#1 Leadership Skill; 4 More; Cheating System; 3rd Edition Topgrading
July 24, 2012
Dare to Disagree; Railroaded; Breaking the Bank; More Rooms Available
August 10, 2012

#2 Leadership Book; Dream Team; Surprise Finding; Olympic Torch

"…out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:
 

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
  Henry Ford

Israel Radio Interview — if you're looking for something to play in the background while doing email, my latest interview which aired in Israel is available online – it includes some of my latest thinking if you've missed the last couple of Summits.

Latest Executive Dream Team Fortune has named their latest Executive Dream Team – and Gazelles200 member Roger Hardy, founder of Coastal Contacts, had his own list (and explanation) published by Fortune online – congrats Roger for your list of disruptors!

The Leadership Challenge — one of the five most important leadership books ever written is being released today. Significantly updated, the 25th anniversary 5th edition of The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner is the foundational book for any leadership development initiative – it's a must for every new supervisor/manager to senior leader. Their five part leadership framework is the most researched (based on 3 million pieces of data) and respected model in practice within the Fortune 500 and one we've used in our work with clients since the founding of our company.

Five Practices — here's a quick list of the five practices. Simple in concept, it's the details in how to apply each practice that makes Kouzes' and Posner's work so powerful:

  1. Model the Way
  2. Inspire a Shared Vision
  3. Challenge the Process
  4. Enable Others to Act
  5. Encourage the Heart

In a way, almost all the leadership books that have followed can be mapped onto this framework and either build on or expand our understanding of each of these five practices.

Over 2 Million Copies — if the best definition of a classic worth reading is both the number of copies and years in print, The Leadership Challenge passes the "crowd" test. It's lasted because their five practices for exemplary leadership work. These practices are practical and teachable. Members of the Gazelles200 and book club will be receiving a copy of the latest edition.

Surprising Outcome — with all the talk about the importance of organizational values, it's actually the personal values of a leader that matter more – which makes sense upon reflection. Obviously, if the two value sets are aligned, it's all the more powerful.

Jim Kouzes Keynoting Fortune Growth Summit — to help celebrate this 25th anniversary of The Leadership Challenge, co-author Jim Kouzes, who has been a friend for over 15 years, is keynoting our Fortune Growth Summit in Phoenix Oct 23 – 24. The Summit is a way to absorb the best ideas and practices directly from the authors of over a dozen important business books – a mini Bill Gates-like "Think Week."

Marshall Goldsmith — author of one of the other five best biz books (What Got You Here Won't Get You There), Goldsmith's guest review of The Leadership Challenge on Amazon reinforces the importance of Kouzes' and Posner's book. He, too, recommends it to all his clients as the top biz coach in the world. Read his review here.

5 Best Leadership Books — in case you missed it last week, in the spirit of "it takes a village of gurus", here's a link to my summary of the five most important leadership books, including The Leadership Challenge. Master the skills in these books and you're in the top 5% of leaders.

Best Olympic Torch Ever — congrats to Danny Boyle and Great Britain for an outstanding opening ceremony including an Olympic torch that speaks to the power of the crowd – a torch made up of a "village of torches" representing all the participating countries. Brilliant, simply brilliant!!

Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” and WEO’s “Advanced Business” executive program both held at MIT. Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 150 coaching partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale-up. The “Growth Guy” syndicated columnist, he’s also the Venture columnist for FORTUNE magazine. He’s the author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0); Mastering the Rockefeller Habits; and along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times," for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword. Verne also chairs FORTUNE Magazine’s annual Leadership and Growth Summits and serves on several boards including chairman of The Riordan Clinic and the newly launched Geoversity. He is an investor in many scale-ups. A father of four, he enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.