The power of empowering the other. An excerpt from Gerry Spence.

Here's an excerpt from Gerry Spence's How to Argue and Win Every Time.  Throughout his book his reference to the "Other" is the person "against whom our failing arguments are made."

The key to opening the Other to our arguments is to empower the Other to reject us.  The key is putting our power in the Other's hands.  By relinquishing power to the Other, we avoid the Other's fear of us or our argument.  If the Other retains the power, the clear, acknowledged power, to accept or reject our argument, there remains nothing against which the Other need defend.

Best,
Bryan

Decathletes (Jump the Curve)

In his book Jump the Curve, visionary Jack Uldrich shares his "50 essential strategies to help your company stay ahead of emerging technologies." His focus is on what he calls the exponential executive, the successful forward-thinking leaders in the future.

Aspire Higher, by Avery Johnson

Often I read a book simply because of the author’s personal journey and characteristics – not seeking literary genius but instead insight into the individual experience.  Looking across the landscape of best-selling books, it seems I’m not alone.

Sun Tzu for Execution: How to Use the Art of War to Get Results

When I'm reading, I like to highlight passages and important nuggets of information that might be interesting or helpful to read again in the future. It directs the eyes and helps me maximize my reading based on my learning style.

At the end of Sun Tzu for Execution: How to use The Art of War to Get Results, by Steven W. Michaelson, I noticed that a great deal of the text had been underlined, something on just about every page.

Sun Tzu: The Art of War

If you haven't read Sun Tzu's The Art of War, you're missing a treat. When I was in college, one of my fraternity brothers had a habit of pulling out a Sun Tzu quote every time we had a speaking event (that's you if you're out there, Dan!).

UBS Dress

UBS, the swiss financial services firm, has recently made headlines with a dress code.  Today it's merely a five-office pilot program, but might be rolled out to all Switzerland if successful.  If you would like to read more, check out Huffington Post, Third Age, The Wall Street Journal, Styleite, or Clusterstock (a personal favorite).

The guide is consistent with UBS culture and brand, and many make sense for anyone wishing to present themselves well to others.  Here are a few paraphrased tips from the guide:

Walk the Walk, by Alan Deutschman

I just finished Walk the Walk, by Alan Deutschman. It's a short read, and could be finished in a night (I dragged it out over two myself).  The book came out in 2009, with great promotional fanfare. The blog was maintained throughout 2009 – looks like the final post was in January of 2010. Deutschman's theme is all in the full title: "Walk the Walk: the #1 Rule for Real Leaders."

Eat That Frog, by Brian Tracy

I've just finished Brian Tracy's 2007 book, Eat That Frog, 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, and found it to be a quick and interesting read.  Brian is a writer, speaker, and consultant focused on both personal and corporate development.

The major themes of the book:

• Determine what's really important to you, where you want to be/go/become in the future.  Do so from both career and personal perspectives


• Determine which tasks (frogs) are most important in achieving these goals


• Tackle the biggest, ugliest frog first, and finish that task all the way through.  To achieve this, carve the big task into smaller, bite-sized tasks (insert eating an elephant reference here :) ).  With that one complete, tackle the next hardest and finish it as well


• While doing these things, be sure to get plenty of sleep, time away from technology, and exercise at least 250 minutes per week

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (2000)

Malcolm Gladwell, a writer at The New Yorker magazine, has become better known for his books than his articles in recent years.  He has written a string of bestsellers in the new millenium:  The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw.  Gladwell fittingly started with The Tipping Point, a view into understanding change.

View&Stew: it's all about EQ

Emotional Intelligence is Cool

Daniel Goleman is a psychologist by trade. He's also a bestselling author, sometimes Harvard professor, and even wrote for the New York Times for a while. For the past decade and a half, his focus has been on intelligences beyond the standard measure of IQ, “intelligence quotient.”

Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan & Ferrazzi Greenlight

This past week I had the opportunity to attend a small-group training session with Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan, Managing Director of Training & Development at Ferrazzi Greenlight.  If you haven't heard of Ferrazzi Greenlight, it's a firm focused on strategic relationship management headed by one Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone and Who's Got Your Back.

In a nutshell, the message is this:  demonstrate generosity, intimacy, candor, and accountability.  :)  Of course, the trick is not knowing the four secret words...the trick is knowing what they mean and how they apply to our individual and corporate circumstances.  In our small group, Jeff painted a picture for us of what that might look like, and took us down the path of thinking through specifically how to realize these goals.

Jeff speaks to groups of all sizes, from our group of ten to stadiums of thousands.  He has a great story to share, and is - of all things - authentic.