What if?

By Ricardo Andorinho

If you haven’t seen the movie “Letters to Juliet” please be warned that you might find it to be just another romantic comedy somehow similar to most of its genre. For us however, it is an enchanting movie about love, and therefore, we believe it is worth wasting a couple of hours on it. And here is why.

Actress Amanda Seyfried plays the role of a young American fact finder, who travels to the Italian city of Verona, home of the doomed Juliet Capulet of “Romeo and Juliet”, where she joins a group of volunteers who respond to “letters to Juliet” looking for advice about love.
Answering one of these letters, Amanda elaborates as follows: “‘What’ and ‘if’ are two words as non-threatening as words come. But put them together side-by-side and they have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life: ‘What if?’”
“What if” is nothing more than an indication of the human mind’s annoying predisposition to worrying! Have you noticed that your mind is constantly flooding you with questions such as: “What if I lose my job?”; “What if I lose my eyesight, my hearing or my ability to speak?”; “What if no one hires me because of my tendency to overreact?”; “What if no one marries me?”; “What if my family or friends stop loving me?”; “What if I die young without having enjoyed life?”; “What if I do not have the capacity to support my children?”.
And, the cliché, “What if the world ends tomorrow?”
What if, what if, what if...


Keep it simple

Are you close to a nervous breakdown? With this simple exercise of imagining what is behind people’s tendency to worry so much, we already feel overwhelmed! Don’t you? Does such an illustration make you feel more human?
It is not only you who thinks about this “stuff”. The key question is: do you let those two non-threatening little words bother you?
Such words indeed have the power to haunt you for life, but the good news is that they only haunt you if you let them! So, if you feel you want to get rid of some of your worries, here are a couple of tips inspired by Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”:

1. Don’t allow the small things to ruin your happiness;
2. Don’t waste your time revisiting your past over and over again;
3. Live your daily life rather than worrying about the future;
4. Learn to relax at home and at work;
5. Be enthusiastic about your life and your work;
6. Once you discover a problem, work on getting rid of it. Write it down and try to answer some simple questions like:
a. What is the problem?
b. What is its cause/root?
c. What are the possible solutions?
d. What is the best solution for the problem?
7. Avoid “floating paper anxiety”: file and organize paperwork (especially post-its) that might be needed in the future.
8. Decide how much anxiety and worry you should give to a particular matter, and refuse to give it any more.

We hope you will soon be able to say you are living a purposeful, fulfilling and stress-free life!

Pulling a MacGyver

By Ricardo Andorinho

According to the website cracked.com, the Portuguese word ‘desenrascanço’ is one of the ten coolest foreign words the English language needs, and it means “pulling a MacGyver”.

If you have ever seen an episode of the 80s-TV adventure series named MacGyver, you already have a clear picture of what ‘desenrascanço’ is. In this American TV series, we have the opportunity to see how effortlessly MacGyver fishes car keys out of the toilet with a coat hanger, or how rapidly he takes down a helicopter with a fan, a dough-scraper, and some duct tape. In fact, this miracle man seems to be able to handle any kind of situation with just what he has around him and his Swiss army knife.

Generally speaking, ‘desenrascanço’ is the art or ability to, at the last possible minute, strike out a solution to an urgent problem with scarce, or no resources at all. Portuguese people are known to be able to find these kind of last-minute solutions.

So, what do you need to ‘pull a MacGyver’ or, to use the Portuguese term, what do you need to be known as “desenrascado”, someone who has the ability to find solutions to difficult problems at the last minute? In our opinion, you don’t need real weapons, but you certainly need to make use of your mind, your creative imagination and, perhaps… a Swiss army knife.

If ‘Swiss army knife’ plus ‘use of your mind’ plus ‘use of creative imagination’ equals ‘pulling a MacGyver’, and assuming that you have, or you know where to buy a Swiss army knife, and that you use your mind on a regular basis, creative imagination should work as the unknown factor of the equation.

How to be ‘desenrascado’?

Some might say that creativity or creative imagination is an inborn ability usually found in people that use the right side of their brain more.

