Top Management development video’s by Jim Rohn

Having spend a bit of time listening to some absolutely outstanding video’s by management expert Jim Rohn, I wanted to share them with you all:

Be Faithful When The Amounts Are Small:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrRLgXEgQSo&feature=related

Setting Goals Part 1&2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuObJcgfSQA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmM_XkxuCxY&feature=related

Don’t miss a chance to grow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M6rAldIgaw

Ways to Think on Paper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6BaKRIj2gs

What to Do With a Dollar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxk2PO78cZE&feature=related

Six Days of Labor, One Day of Rest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPijEu9ZZSI&feature=relmfu

The Law Of Sowing & Reaping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wT2M-4_p50

Deserve Vs. Need:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1rgXxzVfwc

Personal Development:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ9_-DtLaNU

The Five Abilities:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn1ysLV9ktE

Questions You Should Ask:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfS73-dC-ls&feature=related

The Set of The Sail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-hwzFc8MWk

Change:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrTeemxy7FE

Goal Setting Workshop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llt9qNecnZs&feature=related

Living An Exceptional Life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxlB9TpdCE0

Top Management Development video’s is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

Personal Effectiveness – The 5 key that changed my life and gave me a kick!

Personal effectiveness is a funny size – and after reading Jack Welch’s “straight from the gut” for the 5^th time, I started thinking about the couple of key moments that have really opened my eyes over the years and tough me important things about my life.

1. “You are to young, take a couple of years before you come back”

2. “I have though you everything I know – I have nothing else I can teach you”

3 “The most effective people in top of organisations spend at least 1 hour a day on personal development”

4. “Communication is what the listener does”

5. “It’s all about people”

The 5 quotes above are 5 of the absolute life changing key moments that I have gone through in my life so far – and they have all given me a kick! Below you get to know why:

1. “You are to young, take a couple of years before you come back”

My first really life changing experience goes way back, I was 15 and just finished our mandatory ground level school (which is 9^th grade in Denmark), I had already clearly made up my mind about what I wanted to do and the choice was an IT-support education, the school was located in the south of Denmark, so a fair bit of travel was involved – However before starting such education, you have the pleasure of going to talk with the school’s guidance counselor.
I hadn’t though to much about this, but when the day arrived and my parents took me down to see the school facilities and meet this counselor, I got my first “kick”.
We started out with a 30 minutes chat about who I was, why I wanted to join the school and what I wanted to get out of it
Towards the end of this chat the counselor said to me without any doubt or question in his mind “You are to young, take a couple of years before you come and join us here” – Now for me at this stage that come completely out of the blue, I wasn’t at all expecting that and I somehow got a bit angry with the guys – Now his point was that the majority of the school’s students was at least 17 or 18 and many of them struggled – also specially when taking into account the distance that I would need to move away from my parents, he felt it was way to early.
After some from my side heated discussion, where I insisted that this was what I wanted to do and that this was what I was going to do, he asked us to go away and have a further think about it and give him a call to discuss it again a couple of weeks later if we (i.e. me and my parents) still felt this was the best choice at the time.
After a long and debate with my mom, I kept on insisting that this was what I wanted to do and that I would not have any problems managing it – This in turn meant my mom had to go on the phone to the dear counselor and confirm that this was what I wanted to do and that my parents was conferrable with this.
Now out of anything I had ever felt at this point in time, this episode more then anything made me want to succeed! – I promised myself no matter how hard it would be and even though I might not like some of it, I was going to succeed – Failure was not a option, I couldn’t have this guy being right in any way!
I succeed, I did what I came for and more then that – many of the 18+ students was giving up, but in the end of the day, I had decided even before I started the education that it was going to be a success and that was what made the difference.

My learning experience from this have been that I set high goal, find people who tell me it cant be done and then I do it

 2. “I have though you everything I know – I have nothing else I can teach you”

There’s one reason why I ever got inspired to lead others – I was 18 and had only started my first job, where I after the first 4 months on the job, was lucky enough to work with an exceptional leader – She wasn’t one of these people walking around with a big magical aura around her or in any other way stuck out from the crowd – but boy she could lead people – within the first couple of month working for her, I wasn’t just impressed with her way of leading, but more so the fantastic impact that she had on so many people. It didn’t take me long before I made another one of my decisions – This is what I want to do – I want to lead other people!

A couple of years down the line still working for her & having learned a lot (and messed up a lot I’m sure!), we had one of our monthly 1:1 sessions. While some people didn’t look forward to these sessions, for me it was the best time of the month – We discussed what I had achieved, what I wanted to learn the next month and my performance.

