Michael D. Watkins: Your Next Move - Blog Business Success Radio

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Chairman of transition acceleration and co-founder of Genesis Advisers, leadership expert, and author of the essential guide to successful career management and leadership Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions, Michael D. Watkins, shows how to survive and thrive in all of the major transitions expect to face during their careers. These changes include promotions, moving to new organizations, leading former peers, and being part of company turnarounds. He describes the necessity of taking charge quickly, adjusting their approach, and forging new alliances. Focusing on early wins and matching a leadership style to new situations and cultures are also essential.

Michael Watkins is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Thursday, February 18, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Chairman of transition acceleration and co-founder of Genesis Advisers, leadership expert, and author of the essential guide to successful career management and leadership Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions, Michael D. Watkins, shows how to survive and thrive in all of the major transitions expect to face during their careers. You will learn:

* Why understanding career transitions are critical to your success

* How to understand and succeed at the personal adaptive challenge

* How to recognize and overcome the organizational-change challenge

* How to succeed and accelerate your career in any new leadership position



Michael Watkins (photo left) is the world's leading expert on accelerating transitions.

He is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at all Levels, which The Economist recognized as "the on-boarding bible." With more than 500,000 in print, 420,000 copies sold in English, and translations in 27 languages, The First 90 Days has become the enduring classic reference for leaders in transition. Recently it was named one of the best 100 business books of all time.

Michael is the Chairman of Genesis Advisers, an executive on-boarding and transition acceleration company located in Newton, Massachusetts. Previously he was a professor at IMD in Switzerland, INSEAD in France, the Harvard Business School, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He has designed award-winning programs in accelerating transitions, Future Enterprise Leadership™ development, negotiation, and corporate diplomacy.

Michael's new book, Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions, is published by Harvard Business Press.

My book review of Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions by Michael D. Watkins.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



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To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with Chairman of transition acceleration and co-founder of Genesis Advisers, leadership expert, and author of the essential guide to successful career management and leadership Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions, Michael D. Watkins, as he shows how to survive and thrive in all of the major transitions expect to face during their careers. These changes include promotions, moving to new organizations, leading former peers, and being part of company turnarounds. He describes the necessity of taking charge quickly, adjusting their approach, and forging new alliances. Focusing on early wins and matching a leadership style to new situations and cultures are also essential on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions, Michael Watkins, career transition management, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Your Next Move by Michael Watkins - Book review

Your Next Move

The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions

By: Michael D. Watkins

Published: October 6, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
ISBN-13: 9781422147634
ISBN-10: 1422147630
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press









"Dissect the CV of any successful executive, and you'll see a series of high-stakes transitions into ever-more-challenging roles: from individual contributor all the way to general management. Through hard-won experience, the best and brightest get promoted and learn to lead others", writes leadership expert and co-founder of Genesis Advisers, Michael Watkins in his essential guide to successful career management and leadership Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions. The author describes the many different types of career transitions and how to navigate their challenges successfully, and to avoid the pitfalls that can perhaps derail permanently a promising executive career.

Michael Watkins recognizes that every point of career transition represents an opportunity to grow and succeed as a leader, while that same move could result in irreparable career damage. The author provides valuable advice for each core challenge presented by the various career moves that range from promotion and managing former peers, to moving to a new organization or different culture, to being in charge of turnarounds of failing companies or organizations with divisions in many different states of development. Many times in the past, executives found themselves in a new role, with little or no advice or mentoring available to them. This book addresses the shortcomings of the "sink or swim" mode of career transition with actionable ideas for achieving success early and often.



Michael Watkins (photo left) understands that each different career transition contains its own unique problems, career opportunities, and leadership growth potential. The author does point out that all of the various career moves have two major core challenges in common. These are what he calls the personal adaptive challenge and the organizational-change challenge. The personal challenge for any new leader is to recognize what changes need to be made within himself or herself to adapt to the new and often very different career circumstances. The organizational challenge involves knowing what must be accomplished and creating a framework that will describe what is meant by success in that new role. Taken together, these two major core challenges, when taken into account and addressed seriously, will lead to greater success within the new executive role. After these core issues are examined, then the specific challenges of each type of career transition, can be met successfully.