It is a fact that right-brained people think and learn in visual terms and that they don't memorize well and need to visualize a picture so that they can recall facts. But we tend to disagree that creative ability is exclusive to right-brained individuals, or at least that it is an inborn ability.

Recent medical research proves that neurons can be created at any time and that the human brain can be reprogrammed at any age. Therefore, we believe that you can start to develop your mind and abilities, including your creative imagination, whenever you want to.

But how can we define this ability? Or, more importantly, how can we develop creative imagination?

Creative imagination is the power to envision a future result, to create something in your mind and to solve problems in a synergistic way. Creative imagination enables you to write your personal mission statements, goals, or simply plan a meeting without the conditionings that ground people to think small.

Consequently, this endowment empowers you to pursue your wildest dreams and goals and to fully realize your personal mission, even in the most challenging circumstances.

A word of advice

Since creativity is directly linked to positive thinking, psycho cybernetics, the magic of believing and neurolinguistic programming, we would like to challenge you to exercise your mind according to the so-called “Blue-Sky thinking”. The aim is to imagine that there are no obstacles, that there is nothing clouding your mind or conditioning you to follow a particular dream or goal.

So, visualize yourself as the master of your own destiny, or as someone that was born to be the happiest person on Earth. Then, just write down the things you envision.

As to enhancing creativity in your family or within your organization, here are some tips:

1) Think ahead;

2) Ask “why” and “what if” more often;

3) Value different views from others;

4) Disentangle yourself from your conditionings;

5) Motivate discussion;

6) Suspend judgment: sometimes the most absurd idea is the one that leads you to the most adequate solution or moves you beyond the attainable;

7) Be optimistic;

8) Laugh as it lifts enthusiasm and improves communication and openness;

9) Invest your time and energy until you reach your goal.

If you are a MacGyver enthusiast, or if you just admire the Portuguese people for their ability to be ‘desenrascados’, just follow our tips! With the formidable power of creative imagination and through visualization, you will start to conceive possibilities way beyond your direct experience that will help you reaffirm and realize your goals.

Leadership vs. Management?

Leadership vs. Management? Leadership or Management

Can you really separate and identify what is leadership and what is management objectively and empirically?

An overview of the subject:

Peter Scholtes did some research 15-20 years ago, and found that the first actual org chart in the literature came from the railroads in the 1840s. There had been a huge train wreck, and no one knew whom to blame. To make sure that would never happen again, the org chart was developed, so you would always have someone to blame. When Scholtes presented that paper, he pointed out that that particular document was also the first mention he had found in any literature that mentioned the word "manage”.

Peter Drucker summarized the distinction between management and leadership: "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing".

And as Mr. Warren Bennis (1989) further explicated his twelve distinctions between the two groups are:

1. Managers administer; leaders innovate.
2. Managers ask how and when; leaders ask what and why.
3. Managers focus on systems; leaders focus on people.
4. Managers do things right; leaders do the right things.
5. Managers maintain; leaders develop.
6. Managers rely on control; leaders inspire trust.
7. Managers have short-term perspective; leaders have long-term perspective.
8. Managers accept the status-quo; leaders challenge the status-quo.
9. Managers have an eye on the bottom line; leaders have an eye on the horizon.
10. Managers imitate; leaders originate.
11. Managers emulate the classic good soldier; leaders are their own person.
12. Managers copy; leaders show originality.

Discussion:

Those who defend that leadership is much more than just management will say that a leader has qualities of vision and inspiration.Onecan absolutely manage people, projects, and processes,and exhibit poor Leadership qualities. People may follow instructions because their job is at stake,but not because a manager will inspire them,bring out their best,help them to grow,and accomplish high performance results.

Accomplished Leaders do much more than manage.They inspire and create followers who will follow them into fire and ice and back.

Hence, Management seems to be considered more about organization, administration and execution; the ability to build a functioning organization that can execute the tasks, projects and processes needed to achieve the aim of the system.

Another wayto look at the question is by regarding leadership as an art and management as a science.

