THE

Strategic
MVP 52 Growth & Leadership Tools
from the World’s Top Executives

by mark thompson and brandi stankovic

foreword by marshall goldsmith
 THE
strategic
MVP
52 Growth & Leadership Tools from the World’s Top Executives

Mark Thompson and Brandi Stankovic

Copyright © 2015 Mark C. Thompson and Brandi Stankovic
All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying,
recording, scanning or other electronic or mechanical methods, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States
Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the authors. While the authors have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they
make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any
implied warranties of merchantability. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult
with a professional where appropriate. The authors shall not be liable for any loss of profit or any commercial damages, including but not
limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages.

ISBN: 0692345205
ISBN 13: 9780692345207
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTs
This book is a collaborative effort harvesting the hearts and minds of our mentors, clients, family,
and friends. Thank you to all who contributed. We would like to express particular gratitude to
our coaching partner, Marshall Goldsmith, who inspired many of these exercises; along with Brian
Tracy, coauthor for Now Build a Great Business; and Bonita Thompson, coauthor of New York
Times bestseller, Admired: 21 Ways to Double Your Value. We would also like to give a shout out
to 99designs for an innovative approach to our cover design; Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates;
Southwest Strategic; and all the colleagues who dedicated their late nights, as only MVPs would.
The Strategic MVP
 FOREWORD
BY MARSHALL GOLDSMITH

What you have in your hands, The Strategic MVP, was inspired by my friend Peter Drucker,
who once shared with us a simple truth about leadership: The job of a leader is to recruit and
develop other leaders. What that means for you today as a manager is that you must strive to
become the best coach you can be, whether you are coordinating the efforts of a small team
or driving the collaboration of a multinational corporation.

With that in mind, Mark, Brandi, and I reviewed 30 years of our work in the field of executive
coaching to find our favorite team exercises. We looked at what is relevant in today’s swiftly
changing environment and created concepts for you to practically integrate into your daily
regime. In addition, we have added thoughts from many of our clients who are among the
world’s top CEOs. Many of them are household names, including Elizabeth Smith, Warren
Buffett, Maya Hu-Chan, Jim Collins, Charles Schwab, Sir Richard Branson, and our new partner,
Alan Mulally. Each of these experienced executives generously shared with us their insights
across the landscape of leadership, from personal improvement or best hiring practices to
advice on how to focus on the most meaningful priorities.

In all, we assembled 52 exercises – one for every week – in a simple format that enables you
to build your leadership mojo throughout the year. Too many leadership and coaching books
settle on telling you what to do or what worked for others. As our friend Jim Collins would
say: This workbook is meant to be put to work! It is designed for you and your team to do the
practical work necessary to take your team from good to great despite all odds—to become
the best you can be.

College basketball legend John Wooden won 10 national championships in 12 years while he
was coaching at UCLA, which was unprecedented; and no coach has come close to that level in
the 40 years since he retired. But Wooden did not define success by wins, or by championships,
or by how many of his players went on to glory in the National Basketball Association. Instead,
Wooden said simply: “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction
in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of
becoming.”

It is our hope that you use these simple exercises to challenge yourself and others to take
your game to the next level, to reach your greater potential, and to become the MVP that you
deserve to be.
 
 INTRODUCTION
Leadership…it is likely the most researched and communicated topic in business, and yet
questions have persisted for decades about exactly what it is, who has it, and how to achieve
it. What exactly does leadership mean? Is it something you do or something you have? Is it
something that you are born with or something that can be learned? If so, what approach
to learning is the most effective? Who does it best? Oops, who does it best now (since last
year’s best example is often disrupted and overtaken by next year’s winner)? What will work
tomorrow when everything in business changes again?

At the same time, leadership is more personal than ever, isn’t it? Your commitment to 50-70
hour workweeks means that what you do each day during your career often ends up defining
the biggest part of your life. What we have found in three decades of research is that the
only way to survive and prosper under these circumstances is to commit to continual growth
in ways that ignite your passions, focusing your energy and executing on meaningful ways to
realize your dreams. Ultimately, from an organizational and personal perspective, a leader is
someone who defines what matters. A leader is someone who can win support for a compelling
vision with a team that will collectively rally to a cause and manifest that destiny.

To help you accelerate the development of your strategic leadership skills, we have simplified the
learning process for you by compiling winning strategies from the top leadership researchers,
coaches, and professionals in the business. For the purposes of this book, we closely examined
the journey that we embarked on with each of our executive coaching clients as we facilitated
their personal and professional development. We collected our top exercises and lessons from
decades of experience, both working with great leaders and also coaching emerging leaders
from every corner of the globe and in organizations from startups to Fortune 100 companies.
We road-tested these exercises for 30 years with the world’s most successful businesspeople
in a myriad of industries to provide a fresh perspective on the application of our tools.

This book is intended for an all-star, an MVP, a person who is hungry for the next level of
growth. When we hear the term “MVP”, it inevitably conjures up visions of sports, and the top
athletes who have that something extra, the magic stuff or mojo that drives them not only to
achieve personal success – but also to help lift an entire team to win games, championships,
or Olympic medals. In business, we refer to MVPs as our top performers; the ones who impact
the bottom line or who can turn around a low-performing team and help them achieve their
goals and exceed their targets. In our personal lives, our MVPs are those who contribute, in
a tangible way, to our success and well-being every day – they might be our parents, best
friends, spouses, children, or teachers. Whatever the frame of reference, MVPs are the people
who have the courage to make the choice to get better every day; to achieve their objectives
and live life in a meaningful way. MVPs are the people who inspire others to achieve success.

In sports, even the most gifted professional athletes focus attention on their technique and
fundamentals and work with coaches who help them continuously hone their skills and
strategies. Name any sport – the world’s top runners, golfers, swimmers, baseball players,
and footballers still work out with coaches on a daily basis. Many of the best have more than
one coach – those who work on the strength and stamina for the physical game and those
who work on strategy, focus, and the mental tenacity required to win. Coaches keep the top-
achieving athletes at the height of their game.

In business, it is no different – the most visionary business leaders seek advice and information
from trusted outside sources to inform their decisions, to help them learn, grow, and gain
perspective that they might not otherwise receive from internal peers, bosses, or employees.
It is critical to have an advisor or small group of advisors who ask tough questions to push you
out of your comfort zone and to help you grow regardless of whether you are an entry level
employee or next in line for the corner office (or even when you are already there). In the wise
words of Pitbull, “Ask for money? Get advice. Ask for advice? Get money twice.” Ok, maybe the
words are not that wise, but the underlying notion of the value of growth through coaching is.

In this book, we are focused on people – the MOST VALUABLE PEOPLE – specifically you and
how to be an MVP and how to inspire the MVPs in your life. The Strategic MVP is a book of
exercises that will inspire you to go all out and reach your destination, but requires you to dig
deeply and to engage in the process in order to fulfill your potential. There are 52 exercises
that can be utilized for your own personal development or for helping coach your next in
command. In each chapter, you will be given The Play: an overview of the coaching exercise
with Required Action. Then you will review the Outcome to evaluate your actions and to
determine if you have met the purpose. Many of the exercises in this book are focused on
personal growth – while others will stretch your leadership skills as a valued member of a
team or when leading one.

Think through the exercises to create your own personal plan. Think big. Close Your Eyes.
Dream. Your journey begins with your executive coach asking you to reflect upon your dreams,
identify what you love, and unleash your passion and energy.
 SECTION I – YOUR LEADERSHIP PROFORMA

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. -Vince Lombardi

In Section I of our Strategic MVP, we are going to take an analytical and strategic approach to developing your
leadership skills as if we were creating a personal business plan for you. When building a new business or
venture, investors require executives to do research, know the market, understand the marketing strategy, set
financial goals, and analyze the competitors. If we utilize this approach for your leadership, we can ensure that
the proper diligence is done and the right questions are asked. Section I will guide you through developing your
personal leadership proforma, or the projection of your success.

Take a moment to think - if you could redesign your vision or life, how would you approach it? Where can you
provide value? Imagine yourself as the Most Valuable Person. How would an organization benefit from having
you on the team? How would your customers build value in their lives by having you around? Throughout
this section, we will help you to find your voice and fine tune your own personal value proposition. The more
opportunities and reasons an organization has to promote/hire/recruit/retain you, the broader your path to
success—and the more you will be seen as an indispensable MVP!

Remember, every exercise within the Strategic MVP can be utilized for your personal leadership journey as well
as a guide to help you coach your team.

 
 Sketch Your SWOT
The people in my songs are all me. -Bob Dylan

The Play
As you begin your leadership journey, it is important to know your starting point, the foundation upon which you
will build your future. Your personal SWOT analysis is a way to determine where you are today - your strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This exercise will help you to assess yourself and your environment.

Required Action
Describe your top three thoughts in each category of the SWOT analysis:

Strengths: The things that come naturally to you, your talents or what you have achieved such as your education,
your experience, or your attitude.
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Weaknesses: You often spend most of your time working on being better, rather than focusing on your talents.
What do you consider your natural weaknesses, things that you worry about that might get in your way?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
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Opportunities: As you consider the future, what are the top three things that you may be able take advantage
of based upon your current situation?
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Threats: Are you confronting important issues that may threaten your success? What things should you consider
as you move forward through the Strategic MVP?
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Outcome
You identified the sources of your achievements and challenges, and now you can begin a journey through
this book that will help you turn your weaknesses into opportunities. Creating a starting point or foundation is
essential to manage growth. You will review the importance of measurement in managing results throughout
this book, and you will refer back to this SWOT analysis at the end of the Strategic MVP book to see if the
situation has changed.
 Discover Your Mojo
We are all stars and we deserve to twinkle. -Marilyn Monroe

The Play
Before you set a goal, it is best to find your mojo. One important ingredient to discover your own mojo is
to know your identity. Who are you today? Who were you 10 years ago? Who is the person you want to be
tomorrow? This exercise will build on your personal SWOT and ask you to examine your identity.

Required Action
Using the spaces provided below, answer the following questions as you seek to learn and understand your
identity:

How do you view your past? What experiences do you remember that make you who you are today?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
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What have other people in your past said about you?

__________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Is this the person you would like to continue to be? If not, who is the person you would like to be?
Why or why not? Describe this person.
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________

Outcome
You find your mojo in the moment you do something so purposeful, powerful, and positive that it is easier to
see your enthusiasm and energy in the mirror. Throughout this book, you will be helping to build your mojo by
identifying what turns you on and what makes you more authentic in everything you do. If you want to change,
you are the ONLY person who can make that happen. You need to believe you can and make the courageous
choices necessary to be that person. Feed your mojo, and you will be on track to becoming an MVP.
 Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett sat down with us to discuss his advice to aspiring managers. The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway,
famous for his claim that he “tap dances to work,” told us that the difference between becoming a good
leader and a great one is a matter of finding your mojo. Everyone around you can tell if you’re “happy
where you’re working,” Buffett smirked. “I always worry about people who say, I’m going to do this for
10 years, and I don’t like it very well. How does that make everyone around you feel?” The legendary
investor thinks that your sour attitude is not only bad for the culture; it undermines your creative energy
  and enthusiasm. Putting off your passions is “a little like saving up sex for your old age. Not a good idea!”

Notes:
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 Fine-Tune Your Professional MOJO
Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own. -Bruce Lee

The Play
Now that you have started to more deeply explore your personal mojo, let’s discuss your professional mojo.
How does your personal identity transfer into your career choices? Do you have mojo with your colleagues and
peers? What are you doing to develop a clear identity that your clients and team can grasp?

Required Action
Using the spaces provided below, answer the following questions:
Am I motivated to do my job? Why or why not? Do I have the ability to do the job?
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________

Do I know what to do and how to do it? What one skill or resource do I need to improve my competency?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

How do I measure my skills at work?

__________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

What action can I take each week to be better at my job?

__________________________________________________________________________________________
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Outcome
You have taken the first important step to outline your professional mojo. It is not easy, but it is well worth
the investment to analyze what it is that makes you feel motivated, capable, knowledgeable, confident, and
authentic.
 Identify Who You Admire
I admire work, dedication and competence. -Ayrton Senna

The Play
Great leaders have role models who have inspired them to be more and do more than they originally imagined
was possible. Ask your boss, your peers, and your team who they admire, and you will hear them describe
emotional moments filled with insights into what they really care about. From our coaching process, you
have learned that the people you admire are a reflection of what you value and what matters to you. In fact,
asking anyone who they admire is a great way to understand more about who they are in an unthreatening
or noninvasive way. At the same time, the fact that you inquired is so flattering that those same folks will
appreciate you more for having asked them. What you admire in others reveals something about who and what
you aspire to become as a leader. One of the most important roles of a leader is to identify the qualities you
admire in others by putting them into practice on a daily basis. Take the time today to think about how those
traits would improve your life and work. As Gandhi said, Be the change you wish to see. Admiration does not
happen by accident!

Required Action
Who are three people you most admire in your life or work, and list three reasons why.

Name of Person: ________________________________________________________________

1
2
3

Name of Person: ________________________________________________________________

1
2
3

Name of Person: ________________________________________________________________

1
2
3
Circle any qualities that appear in more than one of the individuals listed above.
Which traits do you want to embrace? Why?
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Complete the same exercise with your boss and team to identify what qualities define the leaders they most
admire and why.

