8 Ways To Be Great In 2008

I just came across a great website for Leaders in London, which is billed as "Europe's Premier Leadership Forum with over 1200+ attendees in 2007" and "One of the most important gatherings in the world" according to Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School.

The January 2008 issue of their newsletter, Taking The Lead, contains 8 valuable lessons for those who lead, which should be rephrased as 8 invaluable lessons for those who want to lead.

Enjoy:

1. HOW TO MAKE YOUR TEAM GREAT

Treat people as if they are capable of great things. And many of them will prove you right.

“If you treat people as they are, they will stay as they are. But if you treat them as they ought to be, they will become bigger and better persons.” - Goethe

“Give people an ‘A’ in advance. We talk completely differently to someone we’ve given an ‘A’ to than to someone we’ve given a ‘C’ to; the ‘A’ is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.” – Ben Zander, talking at Leaders in London 2007.

2. LISTEN TO NEW AND RANDOM VOICES

“The best way to get good feedback is to randomise. The best feedback may come from the bottom of the organization.” – Steve Levitt, speaking at Leaders in London 2007.

“I used to hold meetings in the aisles of my supermarkets. Customers would constantly interrupt to talk to me, to give me feedback. Then I’d attend meetings back in the office with colleagues who spend all their time compiling customer research and wading through consumer behaviour reports. And I’d tell them things about our customers I’d picked up from random conversations in the aisles. And they’d say ‘We didn’t know that.’ “ - Feargal Quinn, founder, Superquinn supermarkets

3. CREATE A CULT, NOT A CULTURE

“The other magazines in the stable were so convinced we would flop, they called us ‘Folded’ instead of ‘Loaded’ during our pre-launch phase. I had no business training. But, I knew enough to create an environment where the team felt the world hated us (which wasn’t hard), so we could thrive off that. Like Alex Ferguson with Manchester United and Colonel Gadaffi with Libya.” – James Brown, Founder, Loaded magazine, speaking at Leaders in London 2007

“Incentives are the guts of economics. They’re not just about money. They’re about social pressure, adulation, and working for a cool organisation. Google is more cult-like than anything.” – Steve Levitt, as above

“There’s no such thing as company culture.” – Marcus Buckingham, as above

4. BE YOURSELF: DON’T ACT LIKE ‘A LEADER’

We tend to carry around ‘great man’ or ‘great woman’ archetypes in our heads – often without being aware of them. We feel that is what a leader should be. And then we feel we have to act like these mythical creatures when we come into a leadership position. Leadership may have worked like that once. It doesn’t now.

“Be very clear about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. Use the strengths you’ve got to be effective. But, don’t try to be something you’re not. Some leaders may feel they need to be a cross between Margaret Thatcher and Alexander the Great. Now, there’s a frightening thought. Be yourself.” – David Cameron, Leaders in London 2007

5. BE SLIGHTLY DELUDED

But only slightly.

“In 360 assessments, there is one group that is the most accurate about assessing their own performance versus how other people assess them. And that’s depressives. The most highly productive people, by contrast, are slightly positively deluded about how good they are. So, self-awareness isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” – Marcus Buckingham, Leaders in London 2007

6. HOW TO SELL NEW IDEAS TO THE BOSS

(Unless you yourself are the group CEO, that is).

“Don’t sell novelty. That’s a high risk currency. Emphasise the benefits.” – Edward de Bono, Leaders in London 2007

7. ASK THIS QUESTION AT MEETINGS

“Insist that every meeting end with the question ‘What new ideas have you had since last we met?’ If the answer is ‘none’, then it has to be made clear to the people around the table who came up with no new ideas that they aren’t doing their job properly.” – Edward de Bono, as above, on how to lead for innovation

8. AND ONE ‘DON’T’…

“Don’t borrow strength from positional power. Leadership is…not a position. Gandhi never held a leadership position.” – Stephen Covey at Leaders in London 2007.

Perhaps the biggest admission of an inability to lead is to say or imply, “Because I said so” – issuing instructions and expecting compliance because of your position. Bright, questioning people – and they’re the people you want – no longer have automatic deference to a position. And they don’t like being told what to do.

The Leaders In London website is here and their blog is here.