"No Reservations" about this book recommendation
From time to time, I come across a good book that I like to share. I often send a copy of the book to members of Leadership OD or share them with my staff.
Dr. Lisa Greene of North Carolina is a founding member of Leadership OD and has received a handful of these books from me. A couple of months ago, she kindly returned the favor and sent me a copy of a book that I just finished. No Reservationsby Todd Gothberg is a great business book for today’s optometrist. Thank you, Lisa.
There has been a growing trend in business books to teach business lessons through stories about people. The E-Myth by Michael Gerber is about a baker who must learn to standardize her business in order to grow her bakery into an enterprise. Fish! andThe Energy Bus are about business people who need to make some serious changes and learn some valuable lessons from some unlikely teachers.
The Fred Factor has been my favorite business book for many years. Every person in my office reads the book before they begin their orientation program. It is about a postman who is dedicated to providing the best service he can to his customers. We always strive to “Be a Fred.”
No Reservations is another example of teaching strong leadership lessons through a great story where Rob is a young executive who is charged with saving a dying hotel. It is a risky move and one that requires a big commitment from Rob and his family. He takes the challenge and sets off to save the hotel.
What makes this book stand out is the similarity of the challenges he faces to ours. I have the opportunity to help a lot of doctors “fix” their broken practices and the narrative about walking into the hotel is exactly like walking into many practices. (pg 17) There are people in management positions just because they have been there the longest (pg 19-20) and there were others on staff whose talents were being wasted (pg 18).
The biggest lesson in the book is the essential need for a well-defined vision and the need to effectively communicate that vision to every member of your team. It really is a big deal. Rob takes all the time he needs to develop his plan and strategy (pg.69). He decides what he is going to do and how he is going to do it. He surrounds himself with a great team, communicates the vision with the entire team (pg 63), gathered input from the staff (pg 42) and instills a system to make sure every new hire truly “gets it” (pg 98).
Along the way he learns that “Leaders are readers” (pg.37) so we are sending a copy of this gem of a book to every Leadership OD member. If you are not yet a member, you really need to buy a copy, or go ahead and JOIN Leadership OD.
-Mike
p.s. This book highlights the value of a good story. Coincidentally, Jennifer Kirby, Senior Editor for Optometric Management wrote a great article on storytelling in last month’s issue. Read it HERE.