My Advice if You’re a Leader

Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Leadership = Energy + Direction

Direction = Vision + Courage

Therefore, leaders are people of Energy, Vision, and Courage.

If you are a person of energy, vision, and courage:

(1.) I have noticed that people like you often become surrounded by wanderers who are looking for a leader. It is hard to make money when you are stumbling over puppies who gather at your feet. Resist the temptation to become a thought leader. Oh, I forgot. The new word is influencer. Don’t become one.

(2.) Do not become a zookeeper. When you find yourself among persons of energy, vision, and courage like yourself, do not try to “manage” these untamed creatures. Zookeepers diminish energy, dull vision, and punish courage. You will never meet a wealthy zookeeper.

(3.) When you see pent-up energy, unexplored vision, and fearless courage, become the friend who delivers that person from their captivity. Hire them. Unlock their leg irons. Empower them, encourage them, unleash them.

(4.) Be a leader who gives vision and direction to other leaders and encourage those leaders to do the same. Model correct behavior. Lead by example. Spread the joy.

(5.) Your life is about to become very interesting.

ADDENDUM: Lest you become too anxious as you search for world-changers like yourself, I have asked Albert Bandura to share this word of warning with you:

“Let us not confuse ourselves by failing to recognize that there are two kinds of self-confidence—one a trait of personality and another that comes from knowledge of a subject. It is no particular credit to the educator to help build the first without building the second. The objective of education is not the production of self-confident fools.”

– Albert Bandura, Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control, p.65

Do not be attracted by self-confident fools.

Tinsel and glitter stand proudly in the spotlight, but true gold is found surrounded by mud.

SURPRISE! Seventeen years ago the wizard recorded a memo that reminds me of the one he shared today, so I time-traveled back to November 5, 2007 and retrieved it for you. – Indy Beagle

I thought Bill Clinton was a good president for the same reason I thought Ronald Reagan was good; both were excellent Head Cheerleaders. Their politics, personalities and characters were different, but each had a similar ability to keep things from spinning out of control.

Every organization has a Head Cheerleader. Their business card usually says “manager”. The Head Cheerleader’s job is to keep talented hotheads, sycophantic suck-ups, whining excuse-makers, moon-eyed lunatics and plodding paranoids all headed in the same general direction. They have to make everyone feel like everything is going to be all right.

Are there really people who can do this job?

Thrown into the deep water at 26, I was possibly the worst manager ever to assume the position. But over the years, I’ve had a chance to observe the great ones, and I’ve noticed an unusual but recurrent characteristic:

Great managers are rarely excellent at any of the things they manage.

Great coaches are great not because they were superstars, but because they know how to awaken the star that sleeps in each of the players around them.

Excellent don’t show you photos from their own vacation. They ask to see the photos from yours, and it makes them happy to see you had a wonderful time.

Life-changing managers look for things to praise in their people, knowing that it takes seven positive strokes to recover from each negative reprimand.

Think about it. If seven out of eight times we encounter our boss, we receive an authentic, affirming comment, a bit of happy news or a piece of valuable insight, we love to see our manager coming down the hall. But if our encounters with the manager leave us deflated, discouraged, or scared, our hearts sink when we see them coming.

Do your people love to see you coming?

If not, begin looking for things to praise. Keep your ratio of positive comments seven times higher than your negative ones, and they will soon begin to smile when they see you coming. This newfound attitude and confidence will bring new levels of productivity, and all because you believed they could do it, and made them believe it, too.

Great managers are never afraid to hire people better than themselves.

Each of the 217 times David Ogilvy opened a new office for Ogilvy and Mather, he would leave a set of Russian nesting dolls on the desk of the incoming manager. When the manager removed the top half from the largest of these bowling pin-shaped dolls, he or she would find a slightly smaller doll inside. This would continue until the manager came to the tiniest doll and retrieved from its interior what looked to be the note from a fortune cookie:

“If each of us hires people smaller than ourselves, we shall become a company of, but if each of us hires people bigger than ourselves, we should become a company of giants.”

– David Ogilvy

Now walk down the hall and find a sleeping superstar disguised as a plodding paranoid.

For each of the next 21 days, compliment that person every time you see them take a right action. Then prepare to meet a whole new employee on the 22nd day.

Don’t be surprised if they have the same name as the plodding paranoid that used to stink up the place.

Go. The hallway awaits you.

– Roy H. Williams

“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”

More than half of all customers are willing to pay more for the same product or service if the seller also provides a single intangible: trust. Natalie Doyle Oldfield studies the dynamics that drive customer loyalty and business growth, and “Trust,” she finds, “is the critical value that top companies rely on to secure their market dominance and drive substantial growth.” Prepare to feel wonderfully affirmed when Natalie reveals to roving reporter Rotbart the proven methods companies can use to amplify their trustworthiness and strengthen their reputation and their brand. If there is only one episode you are ever going to listen to, this is the one. MondayMorningRadio.com