Real Rubber Meets the Road Advice

Move: How Decisive Leaders Execute Strategy Despite Obstacles, Setbacks and Stalls – Patty Azzarello (Wiley)

What are some of the chronic challenges that your business faces when it comes to executing on strategy? You know, those nagging problems that just ever seem to change or go away, but continue to roadblock change, expansion and acceleration of growing your business.

There are plenty of high powered, highly recognizable business consultants that you can hire, familiar names like KPMG, McKinsey, Bain Consulting and dozens more you can hire to help guide you through the process. Pay them a substantial fee and in return you will get a very well educated MBA; think Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton, who will assess your business issues and then try to pigeonhole them into their patented way of thinking, based on their consultants perspective. This won’t be based on the thought process of someone who has actually run a business, but on a protocol or set of protocols based on their companies approach to things.

It’s like those “smarter than you” folks who make careers in academia who try to tell business owners what they are doing wrong. That’s why I think Patty Azzarello’s new book, Move: How Decisive Leaders Execute Strategy Despite Obstacles, Setbacks and Stalls, is so different. This is REAL, rubber meets the road, actionable business intelligence.

Azzarello compiles a business “greatest hits” in the pages of Move, and displays a real bias towards action. She offers up tried and true advice for breaking through those age old barriers to create actual forward motion, hence the title. Change can be uncomfortable for those folks who like things the way they are or as they have always been. Azzarello addresses those sticky issues of engagement and details how no successful project moves forward without full on buy in from the team. She gives you the tools to get people on board.

I love books that give you the tools that you can put into play today and Move certainly accomplishes that without coming off as a one size fits all approach to business.

Snowflakes Beware

Extreme You: Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat – Sarah Robb O’Hagan (Harper Business)

For me the word EXTREME just conjures up the image of a millennial decked out in a brightly colored outfit either strapped to or dangling off of some kind of motorized device or board(s) of some variety, flying through the air without giving gravity a second thought. So when I read the title of Sarah Robb O’Hagan’s latest book, Extreme You: Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat, I had a level of certainty that it was somehow a motivational/career advice book for the millennial set…and it the end of the day I was completely wrong and completely right!

O’Hagan has seen meteoric rises and equally high speed, epic falls during the course of her career in leadership roles and at the helm of companies like Virgin Atlantic, Nike, Gatorade and Equinox and whether riding high on the wave or face planting on the sand, she has maintained an even keel and pressed on in the face of any setback. She truly practiced what she preaches in Extreme You, putting a driving passion and a go big or go home attitude at the heart of everything she does.

Her takedown of the everybody is a winner, everyone gets a trophy world we find ourselves in, just overflowing with special Johnny’s and special Susie’s had me convinced that O’Hagan could be the perfect leader to move millennials out of their safe places and into the real world; convincing them that losing doesn’t mean you give up, suck your thumb and pull out the Play Doh. It’s time to take that defeat, learn from it, hone your skills, work harder and come back even stronger next time out.

The list of folks who would benefit from O’Hagan’s advice certainly includes those that are just starting out or are early in their careers, but even veteran leaders and mid-career path types can take the advice gathered in Extreme You, from a wide range of folks and equally diverse backgrounds and put it to work when kicking things to the next level. No you won’t have to dangle from the conference room light fixtures, but you can level up and bring the best possible you to the table.

Limitless

No Limits: Blow the CAP Off Your Capacity – John C. Maxwell (Center Street)

Think about it; there seems to be no limits to what bestselling author, speaker and coach can bring his ability and focused training skills to. Clearly he delivers the goods on leadership, but he has also trained countless folks on positive thinking, communication, influence, success, team work, growth and relationships.

With his latest book, No Limits: Blow the CAP Off Your Capacity, Maxwell shifts his focus to examine how folks can expand their capacity and drive themselves to even greater success. When you ponder the word capacity it is easy to view it as a measure of our limitations, but Maxwell posits that any limits on your capacity is based on something that we consciously set for ourselves. He makes the persuasive case that by re-working your thinking you can actually grow your capacity in a wide array of areas.

Maxwell has identified seventeen areas for capacity growth ranging from; leadership to attitude and production to partnership. One area that I found particularly useful was the chapter on creative capacity; while my day job is in a creative role, I find that more and more my work with community organizations, leadership coaching and my writing side hustle has taxed my creative energy. Maxwell gave me actionable steps I can put into play to leverage untapped resources in the creative realm.

That was one of the great things about No Limits; while it hangs together well, you can really pick and choose to tap into the very specific nature of areas that you may feel the need to grow your abilities in. As a bonus it’s all delivered in the clear, concise style that has made John Maxwell a go to resource for so many folks.