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The most effective way to manage change is to create it.

Mention customer service in a conversation and I guarantee you will hear comments such as these:

‘Store ## needs better customer service!’ 

‘The people that work at Store ## are so rude / ignorant / self-absorbed, they had no idea how to provide customer service.’

‘The customer service of at store / restaurant / business ## is terrible!’

In a recent edition of Leading Company, David James asked the question ‘Do Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits stack up’.

My response, given the vast number of businesses and managers I have worked with is: absolutely!

For those that don’t know, Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has sold more than 25 million copies with its teachings quoted by Managers and corporate trainers (including myself) often.

They say it is better to ‘park’ an emotional blog until you can re-read what you have done and look at it with fresh eyes in the morning. Well, I have done that, and I am still angry and annoyed.

When it comes to training staff, many businesses approach the process similar to older, amateur sportsmen, when in fact they should emulate the sports training of their youth. Let me explain.

My physiotherapist told me several weeks ago ‘This is an old man’s injury’ after tearing my calf muscle after a game of basketball. After questioning my training (and having to get over the fact that I am now old), we discovered that my once a week game, accompanied with no training and hardly any warm-up, was downright dangerous to my health. This is a situation i would never have contemplated as a teenager, with judo and tennis coaches ensuring I practised with their ‘no train, no game’ credo in mind.

I know, I didn’t expect to see those words used in the same sentence either! But (Chris) Ashton Kutcher delivered both a surprising and inspiring leadership speech at the Teen Choice Awards that would be the envy of business leaders and leadership experts the world over. Why? Because it was simple, heartfelt, honest and effective. Not only that, it takes an extraordinary effort to cut through the noise of 10,000 screaming fans and deliver a speech for more than 3 minutes without getting a wind-up from producers.

Why do we think this speech was so special and projects Ashton as a role model? Have a look at the video and the review below.

I am one of those people that heads to the Management Book section of the airport bookstore, hoping to find something new and interesting for a flight. On a recent trip to Malaysia, I was engrossed in this book that I missed forgot about the other entertainment options such as movies and music.

Jack Covert and Todd Satterstein provided for me what I am trying to provide for you – a short cut to the great management books for people who don’t have time to read them all. I think I appreciated this book more because it always nice to have confirmation from an independent source regarding the titles that you think make a difference.

With almost 7 billion people on the planet (and almost as many emotions, ideas and differences of opinion), is it surprising then that we each have a different view of what constitutes good leadership?