Six Disciplines for Excellence - #1 Top-Rated Book in Targeted Keyword Categories

"Six Disciplines for Excellence" was recently listed as the #1 Top-Rated book on Amazon for the following targeted keyword categories:

Excellence + Quality Control

Excellence + Success in Business

Excellence + Success in Business + Total Quality

Excellence + Quality Control + Small Business

Excellence + Small Business + Total Quality Management

Gary Slinger's Review of Six Disciplines for Excellence

Gary Slinger, a Solution Architect from Tampa who publishes a great blog called "Thoughts" recently published his review of Six Disciplines for Excellence. Gary's also big into ITIL and MindMapping, which you'll understand more as you read his review.

Thanks Gary, for your insights!!

A few comments from the review...

"...this is a circular, continuous improvement methodology, with outputs from one section readily feeding into another, and that there are linkages throughout the methodology..."

"Frankly, I wish I’d had this book a few years ago, when I was part of a project that DID create a global IS department, from several smaller departments, and set visions, mission statements, processes, and so forth in place, many of which are still in operation today. We got it done, but at times it seemed like we were winging it, as there was no central reference like this to go to..."

"In reading the book, I’m struck that the author spends time focusing on HOW to achieve maximum benefit from each of the six interdependent Disciplines, and not just providing a laundry list without explanation."


BOTTOMLINE: Read the entire review here.

How Does Your Job Compare?

MONEY Magazine and Salary.com researched hundreds of jobs, considering their growth, pay, stress-levels and other factors.

These careers ranked highest.

How does your career/title rank on this list?

Accountability and Integrity

Over at Hilbilly PhD, is a great article on "Do It Right The First Time."

The essence?

"Have you ever noticed that most of our problems in life tend to come about as a result of trying to evade being accountable. It is not always easy to be accountable. When we are accountable we have to be responsible or answerable for our actions. When we are managers or leaders we are often accountable for the actions of others in our organization or on our team. In order to be accountable we must embody integrity."

BOTTOMLINE: "It is not always easy to do the right things, but, we can save ourselves a whole lot of time and trouble if we invest a lttle more time to do things right the first time. It is much more difficult to clean up a mess than it is to avoid it. "....Personal strength is based on your character. character is a by product of your integrity and your sense of personal accountability."

How Did Six Disciplines Come About?

Want to find out how Six Disciplines came about? What were the events that led to its founding, and more importantly.....why are we doing what no other company has done before?

Watch and listen to John Crawford, General Manager of the Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northwest Ohio, as he explains how Six Disciplines Corporation was founded.

National Small Business Week

This week is "National Small Business Week."

To celebrate, we'd like to point out some of the key advantages that small businesses have over larger enterprises.

• Small Business Advantage #1: Connecting People to Purpose
• Small Business Advantage #2: Effective Communication

More small business advantages to come....stay tuned!

Pouring Your Heart Into It

George Ambler, over at The Practice of Leadership, offers his take on the book of passion and inspiration “Pour Your Heart into It : How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time” by the chairman and CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang.

Key assertions:

• Pursue a Bold Vision
• Passion
• Leadership
• Pushing Boundaries
• Business is About People

BOTTOMLINE: "The Starbucks success story is inspiring and very motivating. I would strongly recommend this book to leaders, managers and especially entrepreneurs. The book is written with the same passion and conviction that made the Starbuck’s brand great."

Powerful Thoughts

From Skip over at Random Thoughts, comes this gem:

Be careful of your thoughts,

for your thoughts become your words;

Be careful of your words,

for your words become your deeds;

Be careful of your deeds,

for your deeds become your habits;

Be careful of your habits,

for your habits become your character;

Be careful of your character,

for your character becomes your destiny.
- Author Unknown

More on SWOT

According to the folks at BPlans:

"SWOT is probably the best tool there is for taking a strategic look at a company. It's named for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It's a very good first step towards analyzing any company, or developing business strategy."

"Of course you have to manage a SWOT meeting well. Like any other meeting subject, SWOT can degenerate into useless discussion. A SWOT meeting should focus on the SWOT agenda and avoid unrelated side discussions. It should invite contributions without reprisals for negative comments. It's a variation on brainstorming, so contributions -- as in suggested bullet points, suggested items on the list -- are all positive as long as they are well intentioned."

BOTTOMLINE: How does Six Disciplines approach SWOT? First, it's an integral part of Discipline VI. Step Back, of the Six Disciplines Methodology. Second, it's built right into our software, the Six Disciplines Business System. Finally, it is further enhanced by the use of the unique 100 point exercise application, which enables each stakeholder to rank how important each item raised in the SWOT is to themselves. Gone are the flip charts, napkins and random pieces of paper to record SWOT - and replaced by intuitive software that records, tracks, trends and enables execution to occur.

How Bill Gates Gets Work Done

Interesting article here from Fortune Magazine called "How I Work: Bill Gates."

The essence?

• Go paperless
• Use email as the first communication medium
• Use email filtering to drop down the number of incoming emails to an acceptable level
• Email as the central universe of workflow
• No to-do list. Use email, folders and online calendar
• Use email notification icon, but have the discipline of ignoring it
• Use desktop search for files, other than navigating through folders.
• Use whiteboard to brainstorm

Trust Makes a Leader Great

Steve Sherlock, over at the Blog Synergy, posts this review of leadership characteristics, in which he sums up the one key characteristic of great leaders as being trust.

BOTTOMLINE: Our research showed that one of the key differentiators of top-performing organizations vs. lower performing organizations was the level of TRUST within the senior leadership team and team members.

How To Deal With Daily Stress

Tom Asacker, over at A Clear Eye, poses these solutions to dealing with daily stress:

• Be passionate - About how your work improves people's lives
• Be clear - About precisely how you provide that value
• Stay focused - On what customers truly care about
• Communicate unceasingly - Your passion, vision and strategy
• Stay tuned in - To the rapid and endless changes in today's marketplace
• Be kind - If you want your people to be kind
• Stop lying - To your people, shareholders, customers and, especially, yourself
• Trust others - Which is not the same as telling them what to do (see #7 above)
• Give back - To customers, employees, the needy, and the environment
• Take risks - Brand is a verb, not a noun

Entrepreneurial Growing Pains

Dr. Jeff Cornwell, over at the Entrepreneurial Mind, had the pleasure of having Eric Flamholtz (author of Growing Pains) as a guest speaker at Belmont University.

Some highlights from his lecture at Belmont are included below. (NOTE: I've inserted relevant references from Six Disciplines for Excellence...)

"What you can't measure, you can't manage." (Disciplines II, III and IV - Define Measures, Align Measures, and Monitor Measures)

"Set a specific quantitative goal for your business and develop a plan to get there." (Discipline II. Set Goals That Lead)

"A mission should have a qualitative and a quantitative component." (Discipline I. Decide What's Important - Renew Mission)

"Companies compete not just with products and within markets, but through their operating systems, management systems, and culture." (Discipline III. Align Systems)

Business Improvement Overload?

Want to be overwhelmed by business improvement ideas?

Here's more than you can shake a stick at!

Web seminars - conducted by many of the top "business improvement experts" -- all available to you for free, from our good friends at Microsoft.

