Being a good leader is a skill that takes a lifetimeso the sooner you start the better.
Truman supposedly said, Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.
The worst that can happen is not the event itself but the eventandyou losing your cool.
It came to be that Eisenhower was selected because FDR preferred to have Marshall with him in Washington.
A leaderbenches the ego.
A leader never believes they have the Midas touch.
[*] A Leader Stays Sober Success, money and power can intoxicate a leader.
What is required is those moments is sobriety and a refusal to indulge.
One look at Angela Merkel, one of the most powerful women on the planet is revealing.
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She is plain and modestone writer said thatunpretentiousnessis Merkels main weaponunlike most world leaders intoxicated with position.
Charisma is a crutch.
Competence and rationality is a requirement.
Which way will you go?
He wanted his young officers to do the right thing, even if it held them back.
Because if they didnt, who would?
Bezos, unlike most business leaders, refused to play that game.
He understood that the real value lies in thinking decades ahead.
His maxim for business opportunities is also relevant here: Focus on the things that dont change.
[*] A Leader Seizes OpportunitiesLeaders dont wait around for things to happen.
Leaders arent given their position on a silver platter.
No, leaders seize opportunities, no matter how small or disguised those opportunities may be.
Think of Amelia Earhart who wanted to be a great aviator.
But it was the 1920s, and there were not many opportunities.
There would be a male pilot and co-pilotthey would be paid, she wouldnt.
You know what she said to that offer?
She saidyesand turned it into something.
We are here to get the best possible results.
As a leader you understand that in any endeavour there isno room for egoyou answer only to results.
And your job is to plan how to achieve those.
You actively submit your plans to feedback and criticismthats how they get better.
What we need to block these inclinations is rules.
Little ones thatwe can followto make us better.
This is why relying on rules, constraints and systems is important.
Its the same thing with leadership.
[*] A Leader Is Objective The Samurai swordsman Miyamoto Musashihas stressedthe difference between perceiving and observing.
The perceiving eye is weak, he wrote, the observing eye is strong.
Because leadership requires objectivity and seeing things as they are.
Leaders have to be a source of good energy and solutions.
They cant make hard things harderthey need to make hard things easier for their employees or followers.
It had nothing to do with sailing.
Or in a more modern take, how Colin Powell put it: Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
Wooden wasnt about rah-rah speeches or screaming from the sidelines.
He saw those extra emotionsas a burden.
Instead, his philosophy was about being in control and doing your job and never being passions slave.
Eisenhowers reaction was swift: Never bring me a sealed envelope,he said firmly.
Thats what I have a staff for.
As his chief of staff later put it, The president does the most important things.
I do thenextmost important things.
Things never go according to planbe ready and on guard for whatever comes your way.
One executive described his management style as chasing colored balloonshe was constantly distracted and abandoning one project for another.
Its just not enough to be smart or right or a genius.
Thats not how you’ve got the option to grow as a leader either.
Similarly, the great coach Wooden has his ownPyramid of Success.
(In fact, Pete Carrollwas inspired by Woodento create his own philosophy of winning.)
If you dont have a philosophy, how do you expect to know what to do in tough situations?
Or when things are confusing or complicated?
Beingreactiveis never a position of strength.
It is not a position a leader should find themselves in.
The leader is the driver of the organization.
Without a driven leader, the cause has no engine.
[*] A Leader Sets The Why What was Hillary Clintons big mistake?
It wasnt declining to campaign in this state or that one, it wasnt her email server.
It was that she had no real compelling reasonwhyshe was running for president.
She just sort of wanted it.
[*] A Leader Looks for Themselves Samuel Zemurrays lineper the excellent Rich Cohenwas Never trust the report.
He wanted first hand knowledge so as a leader he could make the right decisions.
A leader cant simply accept whatever trickles up from below themthey have to see for themselves.
Not all the timebut most of the time.
He created a culture of excellence and instilled what he called his Standard of Performance.
That is: How to practice.
How to hold the ball.
Where to be on a play down to the very inch.
Which skills mattered for each position.
He knew that by upholding these standards,the score would take care of itself.
As a leader, you cannot let pride lead you astray.
You must remember that humility is the antidote to pride.
It didnt hit theNew York TimesBestseller list until more than a decade later.
When you get impatient, think about Roberts journey.
That things take time.
Things that rush into this world are often rushed right out.
Play the long game.
Railroads ran down each side of the riverbank, going in opposite direction.
When his competitor complained, Zemurray laughed and replied: Why, thats no bridge.
This is how leaders get things done.
You accomplish this by having an honest conversation with yourself and understanding your priorities.
And rejecting all the rest.
Learning how to say no is one of leaderships most essential tenets.
[*] A Leader Keeps an Inner Scorecard Just because you won doesnt mean youdeservedto.
A leader needs to forget other peoples validation and external markers of success.
Warren Buffett has advised keeping an inner scorecard versus the external one.
Your potential, the absolute best youre capable ofthatsthe metric to measure yourself against.
Theyre not going to outthink it or outcreate it with some world-changing epiphany.
The ladys not for turning.
A leader knows that genius often really is just persistence in disguise.
He showed up without a recommendation or even an appointment.
He would later on become one of Americas most prominent civil rights leaders and someone worth studying and emulating.
Asone of his favorite lessons go, Cast down your bucket where you are.
You are able to say to yourself, I have lived through this horror.
I can take the next thing that comes along.
…You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Her husbands affairs and his capricious ego.
The early death of her beloved father.
Being sent away to boarding school.
The long wars her country fought in.
A life of often thankless public service.
Eleanor was not fearlessshe just persevered through these things despite that fear.
Youll notice there is very little negative or Machiavellian in this list.
But the most effective leadership strategies are far less dramatic or ruthlessness.
Simply, leaders lead.
By embodying the principles they want others to follow.
Mostly, theyearntheir position by being the kind of person other people admire and respect.
So if you want to be a leader, start with that.
