their own rescue.

In a story every bit as spectacular and amazing as Apollo 13, Shackleton led his crew to safety without losing a single man. And what’s more, many of his crew wrote in their diaries during the trials “One of the best days of my life.”

In Shackleton’s Way, Margot Morrell thoroughly researched Sir Ernest Shackleton’s multi-year ordeal and has documented the principles that he used to lead his men to safety. Shackleton, who has been called “the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth, bar none,” created a sense of camaraderie among his crew, managed strong personalities during difficult times, took calculated risks, and successfully led his team to safety during the most trying of times.

5. Extreme Ownership

Navy SEALs are often thought to be high-octane adrenaline junkies with a reckless regard for people and structure. Jocko Willink and Lief Babin prove that this is seldom the case. In their book, Extreme Ownership, the duo share leadership lessons they learned on the battlefield and in the streets of some of the most dangerous places on earth.

In each chapter, they share a story from the frontlines that illustrates an effective leadership principle in action. They tell of times when they had imperfect information and had to make a decision quickly of times when other units didn’t cooperatively participate in the planning and execution phases of a mission, and of times when the higher-ups seemed to micromanage their teams’ areas of responsibility. Then Willink and Babin explicitly describe the leadership principles involved and even tell how they have applied these principles in their post-service leadership consulting business.

“Oh, but, they were in the military so, of course, their teams had to comply. In the real world, it’s not like that,” you say? Willink and Babin answer that objection. When the stakes are high, even life-endangering, they tell, you must earn the respect of your team and communicate the “whys” of the mission. People will not risk their lives without believing in the men or women who lead them.

This book is one of the best books on personal responsibility and leadership that I’ve read. If you only read one of these books, this is the one you should select.

Conclusion

It’s been said that the most successful people learn constantly and read voraciously. I’d have to agree with that and I’d encourage anyone who is charged with leading in any capacity to read these books.

But, these books only represent a start; they are the first steps of a journey. Simon Sinek’s Start with Why, for example, is a great book that could have easily been added to this list. So is It’s Your Ship by Capt. Michael Abrashoff. I’m sure there are many more.

Have a book that has really influenced your life or career? I’d love to hear about it. I’m always looking for my next good read.

The post 5 Books Every Leader Should Read appeared first on The SERO Group.

One day during the Jamboree, we were to take a 10-mile hike to the top of a nearby mountain where some festivities awaited us. Our campsite was a couple of miles from the trailhead so for our group it would be a 12-mile hike.

One stoutly-built Scout was winded by the time we reached the trailhead. “Mr. Joe, I don’t think I can make it,” he said. I gave him a short pep talk and we continued. A few miles in, he was lagging behind. I walked with him along with another Scout to make sure he didn’t get left behind.

“Mr. Joe, I can’t make it,” he said, bending at the waist, hands on knees trying to catch his breath. I pointed to a tree a couple of hundred feet ahead and asked if he could make it to that tree. Between deep breaths, he said he could so we continued walking. Once we reached that tree, I encouraged him again, pointed to another tree, and asked the same question. Over and over again, we repeated the routine.

Along the way, another Scout offered to carry his daypack for him. That young man carried his own daypack on his back and wore the struggling Scout’s pack on his stomach. He effectively doubled his own load to help someone else. The three of us (the stout Scout, the Scout carrying two packs, and I) slowly made our way up the mountain. 

The rest of the Scouts noticed the young man was falling behind. Rather than mocking or laughing at the stout young man, they took frequent breaks to allow us to catch up. 

As we neared the summit, we noticed that the rest of Scouts had stopped. Gathering together, they called out to the struggling Scout “You got this!” and “Keep going. You’re almost there.”

Once we closed the gap and were all together again, the rest of the Scouts ushered the young man to the front on the Troop so he, the one who had struggled so mightily, the one who had delayed their arrival to the fun festivities atop the mountain, the one who had nearly given up before he had even begun, could be the first one to summit the mountain. And when we arrived at the top, they let out a heartfelt cheer for their companion. That day, that young man accomplished something he didn’t think possible and his fellow Scouts celebrated that moment with him, right behind him.