BOTTOMLINE: Do we really need "more" business improvement ideas? Perhaps what we really need is just to pick a comprehensive set (a methodology), use some (technology) to make it practical, and have an external (coach) to keep us on track and keep us accountable. At Six Disciplines, that's EXACTLY what our research shows - will make business improvement and business EXCELLENCE - last.

The Courage To Lead

EmoryLeadership.org has a great piece on "The Courage To Lead."

Their premise?

• The single biggest barrier to implementing strategy is courage.

Why?

• Many people (and firms) lack the guts to stick with the plans and goals they have set for themselves.
• They lack the courage of their own convictions

In short, executing a strategy takes courage. You must be willing to practice what you preach, when it is convenient and (most important) when it is not.

BOTTOMLINE: "If you’re going to pursue a strategy, you must be willing to make hard choices and act as if you truly believe in your own strategy."

Quotes for Today

"Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs." - Vaclav Havel

"It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do." - Elbert Hubbard

"Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.“"- Dee Hock

"Talk does not cook rice." - Chinese proverb

Amazon.com, Execution and Six Disciplines

When you think of Amazon.com, one thing is for sure: execution is the key to their continuing success.

Don't believe it?

Here's a flip chart of what's on CEO Jeff Bezos' mind...

BOTTOMLINE: "The reasons most businesses fail is not strategy - it's execution. Know what to do is not the problem: doing it is! The Six Disciplines Methodology has been specifically designed and optimized for execution. " (page 55, Six Disciplines for Excellence)

Customer Relationships - Making Them Great

Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson, in his unpublished manuscript, Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management, makes this observation about human nature:

"You remember 1/3 of what you read, 1/2 of what people tell you, but 100 percent of what you feel."

BOTTOMLINE: What customers are most likely to remember about you is their emotional reaction to working with you. One bad experience can make the difference. Fortunately, the opposite is also true. One great experience can make a relationship last -- for the long-term.

Leadership Development as Competitive Advantage

Great article here from Emory Leadership.Org on "Leadership Development as Competitive Advantage"

"One of the most critical CEO challenges is to create sustainable competitive advantage.

The keyword is “sustainable” as many companies find that whatever competitive advantage they are able to carve out for themselves is relatively short-lived. It is difficult to hide a strategic innovation from your competitors.

So how do great companies create sustainable competitive advantage?

One approach is to employ systems thinking – creating a differentiated complex system is more difficult for competitors to imitate than a strategic innovation.

• Why do some companies consistently outperform others?
• It is not due to the strategic innovations of some new, easily copied techniques. Rather, it is the result of employing a total systems approach that identifies, nurtures, trains, and coaches the leadership. The system drives sustainable achievement.

BOTTOMLINE: A leadership development system is complex and difficult to build. It begins with recruitment and incorporates job placement, performance management, human resource development, and succession planning. (One such "system" - called Six Disciplines, is designed specifically for top-performing small businesses, and incorporates these key best practices in its methodology.)

Living The Good Life

In life, as in business, there comes a time to make serious choices.

From Adrian Savage, a wonderful piece of advice " How To Give Yourself The Best Chance In Life."

The essence?

• Take time to work out what's most important to you
• Keep focusing on your strengths
• Keep trying new things
• Broaden your horizons
• Deliberately shift your perspective
• Spend as much of your time as you can doing things that need to be done. (EXECUTE!)

BOTTOMLINE: If your work and your core values don't match fairly well, you'll never make much of a success.

Critical Leadership Challenges

The Center for Creative Leadership asked its readers to identify the critical leadership challenges facing them and their organizations.

The results of their survey:

"What are the critical leadership challenges that you face in your current job?" (multiple responses)

• 68% said "managing change and complexity"
• 59% said "developing others for leadership roles"
• 54% said "working collaboratively by building and maintaining relationships"
• 54% said "communicating effectively"
• 53% said "building an effective team"

What are the critical leadership challenges that your organization faces? (multiple responses)

• 70% said "developing leadership at all levels"
• 66% said "developing a climate for innovation"
• 61% said "developing high potential and emerging leaders"
• 59% said "operating from an integrated understanding of the organization"

A Bit of Inspiration

Need a bit of inspiration today?


(Tip of the hat to good friend Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends for this one!)

Work Hard, Not Long

Rob May, our friend over at the Business Pundit, resurfaced this article from Fast Company on "Working Hard, Not Long."

The essence?

• Working hard and working long, -- "long" and "hard" are now two different things.
• We work long because we are trying to avoid working hard.
• We praise multitasking when really we should praise focus - because focus is hard
• We praise going through 100 emails to "stay in the loop" when really we should praise the ability to discern what is important and what isn't.

BOTTOMLINE: We all have the same amount of time available each day. It's how you use it that is important, not how much you use. Life is too short and too precious to drag it out by working long. Work hard instead.

Is Your Organization "Ready & Able" for Six Disciplines?

In this short video, listen to Gary Harpst, CEO and Founder of Six Disciplines Corporation, as he describes what a "Ready and Able Organization" is, and how you'll know if/when you're ready for adopting the Six Disciplines Methodology.

Change Management for Six Disciplines Clients

When introducing any new business process improvement approach (like the Six Disciplines™ Methodology), change management is a key to successful implementation.

Prosci's newest 2005 Best Practices in Change Management reveals these top report findings:

• The #1 contributor to (business improvement) project success is active, strong and visible sponsorship throughout the project.
• The top obstacles to successful change are employee resistance at all levels: front-line, middle managers, and senior managers and inadequate senior management sponsorship.
• Employees want to hear messages about change from two people: the CEO and their immediate supervisor - the message they want to hear from each individual is very different.
• When asked what they would do differently next time, most teams would dedicate resources to change management.
• The top reason for employee resistance is a lack of awareness about the change.

Knowing these factors before going into any important business process improvement can help set expectations appropriately.

National Small Business Week in the U.S.

National Small Business Week is coming up in April in the United States.

The Small Business Administration is holding a two-day event, April 12 - 13, 2006 in Washington.

More information at the SBA website

BOTTOMLINE: The differences that small businesses have over larger enterprises include the ability to connect to people to purpose, more effective communication, timely decision-making, more in-depth customer intimacy, and the ability to attract talented team members.

(Thanks to Anita Campbell over at Selling to Small Business for the tip!)

Six Disciplines Leadership Center of North Carolina Names Managing Partners

Six Disciplines Corporation today announced Bruce Fawcett and Craig Landwehr will assume the Managing Partner roles with the newly-added franchise of Six Disciplines Leadership Center of North Carolina, located in Durham.

Bruce and Craig will be responsible for ensuring the long-term success of Six Disciplines clients in North Carolina. Both with offer business coaching and strategic advisory services to top-performing organizations that adopt the Six Disciplines™ Methodology, in pursuit of continual business process improvement.

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of North Carolina is scheduled to be operational in March of 2006, with offices at 4819 Emperor Blvd, Durham, NC, 27703. For more information, contact Bruce Fawcett at 919.313.4587 or email BFawcett@SixDisciplines.com.

Six Disciplines Leadership Centers Expands Into North Carolina

Six Disciplines Corporation today announced that it has signed a franchise agreement to launch a Six Disciplines Leadership Center to service the North and East areas of North Carolina.

