Next Level Blog
Simple, practical, applicable
Leaders and Readers, What Are You Highlighting? February 9 2011
Yesterday, I found out that the Kindle version of The Next Level is in the top 2% of the most highlighted books on Amazon’s Kindle. In case you’re not familiar with the technology, you can highlight passages in a Kindle book just like you can in a physical book. The only difference is the Kindle highlights get captured in the cloud. That means you can get really cool lists like these top five highlighted passages from the Kindle edition of The Next Level:
1. The difference between responsibility and accountability is the difference between doing and leading.
2. She needs to restructure her time and perspective so she can more clearly see what is important to the business as a whole and how her function fits into that bigger picture.
3. Who is the audience for my message? · Where are they now in terms of their thinking? · What, if anything, do I need to do to change their thinking?
4. When you’re operating as an executive, your accomplishments will be more about influencing outcomes than directly creating outcomes.
5. Her job is to define what the results should be, not how to accomplish the results.
(By the way, the she and her in points 2 and 5 refer to Amy, the composite character in the opening case study in chapter one. )
So, of those five highlights which one speaks to you most directly and why? If you’ve read The Next Level, what favorite passage have you highlighted that’s not on this list? One of the great joys in my life is knowing that some of the ideas I share through my writing are making a difference for people. If you have a story about The Next Level, please share it in the comments. We’ll all learn in the process.
Scott Eblin is an executive coach, speaker and author of 

One of my favorite hightlighted sentences is: A lack of white space on one's calendar coorelates with a lack of white space in one's brain.
Scott-
I recommended The Next Level to a colleague in our organization who has just been promoted. While we have not had an extended conversation about the book, he has commented on several occasions that he needs to shift from being responsible for results to being accountable for results. My sense is that the book has been a great help to him as he thinks about his new role.
Thanks for the comments Mary Jane and Gayle. You've put your fingers on two of the things I hear the most about from readers and clients – setting the right level of engagement with one's team and finding space to think. Maybe there's a correlation there?