This particular session was going to be different, To this day I put it as “The must unexpected knockout I have ever got”.

Not long into the meeting, taking about my development, she look at me and said: “I have though you everything I know – I have nothing else I can teach you”

I cannot tell you what happened the rest of the meeting, I just felt so lost – To me she still had everything to teach me and at the time, I just didn’t know what to say.

My learning experience from this took me a while to get to, but looking back this lessen I learned here was to let go, I was getting to conferrable – To be the most you can be, you need to do what you need to do before you feel ready – Every time I feel to conferrable today, I challenge myself further! This is an important lessen for everyone and something many will struggle with, however I know this is one of the things that will make me go further then most other people.

3. “The most effective people in top of organisations spend at least 1 hour a day on personal development”

The third experience I had, that both kicked me big time and also to this day is the reason that I am where I am, was a piece of advise from my first mentor Steve.

I believe it was our third session, he opened up where broadly and ask “what is it really you want to do in life?” – Now at this time I had got so hooked at wanting to lead and manage other that this was an easy question for me to answer – and my answer was along the lines of “I want to be responsible for delivering the best results ever delivered, Leading the best team there will ever be”

I think we both laughed a bit, before he looked at me and said: “Mads, do you know the most effective people in top of organisations spend at least 1 hour a day on personal development?”

I don’t think I had though much before I said “Then I will do at least 2 hours a day, I got a lot to catch up on!” – In my mind it was very simple at the time – and in reality it’s more then possible, so I wend for it. The first 3 years after our first conversation I spend an average of 2 hours a day (That’s 14 hours a week and around 60 hours a month) – This was when I started, now over time when you do things enough and it turn into habits, it doesn’t just become easier it also becomes fun – for me personal development is now the name of the game – My mission statement include that “I want to be the best person I can possibly be” – and that often means doing a lot of stuff few others dont, it often means spending a lot of time reading, writing, listening, meeting new people, mentoring people, being mentored – Personal development for me today is what football is to a professional footballer, it’s the way of life and what I enjoy more then anything.

4. “Communication is what the listener does”

I first heard this from Mark & Mike at manager-tools.com – I have to say I heard it quite a few times, before I really understood what it meant.

I am by nature not one of these smiley friendly people that talks to everyone about everything – actually I used to be very much the opposite – I could spend hours sitting in a quite corner working away in front of the computer.

I really realized how my behaviour effected my effectiveness when I started looking at a “tool” called DiSC – This amazing tool helped me not just on how others communicated, but also with what I could do to communicate more effectively with others, specially when it’s not all about work or tasks.

I’m sure natural good communicators have a hard time understanding how much communication really means and I can safely say that without Mark and Mike throwing this into my face, I would never be where I am today – Communication specially based on individual behaviour, to understand people and how they naturally are is the way to succeed working with others.

The learning experience here:  In the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much or how many ways you communicated with people, if the listener doesn’t get the message you are trying to put across – If they don’t, that is YOUR problem, not theirs.

5. “It’s all about people”

Similarly to point 4, point 5 was also supplied by Mark and Mike – Similar to the communications piece, their consistent use of the phrase “It’s all about people” have over time made me realize how much (or rather little) tasks really matter – I am naturally very task focused, but managing people requires you to treat them as people, not treading all the same and not treading them the way want to be treated – Tread people them their way is my learning experience here.

As always thanks for reading my blog post and feel free to leave a comment or ask any questions you have.

Personal Effectiveness – The 5 key moment that changed my life and gave me a kick! is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

Basic Financials – Part 1, Avoid the negative impact!

When a person is hired within any company to lead and manage others, what the company is really doing is giving the responsibility for the resources involved to that individual.
This doesn’t sound overly complicated, however the essence of what I want to cover today is an extremely important point that people often overlook or don’t understand.

If you cannot manage your own resources, ie income & time effectively, how would you ever expect either another individual or a company hiring you to look after theirs?

