Category Archives: Book Review

What Poker Taught Tony Hsieh

Tony Hsieh’s book Delivering Happiness provides a roadmap to develop both employee and client satisfaction, focused on delivering happiness. It also includes business lessons from a successful entrepreneur that can be applied to our leadership journey, specifically if you are leading an organization.

Two takeaways for me.

  • Become a life long learner like Tony. Use your everyday experiences and use them to adapt. Tony was very good at applying life lessons to work.
  • A part of his book that really stuck with me was when he described his learnings from poker and the application to business. The lessons Tony presents are as follows:

Evaluating Market Opportunities

  • Table selection is the most important decision you can make.
  • It’s okay to switch tables if you discover it’s too hard to win at your table.
  • If there are too many competitors (some irrational or inexperienced), even if you’re the best it’s a lot harder to win.

Marketing and Branding

  • Act weak when strong, act strong when weak. Know when to bluff.
  • Your “brand” is important.
  • Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.

Financials

  • Always be prepared for the worst possible scenario.
  • The guy who wins the most hands is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
  • The guy who never loses a hand is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
  • Go for positive expected value, not what’s least risky.
  • Make sure your bankroll is large enough for the game you’re playing and the risks you’re taking.
  • Play only with what you can afford to lose.
  • Remember that it’s a long-term game. You will win or lose individual hands or sessions, but it’s what happens in the long term that matters.

Strategy

  • Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
  • Figure out the game when the stakes aren’t high.
  • Don’t cheat. Cheaters never win in the long run.
  • Stick to your principles.
  • You need to adjust your style of play throughout the night as the dynamics of the game change. Be flexible.
  • Be patient and think long-term.
  • The players with the most stamina and focus usually win.
  • Differentiate yourself. Do the opposite of what the rest of the table is doing.
  • Hope is not a good plan.
  • Don’t let yourself go “on tilt.” It’s much more cost-effective to take a break, walk around, or leave the game for the night.

Continual Learning

  • Educate yourself. Read books and learn from others who have done it before.
  • Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.
  • Learn by surrounding yourself with talented players.
  • Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do. You might have just gotten lucky.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

Culture

  • You’ve gotta love the game. To become really good, you need to live it and sleep it.
  • Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.
  • Be nice and make friends. It’s a small community.
  • Share what you’ve learned with others.
  • Look for opportunities beyond just the game you sat down to play. You never know who you’re going to meet, including new friends for life or new business contacts.
  • Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.

Tony Hsieh and Delivering Happiness

There will come a time when all servant leaders become conflicted with focusing on profits or people. Tony Hsieh (1973-2020) does a great job of telling all of us how to link profits, passion and purpose. As Jim Collins tells us, it is the genius of the “and”, focusing on profits “and” people and not the tyranny of the “or”, focusing on profits “or” people. If you have not read Tony’s book on Zappos, or have not ever heard of Zappos, pick up a copy of his book “Delivering Happiness”. So many great lessons from the book and a shame that Tony is not around today to continue his journey of bringing happiness to others. All too often, those focused so much on bringing happiness to others have a difficult time bringing happiness to themselves – I also think of Robin Williams.

Tony Hsieh – Delivering Happiness

There is a great section at the end of book where Tony goes deeper on his quest on Delivering Happiness. Tony tells us that, when you ask people what their ultimate goal is (by following a five why exercise), everyone only wants to become happier.

Tony tells us that happiness is about four things:

  • Perceived control – Tony’s way to do this was to implement a “skill set system,” giving out small raises as each employee learned and mastered each of 20 skill sets laid out by the company. Having clarity and control over their raises made employees happier.
  • Perceived progress – Tony changed the practice of one large promotion into smaller promotions given on merit every six months. Employees were much happier because there was an ongoing sense of perceived progress.
  • Connectedness – the number and depth of your relationships. Tony believed happier employees made more productive employees, so Tony was always thinking about how to foster socializing and friendships at work – with initiatives like discounted food and relaxation areas.
  • Vision or meaning – being a part of something bigger than yourself. As part of this Tony brings in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Once you attain happiness, it can consist of three types of happiness:

  • Pleasure – Shortest lasting and requires constant stimulation.
  • Passion – Being in the zone – time passes quickly.
  • Higher Purpose – Being part of something bigger than yourself . This is the longest lasting form of happiness.

