Gopnik on perfect writing versus sincere storytelling: Moth

Adam Gopnik is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.  He has also given several talks at Moth events.  One story was recently featured on the Moth Radio Hour.

In the introduction to the story, Gopnik reflects about how telling stories on stage has affected his writing:

"I sensed in myself that I had become in some ways, and doubtless still am in every way, an unduly fancy writer. That the curlicues and ornamentation of erudition had begun to drown out my ability to simply tell a tale about what had happened. But I think writing is a business of perfection. You want every sentence to be as perfectly polished as you can possibly make it. Every sentence should glow and shine, have its own little balance and structure and charm. A story is not like that. A story can tolerate a lot of rough stuff in the course of it being related as long as what is being related is significant. You can’t write that way. Readers are unforgiving of imperfection. But don’t you think listeners are totally unforgiving of insincerity."

A link to the story:  http://www.prx.org/pieces/103186-1107-freddy-hubbard-charlie-ravioli-and-the-monk

Find Opportunities: Simple Cases

"Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat."
Napoleon Hill

Leaders often focus on the opportunity side of challenges.  Not all these cases are a major challenge or  major crisis.

Today, I missed my usual subway stop.  My first thought was to get off at the next stop, move to the opposite platform, and come back one stop.

Then I thought about which stop was next.  It was along the bus line that I transferred to, so I could still catch my usual bus, just one stop earlier.

Also, this was one of the only stops along the subway line that I have never used.  So, this small misfortune gave me a chance to explore a new transfer point.  Find the subway exit. Find the bus stop.  Look around the area.  

Leaders should look for the simple cases to practice finding the opportunities in a misfortune.  Travelling provides a lot of these, whether construction, traffic, detour, flight delay, wrong turn, wrong exit, or wrong stop.

LinkedIn Discussion: Leadership Book List

On th LinkedIn group Linked 2 Leadership, Michael Barker had a discussion "What's the best book on Leadership you've ever read?"

Here is a list of the books mentioned, in order of mention.

Culture Making by Andy Crouch
Launching a Leadership Revolution by Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady
Leadership is an Art by Max De Pree
An Integrative Approach to Leader Development: Connecting Adult Development, Identity, and Expertise by David Day, Michelle Harrison, and Stanley Halpin
Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine
Leading At A Higher Level by Ken Blanchard
The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner
Developing the Leaders Around You by John Maxwell
On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun by Wess Roberts
The Functions of the Executive by Chester Barnard
How to Grow Leaders by John Adair
Oxford Leadership Handbook by Michael G. Rumsey
Christian Reflections on the Leadership Challenge edited by John Kouzes, Barry Posner, and John Maxwell
Leadership From the Inside Out by Kevin Cashman
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in A Chaotic World by Margaret Wheatley
The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
Appreciative Leadership by Diana Whitney
Be My Best Boss - 11 management tips from your employees by Florian Borgeat
The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership by Steven Sample
Leadershift by Orrin Woodward & Oliver DeMille
Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
10 Must Reads on Leadership edited by Harvard Business Review
Five Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell
The Power of Now by Eckart Tolle Why We Make Mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan
Blunder, Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions b Zachary Shore
Transforming Leadership by James MacGregor Burns
Linchpin by Seth Godin
Making Yourself Indispensable: The power of personal accountability by Mark Samuel
The Maverick Way by Bill Wilson and Richard Cheverton
Leadership Practices Inventory by John Kouzes
The 360 Degree Leader by John Maxwell
Cyropadeia by Xenophon
Maxims by Ptah-Hotep
The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli
The Missing Piece in Leadership by Doug Krug
1776 by David McCullouth
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
The Radical Leap by Steve Farber
Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Employees First Customers Second by Vineet Nayar
Winning by Jack Welch
The Bible
Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman
Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
The Art of Captaincy by Mike Brierley
Management of Organizational Behavior Leading Human Resources by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey What It Takes To Be Number One by Vince Lombardi Jr.
Up The Organization by Robert Townsend
Change The World by Robert Quinn
The PAUSE Principle by Kevin Cashman


Link to the LinkedIn discussion: http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=77155&type=member&item=265443960&qid=24b45637-dc68-4840-b058-478eb7358638&trk=groups_search_item_list-0-b-ttl

Striving to Get Better: Stephen King and Larry Winget

I heard a good interview with Stephen King this morning on public radio.. There are a lot of connections between what King says in the interview and Larry Winget’s book, It's Called Work for a Reason!: Your Success Is Your Own Damn Fault. In particular, Winget talks about being good at your job and striving to get better.

In King’s interview
On his prolific production in writing: 
"There are plenty of people who have got lots of talent. This world is lousy with talent. The idea is to work that talent and try to get to be the best person that you can, given the limits of the talent that God gave you — or fate, or genetics or whatever name you want to put on it. A lot of people have suggested that the stuff that I do may be second-class because there's so much of it. My response to that is: I'm going to quit and be dead for a long time. This is the time that I've got, and I want to use it to the max. I really want to try and mine everything that I've got."