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of North Carolina will service clients in the north and eastern portions of the state of North Carolina, extending from Winston-Salem to Wilmington, including the Triad and Triangle regions.

Partners in the Six Disciplines Leadership Center of North Carolina include Bruce Fawcett, Craig Landwehr and Mark Granville.

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of North Carolina is scheduled to be operational in March of 2006. For more information, contact Bruce Fawcett at 919.313.4587 or email BFawcett@SixDisciplines.com.

da Vinci's 7 Principles

Sometimes, you have to start out, learning from those who came before us...

da Vinci's 7 Principles

1. Curiositá - An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
2. Dimostrazione - A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistance, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
3. Sensazione - The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience.
4. Sfumato (Literally "Going up in smoke") - A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.
5. Arte/Scienza - The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. "Whole-Brain" thinking.
6. Corporalita - The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.
7. Connessione - A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking.

(Tip of the hat to Phil over at Make It Great!)

Nine Lives of Leadership

800-CEO-Read has made the ebook the Nine Lives of Leadership, by Lisa Haneberg, from Management Craft fame, available for free.

It’s a great leadership resource for all leaders and managers to read.

(Tip of the hat to George Ambler at The Practice of Leadership for this one)

The Myths About Strategic Leadership

From the Center for Creative Leadership comes "Strategic Leadership: Beyond Setting Direction"

Their assertions:

• Much is made of the importance of strategy in today's organizations.
• Even so, managers and executives often struggle to move strategy beyond setting direction or goals and toward an on-going process of transforming and sustaining the organization
• The missing piece is what is called strategic leadership
• The focus of strategic leadership is the enduring success of the organization, and the work of strategic leadership is to drive the organization so that it will thrive in the long term.

BOTTOMLINE: If you think strategic leadership isn't in your job description, think again. You may have been misled by one of these common myths about leadership and strategy:

"Strategic leadership is only the CEO's job."

"I need to be strategic; my people don't."

"Leading strategically is about making the right choice at the right time."

Entrepreneurial Proverbs

Sometimes, the most basic advice is the best.

Ready for some "basically little nuggets of wisdom for bite-sized nutrition" ?

Here are some "Entrepreneurial Proverbs"

(Tip of the hat to Rob May at the BusinessPundit for this one!)

Defining Leadership

Management Consulting News offers this interview with author Aubrey C. Daniels on "What Followers Reveal about Leaders." Daniels helps the world’s leading organizations apply the principles of behavioral science to the workplace. His consulting firm, Aubrey Daniels International, works with business leaders to develop management strategies that reinforce behaviors for long-term success

The essence of his research:

• Although leadership has been dissected and written about for hundreds of years, the failure rate for American business leaders is 50 to 60 percent. Clearly, we still have a problem.
• There’s no real agreement on the definition of leadership. Usually it’s defined so broadly that it’s up to the individual to decide what constitutes good leadership
• Leadership is not a personality trait. But charismatic profiles tend to make people believe that’s all there is to it.
• A definition of leadership: the role of the leader is to establish the conditions under which all performers will choose to execute the mission, vision, and values of the organization.
• Leadership is about affecting behavior, so when we talk about leading people, we should really talk about leading people’s behavior.
• What we’re writing about is measuring the effectiveness of leaders by examining the behavior of their followers. We define leadership, not only by a leader’s behavior, but also by the behavior of a leader’s followers.

BOTTOMLINE: The most successful leaders transcend personality to develop a follower’s loyalty to the organization’s goals. A leader must continually challenge followers to reach for attainable goals so they will stretch and grow

Leadership: Head, Heart and Guts

The results are in from the first annual Global Leadership Imperative, launched by Mercer Delta Executive Learning Center, a global provider of senior executive programs.

The study uncovered the top four business risks facing business leaders and their ability to achieve business results over the next 24 months.

• 83% of senior executives said “increased competitive pressures” poses the greatest challenge to businesses and requires the broadest leadership skill set,
• 67% said “responding to rapidly changing market conditions”
• 60% said “failure to innovate”
• 52% said “satisfying customer expectations”

Senior executives identified the profile of today’s successful business leader as multi-dimensional, possessing a combination of three core competencies in order to rise above the top four business challenges. Mercer Delta Executive Learning Center categorizes these competencies as:

• Head: Cognitive skills; providing strategy, direction and purpose
• Heart: Emotional intelligence; understanding, working with, and developing others
• Guts: Values; doing the right thing based on clear values

BOTTOMLINE: Executives in this study identified the capacity to “think like a customer” as the most important leadership capability for their organizations.

Four Keys For Living Authentically

Four keys to help you create your individual style for living:

1. Choose happiness in your lifestyle
2. Live authentically
3. Live by the trinity of what is true, good and beautiful
4. Aspire to achieve authentic excellence

(Tip of the hat to Phil at Make It Great! for this one, spotted over at Worthwhile - Alexandra Stoddard, from Time Alive)

Providing Value

David Rothacker, over at Rothacker Reviews, asks the question:

"Think about your life and business today. What can you provide to someone that is more than what they expected?"

David's thoughts on providing value are included here.

(We're humbled by the mention of Be Excellent in this article)

Leadership Succession and Recruitment

Leadership succession and recruitment need the sharp attention of your company's top executives and board.

But who should be held accountable—and how?

An excerpt from a Harvard Business Review article by Jeffrey Cohn, Rakesh Khurana, and Laura Reeves offers some insights:

• Many executives believe that leadership development is a job for the HR department. This may be the single biggest misconception they can have.
• At companies that are good at growing leaders, operating managers, not HR executives, are at the front line of planning and development.
• Many senior executives now hold their line managers directly responsible for these activities.
• They must mentor emerging leaders, from their own and other departments, passing on important knowledge and providing helpful evaluations and feedback.
• If line managers are held responsible for executing the talent development initiatives, the board should assume high-level ownership of the overall system. (Traditionally, however, most boards have focused on CEO succession, giving short shrift to systematic leadership development.)
• Detached from day-to-day operations and biases, board directors can objectively look at the company's leadership development systems and bench strength.

Sharpening Your Business Acumen

How do leaders anticipate external trends and craft their strategies accordingly? They follow a six-step thinking process.

Strategy+Business magazine offers a six-step guide for incorporating external trends into your internal strategies.

1. What is happening in the world today?
2. What does it mean for others?
3. What does it mean for us?
4. What would have to happen first (for the results we want to occur)?
5. What do we have to do to play a role?
6. What do we do next?

CPA's Top Financial Management Priorities for 2006

Rick Telberg is president and chief executive of Bay Street Group LLC, advisors in marketing, management and strategy. He also authors a great business blog called CPA Trendlines.