I have had the pleasure of mentoring a number of people over the last 5-6 years and one of the common nominators is that they don’t understand how their financial situation plays into this aspect – You don’t need to be a millionaire, but you need to understand some basic:

1. Where do I use my income?
2. Do I use my income on my priorities?
3. How you portray yourself?

1. Where do I use my income? – Sounds like a basic question, but if you ask the majority of people some simple questions, ie what’s your monthly standing expenses? – What’s you available cash on a monthly basis after standing expenses? – How long would it take you to save up 1000£? Very few can actually answer these questions.
   If you have any intentions of ever going into management, looking after a company’s resources, start today, by at least being able to answer the above questions. I am not saying you are using your money incorrectly, however if you don’t know what you use your money on, and you always live for pay day, you are not putting yourself in a position to handle other’s resources.
   Think about it, if you had 10 million £, would you let someone that couldn’t handle or control their own income look after your money?
2. Do I use my income on my priorities? – When you actually have a fair overview of what you spend on what bills and how much you have to do with, ask yourself the basic question, am I spending my income on my priorities? If you are the type of person that love going out, could you maybe do with a small TV package? (do you need it at all?!) – Is your phone bill the way you want it, would it make sense to change the contract? Would it make sense to just use a mobile rather then having a landline you never use? – These are basic questions that you don’t need to spend much time look at, the key is for you to understand what your income goes into and IF that’s where you want it to go.
3. How you portray yourself? – Key point is, stop living from pay check to pay check or at least stop portraying yourself as you do! It might sound cool that you only have 10 bucks left for the rest of the month, but you are only reducing people’s view on how you are able to handle your resources!

Hope you enjoyed it & please leave a comment.

Basic Financials – Part 1, Avoid the negative impact! is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

Goal setting – Where are you heading?

Setting goals is all about getting where you want to go!

What do you want in life? I don’t mean what do you want without doing anything for it, I mean what do you REALLY want and what are you ready to give whatever you can to get? In other words what does success in your life mean to you?

Very few people are good at taking the time to sit down and define their goals in life, which is really a shame as they don’t know where they are heading and even if they get there, they wouldn’t even know – Letting the world around you decide your life is the price you pay for not taking charge of it!

I was very lucky to have a outstanding mentor about 10 years ago, that really helped me move significantly forward in my life, not by telling me what to do, but simply asking what I wanted in life and explaining how I could make a plan to get there. I have since used this method to help and mentor others into getting what they want in life.

The Dream

The first part of this process I simply call “The Dream” – I use this for any kind of goals that I set for myself – It’s very straight forward, “What do I want to achieve?”

To user an example I could set a Goal: “I want to be a professional football player”

This could be anything at all, however the key thing is that the overall “Dream” is what should be the driver and motivation for you doing the actions and investing the hard work – I have found it useful to put up my dream on a piece of paper I a place I see it several times a day.

Moving from your dreams to your actions!

The driver of any plan is action – what do you need to do – starting right now?
People often struggle moving from a goal to actual actions that moves them closer to their goal.
This is actually not that difficult when you know how to break it down. I have found that there’s usually 3 key of things to look for, Skills, Experience & Network
– so taking the example below:

The Goal I use in this example: “I want to be a professional football player”
What needs to happen for you to become a professional football player?

• Skill: You need to acquire, have or keep up to date the level of skill required for being a footballer
• Experience: You need some experience – you don’t become a professional football player if you don’t know the game well.
• Network: You need to find clubs you can play in.

Now that you have found out what needs to happen, you break this down a little more to find out what actions can you take to influence these points.

Skill: Do you know what skills are required? The best idea is to write down all the skills you can find (If you look at jobs, many have job descriptions with the key skills!) – In this case I will pick 2 examples for a footballer, this could be Free kicks & Stamina.

*Free kicks – If you are new to football or even if you are experienced it might be a good idea to look for best practice that can help you to not just practice this, but to practice well – so you could set down a couple of goals in relation to learning about the topic you are looking to improve, this could be:
“Spend 1 hour a day for the next 30 days reading about free kick techniques” or
“Spend 1 hour a day for the next 30 days with a coach who’s a free kick expert”

Besides the learning action you can still practice so you could also have a goal for practice time:

“Spend 2 hours a day practicing free kicks”

People spend so long looking for the “ideal thing” or the “perfect way” – The most important is to move towards your goal – The most time you spend the more the effect will multiply.

Many people have busy lives and will often struggle with such a plan as they would push it out all day and think “I will do it later” so make a choice upfront on the WHEN.

“Spend 2 hours a day doing free kicks” – Each day from 6.00 to 8.00.
“Spend 1 hour a day for the next 30 days reading about free kick techniques” from 17.00 to 18.00

Now that’s clear actions, rather start slow and do it consistently then starting to strong giving up within a short space of time.

