Product Description

A veteran. . Fortune 500. CFO and business innovator shares her breakthrough program to tap the leader within

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�Blythe McGarvie incites readers. to think about the connections between success, ethics, and financial prowess.�
. �Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft

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During her extensive experience studying effectiveness in business, leadership expert Blythe McGarvie uncovered a vital lesson: successful leaders are systems thinkers. By managing the two forces that power the essential dynamic of business systems, integration (fitting in) and transformation (standing out), managers and executives will generate astonishing results: solutions are created, teamwork grows, change is embraced, and effectiveness is improved and rewarded.

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Now, in Fit In, Stand Out, McGarvie presents her breakthrough program that. will help you become a more effective leader. She reveals how integration and transformation function as the yin and yang of business, working together and balancing each other to form the two sides of leadership success. By mastering these imperatives through the revolutionary FISO FACTOR, you will become a team player while simultaneously advocating change and fostering long-term growth.

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Fit In, Stand Out provides the keys to mastering the six agents of FISO (financial acumen, integrity, alliances, learning, perspective, and global citizenship), and the attitudes, behaviors, and characteristics (ABCs) you need to wield them.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #569118 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 213 pages

Amazon.com Review
At different times, many business leaders face the question of whether to roil waters or to calm them--shake up the system or become part of it. Accept the status quo too passively, goes the thinking, and a leader loses his or her power to push a group's performance to its highest potential. On the other hand, firebrands who push too hard and refuse to accept organizational realities can outrun their followers, and find themselves ineffective. Like Bob Herbold's The Fiefdom Syndrome or Larry Bossidy's Execution, this book comes from a corporate insider and offers readers a map to navigating the often-complicated political intrigues which characterize large organizations.

Author Blythe McGarvie works today as a consultant and board member of such global giants as Accenture, Pepsi Bottling, and St. Paul Travelers. In addition, she served previously as CFO of Bic Group, a Fortune 500 company. Through her performance in these roles, she's demonstrated her own career savvy. Now she seeks to pass on the lessons. As McGarvie explains it, the central challenge for leaders of modern, complex organizations is to understand how different people, processes, and trends integrate with each other ("fit in"), while at the same time retaining enough perspective and strength to transform those pieces and make their whole greater than the sum of individual parts ("stand out").

In a breezy writing style that weaves together perspectives from her personal experiences with anecdotes from a wide range of companies, such as GE, Microsoft, and Marriott, McGarvie makes the argument for 6 key traits. Leaders who want to fit in and also stand out, she says, must possess financial acumen; integrity; an ability to envision, build, and maintain alliances; learn; offer perspective; and practice global citizenship.

By themselves, the traits McGarvie describes are hardly ground-breaking. Some may criticize this book for rehashing old management axioms in an all too familiar way. The value of McGarvie's perspectives comes from her efforts to tie each of the 6 traits to a specific by-product which helps leaders both fit in and stand out. Financial acuity, she writes, provides leaders with a key dose of confidence necessary for their jobs. Integrity builds trust. Linkages provide access to new opportunities, both for leaders and for their teams. Learning provides ongoing innovation. Perspective leads to balanced judgment. And finally, global citizenship leads to agility. The heart of McGarvie's book comes from her explanations of the effects of these 6 qualities on a leader's reputation within an organization.

Another helpful quality of this book is its explanation of priorities: in a pinch, should aspiring CEOs fit in first, or stand out? These paths don't always conflict, but when they do, how should the tradeoff be resolved? According to McGarvie, they should fit in before standing out. Hopefully, though, most readers of this book will benefit from its insights, and avoid giving up one or the other for too long. --Peter Han

