Category: Announcements

Tom’s Archive at the Drucker Institute

With a collection of over 40 years worth of books, presentations, and articles, Tom has been nothing if not prolific. He wants to make sure his ideas are accessible even after his retirement. That is why he has donated his life’s work to the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University, the home of Peter Drucker’s own extensive archives.

Tom says, “I am infinitely proud to be part of the Drucker family and hope my contributed papers will be of value to management thinkers and others in the years to come.”

As an advocate for affordable and accessible education, Tom has always posted his presentations online, free for download. He has partnered with libraries to ensure anyone can read his books. Tom records short, insightful videos to be easily screened on YouTube. In this next step he not only ensures his legacy of People First, he also models to other thought leaders the importance of collaboration and preservation.

“I saw a great opportunity to make the Drucker Institute the epicenter of management thinking and debate, allowing scholars, students, and leaders in the private, public, and social sectors to explore and learn from a near-century of writings on the topics of management, business, leadership, and humanism.”

Read Claremont’s full announcement!

Course 6: Leadership with Urgency–OUT NOW!

Tom’s final course is now out! WOW.

His series, Excellence: Now More Than Ever, The Excellence Dividend Online Experience, consists of six courses and offers a total of 99 Steps to Excellence, each followed by specific actions you can take NOW. The goal of this series is simple: to offer you and your organization a helping hand in implementing the products of decades of Tom’s research.

Course 6 is the culmination of Tom’s course series. Leadership with Urgency will invite you to take a very close look at your daily leadership habits and start to make some immediate changes to improve how you’re getting things done. They may sound simple, but as you’ll read below, they’re not exactly easy. Nothing worthwhile is, right?

Course 6: Leadership with Urgency

[Below is what Tom has written to introduce this course, beginning with a quote from Dov Frohman.]

Avoid busy-ness, free up your time, stay focused on what really matters. Let me put it bluntly: every leader should routinely keep a substantial portion of his or her time—I would say as much as 50 percent—unscheduled. . . .Only when you have substantial ‘slop’ in your schedule—unscheduled time—will you have the space to reflect on what you are doing, learn from experience, and recover from your inevitable mistakes. . . . It takes enormous effort on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly important things.” Dov Frohman, Leadership the Hard Way

High-tech superstar Dov Frohman lays down an outrageous law: 50 percent UNSCHEDULED TIME.

Frankly, I don’t think many of us could pull this off—could even pull off 25 percent free time. Nonetheless, Frohman’s credentials from Intel and from reshaping Israel’s high-tech sector are impeccable. My goal is to have you reflect on the likes of Frohman’s outrageous command. I don’t think I could do it—but upon personal reflection I think he is absolutely positively on the money.

TYPICALLY FRENZIED LEADERSHIP IS NOT LEADERSHIP AT ALL.

How many of us have had a boss who is late to four out of every five meetings because he’s overscheduled? Well, count me as one who’s experienced it—and lost all respect for the boss as a result thereof. The late boss is disrespectful (and, I’d bet, an awful decision-maker). You can’t do “frenzy” and “thoughtful” at the same time. I’d bet his decision-making is as half-assed as his on-time record.

The goal of this course is to lay down some formidable leadership challenges. It’s meant to get you thinking and trying several of these ideas out. I’m going to push you, for instance, on your communication skills. I’m going to tell you that each of the 15 people who report to you is very different from the other 14. Which means you need 15 dramatically different communication strategies in order to move forward effectively—every top football coach knows that, and so does every superior third-grade teacher, but damn few bosses seem to get it. They blame a miscommunication on the recipient—when in fact it is the boss’s fault 100 percent of the time!

Twenty challenges are forthcoming. I hope they help you down the path to leadership excellence.

Good luck.
-Tom

Register for Course 6: Leadership with Urgency today.