Outcome
Asking who you admire strikes at the heart of what you—and the people most important to you—really value
without any obligation to be politically correct. It is easy to ask, but harder to implement in your life. The
question now is how will you put those qualities you admire most into practice.

Jim Collins
Jim Collins, author and co-author of six books that have sold more than ten million copies worldwide,
believes aspiring leaders should continue to learn from others. He shared with us, “Level 5 leaders have
a brilliant combination of humility and hubris—the humility to know that nothing gets done alone—that
everything worthwhile is accomplished only when you recruit other people to the cause or to your team.
And nothing gets done unless you have the humility to learn from others.” Collins believes that every
leader has something to learn. Combine eagerness to learn with a confidence to succeed and a leader
can accomplish anything. “I’ve never met an Olympian who didn’t believe they could do better next
time.”
 
 Cultivate Your Personal Brand
Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. -Jeff Bezos

The Play
Similar to the brand of a company, your personal brand is the feeling and experience that people have when they
interact with you, think about you, or talk about you. Do you have an identifiable personal brand? Managing
your personal brand can be one of the most important things you do as you progress in business. What do you
want to be known for? If your personal brand is authentically focused on your career aspirations, then the right
people will think of YOU when the right opportunity arises. Your personal brand should articulate your values,
story, message, and things that are important to you. Let’s examine how you project this brand to others.

Required Action
Write down four words that describe you…in 30 seconds or less. Go!
1
2
3
4
Now, ask three different people to send you four words that describe you in 30 seconds or less. Try to select
personal and professional contacts, superiors, or direct reports, allowing for diversity in your feedback. You are
not attempting to conduct a 360-degree feedback here; you are more attempting to collect perspective on how
people perceive you. Once you have the observations collected, consider the following things:

Are the characteristics different than how you described yourself? If so, how?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Do you like the way they described you? Is this what experience you want them to have with you?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Do the characteristics differ in regards to intensity? (Did you think you are outgoing and they said gregarious?
Assertive vs aggressive?)
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Describe the person you would like to be. Use the discoveries you made in your Mojo and Admired exercises.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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What 5 steps do you need to take to better manage your brand?

1
2
3
4
5

Outcome
Your personal brand is an important part of your MVP leadership journey and the key to your long-term success.
Now, build upon those characteristics and be consistent in your efforts and message. You may have to reinvent
yourself along the way to stay relevant.

Lynda Gratton
Lynda Gratton is one of the world authorities on people in organizations and a Professor of Management
Practice at London Business School. She is the author of Glow: How You Can Radiate Energy, Innovation
and Success and Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces, and Organizations Buzz with Energy – And
Others Don’t, and most recently, The Shift – The Future of Work is Already Here. She recently shared, “I
believe that in the future the means by which individual value is created will shift from having generalist
ability to having specialist ability and achieving serial mastery. Why? Because if you remain a generalist,
there are thousands, perhaps even millions, of people who can do the same work as you do – yet faster,
cheaper and perhaps even better. In the future you will have to differentiate yourself from the crowd,
build depth yet be prepared to shift gears across the course of your working life.” She noted that refining
your personal brand can help you differentiate.

 
 Conceptualize the Future
You will see it when you believe it, not the other way around. -Wayne Dyer

The Play
Successful people have a continuous focus on the future. They think about how the future will change and how
they can be a driving force in that transformation. To create or idealize success, think about how the great men
and women of the ages have thought about and have achieved success. Did they create opportunity through
adversity and humble beginnings? Their success stemmed from believing, thinking, and knowing they COULD
succeed.

Required Action
Imagine that you have a magic wand that allows you to create any future you desire. How would it be different
from today? Use the space below to write your answer, and be as specific as you can.
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Now, if you were earning your ideal income, in your dream job, with focused and success-driven team members,
what would it look like? How would it be different from today? Use the space below to write your answer.
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What three steps could you take in the coming months to build a few of those characteristics into your life and
work?
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2
3

Outcome
Think about how the people you admire most have built a life that matters. Their success stemmed from
believing, thinking, and knowing they could succeed, and recruiting others to join that adventure.
 Ignite Your Passion
You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right.
If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out. -Steve Jobs

The Play
Passionate people work tirelessly to achieve their goals and ultimately, are happier people. In the office, passion
generates productivity, creativity, and innovation. These people are paid more, but they are also worth more.
Are you doing something you are passionate about? Do you know what your passion is? Let’s spend some time
reviewing what creates your passion; it may surprise you. There are six fundamental factors that determine
when passion is present.

Required Action
In each of the areas below, think about the impact on your passion and answer the question.

1. Flow: What is it that you are doing or thinking about most when you lose track of time? Social scientist Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi studied the success of some of the most accomplished and happy people. He asked, “What
makes a life worth living?” Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looked to those who find pleasure and
lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of “flow.”
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2. Failure: What is it that you do not mind doing even if you fail? People tend to define things they do not like
as failure when it does not go well. But people who love doing something usually define those same difficult
times as setbacks or learning!
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3. Free: What is one thing you would do (at least secretly) for free? What is it that makes you go above and
beyond what is required, so you are not so concerned about how much time or energy you have expended?
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4. Distraction: What distracts you on a regular basis? Rather than avoid its pull, perhaps you should be paying
more attention to it and doing more! Notice this also in the people you care about to see if you can direct that
energy rather than avoid it.
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5. Unpopular: Is there something you like to do even if you are not that great at it and it is not popular with
other people? When you are engaged in a passion, you tend to get lost in the pleasure of the experience and
become generally less self-conscious or aware of needing to be politically correct.
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6. Irritation: What really annoys you when you see it done poorly by others? It would not bother you so much
if it was not important to you to see it done well!
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Now, take a look at your answers and circle any of them that appear more than once. Is that your passion? Do
this same exercise with the members of your team to learn more about how to motivate them, or rather, to direct
their efforts toward activities in which they are more self-motivated.

Outcome
It is important to examine both our ideals and our irritants in order to ignite our passions. Listen carefully as
your reactions and emotions may lead you to your passion! Passion is one thing that all high achievers have in
common, and to become a long-term performer, you must embrace it if you want to reach greatness.

Devin Wenig
Igniting your passion refreshes your purpose. Before you bury yourself in all the minutiae of planning or
setting goals, ask an existential question about why you do what you do. Just three years after arriving at
eBay, Devin Wenig was promoted to CEO to lead a historic new chapter for that company. His advice for
leaders, “As you plunge into all the important issues of administration, capital, and systems necessary to
keep your business running, you have to stay grounded in the only major reason you and your company
exist: To deliver better experiences for your customers than your competitors!” Wenig smiled and
leaned on the conference table in his scrappy Silicon Valley office. “You have to start and finish every day
focused on how you’re creating greater engagement in a world where people have endless choices and
distractions.” Understanding your purpose and passion will energize your efforts and every single person
you touch.
 Achieve
If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull the shades. -Tom Peters

The Play
Determining a goal and writing it down may be simple; however, the task of achieving it often seems daunting
and may stop a person from completing the tasks. Below is a seven-step process for achieving goals you can
use the rest of your life. You will go through this process in detail so you can create your strategy for each goal
you have set for yourself.

Required Action
Using the following steps, you will define a goal and create a strategy for each of your goals. Take a look at what
you will need to do:

1. Make it measurable. Decide exactly what you want. Be specific, and make it measurable. Your goal
should be so clear that a 10-year-old child could tell you how close you are to achieving it.
2. Write it down. Give it concrete form. You have already done this! It is important to note that people
with written goals are 10 times more likely to complete them.
3. Set a deadline. You need a target to aim at if you want to achieve your goal. If your goal is big
enough, set sub-deadlines as well.
4. Make a list of tasks. List everything you can think of that you could possibly do to achieve your goal.
As you think of new tasks and activities, write them down until your list is complete.
5. Prioritize. Organize the list by both sequence and priority. Arrange your list in the right sequence by
determining what you will have to do first, before you move on to something else. Organize your list
by priority by determining what is more important and what is less important. Now you have a plan!
6. Take action on your plan immediately. Do something. Do anything. Step out in faith. Think of
anything that motivates you to take action. The very act of taking action on your goal begins a mental
and an emotional process that can transform your life.
7. Make daily progress. Do something every day that moves you forward. Seven days a week, 365 days
a year, do something, anything that moves you a little bit in the right direction. Small moves matter.
This sense of forward momentum will energize and empower you and will eventually make you
unstoppable and irresistible.

Use the following pages. Write each goal and put it in priority order. Then, answer the questions and start
moving forward! Extra achieve pages are available at the end of the book if needed.

Outcome
All successful people are intensely action-oriented. They are in constant motion. They try, try again, and then
try something else. They believe in “doing it, fixing it, and trying it.” The fact is, the more actions you take in the
direction of your goals, the greater probability that you will achieve the goal.
 ACHIEVE
GOAL: ________________________________________
PRIORITY #

What is the measurement?

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What is my deadline to achieve this goal?

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What will I need to do to accomplish this goal?

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2
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5
When am I going to start this goal?
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How will I keep this goal in the forefront so I will remember to focus on it every day?
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 Prioritize
The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes. -Tony Blair

The Play
Now that you have defined your goals to enhance all areas of your life as a MVP, you will be focusing on what
matters most. This step is critical to the positive development in your career and forward progression.

Required Action
Review the goals you have created over the past few exercises. What one goal, if you could accomplish it in 24
hours, would have the greatest positive impact on your life?
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Why?
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Go back and highlight those goals in the previous exercise that are most important to your growth.

Outcome
Prioritize to maintain a laser focus on what you want. This exercise should be implemented as a best practice
across all goals, daily tasks, and future expectations. There is a seven-step process for achieving goals like this
one that you can use for the rest of your life. This process will be highlighted in the next exercise.
 Learn from Leaders
Great leaders are like the best conductors - they reach beyond the
notes to the magic in the players. -Blaine Lee

The Play
Once you are clear about where you are heading, it is easier to break down a series of steps to get there faster
and more effectively. One of the best ways to do that is to better understand how the best people arrived at
the destination you are heading. In this exercise, you will visualize and identify the top people in the field or
industry you aspire to master, and if possible, take steps to meet them.

Required Action
Who are four or more leaders in your desired field or profession who define the life and career you would like
to build over the long term? You may want to revisit your Identify Who You Admire exercise list.
1
2
3
4
What could you read about them or by them that would help you determine the steps you could take on your
journey?
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Is there any way possible to meet any of these leaders? YES NO

If your answer is No, consider what non-profit activities and personal hobbies they may have that would enable
you to see them in action doing something they are doing out of generosity or passion.
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List those organizations or activities below, and plan to attend events or meetings where the people who run
those organizations gather on a regular basis.
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Outcome
Discovering people who are living your dream and have accomplished similar goals will help translate your
vision to reality. Emulate their efforts. Seek leaders as mentors. Work alongside like-minded leaders. Implement
strategies that are known to work. Build your influence. Highly accomplished leaders have lessons or methods
that facilitated their success. Learn from these leaders.

Ruth Ann Harnisch

“I work every day to apply my money and my moxie to the biggest problem in the world - untapped
capacity. In my coaching, my grant making, and my donor activities and organizations, I want to help people
discover how much they’ve got and how to make the most of it for themselves and for others,” stated
Ruth Ann Harnisch, President of the Harnisch Foundation. Harnisch believes there is something to learn
from all leaders. Her foundation funds innovations in coaching, journalism, and philanthropy. Harnisch
is also a founder of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard, the annual International Coaching Research
Forum, as well as the Coaching Commons, a worldwide forum for coaching news and commentary. She
encourages people to identify those people accomplishing the goals you want to achieve, and discover
their philanthropic passions as well. “There is great thrill in learning as well as giving time, skills, ideas
and other assets to the causes you care about.”
 
 Clarify and Conquer
You’re better off living what you’re for rather than wasting
your days fighting what you’re against. -Bonita Thompson

The Play
Eighty percent of your success in business and in life is going to be determined by the level of clarity you have
in your vision and focus. Effective leaders know exactly what they are trying to accomplish. Those who report to
them are clear about what is expected to achieve the overall goal. Now that you have outlined your goals, take
a minute to examine an existing project you are currently working on.

Required Action
Think of a project where you may be experiencing frustration in bringing it to completion. Fill out the information
below about that project:

What am I trying to accomplish? (Be specific. If it cannot be measured, it cannot be managed.)

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What is my deadline? _______________________________________________________________________

How am I trying to accomplish it? (Include specific steps, processes, or methodology you are planning to use or
are currently using to move you from where you are today to where you want to be.)
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How is your method working?

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How is it missing the mark, and what resources or support do you need to make it better? What better or
alternative ways have been used by your organization or others to accomplish this goal or project?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Outcome
The purpose of this exercise is a simple diagnostic to evaluate the clarity of your goal to the progress you are
making in its achievement. It is also important to examine how clear your projects and efforts are to you and
your team. Can everyone independently articulate precisely the goals, objectives, and measurements for the
task? By doing this, you can unearth any existing projects that need greater clarity so that you can combat
issues and accelerate your success.
 

