Lance Cashion :: Blog Has Moved: Enjoy Reading: 3 Books

I have never been much of a reader. Actually, I love to read but time constraints and a short attention span hamper my attempts to get high volume reading done. Often I find myself reading 3 or 4 books at the same time. I'm sure this perplexes my sweet little wife who can blast through a book in a few days. It takes me months! I'm quite jealous b/c I am aware how much reading helps us learn and enjoy life.

My freshman high-school year at Avon Old Farms School in CT, I had an English teacher by the name of Mr. Clark. Now, Mr. Clark was in his mid-eighties and was reknown for his disdain for nonsense. He was not afraid to publicly call out a young man for acting foolish or being lazy. If he did not like you, you knew it (and so did everyone else on campus). In any event, he was one of the most impactful teachers I ever had in school. When I arrived in CT, I hated reading. After a few weeks into my freshman year, I began to love reading. It changed my life. About a year after I graduated from College. I was in NYC visiting some good friends and I decided to make the trek to Avon to see Mr. Clark. He had since retired and was living in an assisted living center near the school. I called him and we met for lunch. We visited for a couple hours. He had an extensive library and was good friends with the famous American poet, Robert Frost. This had always fascinated me. I asked him about his love of reading. He said, "Cashion, if you learn to love reading, no matter what your situation or you age, you can go anywhere and do anything." I asked for a reading list, he kindly wrote some books down for me and I headed back the NYC. He passed away shortly after. However, not before I was able to take my wife to his nursing home to meet him. He had been asleep, but a friend announced our arrival and he perked up and we enjoyed a short visit.

There is the background and here are books that I have recently read and recommend. I recommend daily reading of the Bible (first and foremost):

Tribes- By Seth Godin

This is a great book! It's about connecting folks around you and leading a tribe. It is about recognizing your potential as a leader who brings about change by marshalling others who believe the same. Most of this is done through the use of the internet. If you have never see yourself as much of a leader, but recognize the fact that you have qualities that can improve your part of the world (work, family, products, ideas, etc), I recommend giving this short book a read.

"Part of Leadership…is The Ability To Stick With The Dream For a Long Time….Long Enough That the Critics Realize That You're Going to Get There One Way or Another…So They Follow."- Seth Godin (Tribes)
QBQ – The Question Behind The Question- By John G. Miller

This is another great book! QBQ is a short book about personal accountability. In a culture where blame and cover-your-tail bureaucracy rule the day, accountability is scarce and highly prized. After reading, you'll look at questions differently and you'll begin to see how important your approach to accountability is. It's all about recognizing traits in our own behavior and personality. You begin to ask question with "What" or "How" and use the word "I" rather than the opposite. This is action language. "What can I do to expedite this process or solve this problem?" "How can I help you with this issue?" You get it? Instead of ""Who dropped the ball?" "When is the department going to do their job right?" "When are we going to get more technology?" I've personally fallen into that trap and I have discovered that making the change improves my life. (I still screw up sometimes and blame, but I'm improving). Take responsibility in front of your family and/or team. See how they react when your personal accountability is on the forefront of all that you do.

"From the smallest group to the largest corporation, from the lowest rung on the ladder to the highest office in the land, there's an epidemic of blame going on and no one seems immune. The CEO blames the vice president, who blames the manager, who blames the employee, who blames the customer, who blames the government, who blames the people, who blame the politicans, who blame the schools, who blame the parents, who blame the teen, who blames the dad, who blames the mom, who blames her manager, who blames the vice president, who blames the CEO, and on and on it goes. This is the 'Circle of Blame,' and it would be kind of funny it weren't so true. Blame and 'whodunit' questions solve nothing. They create fear, destroy creativity, and build walls." -John G. Miller (QBQ)
How The Mighty Fall – by Jim Collins

I have about ten pages left in this book and I find it one of the most fascinating books I have read about business. This is a business book for people who hate "business" books. Jim Collins researches once dominant organizations that have fallen from greatness to decline or irrelevance. This book points out the phases of decline and shows you how to change course and/or reverse decline. Interesting thing about organizations in the first stages of decline, they are not aware of the fact that they are in decline. Profitability does not prove that decline is happening. In fact, profitability can fog our vision. Interesting read and well-researched by a great author. Below is an outtake from the book:

Stage 1 is hubris born of success. The company's people become arrogant, regarding success as virtually an entitlement.

Stage 2 is the undisciplined pursuit of more -- more scale, more growth, more acclaim. Companies stray from the disciplined creativity that led them to greatness in the first place, making undisciplined leaps into areas where they cannot be great or growing faster than they can achieve with excellence, or both.

Stage 3 is denial of risk and peril. Leaders of the company discount negative data, amplify positive data and put a positive spin on ambiguous data. Those in power start to blame external factors for setbacks rather than accept responsibility.

Stage 4 is grasping for salvation. Common "saviors" include a charismatic visionary leader, a bold but untested strategy, a radical transformation, a "game changing" acquisition or any number of other silver-bullet solutions.

Stage 5 is capitulation to irrelevance or death. Accumulative setbacks and expensive false starts erode financial strength and individual spirits to such an extent that leaders abandon all hope of building a great future. In some cases their leaders just sell out. In other cases the institution atrophies to utter insignificance.