What to do if you are able to find true happiness? You need to share it. Your happiness will never decrease by sharing it with others.

Courtesy of The Calm app

Where do you lead from?

I just finished reading a book by Gabrielle Bernstein – “The Universe Has Your Back”. While the book focuses on teaching us how to transform fear into faith, the lessons can also be applied to leadership. One of the very powerful quotes is “Your purpose is to be joyful. Your purpose is to live with ease. Your purpose is to surrender to the love of the Universe so you can live a happy life. Accept the purpose of love, and your life will radically change this instant.” Now what leader would you rather follow, a leader that leads from the purpose of love or a leader that leads from the purpose of fear.

Leaders that lead from the heart will do the following:

  • Show warmth, an interest in the well-being of others, and a desire to connect.
  • Help others faced with a challenge.
  • Keep their commitments.
  • Appreciate, respect, encourage and empower.
  • Take the time, especially when they don’t have time.
  • Active listening.
  • Treat others’ time as if it’s as important as theirs.
  • Be as passionate about the growth of others as they are about their own.

Leaders that lead from fear often have the following:

  • Lead by using their position instead of influencing behaviors.
  • A track record of employee churn because they do not value people.
  • Have a team walking on eggshells because mistakes are punished, quite often publicly
  • A comfort in dysfunction. Whether at work of home, they enjoy arguing and intimidating others. Unfortunately this usually spills over into family situations.
  • Teams that lack confidence due to shortcomings always being pointed out and always been told what went wrong.

Do you have a Growth Mindset?

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has the famous saying and that is to be “The Hardest Worker in the Room”. Other examples in sports were Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. It takes a certain hunger to overcome adversity and to develop the drive to outwork others. In order to do this you need to have a “Growth Mindset”. The figure below compares the behavioral traits of those with a Growth Mindset and those with a Fixed Mindset. If you are in a leadership role, more than likely you have a Growth Mindset – challening yourself and looking around for inspiration. Inspiration can come from observing others, reading books, taking courses or spensing time with others that have successfully put in the effort to achieve what you are looking for.

Growth vs Fixed Mindset

Show up, even when you don’t feel like it. Make learning a daily priority. Challenge yourself and then others. Do the jobs that others aren’t willing to do. Encourage the team. And most importantly, be consistent!  Can a Growth Mindset be nurtured and developed – the answer is yes. Whether it is your children or team members with a Fixed Mindset, there are steps that can be taken to develop the Growth Mindset.

Dr. Carol Dweck gives us some tips:

  • Recognise the powerful influence that beliefs have on final results.
  • Improvement is always possible.
  • Eliminate chronic self-doubt.
  • Become more “Goal focused”.
  • Life requires evolutionary growth.
  • Evolution is growth by degree.
  • Contained within every defeat are seeds of an equivalent benefit.
  • Mind your language.
  • Thoughts are things.
  • Be guided by your Visions of a better future.

Upstream Solutions

Too often when problems arise we treat the symptoms and not the root cause. Dan Heath wrote a tremendous book called “Upstream” and introduces practical ways to identify opportunities, overcome resistance and make a change.

When entering a new organization look for the champion, the individual that needs to repeatedly step in and “save the day”. Many organizations cherish and reward the champion. In Upstream thinking organizations, there are no champions. The true champions have focused on eliminating the problem from occurring in the first place. You can also look for the frustration – tension between teams or individuals.

We are introduced to some reasons that leaders do not take the time to move upstream. 1) Problem Blindness. You know when everyone tells you that in this industry or in this company that’s how we have always done things. That’s the tunnel vision that comes from companies that have existed for years and have become complacent with current performance (anyone heard of Blackberry?).
2) Lack of Ownership. That is someone else’s responsibility. I like to tell teams that the leak may be in the other end of the boat but if the boat goes down, well we are all going down.
3) I’m too busy and I can’t deal with that right now. Let’s work on that another day.

To succeed in moving upstream and making change, leaders must focus on the following: 1) Leaders must detect problems early. 2) Leaders must target leverage points in complex systems. 3) Leaders must find reliable ways to measure success. 4) Leaders must pioneer new ways of working together. 5) Leaders must embed their successes into systems to give them permanence.

