Marshall Goldsmith’s New Book Rises to #1

Every now and then you see someone who does well in the public eye and actually deserves it. I can’t think of a better example than Marshall Goldsmith and his latest book: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful.
The book is now the #1 best selling business book in the United States, as ranked by both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. It also reached that coveted #1 spot in Amazon.com.
Way to go Marshall! For those of you who missed my quick take why you should read this book, go here>>
I’ll be doing a book review shortly.

The Death of the High School Research Paper

The Concord Review flashes a light on the state of the research paper in US high schools.
Apparently fewer and fewer high school students are writing history research papers.
81% of teachers never assign a major research paper (longer than 5000 words). Why? Because no one has the time. Not the teacher, and certainly not the student.
We are still trying to teach a mile wide and an inch deep. And these days, even that mile is shrinking.
Here’s one way to spread the load: make the paper a combined project of both the History and English departments. One grade, two classes.
That’s similar to the way they teach classes in India. You have three classes: History, Geography, and Civics, each one of them a full class, but your “Social Studies” grade was an average of all three. Same with Physics, Chemistry and Biology: three classes, one grade under the title “Science.” And these weren’t watered down classes. They were tough slogs, all of them.
The Concord Review celebrates “varsity academics.” Too bad our culture doesn’t.
The TCR Institute asks:
“When was the last time a college history professor made it her business to find out the names and schools of the best high school history students in the United States?
“When was the last time a college basketball coach sat in his office and waited for the admissions office to deliver a good crop of recruits for the team?
“When was the last time a high school history teacher got scores of phone calls and dozens of visits from college professors when he had an unusually promising history student?
“When was the last time a high school athlete who was unusually productive in a major sport heard from no one at the college level?
“Not one of these things happens, for some good reasons and some not-so-good reasons.”
Let me add to this: “A nation without a knowledge of its history is like a tree without roots.” Wasn’t that Marcus Garvey?
Or let’s put it another way: If Dubya had written his history research paper in high school, chances are we would not be in Iraq today.

Leadership Styles: Warren Buffet vs. Bob Nardelli

US News on Warren Buffet’s style of open communications:
“Every March, more than 20,000 people trek to Omaha for Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting. At “Woodstock for Capitalists,” as it is known, Buffett and longtime partner Charlie Munger answer questions for more than four hours. What a contrast to companies like Home Depot, which cut off their meetings in less than 30 minutes, refusing to let shareholders ask any questions.”
Now you know why.
Is this the end of Home Depot?
Read about the US leadership crisis at StrategyWorld.org (my newest site) >>