Smartest Guy?; 2nd Best Speech?; Goals and Purpose worthless?; Happy Graduation
May 16, 2014Smart Thinking; IFTTT and others; 600% increase in leads; June 4 freebie
May 29, 2014Pat’s poem; Wei’s admonition; Margaret’s surprising question; Day 1 Summit key points
"…keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
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What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? |
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Wei Chen, first Chinese citizen to fly solo around the world |
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There are no bad businesses, just bad business models. |
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Verne Harnish interview with John Mullins |
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Summit in 23 Minutes — below (in presentation order at the Summit) are short summaries of each of the Day 1 speaker's main points along with a link to a short interview with each. These won't replace reading their books and they hardly capture the full power of their presentations, but you hopefully can mine a powerful idea or two from each. And for those that attended FORTUNE's Leadership Summit, these interviews will provide a quick overview you can share with your teams. Next week I'll share summaries of Day 2.
Pat Williams' Poem — the co-founder of the Orlando Magic and author of 92 books, Pat Williams received a well-deserved standing ovation after sharing 7 keys to leadership, summarized in this poem:
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He emphasized the importance of great leaders being teachers. And to be great teachers one must be a life-long learner. "Leaders are readers" was his summary (Pat speed reads 700 books per year). It was an honor to be in the presence of such a learned man.
Adam Grant —author of the huge bestseller Give and Take shared research that shows the givers outperform takers and matchers, but only if they do it a certain way – otherwise givers are the worst performers. His 4 minute interview describes how to do it correctly, including "5 minute favors" and making sure you batch them together in one day vs. spreading them out. He also discusses the creation of "reciprocity rings" and how to handle takers!
John Mullins — serial entrepreneur, professor at London Business School, and author of the highly acclaimed Getting to Plan B, John walked us through the five fundamental business model innovations that have powered the most successful companies around the globe. The key is picking ONE and use it to dominate your industry. In John's 6 minute interview we discuss why there are no bad businesses, just bad business models – and summarize the five business model options.
Margaret Heffernan — another serial entrepreneur and author of the highly insightful Willful Blindness and three other books, Margaret asked a question the results of which surprised me:
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In large companies the blockage is fear; in growth firms my hunch is simply not building into our routines a way for employees to voice their concerns. When moving fast it never seems the time to bring something up and no one wants to be a buzz kill. So I asked my own team and sure enough, they do have concerns they've not voiced, mainly because I'm always in a rush with them – oops!! In this 6 minute interview Margaret and I discuss this situation and the importance of having diverse teams not just for innovation but to avoid willful blindness to risk and problems. And there needs to be two lions at the top modelling disagreement and debate and senior leaders need to change hats, arguing the other side of the debate.
Pat Williams — closing the first day, Pat shared his 7 keys to effective leadership from his book Leadership Excellence: The Seven Sides of Leadership for the 21st Century. In this 7 minute interview he starts by discussing this fundamental idea that great leaders are first and foremost teachers and thus need to be on the cutting edge of learner. We also discuss the importance of being bold and not waiting for someone else to act – step up and ACT no matter where you are in the organization (or country)! Pat discusses the huge obstacles he faced establishing a new franchise team. Last, he shares the difference between a serving heart leader and servant leader – he prefers the active verb version.
Wei Chen's Gift — successful serial entrepreneur and YPOer Wei Chen is the first Chinese citizen to fly solo around the globe. Working with Advantage Media Wei shares his story, along with lessons learned, in his recently published book entitled Around the World in 69 Days: What Would You Attempt To Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail? Be sure to have your children read it – he's been lecturing to university students around the world and attended the Summit, making his book available to our audience.
Vegas Oct 28 – 29 — Mark your calendar for FORTUNE's Growth Summit and come learn directly from top authors Ben Horowitz, Keith Ferrazzi, Liz Wiseman, Jack Daly, Kenn Cukier, Beverly Kaye, and more.
What WOULD you do if you knew you could not fail? Ponder over the weekend.
COACHING:
