The Growth Guy

Hiring 300; Keeping Young Talent; Revenue Boosters Needed; June 27 Topgrading

"...out-learning the competition" 

HEADLINES:  

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
	Australia's Army Chief re: sexual harassment

June 27 Topgrading Online Course -- more info below, but first...

Need Sales Hints -- next Fortune column is on boosting revenue, what I'm looking for listed below, but second...

You Get What You Accept -- many have heard the quote "you get what you inspect" but it's just as important to note that you get what you accept. What are you accepting right now in quality, performance, attitude, people, etc. that is not up to your standards! It's like last week's note about true strategy being what's on your calendar - actions need to match your words.

Recruiting Young Talent -- my latest Fortune Venture column is on the newsstands and online -- entitled "5 Steps to Find (and Keep) Young Stars." Thanks to Matthew Monahan, CEO of Inflection; Jeff Roman, National Director of Engineering, Little; Vernon Menard, COO of Choice Translating; and the CEO who wished to remain anonymous for suggesting these five ideas. The war for talent is upon us! Please take two minutes to scan the five ideas for attracting the top young talent and tips for sorting through the myriad of resumes you might get.

Hiring 300 Employees -- speaking of the war for talent, Speed Wire, a technology deployment contractor involved in the fast-growth "smart homes" field, has grown from 25 employees to 325 since last year. The company, based in Mineola, N.Y., will soon have 700 technicians in 30 markets. "I knew I had to get the hiring right or it would be a nightmare managing people down the road," says founder and CEO Kevin Donnelly, an EO member. How did his team outperform two other major competitors in a head-to-head challenge for the major firm they were all servicing (his NPS scores were so high, the major customer was astounded)?

Topgrading for Installers -- Donnelly has relied on Topgrading to find technicians who fit into a culture where, he says, "Everyone is excited about learning and getting involved in new technologies." He says he has been thrilled with the results his 10 recruiters have been getting by using Topgrading to find and select candidates for its training program. "We can't believe the caliber of people it has helped us put through," he says. "We couldn't have done it without Topgrading."

June 27 Topgrading Online -- If you're scaling up and need to hire one or 300 of the right people, the Gazelles Growth Institute's next online course in Topgrading starts June 27. Get someone internally certified (all from the comfort of their office - no travel) in the Topgrading methodology and access the new online interview tools which helped Donnelly crank through the number of interviews necessary to fill 300 positions. For more info, see

Revenue Boosters for Fortune column -- do any of you:

1. Require sales people to call in daily with an update?
2. Focus your sales manager on coaching and training sales people vs. making sales?
3. Raise prices?
4. Supply your sales people/reps with specific targeted lists of prospects?
5. Have a clever way to separate the winners from the whiners?

Please email me directly with your ideas - vharnish@gazelles.com - thanks.

COACHING:

Need helping implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

True Strategy; Powerful PA's; Happiest Executives; Theme Drives Leads; June 19 Verne Harnish Webinar

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:  

Your true strategy is not what's written on your One-Page Strategic Plan; but what's written on your weekly calendar.
	Verne Harnish

Theme Drives Leads -- driving more leads than their sales people could handle in a quarter, Ron Lovett, owner of Source Security, established a quarterly theme called "Operation Vacation: Spy vs. Spy." They asked their 450 security guards across Canada to submit company names and addresses where "enemy" security companies were working. They had over 500 submissions (the frontline sees and hears a lot!) which helped them reach their goal of 1,344 additional recurring weekly billable hours generating $1.1 million in recurring annual sales.

Theme Launch Video -- ...the winning Security Source guard and his wife, chosen from a drawing of all the leads submitted, took their vacation to Mexico in March. Here's a link to their 2 minute launch video (that's Ron in disguise) providing specifics on how they rolled this out. Thanks to their Gazelles coach Andy Buyting, Carle Ventures, for sharing this company theme. It's halftime in 2013 - time to launch a theme to drive focused results - what's the rock in your shoe that you need everyone to pitch in and help fix.

