Tag Archives | Tom Peters

Erkenning is die superglue van menswees

By Rian Truter on August, Tuesday 14 2012 in 2012, Education, Leadership 6

Twee belangrike besigheidsbeginsels is, volgens my beskeie mening, in Die Bybel opgeteken. Nie in ’n selfhelp-treffer of in die een of ander handleiding oor leierskap nie.

# 1: Werp jou brood op die water, eendag kry jy dit terug. (Pred 11: 1)

# 2: Alles wat julle wil hê dat die mense aan julle moet doen, moet julle ook aan hulle doen. (Matt 7:12)

En dit is oor die tweede een wat ek iets op die hart het.

Ek verstaan nie hoe leiers nie dié eenvoudige konsep onder die knie kan kry nie. Was dit nie deel van hulle MBA nie of is dit net ’n basiese tekortkoming in hulle menswees?

Tom Peters skryf dat acknowledgement beslis die sleutel tot mense se harte is.

Yes, we all want to matter, to register, to be at the heart of things. And, moreover, we want to be seen by others as mattering and as at the heart of things. And yet, in my experience, even the smartest bosses don’t “get it” as often or more often than not.

Hy vertel dié storie van president Ulysses S. Grant (1869 – 1877):

General U.S. Grant, during his presidency, made giant steps, the last, alas, for a long time, toward healing the Union after the Civil War. Grant’s approach was deeply imbedded in his belief system. A quote from a Confederate soldier’s diary, at the end of a bloody battle that had resulted in a Confederate surrender, is highly illuminating. Grant biographer Jean Edward Smith explains: “The [Union senior] officers rode past the Confederates smugly, without any sign of recognition, except by one. ‘When General Grant reached the line of ragged, filthy, bloody, despairing prisoners strung out on each side of the bridge, he lifted his hat and held it over his head until he passed the last man of that living funeral cortege. He was the only officer in that whole train who recognized us as being on the face of the earth.’”

En dan sê Tom: I’m an old man, and an old soldier (sailor, actually), and whenever I read that aloud in a seminar, I tear up. What can I say? I can say: Oh, the power and the glory of human acknowledgement! And hats way off to General Grant!

Hoe dan nou gemaak meneer/mevrou die CEO?

Vergeet bietjie van jouself en onthou die betekenis van Ubuntu: ’n Mens is eers mens deur ander mense.

Begin vandag nog om in die mense wat vir jou werk (regstelling; saam met jou werk!) belang te stel. Vergeet ’n bietjie van die bottom line en onthou generaal Grant op die front line.

Antwoord die volgende eerlik:

Hoeveel keer sê ek dankie? (Opreg bedoel?)
Hoeveel dankie-sê-briefies of sms’e stuur ek?
Hoe spoedig doen ek bogenoemde?
Groet ek almal? (Van die skoonmaker tot die visie-president?)
Ken ek almal? (Leer by David Kramer: Sê vir my wie is u/’n Hofmeyer van Montaqu/getroud met ’n van Deventer van Barrydale/Ek ken jou pa se tante op Bonnievale/Ja, sy was la Grange van Ladysmith/Rossouw is sy getroud, ja nou verstaan ek dit…)
Hoe luister ek? Afgesaagde een dié, maar steeds duik ons lelik in die hek met hierdie ou toetsie. Konsentreer volgende keer en ek wed jou jy gaan ontdek dat jou gedagtes gedurende die gesprek afdwaal. Of erger nog dat jy reeds halfpad die oplossing/antwoord het!
Celebrate ek small victories? (Van die netjiese beddings tot die miljoen dollar kontrak.)
Stap ek voor? Of praat ek net voor?
En as jy praat, praat jy ék of ons?
Is ek daar waar die tekkie die teer tref? (Teenwoordigheid is alles.)

Met goed soos die is dit maklik om jouself amper net regmerkies te wil gee, want ek is mos nie só nie! Maar wees ’n bietjie braaf en vra ander of jy nie dalk tog só is nie? Dalk net ’n klein bietjie. En net soms?

Wat ook al die uitslag mag wees; begin vandag om aan ander te doen soos wat jy wil hê hulle aan jou moet doen.