Thus,a leader has different capabilities from a manager.A leader has qualitative capabilities, skills, experiences, a developed emotional intelligence and a strong character to lead to success, to motivate their teams, to deliver the mission of the organization and to create a collaborative culture and cohesive team.
A manager has quantitative capabilities to deliver timing metrics and KPI. His tools and only motivation is focused in actively deliver the mission and the strategy of the organization. Therefore:a leader hasqualitative capabilities to deliver vision and a manager has quantitative capabilities to deliver mission; Leader/Manager integrates the vision plus the mission of the organization to their teams and keep the culture within an organization functional and balanced.

Is leadership an art?

Some see leadershipas an art, but is that really so or we may well say that the leadership card in business is overstated and overplayed.

Overstated because business leadership definition tends to broad stroke a painting of employees portrayed as a collective of dysfunctional, disengaged, in desperate need of a messianic authority.

Overplayed because vision and goals are not based on the commons but more so on the imposition of a business cultural hegemony shift.

Transactional or transformational "leaders" in business are simply roles being played by people in authority, not to be confused with the fine art of leading people in a common pursuit. The executive team in place was not elected by the employees. Persuasive leadership is a just a coinage that implies accepted compliance or eventual termination.
Executives fulfilling the stockholder's desire to maximize profit are not true leaders “per se” but bosses who must exemplify great communication skills aside from administrative acumens to grow the businesses they manage. In today's business context, productivity is the singular mantra so what does this have to do with leadership?

Conclusion:

What if the real question is not so much leadership vs. management but”Can a manager be a leader and a leader be a manager"?

I posit that there are no leaders in individual businesses or organizations: there is a figurehead and perhaps a decision maker, but that is not necessarily a leader. And then there are lots of people who manage the various aspects of the business, both process and people.

In other words, an effective combination Leader/Manager knows when it's time to put their "management hat" on, as well as when it's time to put their "leadership hat" on. And when it's time to wear "both hats", which should be majority of the time.

Changing of / revision of which hat(s) to wear can happen within days, hours, minutes, seconds, etc... It depends on "who walks in the room next with what type of issue". Neither the leader nor his people know when the leader has revised current hat. A good leader never loses sight of their leader perspective while managing and vice-versa. Consistency! Whenever approached by any situation, whoever is involved knows what they are going to receive. The complete leadership package must include the characteristics of an effective leader who is only "influenced" to a certain degree by the manager perspective.

Cristina Falcão

Busyness kills business!

By Ricardo Andorinho

Assuming that we are complying with the eight hours of sleep that most doctors recommend, we have 16 hours a day to fill in with activities. From the 16 hours we have, eight of them have to be spent at work and, if we are lucky enough, we have eight remaining hours to juggle between our partner, our kids and other family members and friends.

Add value, not chores

It would definitely be easier to restrict the “busyness analysis” to our work functions only, but doesn’t the busyness standard affect all roles we play in life? Can we actually segregate our roles, or do we believe in the holistic and interdependent dimension of human existence?

Everyone must have felt overwhelmed or scared by the five or six roles which each of us needs to perform regularly. But, have you thought that busyness might be one of your biggest enemies? Don’t you believe that busyness kills business?

Busyness means paperwork with the appearance of work but which doesn’t add or deliver value, or in other words, it means urgent but non-important activities with which people fill their days.

So, if a business is being run by busyness standards, it means that the really “important activities” are left behind. Consequently, in the long run, busyness leads to the death of the business and the reasons behind such a fact might be one of the following: a lack of vision, mission, strategic goals or values or, simply a lack of good managers!

But if you want to run away from busyness and substitute it with really important activities, here are some tips:

1. Analyse your routines and write down the activities which you spend your time on;

2. Determine which activities are important and not important in relation to your goals or objectives;

3. Stick to the important activities, and stop wasting time with busyness and trivia or pleasant activities;

4. Among the important activities, start working on the urgent ones doing each one of them until they are done;

5. Set aside some weekly time to deal with the important but non-urgent activities such as self-development, relationship building and envisioning or planning the future;

6. Try to apply this framework to each and every role you play in life (parent, student, employer, employee, etc).

Most to least

There are definitely too many tasks or activities that we need to “tidy up” in each of our twenty-four hour periods. To stay away from busyness, we should be measuring and prioritizing each activity with reference to both its importance and its urgency.

