February Read/3

Title: It’s Not the How or the What but the Who: Succeed by Surrounding Yourself with the Best

Author: Fernanadez Araoz, Claudio

Call Number: 658.3 F363I 2014

Subjects: Personnel Management; Employee—Recruiting; Employee Selection; Organizational Effectiveness

Number of Pages: 244

ISBN: 9781625271525

Book Description (from amazon.com):

            Why surround yourself with the best? Because it matters—in all aspects of life.
In fact, in professional environments, getting people right—what global leadership authority Claudio Fernández-Aráoz calls “the art of great ‘who’ decisions”—marks the difference between success and failure. To thrive, you need to identify those with the highest potential, get them in your corner and on your team, and help them grow. Yet surprisingly very few of us are able to meet that challenge.
This series of short and engaging essays outlines the obstacles to great “who” decisions and offers solutions to address them in a systematic way. Drawing from several decades of experience in global executive search and talent development, as well as the latest management and psychology research, Fernández-Aráoz offers wisdom and practical advice to improve the choices we make about employees and mentors, business partners and friends, top corporate leaders and even elected officials.
The personal stories and cutting-edge studies described in the book will help you understand both your own failings and the external forces commonly at play in staffing decisions. The author shares concrete recommendations on how to select the best people, bring out their strengths, foster collective greatness in the groups you’ve assembled, and create not only better organizations but also a better society.
Starting with the cases of Amazon pioneer Jeff Bezos and Brazilian tycoon Roger Agnelli and continuing with individual and corporate examples from around the world, Fernández-Aráoz paints a vivid picture of what great “who” decisions look like and presents a fresh and commanding argument about why they matter more than ever today.

My Read:

            ‘Success is rooted in relationships, in the people around you…in order to succeed, it’s not the how or the what but the who.”-page 5 This saying bears some truth in life. Sometimes a good way to learn about a person is to know whom s/he hangs out with the most. Isn’t there a saying “Birds of the same feathers flock together?”

            “’At most companies, people spend 2 percent of their time recruiting and 75 percent managing their recruiting mistakes.’ It happens in life with poorly chosen friends and romantic partners, as well as at the office.” –page 24 This saying is worth of our time to ponder and reflect upon.

            “Candor and concern for those around you are two essential moral obligations of any leader.”-page 25 It’s obviously true to me.

            Chapter 36 is titled “Lone Wolves Starving.” Are you a lone wolf feeling lonely and alone in the workplace? It’s a good question to ask the self if one feels and consider herself an A player.

            There are plenty of real life stories and cases in the book. Of course, I told to myself, it would feel great to work with A players. An A player, herself, will be attracted by another A player for they would share similar work morals, attitudes, values and goals. If such encounter did take place between two people one would feel an untold spark or a chord been struck with joy. It’s similar to certain smell a hound would pick up from the keen nose and sixth sense. Such joy would arise from nowhere; it takes two to strike. Like two coins; it takes two coins to make sounds.

            Reading this book got me wondered about life. There are books talking about 20/80 rules. I wonder if I could break the 20/80 rule at some areas of my life. It won’t hurt to give it a try, I challenged myself. It would be an interesting year. Let’s see!