Remembering that still brings a lump to my throat. It gives me hope for the day when our nation and our communities will be led by the coming generation.

I have lost contact with most of those young men. Yet, their actions that day remain with me. It’s something I won’t forget.

So, how important is corporate culture? I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that the trajectory of that young Scout’s life may have been changed that day. Had the other Scouts jeered him, had they belittled his abilities, he would have left there feeling inadequate and deflated.

Instead, the group rallied behind him and built him up. There’s no telling the things he may accomplish in the future because of the corporate culture that existed in that Troop.

Imagine your team, encouraging one another. Imagine them pulling together for a common goal. Imagine them growing stronger together, sharing their strengths, and helping to carry each other’s load when needed. What could you accomplish? Maybe a better question would be: what couldn’t you accomplish?

Perhaps the most important thing we can do as leaders is to create the culture we want in our organizations. If we don’t intentionally do that, someone else will. And it may not be the culture we want.

The post How Important is Corporate Culture? appeared first on The SERO Group.

Many of the books I read so that I can grow professionally. Books on developing better leadership skills, on becoming more effective in what I do, on fostering deeper and stronger relationships within teams, and on how businesses can make better use of their data, are some of the topics that interest me.

Already this year, I’ve read three books that I’ve added to my Recommended Reading list. These were insightful, yet entertaining, applicable, yet engaging.

It’s Your Ship The United States Navy doesn’t have a monopoly on the highly-regimented, top-down leadership style. In fact, many companies still have this corporate culture. In It’s Your Ship, Abrashoff recounts how he was able to take a below average ship and turn it into one of the best ships in the Navy. His crew developed a sense of ownership and pride in their work. His bosses recognized Benfold’s accomplishments and rewarded the crew with additional liberty and flexibility. Abrashoff’s approaches work in the corporate world as well. This book is a must-read for leaders.

Permission to Screw Up Many business and leadership books are sanitized and polished. The authors share their successes without revealing the many painful mistakes and setbacks that plagued them along the way. This is not one of those books. In her book, Permission to Screw Up, Hadeed shares how she inadvertently started and grew a business hiring only millennials. She tells her engaging and personal story in an entertaining and thought-provoking way. In the end, the leadership lessons she shares seem more real and less academic, more applicable and less theoretical, more heartfelt and less boastful. Entertaining and informative, this book will help you build a better team.

The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Jack Shafer spent years with the FBI, preparing spies for their missions and helping to recruit spies from other countries. During his career, he developed strategies for reading people, building trust, and developing long-term relationships. This is not a book about deceitfully manipulating people. This book shares how to build better and stronger relationships.

If you are or desire to be a leader in your organization, I’d highly recommend that you pick up a copy of these three books. They are well worth your time.

The full Recommended Reading list is here.

Enjoy!

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These terms, and many like them, have been in the news a lot recently. And with good reason. Many organizations are taking their first tentative steps toward sifting through the vast amounts of data collected in disparate systems in search of hidden nuggets of insight to improve operations or some other aspect of business. Rushing headlong into a statistical analysis of their systems, they hope to find the next big thing.

Statistics for Statistic’s Sake?

But statistics for statistic’s sake is not very useful. A deep analysis of data is most interesting and useful when the results can be used to predict future outcomes based on prior correlations with a relatively high degree of certainty.

Baseball, for example, is an industry rife with relatively meaningless statistics. The traditional metrics of batting average and earned run average have proven to add relatively little value when evaluating a players contribution to a team’s chance of winning. Yet they have been given significant weight both on the field and in the back office. These statistics have been used to negotiate contracts, determine batting order, and influence the starting pitching rotation.

