Global 500; LeBron James; Andy Murray; Problem with Shared Command

"…keeping you great"

HEADLINES: (Warning: lots of sports analogies – not normal for me)

Need Character Stories for Column
— for those who heard Jim Loehr (author of
The Only Way to Win)
speak at the Leadership Summit, I'm seeking stories where you've embraced his
idea of using the business to build employee character, like he did with top
sports performers, more below, but first…

Global 500 – Revenues Up 3%; Profits Down 5.5% – FORTUNE's
latest list is out and Royal Dutch Shell takes top honors with $482 billion
in revenue followed by Wal-Mart with $469 billion. Most profitable is
ExxonMobile at $44.9 billion. 8 of the top 10 are either petroleum or car
companies. Take 1 minute to scan the list – and you can view additional data
like # of employees (Wal-Mart #1 with 2.2 million). As biz leaders we should
know some basic facts about our "industry."

Problem with Shared Command — Ben Horowitz's (VC with Andreessen Horowitz) latest blog
addresses the potential problems when a company has one person as Chairman and
the other as CEO. Notes Horowitz, "Every employee in a company depends on the
CEO to make fast, high quality decisions. Often any decision, even the wrong
decision, is better than no decision. These decisions are pulse of the
organization. Sharing command almost guarantees that the CEO position will
perform poorly in this dimension." He does outline an exception to the rule and
an important footnote. Always worth 3 minutes to

read his blog.

"Play
to Win"
— If you watched Andy Murray's straight-sets win in the finals at Wimbledon,
you witnessed what it means to "play to win." Andy never backed off; stayed on
the offensive; went for the winning shots; and ran down every ball. And you
witnessed the most grueling battle with the inner-self during the last game when
Murray blew three championship points but came back to win the fourth. In the
end, it's all about overcoming self-doubt – which has a lot to do with your
preparation and training.

Ivan
Lendl's Honest Feedback — …and you witnessed the power that comes from having
the right coach/master. Murray was a good player, but could never win the big
matches. 18 months ago he brought on the great tennis player Ivan Lendl to be
his coach and shortly afterwards took Olympic Gold, won the US Open, and now
Wimbledon. Take
3 minutes to read this Telegraph article on how Lendl helped Murray
win. Notes Murray, "I think he's always been very honest with me…He's made me
learn more from the losses that I've had than maybe I did in the past," Murray
said last night. "He's been extremely honest with me. If I work hard, he's
happy. If I don't, he's disappointed, and he'll tell me." We all need someone to
do this for us!!

LeBron James Master
— …and it's no surprise that basketball great LeBron James won his fourth NBA
MVP title. This
6 minute article outlines how LeBron James transformed himself into a point
scoring/winning machine. The key, quoting the article, "He went to Houston in
the summer of 2011 to learn from a master: Hakeem Olajuwon. "I wanted to get
better," James said of his decision to work with Olajuwon. "I wanted to improve
and I sought out someone who I thought was one of the greatest low-post players
to ever play this game. I was grateful and happy that he welcomed me with open
arms; I was able to go down to Houston for four and a half days; I worked out
twice a day; he taught me a lot about the low post and being able to gain an
advantage on your opponent. I used that the rest of the offseason, when I went
back to my hometown. Every day in the gym I worked on one thing or I worked on
two things and tried to improve each and every day." The article shows some
fascinating visual shot charts pre- and post- working with Hakeem – and how he
continued to transform his game.

Who
is your Master?
What is the one or two things you need to work on this summer?

Congrats to Aussie Firms
— 3 of Gazelles' coach Ted Bonel clients made the Australia's 50 Best Places to
Work. Notes Bonel, "They have taken the Rockefeller Habits and embedded it into
their organisations extremely well. Employees are asked to complete an
engagement survey which also includes a culture audit. The Gazelles methodology
has been Key to keeping people happy & engaged in their work. The 3:

Stories for

Growth Guy Column needed
— I'm writing an upcoming

Growth Guy column for Smart CEO Magazine and other international outlets. This
time I want to speak about how leaders achieve top performance by helping their
teams build character. Those of you who heard Jim Loehr speak at our recent
Leadership Summit in Orlando will remember his powerful message and the
impressive results his approach has on elite athlete's performance. Have you run
programs that helped your teams build moral character strengths (truthfulness,
gratefulness, generosity, compassion etc.) and have reaped the benefits in terms
of stronger culture and improved performance? Please share your experience by
emailing me at

[email protected]. Please include the number of employees (so the reader
has an idea of the size of the firm). Thanks.

COACHING:

Need helping implementing the Rockefeller Habits?