We understand that sometimes it might be difficult to draw the line between urgency and importance, but don’t worry, with practice you should be able to put first things first using as a weighing scale your own vision, mission and goals! By that time, we believe you will start experiencing some quality-of-life results!

No pain, no gain!

Ricardo Andorinho

It works well as an advertising slogan for fitness centres or gyms and is currently seen printed on colourful T-shirts, but the origin of “no pain, no gain” takes us back to the eighteen’s century. Its founding father is Richard Sauders, better known as Benjamin Franklin, a self-made successful editor and publisher, statesmen and diplomat.

He published Poor Richard's Almanac, an immensely popular book filled with clever aphorisms and wise advice such as “There are no pains without gains”. Perhaps some of the book’s quotes were not his, being popular sayings at the time, but he certainly gave them credit and made them instantly recognisable worldwide.

Today, in our opinion, this quote should have assumed the role of a recognised self-management principle.

As we all know, “things” do not fall into your lap. People have to combine dedication, effort, strengths, abilities and capabilities to create, construct, design or give rise to new ideas or concepts, products or services.

If you have already noticed that things do not fall into your lap and you are willing to work towards your goals, keep going. It means you have the right attitude. If you want to win a marathon, you are certainly aware that you need to spend hours every day working out over a considerable period of time. But what if you want to become an exceptional husband or wife, an admirable parent or an excellent professional? You definitely need to work hard as well. You need to believe in yourself and you need to sacrifice! After all, no pain, no gain.

Pain is the key to succeed. Pain does not necessarily have to be physical but it could be if you feel sore because you have been working out to improve your health or to win a marathon.

However, most of the “pain” is psychological. It is the anger or frustration that you commonly feel when you have to work over a weekend to meet a deadline when what would you really wanted was to be with your loved ones.

Don’t be afraid of the pain. Don’t worry, be happy. What does not kill us makes us stronger. Statistically, 96 percent of the things people worry about never happen.

So, do not act as a spoiled brat or a victim of circumstance. You can choose to honour all your contracts; to under commit and over deliver; understand, respect and trust people; and be honest even when it hurts.

Obstacles appear in our lives for two reasons: to make us prove that we really want a particular thing and to keep others that don’t want such thing as bad as we do, away from having it!

Therefore, if you have run into an obstacle that you have not yet learnt to overcome, don’t panic. It is almost certain that your life is not the mess you imagine it is. Running into an obstacle often indicates that you are on the right path to achieve your goal and that success is dead ahead.

Notwithstanding, do not feel surprised if you see people around you changing only if the Pain not to change exceeds the Pain to change. It is a common mistake proper from human beings!

However, don’t let them influence your believe system! If you believe in the principle of no pain, no gain, and if you feel that you need to sacrifice for a particular cause, just do it. Success is on the way.

56 Reasons Why Most Corporate Innovation Initiatives Fail

56 Reasons Why Most Corporate Innovation Initiatives Fail: "

Innovation is definitely in these days. The word is on the lips of every CEO, CFO, CIO, and anyone else with a three-letter acronym after their name.

As a result, many organizations are launching all kinds of 'innovation initiatives' -- hoping to stir the creative soup.

This is commendable. But it is also, all too often, a disappointing experience

Innovation initiatives sound good, but usually don't live up to expectations. The reasons are many. What follows are 56 of the most common -- organizational obstacles we've observed that get in the way of a company truly raising the bar for innovation.

See which ones are familiar to YOU. Then, sit down with your Senior Team... CEO... innovation committee, or best friend and jump start the process of going beyond these obstacles.

"

Poll - answer

Update:

Hi Ricardo

I was about to vote on your poll, but I thought I would add some extra thoughts on this matter.

When it comes to teaching and learning about management (and leadership?) the first thing that comes to mind is experience, and an individuals unique situation.

