First of all, I want to wish everyone a fantastic New Year!!! Welcome to the 2020’s!!! As an aside, I read an article that summarized a debate as to whether the 2020’s start on January 1, 2020 or January 1, 2021….something to do with whether at the very beginning of time you start at zero or one; I will let others debate it since the topic is “above my pay grade.” I’m going with January 1, 2020!!! 😉
I hope you had a chance to relax and spend time with family and friends. Julie and I had the opportunity to head down to Florida with almost the entire “Kraemer Gang” including not only our immediate family, but also all of my siblings and their families. We had a total of 24 folks together!!! If that is hard to picture, see below to see what that looks like lined up by height on Siesta Key.
Not that we are competitive, but I am now 10th in height. When we took this same picture six years ago I was 6th in height. Somehow, both of my sons and two of my nephews zoomed past me!
Anyway, I hope everyone had a good time welcoming in the new year….someone caught me in the act!
My Third Book
Several folks have asked me, “so why are you writing a third book?” Well, here’s the background. Several years into teaching my class at Kellogg, I was approached by one of my students, Samir Gokhale, who insisted that I write a book focused on “how do you become a values-based leader?” He was so insistent that he audio-taped my entire 30-hour class and gave me a 200-page typewritten transcript. Then with the help of Tricia Crisafulli, the result nine months later was my first book, From Values To Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership.
Several years later, students began to ask, “Okay, but how do you progress from being a values-based leader to building a values-based organization?” That line of questioning led to my second book in 2015, Becoming the Best: Build a World Class Organization.
Given these two books, I thought I had covered most of the key topics on which I wanted to focus. However, after several one-on-one discussions with Kellogg students, friends, and colleagues, I realized I had not focused on a VERY IMPORTANT question that extends way beyond leaders and leadership: How do you live a values-based life?
The decision to start work on the book was made even easier when Wiley Jossey Bass offered to make a significant donation to the One Acre Fund if I could finish the draft by December 31!!
So, with the assistance of many students and colleagues, and the fantastic work of Tricia Crisafulli, I just submitted a copy of the entire manuscript to Wiley Jossey Bass!! If all goes well, the book will be published in April 2020. And, very important to me, as was the case with my first two books, all of my proceeds from the third book and all of the proceeds from my talks and speeches will be contributed to the One Acre Fund in Africa.
I will summarize some topics of the book in future blog posts.
Harry…congrats on authoring the third book. A Values Based personal life is the basis for a broader Values based Community and Nation/World. I’m sure you took the broad view and the results will be an impactful contribution to everyone’s life journey and maximizing the creation of Common Good. I can’t wait to read it. Well Done, Harry.
Congrats! I simply loved hearing your talk at Physicians Realty Trust’s Summit event this year and can’t wait to read your next book.