Berkshire’s Radical Strategy: Trust – NYTimes.com

 


 

Here is a top-level endorsement of a principal I have often voiced, most specifically in this popular post, Truth or Consequences? Beyond the Punishment Model.

“By the standards of the rest of the world, we overtrust. So far it has worked very well for us. Some would see it as weakness.” … Mr. Munger and Mr. Buffett argue that with the right basic controls, finding trustworthy managers and giving them an enormous amount of leeway creates more value than if they are forced to constantly look over their shoulders at human resources departments and lawyers monitoring their every move.

“We just try to operate in a seamless web of deserved trust and be careful whom we trust.”

Munger agrees with what I have called natural consequences, citing “late Columbia University philosophy professor, Charles Frankel, who believed ‘that systems are responsible in proportion to the degree in which the people making the decisions are living with the results of those decisions.’ …if you built a bridge, you stood under the arch when the scaffolding was removed.’”

 –Warren Buffett’s business partner
Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire’s Radical Strategy: Trust – NYTimes.com.

Read more about the power of trust on this blog by clicking here.

 


 

Life Strategy and Executive Coaching




The Harvard Business Review reprinted a wonderful speech by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen titled, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” Along with plenty of great advice for new graduates he shared some keen insights on executive coaching.

If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

That experience had a profound influence on me. When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, (more…)

Optimism is a Strategy

Noam Chomsky

Optimism is a strategy for making a better future.

Because unless you believe that the future can be better you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.

If you assume there is no hope, you guarantee there will be no hope.

If you assume there is an instinct for for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world.

The choice is yours.See it at Amazon

–Noam Chomsky
American linguist and political activist

Set & Achieve Your Goals with The Business Owner’s Executive Coach

Yogi Berra
You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going because you might not get there.

–Yogi Berra


 

People have been using my goal-setting process to create better lives for over twenty years. Their improvements benefit themselves, their families, friends, and colleagues. Clients have reported extraordinary results in all areas of their lives, including doubled revenue, increased family time, and reduced stress. Participants have credited it for their weddings, career changes, speaking opportunities, and published books.

 

Goal setting works.
Like any tool, it works best with expert guidance and proven methods.

To register, learn more, or arrange for Tony Mayo to deliver this workshop privately for your company use (more…)

040 Tough Talk Conversations That Make A Difference • PODCAST [Refresh]

040 Tough Talk Conversations That Make A Difference • PODCAST [Refresh]


Today’s podcast, “Tough Talk: Conversations That Make A Difference” is the audio from a webinar presented by Tony Mayo, The Business Owner’s Executive Coach. Listen to this recording and then join us for Tuesdays with Tony at Twelve, a weekly, free webinar where you can explore powerful executive coaching tools and ask Tony about applying them in your life and career.

This program teaches Tony’s 12 Step program for engaging with people on difficult topics, simple tools for resolving contentious issues, and a powerful approach to work and personal conversations that will bring you better results and stronger relationships.

Video, handouts, and other resources from this and other webinars are available for free at:
https://TonyMayo.com/Tuesdays/

(more…)

040 Tough Talk Conversations That Make A Difference • PODCAST [Refresh]

039 What is Executive Coaching • PODCAST [Refresh]


Today’s podcast, “What is Executive Coaching?” includes the audio from a webinar presented by Tony Mayo, The Business Owner’s Executive Coach. Listen to this recording and then join us for Tuesdays with Tony at Twelve, a weekly, free webinar where you can explore powerful executive coaching tools and ask Tony about applying them in your life and career.

Today’s topics covered include:

  • What is Executive Coaching?
    • “My own best thinking”
    • “I now live in a different world, see different things, take different actions.”
  • Differences between coaching, consulting, mentoring, managing, therapy, training, and just plain friendship.
  • Basic logistics of what it costs, how much (more…)

005 Managing Yourself with Specific Measurable Results • PODCAST [Refresh]


 

To avoid the #1 forecasting mistake, click here.

 


 

Keep me informed about Tony’s webinars, in-person coaching sessions, and free Life Planning & Goal Setting tools.


 






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Click to download pdf Goal Setting Kit

Since 1996, I have led groups and individuals through a powerful goal-setting process with astonishing results: marriages, career changes, doubled incomes, published books, and more.

The two downloads linked from this post include all you need. Use the Specific Measurable Results (SMR) Kit workbook and podcast to follow the same planning method my executive coaching clients have long employed. Like them, you can create a (more…)

A Giant of Business Innovation’s Guidelines For a Good Life

First of all, RIP Clay Christensen. He did great work and set a fine example in many aspects of the way he lived. I may even forgive him for cultivating the Mormon Mafia at HBS, which spawned Bain Capital and other banes of business.

I am grateful to a client who recently shared this wonderful Harvard Business Review article with me, Managing Yourself | How Will You Measure Your Life? Here are some of my favorite excerpts with commentary.

I can relate to his insight from a meeting with Andrew Grove of Intel. It is what distinguishes coaching from what most consultants and advisors do, “instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.”

I also agree strongly with this, “Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team.”

I can’t agree, however, that people become, “unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. [because they] implemented that strategy.” Individuals do not have total control over outcomes. He should remember the admonition, “If you want to make God laugh tell him your plans.” Stuff happens.

I agree that, “People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families and overinvest in their careers—even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.”

I heartily endorse his version of, Culture eats strategy for breakfast. “Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which members of the group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems. … Families have cultures, just as companies do. Those cultures can be built consciously or evolve inadvertently. … Like employees, children build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works.”

I could quibble with his interpretations of marginal cost analysis or humility but I endorse where he goes with even those loose premises. Rationalization and opportunism are corrosive. Healthy self-esteem improves learning, respect, & cooperation.

This quote sums it all up, “Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people.”

 


 

040 Tough Talk Conversations That Make A Difference • PODCAST [Refresh]

040 Tough Talk Conversations That Make A Difference • PODCAST


Today’s podcast, “Tough Talk: Conversations That Make A Difference” is the audio from a webinar presented by Tony Mayo, The Business Owner’s Executive Coach. Listen to this recording and then join us for Tuesdays with Tony at Twelve, a weekly, free webinar where you can explore powerful executive coaching tools and ask Tony about applying them in your life and career.

This program teaches Tony’s 12 Step program for engaging with people on difficult topics, simple tools for resolving contentious issues, and a powerful approach to work and personal conversations that will bring you better results and stronger relationships.

Video, handouts, and other resources from this and other webinars are available for free at:
https://TonyMayo.com/Tuesdays/

(more…)

040 Tough Talk Conversations That Make A Difference • PODCAST [Refresh]

039 What is Executive Coaching • PODCAST


Today’s podcast, “What is Executive Coaching?” includes the audio from a webinar presented by Tony Mayo, The Business Owner’s Executive Coach. Listen to this recording and then join us for Tuesdays with Tony at Twelve, a weekly, free webinar where you can explore powerful executive coaching tools and ask Tony about applying them in your life and career.

Today’s topics covered include:

  • What is Executive Coaching?
    • “My own best thinking”
    • “I now live in a different world, see different things, take different actions.”
  • Differences between coaching, consulting, mentoring, managing, therapy, training, and just plain friendship.
  • Basic logistics of what it costs, how much (more…)