One of my friends graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in mechanical engineering the same year I graduated from the Faculty of Education. He continued on and immediately completed a 2 year MBA program.

When it comes to accounting, and theoretical financial matters, he is far more knowledgeable than I am. We both graduated in 1988, but with the years of experience I have had, along with the challenges of starting a family at the age of 24, I have a better understanding of people, human resources, leadership, and I bring a much more pragmatic approach to management in general. His background in engineering lends itself to concrete theories and applications. My background in education lends itself to communications. The truth is that effective teaching (pedagogy) and effective communication are very close siblings.

In 2007 I started an online MBA program. Working full time, this is the only realistic way I can continue my studies. There is also one other consideration and that is age and time. Here in Canada, the University of Athabasca has one of best recognized MBA programs in the country. However the workload is far greater than I can manage, and with tuition costs close to $75,000, at age 44, the cost is a major consideration. Put this way, an MBA from the University of Athabasca is beyond my reach in both time and dollars.

The program I choose instead was an MBA from the University of Liverpool (on-line). Tuition costs are around $30,000 and the work load is considerably less than the University of Athabasca. It is a fully accredited MBA, but it doesn't carry the same status. Three years have passed and I still am a very long way from completion.

My point is that life and situations change. There is a lot of stress in my life right now, and time is an ever dwindling commodity. The University of Liverpool is a "pay as you go" program, so I may yet choose a different school. Right now I am looking at some MBA programs that are not fully accredited, far less work intensive, less expensive, but yet still carry a moderate level of recognition.

So in short, I would have to say that having some real life experience before starting a management program (like an MBA) is very valuable. If one can afford to take two years off of work and attend a "bricks and mortar" on campus program, that would be the ideal. In real life, and for working people, online work makes the most sense. However, as I pointed out, the range, options, credibility, and costs of online programs vary greatly.

As for coaching, nothing beats having access to the wisdom of our elders. My dad, who never went to university, worked for the Toronto Dominion Bank from 1949 to 1989. He was working on his 41st year of service when he retired. I have gone back to him many times for advice and wisdom. He has knowledge that just can't be found in any program.

Hopefully something in what I have outlined is of value. If you have questions, feel free to drop me a note and I will do my best to answer them.

Take care....

Robert
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/80402/pydju
Can you share the Poll. We have 10% of the answers we want!!

Which of the following options do you consider to be the most efective driver for teaching and learning management?

http://polls.linkedin.com/p/80402/pydju

Hope you are a Linkedin user!!

Can you help reaching at least 1000 perspectives?

Would like to have your insight! Please share it.

Regards,

Ricardo Andorinho

Where Does Engagement "Live"?

Where Does Engagement "Live"?: "I am very pleased to see interest in topics like employee engagement and employment branding gaining some momentum, even if it is just in dialogue.

I have to pay an homage to the people at BlessingWhite for their recent studies and research and Dr's Whitlark and Rhoads for their publication about the 'Spillover' effect which provides concrete relationships and data; drawing a direct correlation between high engagement and key performance indicators like sustainability, productivity, and profitability. This is no longer 'warm and fuzzy' stuff, but rather hard data.

I do continue to see that for all the dialogue I am still disappointed with the number of organizations and C level executives that are either ignoring this opportunity (some would say crisis) or paying lip service to it.

There are a couple of other things coming out about engagement that I have long believed that I am pleased to see gaining some traction as well:

• Defining engagement. This a a huge area. Engagement is not happiness or employee satisfaction. Much like compensation the lack of happiness or satisfaction can have a negative affect on engagement, but 'happy' or 'satisfied' employees are not necessarily engaged. The basic reason for that is that the work place may be providing an outlet for social relationships or other things that employees enjoy that affect those areas, but don't lead to additional productivity or discretionary effort. Measuring those other things doesn't necessarily yield engagement.
• Creating engagement. The other thing we are starting to recognize is that engagement is not an initiative or program it is a culture! To create and sustain an engaged workforce and long term employment brand you must create and sustain a culture.