Jy sal verbaas wees!

Gaan lees Tom Peters se volledige artikel by http://www.tompeters.com/docs/Acknowledgement.BECKER.0730.12A.4234.doc.4234.doc

The deepest principal in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. – William James

A soldier will give you his life for a bit of colored ribbon. – Napoleon

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. — Maya Angelou

It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle. – Norman Schwarzkopf

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Die goed wat jy weet, maar nie doen nie!

By Rian Truter on December, Sunday 4 2011 in 2011, Life 6

Toe ek hoor Tom Peters kom Suid-Afrika toe, was ek al halpad Jozi toe. Tot my linkerbrein inskop om te kyk wat die uitstappie my sal kos. Ek weet ghoeroes soos Tom is nie goedkoop nie, maar die hoop beskaam mos nie.

Groot was die ontnugtering na al my somme gemaak is. Nodeloos om te sê, ek kon nie Jozi toe nie. Ek kon met dié geld amper vir Bryce Lawrence in Nieu-Seeland gaan kuier!

My teleurstelling het in moerigheid omgesit toe ek sien wie wel daar sou wees. Maatskappye en instansies wat my swaarverdiende geld mors, het reeds geregistreer. En ek wat hulle befonds om aan te jaag, kan nie. ’n Baie bitter pil om te sluk!

Maar, ten spyte van my afwesigheid, sê Tom het hy sy besoek aan Suid-Afrika baie geniet. Hy het die hoop uitgespreek dat die afgevaardigdes huiswaarts sou keer om met groter vasberadenheid nuwe goed te probeer. Of soos hy dit stel …which is not truly new, but, rather, old things we all know that are typically overlooked in the heat of pressing events.

Toevallig dat hy dit sou noem, want nou die dag na ’n praatjie van my, sê ’n vrou vir my dit was vir haar vreeslik lekker, sy het die praatjie geniet en al daai ordentlikhede. Maar, gaan sy voort, dit wat ek gesê het, is mos eintlik nie iets nuut nie. Ons weet mos die goed.

My flipflop as jy dit dan weet, hoekom doen jy dit nie? En hoe kan ’n mens nou eintlik begrippe soos visie, passie en roeping elke keer nuut verpak? Die ou spreekwoord sê mos jy kan nie van perdedrolle vye maak nie. Dalk soms, maar nie elke keer nie.

Tog, die tannie is reg. As dit by motivering kom, is daar nie te veel nuut onder die son nie. Dit is dieselfde goed wat ons baie goed weet, maar net nie doen nie.

Motivering, en positiwiteit, is soos pille drink. Jy moet dit gereeld doen. Een pil is net nie genoeg nie. Behalwe natuurlik as dit ’n setpil is.

Meer as een pil is nodig om die kiem op sy plek te sit. En dan is dit in die meeste gevalle dieselfde pil. Nie elke keer ’n ander een nie. Hoor mooi: Dieselfde pil, maar die truuk is dat jy dit gereeld neem.

Ek glo die mense wat so gelukkig was om na Tom Peters te kon luister, het na sy aanbieding op die wolke geloop, want die man kán mense besiel.

Net tot die wolkeloper by sy kar kom en sien die lugdraad is afgebreek. Poef! Weg is Tom se motivering!

Om onder sulke omstandighede positief te bly is nie altyd maklik nie, maar daar is tog ’n paar pilletjies wat help:

Praat positief – met ander en in jou eie kop.
Dink positief – oor ander en oor jou self.
Doen positief – voel jou pols. Jy lewe!
Bevriend positief – Hallo vir positiewe mense; bye-bye vir natbroeke en moangatte.
Vee voor jou eie deur – Daar is geen verskoning dat jy nie positief kan wees nie. Jy verwag dit dan van ander!

Alweer meer as een pil! En ek hoor jou sê, dit is niks nuut nie. Ek weet dit alles.

Doen dit dan; hoop ek hoor jy mý sê!

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. – Jim Rohn

My life is my message. – Gandhi

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle

Image: posterize/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Om uit te hou of te vou?

