The Captain’s approach: take command, lead by example, listen aggressively, communicate purpose and meaning, create a climate of trust, look for results and not salutes, take calculated risks, go beyond standard procedure, build up your people, generate unity, improve your people’s quality of life.
Like the Navy, the business community has to figure out how to help people grow.
Getting the most of our crews has variables: the leader’s needs, the organization’s atmosphere, and the crew’s potential competence.
Leadership is earned not designated.
Leaders must free their subordinates to fulfill their talents to the utmost. However, most obstacles that limit people’s potential are set in motion by the leader and are rooted in his or her own fears, ego needs, and unproductive habits.
Helping people realize their full potential can lead to attaining goals that would be impossible to reach under command-and-control.
The more control I gave up, the more command I got. In the beginning, people kept asking my permission to do things. Eventually, I told the crew, “It’s your ship. You’re responsible for it. Make a decision and see what happens.”
Stasis is death to an organization. Evolve or die: it’s the law of life.
The key to being a successful leader is to see through the eyes of employees.
The courageous story of Edward C. Benefold, Navy Corpsman, died at the age of 21 tending to 2 Marines in a foxhole. Enemies through grenades into the foxhole, but he grabbed the grenade and stormed the enemy.
Don’t give up on people until you exhaust every opportunity to train them and help them grow.
Empowering means defining the parameters in which people are allowed to operate and them setting the free.
My job was to create the climate that enabled people to unleash their potential. Given them right environment, there are few limits to what people can achieve.
3 great questions:
- Did I clearly articulate the goal?
- Did I provide the time and resources to get it done?
- Did the crew have proper training to do it right?
Steadily send a message that your people are important. Realize your influence.
Every leader sets the tone for his or her organization.
Confidence is contagious.
The whole secret of leading a ship or managing a company is to articulate a common goal that inspires a diverse group of people to work hard together.
Make your crew think – “We can do anything!”
Avoid managerial silence.
Trust is a kind of jujitsu: you have to earn it, and you can earn trust only by giving it.
Nothing is sadder than people who try to inflate themselves by deflating others.
You may screw up, but we believe in comebacks.
It’s critical that leaders don’t shoot the messenger who brings bad news.
Celebrate your crew’s contributions.
Yes-people are a cancer to any organization, and dangerous to boot.
My crew was going to be trained to make decisions.
I worked hard to create a climate that encouraged quixotic pursuits and celebrated the freedom to fail.
Unfortunately, all too often organizations promote only those who have never made mistakes. Show me someone who has never made a mistake, and I will show you someone who is not doing anything to improve your organization.
Cross-train in every critical area.
If all you give are orders, then all you will get are order-takers.
If a rule doesn’t make sense, break it. If a rule does make sense, break it carefully.
Let people borrow from your playbook.
Slow-rolling: when people don’t agree with you, they slow their actions till you are past the drop-dead date.
Always be prepared.
Move the crew from shipmates to comrades.
Innovation and progress are achieved only by those who venture beyond standard operating procedure.
How well the crew is prepared and how well it performs typically is a reflection of how well the CO leads.
Information: those who have it, prosper and those who don’t have it, wither.
Sometimes people are myopic. They get into a set pattern, and they can’t envision the potential benefits they could glean from various situations.
There is no downside to having employees know how every division of an organization functions.
Leadership is mostly the art of doing simple things very well.
Show me a manager who ignores the power of praise, and I will show you a lousy manager.
Make your boss look so good that you become indispensable.
People seem to think that if you send somebody a compliment online, it’s as good as the human touch. It is not.
Coldness congeals. Warmth heals. Little things make big successes.
Build up your people.
You can’t order an outstanding performance. You have to plan, enable, nurture, and focus on it.
Welcome-Aboard program…welcome newbies to the ship. Running mates were used as a tour guide for the first five workdays. The newbies were not permitted to depart from their running mates until the five days expired.
Present honest information in a non-threatening way. If your superior ignores the recommendations, don’t go around him. Stop; the customer is always right.
Expect the best from your crew. You will get it.
Anything you can do to understand your people, support them in tough times, and nurture their gifts will pay benefits to your bottom line.
One job; one person…one job; every person. Cross-train.
The key to a successful evaluation is whether or not your people are surprised the day you give them their grades. Provide feedback continuously not just at evaluation time.
The task of the leader is to assemble the best team possible, train it, then figure out the best way to get the members to work together for the good of the organization.
Unity is about maximizing uniqueness and channeling that toward the common goals of the group.
Benjamin Franklin said, when he defied the British and signed the Declaration of Independence, “We must indeed all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Diversity training merely makes people more aware of their differences. Unity training focuses on common interests and positive reasons to value others instead of a top-down prohibition against devaluing them.
Having fun with your friends creates infinitely more social glue for any organization than stock options and bonuses will ever provide.
The secret of good work is good play.
The true measure of how well you did on your watch is the legacy you hand your successors.
By doing new and innovative things, you may create jealousy and animosity. Try to be sensitive to that.
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