Today’s Book: Know-How: The 8 Skills that Separate People who Perform From Those Who Don’t by Ram Charan

Known as the “the most influential consultant alive”, Ram Charan is a phenomena and an enigma. He is on road 24 X 7, coaching CEOs worldwide. Lives in a hotel even when not travelling. Does not own a house (OK, he bought one for tax purposes but never entered it). He began his “business life”- hold your breath – at his family’s shoe shop in the small town of Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Personally, he does not believe in setting goals. He allows himself to be driven by “intrinsic satisfaction” which has taken him to coaching top leaders (who later became CEOs) for 35+ years and author 15 books selling over 2 million copies.

In this book “Know How” he has distilled everything that a leader needs to know into 8 skills. The 8th skill is not something that is commonly recommended “Dealing creatively and positively with societal pressures that go beyond the economic value creation activities of your business.”

Few quotes from the book:

Nothing ignites people’s fire like asking them to think.

Goals are set at fifty thousand feet. Priorities are set at ground level where you must have the tenacity, attitude and willingness to probe the messy details to think through and define what the most important actions should be.

He had been asking, “What costs can we cut?” He realized that a better question was “Where could we win?”

But even if your positioning is on the money today, there’s a good chance it won’t be tomorrow. Positioning is not for eternity. The frequency, depth, and abruptness of change in the world today means that you will be frequently shaping and reshaping your business.

Happy Winning!

References:

• http://www.ram-charan.com/books/know-how/
• World’s leading consultant Ram Charan shares the secret sauce for pursing passion
• The strange existence of Ram Charan