Phil's blog

I found another nice illustration of how great leaders get extraordinary performances out of people, in this conversation between Matt Damon and Leo Dicaprio about how director Martin Scorcese inspires the cast and crew. It’s from a publicity clip about their new film The Departed:

Matt Damon on Martin Scorcese
“Everyone’s excited to be there (on the set), because he’s giving everyone space to do their best work…(He’s so) energised, disciplined and focussed, he brings out the best in everyone around him…Nobody wants to show up empty-handed.”

Leonardo Dicaprio on Martin Scorcese
“I can’t specifically identify anything he does particularly different than other directors. I just feel there’s such a respect level for him when people come on the set, even the minor characters, that everyone is just on their A Game. They know they’ve got to come completely prepared with something to offer that man.”

Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives
– By Jim Yardley

New York Times, today.

Part of the purpose of this blog is to save you time as I read leadership books for you, find and select the best bits, then distil them. That’s the principle behind the whole 60 Second Leader thing.

In the spirit of letting me dig out the gems for you (hey, I’ve just realized that means I do all the hard work. Oh well, too late now…) here’s the 60 Second version of a book I’ve just mined as part of my research for the 60 Second Leader development system.

It’s The Leadership Crash Course by Paul Taffinder.

If you’re the methodical type and into self-assessments you might like this book. I found it slow-going, I’m afraid. But there are these four sharp insights in it:

Leadership is not always intentional
A brilliant observation.

A Quick Win can be a Slow Death…
…if you railroad it through so people feel it’s imposed on them rather than a change they had a hand in deciding on.

Leaders break rules. It’s their job.
Absolutely. Your job is NOT to enforce rules, it’s to let people break them where they need breaking.

Leaders are masters AND servants
As we all are, of course. Most forget the second bit and lord it with the first bit.

End of 60 Second book report.

Just to prove competition really can come from anywhere:

“This week Tesco launched its own-brand computer software, taking it head-to-head with Microsoft, the world’s largest software company.

An initial range of six titles, which will include office software and security suites, will sell for less than £20 each.”

About time someone broke the illusion that the mass of Microsoft office products are anything more than commodity stuff now. Who’d have thought it would be Tesco?

I love how daring and unexpected they are under the leadership of Sir Terry Leahy. More please.

When it comes to leader communication, three is a magic number.

Our brains are hardwired to remember information more easily when it is grouped into three. Yet the Powerpoint default slideset always gives you four bullet points to fill. Say no more. The power of three: as easy as A, B, C; as clear as 1, 2, 3.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, tells us there are three keys to leadership:

1. If you are going to lead be optimistic. If you’re not, you’re followers can hardly be expected to be.
2. If you don’t love people, do something else.
3. Be absolutely clear on what you stand for.

The substantive points in Giuliani’s threesome are powerful enough. But, the fact that he groups them into three makes them even more memorable. The Power of Three: It’s a useful communications tool to keep in your leader’s toolkit.

“The thing about great leaders is that they are very good with other people’s time”

– Bill Jensen, in his book Simplicity

(It’s not a simple book, by the way, ironically. Jensen now admits it was too complicated and says that his follow-up book is better/simpler. There is some very useful stuff in it, however.)

Kirsty Wark: I understand one of the first things you did at GE was blow up the plant you were working in and that it had a profound effect on you. Can you explain?

Jack Welch: I did accidentally blow up the plant, yes. I was about 25 and had been experimenting with a different mixture. There was an explosion. I was scared stiff when I went to the manager. But, he was mainly curious as to why I had done what I had done and what I had learnt from it. ‘Would the process I was trying have worked’ is what interested him! That real encouragement to get it right rather than a punishment did have a profound effect on me, yes. (1)

Admit it: you would have fired him, wouldn’t you 😉 .

(1) My notes from the European Conference on Customer Management, London, where Welch was interviewed. Jack Welch was CEO of General Electric for twenty years and is probably the world’s most-admired CEO.

I was struck by something I heard Mike Harris say once. He’s a leader I admire greatly (founding CEO of First Direct bank, among other things). Mike said a leader shouldn’t be too attached to his or her own opinions.

This runs counter to how ‘strong’ leadership is usually interpreted, doesn’t it.

I was delighted to find a post on Bob Sutton’s website titled ‘Strong Opinions, Weakly Held’ which backs up what Mike Harris was saying.

Bob draws on the thinking of the Palo Alto Institute For The Future to say that strong leadership today is fundamentally different from what it used to be seen as – successful leaders today hold firm, clear opinions but are ready to let go of them if someone else offers a better one or the market changes direction suddenly.

Head over to Bob’s website to read about it. The link is in the ‘must read’ section in the margin over there —>

And since Seth Godin stole* my phrase “Small is the new Big” as the title for his new book, I at least get the chance to use the variant “Weak is the new Strong” as the title of this post 😉

* (OK, that’s not true. He and I did exchange emails a year ago and I pointed him to the Inspired Leaders Network website where I’d used that heading…that did happen…but I don’t believe at all that it influenced him or that he even saw it: it’s just the zeitgeist; a phrase that was in the ether and right for the time)

Leadership today is largely about embracing paradox and being comfortable with contradiction: that’s what underlies my liking for headlines that pose opposites as similars.

ARNIE ON FAILURE

‘If you fail, try, try again.
Then bring in the stunt double.’

SOURCE: Arnold Schwarzenegger, quoted in Vanity Fair

I’ve been reading a book on Walt Disney and it reminded me of this: Great leaders have faith in us even when we don’t in ourselves. They make us believe we can do more than we think. Walt, it turns out, was brilliant at this.

I’ll post some quotes from the book later. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with Christopher Isherwood.

This is usually attributed to Guillaume Apollinaire, but it was actually Isherwood writing a poem in tribute to Apollinaire.

And it’s a perfect summing up of how leaders inspire people to achieve more than they think they can:

Come to the edge
“Come to the edge, he said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them
…and they flew.”