Course 2: People (REALLY) First—OUT NOW

Take care of people. Train them and train them and train them and treat them with kindness and respect and help them prepare for tomorrow. Insist that every employee commit to growth and care for their mates (this goes double—or triple—in today’s troubled times). Goal: Extreme Employee Engagement (E3). Bottom line: make Excellence the norm in all people matters.

That’s it.

This course looks at the “people (what- the-hell-else-is-there?) issue” through eleven different lenses—that is, eleven steps. My goal is to inflame (!) your desire (!) to work harder (!) and more creatively (!) on the “people stuff”—and to provide you with practical (ready- to-use-today) approaches to doing so.

VIEW COURSE 2 NOW

February Media Sightings

Check out these articles to keep up-to-date on all things Tom.

The Financial Times released Tom’s op-ed on the McKinsey-Purdue Pharma affair today, February 15th. For Tom’s thoughts on his former employers’ role in Purdue Pharma rebates read his opinion piece now, Tom Peters: McKinsey’s work on opioid sales represents a new low.

Fast Company’s February 3rd article, A Personal Branding Expert Shares What it Takes to Build a Successful Reputation by Wendy Marx, remind us of Tom’s five keys to help sharpen your image:

  • Prioritize Continued Education
  • Seek Out Diverse Reading Material
  • Strive for Exceptional Performance
  • Network Broadly
  • Take on a Humanist Approach

In this Loop North article by Howard Tullman, How To Walk Around The Office – Even If There Isn’t One, Tullman reminds us that Tom’s idea of Managing by Walking Around (MBWA) is just as important when your employees are working from home.

Excellence Now Campaign

“What you are doing right now will be the hallmark of your entire career.”  That’s what Tom is insisting about the critical nature of leadership in current conditions. These tumultuous times demand deep engagement, human connection, and, yes, EXCELLENCE. In response, Tom has started his Excellence Now Campaign, a trio of publications intended to be his final lessons in Excellence. Lessons which focus on these topics of surpassing importance; topics which are, in fact, more important now than ever.

Excellence Now: The Forty-Three Number Ones
Tom’s latest eBook shares 43 powerful and actionable “true Number Ones,” extracted from his 43 years of leadership research.  Each idea stands on its own and cannot be relegated to the middle or bottom of a list. And each Number One contains a proven message that can be applied—starting today. For the Forty-Three Number Ones Summary please download here, and to read the full Forty-Three Number Ones eBook you can purchase it here.

Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism
In his upcoming book, Tom sets an even higher bar given the state of our very troubled and very fast moving world today. Tom will show how excellence that centers around the human being rather than the technology, that creates jobs rather than destroys them, that offers humanized services and products that bring no less than delight and joy to customers is achieved by day-to-day, hour-to-hour action. Pre-order for Kindle now.

Excellence: Now More Than Ever
This six-part training course, two years in the making, is based in part on Tom’s 2018 book, The Excellence Dividend. On top of the 99 videos, each emphasizing a Step to Excellence, there are actionable TTDNs (Things To Do Now) associated with each of the content pieces that you can customize to the needs of your organization. That’s 99 Steps and more than 99 action items. Read more about all six courses here. The six courses are:

  1. The Power of Excellence
  2. People (Really) First
  3. Innovation
  4. Value-Added Strategies
  5. Leadership Excellence
  6. Leadership with Urgency

Excellence Now Campaign Highlights

Please find the full Excellence Now Campaign timeline below:

Announcing Tom’s Upcoming Online Course Series!

To our friends old and new: 

Tom is launching a series of online courses on Udemy very (very) soon!

In the age of Covid-19, we’re committed to finding new ways to connect with you. This course series is one of the many things we’re doing to give you access to Tom’s teachings in new ways. 

While it may be a while before we can meet in person, there’s no reason not to strengthen those relationships digitally. 

For those of you who may not be able to afford it right now, we’ll be uploading snippets of the courses on our website at no cost at all. 

Click this link to update your mailing preferences to include yourself in notifications about the new courses as they’re released.

