Jason Womack

Getting better, one chapter at a time

Writing every day, it's a great idea when it works! Now, whether or not I should be "blogging" every day, that's another story...

From time to time, I think, "It would be great to have more of the observations I make out there." Well, for those of you who'd like to hear/read what it is that I AM studying and learning, please go get a copy of the book! Today, it was ranked #12 on Amazon.com's "new hot releases list."

Set to ship in just 10 weeks, you can pre-order your copies to share with the team today!

FBR (Friday Book Review): My Life In Leadership, by Frances Hesselbein

To achieve greatness:

Start where you are,

Use what you have,

Do what you can.

- Arthur Ashe

 

 

Title: My Life In Leadership

Author: Frances Hesselbein Web site / blog

How I got the book: Mrs. Hesselbein gave me a copy (and signed it!) when we met in NYC last week.

How long it took to read: 90 minutes / 3 reading sessions

Read cover-to-cover: YES / no

Favorite quotes (Page # and line):
8. And when do we make the great discovery that leadership is a journey, not a destination?

27. Embrace the Defining Moment (chapter title)

39. Defining Yourself With the Power of No (chapter title, again!)

44. Without the Power of No, the mission of the organization can become obscured by initiatives and programs that do little more than add clutter.

46. The lesson of no is not negative; it is powerful and positive.

81. Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do.

98. Part of learning is getting feedback.

123. Popularity is not leadership. Results are.

212: ...you have only one question. If we do this, will it further the mission?

My Take Away:

 

Frances Hesselbein shares her life stories in an approachable and comfortable way. Never once did I get the feeling she "preaches" to her audience. Especially when I sat in her office for a 30 minute conversation (she writes about these short conversations on page 199), I felt like she was present and with me for the entire time. After sharing some time together, I was so inspired by some of the comments she shared, and questions she asked, that I immediately began to take action.

I think that's the one thing anyone reading this book could be compelled to do. Within 7 days of meeting her, I had set up a 4-session presentation series at a local high school to talk about my career path, and entrepreneurship as an "option" while planning for summer, college and beyond. It wasn't that Mrs. Hesselbein "told" me to go and do this kind of work, she described the work that she's doing, listened to the work that I've done in schools, universities and coporations over the years and encouraged me to continue sharing with audiences worldwide.

My "big idea" from reading this book: The essence of leadership is presence.

1 thing to do today

Write. It. Down.

That's it. If you want to get more out of this hour, this day, this week, this year, write it down. Then, look at it. Every. Day.

Most of you who have read my blog over the years have seen me write about when I was a teacher. Those 5 years were magical; I learned so much while I taught (just a little!). One thing I learned, writing things down is amazing.

Here's the LONG story, short:

Each final exam, I asked the students in the classes I led to "write their future selves a letter." They could give advice, tell a joke, share a memory...whatever. The only rules were:

They had to write for 30 minutes.
They were to put the letter in an envelope and seal it.
They needed to pick the date for me to mail it back - at least 10 years in the future.

Now that it has been 10 years (this June) since I stopped teaching at Nordhoff High School (in Ojai, California), I'm mailing back the last batch of the letters. And, here's the amazing thing: The "kids" are connecting with me, telling me how much has come true, and how much they remember since writing those letters.

Kinda cool, huh?

The Future of the Book. on Vimeo

Now that I'm deep into the writing of the next book (email me, please, to get on the pre-release list!) I'm fascinated by what it's going to look like when we get it out there! As such, I'm getting all kinds of ideas from the people I know and who are helping me along the way. Let's hear it for mentors and friends who have our success and best interests in mind!

I received a note from a colleague in New York City (thank you Sara) after we had lunch one day, pointing me in this direction...

 

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Why didn't I see that?

When you have a moment, and want to learn something about the world you live in, click here and count how many times the people in white shirts pass the basketball to one another.

When you think you have the answer, come back and finish reading the rest of this post...

I admit that I did NOT see the gorilla the first time I watched the video...I completely missed it. Of course, I wasn’t LOOKING for a gorilla, but c’mon, it was RIGHT THERE! What did this teach me about the world I live in? A few things:

1) I usually DO see what I look for;

2) I sometimes MISS what is right in front of me; and

3) I work with people who do that as well!

Sometimes, people do things that seem weird. They say something. They do something. They act a certain way. Why do they do it? I don't know for sure...but I bet it has to do with how they see the world they live in.

I was sent a copy of the book "The Invisible Gorilla" by the authors Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. It is so important a book that I'm recommending students in the Mastering Workplace Performance Online Program get a copy...