For me, the power of the book is how Michael Watkins creates a powerful set of guidelines for uncovering both the pitfalls and the opportunities that exist within every career transitional move. The author points out that every position held by an executive, at any point in a career, is transitional or even multi-transitional itself. As a result, a leader can develop self awareness and address the core challenge of adapting personally to the new role, while tackling the organizational issues facing the leader in the new job. Michael Watkins goes beyond general personal development and organizational problems, and presents specific techniques for achieving success in many widely diverse career moves. By combining the factors that are common to each new position, with those issues that are unique to each one, the book presents a solid resource for any executive placed in a new and very often unfamiliar leadership role.

I highly recommend the must read career transition guide Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions by Michael D. Watkins, to anyone seeking a better understanding of the opportunities for career acceleration, as well as avoiding the fatal missteps, that await an executive in a new position. Every move in a career path offers the chance to create short term wins, enhance long term career goals, and to establish a track record of sustained and ever increasing levels of success. At the same time, the book shares ideas for the avoidance of the pitfalls that can stall a career entirely.

Read the insightful career transformational book Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions by Michael D. Watkins, and learn the life wisdom and real world observations shared by the author. At the same time, discover the tools that can be used effectively to become a successful leader in any new executive situation.

Tags: Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions, Michael Watkins, career transition management, business book reviews.

Robert A. Cook: Folklore - Interview

Acclaimed animator and graphic artist Robert A. Cook, creator of the trailer for the proposed animated feature Folklore (see trailer below), was kind enough to take the time to discuss his work and business ideas with us.

Thanks to Robert A. Cook for his time, and for the use of the trailer in this interview.

What was the background to creating this animated concept of Folklore?

Robert A. Cook: I have long wanted to do a "funny animal" story, what some might call an "anthro" or "furry" story, but to ground it in as much gritty realism as the subject will bear. I didn't want my protagonist to be a joke; I wanted her to be a complex, adult character, a person-but-not-like-us. I started thinking seriously about this around 1997, but it didn't really come into focus for me until 2006. That's when the last few pieces fell into place.

Briefly, what is the story of Folklore about; (without spoilers, of course)?

Robert A. Cook: Experimental technology opens a door into an alternate universe — a version of Earth where vulpines beat hominids to the tool shed — and an innocent bystander from that world falls through it into ours.

You have created a trailer for e using Flash. Why did you choose that format?

Robert A. Cook: Why did I choose the SWF format? It was Hobson's choice. I have Flash. I have no other software for creating an audio-visual presentation at this time, so I used what I had.



Robert A. Cook (photo left)

What interested you in creating an animated feature rather than live action?

Robert A. Cook: My protagonist, Maia (shown in screen capture: top), has to be animated. There's no way of fitting an actress' head inside of hers, so makeup or animatronics won't cut it. Maia's facial structure sits out in front of her braincase; it doesn't hang below it like a human's, so her physiology demands CGI or classic cell.

I'm partial to the classical approach. I like the warmth of hand-drawn animation.

What animation technique did you use, and what is the frame per second count?

Robert A. Cook: I used a variety of techniques. The still images in the teaser and the backgrounds throughout the full presentation on my website are Photoshop composites. In the "studio segments," Maia and my own cartoon doppelgänger are old-fashioned hand-drawn limited animation. I used reference photographs for my face, so my expressions and mouth movements are more or less rotoscoped, but I just pulled Maia out of my head. It was animated at 12 frames per second.

Are there plans to create a full length animated feature of Folklore?

Robert A. Cook: Yes. That's really how I want to see it.

Any film is a complex, collaborative effort, and with the right group of people collaboration can produce magic: a whole greater than the sum of its parts. I've spent most of my adult life working on or managing such projects. When things go smoothly — and I've been fortunate in that regard — it's a feeling like no other. Everyone falls into sync and pulls off the impossible. It is magic!

