Ten Truisms

Happy Friday,

Ten key points from past Good News Friday’s:

1.     Your culture is whatever local leaders and supervisors talk about most.

2.     The typical 'organization' chart hardly represents the organization. If it did, where are the clients? Most are just internal reporting structures. But since they portray the organization, they convey messages like these to everyone employed there:

This organization exists to serve the CEO (not clients). Career success is a measure of your proximity to the CEO and your distance from consulting. Important people don't do consulting. Mastering your craft won't take you far, if anywhere. Careers only progress by ascending this chart. Consultants aren’t important (at this consulting business). Administrative departments are not here to support the consultants. The height of achievement and recognition is earning a people manager title. Keep going... ? Most org charts are highly counter-productive.

3.     The most fundamental requirement of every leader is to make people care more, not less.

4.     Your organization's employee engagement score is it's leadership score.

5.     Be the leader you wish your child would have. (Everyone is someone's child.)

6.     If you can’t teach leadership without simply reciting your own experience, you don’t really understand it.

7.     It’s not “all about relationships”. It’s all about trust.

8.     If six months has passed since you last spent time in person with 'your client', then they're no longer your client.

9.     Pick a business or personal goal, double it, and cut the expected timeline in half. Then, imagine in detail the worst conceivable consequences of failure, like your dog will be shot. Immersed in such extreme urgency, your thoughts shake free of normal constraints, revealing new actions and strategies to consider. As a mental exercise, it definitely works.

10.  The most effective career and business strategy one can pursue is a consistent, purposeful, aggressive campaign to strengthen and expand trust. Trust in you, trust in your team, and trust in your organization. Whatever your aspirations, the sooner you recognize the pivotal role of trust as the keystone, the sooner you'll be on the road to achieving them.

Have a greaaaaat weekend,

Dave

Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

All past topics are still available at @goodnewsfriday.com