Good Leaders Ask Great Questions - Book Review

 Book Review #36

One of the unsung heroes of almost every Indian student's academic journey are textbook guides (at least during my times). They were trusted sidekicks in our never-ending battles against exams. These guides are similar to Cliff's Notes in the US or Jacaranda in Australia or Longman Singapore. 

Fueled by copious amounts of chai and a heavy dose of last-minute desperation, these steroidal learning capsules, transformed clueless schoolkids and undergrads to exam-slaying ninjas 🏹😜 

John Maxwell, the author of 'Good Leaders Ask Great Questions', has sold 24 million copies of leadership books but would have never imagined someone calling his book as a perfect example of a beautiful exam guide. In my opinion, if you have a leadership interview next week and you want to quickly brush up leadership concepts and best practices, I will strongly recommend you read this book. Primarily because John has intended this book to his book of books. Major part of the book is structured as responses to questions answered in a selfreflecting style making for an easy reading experience. So here are some major takeaways from this title

1> Before you attempt to set things right, make sure you see things right. The future belongs to the curious. The ones who are not afraid to try it, explore it, poke at it, question it, and turn it inside out

2> Good questions inform; great questions transform! Example, next time you meet a new person ask him/her "Whom do you know that I should know?"

3> Three questions people ask of their Leader: Can you help me? (competence). Do you care for me? (compassion). Can I trust you? (character)

4> Every Leader should have their own set of questions they ask themselves regularly. Here is John's own list

 Am I Investing in Myself? (Personal Growth)

 Am I Genuinely Interested in Others? (Motivation)

 Am I Grounded as a Leader? (Humility/Stability)

 Am I Adding Value to My Team? (Teamwork)

 Am I Staying in My Strength Zone? (Effectiveness)

 Am I Taking Care of Today? (Success)

 Am I Investing My Time with the Right People? (ROI)

5> The Most Effective Daily Habit for Any Leader to develop and practice - Give more than you receive

6> You can be a leader no matter where you are. You don’t need a title or a position or even formal education. All you need is the desire to lead and a willingness to learn and ability to influence.

7> It is critical to discover your purpose. First you need to know yourself. Your unique purpose must be built on your strengths and aligned to your values

8> A person with a clear purpose will make progress on even the roughest road. A person with no purpose will make no progress on even the smoothest road.

9> Lead well long enough, and people will shift from giving you no credit, to giving you proper credit, to giving you too much credit

10> No job has a future. Only people have a future

I think you get the drift. So, when are you getting your copy? 

#BookReview #Leadership #Purpose #Questions

Man and His Symbols - Book Review

Book Review #35

Confession - I wrestled with 'Man and His Symbols' for 1.5 months. Apparently, this was Carl Jung's attempt to write an easy-to-understand book for the masses. My take - he somehow ended up with a book that makes an Ikea instruction manual look crystal clear 🙆‍♂️🙅‍♂️.

Three hundred plus pages later, I realized that Carl Jung and associates merely took the first few steps to understand the unconscious mind and it is clear to me that we have an incomplete understanding of ourselves. Nevertheless, the book had a number of useful lessons

- Modern humans are disconnected from our unconscious minds (a vast realm containing information and instincts). Dreams, using symbolic language, offer a bridge to our unconscious. By understanding dreams & symbols we can achieve "individuation", a state of wholeness where the conscious and unconscious work together.

- Ancient myths express universal human experiences and psychological struggles. By analyzing myths and their recurring motifs, we gain valuable insights into our own unconscious minds that can help us navigate the complexities of life.

- Individuation is essential for psychological well-being and a deeper connection to us and the world. Dreams, beyond reflecting current concerns, hold a deeper pattern. Individuation involves integrating the conscious mind with the unconscious through dream analysis and facing unconscious content to achieve a sense of wholeness.

- Jungian therapy leverages dream analysis, understanding content symbolized by recurring imagery, deciphering these symbols within the context of the patient's life and facilitating individuation.

- Visual art forms express universal human experiences. Throughout history three major motifs have reflected our deep psychological needs: the enduring significance of the stone (stability, strength), the animal (primal instincts, connection to nature), and the circle (wholeness, unity).

- Modern science, with its focus on the rational, overlooks a crucial aspect of the human psyche: the unconscious. This unconscious realm speaks through symbols, especially in dreams and myths. By understanding these symbols, we can bridge the gap between science and the unconscious, gaining valuable insights into ourselves and the human condition.

- Jung emphasizes that integrating the unconscious, not repressing it, is key to achieving psychological wholeness. This requires a scientific approach to studying the unconscious and its symbolic language, ultimately leading to a more complete understanding of ourselves.

Heavy stuff! hashtag#bookreview hashtag#psychology hashtag#carljung

Narrative and Numbers - Book Review

 Book Review #34

During b-school, I did a course called Investing in Private Equity (INPE) taught by Wharton Prof. Vinay Nair and through him heard about Prof. Aswath Damodaran (NYU). I was amazed to know that Aswath (like me from Chennai) was the 'God of Valuation' and I started following his blogs. During covid, I started watching his YouTube valuation videos and occasionally even dreamt of becoming a Private Equity professional turning around companies 😂💡.