Strategy is What Makes Your Calendar -- this article in the McKinsey Quarterly looks at the allocation of time top executives spend on various activities in the business. And my favorite paragraph:

The most effective support we've seen is provided by a global chemical company, where the CEO's administrative assistant takes it upon herself to ensure that the organization's strategic objectives are reflected in the way she allocates the time of the CEO and the top team to specific issues and stakeholders. She regularly checks to ensure that calendared time matches the stated priorities. If it doesn't, during priority-setting meetings (every two weeks) she'll highlight gaps by asking questions such as, "We haven't been to Latin America yet this year - is that an issue? Do you need to schedule a visit before the end of the year?" Or, "Are these the right things to focus on? Since you're already going to Eastern Europe, what else should we schedule while you're out there? Do we need to clear the decks to make more time for strategic priorities?"

Satisfied vs. Dissatisfied Executives -- of the nearly 1500 executives McKinsey surveyed, only 9% were very satisfied with their allocation of time. The dissatisfied executives fell into four categories:

1. Online junky
2. Smoozer
3. Cheerleader
4. Firefighter

Take 2 minutes to scan through the article (it's fairly long) and click on the dissatisfied graphic and then take a look at the bar chart (2/3rds down in the article) of the most highly satisfied executives when it came to how they allocate their time. Print this bar graph out and hang by your desk. Notable - the most satisfied execs spent almost 25% of their time alone; and when it came to preferred communication channel, spent 38% face-to-face and 72% in total synchronous communication vs. just 28% asynchronous communication (email and voice mail).

Power of the PA -- one of the 5 most important time management approaches was having a powerful personal assistant (PA). My second favorite paragraph in the article continues delineating what an effective PA does:

...the CEO's administrative assistant "owns" the master calendar for corporate officers and uses it to ensure that the executive team meets on important topics, avoids redundant meetings, and capitalizes on occasions when key leaders are in the same place. Finally, to give senior leaders time to reflect on the big picture, she creates "quiet zones" of minimal activity two or three days ahead of significant events, such as quarterly earnings reports, strategy reviews with business units, and board meetings. Such approaches, which make the executives' allocation of time dramatically more effective, underscore the importance of not being "penny-wise and pound-foolish" in providing administrative support.

June 19 Verne Harnish Webcast -- 12:30pm ET -- As a leader, one of the toughest decisions you need to make is to find the #1 thing that will increase the focus and alignment of your team. Learn what Facebook and other Fast-Growing companies accomplished in 8 years instead of the 80 it took others. Join me for a webcast to learn and discuss:

• Lessons from Facebook that you can apply to your business
• How to prepare for a strong second half of 2013
• And why SWT is more important than SWOT Online junky

Register for the webcast at:
Date: Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Time: 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM EDT
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/308751383

COACHING:

Need helping implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

Weird Entrepreneur; Weird Video; Weird Marketing; June 19 Verne Harnish Webinar

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  

June 19 Verne Harnish Webinar -- 12:30pm ET, I'll be introducing our new extensive online Rockefeller Habits course, more details below, but first...

Elon Musk's Weird Marketing Lessons -- described as strong-willed, obnoxious, arrogant, and sarcastic, nevertheless his electric car company's stock (Tesla) has tripled and he's garnering NASA space contracts through SpaceX. This excellent HubSpot blog post outlines six non-standard marketing ploys used by Elon Musk, whom many consider the new Steve Jobs! Take four serious minutes to read through this blog post for details. Here's the short list:

1. Pick Fights with Journalists
2. Taunt Wall Street
3. Drop Hints and Build Suspense
4. Gloat About Victories
5. Think Big and Speak Your Mind
6. Turn Customers into Evangelists

Thanks for Erik Darmstetter, SalesBy5, for pointing me to this insightful blog post.

Dollar Shave Club's Latest Weird Video -- founder Michael Dubin's first video went wildly viral; he has a second one introducing his new One Wipe Charlies product. This Fortune article provides some interesting data around a men's product category that is 50% larger than the shaving industry - who knew (and are there parallels in your industry)!! Anyway, Dubin is remaining true to his weird self - though the latest video really needs some background music.

Pays to be Weird -- Seth Godin's blog today continues to push the importance of being weird, based on his latest book We Are All Weird. And in the blog he shares some fun statistics about baby names that are getting weirder. Anyway, it's worth asking "how might we be weird" at your next marketing meeting - which I take to really mean "how do we let the true personality of our firm shine through our messaging and product/service offerings?" FYI, Seth's blog is one I read every day.

