Obstacles Welcome by Ralph de la Vega

This is a decent biography about Ralph de la Vega where he spends a lot of time bringing leadership principles into the story. I have to admit I had never heard his name before reading this book, but now I know who he is. He runs ATT Mobility and Consumer Markets fka ATT Wireless and Cingular.

His is what I think is becoming a rarer story in the US. Immigrated to the US as a boy in poverty, takes advatange of opportunities that arose and became a powerful executive leader. His goal in the book is to show many of the obstacles in his life that could have lead him down a different path, but through leadership principles he gained along his journey, he was able to make the best of the obstacles and grow personally and professionally.

The book had many takeaway points as seen in my notes below:
-Faith in a better future is a key enabler to overcoming incredible odds
-Courageous decisions and willingness to sacrifice provide an enabling force to overcome the most difficult of obstacles.
-The human spirit is incredibly resilient.
-Obstacles provide growth, embrace them.

The Pillars of Success
-Planning
-Take Risks
-Recognize opportunities
-Overcome Obstacles

-Seek your pivotal points that can change your lifes direction. These can provide for the greatest opportunity to learn and grow.
-Opportunities Exist everywhere. They often come disguised as problems.
-Be your own driver. Make a road map and a plan to control your journey. You increase your chance to find the opportunities when you are working your own plan.
-Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
-Every experience is an opportunity to learn
-Unlearning is part of getting better. Knowledge and situations change, so must we.
-Your vision should drive everything you do.
-Get peoples buy in. A vision is just theoretical unless people want to be a part of it.
-Sacrifice is key. Sacrifice is a requirement to accomplish something great.

The Value Pyramid
-Integrity
-Credibility
-Teamwork
-Attitude
-Excellence
-Vision

-Leadership is a learned skill for most people
-Dreaming big makes you more likely to succeed as long as you match your dreams with your hard work and sacrifice.
-Only you can allow limits to be imposed on your dreams.
-Its up to you to understand the "yes-but" factor in your field, and remove them from your path.
-On the path to leadership, avoid shortcuts, because nothing can substitute for experience and learning.
-Hope is not a strategy

-Your game plan should have five parts
1. honest assessment
2. clear vision
3. concise explanation
4. solid alignment of the right people
5. room for adjustment

-Executing ideas is the most difficult thing to do.
-A vision without a plan and the proper accountability will get nothing done
-A game plan for your life is developed the same way as a game plan for business. The only difference is you are the only person responsible for carrying it out.
-Communication can never be done too much.
-Listening and learning are critical starting points
-3 Cs - Communication must be Clear, Concise and Consistent
-Establish a feedback loop to make sure your message has efficiently gotten through to the right people.
-Be authentic, everything about you communicates something.
-To get the most out of people enable and empower them.
-Empower at all levels
-Think about this strategically and revisit it often to determine who should be given more or less authority.
-No personal boundaries.
-Make goals not wishes
-Plans needs steps to achieve a goal
-Constantly and relentlessly measure your progress.
-There are hidden opportunities in every difficulty.
-Sacrifice is required to create value
-Sacrifice must accompany a vision of a better future.
-The more inspired you are about the brighter future, the more you will be willing to sacrifice.
-Sacrifice opens doors to opportunity and hard work and discipline turn that opportunity into a reality
-Your workforce should look like your customer base for best success.
-Create and environment that makes contributing easy.
-Leaders help people to reach thier full potential
-Leaders help communities reach their full potential and great leaders can have a great impact here.
-Leaders must focus on critical things not everything.
-Continuously improve yourself and your leaders.
-Growth is good, talent and capabilities grow over time
-Extraordinary leaders like Dr.King are rare, but becoming as effective as him should be everyones goal.


Will you read this book again? I may pick it up down the line, but I think this is one like most bio style writings, you read it once, grab some of the important ideas and move on.

Would you suggest this book be added to a personal library or leave at the public library? Public Library.

Reviewed By Mike W - Twin Cities, MN

Lessons From The Top - The 50 Most Successful Business Leaders in America--and What You Can Learn From Them by Thomas J Neff and James M Citrin

The authors set out on a big adventure on this book. A research project at its best in my opinion. They took a group of metrics to determine who they believed were the 50 most successful businessmen of the time, interviewed them and took what they learned to turn it into Lessons From The Top. What is so ironic about this book, is that when they were researching highly successful leaders, Enron, MCI Worldcom and numerous financial powerhouse executives had not yet been found to be the frauds we now know them to be. It is interesting to read lessons from someone you now know to be fraudulent. My takeaway from these successful business men and women leave me questioning all that they espouse. Overall I find this to be a good thing for everyone to do anyways, but it makes it easier to grasp some wisdom and throw other advice away, when you question the integrity of the source.

All in all this was a book full of takeaways on leadership and responsibility. A common theme was building the right team of people to build up your company with you. Not everyone gets to be the CEO, but every person in the organization is required to make the CEO and business look good. Take care of your employees was another common theme.

Will you read this book again? I think this book is one to pick up everytime your career and/or business hits a growth milestone to help you maintain humility as your leadership requirements grow.

Would you suggest this book be added to a personal library or leave at the public library? Personal library.

Reviewed By Mike W - Twin Cities, MN

The Invisible Employee Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton

[Incomplete Report]

This book takes an analogy to its limits. It tells the story of an indiginous tribe living on a mountain filled with Jewels and Gemstones. The Highlanders and Wurc-Urs lived in a stereotypical employer employee relationship. This analogy that runs through the book, wraps itself around the idea of the Invisible Employee and how you can avoid what happens to the invisible employee when he remains invisible.

Invisible People:

-Invisible people do unremarkable work.

-Thankless jobs produce thankless employees.

Setting goals and a vision for the workforce provides clear direction for the employees to seek.

See the employees behaviors that support the goals and vision

Celebrate those behaviors in a public manner

Use surveys to your advantage to know what your employees need to feel visible.

Blink Outs:

-People don't leave for Money...they often leave supervisors

-Talented people are the first to go.

There are tangible rewards for praise of employees, namely employee retention.

Turnover is very costly to a company

The See-er:

-See-ers see people and their achievements.

-57% of employees would rather recieve praise from their direct supervisor, while 21% would rather be praised by the president

-Set the vision, team priorities, but make sure you set the "right" goals.

-Great managers are observant

--Get out of the office and see what people are doing.

-Welcome new employees, their first 90 days is critical to determining if you meet the needs of the employee.

Will you read this book again? Possibly Yes

Would you suggest this book be added to a personal library or leave it at the public library? An easily available book at the library. I would leave it there.

Reviewed By Mike W - Twin Cities, MN