Visiting Amazon.com and reading some of the reviews, I came across this short note:

This book addresses: "the beliefs that: we pay attention more than we do, our memories are more detailed than they are, confident people are competent people, we know more than we actually do, and our brains have reserves of power that are easy to unlock.

Ok, if you're ready to test yourself again, notice what you notice "this time!"

Book Giveaway: The Promise Doctrine

A "BIG" thank you goes out to Christopher Scott...here's his recent entry!

This week I'm giving away a free autographed copy of The Promise Doctrine by Jason & Craig Womack.

As a self-published book The Promise Doctrine has sold over 1,000 copies!  Jason Womack is a friend of mine and he authors a great blog you can read appropriately titled, Your Best Just Got Better.

This is a great book to help leaders learn what promises mean and how they can do a better job of keeping the promises they make.  If you'd like to read my thoughts from when I read the book, you can view those in a blog post I wrote entitled, Learnings from The Promise Doctrine.

via christopherscottblog.typepad.com

Where could that next book take you?

Here I am, at the New York Public library and as I'm walking around, I stopped for this photo.

Just 10 minutes ago, I picked up a new book at Barnes and Noble ( Business Model Generation ) and then I saw the quote in the photo below. Now, I'm really curious - where COULD that next book take me?

Inspiring writer: Michael Shuman

A couple of years ago, a colleague (thanks Cico!) introduced me, via email, to Michael Shuman. Great thing was, I was familiar with his work after hearing him speak one fall day in San Rafael, CA at the Bioneers Conference.

Over the months after the email introduction, Michael and I shared a few more notes...maintaining a focus on getting together "at some point" in the future. I'm very interested in his work - building local economies for the better.

Well, last month it happened. While I was in Washington DC doing work with the World Wildlife Fund, I met up with him for dinner in Georgetown. And, what a great dinner it was. I showed up with a copy of his book that we got years ago (I asked him to sign it...for Jodi, of course!) and, I brought him copies of my work as well.

Over dinner, we discussed topics of productivity, goal-setting and performance focus; it was a great dinner. The question he gave me to work on, that is still circulating through my journal and my mind: "How can your work (The Womack Company) be made available to the solo-preneur, small organization focused on improving local community economies?"

I'm workin' on it, Michael. We'll talk about it soon!

Reach out and inspire someone

I got home from a lunch with a mentor, and looked in my inbox on my desk to find a big yellow envelope. "Looks like a book," I thought, "but I got the last Amazon shipment last week."

Opening the envelope, there was a book I'd only heard about: The Tao of Leadership, by John Heider.

 

And, it came from a friend of mine in Southern California. (Thanks Dave!) I had no idea he had thought to send it to me, in our past few conversations he had not yet brought up that he was reading it.

I opened to a random page, and read for a few minutes. And, here is the line that jumped off the page:

(Page 85) "Few leaders realize how much how little will do."

In receiving this book, my friend is modeling the essence of this leadership tenet. There is no way he could know how just this morning I was journaling about my own areas of focus and the balance between how much and how little I could be doing. 

THE TAKEAWAY:

Think about someone close to or important to you. Ask yourself this question:
How could I show up in their world in a positive way today?

Then, go do it!

Thank you, Gary Mack, for writing Mind Gym

A few weeks ago, a client "gifted" me a copy of Gary Mack's book, Mind Gym.

I added it to "the queue," and today I picked it up and headed outside to my front yard. In about an hour and a half, I made my way through this wonderful reminder of how important it is to "be my best" and prepare to perform, before I have to do so.

I wrote a card to Mr. Mack, hopefully it'll make it all the way to his house in Arizona. Here are some of the areas, ideas and quotes that jumped out to me while reading:

• From pages 215-218, Mr. Mack talks about a study out of Harvard on the "five L's of a successful life." I see the one to focus on over the next little while is "Labor." While reading these paragraphs, I thought about how with a slight increase in the effort I'm making, I can add much more value to the work I'm doing.
• On page 202, there's a quote from Mia Hamm, "Sports can do so much. It's given me confidence, self-esteem, discipline, and motivation." For the companies I work with on the street, I see a good day, a bad day, and a learning day doing this as well. For the people I work with in public services, their work, too, can be a reference point (or a stepping stone) to an increase in opportunity, ability and knowledge. What do YOU do that builds those four things?
• Trying hard is, well...Harder. In my line of work - studying the psychology behind productivity - I have seen the highest form of inaction to be too much action at once. Multi-tasking, back-to-back meetings, coming in early and staying late into the evening are all ways to get things done, but I've seen them be ways to get things done that slows people down.