Countries Need More Weirdos -- face it, entrepreneurs can be weird, which is what makes them lightning rods. In this recent UK Business Review interview I make the case that governments, in the process of going elephant hunting (pursuing the bad behavior of large companies) end up hurting "gazelles" - and the elephants normally escape via the power of their lobbying efforts. It's time to garner more respect for the REAL job generators in our economy -- YOU! I'm on a rampage and it might get weird, but we want to raise the visibility of gazelles in the global economy - and get you more respect. Our new message? "A country with gazelles, excels."

Focus - Go With Your Weirdness -- OK, I'm stretching it a bit with this one. This week we've released Dr. Heidi Grant Halverson's new 59 minute online seminar based on her newly released book Focus: Use Different Ways of Seeing the World for Success and Influence. She is currently Associate Director of the Motivation Science Center at the Columbia Business School. Her research has found that most people at work fall into one of two groups - those with a "promotion focus" and those with a "prevention focus." Both have their strengths and she shares some ways to maximize each in growing a business.

Amsterdam June 12, Wilmington June 13, and Des Moines June 13 -- these are the last three Rockefeller Habits workshops this season - we'll return in September with our 16th season of workshops.

Verne Harnish Webinar -- June 19, 12:30 - 1:30pm ET, I'm rolling out the first major update to the online Rockefeller Habits course - recorded during the 2.5 day "Making the Rockefeller Habits Rock" YPO International course I've been leading the past 36 months. You should dial in if:

• You want to learn how to implement MRH model in your company.
• You are a fan of MRH and took the course over 4 years ago.
• You recently hired new team members and want them to learn MRH model.
• You want to learn the power of hybrid education

It's a chance for someone in the firm to become certified via our new Rockefeller Habits Master Class - learn how. To secure your spot in this webinar register at this link.

COACHING:

Need helping implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

Heading to Vegas; Tony Hsieh's New Town; List of Books; Growth Summit Oct 22 - 23 Speakers

"...out-learning the competition" HEADLINES: The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.   Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's Partner Holy crap, (the Summit) was awesome! My CEO and CMO just got back from your Orlando (Leadership) Summit and absolutely loved it. They got a ton of great ideas and are really excited to be implementing them into our company.   Jordan Guernsey, Founder, Molding Box (www.moldingbox.com) Heading to Vegas -- coming off our highest rated Summit ever (and most standing ovations, rare for our discerning crowd of CEOs and senior executives), we're next heading to Las Vegas, Oct 22 - 23, for the Growth Summit hosted by Fortune magazine. Every year the inexpensive rooms go quickly, so at least make your $169/night reservations now at the beautiful JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa. FYI, registrations are already running way ahead of last year, which is why I'm giving you this early warning. 30 Books -- Confirmed speakers for the Summit (if you haven't read their books, this two-day Summit will save you weeks of time - like reading 30 books) include:  Tony Hsieh -- iconic CEO of Zappos, author of Delivering Happiness, to discuss his latest innovation, the redevelopment of downtown Las Vegas into the new home for Zappos - the company-town is back!! Tours for the Gazalles200 member firms. More info. Ram Charan -- uber-guru and author of 15 books including the famous Execution with Larry Bossidy, he's one of the most awarded CEO and company consultants in the world - and someone you have to meet and hear once in your life - he's an icon of the biz-idea world. More info. Stephen M.R. Covey -- author of the highly acclaimed book The Speed of Trust, Covey served as CEO of his dad's business, propelling it to over $110 million and orchestrating the sale to Franklin Quest to form Franklin Covey. He's now one of the most sought after speakers and advisors to companies worldwide. More info. Mark Johnson -- founding partner of Innosight with Clayton Christiansen, the Harvard professor and author of the Innovators Dilemma, Johnson's work on business models led to an award-winning HBR article entitled "Reinventing Your Business Model" and his subsequent best-selling book Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal. More info. Dr. Mark Goulston -- a renowned hostage negotiator, he's the author of six books including the #1 international best-sellers Just Listen: The Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (the best book I've ever read on asking the right questions) and REAL INFLUENCE: Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In. He is also the co-founder of Heartfelt Leadership. More info. James McQuivey -- author of Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation, McQuivey is vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research and the leading analyst tracking the development of digital disruption. With all the blah, blah, blah about this topic, finally a book that is practical and useful - helping companies prepare to serve newly empowered consumers. More info. Luke Hohmann -- author of Innovation Games and founder of a company by the same name, Hohmann is on the leading edge of creating enterprise serious online collaboration and gaming tools that help companies like Cisco revamp WebEx and Daimler Financial set priorities. Together we're launching a new Gazelles Growth Games portal to bring gamification to our tool kit! More info. Kaihan Krippendorf -- a perennial favorite at the Summits, this former McKinsey consultant has authored a new book entitled OutThink the Competition: How a New Generation of Strategists Sees Options Others Ignore. Favorite blogger at Fast Company Magazine, Kaihan is a true strategist with tools that can help power our businesses. More info. Plus Me -- we'll be releasing the first new update to the Rockefeller Habits in over a decade with updated one-page tools and 3 brand new one-page tools. I'll walk you through them at this Growth Summit. More Practical Ideas/Hour -- this is our brand promise over any other executive education event you might attend. And we don't waste your time with speaker panels and breakout sessions. Just the best in their chosen field -- no time for amateur hour when it comes to powering your business with the best ideas, techniques, and tools. And since we rarely repeat speakers, you don't want to miss this entire body of knowledge easily digestible in two fun - and idea-packed days in Vegas - your "mini-Think Week." Look forward to meeting you in Vegas.

