Pumpkin Carving 2009: Samurai Mask

This year, I tried to carve a samurai mask. It didn’t turn out as good as I had hoped. I am reconsidering whether I should attempt a “relief” style next year or just settle for a cut-out style that is more simple and apparent in the dark. I tend to think it would be more […]

What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers

Notes on: Kellerman, B. (2007, December). What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers. Harvard Business Review, December 2007, p 84-91. Modern leadership Stress leaders rather than followers (amorphous) Followers matter! Not obvious who is leader and who is follower New typology for followers Who are followers? “Low in the hierarchy and have less power” […]

What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Twenty-First Habit: Goal Obsession Goal obsession is not a flaw like the rest “comes from misunderstanding what we want in our lives” (99) “misunderstanding what others want us to do” (100) Examples Candace, the marketing executive Colonel Nicholson, from The Bridge on the River Kwai Wall Street Exec who kept getting divorced […]

What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Twenty Habits Knowing What to Stop one difficulty is that we often stress what to do rather than what not to do what not to do is often as important Shifting Into Neutral Rather than attempting to move from negative to positive, which is difficult, try to move from negative to neutral […]

What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Success Delusion or Why We Resist Change We are delusional about our success What happens when someone makes us change? The other party must be confused Denial Attack Four key beliefs of successful people Belief 1: I have succeeded belief in skills and talent self-aggrandizing overvalue our own contributions Belief 2: I […]

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Enough About You Goldsmith began with a single client after instructing groups of leaders Executive coaching is analogous to golf instruction the process 360-feedback from colleagues and family apologize advertise follow up listen without prejudice gratitude feedforward book is aimed at people who want to get better Purchase From Amazon: What Got You […]

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Chapter 1

Chapter 1: You Are Here inner compass annoying habits can be magnified in leadership roles proprioception examples CEO too much value Editor playing favorites Financial advisor egotistical Purchase From Amazon: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

A Sense of Urgency by Kotter, Review

Kotter presents a compelling case about the need for a sense of urgency in competitive and high-performance organizations. In creating this sense of urgency, when it does not occur naturally, it’s critical to distinguish true urgency from complacency and false urgency. True urgency has distinguishing characteristics that make it different from complacency and false urgency. […]

A Sense of Urgency by Kotter, Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Keeping Urgency Up high urgency has potential for high-performance sustained urgency must be constantly recreated must be conscious effort or deeply ingrained in culture unambiguous success yields complacency urgency up, success; urgency down, a mess people can become frustrated, “why won’t they let up?” the problem with short term successes example of getting […]

A Sense of Urgency by Kotter, Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Tactic 4, Dealing with NoNos NoNo from Our Iceberg Is Melting the NoNo problem NoNos are not skeptics very dangerous to change Comparison table NoNo v Skeptic (148-149) past experiences desired data use of data how active or passive bottom line Don’t waste time trying to co-opt a NoNo they will hem and […]

Mall Intercept Surveys

I’ve been trying to arrange a mall intercept survey at one of the local malls for a project we are doing. Although the person who suggested it made it seem easy, I have been shut down right and left! I can’t blame the malls, and I was doubtful as to whether they would specifically allow […]

A Sense of Urgency by Kotter, Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Tactic Three, Find Opportunity in Crises many want to avoid crises, but may be opportunity “burning platform” (120) avoid and control crises but watch out damage control impt but tends to remove opp for creating urgency use a crisis to create urgency, but watch out crises provide opp to affect organizational morale, heart […]

Mexican Dinner

Lisa and I made a Mexican dinner for Lori and Dawei who came over to visit the new house. Our menu consisted of: Tortilla chips and Pico de Gallo Mexican cheese and zucchini soup Carne Asada with spanish rice and refried beans Tres leches Our visitors brought a bottle of margarita, which neatly completed the […]

A Sense of Urgency by Kotter, Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Tactic Two, Behave With Urgency Every Day Respond fast, move now Ninan, manager in Indian outsourcing firm Discusses market and competition frequenty Shows urgency in actions, not just words The norm, un-urgent behavior the norm in hospital administration boss must model behavior clear the decks delegation cutting the cruft emphasis on high-value projects/meetings […]

A Sense of Urgency by Kotter, Chapter 4

Chapter 4: tactic one, bring the outside in “organizations…tend to be too internally oriented” (63) listen to customer facing employees trust that they’re intelligent respect ask questions, listen use the power of video shows naked human emotion “show them, don’t tell them” don’t always shield people from troubling data reasons for resisting disclosure believe people […]

Jamie Ly

Developer, student, person

October 2009