Thoughtfully Ruthless

Foreword xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Part I Why You Need to Be Thoughtfully Ruthless 1
Chapter 1 Thoughtful and Ruthless 3
The Trigger Points for Thoughtfully Ruthless 3
Who Is Thoughtful? Who Is Ruthless? 5
Can You Name One? 6
Your Time, Energy, and Resources 7
How Thoughtfully Ruthless Are You? 15
Chapter 2 The Cost of Doing Nothing 19
The Cost of Delay 20
The Downward Spiral of Gloom 21
The Thoughtfully Ruthless Success Loop 25
Chapter 3 Your Selfish Charter 29
Your Sensibly Selfish Charter 32
Wishful Thinking Works 35
Chapter 4 Become Brilliant at Demonstrating Your Brilliance 39
Assessing Your Brilliance and How Brilliantly You Demonstrate It 40
Why Appearance Trumps Reality Every Time 42
How to Transform from Being Humble to Shameless 48
Your Action 50
Part II Thoughtfully Ruthless with Your Time 53
Chapter 5 The Power of No 55
The Powerful Post-It 56
The Immediacy Effect 57
How to Be Productively Unproductive 60
How to Control Input Overload 61
Your Lost Discipline List 63
Thirty Ways to Say No 64
Chapter 6 SHUSH!: How to Create Silence, Space, and Time 67
Your Daily Silence 67
The Gift of Time 70
In-box in Control 73
Calendar Chaos 77
Meaningful Meetings 79
The Thoughtfully Ruthless Deadline Tracker 84
Part III Thoughtfully Ruthless with Your Energy 89
Chapter 7 Becoming Imperturbable 91
How to Stop the Worry Trifecta 91
Rapid Thought to Action 95
How Imperturbable Are You? 96
Managing the Energy Leaks 98
Your Accelerators and Decelerators 100
Accelerating by Improving Your Sleep, Nutrition, and Exercise 100
Chapter 8 Divorce Your Friends and Network 109
The Greenhouse Effect 110
Put Your Social Life on Autopilot 113
An Enviable Inner Circle of Advisors 115
Internal and External Connections 116
Communities 116
Perfecting Your Team's Connections 117
Surrounding Yourself with Believers 117
Chapter 9 Creating a Leapfrog Organization 119
Your Five-Year Leap 119
The Intentional Annoyance Phase 124
Building an Exemplary Board 127
Leaving Your Legacy 132
Chapter 10 The Thoughtfully Ruthless Team 135
Steps for Galvanizing Your Team 138
The Characteristics of a Galvanized Team 142
Do You Tolerate Mediocrity? 149
Chapter 11 Amazon versus Microsoft 155
Assessing Your Culture 160
Can You Take the Heat? 167
Reward the Results You Want 169
Unleashing Innovation 170
Using the Cultural Continuum 171
The Express Lane to Culture Change 172
Chapter 12 Mind the Gap 173
Evaporating Excuses 173
Prepare for Abrupt U-turns 175
Change Your View, Change Your Habits 176
Listen to Who You Listen to 177
Evidence, Patterns, and Observed Behavior 177
Practice Altitude Adjustment 179
Make Unpopular and High-Risk Decisions 179
Appendix 185
Ninety-Nine Ways to Be Thoughtfully Ruthless with Your Time 185
Ninety-Nine Ways to Be Thoughtfully Ruthless with Your Energy 190
Ninety-Nine Ways to Be Thoughtfully Ruthless with Your Resources 194
About the Author 201
Index 203