Small company CPAs responded to a recent Bay Street Group survey, and here's the results:

Top 10 Financial Management Priorities for CPAs in 2006 (percentage of surveyed CPAs who agree. Includes multiple responses)

1. 60% - Improving Department's Organization/Performance
2. 53% - Recruiting, Training & Retention
3. 37% - Treasury Operations
4. 37% - Forecasting and Budgeting
5. 31% - Cash/Liquidity Management
6. 31% - Payments Systems 31
7. 30% - Mergers/Acquisitions/Restructuring
8. 30% - Business Performance Management
9. 30% - Strategic Planning
10. 28% - Financial Accounting & Reporting

(Source: Bay Street Group, LLC for AICPA, 2006)

BOTTOMLINE: Take a look at the boldfaced priorities! Then, take a look at the priority that you thought CPAs were high on in red.

Giuliani's Six Principles of Leadership

In his eight years as Mayor, Rudy Giuliani revitalized New York City by focusing on public safety and economic growth. After the devastating terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he was heralded internationally for his leadership skills.

Giuliani, now the chairman and CEO of the consulting firm Giuliani Partners, captured his approach in his No. 1 best-seller Leadership. Speaking last month at CCL's Friends of the Center Leadership Conference, he explored six principles of leadership that are critically important for success:

1. Develop strong beliefs.
2. Be an optimist
3. Have courage
4. Relentless preparation
5. Teamwork
6. Communication

Read the excerpt of his presention on leadership here.

The Link Between Management and Productivity

It's official: a company's economic success rests on the quality of its managers.

In this new McKinsey report, they've confirmed the link between good management and superior performance. Companies that successfully apply a critical mass of proven management techniques—setting goals, tracking performance, energizing the shop floor, and nurturing talent—perform better, on average, than competitors that use such tools sporadically.

"Our research has shown that companies with a strong foundation of management best practices are also robust financial performers. The challenge for managers is to imitate or create good practices and then apply them diligently—and with sufficient breadth—across all functions. Concretely, that means using lean techniques, setting intelligent goals and targets for employees, and developing and retaining talent."

(Who researches this obvious stuff anyway??)

Six Disciplines Leadership Centers Expand into North Carolina

A new Six Disciplines Leadership Center franchise is being launched in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina.

Principals in the new Leadership Center are Bruce Fawcett (bfawcett@SixDisciplines.com), Craig Landwehr (clandwehr@SixDisciplines.com) and Mark Granville (mgranville@SixDisciplines.com).

This new Six Disciplines Leadership Center will be operational in March 2006.

If you are in the area, and have an interest in Six Disciplines, contact Bruce, Craig or Mark!

How Companies Use Innovation to Build Value

Every company worth its balance sheet swears it believes in innovation.

The Wharton School recently asked a number of experts about their perspectives on innovation at the Ben Franklin Forum on Innovation held recently in Philadelphia.

Some great perspectives here:

• "When we think about innovation, we should take a broad view. Innovation does not relate just to a new product that would come into the marketplace. Innovation can occur in processes and approaches to the marketplace, and in [decisions about] which markets the company chooses to serve."
• "For Procter & Gamble, innovation is our life blood. Our senior management says it, repeats it, and our organization lives it. Our consumers vote a billion times a day whether or not to buy our products. You have to have things that meet their needs and that they are willing to buy. We see value in finding new ways of telling consumers what we are about, and it's all about innovation."
• "Innovation is the primary source of value in companies. If you can drive innovation in a company, you can, at a relatively low cost, get a lot of growth and increase the profitability. If you don't innovate, you are actually destroying value because your competition will catch up to you in different ways."

BOTTOMLINE: Discipline V. Innovate Purposefully, (which is described in detail in the top-rated book Six Disciplines for Excellence) is the embodiment of innovation.

Companies Look to Make CEOs Accountable

A growing number of companies are attaching conditions to chief executives' pay, requiring CEOs to meet specific performance targets.

Listen to NPR's "Companies Look to Make CEOs Accountable" (Wow! Imagine that!)

Exercise and Leadership

Recent research from the international think-tank Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) shows that regular exercise and effective leadership go hand-in-hand.

In fact, study author and former U.S. Olympic Committee researcher Sharon McDowell-Larsen, Ph.D, says: “executives who exercise are rated significantly higher on their leadership effectiveness than non-exercisers.”

The drawback?

• In a recent CCL poll of 427 executive, upper and middle managers, 78 percent cited competing priorities and 59 percent not enough time as their greatest challenges to exercise.

BOTTOMLINE: Like anything that takes discipline (diets, personal fitness) - it's not knowing what to do, it's doing it that's the challenge.

The Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt

The Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt offers some interesting insights into GE's Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt.

Some gems include:

• One of the things Jack said early on that I think is totally right is: It's a marathon. It's not a sprint. His advice was right. It's the sustained ability to change that really counts.
• If you can get up every day, stay optimistic, and believe the future is better than the past, those few things get you through a lot of tough times.
• I say my job isn't to manage 300,000 people. It's to manage you. If you have the values, the ambition, if you're able to create excellence, this is going to be a great company.
• One of the things I learned from Jack is that when you're running GE, it's your job to pick ideas, pick people, and spread those ideas across the company. It's not as much a question of confidence as much as it is a combination of confidence and actually seeing the pathway you want to follow -- not just for a year or two but for a long period of time.
• In some next life, I want to do something where I could give back. Teaching is one way. I would probably teach business, somewhere, someplace, somehow.

CEOs and Creativity

Management-Issues reveals results from a new study that reveals the work style behavior that most distinguishes today's presidents and CEOs is....(surprise....) CREATIVITY.

PsyMax Solutions, a human capital assessment firm based in Cleveland, suggests that high creativity - which includes innovativeness and risk-taking is the work style behavior that most distinguishes today's business leaders.

Other interesting findings:

• CEOs also tend to score well above average in their ability to advocate and sell ideas and in tough-mindedness, their resilience in the face of criticism
• CEOs are attracted to the job by the opportunity for complex problem-solving, the ability to have a personal impact on the business and satisfaction of seeing their ideas implemented

Meanwhile, in at least one respect, the PsyMax study found that CEOs lag considerably behind the norm. According to their findings, company heads are decidedly less organized than their subordinates. While CEOs may excel at addressing issues in an innovative, resourceful and imaginative way, they probably need a lot of support from others on their team to execute what needs to be done.

Best Management Ideas

Lisa Haneberg, over at Management Craft, shares the results of her "Best Management Ideas" contest, where she offered prizes for the best ideas from bloggers and readers outthere.

There are some real gems out there - showing once again, that people can still be innovative in their approaches to people performance management.

Spend some time, and take a look here.

Thought Leadership From MIT and Harvard

Jonathan Byrnes is a senior lecturer at MIT and President of Jonathan Byrnes & Co., a focused consulting company. He earned a doctorate from Harvard Business School in 1980.

Jonathan publishes "The Bottom Line" column, from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

His web site here. Definitely worth checking out!

Carnival of Entrepreneurship

Scott Allen, over at About Entrepreneurs, has launched the "Carnival of Entrepreneurship," a traveling weekly blog carnival (hosted at a different blog each week) featuring the best of the entrepreneurial blogosphere.

The first "issue" of the Carnival is here.

Here's all the details about the weekly roadshow. Check out the Carnival for great ideas and content each week.

(BTW...Be Excellent will host the Carnival of Entrepreneurship on April 20).

What Makes A Top CEO?

For the past nine years, Spencer Stuart has conducted research on the developmental background and professional experience of the CEOs of leading companies in the US.

