My friend and colleague, Chip Scholz, recently gave a review of Alan Weber's new book, Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self. Here’s Weber’s summary of how to put leadership lessons to work for you:
- Begin with an assessment of yourself. What is your own working definition of leadership? If you have one, you better write it down. It doesn’t matter if you borrowed it, learned it from a mentor or a book, or if you formulated it yourself. What does it say about the way you work with people? Are you a motivator, a decider, a sense-maker?
- Do another assessment of your organization. Can you write out in a few words what your company does and how it defines itself, how it does business?
- Write out your company’s values. Can you name at least four values that are evident by your company’s work? Do your people know them?
- What are your key metrics? Are you keeping what’s measured relevant and to a minimum?
There’s a lot of common sense to be derived from writing out your answers to these four questions. It can help you see clearly, and consequently communicate in a focused way that moves people to take action.
I'm putting this book on my "want to read" list!