Leading Without Authority by Keith Ferrazzi
Three Lessons from Leading Without Authority
- Be proactive about developing your team through building authentic relationships.
- Collaboration and partnerships are essential for creating transformational ideas.
- Asking why something happened can appear judgemental, ask what they thought of what happened instead.
"The strongest leaders are those who are lifelong students."
― Keith Ferrazzi
The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership by M. Soupios
Three Lessons from The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership
- Genuine leadership requites a lifelong commitment to doing the inner-work on a continual basis to understand our hidden motives and identities.
- Be flexible, and don't wasted energy on things that you can't change.
- Good leaders inspire trust around their staff and stakeholders, and by doing this, create a better chance of success.
"One of the most essential activities of a genuine leader is to clearly articulate these points to subordinates, to help them understand that the logic of collective action is beneficial to organization and individual alike". - M. Soupios
The Myth of the Strong Leader by Archie Brown
Three Lessons from The Myth of the Strong Leader
- Many folks have a mistaken idea of what it means to be an effective political leader.
- Good leaders need to be humble and listen to people.
- The most influential leaders usually employ a collegial leadership style.
"The most authentic political leadership is to be seen when large numbers of people are inspired by someone who has neither power nor patronage to dispose of, but whose message strikes a chord with them." - Archie Brown
Measure What Matters by John Doerr
Three Lessons from Measure What Matters
- OKRs, Objectives and key results, is a process that helps organizations make progress.
- One of the benefits of OKRs is that they offer visibility, help communication and allow inspection from other folks in the organization.
- The four superpowers of OKRs:
1. Focus and commit to priorities.
2. Align and connect for teamwork.
3. Track for accountability.
4. Stretch for outstanding results.
“Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.” ― John Doerr
The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
Three Lessons from The Effective Executive
- Becoming effective is a learned skill; it does not require unique gifts, particular aptitude, or training.
- Time is a limiting factor for effective executives. Time is the only resource that one cannot rent, hire, buy, or obtain more.
- When executives ask the question, “What can I contribute?” they are likely to concentrate on the wrong things and define their contributions too narrowly.
"It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem - which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday."" - Peter Drucker
High Output Management by Andrew Grove
Three Lessons from High Output Management
- Manage teams by setting expectations and cultural values.
- Any activity within an organization can be modeled as a repeatable process.
- Functional teams (e.g. HR, Finance), create leverage by centralizing services, with a trade-off of request delays and increased complexity.
“Remember that by saying “yes”—to projects, a course of action, or whatever—you are implicitly saying “no” to something else.” ― Andrew Grove
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
Three Lessons from Extreme Ownership
- If people aren't doing what they should, it's the leader's responsibility to clarify the mission and action plan, get people's commitment, and equip them to perform their roles.
- Plans should be simple to be easily communicated, understood, and adjusted in response to real-time changes.
- Discipline is essential for freedom and results.
“There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders that lead successful, high-performance teams exhibit Extreme Ownership. Anything else is simply ineffective. Anything else is _bad leadership._” - Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
The Nine Types of Leader by James Ashton
Three Lessons from The Nine Types of Leader
- Leaders have different styles. Understanding your styles will help you overcome your weaknesses and play to your strengths.
- Alphas firmly believe in themselves and rule accordingly – with absolute control not allowing for time to second-guessing, or ruling by consensus.
- Fixers are great when your company is facing a threat, they take swift action and don't fear risks.
"The leaders I have observed continue learning and adapting all through their careers but typically hold on to one or two characteristics that identify them. If they have learnt anything in this last year, it must be to be more human." - James Ashton
Dealing with Darwin by Geoffrey Moore
Three Lessons from Dealing with Darwin
- Innovation is valuable only if it helps achieve differentiation, leading to economic advantage, and that breakaway innovation comes from a singular focus on an innovation vector.
- A company's operations can be a source of breakout innovation in mature markets, and these can be, and often are, paired with customer experience innovation types.
- Use outsourcing as an exhaust vent for work that no longer needs attention once it has been centralized, standardized, modularized, and optimized.
"Sustaining innovations are the key to consistent performance, whereas disruptive innovations are the key to dramatic changes in power." - Geoffrey Moore
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Three Lessons from Good to Great
- You need disciplined people, thought, and action to become a great company.
- Sustained great results depend upon an overarching organizational culture of discipline.
- Influential leaders can create the commitment from their team to pursue a clear and compelling vision.
“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.” ― Jim Collins