Eat That Frog!

 

Issue No. 241 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Jan. 19, 2012) highlights a best-selling book for your weekly Procrastinators Anonymous self-help group.  And in my bucket commentary this issue: why you should stop describing your workplace as a “family.” Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

Procrastination Smorgasbord Antidotes

Stop whining about your overwhelming workload—and listen up! Author Brian Tracy has good news and bad news for you. “…the fact is that you are never going to get caught up. You will never get on top of your tasks. You will never get far enough ahead to be able to get to all those books, magazines, and leisure time activities that you dream of.”

The good news? Frogs!

He quotes Mark Twain’s wit and wisdom, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

So Tracy serves up two frog rules and 21 ways to stop procrastinating and accomplish more in less time.

Frog Rule #1. “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.” 

Frog Rule #2. “If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.”

Time management books are a dime a dozen.  So what’s different about this one—and why should you read it?

Instead of tasting the frogs, taste these chapter titles:

   --Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything
   --Practice Creative Procrastination
   --Focus on Key Result Areas
   --Upgrade Your Key Skills

I recommend books that align with my 20 buckets (core competencies). They must also have alignment with the best leadership and management writers. The author references Peter Drucker, Stephen Covey and others whose works complement this must-read procrastination fix-it book.

I’ve mentioned before that my friend and mentor, George Duff, reads Drucker’s The Effective Executive (“know your time”) once a year.  Covey’s four quadrant diagram in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is mentally tattooed on my forehead. A look in the mirror reminds me: Am I focused on the correct quadrant? Several clients report that Getting Things Done, by David Allen, has dramatically changed their daily productivity.

So…what do you read every year, especially in January, to keep yourself and your team members focused on Priority #1? Try Tracy’s book. You can read it in about 90 minutes (117 pages)—and the 21 short chapters with two “Eat That Frog!” next steps are perfect for a weekly “Procrastinators Anonymous” self-help meeting. 

“Hi. My name is John and I’m a procrastinator. Please pass the donuts.”

If you’ve conquered procrastination, you will still find the 21 strategies valuable—especially as you coach others. “One strategy might be effective in one situation and another might apply to another task. All together, these 21 ideas represent a smorgasbord of personal effectiveness techniques that you can use at any time, in any order or sequence that makes sense to you at the moment.”

The one-liners are memorable—and poster-worthy:

   --“Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.”
   --“Just find out what other successful people do and do the same things until you get the same results. Learn from the experts.”
   --“One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.”
   --“Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure it is leaning against the right building.” (Stephen Covey)
   --“It only takes about 10 to 12 minutes for you to plan out your day, but this small investment of time will save you up to two hours (100 to 120 minutes) in wasted time and diffused effort throughout the day.”
   --“Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.”
   --“Time management is really life management, personal management. It is really taking control of the sequence of events.”

Idea: buy a dozen books to share with your team members. Delegate to a point person who will recruit people for five-minute chapter summaries at each of your next 21 staff meetings.

To order this book directly from Amazon, click on the title for Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, by Brian Tracy. (And thanks to Bob Neill for this excellent recommendation!)

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:

1) Somehow, we always get payroll out on time!  Brian Tracy’s Law of Forced Efficiency says, “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” How effectively do you manage your time?

2) Myth-buster! The author writes, “Under the pressure of deadlines, often self-created through procrastination, people suffer greater stress, make more mistakes, and have to redo more tasks than under any other conditions.” Have you believed the myth that you’re more productive under deadline pressures?

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We Are NOT a Family! - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

One of the big ideas in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is that leadership and management is complicated—and you need to balance all three legs of the three-legged stool: Cause, Community and Corporation.

I noticed an organization’s website recently that described their staff and board as a “family.”  Oops! That works for a while (and wouldn’t it be wonderful?), until someone in the family (Community) gets fired (Corporation) because the team member, for example, was activity-driven versus results-driven (Cause). 

Effective leaders maintain a delicate balance of all three legs on the stool—not just the family (Community) leg—and to ignore the other two legs invites more complicated problems sooner or later.

Here's Your Lifelong-Learning Filing System! For a list of the 20 buckets (core competencies) grouped under the three legs of Cause, Community and Corporation, visit the website to download a 14-page PDF with the 20 buckets and 82 balls (action steps.)