The Look of Winning; Right Org Chart; Bill Gates; Hero vs. Coach; June 18 Palo Alto Breakfast

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES: (quick reading for the weekend)

Fortune Magazine Breakfast Event -- June 18, Palo Alto, CA no charge breakfast event, more details below, but first...

That Look! -- "It's not an expression, it's not a smile, it's not a frown, it's not a grimace. It's just a look of determination. It's a look that says I'm not going to quit. It's a look that says I'm going to do whatever it takes to put us in a position to win..." This describes perfectly "the look" I've personally seen a handful of times in my life. Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Wayne Huizenga, Mark Zuckerberg, and Dennis Crowley all have the look. This specific quote came from today's Sports Illustrated description of LeBron James' domination of the third quarter in the Heat's decisive win over the Pacers last night. Take 2 minutes to read what it takes, at halftime, to turn a loss into a win. We're almost at halftime for the year - time to lead!!!

Scaling-Up the Organization (Chart)! -- the title of my June "Growth Guy" column - it's a short primer on how to structure your organization, especially above 50 employees, when you start forming distinct business units. It can get messy if you're not structured properly. Who has to make the biggest transition in leadership style are the senior leaders heading up the functional areas (Sales, HR, Ops, IT, etc.) - they have to go from telling to selling; from demanding to coaching - and are often better off moving to head up specific biz units and bring in execs seasoned in working in a matrix organization. Take 4 minutes to scan the article.

Mo Fathelbab's TEDx Talk -- ...and take 8 minutes to watch Mo's TEDx talk - the beloved former CEO of EO and forum trainer on a new definition for "hero" relative to the famous Drama Triangle - and why as leaders (and parents) we need to be more coach and challenger vs. hero - the precise roles the senior leadership of a growth firm must adopt, especially in an organization over 50 employees.

Bill Gates Latest TED Talk -- "Everyone needs a coach." This is the opening line of Bill Gates' latest 10 minute TED Talk. He's particularly focused on the importance of getting coaches for teachers. And there are inexpensive iPhone apps that teachers can use to record their own teaching. I know it's helped me improve my own presentations when I watch and listen afterwards. I've forwarded this to our children's headmaster - you might want to do the same in your own school district. And then get a coach for yourself!

EcoFont Saves Ink -- OK, so I'm not one to push product in my insights, but this is a no-brainer - the founders of EcoFont participated in our Growth Summit in Amsterdam. Use their fonts and you save 50% on printer ink costs - in essence, they place minute holes in the letters of the fonts that the eye can't see (pixelates them), but reduces the ink needed to print the font by almost half! If you print out a lot of documents, brochures, nametags, etc. it's worth it - and they have solutions for bulk and offset printing situations. And the lifetime license is $55 for a 3-pack (home license is $25 - and I know how much printer ink we consume as a family!).