This year their research was conducted among CEOs of S&P 500 companies.

Their top findings:

• The percentage of new CEOs over age 50 has increased from 64% to 69% over the past year.
• 62% of all S&P 500 CEOs have earned an advanced degree beyond their undergraduate degree (this includes M.B.A.s, other master degrees, PhDs, etc.).
• Since 2000, the percentage of top 100 CEOs who followed one functional path (general management) throughout their career has decreased from 25% to 8%

Check out all the detailed demographics here.


(Tip of the Hat to Rob May, over at BusinessPundit for this one!)

How Great Companies Innovate

Influential business guru Geoffrey Moore, well known for his previous books on disruptive technologies and high tech markets, is back on the bookshelf exploring the topic of perpetual innovation.

Here's a Harvard Review of his latest tome: "Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution"

The essence?

"How can we innovate forever? Because that is precisely what natural selection forces us to do."

BOTTOMLINE: Moore argues that innovation comes in fourteen innovation “types” ranging from simple line extensions to total market disrupters. It's the job of management to figure out which innovation type is the best fit given the maturity of the category.

Reading for Personal Development

George Ambler, over at The Practice of Leadership, offers his advice on How to Select What to Read for Personal Development .

His assertions:

• Books significantly influence our thinking.
• If we're not careful, we allow the media to decide for us what we to pay attention to, and what to ignore.

BOTTOMLINE: So...how do you select books to read for personal development purposes?

"Read only the best books first, lest there not be time enough to read them all" - Walden Pond

Read George's advice here.

Making A Difference, Values and Managing Change

More and more managers are motivated by "making a difference", enjoyment of their job and personal achievement, according to the study by leadership and development centre Roffey Park.

Other key findings:

• 87% will "go the extra mile" to get things done and 83% feel committed or very committed to their organization.
• 70% said they refuse a promotion if it affected their work-life balance and 57% felt they had a satisfactory work-life balance.
• Nearly half said their organisation had become more values driven over recent years, 60% believed that its espoused and practiced values did not match.
• Managing change remained the biggest issue for organizations, despite some stating the biggest challenges they were facing related to succession planning, retention, recruitment and skills shortages.
• 78% of managers thought senior managers do not "walk the talk."
• Performance management was still problematic, with only 11% believing it was managed very well, compared with 9% in 2005.
• Just 36% trusted their top leadership to a great extent.

Competing On Analytics

A new breed of organization has upped the stakes by using all their firepower on the one area that promises to create the greatest competitive advantage: Amazon, Harrah's, Capital One, and the Boston Red Sox have all dominated their fields by deploying industrial-strength analytics across a wide variety of activities.

Companies must undergo very substantial changes to compete on quantitative turf. As one would expect, the transformation requires a significant investment in technology, the accumulation of massive stores of data, and the formulation of companywide strategies for managing the data.

But, at least as important, it also requires executives' vocal, unswerving commitment and willingness to change the way employees think, work, and are treated.

Tom Davenport, over at BabsonKnowledge.org, offers "You Know You Compete on Analytics When...."

Examples of Excellence: Roethlisberger in Football

Findlay, Ohio - home to Six Disciplines Corporation -is getting lots of press these days, and for good reason.

Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, was born and raised in Findlay, Ohio.

This is a tribute to Ben Roethlisberger from the hometown he has made so proud.

Before Big Ben was a Super Bowl starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was Findlay, Ohio's Ben Roethlisberger, a starting quarterback, point guard and shortstop for the Findlay High School Trojans.

BOTTOMLINE: From all of us in Findlay OH - Good Luck Big Ben, - Dreams Really Do Come True! (and....let's get "One For The Thumb!)

Time for Some Levity

OK folks....time for some levity....

If you haven't ever checked out the folks at Despair - wait till you see their podcasts!

For the better part of a decade, Despair, Inc. has been engaged in a fierce battle in the marketplace of ideas with the multi-billion dollar motivation industry. In 1998, Despair introduced the world to a darkly insightful line of motivational poster parodies known simply as Demotivators®. In April 2005, company co-founder Dr. E.L. Kersten unveiled his landmark management book, "The Art of Demotivation"- a work quickly praised by Financial Times Management Columnist Lucy Kellaway as "the most daring, funny and subversive management book ever written".

With the introduction of Despair Video podcasts, the company opens a new front in the war on motivation- while simultaneously offering a tantalizing glimpse at life inside the company itself.

Man, ya just gotta have some fun sometimes!

(Tip of the hat to our friend Lisa Haneberg at Management Craft)

Vision Monthly

Vision Monthly is a new magazine intended for anyone who is committed to professional development, continuous improvement, and lifelong learning.

Some of the top bloggers have contributed to this project - and it is a winner.

Their first issue -- which is outstanding -- can be downloaded here.

Download and distribute as many copies as you like. Please take a moment to provide a donation.

(Tip of the hat to Ethan Johnson at The Vision Thing)

The Five Pillars of Self-Discipline

Steve Pavlina, one of the better blogging authorities on self-improvement techniques, has a great blog over at StevePavlina.com.

During the summer of last year, he published an in-depth piece on "The Five Pillars of Self-Discipline."

The five Pillars?
The five pillars of self-discipline are:

1. Acceptance
2. Willpower
3. Hard Work
4. Industry
5. Persistence.

"If you take the first letter of each word, you get the acronym “A WHIP” — a convenient way to remember them, since many people associate self-discipline with whipping themselves into shape."

Read Steve's in-depth discussion of The Five Pillars of Self-Discipline, beginning here.

Examples of Excellence: Mozart in Music

At Be Excellent™, our focus in on "helping small businesses to achieve lasting excellence."

Yet, there are SO many examples in the world - from which we can learn to appreciate the value and inherent wonders of excellence.

One of my favorites? Excellence in music.

And how better appreciate excellence in music, than to celebrate and appreciate one of the best examples of genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

And today, we celebrate Mozart's 250th birthday.

Some excellent Mozart links here. Enjoy!

Optimism About Growth in 2006

According to an annual online survey released today by Accenture, three-quarters of senior executives in North America, Europe and Asia are optimistic about the growth prospects for their companies and industries in 2006.

Among the findings:

• CEOs officers and HR directors were the most optimistic about the growth of their organizations with nearly eight out of 10 predicting business growth in 2006.
• 72% viewed competition as their biggest challenge compared with two-thirds (67%) who were worried about the state of the global economy
• People factors were also loomed large, with an inability to attract and retain the best talent seen as a threat by six out of 10 of those surveyed.

Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northwest Ohio To Conduct Business-Building Training Session in Findlay OH

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northwest Ohio will be conducting another training session in its Business-Building Series, entitled "Building Company-Wide Accountability."

Feburary 16, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM - Owens Community College, Findlay OH - Conference Center.

To register, contact Rebecca Byerly.

Owens Community College is one of the fastest-growing higher educational institutions in Ohio. On the Toledo-area and Findlay-area campuses, Owens serves more than 45,000 credit and non-credit students, making it the number one choice for Northwest Ohio college students. Owens is committed to providing small classes, personal attention and unmatched affordability. Owens Community College offers over 150 program areas in Agriculture, Business, Fine and Performing Arts, Health, Public Service, Skilled Trades, and Industrial and Engineering Technologies. Owens students also can earn the first two years of a bachelor's degree with a smooth transfer to any area four-year college or university.

Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northwest Ohio To Conduct Business-Building Training Session in Sylvania OH

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northwest Ohio will be conducting another training session in its Business-Building Series, entitled "Building Company-Wide Accountability."

January 26, 8:00 AM -12:00 PM - Lourdes College, Sylvania, OH - Franciscan Center Boardroom.

To register, contact Rebecca Byerly.

The Common Sense Guy - Bud Bilanich Interviews Gary Harpst

Bud Bilanich, the Common Sense Guy, has interviewed Six Disciplines Corporation's CEO and founder, Gary Harpst, during his most recent Internet radio program on VoiceAmerica.

This past Tuesday, Bud welcomed Gary Harpst, author of “Six Disciplines for Excellence”. Gary is an expert in building small businesses that learn, lead and last. Leaders of these kinds of businesses know they need to do more than just build great products or services -- they need to build a great business. Gary shares the insights he gained over the past 20 years. His unique approach to running a small business combines the practical parts of strategic planning, quality management, integrated learning, business process automation, performance management and measure driven improvement. Gary’s ideas are not for people looking for a quick fix. Learn the importance of working ‘on’ your business, not just ‘in’ them.

Listen to the podcast of the interview here.

SMB CEO Talks About Six Disciplines

Are you one of the more than 1.2 million small and emerging businesses in the United States. Are you one of these businesses who have a mature, passionate leader (CEO/president/founder/leader) who seeks excellence in their business; who wants to improve short- and long-term planning, and wants his/her team members to perform to their potential, and execute more consistently toward the company’s strategy. Are you that leader?

According to Steve Rucinski, over at SMB CEO:

"If you are looking for the right path or the right recipe or methodology to help you in this journey you need to check out Six Disciplines HERE!

Or are you a consultant or organization who wants to help support these 1.2 million businesses and are looking for a structure to work within to do so. If so check out the business opportunity with Six Disciplines HERE."

Six Disciplines Leadership Center Southwest Ohio & Northern Kentucky Names GM

Six Disciplines Corporation today announced that it has named Pat Helm to take the leadership role of General Manager with the newly added franchise of Six Disciplines Leadership Center Southwest Ohio & Northern Kentucky, to be located in Cincinnati.

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Southwest Ohio & Northern Kentucky will service clients in the greater Cincinnati area, extending to Dayton to the North, and Florence Kentucky to the South.

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Southwest Ohio & Northern Kentucky will be operational in February 2006. For more information about the Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Southwest Ohio & Northern Kentucky, contact Pat Helm at 513-227-3669 or email PHelm@SixDisciplines.com

Read the entire release here.

Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northeast Ohio Names GM

Six Disciplines Corporation today announced that it has named Ken Hilty to take the leadership role of General Manager with the newly added franchise of Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northeast Ohio, to be located in Cleveland.

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northeast Ohio will service clients in the greater Cleveland area, extending to the Pennsylvania state line to the East and west to Norwalk, Ohio.

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Northeast Ohio will be operational in February 2006. For more information, contact Ken Hilty at 330-283-4208 or email KHilty@SixDisciplines.com.

Read the entire release here.

CEO's Top Concerns

According to a recent global survey of CEOs by The Conference Board, the global research and business membership organization, spurring company growth has become a major CEO concern in Mexico and South America.

The Conference Board's sixth annual survey of CEO challenges covers the views of 658 CEOs from more than 40 countries.

Additional findings:

• For the future, CEOs of Europe and the U.S. have slightly different concerns. CEOs based in Europe are most concerned with speed, flexibility, and adaptability to change, followed by profit growth, and sustained and steady top-line growth.
• In the U.S., the top challenges in the future will be how to sustain and generate steady top-line growth, execute strategy by top management, customer loyalty/retention, and profit growth.

What's On Your Brain

Found an interesting diagram here that describes the Chandler Personal Information Management (PIM) client app.

The diagram describes the various functions used to get "stuff" out of your brain and into a system (PIM, notepad, whatever works...)

BOTTOMLINE: Whatever you do, use SOMETHING - and note that the only brain function with an explanation point - is DECIDE!

The Week for Reading

Lisa Haneberg, over at Management Craft, reminds us it's National Reading Week.

One of the best skills you can acquire over your lifetime is the enjoyment of reading. Read everything you can get your hands on.

So, spend some time this week, begin reading a book - perhaps on a topic of new interest. If it's a business improvement book - (even if it's NOT "Six Disciplines for Excellence" - don't just read it - take what you've read, and execute on it.

Talk About Excellence!

As as a Pittsburgh native, and a Steeler's fan through-and-through, I had to take the opportunity to cheer for the Black & Gold!

Not to mention that Findlay, Ohio - where Six Disciplines Corporate headquarters are, is the hometown of Ben Roethlisberger!!

No one (except us Steeler faithful) gave 'em any chance to upset the incredibly potent Indianapolis Colts, yet here we are, facing the Denver Broncos next week for the AFC Championship game.

BOTTOMLINE: In life, as in sports, I'll provide this mixed sports metaphor: "Never give up....don't EVER give up..." (Jimmy V)

Six Disciplines Included in Top 10 Most Requested Small Biz Audio

Anita Campbell, our good friend over at SMB Trend Wire, offers her list of "Top 10 Most Requested Small Biz Audio."

Included in the Top 10, is Gary Harpst, CEO and Founder of Six Disciplines Corporation, and Anita's interview with Gary on "Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last"

The Definitive Study of Entrepreneurship in 2005

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), directed by Babson College and London Business School, has just published their seventh annual report -- the largest annual measure of entrepreneurial activity worldwide, compiled by more than 150 scholars from 35 countries.

Key findings of the 2005 report:

• ‘Innovative’ entrepreneurs drive economic growth. Middle income countries with higher levels of innovative entrepreneurship demonstrate higher growth rates of GDP per capita. Early-stage entrepreneurs claim more often to offer innovative products then established entrepreneurs. Still, findings show that innovation is relatively rare in all countries.
• Success is best among ‘opportunity-driven entrepreneurs’, who have lower failure rates among early-stage businesses. In general, countries with healthy and diversified labor markets or stronger safety nets in terms of social welfare provisions can be more selective in the kinds of businesses they choose to start….and have higher ratios of opportunity to necessity-driven motivation.
• All entrepreneurs believe they face strong competition, but established business owners (65%) perceive more competition in their marketplace than early-stage entrepreneurs (55%). Additionally, early-stage businesses in high-income countries feel they are more successful in finding market niches than their counterparts in the middle income cluster.

BOTTOMLINE: Excellent, detailed research here on early-stage and experienced entrepreneurs.

Set Goals That Lead - Featured on SMB Trend Wire

Anita Campbell, our good friend over at SMB Trend Wire, has added a link to "Set Goals That Lead," one of the 1-minute “Tip of the Day” segments, recorded by Gary Harpst, CEO and Founder of Six Disciplines Corporation.

Regular listeners of Anita's Small Business Trends Radio program on Voice America will recognize them from the show.