Vinod Kumar
“The more you can look into why your product or service is being bought, you can defend against your
threats.” This clarity in mission and service delivery will help expand the organizational knowledge and
capacity in the future, says Vinod Kumar. “We can’t look at any business as a B2B business or a B2C
business. We need to look at a business as a B2B2C or B2B2B or something else.” Constantly reimagine
and clarify consumer needs as well as the needs of your team to serve them. Vinod Kumar is Managing
Director of Tata Communications Limited and CEO of Tata Communications Group, part of the USD $96.8
billion Tata group of companies. He has been at the forefront of Tata Communications’ transformation
from a traditional connectivity services provider, largely in India, to a global services provider. Kumar
believes that clarity is the key to finishing projects, driving growth, and even pushing your organization
to the next level.
 

Notes:
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 Get Over It
The big bad world doesn’t owe you a thing…Get over it. -Eagles

The Play
Throughout the previous exercises, you have discussed several strategies to focus on what is important and
achieve goals. Now, it is time to free your mind in preparation for the exercises to come. In executive coaching
and organizational development, we work with companies all over the world, and in almost every organizational
change initiative, restructure, or leadership transition, there is a moment where all people included, even the
most evolved … need to get over it.

Today is a new day, MVP. Yesterday’s cultural baggage is from yesterday. People do not want to hear your
complaints or what it was like in the good ol’ days. Instead, they want to look to the future, and want to know
how you will make tomorrow better for them. It is time to move on; however, it is also important to respect the
organizational sacred cows and institutionalized approach to systems and processes. Respect tradition, but do
not be the person that others have to go around to get things done. Wipe the slate. Get over it.

Required Action
What do you hear yourself whine about? Where do you find yourself easily upset or frustrated?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Any places in life that you find yourself referencing the “way it used to be done”? Why?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Based on the items listed, what do you need to get over? How can you implement this change?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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What areas does your staff have baggage they need to get over? How can you help facilitate this change?
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Anticipating your emotional responses can help you combat them. As you build experience and tenure in your
career, culture is collected. In some instances, these learnings allow us to focus our efforts and target our
results. In other instances, it slows us down. Recognizing areas that you can “get over it” will allow you to focus
on what matters. Getting over it is a critical step in building your emotional intelligence as a leader. You are
ready to conquer the rest of the Strategic MVP!
 Sir Richard Branson
Sir Richard Branson is the founder and entrepreneurial mastermind behind the 400 companies that carry
the Virgin brand. He shared with us the importance of getting over the past. Let your mission define you,
not your failures. Branson said that rather than ever feeling threatened or even sorry for himself, he is
always comforted by principles shared by his longtime mentor, Nelson Mandela, whose circumstances
were obviously far more desperate than any of us will ever experience. “Resentment is like drinking
poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies,” Mandela once said. Vengefulness and victimhood
would not erase the crimes done to him in the past, nor would they help him build a better future.
Mandela could have emerged from decades of jail “still imprisoned by bitterness,” Branson said. “Instead
he devoted every ounce of creativity to building a lasting legacy--just as each of us should during our
lifetimes. Get over it and build a great business! You have enduring impact not because you are perfect or
lucky,” Sir Richard shared, “but because you have the courage to stay focused on building a better future
  rather than dwell in the past.”

Notes:
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 SECTION II – INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. -Gandhi

The business environment is quickly changing and in order to keep up with the expectations, you must examine
your professional needs and aspirations for growth. In the previous section, you envisioned the strategic future
and determined your tactical goals, setting the foundation to build your leadership skills. Just like in navigating
a business, once the destination is determined, you can research, learn, and create your route to success. In
Section II of the Strategic MVP, you will transition into your personal development plan. What will it take to
become a MVP, and how can you achieve this next milestone?

There are few opportunities in life to conduct self-evaluation to discover what drives you to succeed. What gives
you the greatest sense of accomplishment, self-satisfaction? How do you see yourself growing, and what does
that new role look like in the future? These areas can be automatic motivators that you can leverage to achieve
greater results. Assessing your current skillset from a technical, interpersonal, and leadership perspective will
help you to determine your individual development plan.

We hope to challenge you to step outside of your normal routine of information sharing and education. We
want you to enhance your understanding, create new habits of learning, and build your value within your
organization. Transform your thoughts into an action plan with realistic steps to increase your effectiveness,
enhance your existing talents, and prepare for career development.

Cutler Dawson
Cutler Dawson is the CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in the world, serving
more than 5 million members with 13,000 employees. During his tenure and leadership, the organization
has grown from $20B in assets to more than $60B, while continuing to make the Fortune Top Places to
Work year after year. Prior to Navy Federal Credit Union, Vice Admiral Dawson served in the U.S. Navy
for over 30 years. When we asked about his personal development and leadership success, he stressed
the importance of continual learning, requiring his team to know their job, to understand the big picture,
and to keep their radar scanning up and down to stay aware of their surroundings. Dawson is also not
afraid to ask questions. Upon his arrival to the organization, Dawson asked a 30-year tenured employee,
“How can I have the greatest impact?” Dawson believes that continual learning is required to keep an
organization and a leader relevant, noting “Loyalty only takes you so far, you have to provide value to
people.” He urges all leaders to not “retreat to the cabin,” a Navy term reflecting the captain returning to
the business office on the ship. Some leaders, as they end their careers or build tenure, will assume they
know everything, and maintain a been-there-done-that mentality. Dawson shared, “you cannot retreat
to the cabin; you must learn and work until the last day you are on the ship.”

 
 Unleash Your Inner Nerd
If your culture doesn’t like geeks, you are in real trouble. -Bill Gates

The Play
For most, when you are young, your life revolves around school. As kids, learning, growing, and developing is
at the center of what you do. Once you get into a career, you might think you can sigh with relief. You are done,
phew! In most cases, that is when the journey begins. Learning is a lifelong task in every part of our careers.

Required Action
Answer the following questions?

Is there a degree or a next level of learning that you have been “meaning to do” or a course you have always
wanted to accomplish?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Can you take better advantage of the conferences you attend? How are you sharing this knowledge with the
rest of the team?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Who do you know that you learn the most from, or with whom you could learn more?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have an outlet for learning and growing? Describe it.

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Name one person who can help enhance your learning, or to whom you should connect to learn more.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Lifelong learning is more than a phrase; it is a commitment to being the best you can be through action, through
education, and through learning. Let your inner nerd flourish. This will help you to determine the return on
investment for your own personal leadership journey. Embrace education as it allows you to enhance your
leadership and position the organization for the future.
 Jeff Immelt
Jeff Immelt is the CEO and Chairman of the board for General Electric, an organization named “America’s
Most Admired Company” in a poll conducted by Fortune magazine. Immelt was also named one of the
“World’s Best CEOs” three times by Barron’s. We talked with Immelt about the importance of learning for
leaders. “The advice I give people is: first get deep an n get broad. Learn something. I started my career
and the first 7 or 8 years I was a sales person, manager, marketer, and project manager. I had a trade,
skills, and things I could do as well as anyone in the company. And then I got broad.” Focusing a portion of
time to learning and growth is essential for any leader. You have to want to better yourself, the position,
and the organization. Immelt insists that you invest in your skills so that you stand out in every chapter
of your career: “My advice is do every job like you are going to have it forever.”
 

Notes:
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 Feed Forward
My attitude is, if someone is going to criticize me, tell me to my face. -Simon Cowell

The Play
In business, leaders commonly use the term “feedback” as a method of engaging in dialogue. The problem with
that is that feedback usually devolves into whining about mistakes rather than training people to do it better
or giving them opportunities to discover how they might even take their skill to a higher level. You get what
you focus on, so the better way to think about this process as a leader is what Marshall Goldsmith coined as
Feed Forward. You cannot change the past, but you can be clearer about what success looks like in the future.
Feed Forward is a positive, upbeat way to help yourself and others define what success should look like. Feed
Forward is based on two key principles:

1. You are not allowed to talk about the past. If you talk about history, then you are not looking forward.
Feed Forward focuses on the future and what you can change, not on the past, where you cannot change
anything.
2. You cannot judge or critique the ideas that you receive. You must treat each idea as you would a gift. For
example, if someone gives you a gift, you would say, “thank you,” not throw it to the side. When you receive
Feed Forward, you are allowed only to say thanks. To do otherwise reinforces the failure instead of focusing
on what you would like to achieve in the future.

Required Action
You will need to ask people for guidance with this exercise. Make sure you are in a location where you can talk
to people, such as co-workers, family members, or other trusted people in your life.

Write the following on the top of a piece of paper: “I want to get better at _________________.” Fill in the
blank with any area you would like to improve. Talk to as many people as you can in 5-10 minutes (no more time
than that) to get ideas about how you can get better at _________. Tell them to write the ideas on the paper.
The more ideas, the better!

What ideas were generated? Capture their thoughts in the space below.
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Outcome
Feed forward will enhance your effectiveness by focusing on what you are for rather than what you are against.
Feed Forward is about helping each other, not judging each other. You need to be open and listen in a non-
defensive manner to create a positive future for yourself.
 Reflect on Feed Forward
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. -John F. Kennedy

The Play
Let’s build on the previous exercise and the fact that Feed Forward is a constructive way to help you and others
create a more precise definition of success. Remember, Feed Forward is based on two key principles: You are
not allowed to talk about the past; you cannot judge or critique the ideas that you receive.

There are two common misconceptions about giving feedback to others. First, people believe they have to have
a deep knowledge about someone in order to provide them with feedback. That is not the case, as you probably
found at least a few nuggets of insights during the exercise you just completed. Second, people believe that
they have to be better than, or smarter than, someone to provide them with feedback; that is not the case. Our
research shows that a fresh perspective from a person outside your field or industry can be rather illuminating.

Required Action
Now that you have been given feedback (or rather, feed forward) from the previous exercise, take some time to
really delve into what you learned and how to move forward. What did you learn from this exercise?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Was this exercise more or less painful than the way you have previously received feedback from others?
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Outcome
You can learn from others and provide feedback based on your own circumstances. Using this process, you are
able to see that, in some instances, someone may be working on the exact same issue as you. Now, set up a
time where you can work with those you manage, or even with your other co-workers, to do the same Feed
Forward exercise you did individually as a team. You will be amazed how much you will gain from this exercise
as a team.

 
 Communicate with Emotional Intelligence
In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels. -Daniel Goleman

The Play
Emotional intelligence is a critical component to leadership development. The ability for you to manage and
recognize your emotions will help you to better facilitate and empower the emotions of your team. Several
of the exercises throughout this book will help you to identify emotions and reactions based on excitement,
fear, stress, etc. Today we will examine how your emotions impact your communication. Strong leaders
must recognize the impact of emotional intelligence on their social abilities and communication styles. Your
awareness and regulation of your own motivation and emotions impact your ability to be effective.

Required Action
What is your communication style? ____________________________________________________________

Do you effectively display, relay, communicate emotion authentically? Do people who are close to you feel like
they know the real you?
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How do you handle anxiety and stress in relation to an urgent goal?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

How long does it take you to calm down after an argument or anger? _________________________________

How do you receive criticism? How could you improve?

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Revisit the exercise Feed Forward. Utilize this technique to gain feedback from people around you to improve
in each of the outlined areas above. What did you learn?
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Outcome
You recognize your emotions, and you now understand how to improve. Sometimes leaders say things because
they want to be heard, rather than to obtain a desired result. Communication is your mechanism to delivering
and facilitating the results you want to accomplish, not necessarily an outlet for emotion.
 Frame the Positive
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. -Chinese proverb

The Play
Celebrating what is right in the world can be an excruciatingly unhip and uncool thing to do. Many people are
carefully trained by safety-conscious parents, institutions of higher learning, and the evening news to ignore or
to ridicule optimistic people. In a world rife with violence and generally consumed by fight-or-flight responses,
where most people teeter on the verge of being upset or angry, it is hard for people to function when they are
not scared or worried. Optimism is a tough pill to swallow, and seems to create an uneasy vacuum that feels
almost unrealistic.

Required Action
Let’s take a look at a situation you have experienced over the past month when you felt particularly down.
Using the space provided, answer the following questions:

How could you have been more optimistic about the situation? Was it possible to turn the negative into a
positive? How?
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Where do you naturally head – cynicism or optimism? Be as honest with yourself as possible.
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Now, what steps can you take to be more optimistic about your life? Your business? Your career?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Outcome
Welcome failure as an opportunity to learn. Stay focused on the present, the future, and what it takes to reach
your goals. Highly successful people tend to see the benefits of a situation rather than dwell on the negative.
These successful people are realistic, but work hard to get to the optimistic view of life as quickly as they can.
Do you want to be in charge of creating an exciting and happier place to live? Frame the positive.
 Sara Blakely
American businesswoman, Sara Blakely, is the founder of Spanx, a multi-million-dollar undergarment
company. In 2012, Blakely was named in Time magazine’s Time 100 annual list of the 100 most influential
people in the world, and also entered the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people, as the world’s then
youngest self-made female billionaire. As of 2014, she is listed as the 93rd most powerful woman in the
world by Forbes. “I think failure is nothing more than life’s way of nudging you that you are off course. My
attitude to failure is not attached to outcome, but in not trying. It is liberating. Most people attach failure
to something not working out or how people perceive you. This way, it is about answering to yourself.”
Failure becomes your opportunity to frame the future in a positive way. Learn from it!

Notes:
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 Build Value
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. -Albert Einstein

The Play
In order to be an MVP at your organization, you must build value. The secret to creating value is to find a
mission that speaks to you as a MVP. When you do, you will have more energy and courage to do something
that other people value, respect, and eventually, admire. It does not have to be world hunger, but it does have
to be personal to you and useful to other people who will hire you or buy your product.