Vitamin C Kills Accidentally Kills Tuberculosis -- something two time Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling discovered 40 years ago, the latest news is that researchers have rediscovered that high dose vitamin C kills tuberculosis. BTW, I'm excited that I'll be part of a new documentary on the power of high dose Vitamin C and how it kills most all illnesses that strike people, something I've been championing for over 15 years and have practiced even longer. I shoot in NYC June 11. Stay tuned.

Fortune Breakfast June 18 Palo Alto, CA -- The "Bring Your Own Device" (or employee-owned) experiment at large corporations appears to be working (big-time) - driven largely by ever higher-performing smartphones and tablets enabled by 3G and 4G networks combined with innovative applications. According to some studies, some 53% of organizations allow employees to bring their own smartphones, tablets and laptops for company use. (And 80% of employees use their own gadgets at work, whether authorized or not.)

Join FORTUNE magazine writer Michal Lev-Ram for an expert technology panel discussion "Bring-Your-Own-Device: Changing The Game" - on Tuesday, June 18 at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto, Calif. The panel will feature senior tech and BYOD experts from notable companies such as Verizon, Symantec, Good Technology, VMware, and Samsung. This discussion will explore BYOD strategy, design and promise. How can it boost productivity? Improve ROI? What should companies do to meet BYOD governance, network and security issues?

The event begins with a networking breakfast at 8am. To RSVP go here.

Best Annoying Video; Best ROI Video; Best Passion Video; Best Short Corp Videos

"...keeping you great" HEADLINES: (commit to watching one per week at your marketing meeting - or have fun this weekend) Best Corporate Videos -- videos are critical to getting your message out and are favored by search engines (Google owns YouTube). Below are links to several videos chosen from over a 100 corporate videos that were submitted by companies participating in the recent Leadership Summit. Hopefully these videos give you some ideas for crafting your own powerful and/or fun message (Leadership Summit attendees, below are some additional videos we didn't show at the Summit). Best "Purpose" Video -- White Lodging, a leading hotel management firm of 160+ hotels, participates in a CNN Hero's-awarded program called Back on My Feet, helping homeless people get jobs. Here's a 5 minute video highlighting several of the people White Lodging has hired (have hanky handy). And take 15 seconds to vote for YPOer Bruce White, CEO of White Lodging, who is one of four nominated for Hotelier of the World by Hotel magazine - he deserves it on behalf of his amazing company. Best Employee Recognition Idea -- Legal Monkey's 3 minute video about their Appreciation Board highlights a very simple employee recognition process anyone can duplicate for the cost of a picture frame. Best ROI Video -- EnableSoft has a nicely structured TV site for their product FoxTrot. Take 2:25 minutes to watch their first video which immediately outlines specific ROI (Return on Investment) calculations for implementing their software in any biz operation - it's a video that builds high credibility from the first opening 15 seconds. Best "How-To" Video -- Discogs, a site for buying and selling vintage records, CDs, etc. (and new music) has an excellent 2 minute video that walks a customer through "how to list an item for sale." It would be great if more sites provided this kind of simple guidance when there are several key steps involved in doing something - even if it's assumed the process is supposedly intuitive. Best 2 Minute Education Video -- entitled "A Tale of Spirals" Innotec's Inno-versity produced an animated 2 minute video demonstrating the spiral of problems that can occur if something goes wrong at the beginning of a process. I would show this at your next operational meeting. Best Value Proposition Video -- in this 96 second video, Point to Point Transportation makes a strong case for why all of us with trade show booths (or other odd shipments) should absolutely use their services. Very nicely animated!! Best Post-Tradeshow Video -- speaking of tradeshows, take a look at this Izzy (JSJ Corp) 2 minute video taking advantage of their participation in NeoCon 2012 - something easy to produce when you participate in an industry show. Plus check out the office furnishings - some ideas for your own office! Best Annoying Video -- you'll see what I mean when you watch this 2 minute video. Defender Direct has produced a series of "That Guy" (as in "don't be that guy who...") videos that underscore employee conduct they want to start, stop, or keep. Best Time Lapse Video -- in one minute BOWA shows a major home remodeling job. Best Coach Video -- and if you want an easy way to explain what we mean by a "quarterly rock", check out this 92 second video entitled Rock & Sand by Gazelles coach Mike Synk. He also released a new eBook by the same title on Amazon - and he wins the best book cover award (and great little book!). Best Fun Video -- OK, this might be debatable, but several firms, including MOMs Organic Market, produced their own Harlem Shake videos - this one's 30 seconds long. Have Some Fun with Video in Your Firm! Take 20 minutes this weekend or at your Friday afternoon meeting and watch some fun and informative videos.