Here's a complete index of Anita's guests from the show -- spend some time and listen to these podcasts!

For more about the show - link here.

And The Winner Is....

Tom Asacker, who focuses on business, brand and marketplace success in his well-respected "A Clear Eye" blog, recently had a guitar recognition trivia contest - cleverly disguised within one of his marketing podcasts.

The winner? Take a look here....

Want even more on "rock stars?" Check out Lisa Haneberg's "How Many Rock Stars Does it Take to Change a Culture?"

Business 2.0 - Content Is Excellent - and FREE

For those of you looking to find great business improvement content, it's hard to beat the successful magazine Business 2.0.

Now, Business 2.0 content is FREE. Check it out here at CNN/Money

(Hats off to Rob May at BusinessPundit for the tip)

FastCompany's The Rules of Business

In The Rules of Business, the writers and editors of Fast Company distill the major ideas and principles of the world of business into fifty-five essential rules. These rules are elaborated on and enhanced by quotes and insights from over 200 business leaders, practitioners, and thinkers into what is sure to be an essential desk reference for managers, professionals, and executives-to-be.

Published on the tenth anniversary of the magazine, Fast Company's The Rules of Business features the essential principles behind today’s most important business topics, from customer service to innovation, from strategic thinking to leadership and management.

Some great ones included here:

Rule #1 The first rule of business is the same as the first rule of life: Adapt or die.“What gets measured, gets done.”—Peter Drucker

Rule #8 Nothing is more overrated than a new idea. Ideas by themselves are worthless. It’s what you do with them that matters.“Bet on the jockey, not on the horse.”—Malcolm Forbes

Rule #49 If it is not right, don’t do it; if it is not true, don’t say it.

Leadership Forecast for 2005-2006

DDI has just published their "Leadership Forecast 2005-2006: Best Practices For Tomorrow's Global Leaders"

Download the Executive Summary here.

Six Disciplines Corporation Expands Leadership Centers Throughout Ohio

Six Disciplines Corporation Expands Leadership Centers Throughout Ohio

YHY Group Signs Multi-Site Agreement to Launch Six Disciplines Leadership Centers in Cleveland, Cincinnati/Dayton

FINDLAY, OHIO, January 9, 2005 — Six Disciplines Corporation today announced that Mike Yammine, Co-President & CTO of YHY Group, a local investment consortium, has signed a multi-site franchise agreement to launch Six Disciplines Leadership Centers in both Cleveland and Cincinnati/Dayton. The agreement also provides the option for the YHY Group to launch future additional Leadership Center franchise operations in other Ohio regions including Columbus and Akron/Canton/Youngstown.

Read the entire press release here.

The Common Sense Guy To Interview Gary Harpst

Bud Bilanich, our friend over at The Common Sense Guy, will be interviewing Six Disciplines Corporation founder and CEO, Gary Harpst.

Bud will be hosting the interview on Tuesday, January 17, from 2:00 - 3:00 PM EST on Voice America Business. (http://business.voiceamerica.com)

Check out Bud and Gary's conversation next Tuesday, and all of Bud's other guests!

Be Excellent™ Included in Carnival of Lean Leadership #5

Kevin Meyer, over at Evolving Excellence, posted his first Carnival of Lean Leadership for 2006, and includes a post from Be Excellent.

BOTTOMLINE: Kevin's blog is an incredible resource for anyone interested in lean manufacturing - take some well-spent time and learn!

Genuine Curiosity Gives Six Disciplines for Excellence Honorable Mention

Dwayne Melancon, good friend over at Genuine Curiosity, has given Six Disciplines for Excellence an Honorable Mention for "My favorite books from 2005."

Also on Dwayne's list:

• Managing with Aloha, by Rosa Say
• Mastery, by George Leonard
• Is Your Genius At Work?, by Dick Richards
• High-Impact Middle Management, by Lisa Haneberg.
• Beyond Bullet Points, by Cliff Atkinson

We're humbled to be mentioned among this list of well-respected authors.

Alignment Through Planning

Lisa Haneberg, over at Management Craft, offers her thoughts on Alignment Through Planning.

Her assertions?

• "A work plan may seem like something that encourages control freaks, but it is the opposite. With a good and well understood plan, employment and engagement comes easier." (Editor's Note: It's a lot like discipline: people think it's all about rules, structure and rigor - well, it is, but it's also about offering freedom to think outside the box.)

What is a work plan?

• "A work plan involves task lists, process improvement, time-frames covered, resource management, deadlines, milestones, deliverables, links to goals and expectation." (Editor's Note: At Six Discioplines, we call this the Individual Plan, and it is the central-most important tool for team member effectiveness.

Read the rest of Lisa's article here where she goes into more depth about why create a work plan, and how to go about doing it.

CEO Executive Breakfasts To Be Held In Tampa Area

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Central West Florida will be holding four CEO Executive Breakfasts in the Greater Tampa area during February and March.

Join General Manager Sean Burke for one of these eye-opening CEO Executive Breakfast events, where you’ll see a systematic, practical and lasting approach to strategy, planning and continuous improvement. In 2 short hours, you’ll discover why business leaders in Tampa are raving about Six Disciplines.

Sean will show you a systematic approach to EXECUTING your strategic plans more effectively -- and how to make 2006 more productive, more aligned and more performance-driven than you’ve ever experienced before.

CEO Executive Breakfasts will be held in Westshore on Feb 7, New Tampa on Feb 23, St. Petersburg on March 9, and in Clearwater on March 23.

To register, call Sean Burke at 813.281.5471 or email Sean Burke.

Best Business Books of 2005

Strategy+Business publishes a great business book list every year.

Here's their 2005 Best Business Book list, by category.

Defining Excellence for Your Organization

Excellence, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder....If you're serious about pursuing (and achieving) excellence, you must decide what excellence means for your organization.

Skip Angel, our good friend over at Random Thoughts of a CTO, is doing just that.

Take a look, then make a list and decide what excellence means to you and YOUR organization.

Organizational Learning: How Executives Stay Informed

Books24x7, announced the availability of a new research report, “How Executives Stay Informed: A Study of Resources Used and Time Spent Locating Critical Business Information.”
Interesting findings:

• 37% of senior-level executives spend more four or more hours each week searching the Internet in frustration for business-related information that will help them stay informed and current.
• 91% of executives routinely use the Internet when searching for business-related information. Respondents relied on the Internet more than any other source, including trade journals, books, newspapers, and webinars.
• 67.5% of respondents said they don’t read books or articles in entirety but read summaries, skim, or read specific sections.
• 14.4% read seven to ten business books a year, 21.4% read four to six books, and 45.8% read one to three books. 74.9% of respondents said they’d like to read more, but are limited because of time.

Kauffman Foundation Resources

For a wealth of excellent entrepreneurial resources, you must visit the Kauffman Foundation site - and make sure to check out all of their related sites:

• Kauffman eVenturing
• Kauffman Entrepreneurship Research Portal
• FastTrac
• Giving Back To Entrepreneurship
• BusinessEKG
• Signature Series
• Youth Advisory Board

Six Disciplines Leadership Center News!

Six Disciplines Franchising Corporation is pleased to announce the signing of two new franchise agreements with the YHY Group, Inc.

