The Heart of a Leader Part 2 (pages 84-157)

Acting Responsibly with Information

• People cannot act responsibly without information.
• Providing people with information compels them to act responsibly.
• Giving cashiers detailed information about the impact of bad checks, along with check approval power, results in improved self-esteem, customer service, and fewer bounced checks.

Boundaries and Empowerment

• Boundaries are essential for empowerment, providing direction and channeling energy.
• Without boundaries, people lose momentum and direction, reverting.
• Boundaries that create autonomy include: Purpose, Values, Goals, Roles, and Structure.

Practice Perfection

• Companies should focus on 'practice perfection' to improve performance.
• Continuous improvement requires day-to-day coaching: setting clear goals, observing performance, and praising progress or redirecting efforts.
• Managers often miss redirecting their people or catching them doing something right.

Power of the Present Moment

• Highly effective leaders respect the power of the present, nurturing it and celebrating its victories.
• Learning from the past and planning for the future are important, but living in the present is crucial for happiness and productivity.

Spiritual Awakening

• Leaders need to become cheerleaders, supporters, and encouragers.
• A 'spiritual awakening' enhances self-esteem, making individuals more loving and accepting.
• Recognizing oneself as a spiritual being having a human experience fosters understanding and support for others.

The Power of Expectations

• People often live down to the expectations set for them.
• Judging someone impairs the ability to see them clearly, filtering out positive aspects.
• Deliberately catch your ‘Harry’ doing something right to change behavior and attitude, leading to positive changes in the other person.

Life's Priorities

• Called people believe everything is on loan, contrasting with driven people who defend what they own.
• All that can be taken with us is the love we feel toward others and the love they have sent our way.
• People on their deathbeds wish they'd cared and loved more and reached out to others

Power of Solitude

• Significant advances come from deep contemplation, escaping the clamor of outside voices.
• Create time for solitude and introspection, allowing for creativity and reflection.
• There is no way to do silence wrong.

Learning from Mistakes

• Organizations should ask "What can we learn?" when a mistake is made, rather than "Who is to blame?".
• Some forward-thinking companies celebrate mistakes as learning opportunities.

Love What You Do

• Great leaders love what they're doing, blurring the line between work and play.
• Develop a personal mission statement to discover what you enjoy so much that time passes without notice.

Audible-Ready Teams

• 'Audible' is a football term for changing a play at the line of scrimmage.
• Teams should be ‘audible-ready,’ adapting plans when necessary.
• People should be taught to use their brains at work, even if it means deviating from policy.

Redirecting Learners

• Never punish a learner for mistakes.
• Redirection involves reviewing the assignment, demonstrating the desired behavior, and praising progress.

Addressing Mistakes

• When someone makes a mistake, check the facts.
• Use the 'One Minute Reprimand': state what was done wrong, share your feelings, pause, and reaffirm confidence in the individual.
• Focus on correcting behavior, not punishing the person.

Consistency in Leadership

• Consistency means behaving the same way under similar circumstances, not all the time.
• Good performance should be treated differently from poor performance.
• Respond consistently to provide predictability.

Adapting to Change

• Constant change is a way of life in business today.
• Simultaneously manage the present and plan for the future.
• Have separate teams for present-time operations and future planning.

Continuous Improvement

• Job security is no longer guaranteed; the only job security is commitment to continuous personal improvement.
• People want honesty and opportunities to learn new skills.
• Focus on getting better all the time.

Values-Driven Teams

• Ensure people are values-driven, rather than goals-driven, to handle change effectively.
• Values become real when demonstrated in actions and expected behavior.
• Goals are for the future; values are for now.

Cash and Congratulations

• Financial needs must be met before praise and congratulations will be effective.
• Address basic needs, like pay and benefits before focusing on other aspects of employee satisfaction.

Clear Conscience

• Leaders who abandon ethical considerations risk losing respect, repeat customers, competent people, and self-esteem.
• Meeting people with a clear conscience allows concentration on doing your best work.
• A clear conscience provides peace of mind.

Sharing Credit

• 'False' pride distorts people’s importance, while ‘true’ pride is healthy.
• Sharing credit demonstrates self-esteem and improves team performance.

Positive Thinking

• Positive thinkers get positive results because they are not afraid of problems.
• More problems may mean more life.

Balancing Life

• Success can be detrimental if health is neglected.
• A sensible lifestyle program is essential.

Servant Leadership

• Servant leaders prioritize serving others over taking control.
• Strong natural servants assume leadership to serve.
• Servant leadership is more about character than style, using whatever approach best serves those they lead.

Ducks and Eagles

• Ducks quack, eagles soar.
• Eagles flourish in customer-focused organizations, while ducks thrive in boss-pleasing environments.

Empowered Employees

• Eagles flourish when they're free to fly.
• Empowered employees take initiative and create positive customer experiences.

Relationship Responsibility

• Take personal responsibility for making relationships work.
• Focus on the positive and bring out the best in each other.

Admitting Vulnerability

• It's almost impossible to be a 'know-it-all' anymore.
• Admit ignorance or vulnerability to encourage others to share their expertise.
• Creating trust empowers others to learn and grow.

Life and Golf

• Golf is a metaphor for life, with its good and bad breaks.
• Golf reveals character and behavior patterns that carry over into other areas of life.

Leadership with People

• Leadership is something you do with people, not to them.
• Share your leadership strategy and solicit feedback.
• Servant leaders seek feedback to improve their interactions.

Fortunate 500 Company

• A Fortunate 500 Company has: Motivated customers, Inspired employees, Ethical profits, and Thriving significant others.
• Managing By Values (MBV) achieves these relationships.

Core Values

• Identifying core values is one of the most important functions of leadership.
• The Disney theme parks core values are safety, courtesy, the show, and efficiency.
• Involve everyone in the process of identifying core values.

Communicating Core Values

• Core values must be constantly communicated.
• Display values prominently to employees, customers, and stockholders.
• Constant communication breeds security.

Aligning Values and Behavior

• Implement a method of locating gaps between values and behavior.
• Leaders must ‘walk their talk’ and embody their organization’s value system.
• Once core values are impacting behavior, they become the 'boss.'

Identifying Life's Mission

• Identify your mission in life - your reason for being.
• A personal mission statement helps define who you are, identify your priorities, and keep perspective on target.

Cultivating Self-Relationship

• Cultivate your relationship with yourself.
• Write your own obituary to define what you want to be remembered for.

Living with Purpose

• Writing your obituary serves as a dream for what you want your life to be and mean.
• Reject the lie that self-discovery is egotistical.

Nobel Peace Prize Example

• Alfred Nobel changed the nature of his life so that his obituary may be rewritten.
• Decide what business you are in as a person.