From Booklist
McGarvie is president of LIF Group and sits on the board of several major corporations. As former CFO of Bic Group, she was one of only 10 women CFOs in the Fortune 500. Her take on the making of great leaders revolves around the paradox that to lead effectively, you have to both fit in and stand out from the crowd, two seemingly opposing concepts that appear contradictory. But solving this puzzle may be the key to opening the door to the C-suite (the chief executive team) to get an inside look at how senior business leaders undertake their work. McGarvie approaches the Fit In Stand Out (FISO) concept from a number of angles, including "Financial Acuity," "Integrity" (an increasingly rare commodity these days), "Linkages" (the pathways of networks), and "Global Citizenship," which entails mastering the ability to transcend geographical boundaries in pace with the exponential increase of globalization. A fundamental guide to choosing a path in the maze of corporate culture--from someone who has been there and done it. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover

"Now is the right time for anyone aspiring to executive ranks to absorb the wise advice McGarvie shares generously in this highly practical book."--Joseph Grenny, bestselling co-author of Crucial Confrontations

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During her extensive experience studying, practicing, and teaching effectiveness in business, leadership expert Blythe McGarvie uncovered a mandatory, though seemingly contradictory, lesson: in order to be a successful leader, you must excel at both fitting in and standing out. Even the most powerful leaders must fit in to ensure others will respect and follow them; however, leaders must also stand out from the group to be recognized and to drive corporate change and growth.

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Now, in Fit In, Stand Out, McGarvie presents her revolutionary program--The FISO Factor--which will help anyone in business become a more effective, influential leader. She reveals how the forces of integration (Fit In) and transformation (Stand Out) work together and balance each other to form the two sides of leadership success. McGarvie provides the keys to mastering the six agents of FISO, and the attitudes, behaviors, and characteristics (ABCs) you need in order to wield them.

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By mastering FISO, you'll discover how to establish the platform of support required to build your leadership prowess while taking your company beyond the status quo. McGarvie outlines each catalyst of FISO and its role, in personal, career, and corporate applications that enable you to

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• Support, maintain, and work within the culture and structure of your company .
• Know when and how to advocate change and successful long-term growth .
• Understand and communicate the principles of financial statements and economic trends to best position your company for profitable returns .
• Gain insight into the views and needs of both internal and external stakeholders, such as employees, superiors, customers, and suppliers .
• Maximize the power potential of your relationship network .
• Respond and adapt to ever-changing environments .
• Andnbsp; Make globalization your passport to opportunity .

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Drawing upon McGarvie's hard-won lessons and featuring the valuable insights of many leadership experts, consultants, and academics, Fit In, Stand Out shows you how to step up and release the leader within.

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Praise from top leaders in every field

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"Distills what really works from real life experiences in order to share how to be a successful leader."--Ram Charan, bestselling coauthor of Execution and Confronting Reality

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"Fit In Stand Out encompasses both realistic perspectives and visionary aspirations to create a framework that clearly and compellingly delineates the elements of successful leadership." Eleanor Bloxham, CEO, The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance and author of Economic Value Management and Value Led Organizations

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"Frames the essential elements for leadership excellence, and creates a compelling, programmatic approach for success."--Cathryn C. Cranston, Publisher, Harvard Business Review

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"A well-designed blueprint for developing leadership skills and attaining career and corporate success."--James M. Kilts, Chairman, President and CEO, The Gillette Company

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"This book manages to both "fit in" with the best of the leadership books on the market today, and yet "stand out" as well!"--Roderick M. Kramer, William R. Kimball Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford Business School

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"Blythe...advocates a very healthy, integrity-laden, competence-based any situation. It is a most solid model for the corporate world to follow."--Douglas Conant, President And CEO, The Campbell Soup Company

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"Blythe McGarvie's insights...are invaluable benchmarks for organizations who need to assess their senior management."--Gordon Grand III, Managing Director, Global Practice Leader, Financial Officer's Practice, Russell Reynolds Associates

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"Eloquently reveals the secrets of leadership as going beyond the seemingly opposite demands of fitting in versus standing out."--Mohanbir Sawhney, McCormick Tribune Professor of Technology, Director, Center for Research in Technology And Innovation, Kellogg School of Management

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"A practical, insightful, hands-on blueprint for leadership success."--Ken Duberstein, former White House Chief of Staff

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Customer Reviews

The Hidden Nature of Leading
One reason we buy books on leadership is to acquire other people's wisdom: the wise words, the principles, the five points, or even just a few strategic shortcuts. But the bottom line is that being a leader is all about managing self with other people.

