The work of Good to Great best seller author Jim Collins—whose research suggested that great performing companies had leaders with two unique traits: 1) fierce personal resolve and 2) extreme personal humility—inspired authors Steven Smith and David Marcum to conduct several years of research into the ego vs. humility topic. The result is their new book called “Egonomics”.
Showing posts with label Self improvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Self improvement. Show all posts
Monday, September 17, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Learn from World-Class Universities and Get Smarter for Free
The Creative Commons movement founder director Hal Abelson is also credited with influencing the creation of the OpenCourseWare concept, which grants the free use of university materials online to the general population. OpenCourseWare began in 2001 as an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to offer an innovative and more democratic way to share knowledge with the world. Monday, August 20, 2007
Run with the Bulls without Getting Trampled...
By Ernie A. Cevallos
Most of us spend over fifty percent of our waking hours trying to win in the race of work and climbing the career ladder without being knocked down by events, misguided people, or poor choices. In similar manner, we all know the fate of unskilled runners of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain. In his new book “Run with the Bulls without Getting Trampled: The Qualities You Need to Stay Out of Harm’s Way and Thrive at Work”, corporate psychologist Tim Irwin, Ph.D., applies the “running with the bulls” metaphor to parallel what unprepared individuals face, and offers sage advice that will help to steer clear of any 1,400 pound corporate charging bull.
Most of us spend over fifty percent of our waking hours trying to win in the race of work and climbing the career ladder without being knocked down by events, misguided people, or poor choices. In similar manner, we all know the fate of unskilled runners of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain. In his new book “Run with the Bulls without Getting Trampled: The Qualities You Need to Stay Out of Harm’s Way and Thrive at Work”, corporate psychologist Tim Irwin, Ph.D., applies the “running with the bulls” metaphor to parallel what unprepared individuals face, and offers sage advice that will help to steer clear of any 1,400 pound corporate charging bull.Thursday, August 09, 2007
Benefits of Critical and Skeptical Thinking
Healthy skepticism, questioning your underlying assumptions and introducing doubt, can be helpful. There are many traps that can cloud our choices and decision making ability. Become an effective critic, glean the best information available, and know what information you need to be proven right or wrong.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Decision Traps: Barriers to Better Decision Making
By Ernie A. Cevallos
At every step of decision making misperceptions based on incorrect input, biases, lack of information, and other traps can corrupt the choices we make. We are particularly vulnerable to traps involving uncertainty because most of us are not good at judging chances. Complex and important decisions are the most prone to distortion because they tend to have many assumptions, estimates, and influence by misaligned parties.
At every step of decision making misperceptions based on incorrect input, biases, lack of information, and other traps can corrupt the choices we make. We are particularly vulnerable to traps involving uncertainty because most of us are not good at judging chances. Complex and important decisions are the most prone to distortion because they tend to have many assumptions, estimates, and influence by misaligned parties.Thursday, July 26, 2007
A Contrarian Leadership Guide: Insights for Success at Work and Home
By Ernie A. Cevallos
One of the most respected and sought after executive coaches is Marshall Goldsmith. His primary insight is that “good manners is good management”. Now you may ask yourself, why would impressive and successful executives need help with manners and behavioral issues? After all they most likely acted out consciously or unconsciously Stephen Coveys’ “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” to get to the position they hold. But don’t be misled by the aura of success or turn your back on the human condition and its foibles.
One of the most respected and sought after executive coaches is Marshall Goldsmith. His primary insight is that “good manners is good management”. Now you may ask yourself, why would impressive and successful executives need help with manners and behavioral issues? After all they most likely acted out consciously or unconsciously Stephen Coveys’ “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” to get to the position they hold. But don’t be misled by the aura of success or turn your back on the human condition and its foibles.Thursday, May 03, 2007
Thoughts on Leadership
By Ernie A. Cevallos
Leadership and managerial ability are not about mystical skills or pure personality traits that only a chosen few were born with. Leadership is different from management, but it does not mean that leadership is superior or a substitute of management skills. Rather, leadership and management are two complementary competencies, and both are necessary for the success of any enterprise. Leadership complements management; it does not replace it.
