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March 11 - March 25, 2022
15. Look for people to nurture and promote.
16. Constantly evaluate performance.
17. Recognize when the job doesn’t fit the talent.
18. Terminate quickly and kindly.
19. Don’t lose touch with those you lose.
No matter what kind of company you run, your people are your brand; if you don’t have good people, no amount of marketing, advertising, or PR will make up for it.
Select by talent, not by résumé.
Select the best person for the job, not the best one available.
Be willing to make difficult decisions about removing or reassigning talent that isn’t the right fit.
Once you have the right people in place, your task as a leader is to give them everything they need to excel.
My son, Daniel, once told me, “Dad, you can’t fire your children; you have to develop them.”
Like good parents, good leaders prepare their people to take on future responsibilities by providing appropriate educational opportunities and exposing them to important developmental experiences.
1. Give people a purpose, not just jobs.
2. Take your role as a teacher seriously.
Remember, who does the teaching is just as important as what is being taught.
3. Become a COACH.
4. Teach by example.
Your people will learn more from observing you than from what you tell them, so always lead by example.
“You should not worry that your children are not listening to you. You should worry that they are always watching you” and “What you teach your children you teach their children.”
5. Teach the principles of great service.
6. Train people for Magical Moments and Take 5s.
7. Teach them how and where to spend their time.
8. Communicate constantly.
9. Give feedback immediately and effectively.
Feedback is a powerful method for training your employees, and that means first training yourself to always notice employee performance.
Don’t just tell it; explain it.
10. Prepare them for the unexpected.
“The only way you achieve excellence is with education, enforcement, and large doses of recognition, appreciation, and encouragement”
No one took the time to get to know me, coach me, counsel me, or even ask me what my aspirations were.
Give constructive feedback promptly and effectively.
Remember, you’re teaching by example every minute of every day.
One of your responsibilities as a leader therefore is to identify process problems and act as quickly as possible to fix them.
1. Ask what rather than who.
When a mishap arises, instead of immediately looking for someone to blame, first see if a flawed procedure or policy is causing the problem.
Discipline is necessary only when someone intentionally ignores procedures, but if the procedures themselves are flawed, blaming can be destructive. So
2. Listen to your customers.
3. Learn firsthand what’s working and what’s not.
5. Harvest process solutions from employees.
7. Stay technically up-to-date.
Leaders who do not keep up with technology are doing themselves and their companies a great disservice.
8. Think ahead.
“For every regulation, there’s a dead sailor.” It means that nothing changes unless someone falls overboard.
9. Look at your personal processes.
“Management is boring. If you want excitement become a race car driver.”
10. Expect resistance.
11. Periodically evaluate the changes you make.
“Don’t expect if you don’t inspect.”
When it comes to innovation, it’s important to remember the Chinese injunction to be like bamboo: firm and strong but also flexible enough to bend with the winds of change.
When a problem arises, seek out the process failure; don’t just look for someone to blame.
Continually identify customer and employee hassles, and change your processes to make the hassles go away.
