Category: Book Summaries

No More Excuses: 5 Accountabilities for Personal & Organizational Growth

In 2011, I attended the National Management Association’s (NMA) National Conference.  Our Center Director, Mike Coats, was named NMA’s Executive of the Year, and I attended on behalf of the JSC NMA Chapter.  Prior to the conference, I saw the agenda of keynote speakers, and I was intrigued by one…Sam Silverstein.  A self-proclaimed “organizational growth expert and accountability thought leader”, Silverstein was described as someone who can “ensure the future success of your organization.”

So, I picked up a copy of his book, No More Excuses, seeking advice on how I could help individuals within my organization continue to take personal accountability for their choices, actions and outcomes.

Both his book and keynote speech at the Conference (which was held in St. Louis, Missouri) were filled with key insights.

Click here to learn more about the 5 Accountabilities for Personal & Organizational Growth

Building an Out of This World Leadership Team

This week’s NIV Leadership Bible focus is on healthy alliances.  In my October 2 blog post (during the Federal Government shutdown), I spoke about building coalitions and “commons creating”.  For more about those, click here.

For a leader, healthy alliances are important for a variety of different circumstances…but it starts with your leadership team.  In their 2010 book Connecting Top Managers, Jim Taylor and Lisa Haneberg note that how leaders work together is as important as how well they lead their individual departments.

Taylor and Haneberg believe in the “5/95 Rule”, where 5% of your time—approximately 100 hours per year you spend together with your leadership team—impacts 95% of the success of several organizational systems.  If you can optimize that 5%, you will see positive returns in organization culture, employee engagement and retention, productivity and results, and organizational agility.

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