Required Action
Review the four strategies below and reflect on where you need to improve and what opportunities are
available.

1. Do Not Try to Be All Things to All People. Be clear about to whom you want to be valuable. How can you help
them to define their success and to achieve it?
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2. Be Simple, Convenient, and Usable. If you are serving others, are you making it easy to do business with you?
Interview your internal stakeholders and customers: Who do you want your target audience to be, do, and/or
have. How can you deliver that service better than your competitors, in a way that makes you stand out as the
most obvious choice from whom to get help?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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3. Showcase What is Valuable. How are you getting the word out about what you do? How are you presenting
yourself or your services in a way that makes it attractive to customers?
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4. Give a Sense of Security. How can you protect what your target audience believes is valuable? You are
generally rewarded by others when you make it clear how hard you will work to defend their interests.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Outcome
In this exercise, you took important steps toward identifying your value and how it can impact the organizational
mission. Following these strategies will isolate what is meaningful to others and build more value into the
product and service you provide.
 Laura Wagner
“One morning my dad caught found me in the garage after I’d disassembled the lawnmower and taped
it to my bicycle. He could have grounded me on the spot, but instead he took me for the ride of my life,”
Laura Wagner smiled. “I realized that inventions aren’t what matters, but how the invention makes you
and others feel.” Leadership takes heart and soul night and day, so you cannot afford to think about it just
as a job or a position of authority. You have to create and build solutions that make a big difference for
people and also mean so much to you personally that they get you so excited that you will come roaring
back every day no matter what. Laura Wagner is cofounder and CEO of Digitzs—a startup that the media
are calling the next PayPal. For decades she has been making a difference in the payments industry.
 

Notes:
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 Continue to Build Value
I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity. -Oprah Winfrey

The Play
There is much required to sustain a value proposition and a long-term reputation. Thinking strategically about
the future while embracing the present will help you to achieve your desired outcomes. Reflect upon the final
three strategies below and incorporate them with the previous four from the last exercise.

Required Action
Review the additional strategies below that will help you continue to build value. Consider where you need to
improve and what opportunities are available.

1. Define Quality. Your stakeholders may define quality differently than you do. Find out how quality is measured
by those to whom they must report so that their objective meets that accountability. Describe how they define
quality below.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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2. Be in the Right Place at the Right Time. To be available to your stakeholders you need to be where they are.
Where do you need to spend more time?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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3. Dump the Mission Statement. Instead, create a manifesto that is real to your stakeholders and one that you
and your team actually believe. Belief in your manifesto will hold your team accountable and will be easier to
deliver. Based on all the value statements in this exercise and the previous one, what is your manifesto?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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Outcome
You have just created a value proposition for yourself and for your work. Come back to this exercise on a regular
basis to strengthen your leadership strategies and commitment.

 
 Jim Kim
As a physician and anthropologist, Dr. Jim Kim, CEO of the World Bank Group, has dedicated himself to
international development for more than two decades, helping to improve the lives of under-served
populations worldwide. In a recent discussion with Dr. Kim, he told us, “Every leader wants to find him or
herself in a situation where people truly are able to check their own desires, their own personal needs at
the door, and think about the needs of the organization as a whole, but it’s hard. Ask yourself, if I really
believe in my institution, what do I need to do to help it be as effective as it can be in accomplishing these
great goals?” Dr. Kim believes that a commitment to growth and excellence is the creator of synergy. He
concluded by adding that commitment is truly “trying to make a whole greater than the sum of its parts.”

Notes:
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 Read Habitually
The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. -Dr. Seuss

The Play
Based on your value proposition outlined in the previous activity, it is time to read. No really, read. No, actually
read. You are not speed reading this activity are you? In a world where everything comes to us chunked, tweeted,
and bite-sized, you are losing your capacity to focus and to read. Reading is a lost art. The more brilliant the
person, the more able they are to assimilate the knowledge and experience they have acquired and collected.
When obtaining an advanced degree and writing a thesis, the first thing you have to learn to do is exhaustively
research what is already available. You do not need to be quite as brilliant when you have diligently examined
the existing wisdom. Your mobile device makes this information very easy to access. No excuses. Time to be
better informed.

Required Action
Assess the current information that you have access to on a daily basis and think about the most recent book
and articles you have read. Now answer the questions below to determine how you would describe yourself
today.

What do you read on a daily basis?

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How do you go about researching topics?

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Are you knowledgeable in a well-rounded way? Business. Lifestyle. Sports. Front page news? What is the most
recent book you have read?
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How often do you Google the best sellers, fiction and non-fiction? Are you well versed?
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What journals or books or information does your boss read? Where do you need to improve?
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How can you create opportunity in your schedule for reading?

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Outcome
Read for business. Read for pleasure. Subscribe to INC, Harvard Business Review, or your industry’s publications.
Be in the know to stay in the flow, and keep up on trends in your field and industry. Reading really partners
nicely with a glass of red wine and an evening of relaxing. But sometimes, reading has to happen on the plane
or on the go. Clearly you are committed to reading if you are completing this exercise. MVPs stay relevant.
Update your knowledge.
 Activate Accountability
Accountability breeds response-ability. -Stephen Covey

The Play
The most successful people fail more often than losers because they are always stretching themselves and
others to reach higher ground. Losers are risk-adverse, more focused on not failing than on winning. Our
research shows that people who have achieved anything worthwhile over the long term must have suffered
many failed experiments on the path to lasting success. How can you harvest the tuition you have invested in
that last mistake you made? You have paid dearly for it, so you deserve to take some benefit from the pain you
endured. How can you turn your wounds into wisdom?

Required Action
Think of a mistake you have made over the past month that may have let down the organization or your team.
How did you remedy that mistake? There are three steps to success:

1. Responsibility: How can you make it clear you are taking responsibility to get the situation fixed?
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2. Reliability: How can you demonstrate that people can count on you to take responsibility in a consistent way?
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3. Responsiveness: How can you respond faster next time? Our primal brain is driven in times of fear by fight or flight
responses that are great for reacting to a saber-toothed tiger, but rarely useful for stressful situations in the office.
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When people who feel you have wronged them have to wait for an answer, they assume the worst. Even if you
do not have all the answers for the problem that has occurred, it is usually better to respond quickly with the
information you have than to delay until it is all buttoned up.

Outcome
Imagine that you asked a loved one, “Do you love me?” and that person hesitated in even the slightest way.
How would you feel? The longer you wait to do something about your mistake, the more others will feel you
have violated their trust. Show credibility with responsiveness and action, and never be afraid to admit you do
not know the answer right away. People do not expect you to be perfect, they expect you to respond quickly
and make it right.
 Elizabeth Smith
Elizabeth Smith is the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Bloomin’ Brands. Since joining the company in
2009, her leadership has revitalized the organization, both within the United States and internationally.
Smith said it is important for a leader to make mistakes and learn from them. A leader should be able
to say, “I know that I don’t know” and then actively listen. She also stated, “It is okay to make mistakes
and fail but we’ve got to have the honesty and humility to call each other on it and move on.” When she
works with a new organization, she respects the existing culture, but also challenges the new. “I know
that this organization has had a lot of success, and the world is now different. We will need to behave
differently. But I won’t rush towards, how people should behave.” Instead, she believes leaders must
create a bridge and “listen.”

Notes:
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 Exceed Expectation
Do or do not. There is no try. -Yoda

The Play
As you learned, accountability is important to develop trust with your team. Equally important is your ability
to take advantage of opportunity, manage your commitments, and follow through. You never want to make a
promise you cannot keep. It is also important to not turn down so many opportunities, as you will no longer be
viewed as a resource. People like to feel they can rely on you and your leadership, so consistency is cherished
more than charisma.

Required Action
When asked if you can do something, but you are not sure what to do or how to do it, what is your response?
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When asked if you can do something, but may not have the time, what is your response?
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The last time you committed to getting a project completed, were you able to meet or exceed expectations? If
you could not do so, how did you deal with that situation?
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How often do you decline opportunities? Why? What is the reason? Are you limiting your success?
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Outcome
While most of us would prefer to be judged by our good intentions, people rarely understand intentions enough
for evaluation. Outcomes and results define us. People will decide based on your accountability and delivery of
expectations whether or not they can count on you. So when you make a promise to your team or colleagues,
make it your top priority and take the steps necessary to deliver. Also remember to actively manage your
workload in order to fully take advantage of opportunities that cross your path.

 
 Sir Ken Robinson
“For most of us the problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail - it’s just the opposite - we aim too low
and succeed,” exclaimed Sir Kenneth Robinson. Sir Ken is an English author, speaker, and international
advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies. He was Director
of the Arts in Schools Project, Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick, and was knighted
in 2003 for services to the arts. His TED Talks are some of the most highly watched and shared in the
organization’s history. Robinson believes in creativity and challenges the traditional methods of learning
and organizational development. Robinson believes that exceeding expectation and seeking growth is a
way to keep you engaged.

Notes:
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 Translate Perception
I’m fascinated by human behavior and by the worlds inside of people. -Johnny Depp

The Play
It is hard to change and exceed expectations, if other people are harboring past perceptions. Do people really
change behavior or is it just the perception that they have changed? Most of us see the façade or expectation
that you have for others. If you believe someone is a bad listener, you will continue to watch for bad listening
characteristics. It is actually easier for a person to change their behavior rather than your perception of their
behavior.

Required Action
Think of a picture of a clock with Roman numerals on it. What does the “4” look like on
that clock? If you thought of “IV,” you are more than likely incorrect. In most instances,
a clock uses “IIII” as the “4” on its face (see picture to right). Look at additional Roman
numeral clocks to confirm.

The key to making real change happen is to be cognizant of the change you are making
and following up with yourself on your progress. How can you effectively change your
behavior or try to become a better leader or person?
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If you are trying to change your negative attitude at work, and after six months of not saying anything negative,
you put someone down in front of the team, most of them will walk away stating, “He/She will never change.”

Take that same example, and say that you sit with some of your employees or your boss and you tell them,
“I’m trying to change this behavior.” Then, after two months of not doing the behavior you go back to them
and state, “I haven’t been negative in two months. Do you have any feedback for me to help with the next two
months?” You do the same thing for the next six months, and then you say something negative. Now, when you
go back for feedback, they will say, “Just don’t do that again. You are doing great.” The perception that you are
trying to change is there.

Outcome
Involving your team in the process of your personal development will manage the perception of change. This
allows your efforts in your personal development to flourish.
 Aicha Evans
When Aicha Evans entered Intel, she said there was a moment when she realized “everything that
computes connects.” This was a different way of looking at things. As corporate vice president and general
manager of the Wireless Platform Research and Development Group at Intel, Aicha is responsible for
driving wireless engineering for multi-comm products and Intel platforms, as well as emerging wireless
technologies to lead this industry going forward. She noted, “Challenges excite me. Big challenges.
The pitfall for me is finding ways to stay motivated. I have learned to have patience in the journey, to
anticipate where things should go, to celebrate small successes and to find pleasure when things are
moving. I like outcomes. On the other end, I want to sit on my porch at age 60 and say, I was part of
making that happen.” Take your own perceptions of the future, challenges or hardships and translate
them into opportunity for growth.

Notes:
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 Increase Your Influence
Connectors are people who link us up with the world ... people with a
special gift for bringing the world together. -Malcolm Gladwell

The Play
Once you fine-tune your leadership skills with the previous activities, you can begin to develop the ultimate
leadership skill: influence. Influence is the ability to connect with others to achieve a desired result. Temporary
influence can be garnered by an exceptional event, but long term, sustainable influence is built on getting it
done on a strategic level consistently. Or as urban moguls rap, “all day e’ery day.” On a personal level, influence
allows you to fast track your career or your idea. As an MVP leader, you must have influence with work groups,
the organization, and even the industry. It gives you the power to connect with people inside and outside your
circle and impact situational outcomes.

In the following exercise, you will examine influence within your work environment and determine specific
actions to increase your impact within the organization.

Required Action
Identify and define influence within your current environment. How does influence help you achieve your goals?
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Where do you currently have influence? Evaluate why and how you have attained it.
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Where / how do you need to improve?

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Revisit the Communicate with Emotional Intelligence exercise. Describe your method of communication. Do
you change your approach based upon the audience to increase your effectiveness?
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What strategies do you employ for building rapport, networking, and building relationships?
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What topic or discipline can build your contribution and intellectual capital to participate in a broader way,
outside the organization?
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Outcome
Leadership is driven by influence. Developing influence can help you achieve your goals. It will allow you to
broaden relationships with your core team, it also will allow you to extend your reach and influence in the
industry. Finally, it will help you to drive strategic initiatives based upon your expanded knowledge, network,
and ability to get things done.

 
 Expand Your Network
More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet
no MBA courses are given on the subject. -Peter Drucker

The Play
Now that you have identified how you want to build influence, let’s examine your network and opportunities to
expand. Traditional networking puts too much emphasis on developing short-term contacts intended to meet
your momentary needs and ambitions. Instead, you should consider what is better described as relationship
management or community building. The key is to shift from transactional relationships to meaningful ones
based on common interests and objectives.

Required Action
Consider your network of relationships, answer the following questions:

What professional organizations should you be a part of?

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What organizations do your influencers (from previous exercise) and other mentors participate in?
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What nonprofits contribute to your passions and professional interests?

