entreleadership dave ramsey - executive book...

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Copyright 2017 |Blue Sky Leadership Consulting | All rights reserved

Volume 4

Issue 5

EntreLeadership Dave Ramsey

Why review this book? “Like Dave, I believe that a business isn’t good unless it also does good – for its employees,

partners, and the community it serves. A business cannot have true success without also having a soul. In this book, Dave shows us how to have both: great leaders who are also great people; great companies that are also great families. I plan on applying these lessons to my own small business – I only wish he’d written about them years ago. Entrepreneurs are needed in America now more than ever – but there’s a big difference between starting a company and leading one. And there’s an even bigger difference between a company that’s valuable and one that has values. But Dave has figured out the recipe to being both things at once, and his lessons are invaluable. In fact, my

only complaint is that if he’d published this a few years ago, he would’ve saved me a lot of sleepless nights trying to figure this stuff out on my own.” – Glenn Beck, #1 New York Times

bestseller author.

BLUE SKY LEADERSHIP CONSULTING | 210-219-9934 | [email protected]

Blue Sky Leadership Consulting works with organizations to leverage Strategic Thinking and Execution Planning and we encompass many

of the principles in these books into our Four DecisionsTM methodology and development of company’s One Page Strategic Plans.

Need to grow top line revenue? Improve bottom-line profits? Build accountable and trusting teams? Improve cash flow? Develop

leadership team members? Contact us for a free consultation

Key Quotes

“Real EntreLeaders care deeply, and that is basically what passion is. Passion is not yelling or being wild; it is simply

caring deeply.” – pg. 19

“Most companies yearn for more and better communication. One of the big benefits of having very clearly stated and

written goals is that doing so creates instinctive intuitive communication.” – pg. 40

“Momentum is an interesting and somewhat elusive thing. When you have momentum in any area of your life you look

better than you are. It seems like everything you touch turns to gold, all your ideas are great, and you can do little or no

wrong.” – pg. 82

“Proper hiring creates a good team, and a good team lowers turnover. Turnover is very expensive, particularly in a small

business.” – pg. 133

“My friend John Maxwell, a great leadership author, says, ‘Sanctioned incompetence demoralizes’. If you as a leader

allow people to halfway do their jobs and don’t demand excellence as a prerequisite to keeping their job, you will create

a culture of mediocrity.” – pg. 159


B o o k R e v i e w : E n t r e L e a d e r s h i p P a g e 2 | 7

Volume 4

Issue 5

EntreLeadership This is a book about

1. Building and Growing a Business

2. Financial Peace for Business

3. Communication

4. People Matter Most

What is EntreLeadership? What is a Leader?

Integrity Servant Humble Visionary Decisive Disciplined

Passionate Loyal Listener Influencer Driven Charismatic

“The things you want from a leader are the very things the people you are leading expect from you. You must intentionally

become more of each of these every day to grow yourself and your business.” Pg. 9

What is an Entrepreneur?

Risk Taker Visionary Passionate Driven Work Ethic Creative

Out of the Box Determined Courageous Motivated Learner Maverick

“I do want the spirit of the entrepreneur woven into our cultural DNA, but a whole building full of us would be a really bad

plan.” Pg. 10

“Growing leaders was too refined and calm for me, but growing entrepreneurs was too wild and chaotic for me. So I

decided we needed to grow a combination of the two…and thus the EntreLeader was born.” Pg. 10

EntreLeaders are those who can be:

Passionately serving Mavericks who have Integrity Disciplined risk takers Courageous while humble

Motivated visionaries Driven while loyal Influential learners

EntreLeadership Basics: John Maxwell in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership says that there is a lid on my

organization and on my future, and that lid is me. I am the problem with my company and you are the problem with your

company. Your education, character, capacity, ability, and vision are limiting your company. You want to know what is

holding back your dreams from becoming a reality? Go look in your mirror.

“I will tell you that leading by fear and anger is not leading – it is bad parenting for two-year-olds.” Pg. 12

“So the problem with my company then and now is me. The problem with your company is not the economy, it is not the

lack of opportunity, it is not your team. The problem is you. That is the bad news. The good news is, if you’re the

problem, you’re also the solution. You can decide to grow. Grow your abilities, your character, your education, and your

capacity.” Pg. 12

This is not a business and leadership book that is

theory. This is not a book with formulas based on

research. This is a book with principles that were

discovered by experience.



Volume 4

Issue 5

Whatever is happening at the head of the organization will affect the entire body. Your personal strengths will be your

company’s strengths and - you guessed it – your personal weaknesses will be your company’s weaknesses.

“Once I understood that I am serving my team by leading them, just like I am serving my children by parenting them, I

relaxed.” Pg. 17

How do you begin to foster and live out this spirit of serving your team with strength? Avoid executive perks and ivory

towers. Eat lunch with your team in the company lunchroom every day. Get your own coffee. No reserved parking spots.

