Category Archives: Misc

Herding Tigers

04/30/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

Loved this Entreleadership podcast, and the book sounds like it could be interesting as well.

243: Todd Henry—Be the Leader Creatives Need

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Business

Cousins Maine Lobster – Pushing Past Fear

04/24/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

Great episode on risk, entrepreneurship, and bootstrapping.

#257: Cousins Maine Lobster—Pushing Past Fear

Books, Business

It’s Your Ship

04/06/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

Just finished It’s Your Ship, and can’t recommend it highly enough! I haven’t read a book in a while that spoke to what I might call a “personal philosophy”, but this is about as close as it gets. Love the focus on feedback, fun, and treating people like responsible adults.

Leadership principles outline in the book:

Take command
Learn real leadership
Lead by example
Listen aggressively
Communicate purpose and meaning
Create a climate of trust
Look for results, not salutes
Take calculated risks
Go beyond standard procedure
Build up your people
Generate unity
Improve your people’s quality of life

Books

The Culture Code

03/16/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

Just finished reading “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle, and have to say that I would highly recommend it especially to anyone in a management or leadership position. You can find the 3 parts and some recommended actions below.

Build Safety
- Overcommunicate your listening
- Spotlight your fallibility early on – especially if you’re a leader
- Embrace the messenger
- Preview future connection
- Overdo thank-yous
- Be painstaking in the hiring process
- Eliminate bad apples
- Create safe, collision-rich spaces
- Make sure everyone has a voice
- Pick up trash
- Capitalize on the threshold moments
- Avoid giving sandwich feedback
- Embrace fun
Share Vulnerability
- Make sure the leader is vulnerable first and often
- Overcommunicate expectations
- Deliver the negative stuff in person
- When forming new groups, focus on two critical moments (1st vulnerability & 1st disagreement)
- Listen like a trampoline
- In conversation, resist the temptation to reflexively add value
- Use candor-generating practices like AARs, BrainTrusts and Red Teaming
- Aim for candor; avoid brutal honesty
- Embrace the discomfort
- Align language with action
- Build a wall between performance review and professional development
- Use flash mentoring
- Make the leader occasionally disappear
Establish Purpose
- Name and rank your priorities
- Be ten times as clear about your priorities as you think you should be
- Figure our where your group aims for proficiency and where it aims for creativity
- Embrace the use of catchphrases
- Measure what really matters
- Use artifacts
- Focus on bar-setting behaviors

Business

The top business-killing habit: silos

03/14/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

And, this is applicable for more than just the sales and marketing teams if you ask me…

“Put everyone on as few systems as possible, discourage fiefdoms of data, and you’ll win far more than you’ll lose.”

Read the full article here

Productivity

Alexander Hamilton’s Deep Advice

03/05/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

It may seem ridged but I like the concept of how this guidance would help instill discipline while also establishing a routine with good intentions. Note also that it doesn’t say there is no possibility of deviation, but that changes should be highly considered before hand – perhaps by talking it through with someone more experienced and wise.

Alexander Hamilton’s Deep Advice – Study Hacks – Cal Newport