This book is for people in transition positions. It is the first to cover the topic of how to be a leader while in transition, and shows how to reach the breakeven point for your company quicker than before. Breakeven can often take 6 to 9 months to happen. Unfortunately many of us do not have that kind of time to start showing that we are the right person for the job.
Watkins talks about the Stars model and this addresses the four types of transitions companies go through. They are start up, turnaround, realignment and sustaining success. The methods you will use for each type vary somewhat, but a lot of the process is the same or similar. In start up or sustaining success you may have longer to respond to needs and develop a road map, turnaround and realignment can require you to make decisions and start making changes before you have really developed a handle on all business aspects. These early decisions can make it difficult for you to get everyone on board with the needed changes.
Since it is vitally important that you develop relationships and credibility as you go the longer you have for research the better, but in order to succeed in a new role you often must be seen as someone who can make good decisions immediately. Watkins addresses all levels of leaders from team leaders to CEOs. All people, regardless of their position in the company, can use many of the techniques taught here. Watkins uses a lot of examples of people at all levels who both succeed in what they were hired to do as well as those who fail and lets us in on the consequences of these successes and failures.
Leadership transition can be taught but most companies spend little to no time on developing employees in new roles. Many are also expected to maintain their original duties along with the new responsibilities as they look for their replacement. This can set
the new person up to fail as the skills and relationships needed for each position can be in direct conflict with each other.
Watkins sets up a transitional standard framework to use with all new hires as well as discussing the five fundamental propositions, the ten key challenges and the four-fold typology of situations that most new managers find themselves in.
He uses charts to show his research and expected outcomes and each chapter has pertinent questions the new leader can use to bring them to the breakeven point much quicker while developing the necessary skills and credibility along the way. The questions are pointed and make the reader access realistically where they are in the transition and what the necessary steps are to get to the next win or development. He stresses making sure you have wins along the way whether they are large or small so that you can quickly show your knowledge, understanding and needed skills to accomplish the new job.
This is the audio version of Pitch Like a Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed (2005). It has been updated to include examples from the many seminars that Ronna Lichtenberg has presented.
Men and women communicate in different ways and some of that is determined by brain sex. What this means is that some people follow gender guidelines and have very predictable styles and some do not. Most men are “blue” in their approach; very logical, fact oriented and get to the point and most women are “pink” in their approach; create relationships, share stories and empathize. These two extremes have very definite needs when it comes to how you choose to pitch to them. People are often not “pink or blue” but striped. We may lean in one direction, but use parts of the other in the way we communicate.
Because communication drives everything we do the more we understand where others and we are coming from the better. We can develop pitches specific to their needs or goals. We will not lose the attention of the blue man who wants just the facts when we use stories in our presentation instead of the streamlined presentation that addresses his needs. Doing research beforehand as well as learning to adapt our presentations on the fly when we get signals that we are losing the audience will make us very successful in all of our communication.
Ronna Lichtenberg shares tips, techniques and exercises to help you develop and understand your own style as well as identifying styles of others. How we pitch to these different styles will determine our ability to get what we want.
The many exercises will help you “get in touch with what you really want, find your natural “pitching” style, discover what you need to know to get others to support you, package requests so that people will say yes, talk about money with confidence and a sense of self-worth and close agreements without feeling like you’ve put relationships at risk.”
The old children’s rhyme Row, Row, Row Your Boat is the basis for the title and philosophy of this book. Weinstein and Barber share the way to use the lines from the rhyme to direct your life in the direction you want to go. The book is divided into four sections and each line is the heading for the next section.
Weinstein and Barber share the 4 unforgettable keys to success with us by using this rhyme. They are: Get Involved, Go With the Flow, Have Fun and Create a Vision. Having a clear vision is most important in being able to have success and happiness in your life. Using humor to get there is also very important. Weinstein and Barber alternate writing the chapters and use humorous examples from their lives and business contacts to illustrate the points in the book. Many of the examples were not viewed as humorous by the authors or others as they were happening to them, but in retrospect they help show how we need to find the humor in all things so that we can benefit from everything that happens to us. We cannot control everything that happens to us, but we can control how we respond to those events. Personal responsibility is key to controlling what the outcome is for everything we encounter.
Do you need to learn about resources available to start or grow a business or find a job?
Check out the Free Minding Your Business class.
Do you want to learn about resources available to help you invest?
Check out the Free Investment Tools at Your Library.
For upcoming dates of both these classes click here.
Marketing is one of the major reasons for the success or failure of a company or industry. Michael Silverstein and John Butman look at consumers from all over the globe and give detailed case studies of consumers from Japan, to Germany and the United States. They include singles and families from every economic background. They analyze why people spend their budgets in specific ways by doing in-depth interviews with typical buyers of various products or product types.
Many consumers, whether poor, middle class or wealthy, trade both up and down in specific categories. The trick is to identify where they are willing to spend more and why. The companies that are losing market or just surviving are all competing for the middle class consumers.
What Michael and John have discovered is that consumers will buy bargains where they can find them in all categories, but will trade up in categories that really matter to them. They purchase from the discount stores and volume buyers for items that are necessities, but that don’t have real meaning for them such as paper goods Treasure Hunt uses examples of companies that have succeeded in both the buy down (bargain markets) and the trade up markets. Some compete at both ends, but most specialize in one or the other. The middle market is shrinking in dollars spent and if your business is currently operating there you need to decide which market you will pursue and how you will appeal to the consumer. Money must be invested for most companies to be able to achieve the new recognition as a provider of the bargain market or the upscale market. Examples of companies profiled include Aldi, BMW, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and many others.
Treasure Hunt is a fascinating read into the world of the consumer and why we all want bargains when we can find them, but also want to purchase items that really address our wants and needs and are willing to pay higher prices if the return on investment is clear.
Leaders come in all shapes, sizes and titles. Many of us see leaders or leadership in those who are our bosses and CEOs; however, we can all be leaders in today’s world. How you handle yourself in situations, both business and personal, can show that you are a leader. A leader is someone who makes things better around themselves or who sets an example for others to follow to get a group of people to make things better. A true leader does not think of how this will impact him, but in how it will effect others. Many people who do not hold titles in their jobs, or those who hold titles we do not usually associate with leadership, accomplish much for others by leading all into accomplishing the things that need to happen. A leader can be a teacher, a janitor or a line operator. They may not have as much influence to get things done, but they usually lead by example.Mark Sanborn talks about the six principles of leadership and gives stories, examples and action points for all of us to use to develop leadership skills in ourselves. Examples and stories have much more meaning and staying power than do facts and figures. These six principles are Power of Self-Mastery, Power of Focus, Power with People, Power of Persuasive Communication, Power of Execution and Power of Giving. Leadership is all around us, but most of us do not focus on who is actually leading the way, we just follow the example shown to us.