MORE RESOURCES:

• BLOG: Pails in Comparison
• SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
• JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon 
• WEBSITE: Management Buckets
• BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations

NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom

 

Issue No. 421 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting  (Dec. 9, 2019) suggests a Christmas gift for your board members, CEO, and senior team members—and just in time—since Dan Busby and John Pearson, apparently, can’t stop writing books!  And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies). Two Things You Should Never Joke About! Looking for a Christmas gift for your organization’s board members, CEO, or senior team members? We’re a tad biased, but co-author Dan Busby and I recommend our latest book, More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! More Lessons features 40 short insights for enriching effectiveness and excellence in the boardroom—and practical wisdom for addressing those elephants in the boardroom that no one wants to talk about! While all 40 lessons, we believe, are worthy of your time and reflection, we do have some favorite chapters. My top-two picks would be the wisdom we passed along from Olan Hendrix: • Lesson 32: There Are Two Things You Should Never Joke About—#1: Prayer • Lesson 33: There Are Two Things You Should Never Joke About—#2: Fundraising On fundraising, Olan Hendrix recounts a time he accompanied a client on a donor call. “This Christian leader had a worthwhile cause and many friends, but wasn’t raising any money. I wanted to find out why. “After exchanging pleasantries with the donor, he began making jokes about the fact that he was there to ask for money. I had discovered his problem! Perhaps he was covering up his nervousness about asking for money, but flippancy is never a good substitute for sincerity.” Hendrix, who served as the first president of ECFA, concluded, “I want a part of my legacy to be that I helped God’s servants to see fundraising not as something to joke about or apologize for, but as a noble and vital part of ministry.” No Joke! You’ve likely been at a meal when someone announces, “the last one with your thumb up says grace.” Hendrix shares another lesson learned when a search committee rejected a candidate who “made light of prayer.” When I first heard Olan share this with a group of young leaders—it immediately changed my thinking and my behavior. Yikes. You’ll find that More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom will challenge and change board member thinking about dozens of boardroom behaviors and elephants: • Lesson 1: Two Stories—The Board and the Bachelor Farmer and $1.5 Billion Worth of Burger Blessings • Lesson 4: Guarding Your CEO’s Soul • Lesson 5: Dashboards Are Not a Secret Sauce for Sound Governance • Lesson 8: What If Your CEO Is Hit by a Bus? You’ll appreciate the short lessons in 10 major categories, including: Nominees for the Board Member Hall of Fame, Boardroom Bloopers, Boardroom Time-Wasters, Trouble-Makers and Truth-Tellers, and Boardroom Worst Practices. Examples: • Lesson 9: Just Do One Thing a Month • Lesson 13: Caution! Understand the Governance Pendulum Principle • Lesson 16: Looking for Consensus But Finding Division • Lesson 17: Botched Executive Sessions Are Not Pretty • Lesson 18: Warning! Résumé-Builders Make Lousy Board Members In our first book in this series, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings, we encouraged boards to allocate a “10 Minutes for Governance” slot at every board meeting—to fan the flame of lifelong learning. Many boards are now doing that—and these short lessons are perfect for 10-minute segments (five minutes of content and five minutes of discussion): • Lesson 24: Should Most Standing Committees Stand Down? • Lesson 27: Address Absentee Board Member Syndrome • Lesson 35: Leverage the 80/20 Rule