It's fun to assemble a talented group of people and build a world.

Trailer for Folklore and Robert A. Cook (above)

Is the trailer also helpful to you in receiving animation and coding contracts or employment offers?

Robert A. Cook: I put up the Folklore teaser on the first of February, so it hasn't been public long enough to tell, but the animation on the home page of my site, "A Very Special Message/Pop Iconography," has already gotten me some work, yes.

Would you be open to venture capitalists, angel investors, or other individuals interested in investing money to create a full length animated feature?

Robert A. Cook: Absolutely.

Are there plans for a companion print novel or graphic novel to accompany the film and are you seeking publishers for that potential project

Robert A. Cook: I would still love to see it as a comics series. That was, after all, what I had in mind when I wrote the first treatment. But I'm not committed to the style I used in the teaser. Frankly it's too labor-intensive, and people don't realize they're looking at artwork; they think it's mostly straight photography. However, I'd love to get with an illustrator who's faster than I am and do it as a series of comic books.

I'm not opposed to going with my original style, but I'd want a commitment from a publisher first. I really can't imagine a U.S. publisher going for it though, although a European, Canadian or Asian one might. They're rather more accepting of unconventional approaches.

How can interested people, possible employers, and investors get into contact with you?

Robert A. Cook: They can email me at racookster@yahoo.com.

What is next for Robert A. Cook?

Robert A. Cook: If things go well, the steps of producing Folklore will constitute a whole series of "nexts." That's just how large projects are. But I have a lot of ideas for animated shorts jostling for first place in my head, and a few of those might pop out onto my monitor before that happens.

I don't know. Life is an adventure, isn't it?

Tags: Folklore, Maia, Robert A. Cook, feature length animation, interviews.

Ethan Austin: GiveForward.org - Interview

Co-founder and Second Banana of the personal and community fundraising site www.GiveForward.org, Ethan Austin, who along with colleague Desiree Vargas, was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions about their grassroots organization.

Thanks to Ethan Austin, Desiree Vargas, GiveFoward.org, and their representatives for their assistance and their time.

What is the mission of GiveForward, and how does the organization help fundraising efforts?

Ethan Austin: Our goal is to provide a simple and effective way for people over the world to contribute financially to a loved one's recovery from illnesses like cancer. We do this by giving users free, personal fundraising pages where friends and family can donate online with their credit cards to help defray loved ones' medical, living and travel expenses not covered by insurance.

What sort of help does GiveForward provide for fundraisers large or small?

Ethan Austin: Whether we're helping a large non-profit organization or a first-time fundraiser raising money for her sister's chemo treatments, we try to inject as much humanity and compassion as possible into each user's experience. Sometimes that may mean writing a press release or calling up a local newspaper to help a fundraiser get some media attention. Other times it may mean recommending a cancer support organization to an individual to help with the emotional aspects of cancer entirely outside of the fundraising realm.

Can GiveForward assist someone creating a page for one person even if that person is not part of a larger organization?

Ethan Austin: Definitely. In fact, more than 80% of the fundraisers on the site are for individuals battling illnesses like cancer.



Ethan Austin (photo left)

What other types of online support is provided by GiveForward when a site is created to ensure its success, especially if the person has no previous fundraising experience?

Ethan Austin: We take great pride in being very hands on about teaching people how to fundraise effectively. We send out an email to each new user when they sign up for the site that directs them to our fundraising blog with lots of tip and strategies. We also have two fundraising coaches on staff whose primary responsibilities are to help teach our users how to be more successful fundraisers. Fundraising isn't the easiest thing in the world, but when people use our tips, they generally succeed.

Could you provide some examples of successful fundraising efforts that has the assistance and guidance of GiveForward?

