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He said that if you want to be extraordinary, the first thing you have to do is stop being ordinary.
“If they like you because you’re fair, consistent, empathetic, or a positive person — that’s great. But if they like you just because you provide them with free dinners and drinks, what have you gained? You’re setting yourself up for failure somewhere along the way. If your goal is to get everyone to like you, you will avoid making tough decisions because of your fear of upsetting your ‘friends.’
“if you want to be successful as a leader, you don’t have the right to join employee ‘pity parties’ and talk about upper management. You lose the right to blame others for a problem in your department when you are a manager and leader.
“The opposite of accepting responsibility is to find someone or something to blame for the issues you’re facing. Of course, there is always someone or something to blame, but a real leader spends his time fixing the problem
“I once worked with a manager who would remind us daily to ‘keep the main thing the main thing.’ The ‘main thing’ was our purpose or priority. Then he would ask us, ‘So, what is the main thing?’ And because every person on our team knew the main thing, this helped us focus on what was important.
People leave because their manager is not meeting their needs. People quit people before they quit companies.
“I suggest that you take the time to manage your boss the same way you manage your subordinates. Find out specifically what she needs from you and tell her specifically what you need from her. Do you know what her main things are?
one of the ‘main things’ for a leader is to eliminate confusion.
“What you learned this week is that you have to escape from management land and get in touch with your people.
“I read where Confucius once said, ‘To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.’
“Ignoring issues puts your own integrity at risk. And if you lose your integrity, you won’t be able to develop or maintain trust, the very basis for relationships.
You must guard your integrity as if it’s your most precious leadership possession, because that is what it is.
“The most important asset in your company is having the RIGHT PEOPLE on your team. If you have the right people on your team you have a great chance to be successful. “The greatest liability in your company could be having the WRONG PEOPLE on your team. In fact, there is nothing any competitor can do to hurt your team as much as having the wrong person on the team.
“The most important thing you do as a leader is to hire the right people. You cannot have a strong and effective team with weak and ineffective people. “Jeff, you have a great opportunity
“The Three Rules of Three in hiring are: interview at least three qualified candidates for every position; interview the candidates three times; and have three people evaluate the candidates. I know that sounds like a long process, but remember — your job is to hire tough.
“If there is any question whether a person is qualified or not, pass on them and keep searching for the right person. Never lower your standards just to fill a position! You’ll pay for it later.
“I have also found that the job seldom overworks the person, but people often overwork themselves by making bad time management decisions. The bottom line is that most people can’t solve their time problem by working harder. Doing the wrong thing harder doesn’t help. What we need to do is to find ways to shorten tasks, eliminate some steps, combine some tasks, and work easier while getting things done.
“You’ve probably heard of the Pareto Principle that states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities.
It’s your responsibility to yourself and your team to know where your highest payoff activities are and eliminate as many as you can of the ones that yield few results.
“Every time management guru will tell you to touch paper only once. The key to paper management is to keep the paper moving: Throw it away, act upon it, or put it into your reading pile. It may not be reasonable to only touch paper once in every situation, but remember — shuffling and reshuffling paper from pile to pile with no evaluation or action is wasting your time.
I’ve been to a gazillion meetings in my day and have found that — if everyone is prepared, on-time and focused — most meetings can be accomplished in half the time the meeting is currently taking. The average person wastes about 250 hours per year in unproductive meetings. That’s a lot of time and money being wasted! Make your meetings productive but short.
1. ”Your scorecard as a leader is the result of your team. You are needed; you are important. But you get paid for what your subordinates do, not necessarily what you do.
2. “You need your team more than your team needs you. Don’t get me wrong — you need each other, but cumulatively, the 17 people on your team accomplish much more than you do.
A leader with focus and direction fills buckets. A leader who creates confusion and inconsistency has a dipper that drains people’s buckets.
“People need to know how they’re doing all the time, not just at performance review time.
“A forceful enemy to your potential is your comfort zone.
“See, Jeff, the question is NOT do you have the time or money. The question is do you have the DISCIPLINE to set aside time every day to read.
Did you know that the principal reasons executives fail are arrogance, out-of-control egos, and insensitivity?
“There are reasons why hearses don’t have luggage racks! Your legacy will be what you leave others.