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Outcome
Strive for quality, not quantity, in your networking efforts. Networking can be overwhelming if you try to
amass a certain number of people. Instead, select a few people to be in your network and invest in them. It is
important to choose people who care about the same things you care about. These relationships will serve as
your professional family; do not limit yourself when reaching out to new contacts. Be aware of your long-term
goals; it may benefit you to begin networking with those who can help you achieve these goals set for five or
ten years in the future.
 Ingrid Vanderveldt
Ingrid Vanderveldt is a businesswoman, entrepreneur and investor who founded numerous business
efforts, including Empowering a Billion Women by 2020 and the Dell $100m credit fund. She is a member
of the 2013 United Nations Global Entrepreneurship Council, inspiring leadership internationally.
Vanderveldt also was named a Fast Company Super-Connector, creating value through social connections.
We sat down with her to talk about the importance of building influence through networking. “Everything
in life, but especially business, is based on relationships” Vanderveldt said. “If you build a network and
connections, you will elevate yourself closer to the things you dream and desire to do.” She believes that
building relationships and a network are critical to leadership influence, and “influence is how you build
exponential impact.” Vanderveldt described the large Fortune 500 global institutions she works with and
how they all want to do business with people who have strong networks, relationships and influence.
“Working with a person of influence allows organizations to focus their energies, invest resources, and
make an impact on a much larger scale.”
 
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 Manage Your Digital Authenticity
Check yo self, before you wreck yo self. -Ice Cube

The Play
So far in the Strategic MVP, you have discussed personal branding, igniting your passions, discovering your
mojo, and outlining your ideal future. In this section, we highlighted several ways to personally develop. Now it
is time to discuss HOW this all translates into your online presence, your digital brand, your electronic swagger,
or your Klout score. What does the Internet say about you? What do you, via social media, say about you? Is
this message in line with your goals and development?

In a world of complete connection, there are endless tools at your fingertips. The answer to any question is just
a Google or a Wiki away. You can reach out to anyone, anywhere and research people, places, or things. This
creates an environment of spectacular opportunity. This also can be horrifying if used inappropriately. As MVPs,
you must actively manage your online personal brand just as carefully as your human persona. But remember
to be authentic, have power over social media, and use it effectively to help you achieve your leadership goals.

Required Action
Tell your story in a way that represents your message. Being authentic requires creating loyalty and trust. It is
okay to be vulnerable, but do not forget to check yourself along the way and manage the vulnerabilities so that
they do not become liabilities.

Please Google yourself. What did you find? Any surprises?

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Now Google your name with key words attached: Leadership, Success, Failure, Good, Bad. These word
associations will help you to uncover different stories being told about you.
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What are the key social media tools you use today? How often are they updated? What content do you share?
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What message does this communicate?

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List three key points that you want to emphasize in telling your online story.
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How authentic do you appear, and is the message effective?

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What changes need to be made? (Examine photos, sources, friends, blog postings, tweets, etc.)
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Outcome
Recognize that being vulnerable and letting people see the real you is a way of establishing trust in others. Yet,
leaders need to manage their message while understanding that everything can be accessed, copied, and used
in or out of context. Living in a world “disconnected” from the internet is just not realistic. Use the web as a
powerful resource to tell your story. But, do not forget to check yourself along the way.

 
 SECTION III – HUMAN CAPITAL
When employees feel that the company takes their interest to heart, then the employees will
take the company’s interests to heart. -Dr. Noelle Nelson

Throughout the Strategic MVP book, we coached you through setting goals, visualizing the future, and making
strides in your personal development. Now that the foundation is built, we will begin to discuss how to better
develop the human capital you lead.

Ask yourself if you have the right team members, and if you were to add a person to the organization, what
characteristics do you need from a candidate? This analysis will prepare you to recruit people to your organization
who match your situation and the team culture.

Once you have the team in place, an important component to leadership is developing your team, asking
questions, receiving feedback, sharing ideas, and empowering the people around you. We want to unleash your
curiosity for leadership, innovation, and creativity.

Understanding what motivates, what drives, and what interests your team members the most will help you to
really engage them in participating toward a common goal. Ask questions and listen to their perspectives so
you can genuinely demonstrate an interest in their wisdom and insights. Jewels of information often arise from
this collaboration, and the feeling that comes from being a part of the team or belonging to a community will
increase the impact of the human capital you lead.

People are a valuable resource to the organization and to the bottom line. Investing in their development
results in increased efficiency, job satisfaction, and financial results.

 
 Recruit With Enthusiasm
Human Resources isn’t a thing we do. It’s the thing that runs our business. -Steve Wynn

The Play
The rarest and most powerful skill of the individual leader is the ability to inspire others with enthusiasm and
empowerment in times of competitive challenge and, at the same time, demonstrate the humility to listen,
learn, and improve every day. Excitement for the future must outweigh the anxiety about change. So, how do
you get great people to share enthusiasm and join the cause?

Required Action
Create your best-ever pitch to recruit the best people to come work for the company. Consider it an elevator speech
in which you have 30 seconds to convince someone to come work for your organization. What would you say?
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Take a look at what you described above. What are the five most important keys to success when convincing
talent to come to your organization and stay?
1
2
3
4
5
Ask yourself, are you applying these principles to retain and motivate the team that is already here? Does
everyone on your current team see growth and change as exciting?
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Outcome
The best leaders are those who drive growth and do not let themselves get paralyzed by constant change
and complexity. They get enough of the right people in the right seats to achieve their objectives, and to do
that, they need to know how to sell employees on the mission of the organization. This exercise will help you
consider how to be accountable for motivating and inspiring the best people and take full responsibility for
creating a great place to work. The best people know the best people.
 Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab is a businessman and investor who started his firm in 1971 as a traditional brokerage
company and in 1974 became a pioneer in the discount brokerage business. Schwab believes his success
is because of the business partners and friends he developed along the way. He said, “Nobody does
anything worthwhile alone. The job of a leader is to recruit and develop partners.” Mark Thompson spent
a dozen years at Chuck Schwab’s side. Schwab acknowledged, “I got through college with a lot of luck. I
flunked English A twice at Stanford, which was tough for me because I knew I was smart. What I learned
from that, though, has helped me be a better leader. Some brilliant entrepreneurs think they can do
everything. But that’s never true. The best thing I ever did was recognize my strengths and deficiencies.
Then, at Schwab, I was able to build up great people in the areas of my deficiencies. Having a learning
struggle early in life helped me recognize that.”

Notes:
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 Hire Your Weakness
The smartest thing I ever did was to hire my weakness. -Sara Blakely

The Play
When you know you are not a wizard in every subject, you are more likely to realize that the only way to build
a team and organization is through and with the great talents and skills of other people who share your vision.
That is the best trait any leader can develop early in his or her career. Hire your weakness.

Required Action
In the space provided, write down the things in your job that you do not like to do.
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How can I help someone else develop a skill so they can help me?
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How can I partner with people who would love to What actions are required to build a team to
do what is necessary to get the job done? support me?
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Outcome
In any organizational setting, the most respected, valued, and admired leaders achieve success only with the
support and expertise of a great team. Sharing power and relying on others (especially when you think you
could do it better) are often the most difficult skills for a person to learn. It is, however, the only way to build
and scale a successful organization. No one does it alone.
 Jim Kouzes
Jim Kouzes is a bestselling author, an award-winning speaker and, according to the Wall Street
Journal, one of the best executive educators in the United States. Kouzes discussed the importance of
collaboration and working with your team. “We often make leadership about the leader. In fact, it is not
about the individual, it is about all of those individuals who have to work together collaboratively to
reach very difficult goals.” He discussed with us the importance of hiring your weakness - good people
with complementary and synergistic skills. Kouzes continued, “One of the fundamental reasons why
leaders get derailed along their path is because they forget this truth that you can’t do it alone and think
that they are the only individuals that count.”

Notes:
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 Determine YOUR MVPs
Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in
abundance of counselors there is victory. -Proverbs 11:14

The Play
As you know, MVP is an acronym for Most Valuable People. Part of your journey to become an MVP requires
identifying the important people in your life as well. Who are your MVPs? Who are those individuals who
make the biggest, most meaningful impact on both your work and your personal life? If you want to become
essential, you must deliver value to these people and ensure they recognize that value.

Required Action
Write the name of every person you can think of who is essential to your life – both personally and professionally.
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What roles do these people play in your success?

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Who are other people you need to enroll as MVPs to become more successful in the future?
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Outcome
Knowing your MVPs is one of the most important ways YOU can be valuable. Your people will pay close attention
to the things that matter most to them, they will know if you are going through the motions or making a real
effort to deliver on their biggest needs.
 Listen and Learn
It is literally true that you can succeed best and
quickest by helping others to succeed. -Napoleon Hill

The Play
Now that you have a list of MVPs in the previous exercise, what are you going to do with the information?
How can you learn more about your team, support their dreams, help them to gain greater satisfaction and to
achieve better results?

Required Action
It is time to get to know each of the people you identified a little better. Using the chart below, do your best to
answer the questions listed about each of your people. If you do not know the answer, ask questions.

Key Roles the

Which Roles
Characteristics MVP Plays What Does the Hobbies or MVP Expertise
Does the MVP
Name of MVP the MVP in Life (CEO, MVP Complain Interests of the (What is the
Love Doing
Admires spouse, skier, About? MVP MVP good at?)
Most?
volunteer, etc.)
How can you help each person get more of what he or she values?
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Outcome
Caution: Just because it may be important to you does not mean it is important to one of your MVPs. You need
to learn to suspend judgment and see if there is a desire you both share. You may decide you cannot come to an
understanding and must ultimately agree to disagree, but take a moment to determine if there is some deeper
common ground from which you can both benefit over the long term.

Notes:
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 Coach the Uncoachables
The best thing you can say about any coach is that
his players play hard for him. -Terry Bradshaw

The Play
Recognizing employees who are challenging is just as important as recognizing your star players. Even if you
are the best coach in the world, some players and employees are uncoachable. Your traditional strategies are
not going to work. It is difficult to understand, so you spend an extraordinary amount of time on the idea of
changing these high-maintenance people, hoping they see the light, but it just does not happen. However, the
good news is that the “uncoachables” are easy to spot, allowing you to move past and focus on the growing
and forward-moving players.

Required Action
Think about each of your employees. Answer the following questions in the space provided:
Who do you spend a significant amount of time coaching, but there has been no change? What choices are they
making regarding their future?
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Do you have any employees who you believe are in the wrong job? If so, name them.
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_________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have employees who think everyone else is the problem? If so, name them.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have any employees who are pursuing the wrong strategy for the organization? If so, name them.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
If you have any employees who fall into these categories, they may be considered to be uncoachable. The
impact on the organization can be very detrimental as it diminishes your high-performance culture. It is time
for you to examine whether these employees are a good fit for your team.

Outcome
When you have employees who are uncoachable, save time, skip the heroic measures - you will not win
with these employees. Focus on the other players. There are times to coach a player, and there are times to
coach them out of the organization. Make the adjustments quickly to allow you, your department, and your
organization to move on.
 Empower Your People
An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promise. -Mae West

The Play
You have identified the important people in our life. You have identified those who deserve less attention or are
uncoachable. You have also examined how you can build rapport and listen. Now let’s take a closer look and
examine ways to ensure that your people feel heard, valued, and understood.

Required Action
For this activity, select one person from your list on which to focus. This person should be involved in a current
issue or project for which you are accountable. Then, in the space provided, answer the following questions
dealing with that issue or project:

1. Purpose: What impact does he/she really want to have? How does he/she want to make a difference?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Passion: What personal interests or talents could he/she apply to this issue or project?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Performance: How will he/she measure short-term success today and every step along the timeline of this
issue or project? How can I help him/her feel accomplished? How is his/her boss measuring performance?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Use this activity for all of your MVPs you outlined in the previous activities. This is also very helpful to think about
as you face challenges in new efforts or want additional involvement in change. When you understand a person’s
purpose, passion, and performance, you can unleash his/her efforts and foster growth and effectiveness.
 Rita McGrath
Rita McGrath, a Professor at Columbia Business School, is a globally recognized expert on strategy in
uncertain and volatile environments. She shared with us the importance of taking risks. “I actually have
a concept I call learning from the intelligent failure, which really says that, in an uncertain environment,
if you think about it, planning to be right is a fool’s errand.” McGrath believes that empowering your
team to make decisions, to discover their passions, and to learn from failure leads to growth. Fostering
intelligent failure is a measure of short-term success and speeds up the solution generation.

Notes:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________________________
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 Make Values Visible
To win in the marketplace you must first win in the
workplace. -Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup

The Play
Several companies have wasted millions of dollars and countless hours of employees’ time agonizing over
the wording of statements that are inscribed on plaques and hung on walls. There is a clear assumption that
people’s behavior will change because the pronouncements on plaques are inspirational or certain words
integrate our strategy and values. There is an implicit hope that when people, especially managers, hear great
words, they will start to exhibit great behavior. But this obsession with words belies one very large problem:
There is almost no correlation between the words on the wall and the behavior of leaders.