By Rian Truter on November, Thursday 10 2011 in 2011, Leadership, Life 1

Ek sit nou een oggend by die verkeerslig en wag dat dit moet groen word dat ek kan ry. Oor Radio-sonder-Mense trek Kenny Rodgers los met die baie bekende countryliedjie The Gambler: You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em…

Volgens my kaartspelervriende het hierdie lied se woorde, of moet ek eerder sê, raad, ikoonstatus onder pokerspelers bereik. ’n Mens moet glo weet wanneer om maar liewer jou hand neer te sit as om jou uit ’n swak posisie te probeer bluf.

Almal weet teen hierdie tyd al dat ek ’n groot Tom Peters dissipel is, en soos ek gereeld een keer ’n week doen, kyk ek weer wat het TP te sê. En soos die toeval dit wil hê, het hy presies baie, en in geen onduidelike taal nie, oor die wysheid van dié dobbelaar se raad te sê.

Ek haal hom direk aan en as jy skrikkerig is vir kragwoorde, moenie verder lees nie!

“… it all reminded me of a Very Sensible Saying that I think is pure, unmitigated crap, in fact the World’s Worse Advise: Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em. As I said … pure crap.

Forget “fold ‘em”. Drop it from your vocabulary. Excise it. Bury it. Stomp on its grave. If you care, really care, really really care about what you are pursuing, well, then, pursue-the-hell-out-of-it-untill-hell-freezes-over-and-then-some-and-then-some-more. And may the naysayers roast in hell or freeze in the Artic or bore themselves to death with the sound of their “statistically accurate” advice.

It’s a good fortnight to bring this up. I’ll bet the farm, my farm, or at least an acre thereof, that less than 1% of the 10,000 athletes in Beijing moved smoothly through their careers. I’ll bet virtually all had coaches who advised them hang it up, “career-ending” injuries, humiliations heaped upon humiliations, and so on. And on. And yet they persisted. And they’re in Beijing.

My anonymous visiting friend gave me The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, by David Price. Consider this paragraph:

“One of the curious aspects of Pixar’s story is that each of the leaders was, by conventional standards, a failure at the time he came onto the scene. [Animator-superstar John] Lasseter landed his dream job at Disney out of college — and had just been fired from it. [Tech genius and founding CEO Ed] Catmull had done well-respected work as a graduate student in computer graphics, but had been turned down for a teaching position and ended up in what he felt was a dead-end software development job. Alvy Ray Smith, the company’s co-founder, had checked out of academia, got work at Xerox’s famous Palo Alto Research Center, and then abruptly found himself on the street. [Steve] Jobs had endured humiliation and pain as he was rejected by Apple Computer; overnight he had transformed from boy wonder of Silicon Valley to a roundly ridiculed has been …”

That is, shit happens. And if enough of it happens to you, then, if you are wise, you’ll fold ’em. And God (and I) will love you just as much as if you’d endured — but we won’t read about you in the history books.

Now if you do indeed “endure” — well, we probably won’t read about you either, because the odds indeed are long against you making it to that history book or Beijing. I readily admit that.

But if you really really, really care …

About computer animation. Or rowing. Or the shotput. Or those supercalifragilisticexpialidocious chocolate-chip cookies you bake. Or haiku. Or better ways to provide a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious customer experience.

If you really really really really really care … then there ain’t no time to fold ’em until your last breath is drawn — and even that’s too soon if you’ve bothered along the way to inflame others about your presumed Quixotic cause.

In the (doubtless not) immortal words of Tom Peters: “There’s a time to hold ’em and a time to keep on holdin’ ’em — if you really really really care.”

Miskien moet ek eerder in die toekoms na Marvin Gaye se ain’t no mountain high enough luister, voor ek my kaarte wil vou?

It is a shameful thing for the soul to faint while the body still perseveres. – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. – Josh Billings

Many say I am just one to try. I say I am one less to quit. – Diego Marchi

Image: Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let’s make better mistakes!

By Rian Truter on November, Sunday 6 2011 in 2011, Leadership, Life 3

It seems to me we live in a perfect world.

