What you'll learn
- Relationship building is the most important investment.
- Slow down for success.
- Reading is your critical tool for continuous improvement.
- Revel in the mess of implementation.
Requirements
- Desire to become a better leader or manager.
- Desire to improve your workplace.
- Involvement in an organization such as a company or club.
Description
“Avoid busy-ness, free up your time, stay focused on what really matters. Let me put it bluntly: Every leader should routinely keep a substantial portion of his or her time—I would say as much as 50 percent—unscheduled...Only when you have substantial ‘slop’ in your schedule—unscheduled time—will you have the space to reflect on what you are doing, learn from experience, and recover from your inevitable mistakes. . . . It takes an enormous effort on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly important things.” (emphasis added)
—Dov Frohman, Leadership the Hard Way: Why Leadership Can’t Be Taught—And How You Can Learn It Anyway
High-Tech superstar Dov Frohman lays down an outrageous law: Fifty-percent unscheduled time. Frankly, I don’t think many of us could pull this off—could even pull off 25 percent free time. Nonetheless, Frohman’s credentials from Intel and from reshaping Israel’s high-tech sector are impeccable. My goal is to have you reflect on the likes of Frohman’s outrageous command. I don’t think I could do it—but upon personal reflection I think he is absolutely positively on the money. Typically frenzied leadership is not leadership at all. How many of us have had a boss who is late to four out of every five meetings because he’s over-scheduled? Well count me as one who’s experienced it—and lost all respect for the boss as a result thereof. The late boss is disrespectful—and, I’d bet, an awful decision-maker. You can’t do “frenzy” and “thoughtful” at the same time—I’d bet his decision-making is as half-assed as his on-time record.
The goal of this course is to lay down some formidable leadership challenges. It’s meant to get you thinking and trying several of these ideas out. I’m going to push you, for instance, on your communications skills. I’m going to tell you that each of the 15 people who report to you is very different from the other fourteen. Which means you need 15 dramatically different communication strategies in order to move forward effectively—every top football coach knows that and so does every superior third-grade teacher; but damn few bosses seem to get it. They blame a miscommunication on the recipient—when in fact it is the boss’ fault. 100 percent of the time!
Twenty challenges are forthcoming. I hope they help you down the path to leadership excellence.
Good luck.
Who this course is for:
- Leaders and managers trying to navigate these tumultuous times
- Owners of small or medium size businesses
- Executive Level Managers
- Solopreneurs
- B-Level Managers
Instructor
Tom is a management guru, speaker, and best-selling author.
He co-authored In Search of Excellence, which has been called "the greatest business book of all time." His 2018 book, The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last, received praise by world-renowned experts including Seth Godin, Jack Bogle, and Bo Burlingham. Tom started the personal branding movement with an article in Fast Company called "The Brand Called You."
Tom is passionate about Excellence in the workplace and offering simple ways to make big change happen. His Excellence Now Campaign 2020-2022 includes an eBook, Excellence Now: The 43 Number Ones, a book, Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism, and a six-part online course series here at Udemy called Excellence: Now More Than Ever. Tom, called "The Red Bull of Management Thinkers," is now offering his expertise on Udemy so that you can create a workplace that people love.