Below is the list of management and leadership lessons that I find useful. I collected them from various books and articles I read in the last few years. It is a work in progress so I will keep updating this list as I learn more on this subject.
The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.
Ronald Reagan
- It is easier to get into something but difficult to get out of it.
- You should have the ability to work at two levels – breadth and depth
- Look for the missing pieces. Most people have hard time connecting the dots.
- You can pick your boss.
- Persistence or tenacity is the disposition to persevere in spite of difficulties, discouragement, or indifference. Don’t be known as a good starter but a poor finisher.
- Don’t become the bottleneck.
- Become a good writer.
- Don’t be timid; speak up. Express yourself, and promote your ideas.
- Keep your promises. Your words matter.
- Reason from first principles. Break down complex things in simple terms to your team.
- Enjoy your work and make others do the same.
- You can’t polish a sneaker.
- A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter — or to others — is not a nice person.
- Think from your manager point of view.
- Communicate clearly what team needs to work on.
- Enforce behavioral and performance standards. Fire bullies and underperformers.
- People will believe you if you make right decisions consistently. Don’t expect respect without delivering any results.
- Make it easy for your team to share ideas. Create an environment where it is safe to share ideas and people trust each other.
- Your intuition is your friend.
- Hire great people and then trust them to make right decisions. Give them time before making any judgement.
- Have someone who can act as your shock absorber. Things do get difficult and stressful at times.
- Firing people is hard and you’ll invent excuses not to do it. If you’re consistently wondering if someone’s a good fit for too long, have the courage to do what you know is right.
- Believe in yourself and your capability.
- Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.
- Leaders believe in self-improvement and continuous learning.
- Have bias for action. Actions lead to the desired results.
- Be resourceful. You might have a lot more than you think you have.
- There is a limit to which you can grow as an individual contributor. The only way to scale yourself is through management and leadership role.
- You can learn to become a good manager. Management like most skills is learnable. It is mostly learning on the job though.
- Support your team but don’t end up coding for them at night. It doesn’t scale. You might not be able to finish things. The best you can do is guide and direct them in right direction.
- Say thank you often.
- New needs protection.
- Embrace voidness. You can treat it as an opportunity and fill the void.
- Taking ownership of the work that you have not done yourself. Especially when things go wrong. And they usually do go wrong.
- You can have your way if you can win and make yourself and others money
- Assign clear owners and let them know expectations
- Favour written document over powerpoint
Shekhar Gulati 