I think one of the best books on this topic is Blythe McGarvie's Fit In, Stand Out: Mastering the FISO Factor (2005). The book offers practical, rational ideas on the skills needed by leaders in today's world, and also (surprise!) gives readers the opportunity to learn from personal stories. In 1995, McGarvie was one of only 10 CFO's in the Fortune 500 companies. She can walk the walk.

In her book she states, "Even the most powerful leaders must fit in to ensure others will respect and follow them; however, leaders must also stand out from the group to be recognized and to drive corporate growth and change." She describes learning how to stand out and fit in as a process of transformation and integration that occurs in significant linkages. (She uses terms like "social capital" and "linkages," which are better known in the corporate world than psychology's R word - relationships.)

Clearly, McGarvie understands that leaders must find ways to handle self in relationships if they are to function at their very best in groups. As I read her book, I realized that although McGarvie has no official training in psychology, she sees the main point found in Family Systems Theory. She sees the real organizational obstacles and challenge to being an emotionally separate individual. In addition, she has found methods to enhance people's ability to function as knowledgeable leaders.

McGarvie used stories from other leaders and her own life to reveal the inner dynamics of what is required to become balanced corporate leader. She is clear about the difficulties and the long-term consequences of staying in relationships with others. Personally I find she describes the central challenge of being a more "differentiated" individual in a group setting without using the psychologically oriented words.

McGarvie helps us understand the limits of adapting by retelling the story of Alice in Wonderland. Alice, you'll remember, found herself in a place where there were no clues, no real communication, and where, as McGarvie noted, "fractured logic, paradox and contradiction rule the day." Does this sound like a familiar nightmare? Even for the best of us, even when our goals are clear, fitting in and adapting to a particular culture may be just too costly. In such a situation, McGarvie notes, trust yourself and climb out of the rabbit hole by using your ability to become a team player on another field.

There are hidden treasures to find in this book, but I of course treasure that McGarvie can tell her own story. She learned, she tells us, from watching her mother closely monitor the family accounting and from watching her father try to "fit in" at the University of Chicago's Ph.D. program. From her mother she found a love for numbers and keeping track of all things financial. She also learned the importance of a well-run family or organization. From her father she learned the power of persistence. Those are some great lessons.

Leaders such as McGarvie are often natural or even gifted observers. They often have very powerful memories and are able to recognize patterns in a few moments or in a few words. But the best is that they encourage us to "conform to the values of an organization only as long as its standards are within the boundaries of our integrity and values."

After redaing this book people might have more fun knowing that fitting in and standing is a natural process that we can "learn."
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Outstanding Book on Leadership, Personal Integrity, and Change
Reading Fit In, Stand Out has been one of the most rewarding books I have read in many years. It lays out the framework for integrating into a team and a company (fit in) while also transforming the company to try new ideas and to grow (stand out). Making a company successful will also lead to your own success if you know the right way to fit out and stand out. The author shares personal examples from her own life, but more important, has great stories from all sorts of business leaders she knows or interviewed (Jack Welch, Bob Lipp, Steve Ballmer to name a few). This would make a great Holiday gift for people just starting a career or those who want to reach the top in their field, but haven't been able to do it yet. I highly recommend the book. You will learn a lot and have fun in the process.

Fit In Stand Out - An excellent guide
I found Fit In Stand Out fun and interesting to read, with alot of great tips that you wouldn't find in other books of this nature. The advice is practical and down to earth and you can tell the author has solid real-world experience to draw upon - something you can't say for alot of leadership books. I found her advice on fitting in while also standing out good and think I will find alot of her tips useful. It is very hard to navigate the ever shifting waters in companies where you need to balance the seemingly opposing values of fitting in, and also standing out. I appreciate this book and am glad to have it as a guide for me.

DAM