in the Boardroom • Lesson 39: Identify Your Key Assumptions In Lesson 39, we quote Donald Rumsfeld, “Meetings are a good place to discover whether an organization might be suffering from groupthink. If everyone in the room seems convinced of the brilliance of an idea, it may be a sign that the organization would benefit from more dissent and debate.” The Boardroom Lesson: “Identify your key assumptions so your inaccurate premises don’t lead to inaccurate conclusions and colossal flops! Invest time in assessing the validity of your assumptions—and asking for advice and counsel from others. Expect God to lead you to colleagues, acquaintances, and even experts who will give you feedback on your ministry’s important plans and your assumptions about those plans.” We encourage you to order copies for your board members, CEO, and senior team members and consider how to leverage one lesson at every board meeting and/or 10 or more lessons at your next board retreat. Watch for the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” posts by 40 guest bloggers beginning on January 8, 2020. Visit the “More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom Blog” here to subscribe. To order from Amazon, click on the title for More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! by Dan Busby and John Pearson.    Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) “Defending Risks Everywhere Is Not a Strategic Plan,” Lesson 28 in More Lessons, warns that you must discuss the “risk elephant in the boardroom.” How effectively do our board, CEO, and senior team encourage “elephant discussions?” Is dissent and debate a value—or is conformity a boardroom value? 2) Lesson 26 cautions that “Ministry boards have a natural gravitational pull towards issues that should be reserved for the staff.” Does our board understand the “Big Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand” metaphor for keeping discussion at high levels? Should we invest 10 minutes for governance on Lesson 26 at our next board meeting?  Invest “10 Minutes for Governance” at Every Board Meeting Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook  One of the big ideas in the Board Bucket, Chapter 14, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to continue “dating” board members after you’ve recruited them to the board. Inspire board members to be lifelong learners. After all, we do appreciate airline pilots and surgeons who are also lifelong learners! “Tool #19: Ten Minutes for Governance” in the new resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board (also by Busby and Pearson), provides a template and ideas for reminding board members that “good governance does not happen by osmosis. It happens only with intentionality, training, and keeping critical governance topics (like focusing on policy, not operations) on everyone’s radar.” The book provides access to 22 Word documents you can customize for your board’s unique needs. (Follow the blog on the 22 tools here.) For more resources in the Board Bucket, and links to the four governance books by Dan Busby and John Pearson, click here.                    JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). And watch for John’s review of the new book by Doug Fields and Jason Pearson, This. Customizable Journal: 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love.   40 SHORT LESSONS Click here to order the first book in the Lessons series, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings (2nd Edition),  by Dan Busby and John Pearson. NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA Tools and Templates Blog Click here to read John's new blog series on 22 downloadable tools and templates for effective board governance, including this post on a simple two-page checklist, "Tool #7: The Board's Annual Legal Audit." MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  •WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations

