Preparing for Opportunities and Contingencies

One of the best ways to look for new opportunities is through purposeful imagination. It inspired President Kennedy to say, “We need men who can dream of things that never were.” There are great undone things to be done. To find some of them, all you have to do is turn off the mental constraints and free your creativity. Purposeful imagination is at the heart of the “Blue Ocean Strategy,” and it is the counter to the “Tyranny of the OR.”

Opportunities are often created by events. Those at the right place at the right time to take advantage of events did not get there just by accident. As the French scientist Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors only the prepared mind.” Purposeful imagination is about preparing for opportunities and contingencies. How do you do that? It isn’t hard to do. It is thinking about things that could happen and then imagining how to react to them. It is about doing so with an eye toward the opportunities those events would present.

You do it by setting aside one day month, or a half day every two weeks, with your management team for the exercise of purposeful imagination. Future events that are problems for others become opportunities for the trained mind. While future events may not mirror exactly those practiced as hypothetical, your team will have gained the skill for quick reaction. Like building muscle memory for an athlete through practice, you will have trained your organization to deal with surprises as opportunities rather than problems.

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Tom Collins’ books include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online store. unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio editon of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Free audio edition of The Claret Murders

For details of this limited offer for free downloads of the audio edition of The Claret Murders go to E-mysteries.com.

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Tom Collins’ books include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online store. unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio editon of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Succeeding for the Long Haul

On May 20, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40+ people fought the Franklin afternoon traffic to attend my session on Succeeding for the Long Haul and purchased a signed copy of my new book, The Language of Excellence. While we covered a lot of the material in the book, Tom Peters and Nancy Austin wrote the punch line more than 30 years ago. In The Passion for Excellence, they wrote the following:

“…there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long haul. First, take exceptional care of your customers (for chicken, jet engines, education, health care, or baseball, etc.) via superior service and superior quality. Second, constantly innovate. That’s it. There are no alternatives in achieving long-term superior performance…”

Peter Drucker said the only sound objective is the pursuit of excellence; anything else is at best only competent and that leads to marginal.

It is all about the Model for Excellence:

You can only achieve excellence through people who truly care about their customers. Moreover, you do not get to decide if you have achieved your objective. Excellence must be earned through the eyes of those who judge you, your customers. Once you achieve it, you can only maintain it through constant innovation. All that—the right people, superior customer care, and constant innovation—requires a common sense of direction [something I call I-65 North] and in-touch leadership for which traditionally “Management by Wandering Around” was an essential tool. Today social media has provided us with extraordinary new ways for the leadership to stay in touch with customers, employees, vendors, and even competitors—never has in-touch leadership been so easy. Unfortunately, few take advantage of it, and fewer follow the advice of Peters and Austin.

As I made my closing remarks, I was surprised by the appearance of Tennessee State Representative Glen Casada who presented me with a proclamation of the Tennessee House of Representatives recognizing me for my business and literary achievements—a nice surprise.

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Tom Collins’ books include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online store. unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio editon of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Secret to Success for the Long Haul

Anyone can be accidentally successful for some period of time--they can have their fifteen minutes of fame!  But, long term durable success doesn't happen by accident. So what do those who achieve it do differently? What is the secrete for achieving business success for the long haul?  It is simple. However, very few ever follow this simple formula for achieving long-term superior performance. As for those who do, join me on May 20 to find out what they do differently. 

What people are saying about The Language of Excellence.

I'm on the road, in Sacramento right now. But, I wanted to take time to share with readers what people are saying about The Language of Excellence. 

Gary Slaughter, author of Cottonwood Novels said "I can't tell you how many leadership and management books I have read in the past past 50 years or so, but yours fall in the top 5." He also said its like the "Joy of Cooking" that in the 50's and 60's became a standard in every home--The Language of Excellence is a cookbook for achieving success in business.

