Sometime ago, I read an article about a CEO, Charles F. Knight, who had nearly 40 years of consecutive profits under his belt. In the article, he shared his ten principles of leadership. In my last few columns I have shared helpful proverbs, tips and words of encouragement. Keeping with that trend of uplifting enlightenment, I think the following principles are very relevant today and would like to share them with you:
1. You have to be able to set priorities. I always remember my father saying, "Chuck, your health comes first; without that you have nothing. The family comes second. Your business comes third. You better recognize and organize those first two, so that you can take care of the third."
2. You need an ability to grab hold of tough problems and not delegate them. It's not fair to let the guy below you take the brunt of making the hard decisions. The leader has to get deeply, personally involved in challenging issues and set the policy.
3. Set and demand standards of excellence. Anybody who accepts mediocrity, in school, on the job, in life, is a guy who compromises. And when the leader compromises, the whole damn organization compromises.
4. You need a sense of urgency. It is absolutely better to do something, recognizing it may not be the right thing, than do nothing at all. If you don't have a sense of urgency, the bottom drops out of the organization.
5. Pay attention to detail. Getting the facts is the key to good decision making. Every mistake that I made, and we all make mistakes, came because I didn't take the time, I didn't drive hard enough, I wasn't smart enough to get the facts. You can't get them all, of course, but the last five percent or ten percent of the facts may not really matter.
6. You need commitment. You can always pick out the guy who has a commitment. He is the fellow who does not fly into town the morning of the meeting, but flies in the night before to make sure he gets there.
7. Don't waste your time worrying about things you cannot do anything about. Don't try to fix things that are impossible. Concentrate on the possibles.
8. You need the ability to fail. I'm amazed at the number of organizations that set up an environment where they do not permit their people to be wrong. You cannot innovate unless you are willing to accept some mistakes.
9. Be tough but fair with people. Being tough means setting standards and demanding performance. Probably the hardest part of leadership is to make sure that you will not compromise when choosing people. When we change a division president, 60 percent of the initial recommendations are compromises. But you cannot let emotions get in the way when making a choice.
10. You can't accomplish anything unless you're having some fun. Of course, it is clear that I have fun on the job. I get to the office every morning between 6:30 and 7:30. The other executives know that, so they try to get in the office early, too. I hope they are having fun.
1. You have to be able to set priorities. I always remember my father saying, "Chuck, your health comes first; without that you have nothing. The family comes second. Your business comes third. You better recognize and organize those first two, so that you can take care of the third."
2. You need an ability to grab hold of tough problems and not delegate them. It's not fair to let the guy below you take the brunt of making the hard decisions. The leader has to get deeply, personally involved in challenging issues and set the policy.
3. Set and demand standards of excellence. Anybody who accepts mediocrity, in school, on the job, in life, is a guy who compromises. And when the leader compromises, the whole damn organization compromises.
4. You need a sense of urgency. It is absolutely better to do something, recognizing it may not be the right thing, than do nothing at all. If you don't have a sense of urgency, the bottom drops out of the organization.
5. Pay attention to detail. Getting the facts is the key to good decision making. Every mistake that I made, and we all make mistakes, came because I didn't take the time, I didn't drive hard enough, I wasn't smart enough to get the facts. You can't get them all, of course, but the last five percent or ten percent of the facts may not really matter.
6. You need commitment. You can always pick out the guy who has a commitment. He is the fellow who does not fly into town the morning of the meeting, but flies in the night before to make sure he gets there.
7. Don't waste your time worrying about things you cannot do anything about. Don't try to fix things that are impossible. Concentrate on the possibles.
8. You need the ability to fail. I'm amazed at the number of organizations that set up an environment where they do not permit their people to be wrong. You cannot innovate unless you are willing to accept some mistakes.
9. Be tough but fair with people. Being tough means setting standards and demanding performance. Probably the hardest part of leadership is to make sure that you will not compromise when choosing people. When we change a division president, 60 percent of the initial recommendations are compromises. But you cannot let emotions get in the way when making a choice.
10. You can't accomplish anything unless you're having some fun. Of course, it is clear that I have fun on the job. I get to the office every morning between 6:30 and 7:30. The other executives know that, so they try to get in the office early, too. I hope they are having fun.