The Imperfect CEO

 

Issue No. 680 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 19, 2026) invites you to make the climb up four peaks to organizational health. Must-read: The Imperfect CEO—just published today. Plus, click here for back issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my recent review of I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything. Jim Brown writes in The Imperfect CEO: “The first two peaks—Collaborative Culture and Leadership Accountability—take you a long way. But if you miss the next peak, you’ll be stepping off a cliff.” (See Peak #3 of 4: Strategic Momentum.) [Graphic: ChatGPT]   “What you see as strong leadership, younger staff sometimes see as controlling…” I was hooked—right from the get-go. (Who reads a book’s foreword, anyway?) Yet...in the foreword, Stephen M.R. Covey writes that Jim Brown, author of The Imperfect CEO, “has a gift for making complex things simple.” Also, “He teaches principles without arrogance, and he’s relevant without the ego.” Covey’s seven-page high-five is clearly one of the most compelling book forewords I have ever read. He adds, “The world is desperately in need of leaders who are less interested in looking good and more interested in doing good.” He urges all imperfect leaders (that’s you and me) to read this powerful book.   The Imperfect CEO:  Making the Climb to Organizational Health by Jim Brown   Jim Brown writes, “The idea that an organization ought to be healthy has progressed from a novel concept to an undeniable imperative. No one wants their company to be ‘unhealthy,’ yet thousands of businesses continue to operate with painful and preventable imperfections.” Raise your hand if you know any imperfect CEOs, leaders, managers, team members, board members, and customers! (I’m in that group—and I just learned I should re-title one of my books. Mastering Mistaking-Making will now be called Mastering Learning Moments. Brilliant!) For your next weekly staff meeting (with coffee and bagels): POP QUIZ! Your assignment: Discover “the four peaks” that your organization or company must climb to be healthy. What are the four? Illustrate with three bullet points for each peak. And then describe how you will communicate this in a book with no more than 160 pages (plus notes, etc.). Do not read the rest of this email! ANSWERS! How about a business fable—a compelling story—that sounds a lot like your shop? In about 100 pages, we meet the six members of the executive leadership team of EVaant, including David, the CEO, and Carmen, the Chief People Officer. We also meet Jorge, the Chief Revenue Officer—but then he quits in a big huff! And (does this sound familiar?)…the CEO admits, “Clearly, we had the wrong guy—I picked the wrong guy—and that was costing us more than we imagined.” THE FABLE. I love business fables because I can remember the story and the relatable characters (and some are definitely characters). Think about what we learned from The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, by Ken Blanchard, and The Motive, by Patrick Lencioni. (Also, those memorable stories—parables—told by Jesus!) Spoiler Alert! Picture this: David, the CEO, is meeting with his board chair, Maria, and another board member, Dennis. (Not a pretty picture, because Maria is not pleased.) It’s a difficult conversation, but David is growing as a leader.  “David took it in. Part of him was defensive. But he wanted to be sure not to miss what the learning could be. He was pushing back against his default to defend. Replace judgment with curiosity, he told himself. ‘Tell me more,’ he said sincerely.” THESE FOUR PEAKS WILL PREACH! #1. Collaborative Culture (“the essential core”). The chapter, “Teamwork Can Be Tough,” spotlights the struggle to create a Collaborative Culture (one of the four peaks). The “heated exchange” between promises made by sales and the impossible deadlines foisted upon the production team—well, you’ve been there. Can this be fixed?  The five “Coaching Questions” and five “Exercises” in this chapter are gutsy. Example: “Reflect on a time when you prioritized your department’s goals over the organization’s collective goals.” The recommended exercise: develop a “Collaboration Charter” for your leadership team. Note: Gratefully, Brown does not just inspire and motivate—he gives away the store. The book is filled with “Coaching Highlight” notations—and links to online resources. #2. Leadership Accountability (“the pivot point”). I’m so tired of hearing CEOs and other leaders apologize to the media for their missteps with the well-worn PR answer, “I will be holding myself accountable.” (My opinion: that’s meaningless. Don’t say that!) In Brown’s business fable, instead, we get a realistic view of what leadership accountability—as a team—looks like. Read why accountability can be framed as “leadership homework.” By the way—the four peaks on the climb to organizational health DO NOT magically appear after the leader comes down from the mountain with staff marching orders. You’ll love the give-and-take (disagreement, wrestling, strong opinions) that emerges as the CEO shuts-his-mouth and steps back to allow everyone to engage—as the four peaks slowly emerge. (This is a brilliant story.) Early in the fable, Carmen takes a risk and tells her CEO, “I think you’re accustomed to speaking to your employees with confidence and clarity and having them appreciate your leadership authority.” Then she paused and continued, “In case you haven’t noticed, the world changed. Confidence and clarity are often seen by Gen Zs and millennials as if you think you know it all and that you get to order people around. What you see as strong leadership, younger staff sometimes see as controlling—and they make up most of this company.” #3. Strategic Momentum (“the rudder”). The three bullet points:    • Clear strategy    • Sustainable profitability    • Proactive adaptability Discussing the “proof of a good strategy,” the author quotes Ken Blanchard and Peter Drucker in the same paragraph. That’s a TwoFer! I named Blanchard, Drucker, Lencioni, and Jim Collins to my “Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends” list. Similar to Jim Brown’s book, The Imperfect Board Member (I named this one of 18 “best board books”), the fable and the model are applicable both for nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies. “For an organization to be healthy, it has to be fruitful.”    