Robert Hicks, New Your Times best selling author of The Widow of the South and  A Separate Country said, "Tom Collins' The Language of Excellence just may be the only guide book to personal and business excellence you will ever need to read. Borrowing from a lifetime of achievement, Collins lays out clear guidelines that can help you find your own success while enabling you to offer others the same 'excellence' that has marked both his life and career. A must-read for achievers."

"Author Tom Collins is both left-brained and right-brained. His creative side has given birth to the Mark Rollins mystery series which features the author’s love of wine and mystery, set in and around the Nashville area. His logical side calls upon his vast business experience to offer the wisdom of his years in his latest book, “The Language of Excellence.”-- Donna O'Neil, Author and former Williamson Herald Managing Editor

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Tom Collins’ books include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online  store. unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio editon of The Claret Murders go tohttp://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Plans Cannot Predict the Future, but Planning Can Prepare You for It

Rob Millard, founder and partner of Venturis Consulting Group, once wrote, “All too often, I find myself facing blank stares from clients who want me to help them craft a plan that will lead them to greatness. This is only possible where the future is certain. Which, of course, it is not.”

The point is that strategic plans are based on assumptions about the future, and those predictions are too inaccurate to reliably steer an organization. Thus, if you unwaveringly pursue a plan based on those inaccurate assumptions, you will eventually implement the wrong strategy—you will “successfully fail.”

Now wait just a minute! We know that planning is one of the five things that distinguish successful organizations from the “also-ran” and the unsuccessful. Now you are telling me that following that plan will lead to successfully failing?

You got it. The “plan” must be to change the “plan”! Plans provide an essential fixed point for reacting to future events—for revising your assumptions, tactics, and strategies as the future becomes clearer. You can’t accurately predict the future, but by revising your predictions and your plans, you prepare your organization for it. Make sense?

The inaccurate character of assumptions is why planning must be a continuous

process. Through that continuous process of changing the plan as the future unfolds, successful organizations achieve that success by doing the “right things.” It is because of the continuous nature of the planning process that I emphasize that the tangible product of strategic planning, “the plan” should consist of words, phrases, and sentences, not paragraphs, pages, and chapters. It is the “play book,” that coordinates and shapes an organization’s actions and decisions, and that is changed by those actions and decisions on the front line in reaction to an unfolding future. Taking a line from the Pirates of the Caribbean about the Pirate’s Code, “It is more of a guide than an actual code.”

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“In this exciting age of fast-paced growth and innovative communication technology, Tom Collins has managed to incorporate timeless principles with modern advancements to achieve results-driven success in today’s business world. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't be enlightened by its contents.”—Jack Grant, Business Management Consultant

Tom Collins’ books include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online store. unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes& Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio editon of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Exceptional Customer Care—The Mystery Ingredient

I recently sold a vacation home and selected Allied to move furniture from Florida to Tennessee. They were a class act. I will not go into everything that made the organization stand out. I will just focus on the driver and his helper. We were not present when they picked up the furniture, but we met the truck when it arrived at the storage facility we had selected to house the items until needed. Throughout the unloading process, my wife and I were struck by the courtesy (politeness) both men showed to each other. Of course they were nice to us—the customer—but why to each other?

I have always talked about common courtesy as a job requirement in any organization.

Common Courtesy

Customers accept nothing less. If they do not get it, then when they have an alternative, and eventually they will, they will take it. However, this was different. It was common courtesy kicked up a notch—it was “kindness.” Both men showed kindness and concern toward each other and to us. It was something more than just common courtesy.

I decided to do a little research and it lead to a book by Ed Horrell, The Kindness Revolution: The Company-Wide Culture Shift That Inspires Phenomenal Customer Service. Lydia Ramsey, a business etiquette expert, writing about Horrell’s book said:

“From the rampant indifference that we all encounter on a daily basis, he recommends that companies, large and small, switch to an attitude of kindness. He's not suggesting that the boss simply tell everyone “to be nice.” He states that kindness starts at the top and penetrates every level of the organization. When everyone within a company treats everyone else with courtesy, respect and compassion, that attitude automatically gets passed on to the customers.”