Leadership and managerial ability are not about mystical skills or pure personality traits that only a chosen few were born with. Leadership is different from management, but it does not mean that leadership is superior or a substitute of management skills. Rather, leadership and management are two complementary competencies, and both are necessary for the success of any enterprise. Leadership complements management; it does not replace it.Sunday, October 29, 2006
Recipe for Sustainable Business Greatness
By Ernie A. Cevallos
Sample 1,435 good companies. Evaluate their performance over 40 years. Distill it to eleven great companies
THE GOOD TO GREAT COMPANIES:
Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo
Whatever happened to would be good companies such as Burroughs, Enron, Businessland, MCI, Bethlehem Steel, Daewoo, Arthur Andersen, DeLorean Motor Co., Olympia and York, countless dotcoms, etc. Reading through the list gives you an appreciation for how once proud and good business can become obsolete and doomed to extinction if not led and managed properly. We should not despair, the good news is that although we lose companies with alarming frequency, there are new and old firms that adapt well, and find ways to invent competitive and sustainable positions in their markets. What do those companies do right?
Sample 1,435 good companies. Evaluate their performance over 40 years. Distill it to eleven great companiesTHE GOOD TO GREAT COMPANIES:
Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo
Whatever happened to would be good companies such as Burroughs, Enron, Businessland, MCI, Bethlehem Steel, Daewoo, Arthur Andersen, DeLorean Motor Co., Olympia and York, countless dotcoms, etc. Reading through the list gives you an appreciation for how once proud and good business can become obsolete and doomed to extinction if not led and managed properly. We should not despair, the good news is that although we lose companies with alarming frequency, there are new and old firms that adapt well, and find ways to invent competitive and sustainable positions in their markets. What do those companies do right?
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Why Google Rocks?
By Ernie A. Cevallos
Management à la Google
Worldwide best seller business writer of “Competing for the Future” and strategy and management professor extraordinaire, Gary Hamel, just offered his observations about the greatness of Google in a WSJ opinion article. Will it fizzle before it realizes all its growth potential? Has it realized the promise of its business model as its stock soared to over $425/share and its market cap reached $126B, and settle into maturity much like Dell, Microsoft, and many others?
Management à la Google
Worldwide best seller business writer of “Competing for the Future” and strategy and management professor extraordinaire, Gary Hamel, just offered his observations about the greatness of Google in a WSJ opinion article. Will it fizzle before it realizes all its growth potential? Has it realized the promise of its business model as its stock soared to over $425/share and its market cap reached $126B, and settle into maturity much like Dell, Microsoft, and many others?Thursday, March 16, 2006
Customer Value Propositions and Persuasion Effectiveness
By Ernie A. Cevallos
What is wrong with value propositions?
In today’s competitive environment creating and delivering winning value propositions is a fundamental expectation in the race to win more business and out perform rivals. It is evident that properly constructed and communicated value propositions make a powerful argument, and align the solution fit with the needs and buying criteria of customers. The goal is to persuade the customer by irrefutable proof that the value proposition represents a win-win business transaction.
What is wrong with value propositions?
In today’s competitive environment creating and delivering winning value propositions is a fundamental expectation in the race to win more business and out perform rivals. It is evident that properly constructed and communicated value propositions make a powerful argument, and align the solution fit with the needs and buying criteria of customers. The goal is to persuade the customer by irrefutable proof that the value proposition represents a win-win business transaction.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
The Five Deadly Business Sins
Books on management are published by the hundreds each year, but for your money you can skip a great deal of these publications and simply re-read Peter F. Drucker, who will always be the Shakespere of the genre. The past few years have seen the downfall of one once-dominant business after another: General Motors, Sears and IBM, to name just a few. In every case the main cause has been at least one of the five deadly business sins, which undoubtedly will harm the mightiest business. Take a look and see how your business is doing?
Thursday, February 02, 2006
What is the Purpose of Dr. Deming's Theory of Management?
