ROE Powers ROI: The Ultimate Way to Think and Communicate for Ridiculous Results

By R. Michael Rose

A common sense guide to thinking and communication styles that will help readers improve business performance.

Business is complicated even in the best of times. We are not in the best of times, and it’s more complicated than ever. ROE Powers ROI de-complicates business and provides for clear insight at every level of its organization.

As a business owners, consultant, and advisor, Michael has had the advantage of observing both successful and failed businesses and comparing results from the experience. He brings his own empirical, science-based approach to simplify business utilizing the ROE Methodology. ROE, or Return on EnergyTM, was developed to get the right people into the right seats and maximize your organization’s success, or return on investment.

Michael’s ability to bring clarity to complex business jargon is so powerful that it serves well as a foundational tool to better understand and process business today.

Praise for ROE Powers ROI

“Provides the key to ensuring business success in today’s world.” —Vince Poscente, New York Times–bestselling author of The Age of Speed

“A new and important contribution to business and management literature. It lays out a compelling vision for how a CEO can get the best and most collaborative outcomes from the management team.” —Charles D. Connor; President and CEO, American Lung Association

“Innovative, invigorating, and right-on, Michael Rose’s ROE Powers ROI will enhance the way you think forever. This book should come with a highlighter. Read, reread, and progress.” —Dean Lindsay, author of The Progress Challenge and Creating Progress in a World of Change

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781612540665

Book preview

Praise for ROE Powers ROI

ROE Powers ROI provides the key to ensuring business success in today’s world.

—Vince Poscente

New York Times best-selling author, The Age of Speed

ROE Powers ROI is a new and important contribution to business and management literature. It lays out a novel and compelling vision for how a CEO can get the best and most collaborative outcomes from the management team.

—Charles D. Connor

President and CEO, American Lung Association

ROE Powers ROI will change the way you think and enhance your communication skills whether in the boardroom, in the store, at home, or at a party. Presented in easy-to-understand terms, the ROE methodology can be implemented by anyone, anytime, anywhere. The bottom line is this book will increase your effectiveness, pure and simple.

—Tom Ziglar

CEO and proud son of Zig Ziglar

Innovative, invigorating, and right-on, Michael Rose’s ROE Powers ROI will enhance the way you think forever. This book should come with a highlighter. Read, reread, and progress.

—Dean Lindsay

Author, The Progress Challenge and Cracking the Networking CODE

The ROE methodology helped my team better understand our business and leadership principles. It is a powerful tool that has encouraged participation and adoption of our key business objectives that will support the success of Wingstop Restaurants.

—Lance Loshelder

CFO, Wingstop Restaurants

Presented in easy-to-understand terms, the ROE methodology can be implemented by anyone who desires to enhance their way of thinking and communicating with others, regardless of the situation.

—Paul Spiegelman

Founder and CEO, The Beryl Companies

Michael Rose has really attacked and solved a serious problem for most business—achieving a greater return on energy. Too many companies waste their resources and misuse their talent, which can put them out of business. Michael has developed a methodology to fix that once and for all. If you are running a business or are in a business, you really need to know and understand what Michael is teaching.

—Kent Billingsley

President, The Revenue Growth Company, Inc.

Leaders who value people development first and business results second will benefit from reading ROE Powers ROI. ROE impacts everyone within an organization and identifies the pain at all levels to break down the silos and get people talking. If you have a job but are looking for a promotion or another job altogether, ROE is for you.

—Tony Hartl

Founder, Planet Tan

Author, Selling Sunshine: 75 Tips, Tools, and Tactics for Becoming a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur

It is imperative that all companies both large and small maximize available resources, especially from their people. ROE Powers ROI provides the tools to make this happen. Having seen Mike’s philosophy at work in my organizations, it is clear that managing energy is the key to productivity.

—Mitchell Allen

Serial entrepreneur and author

Return on Energy will do for management what Porter’s Five Forces did for business strategy.

—Terri F. Maxwell

President and CEO, Succeed on Purpose

I enjoyed the exposure to Rose’s ideas as I have also engaged these challenges both as a CEO and as a consultant and advisor. I can see how ROE would give a management team a new way of thinking about their business, the organization of their people and processes, and their communication with each other.

—Don Arnwine

Retired CEO, VHA

Having been present at the birth of Michael Rose’s three Ways, it’s particularly exciting and gratifying to watch how he developed these key concepts into a business leadership toolkit for any company leader who is looking to implement growth strategies.

—Andy Birol

Birol Growth Consulting

Author, The Five Catalysts of Seven Figure Growth

© 2012 R. Michael Rose

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

ROE Powers ROI™

The Ultimate Way to Think and Communicate for

Ridiculous Results

Brown Books Publishing Group

16250 Knoll Trail Drive, Suite 205

Dallas, Texas 75248

www.BrownBooks.com

[phone]

A New Era in Publishing™

ISBN 978-1-61254-066-5

Library of Congress Control Number 2011944296

Printing in the United States

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my parents, who gave me the gift of how to understand myself and relate to people, and especially to my wife, Nikole, who showed me how to embrace it to fulfill my life’s purpose.