I think that these 'revelations' may be part of what is keeping many organizations from embracing an engagement strategy or employment brand- they aren't prepared to do the work.

The last thing I want to share today is my response to the opening question. In my opinion engagement and your brand live at the front line level of your organization. I am not saying that senior management support and role modeling aren't critical, but how many of your customers or employees interact regularly with C level management?

How many of us encounter Howard Schultz when we visit Starbucks or Steve Jobs at the Apple store?

My point is you must build engagement into your brand through your selection, hiring, training, and performance management and reward systems. I would go further and say that your front line managers are your greatest potential asset or weakness. In fact Whitlark and Rhoads are even more specific;

'One bad manager can pollute multiple levels of an organization, and poor managers bring down employee morale, which spills over into the engagement level of customers.”

My point being that your 'engagement' or 'branding' effort must be embraced as a culture change and you have to be willing to 'de-recruit' employees especially managers who can not or will not make the transition. My experience has been validated by James L. Heskett, author of the book The Service-Profit Chain, who writes-

“… the hardest concept is the deployment of the culture change …which requires that organizations identify values, behaviors, and measures that help reinforce the service profit chain relationships. But it also requires actions. That is when managers are not managing by the values and cannot be admonished or retrained to do so (which rarely works), they have to go.”

So I guess what I am saying is that engagement is mutual commitment and while it is important to have brand champions in the C suite you will be most successful when you embed it into the fabric of your organization because engagement and your brand live on the 'ground floor' where your employees interact with your customers. As my colleague Joseph Skursky so elegantly states, Hire Hard- Manage Easy. You will find it a better long term strategy.

Mark Herbert

Black and White Decision Making? Today, Change to Grey (and Vice Versa)

Black and White Decision Making? Today, Change to Grey (and Vice Versa): "

For today, change your decision making strategy.

Do you usually gather facts, deliberate, look at all angles, think about it some more, and then reach a qualified point of view? Then for today, make quick yes or no decisions on questions you face.

On the other hand, do you see everything as black and white, making decisions with no hesitation? If so, step back today, solicit other perspectives, think a while, and then decide a course of action.

The benefit, irrespective of whether you see the world as black and white or grey, is you’ll get a sense of the other side’s decision making strategy. You will be able to see previously hidden benefits in a different decision making style. You can reveal new creative and innovative options that wouldn’t have surfaced with your typical decision making style.

And best of all, you can go right back to your more comfortable decision making strategy tomorrow. – Mike Brown

Part of the introduction – Strategy Execution Heroes

Superman on a ‘Strategy Rescue’ mission

Superman, otherwise known as Clark Kent, flies into the Magnatexx office.

Instead of his usual red cape, he has decided to wear his three-piece grey pinstriped Armani suit. “It just seems more appropriate” he had thought while getting ready that morning.

Superman is reacting to a ‘failing strategy’ distress call from 53-year-old Mike, CEO of Magnatexx, a large pharmaceutical company. It was the 267th call he had received in the two weeks since starting his new sideline – the ‘strategy rescue’ programme.

When he arrives at Magnatexx, Superman immediately identifies the execution issues and takes over the role of all managers. In no time at all, Magnatexx obtains the desired competitive advantage and performance starts to peak. And everyone lives happily ever after.

This story seems too good to be true. And it is.

But you don’t have to be able to fly like Superman, scale walls like Batman or become green and super strong like the Incredible Hulk to turn a great strategy into great performance.

You need performance-driven managers who master Strategy Execution.

Strategy Execution is no longer ‘the gap nobody knows’, the title of the first chapter of the best-seller Execution. Thanks to the authors Bossidy and Charan, Strategy Execution pioneers Kaplan and Norton, several leading articles in respected business magazines such as The Harvard Business Review and a host of research, organisations have become very aware that much great strategy is lost before it’s turned into performance mainly as a result of poor execution skills.

The performance gap is known. And it’s time for companies to close it.

