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The book is written by John C Maxwell, ISBN 0446529575

Even if you don’t read the whole summary or book, reading the first few paragraphs of this summary is worth it.

One young person asked Jack ” When you were my age, what did you do to elevate yourself among all of your other associates? How did you stand out from the crowd of other young, ambitious and driven colleagues of your day?

GE’s Jack Welch said.

“Great question, young man. And this is an important pint for every person to hear. The first thing you must understand is the importance of getting out of ‘the pile.’ The only way you are going to stand our to your boss is to understand this simple principle.

WHEN A BOSS ASKS FOR SOMETHING..he already knows the answer he is looking for.

“Practically speaking, this means coming back to the table and presenting to your boss not only an answer, but three or more other ideas, options and perspectives that were probably not preciously considered by your boss. The goal is to add value to the idea and the thought by exceeding expectations when the question is given to you. This is true not only with questions, but assignments, initiatives and everything else ever given to you to run with by upper management.

Jock drove the point home empatically. “So if you understand that the question is only the beginning, you will get out of the pile fast, because 99.9 % of all employees are in the pile because the don’t think. And in time, you will be the one giving out the questions to others!”

SKILL 1 “HOW TO ACQUIRE the WISDOM of BIG_PICTURE thinking?

1. Don’t strive for certainty
2. Learn from every experience
3. Gain experience from variety of people
4. Give yourself permission to expand your world

• Arranging matters so that you are continually learning and not getting bogged down in details
• SKILL2: Focused Thinking
  
  • You will become as small as your controlling desire or as great as your dominant aspiration.
  • HOW TO FOCUS
    • Remove distractions
    • Make time for focused thinking
    • Keep item of focus before you
    • Set goals
    • Question your progress
  •  
  • Give up things to FOCUS..bcoz
    
    • You can’t know everyone
    • You can’t do everything
    • You can’t go everywhere
    • You can’t be well rounded
    • Being willing to give up some of the things you love in order to focus on what has the greatest impact isn’t an easy lesson to learn.
• SKILL 3 : Creative Thinking
  
  • Stimulate Creative thinking
    
  • Ask….
    • Why must it be done this way?
    • What is the root problem
    • What are the underlying issues?
    • What does this remind me of?
    • What is the opposite?
    • What metaphor or symbol helps to explain it?
    • Why it is important?
    • What’s the hardest or most expensive way to do it?
    • Who has a different perspective on this?
    • What happens if we don’t do it at all?
    • In my wildest dreams, what can this idea lead to?

       SKILL 4 :Realistic Thinking
    
    What the difference ?

   HOW TO have it…..

• Develop an appreciation for truth
• Do your homework
• Think about pros and cons
• Picture the worst-case scenario
  • Ask..all the what-f question
• Align your thinking with resources

• SKILL 5: Strategic Thinking ( PLAN YOUR LIFE, LIVE YOUR PLAN)
  
  • WHY??…bcoz…
    
    • When failure isn’t an option, nothing serves a person better than strategic thinking
    • Strategic thinking is the bridge that links where you are to where you want to be
    • The one with the plan is the one with power
  • HOW TO ??
    
    • Break down the issue
      • Weekdays
      • Weekends
      • Vacations or scheduled time breaks
    • Ask WHY before HOW
    • Identify the real issues and objectives
      • Jack Welch once said…”Strategy is first trying to understand where you sit in today’s world. Not where you wish you were or where you hoped you would be, but where you are. Then its trying to understand where you want to be five years out. Finally its assessing the realistic changes of getting form here to there.
    • Review your resources
    • Develop your plan
      • From 7 levels of changes..
        • Level 1: Effectiveness - Doing right things
        • Level 2 : Efficiency - Doing the right things right
        • Level 3 : Improving - Doing things better
        • Level 4 : Cutting - Doing away with things
        • Level 5 : Adapting - Doing things other people are things
        • Level 6 : Different - Doing things no one else is doing
        • Level 7 : Impossible - Doing things that can’t be done
    • Put right people is the right place
      • If not…
        • Wrong person: Problems instead of potential
        • Wrong place: Frustration instead of fulfillment
        • Wrong plan: Grief instead of growth
    • Keep repeating the process
      • The will to win is worthless, if you do not have the will to prepare.
• SKILL 6: Possibility Thinking
  
  • HOW TO
    • Stop focusing of the impossibilities
    • Stay away from experts- who tend to limit possibilities
    • Look for possibilities in every situation
    • Dream one size bigger
    • Question the status quo
    • Find inspiration from great achievers
• SKILL 7: Reflective Thinking ( It turns experience into insight)
  