Required Action
What are the values of your organization?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Engage with your employees about the followings questions. Write down their responses:
How have you (as the leader) modeled the values of the organization in the recent past?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

How should a leader model the values of the organization?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you need to continue to do or change?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Your actions will say much more to employees about your values and your leadership skills than words ever can.
If actions are wise, no one will care if the words on the wall are not perfect. If actions are foolish, the wonderful
words posted on the wall will only make the organization look puerile.
 Alan Mulally
Alan Mulally is an engineer and highly successful business executive. He led Ford Motor Company through
the crisis that rocked the U.S. auto industry while driving the organization’s technological growth and
innovation. Retired as Ford’s President and CEO, Mulally was appointed to Google’s Board of Directors.
We sat down with Mulally to discuss his views on leadership. He passionately shared, “I really, really
believe in the power of pulling everybody together around a compelling vision. Your biggest contribution
as a leader is going to be: Holding yourself and your team accountable.” Mulally has led thousands of
people throughout his career, and he believes that a vision cannot be effective without knowing the
organizational values and making a commitment to the people. Every leader must drive growth by
“creating a comprehensive strategy and a relentless implementation plan with a management style that
allows you to do it. It sounds easy. It sounds straightforward, but for the leader of whatever level, that
might be the most important thing each of us does.”

Notes:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
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 Challenge the Unethical
One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised. -Chinua Achebe

The Play
If you are ever asked to do anything that you believe may be unethical, it is not only your right to express your
concern - it is your responsibility. Many of the world’s most highly-respected companies clearly communicate
this guideline to all employees. Why is it that more organizations do not communicate this message? Leaders
cannot pass the buck on ethical issues. All employees need to know that expressing ethical concerns is a key
part of their job. It is never an option.

Required Action
Have you encountered a situation or been witness to unethical behavior? Please describe.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

How can you clearly define the issue and prepare a case for your position?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

When was the last time you challenged someone or something that did not seem right to you? How did it go?
How did you go about challenging the issue?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you believe you have created a culture where your employees are comfortable challenging up (especially in
terms of ethical issues)? Why or Why Not?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
The corporate scandals over the last several years have resulted in a lack of trust for major organizations.
The conditions that led to ethics issues will not be fixed by having employees attend training programs or
listen to motivational talks. Organizations that establish and implement clear processes for encouraging upward
challenge can do a great deal to prevent problems involving ethics, integrity, and values. Trust is easy to lose and
hard to regain. For many employees and for the public at large, it may take years of concerted effort to rebuild
the credibility of large corporations. From both a business and a values perspective, it is worth it!
 
 Innovate with an Organizational Hotbox
The chief enemy of creativity is good sense. -Pablo Picasso

The Play
Many of the most evolved leaders and innovative organizations conduct a version of the Organizational Hotbox:
an open collaboration of creative people in a wildly limitless environment. Examples include the Facebook
hackathons, Cirque du Soleil jam sessions, or as the rock band the Eagles described when they shot the cover
of their self-titled album in 1972, “We just drove into the desert with a bag of trail mix, a bottle of tequila, and
our music.”

Creating strategy in a place of open collaboration not only can open the door to innovative solutions, it also can
build a foundation for synergy and focus. How can you apply the concept of creativity, innovation, and research
and development (R&D) in your leadership in a way that produces results? R&D is all about allocating time for
innovation and thought leadership, team management from idea to execution, and requiring transformational
leadership and elevations.

Required Action
How would creativity improve my leadership?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

How could I facilitate an organizational hotbox at my organization? How can I make my people feel safe?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What incentives (intrinsic and extrinsic) can I provide to foster an environment of innovation and development
with my team?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Which of my current contacts would provide value to my growth? Who should I be networking with to broaden
my innovative perspective?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What cross-functional teams or multi-demographic committees could I create to enhance creativity in my

organization or with my team?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Creativity can be a valuable resource. Give your team enough space to develop solutions and build the trust in
them to fully unleash their potential. Creating a culture of innovation and creativity begins with a forum where
employees exchange freely and believe that anything is possible.

Howard Morgan
Howard Morgan is venture capitalist, philanthropist, author, and contributing writer for Business Insider.
He believes that leaders must have a voice and an outlet for creativity. Morgan shared, “One of the things
that is not often talked about, that is highly undervalued, is having a point of view. And what I mean by
that is, it is easier to have a point of view and be flexible around the fact that you could be wrong than it
is to be ultimately aspired to the perfect answer before you take your first step.” Leaders cannot be afraid
to be creative and to make their voice heard. Organizations should work hard to unearth this creativity.
“Take a look at some of the great technological minds we’ve seen and it’s not that they’ve never made
mistakes, it’s that they keep driving at it.”

 
 Diversify Opinion
What is right is what is left if you do everything else wrong. -Robin Williams

The Play
In addition to developing creative and innovative thinking, you also must encourage leaders to challenge
the status quo and not be afraid to disagree with the consensus. Many leaders will say they want a team
of independent thinkers, yet implement rules/policies/strategies that do not encourage this diversity in
perspective. The synergy of your team comes from the strength of having multiple voices and perspectives to
utilize.

Required Action
How do you encourage diversity of thought as you seek counsel and ideas from your team? Do you have a
strategy to combat groupthink?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you assign a devil’s advocate or contrarian in your meetings? If so, how does that work? If not, write down
how you can execute this concept. It is important that the manager does not play the role of devil’s advocate,
because the team will assume you are not really interested in brainstorming.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

How could you build this diversity/constructive-challenging behavior into your culture or organizational
structure? For example, think about recruiting practices, incentives, or business partner relationships.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

How could you reward the people around you to challenge the status quo?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Being an effective leader means challenging the people around you to speak their minds. Leaders who foster
an autocratic style and manage their employees’ ideas will not be able to effectively innovate in the future. This
close-minded approach is not adaptable enough to meet the ever-changing needs of the consumer and market.
Give your employees a voice. Recognize that your team may need a little encouragement to speak up. Inspire
creativity through outside the norm discussion.
 Ursula Burns
Ursula Burns is chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox, the world’s leading enterprise for business
process and document management. She has been instrumental in the evolution of Xerox from being
a technology company to a services company that has significant influence globally. “I started with
this approach that I have of, ‘There’s gotta be a better way.’” She started by looking at Xerox’s basic
business – managing the business process of communicating via page-based documents and instead of
just perfecting that – and she did – and stopping there, she thought strategically. Ursula asked, “Why
is it that we can break/fix, service and manage an office infrastructure with document technology for
Xerox devices, but not everybody else’s devices? It’s the same device – so why can’t we manage that
infrastructure? Instead of having every business around the world do something that is inefficient, and
therefore is something that they won’t do very well, why not platform it?” Diversity of opinion on your
team will help you to identify and challenge the status quo.

Vinod Khosla
Vinod Khosla is a billionaire businessman and a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, a company which
created the Java programming language and Network File System. Khosla believes in the importance
of speaking your mind and allowing your team to do the same. “Good CEOs should never really have to
make a decision. Their team should know. They should be able to assemble a team that knows how to
make all the decisions.” He also noted that leadership takes courage and noted how easily influenced
some executives can be. “CEOs are too influenced by what the public and the press has to say, reacting
to a journalist who wrote an article in The New York Times or The Washington Post, Businessweek… They
should not be reacting to the press. They should be leading the press. When the press disagrees, the
leader should test the vision internally, get their team on what they’re doing, and dare to disagree! It is
amazing to me how many very senior CEOs don’t have the courage to back their convictions. It is your
job to have the courage of your convictions when what you believe diverges from conventional wisdom.”

 
 Praise People
Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the esteem of their personnel. If people believe
in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. -Sam Walton

The Play
Actively looking for and pointing out legitimate examples of excellence in others is a tenet of leadership and
makes you more valuable and admired. However, there is an art to praising others. When giving praise, make
it real and authentic. Make sure you are specific about what others did well rather than making some general,
patronizing statement about what a nice person they are.

Required Action
Take a moment to think about last week, and in the space provided below, write down everything that went
well in your week.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, in the space provided, write down the names of all the people who helped you provide a positive outcome
to your week.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Next, using “Thank You” cards or some other type of note card, draft an acknowledgement to those who were
responsible for what went well this past week and include the following:

• What exactly they did

• What impact that behavior had on the overall mission
• What it meant to you personally

Deliver (in person or through the mail) each note to the individual you addressed within the next few days.
Resist the urge to simply send an electronic message. Email will not have the same impact.

Outcome
It is important to state something specific when you are giving praise, as it will increase the genuineness of your
comments and ensure the person feels valued for their contribution. Perceived mutual feelings of competence
and confidence in each other will increase when you praise others in the workplace – and at home for that
matter. Praise should become a best practice in any successful person’s life – ensure you do so in some way each
week, whether in the workplace or at home.
 Stop at Great
Our thinking and our behavior are always in anticipation of a response. -Deepak Chopra

The Play
The higher up you go in your organization, the more you need to make other people winners and not make your
job about winning yourself. The more successful you become, the more helping others win is how you win! For
those in leadership positions, this means closely monitoring how you hand out encouragement and help others
improve. If you find yourself saying, “That is great…” and then dropping the other shoe with a tempering,
“BUT,” stop yourself before you speak. Take a breath and ask yourself if what you are about to say is worth it. In
most cases it is not. If you really want to succeed and encourage others to do the same, try stopping at “great!”

Required Action
The challenge for you this week is to not say “BUT” when you are listening to your direct reports or other co-
workers. Every time you feel like you need to say, “That is great, but…,” stop yourself at “great.”

Write down how you felt each time this happened during the week in the space provided below.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
A simple exercise in awareness of your language can make a great impact. Explaining why something will not
work is different from adding value. “That is great, BUT…” can be used as a precursor to negativity or simply
negate your previous positive affirmation. This exercise will help you pay attention to how you respond to your
employees and help you become more positive in your approach with others.
 SECTION IV – MAXIMIZING TIME
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we
but know what to do with it. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

We have envisioned our future, set goals, empowered our team, and completed the necessary homework and
learning. Now, we need to make it happen. Where will we find the time?

In the next section, we are going to ask you to conduct a quick evaluation of your normal day. What takes up
most of your time? How much time do you spend on actual, productive work, and how much time is spent
on putting out fires or distracting behaviors? Reflecting upon how you can commoditize and prioritize will be
covered in this section. You will learn that checking items off of your to do list increases your energy and will
give you a sense of accomplishment.

Balancing priorities and determining how to get things done in a more efficient way starts with a positive
attitude. You may not always have the best circumstances, but you can always have the best intentions. When
you consider a work week and think of how you might reconstruct your use of time, there are major implications
on your success in both a professional and personal way. Just think, even 30 minutes per day redirected to work
on a long term goal or an important project, will give you focus and a sense of achievement.

Time is our most valuable resource. Throughout the next section, we will examine time as a finite resource,
helping to uncover efficiencies, deficiencies, and opportunities for maximization.

 
 Commoditize Your Time
I spend my time now buying time for the future. -Mark Perrett

The Play
Let’s begin our review of time by giving it the respect and authority it deserves. You should begin budgeting
your time in the same manner that you budget money. As an executive, you allocate significant focus toward
financial budgeting, investing, variance analysis, but rarely do you invest the same energy allocating our most
prized resource, time.

How many of you have been to an ineffective meeting? How many of you went to one today? How many of
you have read a book or been to a meeting on how to conduct more effective meetings? Life is full of energy-
creators and energy-takers. What is important as an executive, MVP, is focusing your life and career on what you
feel deserves this energy and time.

Required Action
Start by asking yourself; are there things in your life that you give yourself to (energy and time) that DO NOT
deserve it? If so, what?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Next, what things in your life consistently need more attention that you rarely have time to give?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Finally, note the answers below in percentages. These three items should add up to 100%.
What percentage of your time is focused on activities that have a return on investment? _________%
What percentage of your time is spent putting out fires? _________%
Do you have time in your day that is wasted? _________%

If you could eliminate one activity, what would it be? And how much time would it save you?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

What will you do with this extra time? __________________________________________________________

Outcome
Learning that time is a precious commodity may change your entire life. Each moment that you spend focusing
on what matters most will help improve the quality of your life and your effectiveness in all aspects.
 Combat Multi-tasking
F*cking two things up at the same time isn`t multi-tasking. -Dick Masterson

The Play
Your effectiveness as a leader is largely determined by what you choose to do, and what you choose not to do,
at any given moment. Knowing what to do and when to do it is vital to growth and success. Reflect on what you
have learned so far throughout the Strategic MVP. Based on your personal development and growth, as well as
your goals outlined in the previous sections, let’s take a look at your task list for today.

Required Action
In the space below, write down your “Things to Do” list for TODAY. Prioritize this list by numbering each item
using “1” as the most critical thing you must accomplish today.

THINGS TO DO TODAY:
1. ____________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________________
6. ____________________________________________________________________
7. ____________________________________________________________________
8. ____________________________________________________________________
9. ____________________________________________________________________
10. ____________________________________________________________________

What is your strategy to complete these tasks? How do you approach your day?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Are there things on this list that do not align with your goals? Are there things that you identified previously as
undeserving energy-takers?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you believe you are smartest when you focus on one task at a time?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

You should complete a variation of this activity every day. Trying to accomplish too many things at once hinders
your ability to focus.

Outcome
As a leader, you have too much to do at any given time. Research also shows that 20 percent of your tasks
will eventually account for 80 percent of your results; therefore, your ability to focus intensely on the most
important results expected of you largely determines your success or failure in your position. Working single-
mindedly on the most important tasks will help you accomplish two or three times as much as the average
person.

