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CITATION

Hayzlett, Jeffrey W. and Eber, Jim. Running the Gauntlet: Essential Business Lessons to Lead, Drive Change, and Grow Profits. US: McGraw-Hill, 2011.

Running the Gauntlet: Essential Business Lessons to Lead, Drive Change, and Grow Profits

Authors: Jeffrey W. Hayzlett and Jim Eber

Published:  December 2011

eISBN: 9780071784108 0071784101 | ISBN: 9780071784092
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  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the SnapTag
  • GO! Driving change in business can feel like running the gauntlet every day: threatening, hostile, and scary—and the only way to survive.
  • Part One: Think Big: Attitude Adjustments
  • Chapter 1 Repeat after me: no one is going to die from the changes you make in business. Say it: “No. One. Is. Going. To. Die.”
  • Chapter 2 Change begins by changing the questions. Who would want a horseless carriage? Wrong question. The right one: Why wouldn’t everyone want one?
  • Chapter 3 Fear stops most people. Change agents welcome it. Get past your fear. Act with confidence and be willing to be a beginner.
  • Chapter 4 As Churchill said, “There is nothing wrong with change if it is in the right direction.” Know your conditions of satisfaction.
  • Chapter 5 Principles mean something only when they are inconvenient. Prepare to live your brand promise in bad times and good.
  • Chapter 6 Change the mood, change the culture, then move on to people and processes. Remember: you can’t be cool and look like Elmer Fudd!
  • Chapter 7 Be relentless in driving the change you want in your people and all parts of your business—be the change you want to see in the world.
  • Chapter 8 Work across the seams of the company. Stick your nose into everything. Be a cheerleader and a white buffalo. Cause tension at every turn!
  • Chapter 9 You can teach a pig to kiss, but it usually gets messy and pisses off the pig. Please, please, please fire the right people.
  • Chapter 10 Great people, like great horses, don’t want to get in the trailer even if they know they are leaving a bad place. Make them want to go.
  • Chapter 11 Accept and encourage mistakes! Mistakes help you assess your team and determine if you need to recruit people or skilled technicians.
  • Chapter 12 Got people in the right positions? Great! Now ensure respect for each position, and then get the heck out of the way so you can lead.
  • Chapter 13 Be direct and talk about the elephants in the room. Even ride ’em and teach ’em tricks—it’s a better way, even if it feels wrong.
  • Chapter 14 Process makes perfect! Corporate cultures are hard to change. Change processes first. Speed is good, but FAST is better.
  • Chapter 15 Change your tune and be pitch perfect: hook me in 8 seconds (the lean-in factor); sell me in 110 seconds (close the deal). What’s your 118?
  • Chapter 16 Mastering your 118 (a.k.a. elevator pitch 2.0): a step-bystep primer
  • Chapter 17 Just because you killed a cow doesn’t mean you’re gonna eat steak for dinner. There’s lots of messy work to do, and none of it is easy.
  • Part Two: Grow Bigger: Starting and Sustaining Momentum
  • Chapter 18 Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any direction. And don’t squat with your spurs on!
  • Chapter 19 Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base.
  • Chapter 20 Smart drivers know where traffic jams are before they hit them. So do smart change agents. Anticipate problems and avoid them before they arise.
  • Chapter 21 The art of war: “Define your tactics to drive demand and translate potential combat power into victorious battles and engagements.”
  • Chapter 22 Fail big! If you’re going to fail with an idea, do it big, and then learn to take responsibility for what comes next.
  • Chapter 23 Be prepared to attack, respond, and not respond. Decide what you’re going to defend and what you’re going to let go.
  • Chapter 24 Nothing personal? Of course it is! But don’t take the bait. Don’t believe the bad stuff. Grow a thicker skin and take the high road.
  • Chapter 25 Make it personal! Get as close to your customers as you possibly can, and then get closer still so you can give them a squeeze.
  • Chapter 26 Do your customer service George Eastman style: “You press the button, we do the rest.” Next time, ask yourself, “What would George do?”
  • Chapter 27 Speed means nothing if your customers only get annoyed faster. Don’t just say customer service is a priority—make it one.
  • Chapter 28 The customer is always in charge. Engage customers on this level in social media and dare to be radically transparent.
  • Chapter 29 Establish a Focused Executive Program that delivers top-to-top, one-to-one strategic relationships that target your top customers.
  • Chapter 30 Stampedes lead to fast results, but they’re expensive and exhausting. Create scalable plans that unfold as you grow.
  • Chapter 31 Never compromise on creativity when you know it is the right thing to do for your brand and your customers.
  • Chapter 32 Adapt or die! Change is not an end in itself, but a chance to expand on success and to understand the “boomerang effect” of change.
  • Chapter 33 Don’t get mad. Don’t get even. Just get ahead and never give up! Outlast the bastards who will try to destroy what you do. Be relentless.
  • GROW! Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. The song of the change agent is the song of the Dog Soldier. Are you ready? Grow!
  • Appendix A: Twenty questions you must ask to win before you begin
  • Appendix B: My four social media Es for customer relations: engage, educate, excite, and evangelize
  • Appendix C: The seven adapt-or-die questions to learn what you don’t know
  • Index