Leadership

Just finished reading this book "The Journey of the Accidental Leader" – Steve Gladis.

Here, the author tries to share his leadership experiences in the Marine CORPS in 10 simple Lessons. He has adopted a narrative story line where he explains these principles as an experience in the life of his protagonist Sam, who is forced to lead his father's consultancy Firm after his untimely death.

Though most of the Lessons listed in this book are known to most of us (consciously/subconsciously), it will help us reflect if we are able to follow it in our daily routine. Hence I Thought of listing down those 10 lessons here in my Blog along with other highlights I could relate to in this book.

 

• "Lesson number one in business: No one knows what they're doing until they try."
  

 

• "Lesson number two: You get what you give. So give a little first." As in if you want to get respect, you have to give it. If you want to get information from people, give them information. It's all about opening the door first.
  

  
   

  
   

• Lesson number three: Build trust (of the team for you) by character,
  competence, caring, commitment, and consistency."
  

  
   

  • Character - That boils down to honesty. If I can rely on what you say, that you do what you say you'll do, and if you don't, you'll make it right—then I say you've got character."
    
  • Competence - You have to be good at the basic business you're leading so that people will listen to you and have confidence in what you say. That means you have to master your profession to be taken seriously
    
  • Caring - needs to be central to anything you do when dealing with people. If people feel that you genuinely care about them and their families, there's nothing they wouldn't do for you
    
  • Commitment and Consistency - These two together because they're both about integrity—living up to promises. Look—if you're inconsistent or refuse to commit to a plan of action, people see you as unreliable at best, and nuts at worst.
    
  • Collaborte with Team. Be open to self feedback given by your team.
    

 

• Lesson number
  four: Change isn't easy, but if you do it right, everyone
  wins. People resist change as they are comfortable with what they are doing
  

 

• Lesson number five: You have to have a
  vision to make it come true . The vision thing. If you can stop yourself every now and then and check all your basic assumptions, you may find you've been doing things a certain way—and those things could certainly stand a re-Vision. Also take team opinion for their vision.
  

 

• Lesson number six: If you want to
  create a positive culture, show people by your actions
  what you believe in, don't just tell them
  

  
   

  • If ideas are bubbling up from people at every level, especially those charged with the responsibility for executing them—then the air is fresh. If people are not afraid to disagree—it's fresh. If people can try, fail, learn, and try again—then, the atmosphere is fresh
    

  
   

• Lesson number seven: Leadership is all about
  courage
  

  
   

  • if you do want to lead, you have to step up…and call hard shots.
    

 

• Lesson number eight: The long march begins with the
  first bold step.
  

 

• Lesson number nine: Change will
  happen—embrace it while sticking to your core principles
  

  
   

• Lesson number ten:
  Leaders have a passion
  for people.
  

  
   

  • Leaders value every person (employee and
    customer alike) as an individual
    
  • Leaders try to "fit" people into the right job, not
    fix them
    

 

Some Good Liners from this book:

• Respect everyone for the special gift each brings to
  the table.
  
  • That's what they (the team) do if they don't feel appreciated, respected, and valued for what they bring to the table. And if they can't fight back because you're the boss, they vote with their feet.
    

• People have got their issues. They are valuable and need to be respected. But respect doesn't mean a free pass.
  

 

• Make the customer's Problem your problem
  
• Give importance to start and end meetings on time. Don't let meetings wait for people.