Ethan Austin: Last year a young woman was raising money for her sister's kidney transplant and asked for our help. We came up with the idea to do a 24-hour Facebook Awareness campaign for them where people "donated" their Facebook status message for a day. Thousands of people ended up visiting their fundraising page, making it go "viral". In the end, the sisters ended up raising over $31,000 and were able to get a life saving kidney transplant. www.giveforward.org/jess

More recently, the organizer of a fundraiser for a young father with renal cancer emailed us because they had reached their $10,000 target so quickly and asked if it was appropriate to increase their goal. We told them it was definitely appropriate and drafted the language they used to email their friends and family notifying them of the change. Just five days after they increased the goal, they had raised an additional $15,000 for his treatment! www.giveforward.org/johan

It appears from the GiveForward website that even one person can make an important contribution toward creating a better world and helping others. Is that a core belief that is held by GiveForward?

Ethan Austin: Definitely. Our whole philosophy is that one person may not be able to change the world all by herself. But each person does have the ability to change someone's world. For instance, we had a user who once received a $3 donation and a $1000 donation in the same day for her multiple sclerosis treatment. She later told us that the $3 donation meant more to her than the $1000 donation because the woman it came from was actually in worse financial shape than she was. To be sure, the generosity of our community never ceases to amaze us!

What is the first step a person should take toward setting up a fundraising site with GiveForward?

Ethan Austin: Go to www.GiveForward.org and click the green button that says "start fundraising". It's a pretty simple process. We like to say that if you can send an email, you can set up a fundraising page.

What is next for GiveForward and what does the future hold for the organization?

Ethan Austin: 2010 is all about partnerships for us. Since the new year, we've partnered with a lot of great cancer organizations like the Colon Cancer Alliance, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation and the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. Our goal is to continue partnering with non-profit health organizations and hospitals to spread word to patients and families who could benefit from our services.

Tags: GiveForward.org, Ethan Austin, Desiree Vargas, fundraising, interviews.

The Second-Half Adventure by Kay Marshall Strom - Book review

The Second-Half Adventure:

Don't Just Retire-Use Your Time, Skills, and Resources to Change the World

By: Kay Marshall Strom

Published: October 2009
Format: Paperback, 208pp
ISBN-13: 9780802478757
ISBN-10: 0802478751
Publisher: Moody Publishers





"Boomers have never done anything in the same old way things had already been done before, so why would they start now? The fact is, they are already in the process of reinventing retirement", writes partner in Kline, Strom International, Inc., speaker, and prolific author Kay Marshall Strom in her inspirational and visionary book The Second-Half Adventure: Don't Just Retire-Use Your Time, Skills, and Resources to Change the World. The author, writing in cooperation with the humanitarian Finishers Group, shares stories and ideas of how baby boomers are working to change the world through missionary work, educational projects, business training, and humanitarian causes around the world.

Kay Marshall Strom understands the strengths that baby boomers have displayed all of their lives, and how those qualities can be applied effectively toward making the world a better place for all. These qualities include flexibility, creativity, focus, and organization. Combined with the vision that baby boomers possess, they can put their best ideas to work to helping build a better life for everyone. The author combines her Christian faith with her clear vision of an improved world, and believes fervently that retirement is simply an open door to a new adventure in one's life. Kay Strom points out that boomers have even transformed missions themselves from their older model of conversions to a new concept of improving people's lives through life skills training, improved health care, business mentoring, and educational opportunities.



Kay Marshall Strom (photo left) believes that our entire lives should have meaning, and be lived in a meaningful way. She shares her experiences, and how her Christian faith has helped guide her toward helping others around the world. At the same time, the author recognizes that the goals and aspirations of people's youth change over time. When a person's working career days end, and those goals have been achieved, there is no need to consider life and its wondrous opportunities to be over at all. Instead, Kay Marshall Strom encourages everyone to discover fresh goals and begin a new career as a person who shares their skills and knowledge with others. With these new ideals in place, the previous ideas that retirement meant an end are over. In their place, the author shares the new concept that another door has simply opened to a different life and fresh horizons to explore.