Look for little actions you can take that say to your team that while you are in charge, and while you lead from strength,

you are all in this together.

“Something that is really missing from a lot of organizations and their leadership: passion. You cannot lead without

passion. It causes things to move, and passion creates a force multiplier.” Pg. 19

“People are naturally more productive when they care deeply about outcomes and the organization. They care more

about the customer without even being trained to when they are passionate. When productivity and excellence are

hallmarks of a company, you will almost always find team members, leadership, and even customers who are passionate

about the brand and what it does.” Pg. 20

“Passion is so key in leading and creating excellence that I will hire passion over education or talent every time. I prefer to

have both, but given a choice I will take passion.” Pg. 21

Building and Growing a Business

Start with a Dream, End with a Goal “Dreaming is a sign you still think you can win. Dreaming keeps you young. EntreLeaders are always dreaming about what

can be and what is yet to come.”

“If you haven’t been dreaming lately about something new, something huge, and

something better, this is your reminder to start.”

Dream – Vision – Mission Statement - Goals Dream: This is a sign you have hope. It is the lifeblood of people and organizations that are alive and thriving.

Vision: Dreams with more clarity. Dreams become a reality only when you pull them gently from the clouds and convert

them to visions.

Mission Statement: Further clarification and definition for your dreams and vision and assures you that your goals are

aimed at the right target.

Goals: Visions and dreams with work clothes on. Goals convert vision into energy. One of the big benefits of having very

clearly stated and written goals is that doing so creates instinctive intuitive communication.

“The communication created by shared goals lowers frustration because the right hand actually knows why the left hand

is doing what it is doing.” Pg. 43



Volume 4

Issue 5

Time Management and Organization “A budget (for your money) is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Managing time is the

same; you either tell your day what to do or you will wonder where it went.” Pg. 44

Dr. Stephen Covey explains in writing that all of our time is spent in one of four quadrants, things that are:

1. Important and urgent 2. Important but not urgent 3. Not important but urgent 4. Not important and not urgent

Control your time with a To-Do list

“If you spend fifteen minutes planning your day on paper every morning, you will add 20 percent to your productivity.”

Pg. 49

“When you have your day carefully planned, it gives you a plumb line, a guidance and measurement mechanism to

evaluate interruptions and a place to come back to after the interruption if it was warranted.” Pg. 50

Manage meetings: When scheduling a meeting, take time to prepare for the meeting. Too many times we go into a

meeting and wing it. If you are going to invest valuable time and money by gathering people together, have an agenda

and be prepared to present your ideas.

Use technology such as Outlook

Failures of technology in a small business

1. The person who resists technology and doesn’t use the huge time-saving benefits of electronic calendars, e-mail, and great stuff like budgeting tools.

2. Focusing too much on technology to the point that all you do is play with your new toy and don’t get any work done. Yes, we need to understand all the wonderful things we can do with our toys, but we do some work as a result.

Financial Peace for Business

Basic Principles Work

The more education you have, the more careful you should be as you could be so smart that you miss the opportunity to

be wise. Stick to the basics:

1. Do the Accounting – “Most small businesses fail because of poor accounting. They start without enough money,

they miss projections, they don’t pay their quarterly taxes or their payroll taxes, and they run into ‘cash flow

problems’.” Pg. 191

2. Act your Wage – “The most profitable businesses and the most table businesses are those that have avoided the

need for toys or the emotional need to impress visitors.” Pg. 194

3. Debt – “If you have been in business very long you will soon realize that we make mistakes. We all make

mistakes and have some really dumb ideas. If you have borrowed to increase the size of your mistakes you will

be out of business.” Pg. 196

4. Save – Set up an Emergency Fund. “Retained earnings are used for three things: emergencies, investing into the

business, and capitalizing on opportunities.” Pg. 206



Volume 4

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5. Be Generous – “Being generous is the hallmark of people who live successful lives and who operate business

with soul. If your exclusive reason for operating your business is personal gain, yo will find yourself empty

because you are shallow. Some of the greatest joys of becoming successful are associated with acts of generosity

to your team, your customers, and your community.” Pg. 209

“It sounds so primitive and unsophisticated when I state it again, but business is really not that hard. You are, however,

required to do the basics or you will not win. Budget and do the accounting, stay out of debt, don’t buy what is not

needed to make a profit, save cash, and always be generous.” Pg. 211.

Communication “If you want to create a company that is fun to work for, where productivity and creativity are high, and that you are

actually glad to lead, you must create a culture of communication.” Pg. 213

Methods of Communication:

Share the Dream – Tell the Story: Leadership has to repeatedly share the dreams, visions, mission statements, and goals

with their team. As a leader, if you are not sick and tired of saying the same thing over and over, you have likely not

communicated with your team.

“As a leader, you must learn to tell the story of your company and its history. As you tell the story of struggle and

victories to your team over and over you are accomplishing many things, such as teaching the team the value system of

your company as they see how you reacted rightly or wrongly in a given situation in the old days.” Pg. 215

Communication in Times of Trouble

Trouble is going to come to you. No one is exempt, and so deciding how to communicate about it before it comes is

absolutely vital.