Cliff Nass
Cliff Nass was a professor at Stanford University, as well as an organizational development consultant
who authored hundreds of papers and books relating to human-computer interaction and statistical
methodology. Studies by Professor Nass confirmed that even exceptionally bright young people, who
appear to be experts at multi-tasking among e-mail, instant messaging, and live communication, are
not as accurate or effective in doing work as those who do one thing at a time. Nass recommended that
leaders focus their energy on being great at one task at a time. He noted, “Many highly successful leaders
are described as being intensely results-oriented. This results-orientation keeps them focused on a goal
or task rather than sharing their attention amongst several things at once.”
 Reduce Interruptions
There are always distractions if you allow them. -Tony La Russa

The Play
Every time you stop a task and come back to it later you lose 5 to 15 minutes. It takes a while to figure out what
you were doing and return to the mindset of accomplishing the task. This also happens to be the number one
reason leaders make mistakes.

Required Action
Reexamine the action list you created in the previous exercise. If it has changed, please feel free to create a list
of things you have to do for the rest of the week.

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK:

1. ____________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________________
6. ____________________________________________________________________
7. ____________________________________________________________________
8. ____________________________________________________________________
9. ____________________________________________________________________
10. ____________________________________________________________________

Using the list above, circle three things that are the highest priority items. They should be items first on your
list. Then, take a look at your calendar for the week. Block out time in your day right now where you can execute
these tasks from start to finish.

Now, in the space provided, jot down ways you can minimize interruptions in your day while you work.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
When poet and author Maya Angelou wanted to be left alone to write, she rented a hotel room and told the
staff that she did not want anyone to refresh towels or to turn down the bed. Most of us cannot afford that
luxury. Coming up with your strategy will help you complete the things that you want and need to do each day.
 Delegate
No person will make a great business who wants to do it
all himself or get all the credit. -Andrew Carnegie

The Play
There are a lot of things that only you are going to be able to do in your job; however, there are many things
that you can delegate. Learning to delegate appropriately will be one of the most critical defensive strategies
you can embrace as a leader.

Required Action
Who do you know that loves to do the task you dislike? ____________________________________________

Can you automate any aspect of your work day? If so, how?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Can you eliminate any of the tasks you have during the day? If so, which ones?
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Can you double up on any of the tasks you have during the day? If so, which ones?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Can you use the Internet to help you run errands? (For example, can you grocery shop online and then just pick
it up or have it delivered to you?) If so, what is your plan? __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Are there services in your area that pick up and drop off things you need (e.g., dry cleaning) so you can focus on what
matters? If so, what is your plan? ______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Delegation will not only help you improve in your daily activities, but it will also help allow you to focus on what
matters most and provide you with the ability to accomplish your goals. Remember when you learned about
Hiring Your Weakness? This is a perfect example of where you place responsibilities upon those who will excel
at the tasks that can be delegated amongst your team.
 Write in Pencil
Transform your energy to flexibility and you will be free from what you fear. -Yoko Ono

The Play
One of the greatest challenges with time is the impact of change to our plans and actions. Have you ever been
on the way out the door, when suddenly…your child lost a shoe…car is out of gas…unexpected traffic…boss calls
an early meeting…who is parking in my spot?…where is my flash drive? In this world of lightning-speed change
and ever-evolving leadership needs, have your budgets ever really equaled actuals? Have your plans ever gone
off without a hitch? Rarely. Never.

Life is complex, requiring us to be flexible. Goal-setting is required as you force forward into the future, yet
flexibility allows us the opportunity to dance in the face of change. When you write in pencil, you can erase.

Required Action
What areas of your life need more flexibility? Please list your ideas below.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Is your day so structured that it does not allow time for a deep breath or an unexpected issue? If so, what can
you do to adjust the schedule?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

What type of item on your to-do list or calendar constantly gets moved? What can you do about it?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Who is available to support you when things change? ______________________________________________

Outcome
One of the most important leadership qualities is flexibility. This is as true for you as an individual as it is in
business. The more flexible you are, the more you remain open-minded regarding the various ways that a sales
or a business goal may be achieved. Remember to prepare for flexibility and accrue for change. It is important
that you, as a MVP leader, are clear about the goal or project, but flexible about the process of achieving it. If
you allow for flexibility in your budget, you will make room for growth and evolution.

 
 Maya Hu-Chan
Maya Hu-Chan is an international management consultant, executive coach, author, and sought-after
speaker. She is rated as one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders by Leadership Excellence Magazine and
Top Leadership Guru from Asia by Leadership Guru International. Hu-Chan shared, “You have to be able
to adapt, you have to be able to stay open and to continue to be curious and ask questions and learn
about people, learn about different markets and learn about cultures and then reflect on what does this
mean and how do I personally need to change and adapt so that I can be more effective?” This approach
to leadership allows continual growth and flexibility. Adaptability is required in the fast-paced business
environment.

Notes:
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 Be Proactive
If you don’t know where you are going, any road
will get you there. -Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland

The Play
Wait. Are you worrying about yesterday’s issues? There will always be crises that must be managed, but the
difference between being proactive rather than reactive is making the time to really decide where you want
to lead your organization. Bill Gates shared with us, “How will you help others solve problems to build a better
future? Don’t obsess about the past. You have to learn from your problems, but stay focused on the road ahead,
not just what is in the rearview mirror.”

This activity is meant as a self-check. How are you doing in this moment? This exercise can be used from time
to time to remind yourself how effectively you are proactively seeking growth.

Required Action
Review your Commoditize your Time, Combat Multi-tasking, Reduce Interruptions, and Delegate exercises.
Take a look at how you manage your time and schedule. Review your upcoming week and schedule. Then
answer the following questions:
What percentage of your time is focused on proactive activities? _________%
What percentage of time is focused on the goals you outlined in Section I? _________%
How much time would you like to be focusing on proactive growth? _________%

How does this proactive preparation benefit the organization, the clients, and yourself?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Your clients are counting on you and your team. When they provide you with their hard-earned time and
money to do business with you, they are looking for you to help them be better. What are you creating that
is bigger than you are? By being proactive, you anticipate and prepare to add value to your clients and you
become invaluable to the organization. When you change your point of reference from a reactive mode and all
the distractions to a more specific, organized approach, it allows you to become a MVP and plan for the future.
 
 Make Temporary Sacrifices
The secret of getting things done is to act! -Dante

The Play
Even if you properly manage your time, combat multi-tasking, and maintain your flexibility, there are still a
myriad of things to accomplish. When you are trying to maintain your focus on getting things done, you, as an
MVP, may need to make temporary sacrifices.

Required Action
In the space provided, write down everything that kept you from accomplishing what you wanted to do
yesterday. Be specific.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, reflect back to the exercise about commoditizing your time. What things are time-wasters throughout
your day?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What are your lower priority items that can wait another day to free up time for priorities?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Now, take a look at the lists and circle at least one or two things you will NOT do TODAY so you will be able to
accomplish your tasks.

Outcome
Simplify the best you can, but do not add to your list of things to do without taking something off your
plate. Making temporary sacrifices is both identifying things that take up too much of your time as well as
understanding your priorities so intimately, you can manage urgencies.

 
 De-Clutter
The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you
have, the more you are free. -Mother Teresa

The Play
Cluttered workspaces can clutter your mind and be distracting. Many of our closets, garages, and cabinets are
bursting at the seams. Some people have a hard time throwing things out that do not relate to their current
goals because they worry that those things might support a future passion. Do you keep unnecessary files? Is
your desk so cluttered you cannot focus?

Required Action
Take a look at your office. How does it appear to others?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What can I do to my office to create a work space that maximizes productivity?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Is my office reflective of my personal brand?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Take a look at your home. List some areas within your home that you can de-clutter and make more efficient:
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Spend some time today finding a place where you can stash anything not related to your current goals. It can be
a safe, a storage unit, a file cabinet, or whatever you think will work to keep you focused on what matters now
and not on something that distracts you. If possible, do not just merely stash these items, but rather discard/
shred/recycle anything unnecessary. Free your mind!

Outcome
Keeping your focus on what matters most is critical to your future success. Keeping those things that distract
you out of your view will help you stay true to what you need to accomplish right now. Remember your previous
exercises where you determined your goals. This exercise will help you to reduce interruptions and focus on
what matters most for you to achieve what you need to achieve.
 SECTION V – EXECUTING STRATEGIES
I’ve always considered myself to be average. What I have is a
ridiculous, insane obsessiveness for practice and preparation. -Will Smith

Section V will allow you to anchor the changes you made while reading the book and to develop new standards
of success. Creating new benchmarks for your leadership development will institutionalize your new, revisited,
and refreshed approaches into the culture of your organization, allowing you to enjoy and benefit from the
fruits of your labor.

Strategic thinking has an important role in establishing business practices and creating a foundation for the long
term success of an organization. However, executing on strategic initiatives separates the MVPs from the other
leaders within the organization. We all have encountered people who talk a great story, but have limited impact
on the organization’s success. It is the people who can work with others, manage projects, and make initiatives
happen that will drive their own future and create passion within the team.

As a MVP leader you must exemplify the culture you expect and model the way. Reflect upon your approach to
each day, each employee, and each task and bring your super hero, humble mentality to the work environment.
It will build confidence in you as a leader and also give your team an example to follow. You will also increase
your job satisfaction in knowing that you have contributed to a job well done!

Section V will reveal tools to help you let go of frustration, recognize the necessary commitment, leave baggage
behind, and free yourself to capture the next opportunity.

 
 Remove the Unnecessary
I’m starting with the Man in the Mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways. -Michael Jackson

The Play
Many of the smartest people in business do not ever fully succeed because they get in their own way. You
need to find ways to use rationality to increase output, not hold you back. Have you ever created your own
roadblocks keeping you from success? Think about what those roadblocks were and why they held you back.
Today, you are going to start your extreme makeover. This means you need to REMOVE all of the things from
your life that are inconsistent with your passions and goals.

Required Action
Take a moment and make a list of those things that are not in alignment with your passions and goals. Make
a list of all the things you identified throughout the Strategic MVP book, including time-wasters, ineffective
policies, low priority goals, old perceptions, inappropriate digital social media content, etc. Do not limit yourself.
Write as quickly as you can.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Based on this list above, what must you STOP doing?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

What will you START doing differently today?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Everything you bring into your life either supports or undermines who you are and what you want to create.
There is a famous saying, you are what you surround yourself with. Choose wisely. If you have negative and
discouraging influences around you, then ultimately that is who you will become. Surround yourself with
friendly, driven, and encouraging influences that positively affect who you are.
 Identify Who is Standing on Your Cape
God sent me on earth to do something and nobody can stop me. -Bob Marley

The Play
You are going to continue removing the unnecessary things that are not in alignment with your passions and
goals from the previous exercise. Now, let’s focus on the PEOPLE in your life (including yourself) who may be
holding you back. Be honest about your relationships and think about strategies to eliminate the people that
are standing on your cape.

Required Action
Do you have people doubting you or holding you back? If so, who and why?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

How can you eliminate their voice?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have people supporting you in your development? If so, who and why?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

As you begin to implement the ideas presented throughout this book, where have you identified that your
confidence is lacking?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Where are you the most confident? How could you apply this energy to the above?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
At this point in your journey, it is all about execution and making things happen. In the popular animated hit,
The Incredibles, the brilliant costume designer, Edna Mode, lamented the many times capes got caught on
things and created unnecessary accidents for superheroes. Her advice: No capes! If someone is standing on
yours, it is hard to take flight with your leadership skills to make a difference – personally and professionally.
 Sheryl Sandberg
Activist, author, and technology executive, Sheryl Sandberg is an American icon who has driven the
issues of gender equality and women in leadership to the forefront of industry. She argues that in
order for change to happen, women need to break down these societal and personal barriers by striving
for and achieving leadership roles. The ultimate goal is to encourage women to lean in to positions of
leadership because she asserts that by having more female voices in positions of power, there will be
more equitable opportunities created for everyone. Sheryl is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook
and is the first woman to serve on Facebook’s Board of Directors. She once said, “We can each define
ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set
by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents and interests.” Sheryl urges
women to not let others or themselves get in their way to achieving their aspirations.

Notes:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
 Smile
The purpose of our lives is to be happy. -Dalai Lama

The Play
Humor makes it a whole lot easier for you to accept who you are and what happens to you. If you can laugh at
adversity and enjoy this kind of rough-and-tumble learning in your personal life and work, you will enjoy the
journey much more. It is equally important to stop and enjoy the celebratory and amazing moments along the
way.

Required Action
Think about the last time something did not go quite the way you anticipated or a time when things went
horribly wrong. Were you able to laugh at yourself? If not, why?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What tools can you use to help you find the humor or even something positive in the midst of a storm?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What area of your life needs more laughter and smiles?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

How can you create that energy?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Many successful people face lifelong adversity or flaws they never overcome – but they do find a way to manage
them. They refuse to let their goals and dreams be held ransom by their feelings in that awful moment when
everything has gone wrong. When you can laugh at your faults, your optimism shines through! When you
understand mistakes happen, and you can learn from them with a smile or a laugh, others around you will focus
on the take-away from the situation rather than the negative outcome.
 Martha Reitman
Martha Reitman, M.D. is CEO of Reitman Corporation, a company providing worldwide strategic
development support to companies developing novel therapeutics and devices for the treatment of
human disorders. She believes that the mind impacts the body more than leaders realize. “The hurt is
there and to pretend that it is not isn’t healthy,” said Reitman, talking about her own journey. Enjoying
life and smiling can be a good remedy to the stress of executive work. “You’re going to be in shock for a
while…Acknowledging that is critically important if you’re going to deal with it.” This acknowledgement
of impact is critical to make the appropriate steps forward. “That’s when you can start to get solace from
the doing. You can rebuild, you can make use of this – and that’s very affirming,” she said. Life is a precious
journey; you can take care of yourself with something as easy as smiling. Laughing is even better!