Tom Peters, a writer on business management practices, states flatly that there are only two ways for an organization to achieve long-term durable success. One has to have exceptional customer care and practice constant innovation.

It may well be that “kindness” is the mystery ingredient. I recall the first planning session that I held with the new Juris team. The startup company at that time had only nine employees. When asked what kind of company they wanted us to be, the answer was “We want to be a company that likes its customers and is liked by them.”

How does one achieve exceptional customer care, common courtesy, kindness, and customers who like you? As a leader, you have to practice it yourself. You have to verbalize it and reinforce it through constant communication. It has to be a performance standard. It has to be a “core belief”—a fixed unshakeable point on the moral compass of the organization.

I was not surprised when, upon completing the unloading job and shaking hands with us, the driver said, “When they ask you how we did, I hope you can give us five stars.” That is right; the company measures and rewards performance.

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Tom Collins’ books include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online store. unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio editon of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Listening for 900 Miles

Last week I drove 900 miles from Naples, Florida, to Franklin, Tennessee. I hate driving. However, this particular trip went by quickly. Why?

I purchased an audiobook before starting my road trip. The book turned a normally unpleasant fourteen hours into an enjoyable listening experience. It was one of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher mysteries and had a little more splattered brain matter and destroyed knees than I prefer—but then there were a couple of drivers I encountered during the trip that I would have liked to introduce to Jack Reacher in a dark alley.

If you are planning a driving trip anytime soon, consider purchasing the audio version of my book The Claret Murders. Even if you previously read the book, you will enjoy having the mystery and the Nashville flood experience brought to life through the voice of the reader. The audio version is available on Amazon.com or iTunes. Did you know there is talk of TV and movie rights? If you missed it, you can read the announcement for release of the audio edition by going to http://t.e2ma.net/message/vcadh/rptxeh.

While I don’t recommend reading it while driving, I hope you will soon read The Language of Excellence if you haven’t already. It is my fifth full-length book and the first focused on business. I am particularly happy that the book is being talked about as a breakthrough for its clarity and simplicity in its treatment of leadership and management issues. The CEO of LIVESTRONG said it teaches you how to deal with almost anything business or life will throw at you. The book is available in print and eBook formats on Amazon, other online bookstores, and through your favorite bookstore. The Language of Excellence is the perfect gift for someone about to graduate from college or for those already in the business world in pursuit of long-term durable success. To purchase from Amazon go to http://amzn.com/0985667346.

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Tom Collins’s books include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer, and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online store. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders, go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The eBook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Destination Is More Important Than Transportation

Which is more important—where you are going or how you get there?

To put it in business-speak terms: which is most important “Doing the Right Things” vs. “Doing Things Right.”

Execution is everything! I ran into this again last night. An “expert” was expounding on the virtues of “execution” as the reason behind the success of every great business.

If execution is everything, then great managers could make any bad idea (or destination) a success. It isn’t, and they can’t. Bad execution can rob one of their successes. It can lower results from what is profitable. However, being in the right place at the right time pursuing the right idea rules the day. "Getting the right people on the bus” may be the way to go from “Good to Great,” but having the right bus to start with is pretty darn important.

The issue of “Right Things” vs. “Things Right” gets to the core difference between leadership and management. There is a definite difference. Many leaders are not good managers—if, by management, we mean masters of execution. Leadership has more to do with being in the right place at the right time with the right idea and then, of course, getting people to believe the vision.

While there is a tendency of management experts to attribute the qualities of “doing things right” to organizations that achieve great success, most achieved that success by having done the “right things.” Unfortunately, time catches up with us. Once others begin to imitate such success, execution becomes the important differentiating factor. “Right thing” leaders like IBM, Federal Express, and eventually even Microsoft fall prey to the imitator with superior execution.

