The L Word

Had a date with my dad last night. That is the nice part of living so close, sometimes when our spouses are busy we get to treat ourselves. I think Nate and I don’t realize how lucky we are to have our family nearby. Anyway, my dad had a meeting of his leadership group from work, all engineers and all the stereotypes that apply so obviously he didn’t want to go alone. It cracks me up, is just seems to easy to pick on engineers b/c by and large everything is true.
The main speaker for the night was Tim Sanders, who was speaking on his new book “The Like Ability Factor” and I admit I immediately thought it was going to be very cheesy. Boy was I wrong. There is a reason this book has been a NY Times bestseller. Through amazing research this book explains how several factors of positive reaction improve brain power, leadership skills and are essential for the workforce of tomorrow. I was interested to learn that our generation believes that cash compensation is only the THIRD reason to stay at a job. Second is mobility the opportunity to move around and be constantly challenged and the number one reason we take or leave a job, the environment. Basically we don’t look for financial freedom we want the freedom not to “work for a jerk.” Here’s a brief clip from Tim’s online bio. www.timsanders.com
From 2001 to 2003, Tim Sanders served as the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo!, delivering next-generation marketing programs to world class brands. He created and led Yahoo! ValueLab, an in-house “think tank” that can deliver innovative solutions to Yahoo!’s current and prospective clients. The ValueLab consulting team coordinates and leverages Yahoo’s resources to add value to clients’ growth strategies. Tim currently serves as Yahoo!’s Leadership Coach. He also advises business and public sector leaders on next generation strategies.
If you want to have a little fun take his assessment and find out how you rank, then take it a month later and see how you do. I took a TON away from this lecture last night but I was amazed to learn that most business people read .7 business books every 5 years! Compare that to Fortune 1000 business owners who read 5 books each year and it really is true, well-read people change the world!