Notes:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
 Blast Targets
Why have you not broken from the pack? You’re playing it safe?
Safe ain’t gonna get you sh!t in this world. -Stone Cold Steve Austin

The Play
Live today as if it is your last. Live life to the fullest. YOLO (you only live once). There are endless clichés
describing the importance of living full out. Blasting targets is the concept of demolishing goals and entering
your leadership journey with a strong focus. If in fact, you only have one opportunity to live today, what are you
doing to make things happen?

But sometimes, even the most highly successful athletes and executives have caught themselves making
excuses with stories like…I haven’t had my coffee…I’m not a morning person…I’ve got kids…I’m bad at math…
It’s not my job…I’m not good enough…Today, this whining ends. Do not just hit your targets, growth, and goals
– BLAST them.

Required Action
If today was the last day you had in your current position, what would you do right now?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

If today were the last day as you know it (major change or devastation on the horizon), what would you stop
and be thankful for right now?
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Who in your life deserves more attention? How can you dedicate time to that relationship right now?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

If you could change how you spend the day, while still working toward your goals as you outlined previously,
how would you?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
It is often said that as we near the end of our career there are reflections on what was missed – regrets of a
lifetime unfinished. Living life in the moment is much better than reflecting upon the past or longing for the
future. No more coulda and woulda for you. You are an MVP.
 Become the MVP: Blast Targets Continued
Charge ‘em brah! -Fellow surfer encouraging the next wave

The Play
Based on the previous exercise, now it is time to continue that Blast Targets mentality and…integrate the
philosophy into your daily routine. A can-do attitude begins before your alarm goes off and continues throughout
the day. You recognize that the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is just one little word, extra!
Blast it. Your energy will attract other high performers who have a desire to get more from every day.

Required Action
Think about the last time you blasted targets, accomplished a goal, or totally kicked butt in your life… What does
that MVP rockstar in you look like? Where does that person show up? Describe.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

What leadership characteristics did you emulate? Name 5 characteristics of your Blasting Targets inner MVP:
1
2
3
4
5
What impact does your inner MVP have on others? Are you creating an energy that permeates your environment?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Think about the opposite side of you - the person that has insecurities or lacks confidence. The person who is
afraid of failure. What characteristics does this person have? What areas of life does this person show up?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Now, think about how your kick-butt, inner MVP can help you to obliterate the insecure person described
above. They are both within you! How can you apply the Blasting Targets MVP characteristics to your goals and
intentions you have set throughout this book?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
The Blast Targets exercise, applied personally and professionally, will leave your best on the field of play. Today
is an opportunity for you to blast your targets. Rise up, see the goal, and go for it. You will spend your career
and your life full engaged. What more is there? Demand greatness from those around you and from yourself.
Play full out. Be an MVP!

Notes:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
 Refresh Your SWOT
You gotta wanna, because no one else will wanna for ya. -Ken Blanchard

The Play
Excellent job. Your personal SWOT was the first exercise you completed to identify your baseline - your strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Throughout the book, you examined this assessment in depth to
uncover dormant talents and strengths, to help you capitalize on opportunity, and to build on weaknesses.

Required Action
Please revisit your initial SWOT and reflect on the following questions.

Strengths: What steps are you taking to increase your strengths? What areas have you improved during this journey?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Weaknesses: What strategies are you employing to build upon your weaknesses?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Opportunities: Have additional opportunities surfaced? Have you dedicated time to seeking opportunity?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Threats: Have your leadership threats evolved? What threats are still imminent?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Outcome
Reflecting on your initial intentions and goals helps to reflect the growth in the journey. Your leadership
evolution requires, and will continue to require, active effort and action.
 SUMMARY
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. -Ayn Rand

Congratulations! You have completed the Strategic MVP and the exercises recommended by top coaches and
executives from around the globe. We hope you are inspired to live full out and reach your destination. Enjoy
this moment and feel proud of your growth and accomplishment…But your work is not done!

This Strategic MVP book required you to dig deep and to engage in the process to fulfill your potential and
create action. You completed 52 exercises, utilizing the tools of top executives and highly successful people,
learning some incredible approaches on what to start doing as well as what to stop doing. Now, we want you to
continue to interact with this book for it to have lasting value: share it with your team, reflect on what you have
learned, and execute your strategies.

Many of the exercises in this book were focused on personal growth – while others stretched your leadership
skills when guiding a team. Now, follow up with the teams you lead and use the Strategic MVP as a tool to enhance
their skills. Sharing and communicating knowledge is often a greater challenge than possessing knowledge.
Share your growth and lead your team through their development. Being an MVP requires developing others
around you to excel.

We also challenge you to review your work, reflect on your learnings, and refresh your action as needed. You,
as the MVP, will have to continue to adapt. Stay open and be curious, ask questions and learn about people.
Absorb and reflect on the knowledge and ask yourself, “How do I personally need to change so that I can be
more effective?”

Finally, we have delivered strategies to you, coaching you through the process, creating a forum to generate
ideas. And we all know, ideas alone are not enough. It is great to read books, study, and listen to the most
powerful and highly successful people. But, when you finish a book or lecture, what have you really learned?
We believe that applying the skills and tools and executing the strategies is the key to success. We need you,
MVP, to spread the buzz, to stimulate growth, and to exemplify change. We challenge you to arouse your
followers, your organization, and your industry. The real MVPs implement the ideas and knowledge through
doing. Take your exercises, coaching tips, and tools and apply them in your life today.
APPENDIX
 ACHIEVE
GOAL: ________________________________________

PRIORITY #

What is the measurement?

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

What is my deadline to achieve this goal?

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

What will I need to do to accomplish this goal?

1
2
3
4
5
When am I going to start this goal?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

How will I keep this goal in the forefront so I will remember to focus on it every day?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
 Author Biographies
Mark C. Thompson
Based in Silicon Valley, Mark is a senior executive leadership coach, a successful business leader, New York
Times bestselling author, venture capitalist, and Tony-nominated Broadway producer - and brings real-time
solutions to today’s leadership challenges.

Mark is Charles Schwab’s former Chief of Staff, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Chief Communications
Officer, and cofounder of the Schwab Foundation. He served as the Executive Producer of Schwab.com, with
assets of over $3 Trillion. Forbes Magazine called Mark one of “America’s top investors with the ‘Midas’ touch.”
Mark was cofounder of Virgin Unite Mentors, Sir Richard Branson’s network for executive coaching and
entrepreneurial innovation, and is a Founding Patron of Virgin Unite’s Entrepreneurship Centres. Mark was also
Program Chairman for the Board of Governors of the Hesselbein Leadership Institute and the John F. Kennedy
Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

He is a founding advisor of the Stanford Realtime Venture Design Lab and a visiting scholar at his alma mater,
Stanford University. He has served as faculty at the World Economic Forum and the World Business Forum. He
is a SupporTED coach on the team that coaches TED Fellows.

Mark served on the Board of Directors of Best Buy, Korn Ferry, and Interwoven (now owned by HP). He was
Chairman of Rioport – which popularized the MP3 player prior to the iPod and iTunes - and was Chairman of
Integration, which was acquired by Silicon Labs.

He is a Founding Board Member of Smule, which is Google and Apple’s top music applications company -
including a top selling app for the hit TV series Glee - with over 60 million active users. He is an investor in
Cancer Genetics, a leader in DNA-based cancer diagnostics for personalized clinical management of cancer
treatment.

Among his passions is Broadway. As a producer, Mark’s plays have earned five Tony Awards and ten nominations,
including Peter and the StarCatcher with Disney, and StickFly with Alicia Keys.

Mark lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Manhattan with two extraordinary women – his wife Bonita and
their daughter Vanessa.
 
Brandi Stankovic
Dr. Brandi Stankovic is an organizational change consultant and a motivational speaker with a creative, people-
centric and results-driven approach to problem solving and planning. She is a founder and senior partner of
Mitchell Stankovic and Associates (MSA), a global strategic consulting firm. She has more than 15 years of
experience in providing solutions for clients, including award-winning education, strategic planning, leadership
transition, and human capital management. Brandi spends her time consulting with CEOs and their teams,
writing books and articles related to leadership and organizational health, and speaking to audiences from
around the globe.

Brandi inspires audiences with her models of leadership, organizational culture, and employee engagement.
She is a top-rate keynote speaker who utilizes humor, story-telling, and a dynamic and interactive style to leave
audiences feeling energized and ready for action! Brandi is the author of hundreds of whitepapers and journals
as well as two scholastic publications: Business Performance Measurement, Intellectual Capital Valuation Models
and Social Media Strategies to Advance Organizational Change.

Prior to MSA, Brandi worked as the Vice President of Marketing and Administration for Ventura County Credit
Union and also as the Director of Education at Harland-Clarke, a Fortune 500 Company serving financial
institutions.

Brandi is the Young Leaders vice chair for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Credit Unions for Kids, the
Human Resource Development Network Board consultant, World Council of Credit Union’s Global Women
Leadership Network sister society advisor USA, volunteer manager at Aid for AIDS Nevada, and an International
Development Educator CUDE and I-CUDE.

Brandi is an adjunct faculty member at the College of Southern Nevada, comprehensive exam faculty reviewer
for Pepperdine doctoral candidates, and is certified in teaching English as a foreign language. She received her
Bachelors in Finance and Economics at the University of Nevada, MBA from the University of San Diego, and
Doctorate of Education in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University.
 Foreword and Contributing Author

Marshall Goldsmith
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith has been recognized again as one of the top ten Most-Influential Business Thinkers
in the World and the top-ranked executive coach at the 2013 biennial Thinkers50 ceremony in London. Dr.
Goldsmith is the author or editor of 34 books, which have sold over two million copies, have been translated
into 30 languages, and have become bestsellers in 12 countries. He has written two New York Times bestsellers,
MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – a Wall Street Journal #1 business book and winner of the
Harold Longman Award for Business Book of the Year.

Marshall’s global professional acknowledgments include: Harvard Business Review – World’s #1 Leadership
Thinker, Institute for Management Studies – Lifetime Achievement Award (one of only two ever awarded),
American Management Association - 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management
over the past 80 years, BusinessWeek – 50 great leaders in America, Wall Street Journal – top ten executive
educators, Forbes – five most-respected executive coaches, Leadership Excellence – top ten thinkers on
leadership, Economic Times (India) – top CEO coaches, Harvard Business Review (Poland) – Leadership Thinker
of the Decade, CEO Global (Canada) – World’s #1 Leadership Speaker, Economist (UK) – most credible executive
advisors in the new era of business, National Academy of Human Resources – Fellow of the Academy (America’s
top HR award), World HRD Congress – global leader in HR thinking, Tata Award (India) for Global HR Excellence,
Fast Company – America’s preeminent executive coach and Leader to Leader Institute – Leader of the Future
Award. His work has been recognized by nearly every professional organization in his field.

Dr. Goldsmith’s Ph.D. is from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where he was recognized as the
Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. He teaches executive education at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.
He is one of a select few executive advisors who have been asked to work with over 150 major CEOs and their
management teams. He served on the Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation for ten years. He has been a
volunteer teacher for US Army Generals, Navy Admirals, Girl Scout executives, International and American Red
Cross leaders – where he was a National Volunteer of the Year.
 THE strategic MVP
52 Growth & Leadership Tools from the World’s Top Executives

“If you use these simple exercises to challenge yourself and others – you will reach your greatest
potential. This book will help you become the MVP you deserve to be!” – Marshall Goldsmith, New
York Times bestselling author of Triggers and Mojo
What you have in your hands, The Strategic MVP, is a culmination of 30 years of work in the field of executive
coaching. Thompson and Stankovic looked at what is relevant in today’s swiftly changing environment and
created concepts for you to practically integrate into your daily regime.

In all, they’ve assembled 52 exercises – one for every week – in a simple format that enables you to build
your leadership mojo throughout the year.

This book is meant to be put to work!

Mark C. Thompson is a New York Times bestselling leadership author, executive
coach, world renowned keynote speaker, and serial entrepreneur who has partnered
with Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Charles Schwab. He was Senior VP and Executive
Producer of Schwab.com and in 2015 he was recognized as one of the Top 30 Global
Gurus and one of the world’s best executive coaches. He is a cofounder of the John
F. Kennedy University Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Richard Branson’s
Entrepreneurship Centers, and Stanford University’s Realtime Venture Design Lab.
www.MarkCThompson.com

Dr. Brandi Stankovic is a professor, organizational change expert, motivational speaker,

and Mommy who inspires firms globally with her models of leadership, engagement,
and award-winning education. Her clients include billion dollar organizations, trade
associations and non-profit foundations. She also coaches Pepperdine University
doctoral students, teaches College of Southern Nevada undergraduates and serves
on boards for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Aid for AIDS, and World Council
of Credit Union’s Global Women Leadership Network.
www.BrandiStankovic.com