I
f you’re new here or think a friend might be interested,  click here to Join the Fray!

To learn more about what Tom will be teaching, read his letter to you below.
TP Course 1 Guide – A Personal Note

Listen in!

In these exceptional times, Tom stresses the need for inspiring and humane leadership now more than ever.

As leaders, we must ask ourselves: (1) What are our responsibilities to our employees and the greater community? (2) How will management excellence during uncertain times better shape our futures?

Tom tackles these questions in a number of recent conversations conducted well over six-feet away (!) with various thought leaders.

We hope these words offer you some guidance and wisdom in how you lead your careers and lives. In the meantime, stay safe.

 

Nov 16

Interview with Trevor Gay

Nov 13

“These are the Seven Commandments. Be kind, be caring, be patient, be forgiving, be present, be positive, and walk in the other person’s shoes.” – Tom Peters in conversation with Mitch Russo on Your First Thousand Clients.

Sept 30

Catch Tom in conversation with Izolda Trakhtenberg on The Innovative Mind podcast

Aug 24

On the 250th episode of Peter Winick‘s Leveraging Thought Leadership, Tom talks about being a public figure and how thought leadership can be misinterpreted. Tune in here

Aug 24

Managing in times of madness doesn’t have to be….madness! Catch Tom in his latest interview with Mark Graban on the Lean Podcast

July 28

On 1000 African Voices, Tom talks about Trump and the importance of leadership during turbulent times.

July 27

On Six Pixels of Separation, Tom talks to Mitch Joel about business thinking. Listen in, get inspired and GO! 

July 17

Check out Tom’s feature on the Masters Speak series hosted by Future Generali India Life Insurance.

July 13

Tom speaks with Todd Schnick on the Schnick Foundation podcast.

July 3

Tom speaks with Adrian Swincoe on Punk CX about the need for Extreme Humanization. Listen to the podcast episode here!  

July 1

Check out this recorded livestream with Tom and Sam Maule of the 11:FS show.

June 29

In a LinkedIn Live conversation with Phil Gerbyshak, Tom stresses that certain priorities remain constant despite the global volatility brought on by COVID-19.

June 24

On the Scaling Up Business podcast with Bill Gallagher, Tom talks about putting people first. Why? Because what could possibly be more important!

June 21

Listen in to hear what Tom says company leaders must understand, his unexpected stance on maximizing shareholder value, and more on Roger Dooley’s Brainfluence podcast.

June 21

On Global I.Q with Jim Falk, Tom talks about how leaders must navigate the new normal to effectively engage within the limits of social distancing and virtual conference rooms.

June 7

On the weekly show DisrupTV, Tom engages in an energizing conversation with Salesforce’s Vala Afshar and Chairman of Constellation Research, Inc Ray Wang. This episode has reached over 72k views in just over a week! Check it out!

Podcast here.
Video recording here.

June 5

On Diane Hamilton’s Take the Lead, Tom talks about his inspirations, motivations and strategies for managing better.

 

“I’ve been reading so much stuff for the past few years. The whole series of books from Sherry Turkle, a woman from Berkeley on how the new technology is making awful messes of our brain.  All of which incidentally, given the timing of our conversation and forgetting the nightmare part is incredibly important relative to this issue.

Are we all going to work for home and what does that mean in terms of social psychological interaction, decision-making, etc.?

I’ve been asked over and over again, the thing that Bob Waterman and I found in doing the In Search of Excellence research way back in 1977, was managing by wandering around in a two-year-old Packard. I’ve always said that’s the only idea I need. It’s not about managing by wandering around. It’s about leaders who are in touch.” – Tom Peters

May 29

On Unleashed with Jeff Tetz, Tom talks about his recent compilation of management advice, 27 Number Ones.

May 25

Catch Tom and Marcus Kirsch on the third episode of The Wicked Podcast.