Pot Party; Dog Poster; Listen to Twitter; Next Topgrading Class

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:  

REMINDER: Tomorrow May 17, 1pm ET Webcast -- no charge, one-hour re: Rockefeller Habits for companies with 100+ employees - Link to register:

Power of Repetition -- this poster of a man and his dog was on the back door of Commander David Marquet's door - reminding him that the main job of a leader is to stay on message and just keep repeating until the organization falls into alignment. As Marquet notes "if it seems like you are repeating the same thing over and over again, that's the way it SHOULD be." BTW, he borrowed the image from CEO Hatim Tyabji who used it to remind himself of the same thing in growing Verifone from $30 million to over $350 million in 48 months. Hatim is one of my favorite CEOs - and this past Fast Company magazine article is worth the read (8 minutes, so it's long, but just read the first two paragraphs).

Pot Party -- and this is the One-Page Strategic Plan for EOer Dave Kerpen's company, featured in his bestselling book Likeable. Notice his Theme in column 6 - it was actually a physical pot where they collected money to fund their quarterly celebration. It's a great example of a One-Page Strategic Plan - which has helped drive 100% annual growth the past four years (60 employees today).

David Marquet on Flawless Execution -- receiving a standing ovation, David Marquet, author of what I named the #1 biz book written in 2012, Turn the Ship Around, laid out a very practical approach to driving accountability and leadership down through an organization. Unable to hire, fire, or change the pay of 135 sailors on the Santa Fe, he used a series of practical techniques to take the Santa Fe from worst to first in the nuclear navy - if he can do it with the hand he was dealt, so can you. Here's a 2 minute interview that touches on a couple of the key points. He has given us permission to produce a one-hour online seminar from his presentation at last week's Leadership Summit.

Dave Kerpen on Twitter -- you should be listening (monitoring) Twitter - go to www.search.twitter.com and search your company name and/or key words and connect with potential customers. Case in point, one of the attendees at the Leadership Summit did this for the first time during Dave's keynote working session and found out his firm had just been tweeted by a US Senator! (positive tweet!). Dave outlined 6 more of over a dozen similar practical ideas covered in his book Likeable. Take 2 minutes to watch my interview of Dave Kerpen.

Parents and Graduates Teaming Up -- with bleak job prospects, many parents and their graduating children are buying franchises together. Gazelles200 member, Nurse Next Door, was featured prominently in this NY Times article last week providing an example of a father/daughter teaming up to launch one of their franchises.

Nurse Next Door Topgrading Case -- with 60+ graduates, the new online Topgrading course is proving popular as the war for talent continues to heat up. A New Topgrading Class Launches June 13. For details including:

1. the Nurse Next Door Topgrading case study
2. Review the full outline of the class including learning objectives for each of the six sessions
3. Experience the class discussions

Online course includes one-to-one coaching; 9 hours of online learning; and peer group sessions via webinars - the next hybrid model of education that saves travel time and money. Price is $1450/leader.

Stories for Fortune; Corporate Athletes; Playing the Game; May 17 Webcast

"...out-learning the competition" 

HEADLINES: (Leadership Summit Summary - Day 1)

Friday May 17 Webcast -- no charge, one-hour re: Rockefeller Habits for companies with 100+ employees - more details below, but first...

Need Stories for Fortune Column -- any tips on how to attract and hire the best millennial talent (those graduating right now)? More details below, but second...

Dan Pink on Sales -- "be the best version of yourself" if you want to be successful in sales - and we're all in sales. Dan, the #1 biz speaker on the circuit right now (To Sell is Human), shared his new version of the ABC model of selling - Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity - and how ambiverts (a real term) are the best sales people as opposed to the kind of extroverts we might be tempted to hire and promote. He also shared 4 tips for creating a pitch - including the power of rhymes i.e. "A country with gazelles, excels" -- our new quick pitch to governments. Here's a 4 minute interview that flushes out some of his ideas.

