I've got lots of great stuff in my head to get out of my head, through my fingers to the keyboard and on to you, but time this morning is limited, so just a couple of great ideas I've run across in the last couple of days. Both of these ideas relate to books and reading, and both make me smile as a book lover and reader (and I don't think those things are exactly the same).

In fact, book lovers will love this story in the New York Times about leaders and their book collections, It is titled C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success. I highly recommend it. After you read it, ask yourself - what keys to success does your library reveal?

Readers, who are less connected to the books themselves (and are willing to actually let go of a book after they have read it) may find this idea more interesting - Bookswapping. I found this idea late last week on the Book Maven Blog. The post called A Night of Bookswapping has been intriguing me every since. I quote Bethanne:

The rules were, and remain, elegantly simple: bring any books in good condition that you're finished owning. You can take the same number as you bring (although by each bookswapping night's end, this rule is usually broken). We pile the books in a central location, pour wine and beer, and grab plates of nosh . . .

She goes on to say that the best part of the evening was the conversation about the books and the ideas they contained.

Imagine doing a Bookswap party at work on a Friday afternoon. Or even a book sharing party where people show up with favorite books in had to discuss them, let others see and touch them (and then place their order at 800-CEO-Read or their favorite online bookseller).

As Bethanne says, this isn't a replacement for a book club, but perhaps an interesting additional activity to try. The conversation may not be as focused, but might be much more serendipitous.

What do you think?

Also posted in Leadership, Learning, Teamwork, and Training.

Labels: books, bookswapping, speed reading

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Over on the Remarkable Leadership Book blog, I announced a recent interview that I did. Ocassionallly I will mention them here, but if you want to keep up with the increasing pace of activity relating to the book, you will want to subscribe to or follow that blog more carefully. Lots of great stuff will be happening there!

Here are links to two audio podcasts that have recently been released:

With Sam Crowley on the Everyday is Saturday podcast.

With Heather Vale on the Success Unwrapped podcast

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training.

Labels: interviews, podcasts, Remarkable Leadership

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As the voting for the Best Leadership Blog of 2007 comes to a close, some congratulations are in order.

Congratulations to Michael McKinney of Leading Blog, as his blog, in a late surge in voting overtook Jonathan Farrington's Leadership Turn to win the title of Best Leadership Blog for 2007.

Truly congratulations to all ten of the blogs included in this listing - as all are wonderful resources for those of us interested in thinking and learning more about all aspects of leadership.

Congrats also go to Chris Knight, the winner of the Remarkable Leadership Volume 1 CD Set - he was the lucky winner of the drawing among all voters.

Perhaps most of all, congrats to all of you who voted, because in reviewing one or more of these great sites, you have gained new ideas and perspectives that will help make you a more remarkable leader.

Click here for the complete list of sites, and the final results.

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training.

Labels: leadership blogs

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Along with being a date that many weddings are taking place, that I'm sure every casino is at capacity, and being the 30th birthday of my cousin Amy (she was born on 7/7/77), today I have a small celebration too.

At the beginning of the year we created a special report called: 7-7-7 to Start Your 2007: 7 articles, 7 blog posts and 7 resource recommendations to help Unleash Your Leadership Potential in 2007. In honor of today, it seemed fitting to make that available for free again (it was offered for free to subscribers of Unleash Your Potential at the start of the year).

Here's your chance to enjoy this special report at the "lucky" price of . . . free!

Enjoy it!

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training.

Labels: leadership

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Bartholomew Cubbins had 500 hats, and now I have written 500 posts on this blog. 500 posts in exactly 1200 days (which makes for easy math: 1 post every 2.4 days).

Many people write more frequently than me, and if you are a long term reader you know that my posting goes in spurts - from nearly daily to longer breaks - due to my travel schedule and other things. The main reason for the variability though is what I'll call a micro habit.

Posting every 2.4 days over the course of time, probably means that I am in the habit of blogging (though people who posts 2.4 times per day - or more - would likely scoff at that comment). The variability is what I'll call the micro habit. When I am posting more regularly I get into a flow and generally write better posts more quickly, easily and efficiently. When more time has passed between it takes longer and more effort.

I believe this idea of a micro habit affects many areas of our lives. Here are a few examples.

Physically. Many of us get into a micro habit of dieting or exercise, when it is going well, we are motivated and we stay with it. Then somethng changes and we lose momentum.

Professionally. We give more feedbacxk and coaching, provide greater support or listen better, for awhile. Then something happens and momentum is lost.

Developmentally. We read regularly for a week or two or three. Then we are on a buisness trip, or our scheudle otherwise gets changed or we turn the TV back on, and the micro habit is lost.

In Realtionships. We keep up with friends, call and email more often and even send thank you cards, for a bit. Then our micro habit falls by the wayside.

Any of these ring a bell for you?

While there is nothing wrong with these positive micro habits, the key for us is to keep the momentum up to turn these micro habits into full fledged habits.

Here are two keys to making that transition:

Lower your bar. Maybe you can't get from reading 30 minutes a day everyday when now you don't read at all. Maybe you can't get to excerise, two calls to friends or 1800 calories a day right away. Yes, you'll tell me you've done it for a few days in a row - but that is the micro habit. Lower the bar to start, and move the bar once your first goal is truly a habit.

Know why you are starting down any path. Know your goals. then, keep those goals in mind and you will do a better job of transitioning from micro habit to habit.

Thanks for letting me sharing some thoughts in this my 500th post. I'm pretty confident it is better than my first one.

Labels: habit, micro habit

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Today we in the United States celebrate the 231st anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. In essence, we celebrate our freedom. While declaring independence, the 56 signers of that document were, at the same time, declaring their interdependence to each other.

This paradox is not unlike the one we face in our organizations today. People want to be independent - able to make decisions and chart their career course, and yet there is more interdependence than ever - to team members, job sharing partners, collaborators, global partners and much more.

I believe the great message for us in this day, outside of pride and patriotism is not about independence, but about freedom. The freedom to choose.

The greatest freedoms afforded to citizens of the United States are the freedoms to choose, including choices like where and how to worship, where to live, what to say and what to think. It is from these freedoms that much of our national power and influence have arisen.

We can take this lesson to our organizations. Offer greater freedom. Give people more choices, offer more options. If as a leader you feel this will create chaos, you are correct at one level - some times things in the United States are a bit chaotic! But just as with my country - when the goals and objectives are clear - whether it is healing an area torn by disaster, helping friends in need, or consolidating our hearts and minds behind any cause - that freedom of choice creates creative solutions, greater engagement and fantastic results.

In our organizations we must have a clear mission - a purpose for existing that motivates and inspires those within. With this clear purpose, offering great freedom of choice won't create greater chaos - it will create create greater results.

Also posted in Leadership and Teamwork.

Labels: choice, freedom, leadership

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With just a couple of days to go (the poll closes at Midnight ET July 6th) on our search to determine the best leadership blog as of June/July 2007, the race is close.
The Top Three as of this moment are:

Leading Blog - Building Community Leaders by Michael McKinney Leadership Turn by Jonathan Farrington
Slow Leadership by Carmine Coyote

...and the top two are neck and neck.

There has been some great conversation amongst some very smart bloggers, like Ken Flowers, Troy Worman and Phil Gerbyshak. I'd encourage you to check out their posts (and the sites they've suggested could be added to the list) and the comments that have been generated.

Then either add your two cents to their posts, or come back here and share your thoughts.
Thanks to them and everyone who has voted so far.

If you haven't, what are you waiting for?

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training

Labels: leadership, leadership blogs

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