Showing posts with label john paul carinci. Show all posts
Showing posts with label john paul carinci. Show all posts

Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You're Worth Review

Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You're Worth
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Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You're Worth ReviewI have to admit, I did not have much of an expectation regarding this book. I picked it up at the bookstore to leaf through out of curiosity since I regularly watch the morning show she's on , and at times not really understanding the role she plays. What a surprise this book turned out to be!I could not put it down and ended up buying it and now buying many copies for my friends, mentorees and daughter in laws. I have spent the past 35 years , some would say very successfully, working myself up the corporate ladder, ending up as president of business units and companies. I experienced what she and her contributors have described in this book and I wish I had a book like this to read to 1) understand why I was behaving and feeling like I did, 2) why I let bosses and companies take advantage of me 3)understand better how to get for myself what I deserved....and overall to know I was not alone in this situation.
I think this book is a great resource for every woman, and especially relevant for young women starting out on the corporate ladder, especially when there is so much "fluff" is written on career advice. I admire Mika B's honesty, and her access to prominent women is really helpful in that, their stories may provide the motivation for some women to act on the advice given in this book.Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You're Worth Overview

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StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution Review

StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution
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StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution ReviewI've read with great delight and great profit almost everything Marcus Buckingham has written about Strengths. His works have helped reveal a lot about myself to me, and I've benefited greatly from a better understanding both of why strengths are important and what my particular strengths are. However, "Standout" was not nearly as profitable to me as other works by Buckingham.
"Standout" is the latest in a series of Strength Assessments. Its particular focus is on finding your edge at work. At the heart of the book is the assessment test itself which will let the reader know which of 9 Strength Roles the reader is strongest at, with a particular emphasis on the top 2 Strengths Roles. In fact, most of the book is taken up with chapters devoted to describing in detail each of the 9 Strength Roles in terms of the following categories:
Definition
You, at Your Most Powerful
How to Describe Yourself
How to Make an Immediate Impact
How to Take Your Performance to the Next Level
What to Watch Out For
How to Win as a Leader/ Manager/ in Sales/ in Client Service
The "Standout" assessment, therefore, does give the reader some useful information about himself. But here's why "Standout" was not as useful to me as the other Strengths books. First, as you can see by the categories above, "Standout" applies specifically to work, but only to certain kinds of work, especially business. As a priest, professor, and teacher, this book is simply less relevant to me.
Second, I was not as satisfied with the assessment itself. While the other books revealed meaningful and at times profound things about myself - which almost always corresponded to who I am - the "Standout" assessment didn't seem to capture me very well. I came out as Equalizer first and Advisor second. While both of these fit me to some degree, they don't capture my essence as other Strengths assessments did. For example, I have aspect of an Advisor but am not as good at organizing and problem solving as the test suggested. What undermined my confidence in the assessment even more is that of the 9 Strengths Roles (which the online assessment ranked), "Teacher" came out as #9. This makes no sense since I have not only taught in a wide variety of settings but have also enjoyed great success as a teacher. Is it really my weakest Strength Role? Unlikely.
I believe that there is value in "Standout" for many readers, especially if you're in business. But I still believe the other Strengths works such as "Now, Discover Your Strengths" and "Go, Put Your Strengths to Work" are more valuable works and highly recommend them.
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EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches Review

EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches
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EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches ReviewEven though I'm not a businessman, I'm very interested in leadership and have read a lot of works on leadership. I've also learned so much from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University that I thought surely Dave's newest work, "EntreLeadership" would be worth my money.
"EntreLeadership," is a good book on leadership in business. But I don't feel it's a great one. He has, as always, a lot of good practical knowledge that he's willing to share with us. But it's usually not something I haven't read elsewhere in books on leadership or related literature. So, yes, the book's probably worth buying, but it didn't seem to be as excellent in its genre as is Dave's "Financial Peace." There is a lot of excellent basic material here on leadership, goals, organization, working with people, etc. But it's not especially original or compelling. And it's not very in-depth, largely because Dave deals with so many topics all in one book. Still, "EntreLeadership" is a good, one-stop place for good, basic advice on many subjects related to leadership and business. Almost everyone will find something of value in it, especially businessmen looking for a proven, practical vision with integrity.
What Dave shares in this book is his "playbook" for business success, divided up into 15 topics.
Dave sets out first to define what an "EntreLeader" is. It's kind of an ugly word, but Dave feels that what he wanted in business from himself and others was people who had the good characteristics of both leaders and entrepreneurs. So what is an EntreLeader? I'm glad you asked! According to Dave, they're people who can be:
Passionately serving
Mavericks who have integrity
Disciplined risk takers
Courageous while humble
Motivated visionaries
Driven while loyal
Influential learners
Dave concludes Chapter 1 by discussing some of the characteristics of leaders, such as power, the need to be servants, and passion. There's some good stuff here, but it's not really original or uniquely compelling.
In Chapter 2, Dave walks us from Dreams to Visions to Mission Statements and Goals. Again, there's good wisdom here, but it's not really unique, and he doesn't spend a lot of time on each. He spends the most time on goals (I won't rehearse what he says here), and it's good material that almost anyone will benefit from. But once again, it's not groundbreaking or original stuff you can't get elsewhere.
Chapter 3 deals with time management and organization. This is something I'm naturally good enough at but not nearly as good as I ought to be. So I learned some new tricks in this chapter - or, more accurately - was motivated to make a better effort to apply what I already know.
The rest of the chapters follow suit in giving good and even excellent advice, but possibly material you've heard before. I have less experience with business than with leading or dreaming, so I can't speak as specifically to the parts that deal specifically with business (such as Chapters 7, 13, and 14). But from what I can tell, they're good solid material for running a business, if that's what I did. I particularly like the chapter on selling (such as Chapters 7, 8, 11, and 12) because in these chapters Dave shows how business can be done with integrity. I like as well the way that throughout he demonstrates a genuine interest in the people who work for him (this especially came out in a touching story in Chapter 7 about someone Dave hired who couldn't live off the salary he could afford to pay her) and those he is serving. These chapters, dealing with people, are probably his strongest chapters because he highlights the need to serve the people around you and not exalt yourself at their expense.
A lot of what Dave says applies, even if you're not in business. For example, any leader can benefit from Dave's philosophy in Chapter 11 that as leaders we must put people first and that the way to judge this is by the Golden Rule. It's good advice to remember, as he teaches in Chapter 12, that we should remember to recognize people. I know that personally, I thrive on appropriate and deserved recognition. In Chapter 12, Dave provides a list of various ways we can actually do this for others. Most of these, such as casting a vision, storytelling, passion, and example, are ways of recognizing others that you could use outside of business, too.
There's much more I could say, but by now you've gotten an idea of the value of the book.
The remainder of the book is organized this way (I'm giving the gist of each chapter, and not the fancy titles):
Chapter 4 - Making Decisions
Chapter 5 - Great Marketing
Chapter 6 - Launching Your Dream
Chapter 7 - Hiring and Firing
Chapter 8 - Selling by Serving
Chapter 9 - Financial Peace for Business
Chapter 10 - Great Communication and Great Companies
Chapter 11 - People Matter Most
Chapter 12 - Recognizing and Inspiring Employees
Chapter 13 - Contracts, Vendors, and Collections
Chapter 14 - Compensation Plans
Chapter 15 - Delegating
I recommend "EntreLeadership" as a good, big picture, book that will help leaders and businessman lead and innovate with greater integrity and skill.
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Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking that Block Women's Paths to Power Review

Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking that Block Women's Paths to Power
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Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking that Block Women's Paths to Power ReviewThe authors have nailed it: Despite a generation of women in the workforce, very few of us have made it to the top of the org chart. Why? The reasons are complex of course and you hear about it frequently but rarely do you see concrete ways to reverse this situation. But the good and simple news is that Break Your Own Rules promotes 6 particular do-able, field-tested practices that women everywhere can adopt now to start succeeding in greater numbers. (Today I'm practicing "Take Center Stage" vs "Focus on Others.") The endorsements showcase why this book is so powerful and fresh. But as a reader, I'll vouch for the fact that the authors have laid out a smart blueprint that's highly-engaging and (thankfully) not at all polarizing. (The authors remind us that men and women both want/need the very best minds at the top, regardless of gender.) I give this book my highest recommendation.Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking that Block Women's Paths to Power Overview