By ERNIE A. CEVALLOS
(This document was submitted to Professor Howard Gitlow of the University of Miami as a term-paper for MAS 610 Statistical Analysis for Decision Making Process -- Paper has been edited for shortened Blog publication)
Background
After World War II American industry returned to the peacetime production of consumer goods, for which there was unparalleled demand and no competition. Untouched by war, the industrial heartland produced cars, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, mixers, lawnmowers, refrigerators, furniture, carpet, and all the goods for the growing postwar suburbs inhabited by a generation of prosperous Americans.
The American corporation had fulfilled the promise of ‘scientific management,’ formulated by an influential industrial engineer named Frederick Winslow Taylor more than three decades earlier. Taylor had held that human performance could be defined and controlled through work standards and rules. He advocated the use of time and motion studies to break jobs down into simple, separate steps to be performed repeatedly without deviation by different workers. Minimizing complexity would maximize efficiency, although it was as bad to overperform as it was to underperform on a Taylor-style system.
(This document was submitted to Professor Howard Gitlow of the University of Miami as a term-paper for MAS 610 Statistical Analysis for Decision Making Process -- Paper has been edited for shortened Blog publication)
Background
After World War II American industry returned to the peacetime production of consumer goods, for which there was unparalleled demand and no competition. Untouched by war, the industrial heartland produced cars, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, mixers, lawnmowers, refrigerators, furniture, carpet, and all the goods for the growing postwar suburbs inhabited by a generation of prosperous Americans.
The American corporation had fulfilled the promise of ‘scientific management,’ formulated by an influential industrial engineer named Frederick Winslow Taylor more than three decades earlier. Taylor had held that human performance could be defined and controlled through work standards and rules. He advocated the use of time and motion studies to break jobs down into simple, separate steps to be performed repeatedly without deviation by different workers. Minimizing complexity would maximize efficiency, although it was as bad to overperform as it was to underperform on a Taylor-style system.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Managing the Power of You as a Brand -- The Most Important Project You Will Ever Undertake!
By Ernie A. Cevallos
Fortune 500 firms appreciate the importance of brands. Today, in the age of Globalization where digitization, virtualization, and automation of almost everything is possible you have to manage brand You more than ever to survive in this competitive global environment. Is brand You representative of Google, American Express, Oprah Winfrey, or are you symbolic of Yugo car, Firestone tires, Hugo Rafael Chavez? As you know, brands stand for something, and it can go the full spectrum from great to mediocre to bad. What do you stand for?
Fortune 500 firms appreciate the importance of brands. Today, in the age of Globalization where digitization, virtualization, and automation of almost everything is possible you have to manage brand You more than ever to survive in this competitive global environment. Is brand You representative of Google, American Express, Oprah Winfrey, or are you symbolic of Yugo car, Firestone tires, Hugo Rafael Chavez? As you know, brands stand for something, and it can go the full spectrum from great to mediocre to bad. What do you stand for?
Friday, October 21, 2005
Purpose and Goals in Our Lives - Where Do We Want to Go?
There are many aspects of our lives that require making choices and determining how we invest our time and energy. If we waste the opportunity to organize our limited time and energy resources, we will never experience the happiness and rewards that are within our reach.
Setting goals present a dilemma because we are committing to something that may not be reasonable tomorrow. We may feel that the exclusivity of attention may distract us from other opportunities. We may find ourselves moving in a direction that is not what we envisioned earlier. The good thing is that when we engage in goal setting, we always begin to see things that may not have been evident in a status quo environment. New perspectives and insights will help us, in a iterative process, to set the right goals and make adjustments that take us much further along the path of success.
Setting goals present a dilemma because we are committing to something that may not be reasonable tomorrow. We may feel that the exclusivity of attention may distract us from other opportunities. We may find ourselves moving in a direction that is not what we envisioned earlier. The good thing is that when we engage in goal setting, we always begin to see things that may not have been evident in a status quo environment. New perspectives and insights will help us, in a iterative process, to set the right goals and make adjustments that take us much further along the path of success.
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