I have read yours and Kathy’s blogs. they are both wonderful.

I have to agree with you on the passing of the Healthcare reform bill, it will not affect small businesses. As a matter of fact, tens of millions of Americans uninsured due to the affects of the increase in skyrocketing premiums. Even those with health coverage are struggling to cope with soaring costs. It is becoming increasingly difficult for employers, particularly small businesses to provide health coverage to their own employees.

My understanding of the bill is that it strengthens employer-based coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without Goverment interference.
Nothing changes under you own coverage other than your costs can drop by as much as $250 a year. If you don’t have coverage, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

The healthcare, and the denials from major carriers who can afford to pay the claims, continue to deny due pre-exisiting. This in turn causes the Dr’s, hospitals, etc. to continue to raise costs due to the patients inability to pay.

I thank you both for posting this Blog, and look forward to reading others thinking and interpretation of this new bill. I am very glad this has passed.

It has to get better!

Sharon

Thanks for the quick recap of the health care bill and creating some clarity out of all the noise that went on during the debate. As you point out, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle of the extremes that are argued on either end of the spectrum. One thing we know for sure about health care expenses is the country can’t afford to stay on the path we’ve been on. Something had to change. Let’s hope this is a good start in the right direction.

Scott

Whenever I have been in a position of on-boarding new employees, I have always managed them correctly and in a positive manner right from the start - pens included !

First, Kathy, thanks so much for the very generous post you wrote on my book, The Next Level. I am beyond flattered!

I’ve had a chance to look at the other books mentioned in the previous comments and think they’re all thought provoking and instructive. If you like Groundswell, I’d also recommend Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirkey. For an applied science take on social media and the web, I’d recommend, The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.

Some leadership books that I’m into lately are:

Leadership Agility by Joiner and Josephs. They present a well researched and thorough framework for thinking about leadership in the context of the phases of adult development. Easy to read and understand with the authors’ tips for ways to continue your own development and how to develop others.

Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell is a book I picked up on a recent trip to Disneyland. It’s all about how they do what they do in Disney Parks and Resorts. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with these folks a bit and really appreciate the common sense advice in this book that explains what’s behind the magic.

Finally, take a look at The Practice of Adaptive Leadership or any of the other books by the co-authors, Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky. Their both mentors of mine and I think their work on how the leader’s job is to help the group identify and adapt to the work that needs to be done is ground breaking. It’s a post heroic model of leadership that actually ties in well with the premise of Leadership Agility.

Cheers and happy reading.

I’ve met Joe Galloway at other conferences and he is fabulous. if you haven’t read “We Were Soldiers Once and Young” it is an absolutely riveting story. The Mel Gibson movie is alright but doesn’t do the story justice. You will be inspired by these heroes, although they will always tell you (as all professional military will), they were just doing their job.

Two other books I’d recommend:
1. Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. This book provides great insight into developing successful market space—and a valuable analytical framework that any business owner can apply. The premise: why spend a lot of time and effort competing incrementally on cost, common features, common perception with the other companies in your market sector? The benefits are incremental as you chip away at each others’ slice of the pie (the bloody red ocean). Apply some innovation and create a new market space where there is no competition. The analytical framework shows that innovation doesn’t have to be a happenstance thing left to the lucky; by studying your market and competitors you can generate the innovative idea needed to break out into the blue ocean. Who would have thought cement could become a popular wedding gift? It’s one of the fascinating stories in the book.

2. Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. If you are thinking you need to get your company on the social technology bandwagon (blogs, wiki, networking, communities), read this book first. It seems everybody is Twittering…but what business value objective is this meeting for you? Whether you are big or small, there are two truths to realize. First, even if you are not playing in the social technology now, your customers more than likely are and therefore you have potentially lost control of your message. Second, it’s not about the type of technology, it is about relationships and how those relationships influence the strategy and operations of your company. The message of Groundswell is this: Get yourself on the social technologies radar as soon as possible, just do it in the way that best supports your company’s business objectives. The book has numerous case studies of large companies and their successes—and a few struggles and failures—with trying to use social technologies as a strategy in their corporations. Groundswell, defined by the authors as “a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations,” emphasizes the strategic alignment of incorporating these technologies and cautions that once you get started you are in for a long term investment so think it through. Any company who thinks they can control their brand any more (by continuing to “shout at“ their customers with messages) is woefully mistaken. The book is replete with case studies about how customers, users, and the interested public have influenced the message, the development, the decisions, and the success (or not) of a corporate product.