Rare Bird Blog

Seven ways to reinvent yourself from Seth Godin

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Admittedly, I'm a fan of Seth Godin. Of course, most marketers are. The interesting thing about Seth and the dozen or so books he's written is that each and every one follows a similar style:

  • Identify the paradigm
  • Demonstrate why and how it's broken
  • Present an alternative
  • Challenge you to either accept or reject his thinking
But the last piece of the puzzle is what you do with it. If you reject it, it's up to you to set out to prove you're right; to demonstrate through your own successes that his view might be myopic. Of course, if you accept his thinking-- which nearly always means that you'll expect more from yourself-- well, then, you have the challenge of actually going out and doing something new, something different, and often something terribly risky in order to demonstrate your faith in the new World According to Godin. There's no pass. There's no easy way out. You either do or you don't, and then the work begins.

He recently released a brief manifesto (freely available) titled "Brainwashed" that deals with the way that we've all been trained to be trainable. How the 'system' has been working to make us cogs in the machine because the machine needed as many cogs as it could get. It's probably no surprise to you that the machine ain't what it used to be, but the system is still spitting out as many cogs as it can, much to the detriment of our economy, our future, us all.

So, what to do? Godin offers some salient and cogent advice: reinvent yourself. Here's how.

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-Jim Cota

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Four Key Leadership Tips from Gordon Bethune

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New York Times writer Adam Bryant recently had a conversation with Gordon Bethune, the CEO of Continental Airlines from 1994 to 2004. In it, Bethune shares some insights on leadership and management, including some real gems. Among them:

  • Treat people, no matter their role in the company, with respect
  • Always share the stage
  • Hire the best people, give them autonomy, and hold them accountable
  • Communicate openly and often; and always tell the truth

Toward the end of the article, Bethune is talking about being visible to employees and showing a real interest in them. He relates this story:
The best compliment I ever heard happened one Christmas. I always went out to the airport on holidays, and always made sure that I was there and I’d thank people for giving up their holiday to work. We’d go down to the break room. I’d always eat down in the break room where the food was being passed out.
I went to sit down at this big long table with these two guys, and I said, “Anybody sitting here?”
And one of them said to the other: “I told you he’d be here. Give me my $10.”
He had bet that guy $10 that I’d show up.
If you're interested, you can read the rest of the interview at the New York Times.
-Jim Cota

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Getting things done with OmniFocus and Things

Monday, January 4, 2010

Better organization skills have become an absolute necessity in today’s hyper-busy, multi-tasking, squeeze-every-last-bit-of-productivity-out-of-every-last-minute world. Organization has also become a huge industry, with everything from books to products to personal coaches who will help you devise strategies to improve your workflow. Perhaps the most important key to high productivity relates to the initial method you use to process all of the incoming information that crosses your desk (and your mind) on a daily basis. A process that has become even more difficult to manage thanks to that burgeoning email InBox. How you compartmentalize and process all of these bits of information can be the difference between being buried and actually getting things done.

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-Jim Cota

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