This book will help you get the job done. Strategy Execution Heroes will help you to:

1. Approach Strategy Execution from a manager’s perspective.

2. Align individual and organisational performance in a simple, easy-to-communicate, sexy Strategy Execution framework.

3. Communicate your strategy effectively.

4. Set great objectives for yourself and your team members.

5. Coach others through the implementation maze.

6. Simplify your Strategy Execution process.

7. Select, manage and deliver your strategic initiatives.

8. Set up a development platform to boost the execution skills of others in the organisation.

9. Turn Strategy Execution into a competitive advantage.

In short, this book will help you get the execution job done. But don’t expect complex theories or fancy words. Strategy Execution Heroes gets right to the point and won’t waste your time. It will:

­ Boost your learning with more than 250 practical tips.

­ Put your action plan on the right track with 27 downloads with supporting material.

­ Inspire your actions with stories from best-in-class companies like BT, Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin, eBay and many others.

So whether you are a future manager preparing for the challenge, a field manager or an experienced senior executive, get ready to boost your execution skills. Become a Strategy Execution hero and turn your great strategy into great performance.

Strategy Execution Heroes

CEO

Why great sport players are good references to teach some management skills?

My short answer is because they are able to integrate a huge amount of variables into performance.

If you go to www.Youtube.com and search for CEO you will get a video of Michael Jordan playing with a group of managers. Here is the video (very funny and useful).

My opinion is that CEO (Chief Executive Officer) should mean Chief Execution Officer in an attempt to Link strategy to operations and therefor to results. Every world class CEO has a pattern that responds towards several aspects that can be isolated. The Key elements I identify over these superformers (Dave Guerra) are:
1- Core Business expertise - the main revenue driver - the activity. The product, the service.
2 - Leadership skills - the ability to drive a team towards a goal.
3 - Communication skills
4 - Great balance between a particular vision and the operation needed to accomplish that vision.
5 - Fast Learners
6 - Luck = hard work

And don't forget. Every move counts!
Goldratt says that every move that doesn't put the company closer to it's goal it's not productive. I agree.

Video

My video conclusions are:
1- Competition is present every day in every activity. Some, are more visible than others.
2- 2 competitors in a market controlled by one player
3- Market risk that Jordan faces challenging John Rogers
4- Preparation is the key for competing in the marketplace. Self-confidence over the skills you mastered should drive to results. Be humble because if you aren't the market will get a competitive advantage. To have results in the long-term you can't stop training your skills, because you will loose efficiency as worker tomorrow.

Your thoughts are welcome!

happy new year
Ricardo Andorinho
MBUintelligence

Lawrence McDonald - Should Banks Break-Up

Advance Review: Awaken Your Genius Awaken Your Genius

Thank you Ricardo Andorinho

We had coffee this morning, but Ricardo probably won't remember. He was in Portugal; me? I was in the USA. So, how did the coffee thing happen?

Like most mornings, I took a book with me on my coffee run. Today, it was hot off the press: Awaken Your Genius, by Ricardo Andorinho. Expected release date: November 30, 2009. Just in time for Christmas gift giving. In fact, the web site will be up in the next few days to accept advance orders.

So, how did I get my hands on a copy?

It is called an "Advance Review Copy" —it's where the publisher prints an early version of the book to elicit brief reviews that can be used to promote the book upon release. As the publisher, I made sure that I received the second copy of the book as it came off the press. Ricardo, the first.

I gotta tell you, it is better than I remember!

Ricardo poured his soul into the pages that make up this book. But don't take my word for it, consider this early review:

"This is not your grandfather's Business Leadership Guide! Ricardo challenged my thinking; even caused me to wonder if I should give even more thought to some of the decisions that cross my desk on a daily basis."
—Robert S. Wood, Proprietor, www.OldWestAntiques.biz


Need to take your life to the next level?

Drop me a line and request the link to the advance order desk.



Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey
www.throughput.us/contactSKI/

P.S. Seriously Ricardo, thanks for allowing me to help give birth to your first book. It is an honor. Plus, a special shout out to Sara Williams for her keen sense of editing. I ask that she use a light touch, to insure the book retained just a hint of the broken English that makes my conversations with Ricardo so enjoyable. Mission accomplished.

