LeadingChangeWithoutAuthority

I’m so delighted that I just have to share it with someone, so I picked you! We officially launched our book, Leadership Made Simple, today on Amazon.com. We offered a variety of valuable gifts for anyone purchasing the book today - November 9th.

Well, so far today we have gone from a ranking 150,344 to 77 in ALL books. That translates to #11 in business books and #4 in management/leadership books. Not a bad launch day so far! We have made #2 on the Amazon Movers and Shakers list.

In fact we are going to extend the special offers through November 10th because the momentum is strong. So, please invite your friends to check out the opportunity at www.leadershipmadesimple.com/bestseller . We are offering a number of bonuses, any one of which is more valuable than the cost of the book.

Sorry to be self-promoting, but this is really exciting. And most important, thank you if you contributed to the success!

My best,

Ed Oakley, eoakley@enleadership.com

Technorati Tags: Leadership Made Simple, Amazon Best Seller List, Amazon, Leadership

I was having coffee at one of my favorite Starbucks stores recently with my friend Steve Mertz when we began sharing great Starbucks experiences we had enjoyed. One of Steve’s stories was inspiring and has an excellent leadership development message in it.

Steve walks with two canes, so he carries his coffee in a covered travel mug with a handle. Can you imagine trying to walk with two canes and a standard Starbucks cup? His travel cup was getting pretty old, and unbeknownst to Steve, it was leaking around the top. So, as he shuffled across the Starbucks cafe, he was leaving a decorative trail of dark roast on the floor. Read the rest of this entry »

Jonette and I recently had the pleasure of addressing a group of Starbucks store managers and assistant managers in the Denver district managed by Kent Lansville. Before we began discussing “Leadership Made Simple,” which they had all read, Kent kicked off the meeting in an impressive way. He stood up and acknowledged about eight or nine managers for specific ways they had contributed to the team’s effectiveness since the last district meeting. He handed each of them nice, hand written cards as part of the acknowledgement. That had a very energizing and honoring effect on the Starbucks group, and we were impressed. That, however, was just the beginning… Read the rest of this entry »

The following posting is part of letter we recently received from Commander Steve Campbell of the Phoenix Police Department. I think it will be of value to others.

Good Morning Mr. Oakley,

I want to take just a few moments to reintroduce myself and then share a success story attributed to the E.L mindset and the Framework for Leadership.

Back in early 2001, you and your staff personally trained 8 facilitators from the Phoenix Police Department. I was included in that group. Since that time, my facilitator partner, Lt. Linda Johnson and I have continued to share what we feel are numerous keys to a fulfilling law enforcement career. The text and the frame of mind continue to be crucial component in our promotional and selection processes.

During the tragic times of September 2001, Phoenix was slated to go to the MLB World Series. We had never had that kind of experience before. We had about 9 days to put a security and operational plan together. Read the rest of this entry »

In their July newsletter ELSolutions referenced a Cornell University study, as reported in FSB (Fortune Small Business) Magazine, suggesting that a key deterent to organizational performance is “Letting Conflicts Fester.”

The article goes on to say, “Bringing tensions out into the open and then resolving them is one of a team leader’s most important jobs.” (We agree.) “The more creative a leader can be the more likely that conflict can be discussed and resolved,” they went on to say. We see that last sentence as the challenge. What does “being creative” look like in a particular situation? Almost by definition, being creative doesn’t have any particular structure. That makes it potentially complex and difficult. Success is way to dependent upon “being creative,” which has a lot of variability among people.

Our new book, Leadership Made Simple, provides a simple approach to dealing with this difficult challenge of conflict resolution. Here is an example from the book of the process being used. It begins on page 137 in chapter 11 of the book: Read the rest of this entry »

All of a sudden it seems that everywhere we look we see someone tauting “simple” or “simplicity” as a theme. Considering our new book is Leadership Made Simple, that is gratifying and, perhaps, validating.

IBM i-Series computers has simplicity as it’s theme. They are advertising the importance of simple and simplicity as the heart of their message. They are even claiming that they have “simple pricing.” Just a few minutes ago, I was glancing through a Business 2.0 magazine, and there was the headline of a VISA Business Card advertisement that read “Business Takes Simplicity” - whatever that means :-). Keep your eyes open, and I’ll bet you’ll notice this simplicity theme more and more. Let us know if you see it. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the the things we strongly encourage in Leadership Made Simple is analyzing successes your team is having ( we assume every leadership opportunity involves some team, group, or at least another individual). If you are inviting a group of people to analyze “what caused the successes” in a particular situation, some interesting things tend to happen automatically. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the Leadership Made Simple Journal. We hope we will be able to serve you well as we share practical leadership tips — based on our forthcoming book, Leadership Made Simple: Practical Solutions to Your Greatest Management Challenges, as well as our previous best-selling book, Enlightened Leadership: Getting to the Heart of Change, and our combined 35 years of leadership development experience.

Looking at it simply, every organizational process has two parts, the “hard” part and the “soft” part. As we have queried managers from over 65 countries over the last 19 years, we have consistently heard, “The soft part is the more difficult part,” and the soft part is about the people issues. With that clarity, we plan most of our journals to address the people side of your management challenges. We see these as your “greatest management challenges.” Some will address balancing the two parts, and all address accomplishing the hard part through your people. As we make comments like “through your people,” we trust you’ll be able to provide your own context — whether that is a team, an organization, or even your family members.

We plan to use this journal as an opportunity to go a bit deeper than our books could go and keep them a decent size. If you register on this site, you can also make comments and ask questions. That would help us determine topics with the most interest. We welcome feedback of any kind!

Warm regards,

Ed Oakley