'Narrative and Numbers' is Aswath's seminal work on valuation. After sitting on my reading list for 2+ years, I finally read the book and here are my key takeaways from the book.

- We relate to and remember stories better than numbers, but storytelling can easily lead us into fantasyland. Numbers, allow us to be disciplined in our assessments, but without stories behind them, they become weapons of intimidation and bias. Hence, we need both stories and numbers for investing using 'valuation' as the bridge.

- Good storytelling can make a huge difference in the success of a business, especially in early stages. 3P test for stories - is your story possible, is it plausible; and finally, is it probable. Not all stories that are possible are plausible, and among all plausible stories, only a few are probable.

- Early-stage venture capitalists are taking their chances on possibilities, knowing full well that only some of these possibilities will become plausible and fewer still will make it all the way to the probability end of the spectrum.

- Numbers offer a sense of precision and objectivity and provide a counterweight to storytelling. That precision can be illusory as there are many ways in which biases creep into numbers.

- The process of collecting, analyzing, and presenting data all provide opportunities for biases to enter. Biases are hidden far better with numbers than with stories.

- Value and Price are different: The intrinsic value of an is asset based on its fundamentals: cash flows, expected growth, and risk. On the other hand, the price of an asset (or stock) is set by demand/supply, the push and pull of momentums, fads, liquidity and other forces. Investors focus on value whereas Traders focus on price.

- Remember the valuation triangle, the balance between growth, reinvestment, and risk. Marginal Return on Capital = Change in Operating Income / Reinvestment. This ratio helps you measure the quality of a business.

- Narratives can change due to many factors - macroeconomic factors, company lifecycle stage, management changes etc. Even Maynard Keynes said: “When the facts change, I change my mind.”

- Early in a company's life cycle, narrative drives the value. In a mature company, the narratives are secondary, and the numbers come to the fore.

Aswath's objective is to get both poets and quants to read this book, helping poets bring numbers into their storytelling and help quants tell stories to back up their numbers. A heavy read!

#bookreview #valuation #investing

The Shortest History of China - Book Review

Book Review #33

Did you know the origins of the name China seemingly came from the reference to the Qin dynasty via Sanskrit (cīna) and Japanese (shina). In Chinese, the common expression for China is Zhōngguó (Middle Kingdom) or Zhōnghuá (splendour or prosperity).

Chinese historical records stretch back at least 3500 years. Linda Jaivin's "The Shortest History of China" gives us a peek in to the following major dynasties

1) Shang Dynasty - 16th century BC to 10th century BC (no records exist for the mythical Xia dynasty & Yellow Emperor). The Chinese practiced sericulture – silk production – as early as 3630 BC

2) Zhou Dynasty - 10th century BC to 3rd century BC - longest lasting dynasty, saw Sun Tzu's Art of War, Confucianism and Daoism. Barring the Vedas, The Analects of Confucious is a work that has exerted influence for the longest amount of time. The famous line 'The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step' comes from Dao De Jing (foundational Daoism)

3) Qin Dynasty - 3rd century BC - Short-lived dynasty, a symbol of tyranny that unified the Chinese state, started the Great Wall of China, enacted strict laws, burnt libraries

4) Han Dynasty - 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD - Golden Age of China, marked by peace, prosperity, culture and technology (paper, compass, acupuncture, astronomy), Great Wall extended to 10,000 kms

5) Three kingdoms period - 3rd century to 7th century - short-lived periods of division and reunification

6) Tang & Song Dynasties - 7th to 13th century - Flourishing culture, trade and technology (gunpowder)

7) Yuan Dynasty - 13th to 14th century - Brutal Mongol rule (post Genghis Khan specifically Kubhlai Khan) that killed 7 out of 8 Chinese, saw the visit of Marco Polo and ended with the bubonic plague

8) Ming Dynasty - 14th to 17th century - Han Chinese rule restored and advancements in maritime trade and the advancement of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the finest ever Ming ceramics

9) Qing Dynasty - 17th to 20th century - turbulent times including the 100-year humiliation of Opium wars and European imperialism
 
10) Modern Republic - After the Qing Dynasty fell in 1912, the Republic of China was formed and in 1949 the Communist Party set up the People's Republic of China. The Mao period witnessed the Cultural revolution culminating in Tiananmen protests, post-Mao saw upsurge in Religion and Spirituality then came Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms and finally Xi Jinping's purported Wolf Warrior model of governance.

A pattern that repeats itself many times throughout China’s history, its rulers grow corrupt, cruel and negligent, and the people, suffering under misrule, rebel.

Today 90% Chinese claim Han ethnicity, the rest belong to 55 ethnic groups including Uyghurs, Mongolians and Tibetans. Despite pressure to assimilate, many languages, religious and cultural practices are thriving.