  • HOW TO
    • Set aside time for reflection
    • Remove yourself from distraction
    • Regularly review calendar or journal
    • Ask the right question
      • RELATED TO VALUES
        • Personal growth?
        • Adding values
        • Teamwork
        • Leadership
        • Physical health
        • Personal faith
      • RELATED TO RELATIONSHIPS
        • Marriage and family
        • Friends
        • Inner circle
        • God
      • RELATED TO EXPERIENCE
        • Discoveries
        • Memories
        • Difficulties
        • Successes
        • People
        • Conclusions    
      • ALSO YOU CAN KEEP A JOURNAL for…reflecting pattern in your life
        • YEAR……………….Turning Point…………Impact
    • Cement your learning through action
• SKILL 8: Questioning Popular Thinking
  Remember…the difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from the old ones.
• SKILL 9: Shared Thinking
  None of us is as smart as all of us.
• SKILL 10: Unselfish Thinking
  If you want to improve your world then focus your attention on helping others.    
• SKILL 11: Bottom-line Thinking
  
  • It makes it possible for you to measure outcomes more quickly and easily

Read this nice article >>>

Theres been an increase in blog postings on strategies to improve reading effectiveness. This is my take on the subject and some of the strategies I personally use to improve my reading effectiveness. How I read for leisure is different to how I read to learn. This post is focused on improving the reading we do for personal and professional development, rather than leisure reading.

Leading Forward: How to Read and Digest a Book

Check this for free computer books.
FreeComputerBooks.com - Free Computer Books, Tutorials & Lecture Notes

“A Technique for Producing Ideas” is a McGraw-Hill advertising classic. The book is a quick read and it provides you a simple and proven techique using which you can create genuine and creative ideas.

In summary the technique is a five step to process.

First, Gathering of raw materials - both the materials of your immediate problem and the materials which come from a constant enrichment of your store of general knowledge.

Second, the working over of these materials in your mind.

Third, the incubating stage, where you let somehting beside the conscious mind do the work of synthesis.

Fouth, the actual birth of Idea-the “Eureka! I have it!” stage.

And fifth, the final shaping and development of the idea to practical usefulness.

For more information check the book.

A Technique for Producing Ideas (Advertising Age Classics Library)

If you are interested in writing a book summary then here is something which might be useful.

Slashdot welcomes readers’ book reviews. In particular, we’re interested in reviews of books on programming, computer security, the history of technology and anything else (including Science Fiction, cyberpunk, etc.) that fits under the “News for Nerds” umbrella.

http://slashdot.org/book.review.guidelines.shtml

I was recently going through a book “” written by Robert M Campbell. The book is a quick read and has way to calculate real estate market trend.

In the last chapter author wrote something which moved me.

He said

>> “Physcologists tell us that, in life, we tend to become what we expect to become. In an odd sort of way, our lives utimately turn out to be some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. We become our vision. You see this happen over and over again: a person ignores th doubters and naysayers, pursues his dream, and acoomplishes the impossible.”

>> ” \Whatever your dream, whatever your own personal vision, remember this: get started, purue it with vigor, make the most of every advantage you can give yourself, and know that nothing is impossible.”

Here is another link on the same topic.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/your-perception-is-your-reality.html

How to finish books on time

(The text is from http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006164.html)

In the Forbes’ article that Tom referred to yesterday, the writer Dan Ackman pointed to a list of business books the magazine put together in 2002. Forbes calls these The 20 Most Influential Business Books. As you look down the panel experts, you’ll notice our own Jack Covert was among those called to contribute. Since this was put together before the blog was born, I thought we should get it put up here.

* In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman (1982)
* Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras (1994)
* Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and Jim Champy (1993)
* Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar (1993)
* Competitive Advantage by Michael Porter (1998)
* The Tipping Point by Malcolm Galdwell (2000)
* Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore (1999)
* The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow (1990)
* The Six Sigma Way by Peter Pande et al (2000)
* Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey(1990)
* Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis (1989)
* The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen (1997)
* Japan Inc. by Shotaro Ishinomori (1988)
* Den of Thieves by James Stewart (1991)
* The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker (2001)
* Competing for the Future by Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad (1994)
* The Warren Buffet Way by Robert Hagestrom (1991)
* Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch with John Bryne (2001)
* Good to Great by Jim Collins (2001)
* The New New Thing : A Silicon Valley Story“>

They also organized the books and you will find some good commentary under the topics of management, narrative, biography and investing. ]]>