This is a great read for any leader struggling to get results and dealing with the same issues over and over again.

The First 90 Days

The ability to vary your leadership style based on the situation at hand is required in order to achieve the best results in the timeframe available. We see this quite often in sports where different coaches will be brought in to turn a team around rather than building the team for the future. To be a true Visionary Leader you will be required to understand the current situation and adapt to the need at hand.

In his book, The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins explains the various situations you may find yourself in along with a roadmap. Take some time to review your current situation – Startup, Sustaining Success, Realignment, Turnaround or Divestiture/Shutdown.

Once you have determined your current situation, you will need to develop your transition strategy. Example below for Turnarounds and Realignments.

Built to Last

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras authored this fantastic book documenting the successful habits of Visionary Companies. The main takeaway – if you are involved in building and managing an organization, the single most important part to take away is to “preserve the core and stimulate progress”. This is referred to as clock building in the book – building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any single leader and through multiple product life cycles. Sound simple?

Preserve the core and stimulate progress is referred to as embracing the genius of the AND. How often in our leadership journeys do we struggle with this? Low cost OR high quality or can it be low cost AND high quality. As a parent is it living by the rules OR creating a loving environment or living by the rules AND creating a loving environment? In our personal lives is it living healthy OR enjoying the moment or living healthy AND enjoying the moment? Yes, we can have both.

In the book we are given mechanisms that have proven to be successful with other successful companies – Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs), Cult Like Cultures, Try A Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works, Home Grown Management and Good Enough Never Is. A great read and very powerful for my current business challenge.

Don’t Let Others Define Your Success – Part 2

If you haven’t heard of The Barkley Marathons take some time to research it. The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race held in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee. Runners are required to find their way around an unmarked trail in harsh conditions, covering about about 100 miles (160 km). The race is limited to a 60-hour period, and takes place in late March or early April of each year. There are books, articles on the internet and a fantastic film that all provide more information.

While the theme of the film is about the racers, you will also be introduced to the co-founder and director of the race, Gary Cantrell aka Lazarus Lake. During the film, Lazarus Lake provides narration. One of his quotes on success stood out to me.

Everyone has their own concept of success or failure. Don’t be concerned how others judge you, rather evaluate your performance and make your own judgement on success or failure

Don’t Let Others Define Your Success – Part 1

One of the great leaders in sports history is John Wooden. John Wooden was one of the best coaches in history. During a 12 year span in his coaching career, while John Wooden was the head basketball coach at the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) his teams won ten national championships, including seven in a row. It took John Wooden years to develop his formula for success and documented the formal in his pyramid of success. This pyramid took years to create (started in 1932 and finalized in 1948) and became John Wooden’s roadmap to success.

At the core of the Pyramid of Success was John Wooden’s definition of success – “ Success is peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable”. John Wooden had a great teacher in his father. In Johnn Wooden’s book on Leadership, he recalls an early lesson from his father to him and his brothers – “Sons,” he would tell my three brothers and me, “don’t worry about whether you’re better than somebody else, but never cease trying to be the best you can become. You have control over that; the other you don’t.”

The message is the same – you define your success, others don’t. Too often we measure success by money, possessions, being better than others or popularity. Take a lesson from John Wooden, every day is an opportunity to do your best and be satisfied in that. You define your success, others don’t.

Lead From The Front

“I’ll always be the the first person on the battlefield, my boots will be the first boots on it, and I’ll be the last person off. I’ll never leave a body.” Let. Gen. Harold G. Moore

You may have read the book or caught the movie starring Mel Gibson titled “We Were Soldiers”. They both tell the story of Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore. One of the great leadership lessons Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore had was to always lead from the front – you lead by example, you demonstrate passion for your job and most importantly never ask someone to do something that you would not do. Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore set an example for this team, leading his team onto the battlefield and ensuring he was the last one off.

As leaders we need to keep the same rule. Whether sacrificing work/life balance temporarily to meet a deadline, admitting that you made a mistake or having a difficult discussion with a team member, never ask someone to do something you would not do.