Perhaps the best summary is that Leadership (doing the right things—picking the right destination) is essential for achieving success. Management (doing things right) is required to stay successful.

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For more insight into the mystery of Leadership, read The Language of Excellence now available in print and eBook formats.

Tom Collins’s works include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels, Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer, and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online store. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio editon of The Claret Murders, go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Understand How You Perform Best

In writing about Managing Oneself,  Peter Drucker placed a great deal of importance on the need, particularly for knowledge workers, to understand “how you perform” best. 

Are you a reader or listener? Fail to understand which you are and then relying

on the wrong one and you will not perform or achieve excellence.  Drucker points to Dwight Eisenhower who learned by reading and excelled as Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe when supplied with written briefs.  But when he stepped into a new roll as President and attempted to follow the oral briefing methods of Truman and Roosevelt, both listeners, he appeared ill-prepared and equipped in front of the Press. The opposite was true of Lyndon Johnson, a listener, who inherited his predecessor’s staff.  Kennedy was a reader. Johnson never effectively absorbed written briefs.

Some of us (I’m one and you could also be) do not learn by either reading or listening.  We learn by writing. As it was for Churchill and Beethoven; neither reading nor listening is enough.  I must write about it to learn.  I must write about it to develop the idea or craft the strategy, the solution, the transaction, the opportunity, etc. We are sometimes mislabeled as people who have to “sleep on it”.  We make our best and most creative decisions after we have found a quiet corner and written about it.  

Just as listening and reading are not enough for writers, there are those who learn by hearing themselves talk. They need people in the room listening to their ideas and explorations.  Drucker, himself a talker, says that learning through talking is by no means unusual and notes that successful trial lawyers are often talk learners. 

There is no right method.  There is no wrong method.  But try to be what you are not, and you greatly reduce you effectiveness.  Once you have your own answer, tell others.  When those you work with understand how you “perform best,” the collaborative results are improved.  That, of course, means that next you should determine how others around you “perform best”.  Who are the readers and listeners? Who are the writers and talkers?  Understanding each other improves team results. 

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Tom Collins’ books include his book on leadership, The Language of Excellence, and his mystery novels including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author’s online store. unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio editon of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes’ iBookstore.

Drowned by Drops

Ever think of suing or, for that matter, going to court rather than giving in to someone’s demands? Here is a bit of advice from Charles Dickens. In his novel, The Bleak House, he warns that whatever one does they should stay away from the Chancery [Court]. “It’s being ground to bits in a slow mill; it’s being roasted at a slow fire; it’s being stung to death by single bees; it’s being drowned by drops; it’s going mad by grains.”

Even putting aside the vision of being “drowned by drops,” the cost of litigation in terms of money, time and disruption frequently outweighs the benefit—even when you are in the right. Therefore, mediation or negotiated settlement is usually the better course.

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March 11 reception to introduce my new book:
I will be having a VIP reception and book signing for the release of my fifth book,
The Language of Excellence, Tuesday, March 11 at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin. The event starts at 5:30 pm. Join me for a little wine, caviar, and other treats. Unlike my previous books, this one is not a whodunit; however, it does tackle a mystery—the mystery of leadership. The event is an opportunity for us to discuss the Two Certainties in life as well as some of the other concepts in the book for dealing with just about everything life or business can throw at you. Landmark Booksellers is located at 114 East Main St., Franklin, Tennessee.

If you are not able to join me for the March 11 event, you can purchase my books on Amazon, other online stores, or at your favorite bookstore. Books include The Language of Excellence as well as my adventure mystery series including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer, and The Claret Murders.

Color Me Creative

How do you want others to see you? Do you want others to see you or your organization as creative or trustworthy? Alternatively, should your image convey elegance, safety, or power? Color is part of the answer. Color conveys a message about who you are. In the course of millions of years, we have accumulated instinctive assumptions about color. And, they can be different across civilizations and cultures. International organizations have to be sensitive to those differences.  For example the color white, which we associate with purity, is the color of death and mourning in India.