Overall, a 250-page valuable starting point for understanding China's rich and complex history.

Successful Career Strategy - Book Review

Book Review #32 

Surprisingly few people have a clear strategy for their career says Dr. Sven Sommerlatte in his book 'Successful Career Strategy' and he says this is astonishing, considering the fact that many of these individuals have significant business responsibility in the companies they work for. 

Hearing me lament some months ago 🙆‍♂️, my friend and mentor Rakesh Vashishta asked me to read this book and the over the holidays nudged me to summarize its key takeaways for our professional network also. So here it goes

- First step, before pushing on the career accelerator, each one of us should first reflect on our aspirations. Critically, know the difference between Aspiration and Ambition? Ambition is driven by the spirit of competition whereas Aspiration is rooted in your deep desire. Ambition vanishes once the target is reached. But Aspiration is an energy that sustains even after the target state has been reached & is an inner force that pulls you to aim for higher goals

- Write down your aspiration. Reflect whether, so far, you followed traditional vertical career progression. Is your current position aligned with your aspiration, strengths and personal preferences? Does your career allow you to bring yourselves fully in as a person now? With this assessment, steer your career towards your aspiration or deeper desire

- Set up your personal 'Career Advisory Board' that should meet at least once per year (carefully select members of this board). This annual board meeting will be an opportunity to update your career plan and ensure that the advice you have received is properly integrated

- Sven's analogy of Egyptian pyramids to explain experience base is helpful. If you have a broad base, the pyramid can be high. With career progression it is similar: if you have a broad experience base, then you will be able to go higher in your career. Factoring all your personal constraints, expose yourself to various roles, functions, geographies as early as possible in your career (Personally, I am not sure if this strategy will always work for those in knowledge services companies)

The major guiding principles are elaborated beautifully in the book as a step by step process. 

1. Introspect and define your career aspiration (spend a month to do this) 

2. Manage your experience base (if you want to go high widen your base)

3. Assess your experience and competence gap (identify and create a plan)

4. Monitor new opportunities (seek out opportunities. Assessment of roles and companies requires significant due diligence that Sven elaborates in his chapters)

5. Be audacious! (its not always a sequential path. Be bold to seek bigger opportunities)

And finally, planning for your career should be a recurring activity.

Read this book less for penmanship/prose-style but for the sound practical advice from a HR leader who has guided many successful careers. In my case, I wish I read this book 15 years ago.

#bookreview #careers #aspiration

This is Marketing - Book Review

 Book Review #31

Raise your hand 🙋‍♂️ if you've ever been assaulted by a pop-up ad or felt that that brands are screaming louder than toddlers at a birthday party, fighting for your attention with flying coupons and dancing mascots or worse if you have seen brands behaving like an awkward friend trying to win you over with bad jokes and forced puns.

Seth Godin (the Dumbledore of Marketing) distils his 30 years of experience in to a neat 250-page book called 'This is Marketing' to help brands avoid this trap. Here are some lessons to get you started

- Marketing is not a battle, or a war, or even a contest. Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Marketing should not involve shouting, hustling, or coercion. It’s a chance to serve

- Effective Marketing means seeing what others see, understanding customer’s worldviews and desires to connect with them. It seeks volunteers, not victims

- Marketers don’t use consumers to solve their company’s problem; they use marketing to solve the consumer’s problems

- Stop hustling and interrupting, stop spamming & pretending you’re welcome, stop making average stuff for average people hoping you can charge more, stop begging people to become clients, stop feeling bad to charge for work, stop shortcuts and invest on long lasting relationships

- Never forget the existential question "Who is it for?". Be Market-driven rather than being Marketing driven. Logo design, pricing model and Facebook hacks are important but when you are market driven you think more about the hopes and dreams of your customer and that gets you in the business of delivering change

- Start with the smallest viable market worth pursuing. Focus on the early adopters who enjoy the tension of "This might not work" and when it works they will brag about their discovery. This helps you build a story that creates tension to persuade and educate customers to move forward. Then leverage Affiliation (or rarely Dominion) to scale

- Marketing in 5 steps 
1> PRODUCT - Invent something worth making with worthy contribution
2> FOCUS - Build it in a way some people will strongly benefit 
3> STORY - Tell a story that matches the narratives and dreams of the smallest viable market 
4> SPREAD - Get them excited by spreading the word (build your tribe of customers if you can)
5> SHOW UP - Show up and lead the change. Overnight success takes many years of hard work

- Best business plans have the following ingredients - Truth (how the world works today), Assertions (what your offering will do), Alternatives (what will you do if your assertions don't pan out), People (who are the customers and your team) and Money (how much you need and how much you will make)

- Pricing is a critical Marketing tool. Marketing changes pricing and pricing changes marketing!

- Finally, if you see a way to make things better, you have a marketing problem

A book full of quotable quotes

#bookreview #marketing #SethGodin