Basic methods of communication:

1.Staff Meetings – “When you know what battle your fellow warrior is fighting you can often offer great insight

and connections to your network, and even join in the battle. The loss of one hour a week of “work time”

increased our productivity tremendously.” Pg. 219

2. Static Meetings – The fixed meetings are not only very valuable for productivity; they have another benefit

that at first I didn’t realize. Having the same meeting at the same time for almost two decades has created a

rhythm to my/our week.

3. Mail – Voice mail, e-mail, and texting are efficient but dangerous ways to communicate to your team. They

are efficient because you can fire off a quick message to one or more players. However, they are dangerous

because body language and tone are missing. Pg. 221

4. Weekly Reports – “When something is petty, useless, political, or doesn’t love people well, we call it

“corporate”. “Weekly report” sounds like useless paperwork done by a drone in a cube that hates his job. Yuck.”

Our weekly reports are not written to me/ the team member does a one-page summary of their week, written

to themselves. Pg. 221



Volume 4

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5. Key Results Area – When you state in writing clearly what the Key Results Areas are for the position, you have

communicated. KRA’s are a vital type of communication because we have to continually define what winning

looks like with our team.

“There is no better quality of communication than in person. Tom Peters, in his wonderful book In Search of Excellence,

studied excellent companies to discover their attributes. One thing he mentions is MBWA, Management by Walking

Around. I like to think of it as simply hand-on leadership.” Pg. 224

People Matter Most Leading for Loyalty: “Treat others as you want to be treated” is a core EntreLeadership principle. When you would expect

to be praised, praise. When you would expect a raise, give a raise. When you would need training, train. When you would

need some grace, give some grace. When you would expect a reprimand, give one.” Pg. 227

Quality people – really all people – have a need to be treated with dignity. If you want your team to buy into your dream

and execute with every ounce of passion they have, you must be caught caring about them personally and treating them

with dignity.

Loyalty also comes from fanatical integrity. “If you react the same every time in every similar situation, you don’t have to

put your company values in a brochure, because your team sees them lived every day.” Pg. 229

Unity: ‘’A group of superstars is seldom a dream team in sports. In business, we can mistakenly believe that if we just hire

talented people we will win at business. So, some companies gather a group of talented people and among them are

several jerks. Because t6here are some jerks in the bunch no one wants to pull together, and the disunity more than

offsets what the talent brings, and together they lose.” Pg. 231

Unity, like so many other things in this book, is seldom found in companies but is always found in great companies.

People don’t naturally unify; they must be led to do so. Unity can be created only when the team not only knows the

company cares for them but also cares for each other.

Enemies of Unity:

1. Poor Communication: A team is only a team by definition when they are unified, they are on the same page. 2. Lack of Shared Purpose: If the team doesn’t share the goals of leadership and of each other, there isn’t unity. 3. Gossip: In a company culture gossip will destroy all the good things you work so hard to create. 4. Unresolved Disagreements: this paralyzes people. Conflicts that remain unresolved grow and grow and kill unity. 5. Sanctioned Incompetence: John Maxwell says, “Sanctioned incompetence demoralizes.” Why should I work hard

if he doesn’t?

Recognition and Inspiration:

- Recognition is important. - Recognition has no power if diluted by everyone getting the same recognition the same way. - When people aren’t recognized and noticed they become inanimate. - Where there is no recognition it is very difficult to have passionate, creative, motivated team members

“I challenge you to become more of an EntreLeader every day from this day forth.”

Our Faculty

Peter

Braeuler Mark Wittig

Malcolm Coon

Robert Schmidt

Judy Zimmerman

Andrew Wittig


Copyright 2017 |Blue Sky Leadership Consulting | All rights reserved

Volume 4

Issue 5

________________________________________________

2017 Calendar

UTSA EMBA Alumni

7:30 – 8:45

Houston – Wittigs

11:30 – 1:00

San Antonio – Wittigs

8:00 – 9:30 AM

Future Crimes Jan 6 Jan 26 Jan 27

Then Inevitable: 12 tech forces shape future Feb 3 Feb 23 Feb 24

Hunting in a Farmers World Mar 3 Mar 23 Mar 24

Grit: The power of passion and perseverance Apr 7 Apr 27 Apr 21

EntreLeadership May 5 May 25 May 26

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind Jun 2 Jun 22 Jun 23

Procrastinate on Purpose Jul 7 Jul 27 Jul 28

Daring Greatly Aug 4 Aug 24 Aug 25

Better than Before: What I learned about my bad habits

Sep 8 Sep 21 Sep 22

Ego is the Enemy Oct 6 Oct 26 Oct 27

Leaders Eat Last Nov 3 Nov 16 Nov 17

Winning Dec 1 Dec 14 Dec 15

entreleadership dave ramsey - executive book...

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