For me, the power of the book is how Kay Marshall Strom helps to redefine the entire concept of retirement away from that of being an ending, toward one of being a fresh beginning. She describes how the idealism and best qualities of baby boomers can become resources and guides for younger people at home and across the globe to improve their lives. The author knows from personal experience through her mission work, that one person can make a difference in the world, and change conditions for the better. She also includes several inspirational stories of how other baby boomers have initiated second career lives in changing the world. She provides practical advice as well, as to how to recognize and acknowledge personal strengths, experience and future goals, so as to create meaning in the second part of a person's life.

I highly recommend the life changing and retirement redefining book The Second-Half Adventure: Don't Just Retire-Use Your Time, Skills, and Resources to Change the World by Kay Marshall Strom, to anyone who seeks to start a new career, and to initiate or even reestablish previous world transformational aspirations. Instead of thinking of retirement as slowing down and no longer contributing to society in a tangible way, the author challenges baby boomers to rethink their life goals and purpose, and put their skills and inborn talents to work for a higher cause.

Read the paradigm changing book The Second-Half Adventure: Don't Just Retire-Use Your Time, Skills, and Resources to Change the World by Kay Marshall Strom, and reconsider your own ideas about what constitutes retirement. This book will inspire you to rethink your ideals, and to open new doors to exciting times ahead. Instead of withdrawing from the world, the author invites you to embrace it, and begin a second career as mentor, guide, and inspiration to people everywhere.

Tags: The Second-Half Adventure: Don't Just Retire-Use Your Time, Skills, and Resources to Change the World, Kay Marshall Strom, baby boom career and retirement planning, business book reviews.

Breaking The Word Barrier by Marilyn Lerch & Angela Ranson (Eds) - Book review

Breaking the Word Barrier

Stories of Adults Learning to Read

By: Marilyn Lerch, Angela Ranson (Editors)

Published: September 25, 2009
Format: Paperback, 130 pages
ISBN-13: 9780864925473
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions








"Reading is magic for it transforms the world around us, and yes, it can also grant wishes", writes Lieutenant-Governor of the former Province of New Brunswick, Herménégilde Chiasson in the introduction to the powerful and inspirational book Breaking the Word Barrier: Stories of Adults Learning to Read, edited by Marilyn Lerch and Angela Ranson. This collection of intimate first-person narratives shares the stories of adults who showed the courage and determination to learn how read. Each individual is paired with a writer as they tell their often touching stories of attaining literacy.

Marilyn Lerch and Angela Ranson present a series of heartwarming stories of people who were faced by what amounted to an almost insurmountable wall. This invisible barrier was a line they could not cross, as they were unable to read to scale its heights. Through hard work and personal determination, adults who were unable to read to their children, fill in an employment application, or complete a written test, were able to fulfill their dream of literacy. As the stories tell so eloquently, entirely new and previously almost unknown worlds were opened up to the newly literate adults. Better employment opportunities, joyous moments with their children, and new found respect from others and of themselves.



As editors, Marilyn Lerch (photo left) and Angela Ranson also include the harsh realities that face people unable to read in a literate society. The people who share their stories in these essays often faced class discrimination, difficulties in school, problems with money, and bleak employment possibilities. At the same time, they felt shame that perhaps they had failed, and that they were somehow inferior to others. In these inspirational stories, those walls are brought tumbling down as new readers discover their inner strength and courage, and overcome the challenge of literacy. Their deeply personal, and often very touching remembering of the past, and its contrast to their literate present, is very moving.

For me, the power of the book is how the stories collected by the editors Marilyn Lerch and Angela Ranson, and presented by the writer paired with the new reader, have such an immediacy and powerful impact. The personal nature of the stories, shared by the individuals involved, draw a person into their lives, and celebrate their achievement with them. The narratives are not condescending. Indeed, they show the courage and deep conviction of the contributors as they overcome the literacy barrier, after being exclude from the reading world for their entire lives. The heroic action of a person, to accept such a monumental challenge as an adult and succeed, is an inspiration to everyone. No obstacle is too great if a person puts forth their heart and soul to reach success.