Lets do the same exercise with Stamina:
*Stamina – You might feel your knowledge of how to build your Stamina is sufficient so you will just focus on the training:

Again the goals need to be very specific ie: Run 1 hours a day” or “Run 3 miles a day” before I go to bed. In the case I will pick the “Run 3 miles a day”

Overall you could have a plan of action to work on daily:
Action 1: “Spend 2 hours a day doing free kicks” – Each day from 6.00 to 8.00.
Action 2: “Spend 1 hour a day for the next 30 days reading about free kick techniques”  from 17.00 to 18.00
Action 3: “Run 3 miles a day” before I go to bed.

The three above plans are a perfect example of actions that will bring you forward towards your goal, make you feel a sense of achievement when done and they will help you move faster towards your goal!

Experience: This is all done exactly the same way as above, this could be:
“Play football match Thursday and Sunday from 18.00 – 20.00” or
“Play football with my friends after school each Thursday and Sunday”

Network: Like in all careers, being good at something doesn’t automatically mean that you get a job, on the opposite you might not even need to be the best candidate if you have the right network. Looking at a simple action that could broaden your network could be contacting other clubs around (possibly better, but doesn’t have to be) to see if you can sometimes join practice there, the direct actions could be:
“Contact one club the first week of each quarter about joining their training”

Always remember a bad plan executed well is better then no plan – The more you get used to planning actions for yourself, the faster it goes and the better you get at it. Use this to build your skill set and review the plans frequently – you might find there’s things that you want to change or adapt along the way.

Make your plan to success.

Getting success is about hard work – doing more then everyone else – if you want to be the best footballer in the world you will most likely need to practice the most. Getting to success is about continuous improving yourself and taking actions towards what you want to achieve.
I hope you choose to be one of very few that doesn’t spend their life without a plan – The secret especially in the start of this is to start slow! People often start big (like new years resolutions), but never follow through – it is much better planning to do something 30 minutes a day and actually do that for a year, rather then planning 3 hours a day and giving up after 2 weeks.

Very few people stand out and if you do just a little bit your chances are a much better – when you are willing to do whatever it takes, you will be successful!

The secret ingredients of success – HARD WORK!

I guess it is quite clear, but for those of you that just want to know the secret recipe of success it is very simple – it takes a lot of hard work to achieve outstanding things. Many people have heard from they were kids that they can be or do what they want and you can! However very few people are willing to do what it takes – You and you alone is responsible for your success!

While most people believe success is mainly “luck” – well wake up, turn off your TV, get off your couch and start DOING – We only live life once and it’s short enough as it is, don’t waste it!

Comments & Support

If you have any questions or are unsure of how to determine your goals and actions I’m always happy to help, just drop me a comment

Goal setting – Where are you heading? is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

Top Management Books – Think and grow rich – by Napoleon Hill

This book was for me one of these books where the name and cover did not do the book enough justice – First off the book could sound like some sort of get rich scheme, but it’s not!

My first impression after reading the book was that it’s one of the best management books I have had my hand on, while it use the mindset of getting rich, it could just as well have focused on any other topic as the basis for the research.

Napoleon Hill spend many years in research of this book and it clearly shows in the content that is well defined and put focus on the key piece of the book.

The book itself is all about how you use your head and your brain to get what you want.

They 15 key topic’s in the book are:

1. Thoughts are things
2. Desire
3. Faith
4. Autosuggestion
5. Specialized knowledge
6. Imagination
7. Organized planning
8. Decision
9. Persistence
10. Power of the mastermind
11. The mystery of sex transmutation
12. The subconscious mind
13. The brain
14. The sixth sense
15. The six ghosts of fear

A number of these are self explanatory; however the key to this book is to understand HOW to use these to get what you want, wherever that’s money or something else in life.

The chapters that impressed me the most was on faith and desire and the focus on understanding the clear difference between people that are successful and people that are not! Overall the difference is persistence, some people give up after 1 rejection, some people continue to push even after a hundred rejection or “failures”.

Specialized knowledge is also a great chapter, where Napoleon is very focused on explaining the focus people have in using their key strength and develop that throughout their life – Your learning first starts when you finishes your education -and it never stops!

The power of the mastermind is also an outstanding concept – Even if you don’t get this book, do yourself a great favour and look into this concept, there’s load of stuff about it out there on the web.

Last key points Napoleon have is on fear, while we might be successful in everything else, if fear is keeping us back – we will continue to fail.

Walking through the different fears of life, it is really one of the most helpful chapters in the book to help you move forward and get the success that you want.

