Are you sure that our friend Merlin Mann is not working a second job as the manager @ Real Madrid?
Below, you will find pictures, first, of our friend Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame, then of Real Madrid boss, Fabio Capello…or is it?
Ask yourself…have you ever seen them together?
Hmmmmmm
What we will talk about today is something that we all know, but sometimes forget when the pressure is on. John C. Maxwell in his book The 360° Leader tells us that we must model the behavior that we desire in our organizations.
Consistency is key to establishing the culture you desire in your organization.
Here are several things to think about when establishing a culture in your organization.
- Your behavior determines your culture
- Your attitude determines the atmosphere
- Your values determine the decisions
- Your investment determines the return
- Your character determines the trust
- Your work ethic determines the productivity
- Your growth determines the potential
Frank hit me with this blogmeme, so I will extend the tradition.
As a kid
Mr. Mertle, from The Sandlot, said, “Baseball is life, and I was good at it.” That sums up my childhood. All that I ever wanted to do was play ball. I also idolized Pete Rose growing up. Now, that may not have such a good thing, but in the 70s it was awesome. I remember that in elementary school, we did a Hero Report. We had to research the subject and then dress up like them and give our reports. I was Pete Rose for a day.
One of the keys to making your organization effective, according to John C. Maxwell in The 360° Leader, is to place people in their strength zones. This is basically making sure that your people are doing what they do best. Studies show that companies who have higher percentages of employees who think their talents are best being utilized, are more successful…based on the bottom line.
The key thing is that if an employee feels he or she is not being utilized in their best position, it is somewhat demoralizing. However, if an employee is working in a position that they know is the best place for them, they will work that much harder to succeed.
I have lately started to work on getting back to basics with my system. David tells us often that the most important needs are a hard landscape (Calendar) and a good list manager.
I actually utilize a hard landscape and two list managers.
Recently, I have taken note of the simplicity of the system. For me these days, my projects are managed in a web-based application that does a great job of organizing my projects and allows me to view the actions related to any project (there are several solutions out there that accomplish this…Michael is currently reviewing several candidates…stay tuned).