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Section I: Can’t You See the Arrow?

  1.  Awareness

Section II: A New Way of Thinking

  2.  ROE: Return on Energy

  3.  Way One: Chief Vision Officer

  4.  Way Two: Vice Presidents of Vision

  5.  Way Three: Vision Coordinators

Section III: What Do These Words Mean Anyway?

  6.  Broken Arrows

Section IV: The CEO Sits in the Bull’s-Eye

  7.  The ROE Organizational Chart

Section V: Connect the Right People in the Right Way

  8.  Way One Communication: The Bigger Picture

  9.  Way Two Communication: The Big Picture

10.  Way Three Communication

Section VI: Apply ROE NOW

11.  Organizational Development

12.  ROE Marketing

13.  ROE Trusted Advisor

Section VII: Start with Your Skills

14.  Learning the Ways

Epilogue: The ROE Movement

Foreword

Michael and I are pretty different. He lived most of his life in the populous states of Pennsylvania and Texas. I was born and raised on a small Caribbean island with less than 150,000 inhabitants. Michael studied at a small regional school in Texas and, after a short employment stint, became a successful entrepreneur. I took the road of Ivy League universities and top-five MBA programs—interspersed with employment at prominent investment banking and consulting groups. My most recent summer vacation took me to a place where I could practice four different languages; Michael took his family to the quiet serenity of the Colorado Mountains.

At first glance, you wouldn’t think of our partnership as a match made in heaven, but the truth is that our relationship is highly effective, efficient, and enjoyable. We hit the ground running from day one and never looked back, and we have a great time working together. Some would call this a coincidence, or good fortune, and leave it at that. That’s not good enough for me. I insist on understanding the root cause of everything, and then try to figure out if and how it can be replicated.

My first inclination was to validate whether our success was a matter of complementary skill sets and personalities along with a common objective—similar to what drove Disney’s success in the late eighties and nineties when Michael Eisner (the strategic and creative visionary) joined forces with Frank Wells (the operational and financial expert). I quickly realized this is not the case for us, as Michael and I constantly trade hats and take on different roles when working together.

As I reflected on the ROE methodology Michael had previously shared with me, it became clear that we were living, breathing examples of the thinking and communication program he had developed. We intrinsically understand the three Ways of thinking and communicating he has identified, and shift seamlessly between Ways according to the need. For example, when trying to formulate a strategy, I need Michael to be the Way One and help him develop the vision. This helps me to be a qualified Way Two and develop the plans that will ultimately make the vision become a reality. For his part, Mike will routinely change from a Way One to a Way Three and help execute the plans that I have put together in my Way Two role. The real key to making these shifts successful is in changing not just the manner in which you think, but also your communications with the other person. The dialogue and questions between a Way One and a Way Two are radically different from those between two Way Ones, or between a Way Two and a Way Three. This is the magic of ROE, and why it is at the core of our successful working relationship: it provides practical tools to quickly diagnose and subsequently apply the right thinking and communication for any situation. Forget about expensive and extensive training programs; ROE delivers ridiculous results in a matter of hours by placing people in the right roles, clarifying the expectations for their role, and teaching them how to think and communicate accordingly.

So what can you expect after reading this book? Your first reaction will likely be to determine which Way best describes you and what that means for your current job situation. You will find yourself asking and answering whether you are in a position that capitalizes on your strengths, and whether those around you are in the right positions as well. You will likely then apply the tools from this book to evaluate the types and quality of communications that take place within your organization. Armed with this insight, you will formulate a clear point of view on your own and your company’s growth trajectory; is everything looking good or is it time for a change?

Moving on, you will probably look at every person, organization, or company differently than you do today. As you meet and talk to people, you will find yourself silently classifying them as a Way One, Two, or Three; understanding their wants, needs, and concerns; and tailoring your own communications approach to most effectively engage with them and making sure you speak their language. You will do the same as you look at organizational structures and management layers in clubs, churches, organizations, and companies—trying to understand why they are structured a certain way and quickly diagnosing problems that will now appear obvious and elementary.

These are just a few examples of how I believe this book may change those who read and adopt ROE. Having experienced these changes myself, and hearing the feedback from hundreds of ROE seminar participants, I am excited to see the impact this book will have on the broader audience. I congratulate you on taking this important step for your personal and professional development and trust you will enjoy this book.

—Menno Ellis

Acknowledgments

Iwant to thank God for giving me the gift of insight to develop the material in this book from three simple words in 2007: return on energy. My purpose in life is to help those who want to help themselves. This book marks the start of fulfilling this purpose.

My wife, Nikole Rose, and I are partners in life and business. Rose Group Companies