Two-Thumbs-Up! Carmen, the Chief People Officer notes, “I love how some people say that nonprofits should stop labeling themselves by what they aren’t and start declaring what they are—‘for-impact’ rather than ‘not-for-profit.’ So Strategic Momentum for them would be about the impact they’re making in the world.” (Or…as others have said, “Nonprofit is a tax designation, not a management philosophy.”) #4. Talent Magnetism (“the beacon”). In “The Model,” the second part of the book, I found my favorite chapter, “Talent Magnetism.” Brown lists seven “Case in Point” examples of the talent magnetism principles, including:    • An Australian software company features “ShipIt” days when staff “are encouraged to set aside their regular tasks for 24 hours to tackle any project that excites them.” (And yes…it includes a show-and-tell segment.)    • Mastercard encourages “reverse mentoring programs, where senior leaders pair with young leaders to learn about emerging trends and new technologies.”    • And the unorthodox interview settings that Southwest Airlines uses to discern the core values of applicants—how they’ll really react in real life.  There’s More!    • The Two-Minute Rule. “Encourage team members to take collaborative actions that can be completed in two minutes or less."    • Read why Jimmy Mellado, Compassion International CEO, says The Imperfect CEO is “a must-read,” and why Jay Bransford, CEO of Best Christian Workplaces, writes, “This book doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff.”    • You’ll appreciate the CEO’s “learning moments” with his grandson—which may prompt you to read the book, The Neurodiversity Edge (see my review).    • Accountability Exercise: “Pick a recent costly misstep. Map out who was consulted before the decision. Identify whose input was missing and how earlier listening could have prevented the error. Present findings to the leadership team.” Honest! Out of the 50 or more “Coaching Highlights” and “Coaching Questions,” I could easily have selected any 10 statements or questions—and delivered 20 take-aways. (Maybe I should have done that!) Example: “When was the last time you adjusted your approach based on feedback from team members? What did you learn from that experience?" So…how many imperfect CEOs and imperfect Leaders do you know? How many copies of this book should you order? (And as Stephen M.R. Covey reminds us, “The great thing is that you don’t need to be a CEO to benefit from this book! Any leader can benefit.") TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The Imperfect CEO: Making the Climb to Organizational Health, by Jim Brown. (And thanks to the author for hand-delivering a signed review copy!)   BONUS! Free eNewsletters: “The Imperfect Church Leader” and “The Imperfect Board.”   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Chief People Officers, I predict, will buy this book for every executive leadership team member. In the business fable, Carmen reminds David, the CEO, what he learned from John Maxwell: “Everything rises and falls on the leader.” Jim Brown lists 30 books in the “Sources and Inspirations” notes. Question: How many of these books are in our Staff Resource Library? 2) Jim Brown writes: “The first two peaks—Collaborative Culture and Leadership Accountability—take you a long way. But if you miss the next peak, you’ll be stepping off a cliff.” (Re: The Strategic Momentum Peak.) Question: Do our board members and leadership team members know and own our strategy? (Read more: Ram Charan’s Question #5 of 14: Does Our Board Really Own the Strategy?)       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #48 of 99: The Speed of Trust For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #48 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books (and articles) still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. The Speed of Trust:  The One Thing That Changes Everything   by Stephen M.R. Covey (Oct. 17, 2006)   Covey says that “leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust.” His 13 behaviors tell you how to do that.     • Read my review in Issue No. 186 (June 7, 2010).    • Order book from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket “Contrary to what most people believe,” writes Covey, “trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don’t; rather, trust is a pragmatic, tangible, actionable asset that you can create—much faster than you probably think possible.” His content is very deep (character isn’t enough, you must also pair it with competence). His four cores of credibility will preach: Integrity, Intent, Capabilities, and Results. Bonus! Covey (and his co-authors) wrote another bestseller in 2022, Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others. Watch for my review! CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      On page 89 in the Culture Bucket chapter of Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook, you'll find "11 Confidential Questions to Assess Your Culture." Question #6: "We squander too much time in unnecessary meetings." NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. Chopsticks & Fulcrums: The Board Chair/CEO Relationship “The board chair-CEO relationship is like a pair of chopsticks,” writes Michael Naufal. “One is much more effective with the support of the other.” Read my blog post at ECFA’s “Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations” blog. 5 Teasers & 4 Confessions I urge someone on your team to read this book—and inspire your organization to take a look in the mirror. Read my four confessions and my five teasers in my review of The Neurodiversity Edge: The Essential Guide to Embracing Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Neurological Differences for Any Organization, by Maureen Dunne. See more reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog.