True Key Performance Indicators

Over the past ten years or so, a ton of other statistics have been identified and found to be far more predictive of successful outcomes. For example, on-base percentage and the ability to draw walks are more indicative of the positive offensive contributions of a player. From a pitching perspective, the ability to get a batter to hit a ground ball translates into more outs and hence more team wins than the traditional ERA metric. If you are interested in sports and data analytics, I would highly recommend the following two books: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis and Big Data Baseball by Travis Sawchik. Both are fascinating and entertaining reads, especially for the data-minded sports fan.

Like Major League Baseball, many organizations are combing through copious amounts of data looking for ways to improve operations, sales, manufacturing, etc. As an example, Target can identify pregnant patrons based on subtle changes in their buying habits, often before they have shared their good news with relatives. Disney has used RFID in its theme parks to track queue length, visitor travel patterns, etc, so they can adjust and improve operations.

Analyzing Your “Big Data”

As your organization begins to evaluate using data analytics to unearth hidden correlations that may influence your strategic initiatives, remember that to be truly relevant, statistics alone cannot tell the whole story. Subject matter experts from operations, HR, engineering, manufacturing, and other areas within the business should be involved with the project. They can offer great insight and help you to ask better questions. Without their expertise, meaningless correlations can be identified and inadvertently given credence.

Some Spurious Examples

Some humorously extreme examples of these spurious correlations can be found at Tylervegin.com. For example, the divorce rate in Maine has an uncanny correlation to the amount of margarine consumed per capita annually. Spreading margarine on a biscuit causes a nasty breakup in Maine? Of course not, but the statistics imply otherwise.

Chart courtesy of TylerVigen.com.

Likewise, the number of drivers killed annually in collisions with trains closely parallels the amount of crude oil imported into the US from Norway. If the U.S. wants to see the death toll drop to zero, lawmakers should ban importing crude oil from Norway? That’s preposterous. Well, to most of us, anyway. I don’t want to predict what Congress may do.

Chart courtesy of TylerVigen.com.

Obviously, these correlations do not imply causation. And, that’s the point. Without the right subject matter experts in the room, an analytics team may draw incorrect inferences and lead the organization on a wild goose chase.

Asking the Right Questions

Asking the right questions is key. And who better to ask great questions than Subject Matter Experts, end users, etc., when analyzing your “Big Data?”

Looking for some data to experiment with? Check out Data! Getcha Data Here!

Are you inviting the right people to your project’s table?

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The backpackers I know strictly adhere to the pack-it-in-pack-it-out philosophy. Unfortunately, not everyone does.

I scaled the four-foot dirt bank and followed the trail as it turned sharply left and paralleled the meandering stream that I had just crossed. It was almost noon and I was hungry. I considered every small clearing as a potential spot for lunch, hoping to find a site near the water. The sound of water trickling over rocks creates a nice ambiance while eating, but I had a more compelling and practical reason to eat near water. I could drink deeply from my water bottles and fill up again before hitting the trail.

As I walked, searching for a place to stop, something caught my eye, something I hadn’t seen on this trip until now.

In small clearing beside the stream, logs had been arranged in the shape of a U. In the center, a small fire ring made of softball-sized rocks held ashes. It also contained several blackened soda cans, a partially melted disposable water bottle, and some unburned trash on top. Scattered around the campsite was other debris that looked to be remnants of diapers.

Taken aback I stopped and surveyed the site. Until now the trail had been nearly pristine, which is pretty remarkable given the number of hikers on the Appalachian Trail. Every backpacker I had met was meticulous about leaving a campsite better than he found it. Trash was not left for someone else to clean up. We all diligently followed the “Pack It In, Pack It Out” philosophy.

Like most other hikers, I carried a 1-gallon ziplock bag where I kept what little trash I produced until I could dispose of it properly. A few road crossings had bear-proof garbage canisters for hikers to use, otherwise we carried it until we came to a store or town.

But here, at least one camper had completely ignored the code of the trail. I shook my head in disbelief. I took off my pack and picked up some of the trash, adding it to my ziplock bag. It hardly made a difference, but I thought that every little bit helps.