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IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain Review

IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain
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IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain ReviewBased on its title IT Savvy, executives may look past this book as another IT advocacy book. You know the kind that says technology will fix everything. Don't make that mistake.
Weill and Ross have created a business book about IT with a clear and concise argument of the role, purpose and contribution IT makes to the enterprise. This is a book executives should read because it clearly states mostly in business terms how executives should think about, lead and fund IT.
Highly recommended for business executives, ignore the title and read the book. CIOs and IT executives should read the book as well and buy copies for their business peers. Corporate and IT strategists should read this book as it have several tools that will help them work together more effectively.
The book's principle term IT Savvy is defined as the ability to use IT to consistently elevate firm performance. It's a good workable definition, not so prescriptive as to lock out innovation, yet not so open as to mean anything to everybody. The book builds on this simple definition with a number of very powerful observations and statements that matter:
> You have to stop thinking about IT as a set of solutions and start thinking about integration and standardization. Because IT does integration and standardization well.
> IT Savvy firms have 20% higher margins than their competitors.
> You need an operating model before you can make sound investments in IT
> IT funding is important, as systems become the firm's legacy that influence, constrain or dictate how business processes are performed. IT funding decision are long term strategic decision that implement your operating model
IT Savvy is based on three main ideas with some commentary from the reviewer.
1-Fix what is broken about IT, which concentrates on having a clear vision on how IT will support business operations and a well-understood funding model. These are two things required for executives to be accountable for IT and its contribution to raising business performance. This is in sharp contrast to situations where IT is delegated and benignly neglected in the enterprise. Sound advice.
2-Build a digitized platform to standardize and automate the processes that are not going to change so you can concentrate on the elements that do change. This is counter-intuitive advice for people who have been told to use IT to chase innovation, but the platform idea is based on studying leading companies and what they do with IT. It may not be sexy, but the platform does drive significant margin, operational and strategic advantage.
3-Exploit the platform for growth by focusing on leading organization changes that drive value from the platform. This is sound advice that is often left out of business and IT books. Once you build a platform for scale, and then lead the company to drive scale across the platform to get benefits. You would not build a house you intended to live in and then not live in it, but many companies build a platform and then run away from it.
The book concludes with an assessment, based on their research that you can take to determine how IT Savvy your business is. The assessment is a very helpful tool for launching the conversation of how to raise business performance.
Strengths
The book is clearly written and very well supported with business based case studies of leading companies like UPS, Proctor & Gamble, Aetna, Seven-Eleven Japan, Pfizer, etc. The cases make for good business based reading and an understanding of what an IT Savvy business looks like.
The book is focused with clear language that makes for an efficient yet in depth read. This is the perfect book for executives who want to learn about raising performance, but do not have the time to study it in depth. There also a number of powerful tools, graphics and frameworks that let you apply the ideas.
The book is not limited to IT. In fact it features in depth discussions of business processes, shared services, management, measurement, operating models etc. Covering these topics in conjunction with IT shows that the authors are clearly concerned with business performance first, second and third.
Challenges
Its minor but readers need to recognize that when you talk about the value of anything, like IT, you tend to refer to the thing a lot. This book uses the word IT a lot and IT Savvy, which may give the reader the impression that it's an IT book. I would advise reading past that term and into what is changing in the business.
The book is short, small format, and only 182 pages. For some that is a real problem, they take brevity as a sign that the book is about marketing the idea than driving the point home. NOT THIS BOOK. The book if focused and I thank the authors for not wandering in the latter chapters just so they could write the traditional 300-page business book.
The book reprise some of the authors earlier works on enterprise architecture and IT governance. This is ok as many readers will not be familiar with this work and the pieces covered here fit well with the overall theme of IT Savvy and demonstrate the authors depth of knowledge.
Many of the main points of the book come at the end of paragraphs or chapters. This makes the book a little difficult to skim-read, something that executives often do. My advice is to take the time to read the words and look out for the nuggets of wisdom toward the end of the chapters. Given that it's a shorter book and the language is clear, I found the extra time to read more than paid off in the extra insight gained.
Overall, a good book, one that should become a foundation for understanding the role of technology in the enterprise.IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain Overview

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