While this book by its cover might not look like a book for managers, I will give it 4 out of 5 stars from a management viewpoint and from a personal development stand-point, this one is really a must read!

Take a look at amazon to get your copy!

Top Management Books – Think and Grow Rich is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

Speaking your mind – that’s why you are there!

Speaking your mind is an absolute key not just in ensuring people know what you are capable of, but just as much to provide the value your organisation needs you to provide.

1. Adding value

2. Behind closed doors

3. Meetings

1. Adding value

Adding value in your day to day activity by speaking your mind is a challenge for people – Some people don’t speak at all, some people speak too much. Some of the key things to look for:

• It’s not about being right or wrong – it’s not about winning an argument, it’s about finding a solution that can move things forward.
• Don’t look for the perfect solution, if your team comes up with idea’s, let them go with it, don’t add your 5 cents to each and every idea – If people feel it’s their idea rather then your, they will invest a lot more in it.
• Speak your mind AND listen to others – finding the right solution or approach to a problem or a decision require the involved parties input, be positive for anyone’s input, you are not always right!
• Focus on the specific topic, don’t mix in other discussions, don’t start talking outside the subject – keep on track!
• When you bring out your idea, welcome feedback, suggestion for improvements etc, if others can improve your idea let them.
• Remember, if you are the boss it’s your decision in the end – listen and make it – it’s not about votes.

2. Behind closed doors

When you are behind closed doors with either your team or your peers, it’s always okay to discuss things openly, bringing out different views and throwing idea’s up in the air.
However when you leave the room and a decision has been taken, everyone needs to execute the idea as it was their own! Even if you don’t agree with an idea, telling your team so is not just demoralizing for them, it’s also extremely unprofessional.

3. Meetings

Yes, you have been invited to a meeting to share your point of view – If you go to meetings, even standing-in for someone else, share your opinion and ask clarifying questions. Don’t be affright of looking stupid – You learn by doing!

Speaking your mind – that’s why you are there! is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

My 3 top 3’s when it comes to personal development

My 3 favourite ways to learn and my 3 favourites in each of those area’s – plain and simple and right below:

1. Books
2. Podcasts
3. Management Blogs/Websites
   

1. Books – My top 3 favourite books
   I know I haven’t found place for any of Druckers books in my top 3, where really they probably should be, however the below 3 books have all helped me significantly in 3 different area’s, with great actionable advise, which is why they stand out the most to me.
   1. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
   2. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
   3. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
2. Podcasts – I listen to a number of things on HBR etc, but I can easily say my greatest learning in management & how to deal with my career is from manager-tools and for me, no learning comes even close to what Mark & Mike have though me through Podcasts, conferences & other communication – Therefore I have no choice but to put manager-tools in 1, 2 & 3 spot, instead I have added my favourite casts – Trust me it’s awesome!
   1. Manager-tools.com – Anything with DiSC
   2. Manager-tools.com – How to Prewire a Meeting
   3. Manager-tools.com – The Juggling Koan
3. Management Blogs/Websites
   When you try and stick to at least one hour learning a day, it’s great with some up to date websites, that produce quality content, the 3 below are sites I use very often.
   1. http://www.welchway.com/
   2. http://blogs.hbr.org/
   3. http://www.manager-tools.com/

My 3 top 3′s of personal development is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

Personal development in today’s world.

Over the last 10-15 years, companies have become a lot less inclined to invest in the development of their employees – for a number of reasons.

The career life cycle

The life cycle of peoples career’s have changed a lot. Years ago most people work in 1-2 companies during their entire career.
This have changed significantly, which means that people are looking a lot more around on the job market and are much more willing to change jobs for higher salary’s, higher level jobs and even completely different career paths. This in itself makes it a lot less interesting for companies to invest in their people, as spending years developing someone for another company to benefit from it is not a seen as a valuable investment – or at least not as valuable as it used to be!

The financial situation

The current financial climate have put a lot more focus on cutting the baseline cost to remain competitive, and in most companies the training & development budget is one of the first places cut
The reasons for which companies are ready to cut the T&D budget are quite straight forward, often the impact is hard to asses and the potential impact is first seen at a later stage.

The exceptions!

There’s still a few companies out there, that put a lot of effort and focus in T&D, specially the “internet” companies like google & facebook that have a low baseline cost, can afford to offer their employee’s better conditions and likewise have the financial power to hold on to they high performers for a long time. These companies have realised the benefit of holding on to their people and work hard on all fronts to do so.

What do you have to do then?