In her book Little Black Book on Law Firm Branding and Positioning, Paula Black gives a simple summary of what particular colors covey to the general population of our country.

Red: strength, power, determination
Orange: enthusiasm, creativity, success
Green: growth, harmony, safety, money
Blue: depth, loyalty, trust, stability
Black: elegance, prestige, discretion

The Creative Blog goes into more detail and includes this more detailed chart:

I chose the color purple for the title of the book The Language of Excellence. It is the color of royalty. It belongs to that small percent of individuals or enterprises that have risen to the very top. It is the color of greatness and excellence. That is what The Language of Excellence is all about—giving readers the capacity to move from what the author Jim Collins calls Good to Great.

One of the Two Certainties of business and life is that others always judge us. We are what others see us as. The Model for Excellence, for example, makes it clear that excellence must be earned through the eyes of others. Color can no more make you than “clothes can make the man,” but color, like clothes, can help or hurt. The point is both need to be consistent with how you want to be seen. So what is your color?

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Tom Collins’ works include his book on leadership, TheLanguage of Excellence, and his mystery series including Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest mystery, The Claret Murders. For signed copies, go to the author's
online store. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.

ABCs of Priority Management

So what are your plans today? For many the answer is “to do everything I didn’t get done yesterday.” All of us have more on our plate than we can accomplish. How do you decide which items to tackle and in what order?

Most of us start by preparing a to-do-list. Some people tackle the easy items first. They get immediate gratification and quickly shorten their list. Unfortunately, the most difficult or time-consuming items are relegated to the bottom of the stack—put off day after day. Others go first for the things they enjoy doing and put off the most unpleasant. The most common approach, however, is to rank the to-do items using the ABC method. The most important items are A’s. B’s comes next, and C’s have the lowest priority.

That approach ignores a number of important management and leadership concepts. For one, not all problems (things) need to be solved (done), and of those that do, not all need to be handled by you. Then there is the Management Candy, M&Ms, concept that emphasizes the importance of focusing on the Main Things success depends on. It is the idea that effectiveness, doing the right things, is far more important than how well or efficiently you do things—especially if they are the wrong things.

After years of on-the- job training, here is my time management secret. I have a big drawer that I call my “C” drawer. I start by ranking items as either A, B, or C. Then I go back through the B’s and decide which, if any, were really A’s. I change the rest to C’s. The C’s go in my C drawer never to come out again unless they reappear down the road as A’s. Three or four times during the year, I will go through the C drawer to clean it out. It is amazing how many of the C items are no longer issues.

The desire for immediate gratification leads many to Major in Minors; whereas, the effective individual concentrates on the Main Things success depends. They have learned the importance of the powerful time management tool of saying no to the unimportant and non-essential. Rather than tackle C’s last, they just say no to them.

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Just a few more days left to submit a pre-release order for my new book. This time it not a "Who Done It"; but it does tackle the mystery of leadership. You save $20.00 and receive a signed copy. To order go to http://www.thelanguageofexcellence.com. The pre-release offer ends on February 17, 2014.