NO! A Guide for Busy People

 

Issue No. 418 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Nov. 11, 2019) features a contender for my 2019 book-of-the-year. Why? It will help you say NO more often than you say YES. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for recent book reviews, including ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance. “NO” Is a Complete Sentence!  Doug Fields emotes: “Some people believe working in a church is the most serene, stress-free job around. These people are wrong.” He adds, “Church work can be just as demanding and just as work-intensive as any other job—with the added assumption (from those demanding your time) that you’re never too busy, too swamped, or too exhausted to meet just one more need. “After all, the Creator of the universe doesn’t get tired. And if you’re working for Him, how can you approach the job any differently? Days off? Vacation? Ha! You get the idea.” Then in big and bold 24-point font (ALL CAPS), he confesses: “WHAT I DIDN’T REALIZE WAS THAT EVERY ‘YES’ I WAS SAYING TURNED INTO AN UNSPOKEN ‘NO’ AS WELL, OFTEN TO THE PEOPLE MOST IMPORTANT TO ME.” Yikes! That’s from pages 30-31 of this quick-reading (but convicting) 97-page book by author, speaker, and consultant Doug Fields, on the power of saying NO! The title is motivating and promising: NO! A Guide for Busy People: Banish Busyness and Focus on What Matters Most. Fields, author of more than 50 books, says that he was good at being a “yes man,” and signed on for a thousand commitments that distracted him from “the very things that mattered most.” Today…he lists the benefits of saying NO:    • "My relationships are better    • My soul is healthier    • My laughs are louder    • My stress is lower    • My pace is slower    • My blood pressure is [not perfect, but…] good enough.” Doug adds that “NO” has become “my friend, companion, and my go-to. I never realized how much power there is in a well-used ‘no.” Almost half of the stunning color pages of this 97-page gem feature full-page quotable quotes on the power of saying NO. (It was very tempting to feature those quotes instead of writing this review.) November 2019 Challenge: I’ll send you a Starbucks card if you can read this book from page 1 to 97—without scanning the 40 full-page quotes first! Examples:    • “When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself.” (Paulo Coelho)    • “Sometimes no is the kindest word.” (Vironika Tugaleva)    • “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” (Warren Buffet) Okay—a few more (I’m addicted to “no” quotes!):    • “Part of the skill of saying no is to shut up afterward and not babble on.” (Judith Martin)    • “Focusing is about saying no.” (Steve Jobs)    • “Someone one told me that one ‘yes’ must be defended over time by 1,000 no’s.” (Gary Keller) And how about this one? “No is a complete sentence. It does not require an explanation to follow.” (Sharon E. Rainey) So who should read this book? You? Your direct reports? Your boss? Your board chair? Your key volunteers? Your spouse? Your parents? Your kids or grandkids? At work—consider hosting a “Just Say No!” pizza party for your team—and ask seven people to give three-minute summaries of the seven chapters:    • Chapter One: 1,440 Minutes    • Chapters Two and Three: I Had No Idea…Saying No Would Be So Difficult    • Chapter Four: The Crash & Burn: Why It Happens    • Chapter Five: Avoiding a Personal Crash and Burn    • Chapter Six: Recognize the Warning Signs    • Chapter Seven: Take Action…Because You Can “Busyness is the enemy of depth,” says Fields. This book will help you go deep—and trust me—even if you lead workshops on effective time management (or you’re the opposite—the poster person for procrastination), you’ll learn something new from this transparent and practical resource. Fields also notes that all of us have the same number of minutes per day: 1,440 precious minutes. “Time speeds along the exact same pace for every person on this earth.” But then he adds (and he is very, very funny…): “Theoretical physicists might disagree with this, but fortunately for me, theoretical physicists tend not to read my books.” If you need more backbone to say NO more often—buying and reading this book is a NO-brainer. To order from Amazon, click on the title for NO! A Guide for Busy People: Banish Busyness and Focus on What Matters Most, by Doug Fields. (And thanks to Doug Fields and Jason Pearson for providing a review copy of this book.)   Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Doug Fields writes, “I had to learn that by making everything important, nothing was important.” What’s the culture here on our team? Are we saying “yes” too often? 2) My son, Jason, is also quoted in the book: “Practice saying no to people who only hear yes.” Today in our weekly meeting…we’re going to roleplay a scenario where you’re saying “no” to a boss who only hears “yes.” Any volunteers?!!   With Just 21 Time Blocks, You Must Say No! Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook  One of the big ideas in the Team Bucket, Chapter 9, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is Ted Engstrom’s advice to schedule your week using 21 time blocks (7 mornings, 7 afternoons, and 7 evenings). Then agree with your team and your spouse (if you’re married) how many time blocks you’ll work each week. If your job requires weekend work, speaking or travel (2 to 3 blocks), you may need to take time off during the week (skip work on 2 afternoons, for example). Visit the Team Bucket and download “Worksheet #9.1: The 21 Time Blocks—Toward a God-honoring Balanced Life.” Read Chapter 9 and then affirm your commitment to limit your work to "x" time blocks per week (out of a possible 21). For more resources from the Team Bucket.                    JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). Call Jason to discern if a book in your future would move you closer to your mission. (He does say “yes” occasionally!)    ECFA TOOLS AND TEMPLATES Click here to order the new book, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA Tools and Templates Blog Click here to read John's new blog series on 22 downloadable tools and templates for effective board governance, including this post: "Don't Swallow the Board Myth!" MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  •WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations

The Speed of Trust

  

Issue No. 186 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (June 7, 2010) highlights a best-selling book on the “speed of trust.” The author says you can “behave yourself out of a problem you’ve behaved yourself into…and often faster than you think!” And this reminder, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. IBM Founder Tom Watson, Sr., preached, "If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate." [2026 graphic: ChatGPT] $10 Million Education Yikes. I recommend lots of book. I don’t know anyone who reads all the books I recommend. And I can’t give every book an extraordinary rating.  But five months into the year, I’ve clearly found another Top-10 book for 2010.   The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey (Oct. 17, 2006) Clients and colleagues raved about it. So I bought it, but didn’t read it. I mean, it’s 322 pages, plus the index. Finally, I read a review that hooked me. So I read it. Wow! This is one powerful book. It has the potential to change the culture of your organization. Stephen M.R. Covey is the son of Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People—a classic.  So could the son crank out anything special—especially on a subject as basic as trust? Yes. Very special. “Contrary to what most people believe,” writes Covey, “trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don’t; rather, trust is a pragmatic, tangible, actionable asset that you can create—much faster than you probably think possible.” Covey’s content is very deep (character isn’t enough, you must also pair it with competence). His four cores of credibility will preach (Integrity, Intent, Capabilities and Results). And his 13 behaviors that flesh out the core are stunning, important, memorable, and teachable.  Examples: #1 Talk Straight, #3 Create Transparency, #4 Right Wrongs, #8 Confront Reality, #9 Clarify Expectations, and #11 Listen First. Behavior #7: Get Better. He quotes a story told by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus about IBM Founder Tom Watson Sr. in their book, Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge. “A prominent junior executive of IBM was involved in a risky venture for the company and managed to lose $10 million in the gamble. It was a disaster. When Watson called the nervous executive into his office, the young man blurted out, ‘I guess you want my resignation?’ Watson said, ‘You can’t be serious. We’ve just spent $10 million educating you!’ It’s this type of learning that caused Watson to say, ‘If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.’” So what would it take in your organization to ignite the “speed of trust” so failures are an appropriate part of your culture? Covey’s answers and thinking are original and without the taint of fads or trendy stuff. You’ll read, ponder and remember.  But it’s also a page-turner. Stories punctuate the principles and pithy quotations convict, like this one from Blaine Lee: “Almost all conflict is a result of violated expectations.” You’ll repeat the hilarious story of his parents’ encounter with the Highway Patrol and your listeners (staff, board, family members) will never forget the episode or the core principle (intent). The dozens and dozens of illustrations will ensure that you’ll never think of trust—and the cost of squandering it—in the same light again. Alan Greenspan said, “Rules cannot take the place of character.” Covey quotes a psychologist and corporate ethics trainer who said, “I see a lot of organizations who say they are going to tighten the rules. I don’t see a lot of them saying that they’re going to work to be extremely clear about what their values are, and give people training on how those values translate into actual behavior.” Amen. Covey says that “leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust.” His 13 behaviors tell you how to do that. I urge you to get your team reading and wresting with this important book. TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything, by Stephen M.R. Covey.     YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Covey says that “it’s the little things—a day at a time, a weak or dishonest act at a time—that gradually weaken and corrode credibility.”  Where are we on the little things that define trust? 2) Warren Buffet says, “I look for three things in hiring people. The first is personal integrity, the second is intelligence, and the third is a high energy level. But, if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” What do we look for in hiring people?         Leave Work on Time!  Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit Here’s the core competency in the Team Bucket, Chapter 9, in Mastering the Management Buckets: “We believe that a balanced life honors God, each other, our families and our friends, so we leverage the unique set of talents and strengths given to each person by God. Thus we serve with more fulfillment and joy. We also leave work on time, physically and mentally.” I heard a leader share this nugget with other leaders and managers a few years ago. “I leave the office at 5 p.m. every day, so my staff can leave at 5 p.m. too.” For more resources, visit the Team Bucket and other buckets on our website.   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN   NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. Free Download: 20 BUCKETS & 82 BALLS! [Posted in 2026]: “Master List of 20 Buckets and 82 Balls” is a 14-page PDF—perfect for your weekly staff meetings. Remind your team about the 20 core competencies and the 82 actions steps featured in the book and workbook, Mastering the Management Buckets. Download the list here. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  •WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.