In the end of the day, each individual is now responsible for their own development, your future and development is in the hands of you and you alone!
You can ask your company, you boss and your peers for help and support in terms of what area’s to developed and focus on, but ensuring that you follow through is you to you.
Good luck with you future and your career, remember it is in your hands!

Your Personal Development in the world today is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

Personal development – The ways to learn.

Getting better is all about learning – Most high level executives, spend hours besides their already busy work week on personal development. It’s an investment and while over time the area’s that are being develop changes, the ways of doing personal development stay’s the same.

The key ways to learn and improve your key skills and behaviors

1.Reading

2. Listening

3. See

4. Practice

5. Mentoring

1. Reading is a very traditional way of learning, some people do it through taking an education, some through reading good books and more recently many people find and follow useful Forum’s and Blog’s of their interest. These 3 are all very good forms of learning
   – Education will most likely never disappear and as this can be done in many levels and stages, it’s generally a structured way to learn and help push people that struggle to give their development the needed focus without the pressure.
   - Reading books is another very used way of learning from other people’s experience and gather knowledge in area’s where you might be lacking behind. The great benefit with reading is that it can be done almost everywhere and it doesn’t matter if you have 20 minutes or 4 hours, you can always pick up a book.
   - Reading Forum’s and Blogs, is a new way of learning and bring other benefits as well. A book is static, it takes a long time to write it, then it’s published and after that gets older – However people posting things online can be both very relevant and can help you to stay on top of many things and being up to date on relevant business news is a key to success in many areas. Further more focused participation in forums and blogs helps people build their network in places they would else be a lot less likely to meet people.
2. Listening is another great way to learn, experienced people talking about their knowledge and what they have learned, used to happen in the likes of conferences, training sessions and schools, however the technology have now brought both webcasts & podcasts into the picture as well. This have for me been one of the best ways to learn, as similar to reading, listening to a podcast can be done everywhere and for some people it often explains things in a different way then reading them.
3. Seeing others do is used in a number of development area’s, this could be the likes of presentation skills, running meetings or simply looking at other people’s body languages. The seeing often comes with other parts of learning, but is still a very important aspect.
4. Practice is another very common and fast way to learn, “learning by doing” is a very used phrase and many people really learn the fastest by doing. The great thing about practice is often that you get to see and correct what you do there and then, which is a great way for most minds to learn and remember things.
   Delegation is also a key to most successful businesses and delegation & practice goes hand in hand.
5. Mentoring is another form of learning that has been around for many years, the concept of a mentor is widely recognised and used in many organisations. It’s a great way form individuals unsure of what to do, how to develop and generally wanting to learn new skills and abilities.
   Where mentors used to be people “high up” with focus very much on forward career, the “mentor” role is now also used a lot to learn individual skills from people at any level. If a manager is struggling with Excel, he can easily find someone to help him learn this, and without this being someone higher up the organisation. Other examples of this could be running effective meetings, doing great presentations or learning basic skills like sales, marketing etc.

Overall people have different learning styles and it’s important to do a bit of trial and error to see what suits you the best, but at least now you have some suggestions of “how” so all I can say is get started!

Personal development and the ways to learn is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development

Top Management Books – First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently – by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

This is really a must read book for anyone that wants to be a good leader or manager at any level.

The content and key insights of “First break all the rules”, is taken from extensive research done byGallup. Rather then just looking at high level leaders, they have looked at leaders at all levels to try and understand some of the key skills of a good leader. The findings are generally that the best leaders can come from any background and be any sex or race.
The key of this book is really that a lot of conventional wisdom in terms of what leaders should or shouldn’t do is constantly being broken by the best leader, as they understand that it’s all about people and that all people are individuals and shouldn’t all be treaded the same.
Besides a great amount of data and great research, the book also has a lot of great stories explaining most of the logic behind the findings.
The book also focuses a lot on employee & customer satisfaction, where you can get some great insights. Especially on employee satisfaction it’s clear where so many companies fail and why.

Reading this book will both make you understand why some of the things you do work so well and it will help you understand some of the key things that you can look at doing differently.
Most leaders quickly realize that picking the right talents is the key to success, the book also helps a lot on this area.
Of the many management books I have read to this day, this book is clearly the one I have given the most copies of and recommended to the leaders working with me.

Thanks to Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman for such a amazing book!
I can recommend having a look at amazon for the book as you can often get a used copy very cheap.

Top Management Books – First, Break All the Rules is a post from: The Management and Personal Development blog

Management and Personal Development