Where Your Center Lies

Wherever your center lies, know it , name it, stick to it, and believe in it. Everyone who works with you will know what matters to you and will respect and appreciate your unwavering values. Your inner beliefs about business will guide you through the tough times. It’s good to be open to fresh approaches to solving problems. But, when you cede your core values to someone else, it’s time to quit.

-Danny Meyer, Setting The Table.

LEADERCAST in Milwaukee

Last night, I met Alonzo Kelly at the Spreenkler Meet-up. He runs Kelly Leadership Group, a leadership development practice here in Milwaukee. He spoke about an event he is bringing to Milwaukee.

The Chick-fil-A Leadercast is a simulcast that is broadcast to cities across the country. The event features an incredible list of speakers including Jim Collins, Chip Heath, Mark Sanborn, Tony Dungy, and John Maxwell.

The part that is awesome is Alonzo saw that it wasn’t being shown in Milwaukee and stepped up as the promoter and local representative for Leadercast.

I want to help make him successful. If you are in the area, take a minute and think about attending.

Leadercast takes place on Friday, May 7th and runs from 8AM to 3PM.

There are two locations in Milwaukee: Crowne Plaza Milwaukee in Wauwatosa and Concordia University on the North Side.

The cost is $75 for the day long program. You can register here.

I’ll be at the Crowne Plaza. Hope to see you there!

Cool Tools Reviews The 100 Best

Cool Tools is an awesome site for finding things to help get jobs done, whether silicone spatulas, a map of world history, or the lightest items for backpacking.

Today site founder Kevin Kelly reviewed The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. Here is a small excerpt from the review:

[T]heir book is much better than a simple list, and their list is better than most. The two have reviewed, abstracted, and compared all the best 100 in the context of thousands of similar books, unlike say your average Amazon reviewer who may have only read one other business book in his or her life. You get context instead of content. Reading Covert and Sattersten’s summaries of these classics is often better than reading the book itself, and the review is always useful in pointing you to the few books or authors you might actually want to read in full.

The sales of The 100 Best have been up the last couple of weeks, and that doesn’t include all the remaindered/discount copies that were cleared off Amazon when Fixed To Flexible was released.

It is just great to see continued interest in the book over a year later.

P.S. As Kelly points out in his review, we included his 1995 book Out of Control just to make clear any conflicts of interest.

P.P.S. I just posted these additional links on the Hacker News thread:

  1. Here is a bonus chapter about industry books that wasn’t included in the book.
  2. There is also a website where you can submit your favorite business book whether it was included in The 100 Best or not.

Leadership Advice #1 – Accenture CEO William Green

There is no shortage of advice that floats around about how to be successful and success comes from being a leader. I am not suggesting you in to hold a high post to be a leader, just that you blaze a trail for others to follow.

I am going to start compiling guidance like this and maybe we can see over time if there are some common trends.

In yesterday’s New York Times’ Corner Office column, Accenture CEO William Green offered the three things he thinks matter for new manager at his company:

  1. Competence – “Being good at what you do, whatever it is, and focusing on the job you have, not on the job you think you want to have.”
  2. Confidence – “People want to know what you think. So you have to have enough desirable self-confidence to articulate a point of view.”
  3. Caring – “Nothing today is about one individual. This is all about the team, and in the end, this is about giving a damn about your customers, your company, the people around you, and recognizing that the people around you are the ones who make you look good.”