Define the Deliverables

Matt Perman over at What’s Best Next (a blog that I’ve been following for a couple of months) has a great post on making sure you Define the Deliverables on a project.  Don’t just come up with the ideas, make sure you take time to figure out exactly what’s expected.  Matt says:

Defining the deliverables directs your attention to outcomes rather than activities.  Activities are not necessarily productive.  Many of the activities we do are not necessary…if you think first of deliverables, your mind is directed right away to outcomes instead. This will immediately filter out a whole bunch of activities and cause you to identify and focus in on only the activities that are actually essential to the project.

Check out the rest of the post here.  While you’re over there, you might want to look at some of his other great posts on priorities and productivity.

The Truth About You

The Truth About You is the latest strengths based leadership book from Marcus Buckingham.  It was an easier read, but it had a lot of great practical application.  The book comes with a DVD, which has a short movie about strengths, and a “Re-memo” pad for capturing both strengths and weaknesses.  This interactive experience involves more nuts-and-bolts practical application, which distinguishes it from many leadership books on the shelves today.  Lots of books dump a mount of information on you, but don’t encourage you to do anything with it.

Below I’ve listed his main ideas:

• Performance is always the point:  Don’t expect your organization to know you like you do
  • In most cases the only interest they have in your strengths is whether or not they enhance your performance for the organization.
• Your strengths aren’t what you’re good at, and your weaknesses aren’t what you’re bad at.
  • Buckingham wants to correct the common misconception that if you’re good at something is must be a strength.
  • His definition of a strength is any activity that makes you fell strong – i.e when you’re done you feel fulfilled, focused, in the zone, and time seems to pass quickly.
• When it comes to your job, the “What” always trumps the “Why” and the “Who”: So always ask, “What will I be paid to do?”
  • Once you know the “What,” then compare it to your actual strengths before making the decision.
• You’ll never find a perfect job:  So every week, for the rest of your life, develop a strong week plan.
  • Strong week plan – pick out two things you are going to do to put your strengths into play each week and attempt to implement them.
• You’ll never turn your weaknesses into strengths:  So fess up to your weaknesses, and neutralize them.
  • Once you’re clear what they are, you’ll have to deal with them.

If you’ve read Buckingham’s books before you’ll probably find the material to be a summary of his strengths teaching and similar to GO! Put Your Strengths To Work.  This book is an ideal introduction to strengths based leadership for those who have never read any of his books before, and also ideal for high school and college students.  I wish someone had exposed me to these concepts much earlier in life.  You can preview the book here, or purchase your own copy here.

Killing Cockroaches

I just finished reading a copy of Tony Morgan’s new book Killing Cockroaches.  It’s not about killing actual cockroaches, although there are instructions on how to do that in the book.  He says that “killing cockroaches is a euphemism for responding to the urgent stuff in our lives that keeps us from doing the important stuff in our lives.”

As I was reading the book, the format reminded me of something Guy Kawasaki said about his latest book Reality Check in a recent edition of the Catalyst Podcast.  He said his own recent book was more like a desk reference and that at any given time much of the content would not be relevant to your current situation; however, the stuff that isn’t relevant today might be relevant six months for now.  I’m sure I’ll flag my copy, mark it up with lots of notes and keep it handy for future reference.  Below I’ve listed some (by no means all) of the interesting things I came across:

• Tony’s own formula for killing cockroaches (the metaphorical ones)
• 48 Simple Strategies for Better Blogging
• Deal Breakers for Leaders (including:  “Leaders won’t be fulfilled by performing tasks, & Leader’s won’t commit to ambiguity”)
• Interesting stories about a mustang convertible, giant inflatable blue monkeys, & gunky build up.
• 10 Easy Ways to Know You’re Not a Leader (including:  You’re waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision, & No one is following you)
• Great tips on crafting your message to be heard
• Insights from other leaders about how they avoid killing cockroaches (including: Craig Groeschel, Mark Batterson, Penelope Trunk, & Seth Godin)

There are a lot more helpful insights, interesting stories, and top 10 lists in the book.  I highly recommend picking up a copy.  If you want to know more about the book, you can check out some additional information here, or buy it here.  For more from Tony, check out his blog.