"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." - Colin Powell (Secretary of State; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) 
 

Tim's Recommended Reading List!

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries by Peter Sims.  

Brilliant new book explains how Pixar, HP, Chris Rock and Frank Geary achieve innovation miracles by completing small projects, gathering little wins and learning a little from a lot of people.  Will help you rethink what it means to invent solutions.

Switch: How To Change When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath

This brand new book offers insight about how to change organizations and business processes.  Offers a rare glimpse into how humans successfully adapt to new environments. 

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates People by Dan Pink

Great new book that reveals research that contradicts the notion that people are motivated by making money. The next generation, as well as many of us, work for more: Self-­‐Direction, Mastery and Purpose.  Great insight for managers/owners.  

Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson

Unusually formatted book on innovation, reinvention and staying ahead of the winding curve.  Offers simple to profound chunks of Twitter-­‐generation styled ideas on how to improve your business and connect with people.

Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When The Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson.

This helpful book offers insight on how to deal with the tough conversations that we must face at work, meetings or at home. More than ever, CEOs to board members need good tools dealing with others without hurting relationships – or giving in to get along!

Multipliers by Liz Wiseman

Great managers multiply their people’s abilities.  They stretch them.  Poor manages diminish people’s talents, and hoard resources to compensate. This is the simple, but business urgent message of Wiseman (form HR-­‐whiz @ Oracle) in Multipliers. She offers several great ways you can create a ‘great place to grow.’

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Exciting News.....The Blue Ridge Website is up and running!  Please take the time to navigate through our new site.  Why not enroll while you are here!

We are so excited about the tremendous keynotes coming to our conference on October 12-14, 2011. The theme this year is “Leadership Essentials”. Dr. Randy Ross, CEO of Enthusiasm, Inc. will be kicking us off with a positive message entitled, “Leadership: Prevailing Under the Pressure of Performance”. Check out one of his coaching video clips at the following address: http://teamenthusiasm.com/#/coaching_clips for a taste of what’s to come at the conference.

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Welcome to the inaugural post of the Blue Ridge Blog! Rise to the challenge…sign up for our blog and get conference updates, thoughts on leadership topics, and more. We want to stay in contact with our Blue Ridge friends and continue the leadership discussions started during the fall.