The Power of One

Dear readers,

I am now confident in addressing this article, talking about ILearning Global.TV.

I joined ILearning Global 8 months ago as a marketer and till today I was shy in my attempt of communicating the platform. I was afraid of being miss understood about the venue of the system and about the capabilities that we offer inside. This days are over and I would like to share my experience with you.

Before everything in my life, I consider myself a continuous student, and I deeply believe that just continuous learning can give you the preparation needed to compete in each market we are into. As I tried to prepare myself in the sports field, I believe that I need to do the same in my current professional life: MBUintelligence

The day I join ILG I didn't imagine what we were talking about. I joined because I research every material available over the web and I was very curious about it. I wanted to see the other side. I joined even before the access was available outside US. Today everyone around the world can join.

ILG is nowadays the web platform that incorporates more content on management education. The members of the faculty are people that worked or still work for one the best 500 companies in the world.

I am telling you this story because, when I started MBUintelligence I felt that I was missing my agenda on the time I had available for self-study. I need to study almost everyday.

Today ILearning Global allows me to have access to a knowledge that would be impossible for me to incorporate if I was doing my research by my own. So I strongly recommend that if you see continuous learning the way I see, please research over these links.

The tittle of this article is the power of one. Brian Tracy coached more than 2 million people over his life... Google was created by Page and Brin... Einstein was not an university. And I strongly believe that are people in today's world more brilliant than Einstein. Why? Because technology is allowing human brain to go faster. Do you agree?

Here you have some free resources to see how easy it is the interface usage:
Portal
To learn:
Platform
Global Presentation
To join:
MBUintelligence

When the company is ruled by sales!!!!

It's curious, isn't it? When there's lack of long term vision, the short term turn's to be very easy to predict.

I am a former handball player that played just for 2 professional clubs. The last one was Portland San Antonio, a club in which every player around the world would like to play. Unfortunately I am not able to take my sport shoes, run and jump like any other team mate.

The reason I am posting this story is because Portland San Antonio is living a difficult period, and the responsibility for this situation is not a direct consequence of the moments we are living in the financial markets.

I arrived Pamplona in the year 2004, and I remember the first time we were with Esther Koplovich. I realized that the amount of money Portland was addressing to handball was not important in the overall budget that the company was managing by that time. When I arrived home I commented with my wife Sara that the day Portland would want to see the return on his investment, it would simple stop sponsoring San Antonio's team. Today that money is important for the company...

What's the point of this story?

The point is that the revenue of many companies is seen has secure... I don't know why everyone think it's secure, because the truth is that it is not secure. Do you agree? When the company decide to take obligations that are not assured by the revenue, the risk for short term liquidity raises. Seems simple to understand, but it is difficult to observe.

I am not saying that we are not living difficult times, however I prefer to think that the best players in every market over the past will be the best players in the future, and here I am talking about management skills. What we are currently living will choose the companies and the players that are prepared to compete in the macro economical environment of the present.

I want to welcome Gonzalo Gonzalez Alorda for following this blog.

My best regards

Ricardo Andorinho

MBUintelligence

Creativity

Thanks Frederico Lucas,

Leadership, Intangibles & Talent Review Q1 2009

Hi everyone, the financial crisis is still uppermost in people’ s minds and new ideas and insights in HR are slowly emerging, interestingly not always from organisations which one would term the “HR establishment”. If you are interested in a review of the research and commentary into leadership, intangibles and talent during Q1 2009, feel free to have a look at our work at http://www.fourgroups.com/link/?50
Bruce Lewin

Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better

IlearningGlobal

Dear strategists,

ILearningGlobal is a new company that will lead the world of Management Education contents. It is really my believe, based on the facts that are being already experienced.

The comapny was born 3 months ago and have nowadays more than 6,000 marketers.

The company is incorporating each week 6 to 10 speakers gurus under each of the categories that the university holds inside. It is quite an incredible amount of knowledge integration.

For those that are in organizational development market I recommend you to research a little bit more about this incredible tool.

In 10 days it will be available for signing up every user in the planet.

Regards,

Ricardo