Dear leaders, this week I wanted to offer something a little different.
I keep a note (you know by now I love and recommend note-keeping to everyone) of all the best and worst pieces of advice throughout my career and upon some regular reflection here are the top 50 pieces of leadership advice I have received.
I have added links to the frameworks built from these or will help you apply these pieces of advice into action in your workplace.
The best pieces of leadership advice throughout my career
Improve yourself every day
For every problem, have two solutions (one problem two solution framework)
If in doubt, talk it out
Value is what people want
Learn from history (humans just don’t)
Communicate only the most essential information. If you don’t know what’s important, work it out first before hitting send or hosting a meeting / all hands
Remove emotional decision-making - we all have our bias that drives emotion, remove emotive and bias based decision making
Land the exec summaries (it is rare anyone will read the 50-100 slides) - if you cannot summarise your actions in 7 bullets with dates and priorities you don’t know what your plan is
Never reward bad behaviours - even for superstars
Everyone hires A players, hire smart but adaptable power players (read how power players do it)
Make the complex, simple
Own your time, if it’s taken from you you’ll never get it (run a calendar audit to optimise your time)
Words matter most (sentiment goes a long way for opt-in or opt-out)
Underdogs win (don’t take them for granted)
Think, breath, think: Take a breath, take another, then comment
Never give headcount away (whatever you do, do this for the right reason but remember once it’s gone it’s incredibly hard to replace or win back)
Don’t take my kindness for weakness
Politics plays even when you aren’t playing (political intelligence is optional for you but everyone else is playing the game)
Learn
The
Culture! (without understanding the people, processes and how culture works, you will not influence positive change)Make time for those who matter most (for life and professional work)
Your deadline isn’t everyone else’s deadline
Colleagues & Friendship
You’ll know if your colleagues are friends in hard times
You’ll know if your colleagues are friends when you or they leave
Walk it off: write the draft and walk it off and revisit (never hit an angry send)
The CFOs formula will drive more important decisions than you will for many years
Everyone has a manager, but not many have a good or great one, make your choice (management is a privilege)
Follow the rule of three
Don’t wait for luck
Be disciplined
There’s no magic system (but there is magic in some systems)
If it seems too good…
Remove fear (fear of missing out, fear of the future, fear of history repeating itself)
The most intelligent people aren’t the smartest
Be wary of someone who always says no
Be wary of someone who never says no
Your circle of competence should be your confidence
Lies bite - liars bite hardest
Sharks smell blood
Big dreams aren’t dreaming big
You’ve won the lottery to be here (in life) - so go for it
Not everyone has common sense
Work smartest not hardest (hard and smart compete)
The loudest in the room is often the weakest and most destructive
Keep your eye on other people’s bad habits (they’ll creep and people mimic bad habits)
Mistakes happen - find those who actively look to fix their mistakes
Find your edge - no one else will
Plan - execute - review (I have a saying always be marketing, always be auditing and this is based on this cycle)
Respect patience
Good intentions don’t always last
Knowledge builds up. It’s a muscle you need to build.
For every optimist, there are three pessimists
Let me know which one is your favourite? Hit reply or email me (danny@focus.business)
This week’s action: Review the list, and see which ones you should take on onboard and apply (by all means steal them and share them with your team - copy and paste https://focus.business/blog/leaders-letter-142 into teams/slack or department email)
Reading for the week: The simple but highly effective pieces of leadership advice you can apply this week.
Thanks and have a great week ahead.
Danny Denhard