On blaming your situation and past:
(On why alcoholism plays such an important role in Doctor Sleep) "I was interested in [alcoholism] for a lot of different reasons. There does seem to be a genetic predisposition to alcoholism — that's the nature part. The nurture part is that if you grow up in a household where there's a lot of drinking, you have a tendency to become a drinker yourself. I wanted to see if it was possible to escape those things."

Link to radio story: http://www.npr.org/2013/09/24/223105565/stephen-king-on-getting-scared-nothing-like-your-first-time

Football Player Sherman on work ethic from father

During an interview, Seattle Seahawks Player Richard Sherman talked about learn about the value of hard work from his father.

From NBC Sports:
On his father, who gets up at 3:45 a.m. to work as a garbage man: “He’s shown me work, what it is to have a work ethic, a blue collar mentality. He’ll go to work, work for the eight or nine hours, and then he’ll come home and mow the lawn. He’ll miss some games before he’ll miss work because he works every holiday. He works every chance he has to put more food on the table. He does it. Those kinds of sacrifices you see throughout your whole life. It builds a certain rapport with you.”

Link to interview highlights on NBC Sports:  http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2013/09/15/notes-quotes-from-football-night-in-america-week-2/

Dedication: Third Parent and Fourth Child

In the first episode of Season One of Downton Abbey, the patriarch Lord Grantham is challenged by his mother about his dedication to the Downton Estate.  He gives a compelling answer.

"What do you think? I've given my life to Downton. I was born here, and I hope to die here. I claim no career beyond the nurture of this house and the estate. It is my third parent and my fourth child. Do I care about it? Yes, I do care!"

"Third Parent and Fourth Child" is a powerful way to explain one's dedication.

"Downton Abbey"
Produced by PBS Masterpiece Classics
Created by Julian Fellows
Episode Directed by Brian Percival
Air date 9 January 2011

Downton Abbey website:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/

Dickinson poem with great sunset images

This poem was published in 1864 with the title "Sunset" and in 1891 with the title "The Juggler of Day."

Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple
Leaping like Leopards to the Sky
Then at the feet of the old Horizon
Laying her spotting Face to die
Stooping as low as the Otter's Window
Touching the Roof and tinting the Barn
Kissing her Bonnet to the Meadow
And the Juggler is gone

Tony Zinni: excerpts from Battle Ready

General Tony Zinni is a retired Marine Corps officer who commanded US Central Command and was a special envoy involved in the Israel-Palestine peace negotiations.  Tom Clancy co-wrote a biography of Zinni in Battle Ready (2004).

Here are two excerpts with valuable leadership insights.

Zinni set up several novel training programs within the Marine Corps.  During one program, he had an unique assessment system.

"First, the assessments were only given to the commanders training there and never to their superiors. So they could test their limits and work on their weaknesses without fear of report cards.  This allowed me to be brutally honest about their shortfalls and it allowed them to fail and improve."

When Zinni was selected to be the Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command, he received some good advice from Ed Fugit, an adviser for the previous commander.

"Connect personally with both the leaders and the people.  'But you can take that even farther," he continued, "by showing interest in their culture and society.  Do that and you build trust and confidence.'  I warmed to this approach.  Too often we get caught up in the crises, rushing around with requests, programs, and policy positions, without taking the time to listen to the concerns of the people who have to live with our decisions."


Reference:  Tom Clancy with General Tony Zinni (Ret.) and Tony Koltz, Battle Ready (New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2004).

P&G's Lafley on Leadership: transformation

Recently, Procter and Gamble selected a former CEO, Alan "A.G." Lafley, to become the new CEO. On Nightly Business Report on 24 May, Lafley made a comment that included a good quote on leadership.

"One of the definitions that I use of leadership is the ability to continually transform the mission, the strategy, the organization, whatever needs to be transformed to keep pace with and stay ahead of the unrelenting change that I believe is the reality in a global and incredibility competitive marketplace."






An article on the new CEO can be found on the Motley Fool Website:  http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/05/23/procter-gamble-gets-new-ceo.aspx

If you have to prove it . . .

In discussing the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis, author William Cohan wrote about an interview that Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz had on March 12.  During the interview, Schwartz said "We put out a statement that our liquidity and balance sheet are strong, and maybe I should expand on that a little."

Cohan reflected on this statement with a reference to Walter Bagehot's comment in 1873:  "Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguements, in fact his credit it gone."

Many people rely on statements of quality in lieu of demonstrated, consistent performance.  

Reference:  William D. Cohan, House of Cards:  A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street (New York, Doubleday, 2009), p. 35.