I highly recommend the uplifting and often poignant book Breaking the Word Barrier: Stories of Adults Learning to Read, edited by Marilyn Lerch and Angela Ranson, to anyone seeking inspiration to overcome the odds and succeed at whatever they choose to do in their lives. The contributors to this anthology, who had the conviction and desire to learn to read, demonstrate that no challenge is too great to meet and win.

Read the stories of changed lives in Breaking the Word Barrier: Stories of Adults Learning to Read, edited by Marilyn Lerch and Angela Ranson, and share in the triumphs of everyday people over adversity. Many of us take being able to read for granted. These brave individuals demonstrate that such is not always the case in our society. They also show us that even the most difficult barriers can be broken through, and light can be brought into any life.

Tags: Breaking the Word Barrier: Stories of Adults Learning to Read, Marilyn Lerch, Angela Ranson, Herménégilde Chiasson, adult literacy and reading, education book reviews.

Harvard Business School Confidential by Emily Chan - Book review

Harvard Business School Confidential

Secrets of Success

By: Emily Chan

Published: September 15, 2009
Format: Paperback, 250 pages
ISBN13: 9780470822395
ISBN-10: 0470822392
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons








"HBS teaches you to differentiate between two types of income: linear and investment", writes Director of Pacific Merit Ltd. (PML), and Harvard Business School MBA, Emily Chang in her practical and interactive book Harvard Business School Confidential: Secrets of Success. The author describes the fundamental and important lessons she learned why studying at Harvard Business School.

Emily Chan describes effectively how many students attend universities and colleges with the intention and expectation of finding a good paying job. The author points out that this concept may work for many people, but contains no guarantees, especially in today's difficult economy, increasing job cutbacks, and rising unemployment. For Emily Chan, the power of investment income was underlined her while attending Harvard. While linear employment income ends with a job loss, investment income continues regardless of outside income streams. The author describes HBS students as viewing jobs as a means to end, and not the goal in and of themselves. Having money work for you, as your ultimate employee, is a more effective means of increasing personal income and wealth.



Emily Chan (photo left) writes that she learned three critical core skills while at Harvard Business School. The first of the three concepts is to think analytically whether the problem is career management or studying in depth how to improve an organization. The second crucial skill is the ability to communicate ideas clearly and effectively either inside or outside of the organization. The third core skill is the ability to network, meet people, and help them to help you to succeed. With these basic building blocks in place, the author believes anyone can achieve their goals. She found Harvard to be an excellent place to learn, practice, and develop all three of these abilities that she carried forward into her career.

For me, the power of the book is how Emily Chan provides a clear eyed and results oriented approach to her analysis of her Harvard Business School education. She shares her straightforward approach to employment as a means to an end, while recognizing that investment income is an additional road to wealth. The author advises against following the crowd, and recommends taking a more individual goal based approach to investments. Through a disciplined saving plan, carefully managing risk, and understanding the real difference between speculation and investment, a wealth building plan can be executed effectively. The author bolsters her ideas through interesting examples from Harvard case studies and her personal business experience. While not delving deeply into any one concept, Emily Chan provides a comprehensive big picture overview of her educational experiences, as another one of her approaches to career building success.

I highly recommend the very readable and lively book Harvard Business School Confidential: Secrets of Success by Emily Chan, to anyone seeking to add the knowledge and ideas taught at the Harvard School of Business to their own careers and wealth creation plans. The book teaches the secrets that are usually only shared with Harvard Business School Students, providing a rare glimpse into the ideas and ways of thinking that make that school's graduates so successful.

Read the pragmatic and easy to understand book Harvard Business School Confidential: Secrets of Success by Emily Chan, and discover how to put the best wealth building, risk management, and career building ideas from Harvard to work for you. The concepts presented in the book will help you become more successful in your career, business, and in life.

Tags: Harvard Business School Confidential: Secrets of Success, Emily Chan, career and investment planning, business book reviews.