No one makes mistakes any more. Except me and the honorable Minister Fikile Mbalula. That is if we can believe the newspapers. In hindsight our president got it right when he assigned minister Mbalula his portfolio – Sport and Recreation. Maybe the minister’s mistake was that he concentrated too much on the recreation part of his portfolio?

But enough of politicians. It was Winston Churchill who once said a politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

It is a well known fact that the only way to learn from your mistakes is to admit that you have made it. Real learning only start when you take responsibility for what happened and not blaming the universe and all the creatures in it.

Easier said than done, I can hear a lot of you mumbling. Admitting is a stupid thing to do. Wait till they catch you before your admit to failure.

It is sad but society only has recognition for winners. And winners do not make mistakes. Society regard mistakes as failure and shameful. In schools, families and at work we are taught to feel guilty about failure and to do whatever we can to avoid mistakes.

According to Scott Berkun, it is this sense of shame combined with the inevitability of setbacks when attempting difficult things that explains why many people give up on their goals. They are not prepared for the mistakes and failures they’ll face on their way to what they want.

If we are so afraid of failure, how are we then ever going to succeed?

Tom Peters, management guru, provide us with a possible answer: Failure = Normal = Good. Reward excellent failure. Punish mediocre success. Fail faster. Succeed sooner.

For those of you that have been entrusted to lead (including all parents and grandparents) you must keep in mind that people only learn from the mistakes they make. You must expect and encourage your employees, your kids, to take initiative and to make mistakes. Then only will they gain experience.

Remember that no expert marksman became a crack shot without wasting some ammunition!

So how can you curb the fear of failure in yourself and in those people you are entrusted to lead to success? Here are a few things to keep in mind when confronted with failure:

• Irresponsibility is not a mistake. It’s just plain stupid!

• The world is not a perfect place. It’s only on magazine covers that people seem to be without any blemishes.

• Failure is not always life threatening. It’s a quite normal happening in life. (Except when you work for the bomb-disposal squad.)

• It’s important to realize that you only fail when you try. If you do nothing you can’t fail. Only doers fail. The rest just fade away.

• Tell people about your own failures.

• Even the greatest people in life failed. Here are a few examples of very successful people who failed before they succeeded:

Harland David Sanders: Better known as Colonel Sanders (KFC) famous chicken recipe was rejected 1009 times before a restaurant accepted it.
Thomas Edison: Inventor of the light bulb. His teachers told him that he was too stupid to learn anything and was fired from his first two jobs.
Charles Schultz: Creator of the Peanuts comic strip had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook editor.
Elvis Presley: The king of rock. When he was still unknown a manager fired him after one performance and said to him: You ain’t going nowhere son. You ought to go back to driving a truck.
Michael Jordan: Some laud him as the best basketball player of all time, but he was cut from his high school basketball team. Luckily this failure did not stop him and he said: I have missed more than 9 000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Failure is not only meant for the losers in life. Every one fails some or other time. Make peace with failure and move on. Or in the words of Tom Peters:

Fail. Forward. Fast!

Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed. – Robert Kiyosaki

I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success. – Jack Welch

Greatness is not achieved by never falling but rising each time we fall. – Confucius

If you decide to run with the ball, just count on fumbling and getting the shit knocked out of you, but never forget how much fun it is just to be able to run with the ball. – Jimmy Buffett

Deel jou kennis!

By Rian Truter on August, Sunday 7 2011 in 2011, Leadership 2

Tom Peters

Tom Peters is nie iemand wat skroom om sy sê te sê nie. Hy glo ook daaraan dat kennis gedeel moet word almal sterker en beter te maak. Op soek na die WOW!

Soos gewoonlik beveel hy sterk aan dat ons hierdie stukkie moet steel en ons eie maak! Hierdie keer die skoenmaatskappy, Zappos, se 10 Korporatiewe Waardes:

Deliver “WOW!” through service.
Embrace and drive change.
Create fun and a little weirdness.
Be adventurous, creative and open-minded.
Pursue growth and learning.
Build open and honest relationships with communication.
Build a positive team and family spirit.
Do more with less.
Be passionate and determined.
Be humble. (The Korn/Ferry Institute Mag, Q2:2010)

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business. – Henry Ford

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. – Oscar Wilde

Image: Allison Shirreffs

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