Archives: September 2018

THE EIGHTEEN “NUMBER ONES”
52 YEARS. ONE PAGE/ONE SLIDE.

My “management career” stretches from 1966 … a staggering 52 years as of 2018. There are 2,500 speeches and 18 books to look back on. But I am big on summaries. And so I decided to try to reduce my latest book, The Excellence Dividend, and in effect those 52 years, to a single page.

Well, for better or for worse, I did it. The single page is titled: THE EIGHTEEN “NUMBER ONES.” That is, 18 things of surpassing importance to invest in or do. Also, eighteen ideas that have stood the test of time. They are more or less timeless, but they also (see the book) are a winning formula in the Age of Ubiquitous AI.

Consider my “BIG THREE”:

*Investment #1: TRAINING
*Asset #1: PORTFOLIO OF FIRST-LINE MANAGERS
*Core Value #1: LISTENING EXCELLENCE!!!

The one-pager comes in two formats—standard text and (hey, it’s me) PowerPoint. The type face on the single PP slide was wee, so I cheated, and you also get the 5-slide version.

At any rate, all yours …

The Eighteen Number Ones – PDF
The Eighteen Number Ones – PPT

The Excellence Dividend Book List

Our thanks to a reader who took it on himself to collect the long list of books mentioned by Tom in The Excellence Dividend and send it to us! Throughout his book, Tom quotes from books he’s read, makes recommendations of books for you to read, and lists books as sources on his favorite topics. He has read most of the books he mentions, though certainly not every one! Here’s the list, which we put into alpha order by chapter with complete titles, subtitles, and authors’ names. We hope you can use it as a resource and maybe compile your own reading list from among its many titles.

The Excellence Dividend Book List

Google Surprise

“Hard (plans, numbers, org charts) is soft. Soft (people, relationships, culture) is hard.” Those two sentences-ideas have been the core of my work for decades.

So how about this, from a 12/20/17 Washington Post article:

“Project Oxygen [data from 1998-2013] shocked everyone [at Google] by concluding that among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills—being a good coach, communicating and listening well, having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues …”

The paper attached here—”Hard is Soft. Soft is Hard. Google Gets a (Big) (Soft) Surprise”—starts with the Google case and moves into other arenas to discuss “Hard is soft. Soft is hard.” It is very short and intended to be a thought starter. It’s also, frankly, an excuse to get the Google finding in front of more people: If the Google tale doesn’t make you stop in your tracks, I honestly don’t know what would!!!!!!!!!! (The excerpt included from Rich Karlgaard’s book The Soft Edge is also a “showstopper”—giving conventional wisdom a well deserved good, swift, kick in the butt.)

Over to you …

Google Surprise Plus