Jim Loehr on Human Performance -- "exert and recover as a Corporate athlete" -- pushing 70 years of age, as the #1 renowned human performance expert (Only Way to Win) who has helped four Olympic Gold medalists, 12 Grand Slam Tennis Champions, and thousands of corporate "athletes" he reminded us that it's all about energy management vs. time management and that you must maximize your energy in four areas - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Besides sharing some myths around stress, he emphasized the power of recovery time - even the 18 seconds between tennis points is critical. Top performers understand how to expend energy and then recover. Here's six minutes of tips from Jim Loehr. Then spend three days at his camp.

Laurie Bassi on Talent Development -- "300% ROI - the best investment you can make is training your people." Laurie, whose investment funds have consistently outperformed the market, has put her money where her exhaustive research has indicated - in companies that invest in the development of their people. One powerful graph showed how investing in the Fortune "Best Places to Work" companies outperformed the general market 4:1. Author of Good Company, Laurie's firm has a Good Company Index which takes two minutes to complete. At Gazelles, we've clearly seen the connection between those companies attending Summits over several years and stellar performance, so no surprise to us. Here's a link to her 4 minute interview.

Jack Stack on Playing the Game -- "nailing the critical number" - Jack, one of the legends of business, having built firms with a combined revenue over $1 billion AND being a thought leader via his classic The Great Game of Business (20th Anniversary), dug into the details around his method for turning every employee inside the company into an entrepreneur. In this 3 minute interview, I have him expound on how to pick just one critical number and then laser focus the organization on achieving it. Much of what we teach around execution comes from Jack - and I've always strongly recommended that teams make the trip to Springfield, MO and attend his two-day workshop. Here's a link to the interview.

Stories for Fortune Column -- I'm writing an upcoming Fortune column about how to attract and manage the best millennial talent. Many companies are getting deluged by entry-level workers. How do you spot the gems among the piles of resumes--and set up and manage young hires so they can be productive members of your team from day one? Please share your best strategies. Email vharnish@gazelles.com - and please include number of employees (so the reader has an idea of the size of the firm). Thanks.

May 17 @1pm ET Webcast -- Rockefeller Habits for Companies with 100+ Employees. 1 Hour "Ask the Expert" Webcast. Remember when meetings, metrics and priorities where so much easier? Find out how firms with 100+ employees use The Rockefeller Habits to get their teams focused and aligned. Larger companies have different needs and unique complexities. We have worked with high growth clients around the world and are happy to share practical tips and insights with you. Link to register:

Growth Summits in Europe -- 22nd May Amsterdam, 23rd May Barcelona - John Mullins, Margaret Heffernan, and John Warrillow headline.

#1 Company; 5 Ways to Connect with Children; Animal Core Values; 13 Fun Facts

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:

Five Ways to Connect with your Children -- my latest Fortune "Venture" column is on the newsstand and online (Fortune 500 edition) listing five quick tips for staying connected with your children. The most counter-intuitive idea is to NOT ask them about their day - this is something I learned from Rabbi Stephen Baars, the Bliss parenting and marriage guru. And just as he suggests, later in the evening (or week) your children will share voluntarily what's up. Take 2 minutes to glance through the other 4 tips - and then share it with others who have children - thanks.

Wal-Mart Back On Top -- with almost $444 billion in revenue in 2012, Wal-Mart is again #1 on the list of the Fortune 500 released yesterday. The other big news is that Apple broke into the top 10 and Facebook made the list for the first time. Rounding out the top 10: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Phillips 66, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, GM, GE, Valero Energy, and Ford - six of the top 10 fueled by the auto industry.

Fun Facts Fortune 500 -- revenue was up 2.7% for the combined Fortune 500 last year, but profit was down .5%. These are two of the 13 fun facts Fortune details as a sidebar to the list - worth the 2 minutes to glance through especially if you're a "student of business" and enjoy business trivia. One sad fact - there's one company that's been on the list since the beginning - 1955 - that didn't make the cut this year. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Anyway, find this answer and 10 more interesting facts like the company with the highest 5 year stock market return (not Apple) at this link.