FiveThings I Wish I Had Known at Age Twenty-One

1. Those recommended medical test are really  important: A routine colonoscopy would have caught pre-cancer changes before they developed into stage four cancer. Today I am a cancer survivor, but not without paying a big price—three major surgeries, chemo, and radiation. All three damage the body and limit downstream physical abilities. 
2. Success comes from opportunities not solving problems: I started my career as a CPA and transitioned to business after three years with Price Waterhouse. I envisioned myself as a problem solver. The difficulty with that was that there is always another problem right behind the previous one. I discovered that most problems work themselves out. They are solved in the course of opportunity pursuits. After years of on-the-job training, my motto has become “Not all problems deserve to be solved; of those that do, not all of them need to be solved by me."
3. Going second-class only costs a little more: That is a joke phrase, but it was intended to remind me that trying “to get by on the cheap” usually requires a do over in the end—costing more time and money than if things had been done right to start with. I wasted a lot of money and time because the people around me were always trying to save me money.
4. You must learn to manage change: “Change” is such a constant in business and life that I wish I had understood its behavior and how to manage it from the start of my adult life and business career. Instead, I had to learn it the hard way—from my mistakes. 
5. Every decision, action or inaction defines our future: With an earlier deep appreciation of the Opportunity Wedge, I would have made a conscious effort to elongate the wedge—make it more like a rectangle—keeping the lines, that represent who I am and who I could be, parallel as long as possible.

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My new book The Language of Excellence will be release in the next couple of weeks.  There is still time to submit a pre-release order and save $20.00 off of the release price of $39.00.  Go to http://www.thelanguageofexcellence.com.

Whiteboards and Flip Charts

Creative destruction fueled by technology advancements leaves a lot of dead practices and products in its wake—handwritten letters, typewriters, fax machines, etc.—but the flip chart and the whiteboard not only endure, The Wall Street Journal called them “High Tech’s Secret Weapon.”

Farhad Manjoo writing in The Wall Street Journal explained, “Whiteboards are to Silicon Valley what legal pads are to lawyers, what Excel is to accountants, or what long sleeves are to magicians. They’re an all-purpose tool of innovation, often the first place a product or company’s vision is dreamed up and designed, and a constant huddling point for future refinement.”

The whiteboard and flip chart are so important to the art of leadership that my new book, The Language of Excellence targeted for release on July 17, is dedicated to them. The dedication reads in part:

This book is a testament to the power of

the flip chart and the whiteboard. Visit

any innovative organization and you will

find them throughout. 

The Language of Excellence is a new genre for me. It is not a “whodunit mystery.” Nevertheless, I trust that it will unlock the mystery of leadership for young professionals, entrepreneurs starting a new business, or seasoned executives frustrated by the difficulty of steering an unresponsive corporate ship.

Doug Ulman, President/CEO the LIVESTRONG Foundation, after reading a

draft of the book wrote, “His book teaches you how to equip your team to deal with almost anything business or life will throw at them.”

Edward Rosenberg, Designer/CEO Spectore Corporation, said, “Collins defines the essential ingredients in a business with masterful simplicity and clarity. I wish I had read this 30 or 40 years ago.”

The hardcover edition of The Language of Excellence is priced at $39.00, but right now, you can place a pre-release order for only $19.00 by going to www.thelanguageofexcellence.com.

Mystery of Leadership

It is cold and raining with sleet and snow threatening. I pulled a previously read book off the bookshelf and settled into my favorite leather chair. It was A Passion for Excellence by Tom Peters and Nancy Austin. Tom Peters is also the coauthor of the groundbreaking book, In Search of Excellence. While it was the cover that caught my attention, I selected it because of what was inside.
I am putting the final touches on my own book dealing with the pursuit of excellence through leadership. The new book is titled The Language of Excellence. Tom Peters’s ideas were part of my inspiration for the book, particularly his model for “sustained superior performance over the long haul.” I call it a Model of Excellence.

I had just signed off on the cover design of the new book, and in addition to the title and a few other things, that cover contains the words “This book is simple.” So when I read page four of Peters’s book, I gave myself a pat on the back. Page 4 includes the following:

“Many accused In Search of Excellence of oversimplifying. After hundreds of post-In Search of Excellence seminars, we have reached the opposite conclusion: In Search of Excellence didn’t simplify enough! In the private or public sector, in big business or small, we observed that there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long haul. First, take exceptional care of your customers (for chicken, jet engines, education, health care, or baseball, etc.) via superior service and superior quality. Second, constantly innovate. That’s it. There are no alternatives in achieving long-term superior performance, or sustaining strategic competitive advantage, as the business strategists call it.”