Within a half mile, I came to a road crossing and understood what had happened. It wasn’t backpackers that had left this mess. It was probably locals who had hiked a short distance into the woods for a fun time camping. When the party was over, they didn’t feel like toting their discards back to their car. So, they left it.

AT Lesson #11: Don’t Feed the Stereotypes

Campers and backpackers are often seen as trespassers into the natural environment, interlopers into a world that does not belong to them. Carelessly leaving trash in their wake, they damage the unmarred habitat of nature’s fauna and flora. The stereotype of the self-centered, careless, and egotistical camper that cares nothing for the environment is reinforced with every piece of trash found.

I believe that spending time in the woods, communing with nature, actually encourages people to be better stewards of creation. In the woods you get a better appreciation of the glory of nature, and you want to protect it. As an avid backpacker, I’m aware of the damaging stereotype and do what I can to combat it. I don’t want the inconsiderate actions of a few to dictate how the world thinks of campers.

In our daily walk at work, we must be aware of stereotypes as well. IT departments are notorious for needlessly and flippantly saying no, being unresponsive and uncooperative to the needs of the business, and rudely belittling those who don’t understand the acronyms or the technology. That’s unfortunate. And it’s how “Shadow IT” becomes prevalent.

Stereotypes also invade our personal and volunteer lives. As a Christian and as a member of a local church, I know that some people automatically ascribe bigotry and intolerance to me. I know that as an adult leader in a youth development organization, some assumptions are inevitably made about me.

So what can we do?

First, be aware of the stereotype. Know that it exists and be sensitive to it. Understand that you may have a hard time convincing that business user that you’re not there to automatically quash their request but to further understand their needs and how you may be able to help.

Second, don’t feed the stereotype. As an IT professional don’t use a bunch of jargon that you think makes you sound smart. It doesn’t. Remember the quote that is often attributed to Albert Einstein, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Third, follow Stephen Covey’s advice, seek first to understand and then to be understood. Actually while you’re at it, follow all of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s good.

I know it’s an uphill struggle, but just as getting into the woods gives you a better appreciation of nature, getting into the business gives you a better understanding of how your job affects others in the business and your customers.

“But I’m just one person and I cannot change the whole organization.” That may be true. But we can do our part and we can be an example to others. I couldn’t pick up all of the trash someone else left behind, but I carried out what I could, and I like to think that helped.

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“That’s not how we do it here.”

Those words, when said by an authority figure such as a boss or team lead, can stifle innovative thinking and cap the creative juices that are necessary for an organization to adapt to a changing environment.

I recently listened to John Kotter’s book by that title, That’s Not How We Do It Here! In this book Kotter, who has also written Leading Change and Our Iceberg Is Melting, offers a fable about a clan of meerkats who have created a successful and thriving organization. It’s highly structured with well-documented procedures for gathering food, building and maintaining tunnels, and watching for predators. The hierarchal organization offers predictable results with little risk. It works great as long as the landscape doesn’t change too much.

Unfortunately a series of unexpected events does change the clan’s environment. New and uncontrollable challenges threaten the clan’s very existence and the management structure that once supported the clan now seems to hinder it. The senior meerkats, steeped in the traditional way of surviving, have great difficulties adjusting because “That’s not the way we do it here!”

The rest of the book describes how a couple of meerkats leave the clan to learn how other clans do it. Along the way, they learn the difference between leadership and management and how both are required for an organization to survive and thrive. Leadership without structured management can lead to chaos. Management without leadership suppresses creativity and leads to an ineffective uses of resources and a slow, frustrating demise.

I like books that use fables or fictional allegories that describe business principles that can be applied to the real-world. And Kotter does that well in this book. It effectively, if simplistically, draws the distinction between leadership and management. It shows how both are important, one more than the other at different stages of an organization’s development.

The book falls a bit short of describing how to successfully create the balanced environment where both techniques are effectively practiced. That’s probably a bit ambitious for this kind of book, but nevertheless it left me wanting more.

Overall, I’d recommend the book. Maybe not at the top of my list of resources, but it’s worth the read.

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