Core Value Characters -- as follow-on to the McIntosh Perry core values from last week, Rachel Farris, Chief of Staff for Austin-based Pet Relocation, sent a list of her company's core values modeled after animals that best represent each value. Notes Farris "we worked on the values at the end of December and since we're a pet company we chose to model our values after animals that best represent those characteristics. We have chosen a value per quarter and have been placing animal decals on the wall representing that quarter's theme (right now we have penguins all over our walls as our Q2 theme is teamwork!)." Again, great to anchor each value with a visual image. Here's a link to the list with pictures - I particularly like the third one!!

Everything Fortune This Week -- it's a short insight as we have our Leadership Summit with Fortune later this week in Orlando. I'll be back next week with some highlights and short interviews.

Blame the SWOT; Replace with SWT; Advisory Board Advice; Best Values; Nov 13 - 15 Shanghai

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:

Advisory Boards -- I'm looking for examples where you've chosen to work one-on-one with your advisory board members vs. host regularly scheduled board meetings. Or maybe you do a combination of both. Email me at vharnish@gazelles.com - this is for a new book I'm co-authoring -- thanks.

Blame the SWOT -- my May "Growth Guy" column challenges the usefulness of the age-old SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) which I maintain has backed many organizations into a corner - creating what I call inside/industry myopia. Rather than throw out the SWOT, I suggest it's useful for mid-managers to use.

Use the SWT -- For senior leaders I propose a new tool called SWT that focuses more on the boundaries - the inherent Strengths and Weaknesses of an organization that aren't going to change; and the larger societal, technological, and demographic Trends impacting all industries. A limited group of our coaching partners have been testing the approach (as have I) and it's proving powerful. Take 3 minutes to scan the article. We'll release a one-page tool after the Leadership Summit next week where we'll role it out to the rest of our 120+ coaching partners.

Love These Values -- take 15 seconds and click on this list of Core Values/Images for professional engineering and services firm McIntosh Perry - this is precisely the kind of representation of core values we recommend - unique, memorable, phrases (vs. single words), with images that make them visual. With 130 full time employees and 30 to 50 part time people working in 5 to 10 locations at any one time, Todd Perry, President, reached the point where it's not easy for him to have direct contact with everyone. In this case, a clearly articulated set of core values is critical to keep the culture from drifting.

Onboarding New Employees -- notes Les Rubenovitch, the Gazelles coach for McIntosh Perry, "they have totally embraced the power and benefits of clearly communicating their Core Values...cleverly capturing what matters most to them. They launched this with fanfare internally and now everyone, in all locations, is aware and increasingly aligned in living their Core Values. And every new full time employee and every part time person goes through the corporate on-boarding program which is largely based on the Core Values." Remember, the word inculcate means "to bring into the culture" which is precisely what your initial orientation process should do.

Axiom Book Award -- congrats to Geoff Smart for his book Leadocracy which won the Axiom Book Award/Silver Medal (#2) of all business leadership books published in the past year. I strongly recommend you purchase a copy and give to every public sector leader (mayors, governors, etc) you know. We need better government leadership!! Here is the press release.

UK Needs More "Gazelles" -- speaking of better government leadership, I was interviewed in London last week by Business Review Europe. Vince Cable, the new business secretary for the UK, has been touting the need for his country to find and support more "gazelles." I suggest the challenge is for governments and the voting population to quit treating and seeing gazelles as big companies - elephants. In attacking big company excesses and tax havens, they end up punishing gazelles - and the big companies escape anyway, with their huge lobbies and tight relationships with government officials. Here's a link to the broader interview. Thanks to Julie Walters, EO London member and founder/CEO of PR firm TutorReilly, for arranging this interview (London, BTW, is on fire - construction and growth everywhere - the empire is back as my British friends continue to remind me!).

Nov 13 - 15 Shanghai YPO Workshop -- registration is now open - the first 2.5 day "Making the Rockefeller Habits Rock" workshop in China for YPOers and their executive teams. Limited to 15 teams (7 have already signed up), Wei Chen is the YPO Chair for this event. Simultaneous translation will be available.

Leadership Summit Next Week -- looking forward to seeing all of you attending the Leadership Summit next week - second biggest audience we've ever hosted. See you in Orlando!