Simple yes; easy no. Few businesses or public entities even come close to the objective. If it is so simple, why is it so hard? Achieving both, Care of Customers and Constant Innovation is achieved through people with the essential ingredient of Leadership. Even if you believe in the necessity of Customer Care and Innovation, the trick is you have to achieve them through people via the elusive quality of Leadership. Leadership is the mystery ingredient.

My new book, The Language of Excellence, turns up the lights and pulls back the curtain on this mystery ingredient--leadership. The book applies to life as well as business—I think it is the best gift one could give to a young professional. It can be invaluable to the entrepreneur starting a new business or seasoned executive frustrated by the difficulty of steering an unresponsive corporate ship.

For more information about my new book, The Language of Excellence, and for a special pre-release offer go to http://thelanguageofexcellence.com.

Best Advice #2--Don't Coast

As I was growing up, my father owned a grocery store in South Memphis, Tennessee. The store came first in Dad’s book. For example, long before we had a home with air conditioning, Dad had the store air-conditioned. Memphis is hot in the summertime—really hot and humid. So on hot summer Sundays, when the store was closed to business, we would pack up our comic books, toys, or projects and camp out in the aisles of the store.

You are probably asking, “What about TV?”  Well, I know it is hard to believe, but TV had not arrived yet, at least not in most homes. The first TV (black and white, I might add) I saw was at a neighbor’s house in 1948. The democratic convention for the nomination of Harry Truman was broadcasting. It was several years later before we were lucky enough to get a TV at our home.

Dad was a butcher by trade. Even though he owned the store, he spent his time in the meat department. That is where I often worked to earn a little spending money—cutting up chickens, grinding and mixing ground beef, making minute steaks, raking the sawdust, and scraping the meat blocks. One bit of advice from dad was, “You can always find something to do.” He said, “If you really can’t think of anything that needs doing, then at least run around in circles, but LOOK busy!” Dad did not believe in standing around waiting to be told what to do. That probably was not the best advice. It was much later in life before I learned that sometimes thinking is more important than doing—and there are times when you need to conserve your energy for what is really important.

There was another piece of advice, however, that has served me particularly well. It is advice I have passed on to my children and their children. It is advice that I have given in many meetings when talking to a critically important project team. Dad used a driving analogy to pass on his important message. He said, "Son, when you’re almost to the top of a hill, don’t take
your foot off the gas pedal!" If Mother had been giving the advice, it might have come out, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

The point of Dad’s advice is, when you think you’ve got it made, drive it home, put it in the bank. Don’t relax! Don’t try to coast to the finish line. It is the story of the hare and the tortoise. Perseverance and follow-through count. There are zillions of people who can say, “I could have been a contender.” Those that made it, never took their foot off the gas.

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For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.

 

Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Psychologists often talk about motivation in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

In recent times, the first half of the hierarchy has been largely replaced by the attachment theory. The top of the hierarchy, however, is still relevant for us. When we talk about motivation, we are talking about Self-Esteem, and Self-Actualization. These are the needs that when pursued involve achievement, problem solving, and creativity.

The question is how does Maslow’s hierarchy fit with the assertion in the Language of Excellence that motivation is not externally created—it comes from within. You can hire motivated people, and you can extinguish or discourage motivation (at least temporarily), but you cannot create it in people. While there could be exceptions, they are so rare as to validate the conclusion that in business you cannot change the person. You can, however, change people on your team.

As it turns out, Maslow’s research studied only the healthiest 1% of college students. He also studied what he called exemplary people—people like Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass. In other words, Maslow’s pyramid reflects the motivational drivers among level -A people. Like it or not, there are other people who are fully satisfied by fulfilling needs expressed by the lower half of the pyramid.