YHY Group has signed an agreement to launch Six Disciplines Leadership Centers in the Cleveland and Cincinnati/Dayton (Ohio) areas, with an option to purchase the Columbus and Akron/Canton territories later in 2006.

Welcome YHY Group to the network of Six Disciplines Leadership Center franchised organizations.

For information about starting a Six Disciplines Leadership Center franchise in your area, contact Scott May.

Inspiration for 2006

This entry from Kris Morrison at Management Speak offers up some key considerations before we all get wrapped up in the details of the New Year.

"Before you get caught back in the frenetic motion of the day-to-day, take a few minutes to step back and refocus.

• Think about what is important in your life. Remember the joys and sorrows that defined your year; the accomplishments and challenges that crossed your path.
• Be thankful for all that you have. Consider what you can give to others.
• Think about what worked and what didn’t.
• Now look to the year ahead. How will you define 2006? What do you need to continue your journey toward health, happiness and success? What will keep your business moving in the right direction?"

BOTTOMLINE: "The New Year holds unlimited opportunities for innovation, inspiration, compassion, growth and success. Make it a year you will never forget."

The Kawasaki Rules of PowerPoint

Welcome to 2006!

Our first entry comes from a former Apple alumni, Guy Kawasaki, who brings us his view on the "The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint"

According to Guy (who's a venture capitalist now), it’s quite simple: "a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points."

• Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting.
• Give your ten slides in twenty minutes.

BOTTOMLINE: For a brief short outline of a presentation, read Guy's article here.

Happy Holidays from Be Excellent™

With over over 350 posts since we started in July, and over 6,000 visitors worldwide later.....we'd like to thank everyone -- and extend to you a Happy Holiday season - wherever you are.

Let's take time this Holiday season to reflect on what is good in the world, and how we can all help to make it even better.

Looking forward to sharing even more with you all in 2006!

My challenge to all: Be Excellent™

The Vision Thing Reviews Six Disciplines for Excellence

Ethan Johnson, over at The Vision Thing, offers his book review of "Six Disciplines for Excellence."

First, let me tell you that Ethan is one very sharp individual. His specialty? Business Process Management.

He's also a very tough business process management critic - as shown here, in his "All of Your Business Books Are Meaningless: Archive."

So....what did Ethan think of Six Disciplines for Excellence?

A few excerpts:

• "We interrupt our coverage of meaningless business books to review a book that made the cut: Six Disciplines for Excellence by Gary Harpst."
• "And that is indeed what sets this book apart from more typical business book fare: Gone are the grandiose declarations and cheeky labels. Instead, this is meant to read more as a how-to manual. Not so much “read”, as “used”."

Read the entire review here - at The Vision Thing.

Year End Questions for Leaders

Bud Bilanich, good friend over at The Common Sense Guy, offers his last post of 2005, called "Year End Questions for Leaders."

All of the questions are spot on, but I've selected a few from Bud's list that I think are critical for small business leaders to consider:

• Have I communicated a clear and compelling vision for the part of the business I lead?
• Do I think strategically everyday?
• Have I communicated my values as a leader?
• Are they consistent with my company’s values?
• Do I live these values?
• Do I help others understand and buy into my company’s values?
• Do I provide the people I lead with clear performance objectives and feedback on their performance?

Read the entire list of Bud's Questions for Leaders here.

Franchise Forecasts for 2006

Entrepreneur Magazine's article In the Know offers a franchise forecast, where, "your search ends here, as we predict what will break on franchising's horizon in 2006."

Some interesting observations:

• Undeniably, 2005 is the year that franchising itself became a trend.
• In fact, the total number of franchise units for all Franchise 500® companies grew 11 percent from 2004 to 2005.
• That's an impressive jump compared to the 4 percent increase that occurred from 2003 to 2004, not to mention the previous year's drop in franchise units.

So what's spurring this amazing growth?

More people are recognizing franchising as a viable means to turn entrepreneurial dreams into reality.

This article "uncovered eight growing categories we predict will sweep the franchising world in 2006." One of those eight growing categories? Business Services. The entire business services category, ranging from tech consulting to advertising, experienced steady growth.

BOTTOMLINE: For those of you who are intrigued with Be Excellent, Six Disciplines or franchising, take a look here for a franchise business opportunity that combines all three: Six Disciplines Leadership Centers.

Business Pundit Adds Six Disciplines for Excellence to Bonus Book List

Rob May, over at Business Pundit, offers his list of the "Ten Business Books (+5) For Your Christmas List"

His list is "simply ten business books that I have gotten a lot out of."

In addition, he adds five bonus books, that he "would recomend for specific situations."

On the short list?

"If small business is your thing, Six Disciplines for Excellence is, well, excellent."

Thanks Rob!

Six Disciplines for Excellence - A Best Book of 2005

We're proud to announce that CEO Refresher, has included "Six Disciplines for Excellence" in their listing of "Best Books of 2005."

It is an honor and a humbling achievement to be included on their list of top business books, by such respected authors and management experts as Jack Welch, Malcolm Gladwell, Philip Kotler, and Larry Bossidy.

The CEO Refresher is "brain food for business." It covers leadership - strategy - leading change - performance - insight - words and wisdom - mindfulness - interestingness - learning - and learning faster.

Open For Business: Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Central West Florida

Six Disciplines is proud to announce that the Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Central West Florida is "open for business."

The Six Disciplines Leadership Center of Central West Florida, located in Tampa, is headed by Sean Burke, General Manager. Drop Sean an email or give him a call - and welcome him to Tampa!

Sean's Six Disciplines Leadership Center services the best performing businesses in the regional Tampa Area on the North, South through Naples; extending from the Gulf east through the center of the State.

3001 North Rocky Point Drive East Suite 200 Tampa, FL 33607
Phone: 813.281.5471
Mobile: 813.469.0038

Podcast: Discipline IV. Work The Plan

One of the greatest organizational learning tools ever invented is the quarterly individual plan.

While working within Discipline IV. Work The Plan, every person in the organization works with his/her team leader to develop Individual Plans (IPs) for the upcoming quarter. The activities within these plans are checked for alignment with company goals. This quarterly Individual Plan is a time-saving template for weekly IP Status reviews.

The net result is that every individual in the organization learns to set goals, understand company priorities, take responsibilities for their own goals/activities, report progress and use their innate, innovative capability to solve problems.

Watch this streaming video podcast of Gary Harpst, CEO and Founder of Six Disciplines Corporation, as he describes Discipline IV. Work The Plan.

(NOTE: Video is in Windows Media Format )

Linking Strong Moral Principles to Business Success

From the good folks at Emory comes this book review on "Moral Intelligence: Enhancing Business Performance & Leadership Success."

Using original research, the authors show how the best performing companies have leaders who are able to promote moral intelligence throughout their organizations, despite the fact that the business world all too often seems to reward bad behavior, at least in the short run.

BOTTOMLINE: Moral intelligence is new to the playing field. This book focuses on four principles that are vital for sustained personal and organizational success: Integrity, Responsibility, Compassion and Forgiveness. Moral intelligence isn't the only determinant of sustainable business performance. But you need it to stay in business over the long haul.