May 25

Tom and Nick Westergaard talk leadership in troubling times on the On Brand podcast.

“The way that leaders behave relative to the people that work with them throughout this crisis—let’s call it the last two months and the next 2–3 months—what they do and the way in which they do it will be the landmark of their adult career.” – Tom Peters

May 19

Tom speaks with Thomas Capone on the New York Distance Learning Association’s podcast, Coffee in the Clouds

“What you have done in the last 60 days and what you will do in the next 90 or 120 days, to a significant degree, will be your life legacy… If you take great care of people, they’ll take care of the bottom line. ” -Tom Peters

May 12

Listen to Tom on Jim Marous’ Banking Transformed podcast.

May 7

On the Tell Me What To Say podcast with Drew Kugler, Tom talks about communication during a crisis.

April 30

In his second appearance on the Stayin’ Alive in Tech podcast with founder of Timeshare CMO Melinda Byerley, Tom discusses how managers should navigate tough decisions. Underscoring his decades-long philosophy of putting people first, Tom warns of the consequences leaders will face down the line if they don’t prioritize their employees now.

“If you’re a leader and if you have people working for you, never do any single thing you can’t imagine bragging to your grandkids thirty years from now. It’s all about people. It’s all about taking care of people… You have a responsibility as a business owner.” -Tom Peters

April 24

In this GYDA Member Hub Talks – Robert Craven interviews Tom on how the COVID-19 Crisis will define your career as a digital agency leader.

April 20

On Jeanne Bliss’ Human Duct Tape Show, Tom talks about the importance of trusting your employees as many make the transition to work from home.

“The skill you need in a crisis is to have developed an incredible group of human beings who have autonomy and who care.” -Tom Peters

April 1 

For non-corona related news, Tom spoke with Bradford Cooper on the Catalyst Health, Wellness and Performance Podcast discussing how to succeed and make an impact in the wellness industry.

“You have the opportunity to dramatically reshape the lives over a 10 year period of 1000 people.” – Tom Peters

March 29

On the Manage Smarter Podcast, Tom speaks with SalesFuel CEO C. Lee Smith on how to manage effectively and humanely during a crisis.  

“If you are a CEO sitting with stock options up the kazoo — and you’ve got a bank account of 170 million dollars — and if you lay front line people off (during this pandemic), you are a first-class lifelong SOB in my book.” – Tom Peters

Podcast: Stayin’ Alive in Tech

There’s a relatively new podcast hosted by Melinda Byerley called Stayin’ Alive in Technology. Two days ago Tom was a guest, and his episode, “Tom Peters: Don’t Stop Me Now,” is now live and ready for listening. Tom tells us he had a lot of fun, not the least of which was choosing the music! (So, be sure to pay attention to that.)

Stayin’ Alive in Tech podcast

To see more from this podcast, which explores the beginnings of technology and Silicon Valley, visit @stayinpodcast on Twitter.

Financial Times Summer Book List

Tom’s happy to have The Excellence Dividend included in a very short list—three titles—of books recommended by the Financial Times for summer. If you have a subscription, you can read their review here: “FT Business Books of the Month.”

It’s also possible to sign up for a month’s trial subscription to FT for $1.00. And on Twitter, via the FT tweetstream, you can get a hint to their review and see the other two book titles, here. Thanks to the Financial Times for their recommendation of Tom’s latest book!

Video with Tom and Tiffani Bova

Here’s a short video: Tom Peters and Tiffani Bova—People to preview the IIL Agile and Scrum virtual conference online, scheduled for Thursday, the 7th, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.

Video: Tom Peters and Tiffani Bova—People

[Addendum 6 June 2018: TP and Tiffani Bova—Listen, Care, Smile, Say “Thank You”]

[Addendum 7 June 2018: TP and Tiffani Bova—It’s All About the Relationships]

[Addendum 12 June 2018, Final Video: TP and Tiffani Bova—The Importance of Failure]