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Eric Allenbaugh
Career Press, Franklin Lakes, NJ (2002)
Using five success
strategies and three performance principles, the author presents
a compelling roadmap for personal and professional success.
The ideas are numerous, the examples clear, and the investments
of focus made plain
Book
Review © Dr. Terry J. van der Werff, CMC |
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"Achieving success is not
an accident: it results from a deliberate process of identifying a compelling
purpose, passionately pursuing your vision, preparing for high level
outcomes, and performing at your best." So begins Eric Allenbaugh's
latest book, in which he masterfully shows you how to achieve it.
He lays out scores of ideas, peppered with lots of examples and inspirational
quotes.
Allenbaugh weaves these together
through five success strategies:
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Direction
- linking purpose and passion with performance. |
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Culture
- sustaining a results-oriented, customer-focused climate. |
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Empowerment
- releasing human potential. |
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Coaching
- creating giants out of other. |
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Renewal
- sustaining your competitive edge. |
Underlying these, and woven
throughout the examples, are three performance principles:
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Being
tough on issues and tender on people. |
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Honoring
differences and aligning talent. |
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Building
the bottom line and the human element. |
He believes, as I do, that most people want to do
their work well and to contribute to the success of their organization.
Leaders must harness these individual desires in a way that serves the
collective purpose. Organizations that show this, really hum!
They are the industry leaders - the best of the best - even if their
CEOs are not the flashiest ones around.
A primary role of corporate leaders is to shape
and reinforce the culture of the enterprise. Allenbaugh provides
a useful model of four corporate cultures, as they are influenced by
their attachment to the bottom line and to the human element.
Closing my eyes and rifling through my memory bank of the organizations
I have worked in and the scores of companies I have consulted with,
I not only could not think of any that did not fit this simple model,
but I also understood why some of them behaved the way they did.
That set of insights alone far exceeded the price of the book!
Integration of values into an organization is a
long-term endeavor, but vitally important. It's all about alignment
- linking of vision with action, paying attention to both people and
profits, walking the talk, learning, growing, and striving always to
exceed expectations.
In such organizations, leaders do not "manage" their
employees. Rather, they "coach" them to draw out their innate
talents and allow them to blossom. From his years of experience,
Allenbaugh describes several different coaching methods, all of which
honor and build upon the many ways people learn. Of course, one
must deal with problem performers and even terminate them when their
performance and attitudes do not match those of the organization, but
it's surprising how few in number such individuals are when given solid
guidance, a supportive culture, and regular coaching.
This is not a fast read.
Not because Allenbaugh's prose doesn't draw the reader along easily:
it does. Rather, because the shear number of ideas is dense.
I frequently lifted my eyes from the page to ponder what he meant or
explore a model he presented and to consider how I might apply it myself.
These diversions were necessary to absorb the full impact of the book.
I have deliberately left out
of this review many of the most provocative learning points, so you
can discover them for yourself.
The principles in Eric Allenbaugh's
book can transform your life, as well as your company, but only if you
will it. My advice is simple. Read it. Enjoy it.
Learn from it. Apply its lessons.
