J. Timothy King’s Blog

Ha! I KNEW Peter Drucker was Wrong!

I wasn’t going to write about this, but it was such a juicy tidbit, I just had to pass it along. So I looked at all of my colleagues, who begged me to keep it quiet, I looked them straight in the eye and told them, frankly, to buzz off. This is an exceedingly valuable tip for small businesses, I just couldn’t in good conscience keep it a secret.

Peter Drucker declared, in one of the most important chapters of his landmark volume The Effective Executive:

Effective executives know that time is the limiting factor. The output limits of any process are set by the scarcest resource. In the process we call “accomplishment,” this is time.

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What Chocolate Says About Entrepreneurship

“Once upon a time, there was a quiet, little village in the French countryside whose people believed in tranquilite. If you lived in this village, you understood what was expected of you. You knew your place in the scheme of things. And if you happened to forget, someone would help remind you. In this village, if you saw something you weren’t supposed to see, you learned to look the other way. If by chance your hopes had been disappointed, you learned never to ask for more. So, through good times and bad, famine and feast, the villagers held fast to their traditions. Until one winter day, a sly wind blew in from the north…”

This past week I rented one of the best films of the last decade. It’s not a film I usually would have watched. Despite its awards and nominations, the movie got a mediocre rating on IMDB. And there was nothing I read to make me think I would find it any different. But I remembered some old friends talking about it years ago, about how in the movie they put ground chili pepper in hot chocolate. (Tastes good, by the way.) And then I learned that this was how the Mayans used to make it. And I love chocolate, and I love chilies, and history intrigues me. And I figured, “What the hey?” But I was unaware of what I was getting myself into. This is one of those films you have to watch over and over again, each time gaining some new insight. Most surprising, and most painful, and most inspiring, as I watched the film, I found myself identifying more and more with Vianne, the main character, in a way I never expected.

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Why Leaders Never Assign Blame

Monday, the school nurse called about my daughter. If you’re a parent, I don’t know whether you’ve ever felt what that’s like, the thoughts that race through your mind, the tightness in your chest, the conscious effort to breathe normally.

Both of my daughters needed to come home from school. One of them had an infestation of head lice. Her scalp was red and extremely itchy, even bleeding. And she had numerous nits, the eggs of the vermin, in her hair. Our school has a no-nit policy. Searching on the web, I learned that some schools avoid no-nit policies. Because parents would be embarrassed to learn that their kids have lice. And I became thankful that our school does have a no-nit policy. But that’s just the way I am.

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Ten Favorite Books

These are not necessarily my all-time favorites in all categories. I don’t even know whether I could narrow the list down that far. But these are ten really good books from my library, all of which I heartily recommend.

In fact, I continue to be amazed at how many people have not read even the most significant of these books. How many businessmen have never read Peter Drucker. Every executive, every manager, every entrepreneur must read Peter Drucker. Or how many software engineers have never read Frederick Brooks or Demarco and Lister. Or how many software managers don’t even know who Brooks or Demarco or Lister is.

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Dreaming the Dream Supreme

Matt Inglot wrote recently about Developing a Detailed Vision and Having it Become Reality.

The forces of the universe must be aligning for me. Because this sounds awful similar to what Maxine Clark, the founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, talked about in her book The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart:

I challenge you to think about what your ideal business would look like if there were no obstacles—financial or otherwise—in your way. That’s what I did in the planning stages for Build-A-Bear Workshop… I imagined, down to the smallest detail, everything I would need to build a successful brand and company.

It was a grand vision indeed, and although I wasn’t able to do all the things I dreamed about immediately, I knew the possibilities that were out there. My vision and the resulting business plan provided me with the ultimate blueprint of goals to work toward as the company (and our profits) grew.

In other words, a dream is not a pie-in-the-sky feeling. It’s something you can see and hear and touch and smell and taste. It’s clear, and it’s possible. But these possibilities are not limited by outside forces. A dream is a manifestation of your faith, something you believe in; otherwise, you won’t put your best into it. And it’s something only you can make happen.

-TimK

The Secret to Breaking Out of the Box

As part of Steve Pavlina’s Million Dollar Experiment, participants claim to have manifested over 1.5 million dollars, just by wishing for it. Are they just fooling themselves? Or is there something different they’re doing? Is there something different that successful people do that the rest avoid? I think there is, and I knew what it was. And if I had just been thinking in those terms two weeks ago, things would have gone better for me.

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Refactoring the Monster

This is a story about my first software management success. It’s also a story about my first software management failure. It was a success, because the work got completed, and without any nasty surprises. It was a failure, because I could have made the team more efficient, and I didn’t. Both of these are good things.

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Moving Chairs, and Why It’s Cool

Many people think leadership is about being in charge and making a legacy and doing great things and everyone loving you because you changed their lives. But it’s not. Mostly, it’s about moving chairs and other little victories that no one notices.

Leadership is like Ronny Cammareri’s love, from Moonstruck:

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Savoring Our Mistakes

It’s so important to be able to fail. Not just allowing yourself to fail, but allowing others to fail. This is the leadership side of professionalism. Neither blame nor punish those who fail. This will only discourage creativity and initiative. Leaders never assign blame.

In a recent post, Jared Spool talks about how important it is to fail.

-TimK

A Leader You Are, Not What You Are Called

(This is the first in a series I call “Tales of a Wanna-Be Software Manager.” In this category, I’ll post personal stories and lessons I learn on my journey to better leadership.)

I never thought I’d want to be a manager. In fact, I don’t want to be a “manager.” I don’t want to spend all of my time administering the people who do all the interesting, creative work. But I’ve been filling more leadership roles in my life: where I work, where I worship, even in my family. And I want to do more of that. I want to be a team lead.

So what does that mean? It does not mean being in charge. And this fact is actually what makes me long to fill that position.

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