Since I am not a psychologist I cannot explain why, but I can point to generations of dependence as a common factor among many of the people who are unmotivated to travel into the upper half of the pyramid of needs. There are exceptions, however. There are those who are driven by Self-Actualization needs no matter what their environment. Nevertheless, those living under Communist rule for generations tend to shut the door between the two halves of Maslow’s hierarchy. Likewise, generations of dependence on government welfare seems to extinguish the desire to aspire to levels above satisfying Security and Relationship needs.

The extraordinary thing about some of those who operate at the higher levels is that they appear never to be satisfied with their achievement. They never relax to enjoy their past achievements. These are the true A-level people. Why do some people do what they do? What drives adventurers to start planning their next climb during their decent from a mountain just conquered? What makes the winner at the roulette table risk his or her winnings on the next spin of the wheel? Why would the successful entrepreneur cancel retirement plans to start a new venture? Why did the programmers who created Pong, the first widely successful computer game, sign up for the next project? They are driven to achieve (to win), just to have the opportunity to do it again. They play to play again.

The Real Corporate Persona

Peter Drucker in his 1954 book The Practice of Management identified

eight areas in which an enterprise should have clearly defined goals or objectives:

1. Market standing
2. Innovation
3. Productivity
4. Physical and financial resources
5. Profitability
6. Manager’s performance and development
7. Worker’s performance and attitude
8. Public responsibility

Does the inclusion of public responsibility surprise you? It should not. The beauty of Drucker’s list is that it belies the image of the "evil corporation." Based on my experience, his list reflects the real-life mindset of the modern corporate leader. Modern business leaders are concerned with more than profits. They are concerned about their role in the community. They are major contributors—both directly and indirectly—to education, the arts, and the needy. They are concerned about the development and well-being of their employees. They create “better living” through innovations. They are the source of income for every single citizen. Even those employed by the government owe their income to taxes paid by commercial enterprises or by those employed by, or invested in, commercial enterprises.

 

As important as Drucker’s list of eight key results areas is, the more profound observation of this 1954 book is that there is only one valid purpose for the existence of a business. It is to create a customer. The only thing that provides a business the opportunity for success is a customer who pays and decides what is important. Everything else, including its internal structure, controls, organization, and procedures, is just expense. All those things, everything else in the business, exist for the sole purpose of serving the customer.

 

Those who tend to view the corporation less favorably will ask, “How can a profit requirement exist for the sole purpose of serving the customer?” Profit is necessary to attract the capital needed to provide the product or service wanted by the customer. Without the customer, there would be no need for capital. Without the customer, there would be nothing to attract the capital.

 

Having said the above, there are bad apples—but they are the exception, not the rule.

 

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders. For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.

Businessman Concept

One of the things any effective leader would like to instill in their team members is the feeling that it is “my business.” You are the businessperson. It is your reputation. Your money is on the line.
As a college student, I worked at night at The Tastee Bread Company in Nashville, Tennessee. Their motto was “Baked while you sleep.” The company had a suggestion box and rewarded employees with monetary payments for suggestions that saved money or improved productivity. A member of the maintenance department measured the water being lost by a leaky faucet and applied the utility’s rate to calculate the monetary cost of water being lost yearly. He entered a suggestion that the bad washer causing the leak be replaced. The suggestion even included his calculation of the dollar amount the replaced washer would save the company. The next day, after the suggestion box had been opened and his suggestion read, he was fired.

You see, he was the maintenance man. It was his job to repair the faucet. Something he would have done if he had looked at The Tastee Bread Company as “my business.”

With a common sense of direction and an understanding of the rules of the road, you will make the right decisions and avoid the wrong ones as long as you treat this as your business.
It is your business; just stay on I-65 North!

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Mysteries by Tom Collins include Mark Rollins’ New Career, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer and the newest, The Claret Murders. For signed copies go to http://store.markrollinsadventures.com. Print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online bookstores. The ebook edition for the iPad is available through Apple iTunes' iBookstore.