Lumos Notes
39
B. The Ride of a Lifetime
10 Principles
- Optimism - people don’t like working with pessimists
- Courage - fear of failure destroys creativity
- Focus - communicate priorities clearly and often
- Decidedness - balance diversity of opinion and need to make a decision
- Curiosity - the path to innovation begins here
- Fairness - empathy and accessibility is essential, remove all fear
- Thoughtfulness - take the time to develop informed opinion
- Authenticity - don’t fake anything
- Relentless pursuit of perfection - refuse to accept mediocrity. “If you’re in the business of making things, be in the business of making things great”
- Integrity - the way you do anything is the way you do everything
Part 1: Learning
Starting at the bottom
- Create space every day for your thoughts to wander beyond immediate responsibilities
- Relentless pursuit of perfection
- Not “perfect at all costs” but refusal to accept mediocrity
Betting on talent
- Optimism has the power to shift perspective from catastrophe to a complex puzzle
Know what you don’t know (and trust what you do)
- A delicate balance between executive management and how you negotiate with creatives is key - it comes down to respect
“I didn’t want to be in the business of playing it safe, I wanted to be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness” - Bob Iger
- If you want innovation, ::you need to give permission to fail::
Chapter 6
- Optimism in a leader, especially in challenging times, is vital
- People need to feel confident in focusing on their tasks not defending their position
Chapter 7
- You have to convey your priorities clearly, and it impacts time energy and capital all around as
- No more than 3
Chapter 8
- Approaching toxic situations with respect can provide a very different perspective
- Don’t let your ego get in the way of doing the right thing
Chapter 10
- Always surround yourself with people that are good, not just good at their job
- When there is a lapse you must act immediately
Chapter 11
- In negotiation, you must state your goal and intentions up front and clearly, never say or give something up simply because someone wants to hear it
Chapter 12
- “If something doesn’t feel right to you, then it’s probably not right for you” - Tom Murphy
- Being present for your people as a leader is vital for morale
- When you innovate, everything needs to change not just how you make / deliver a product
Chapter 13
- A company’s integrity depends on the integrity of its people
- Nothing is more important than your company’s quality and integrity
Chapter 14
- The trick of leadership is to hold onto who you always were to a degree even while the world tries to inflate your title / power / ego
Chapter 15
- To tell great stories you need great talent
- Innovate or die, there can be no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new
- Create an environment in which people refuse to accept mediocrity - push back on “good enough”
- Take responsibility when things go wrong, learn from them
- Be decent to people and treat them fairly, create an environment where people know you’ll hear them out and second chances for honest mistakes will be given
- Excellence and fairness don’t need to be mutually exclusive - be aware of caring more about the product than the people
- True integrity is a secret weapon, trust your instincts and respect people
- Value ability more than experience and put people in roles that require more of them than they know they have in them
- Ask questions you know should be asked, learn quickly
- Managing creativity is an art and be mindful how much of themselves the artists has put in and how much is at stake for them
- Don’t start small or negatively, starting petty = seeming petty
- Creativity isn’t a science, be comfortable with failure
- Be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness
- Don’t let ambition get in the way of opportunity, do the job you have well and make yourself one of the people
- Don’t invest in small projects that will sap resources that don’t give much back (don’t sell trombone oil)
- When leadership has a disfunctional relationship, the rest of the company will suffer
- Be attentive, do the work, show up - people are watching you as a leader and will know
- It’s not about being indispensable it’s about preparing the people under you to step into your shoes
- A company’s reputation = actions of its people + quality of products, demand integrity from both
- Great is often the collection of very small things, but don’t over micromanage
- Be honest about the changes coming and don’t get overly attached
- Don’t communicate pessimism, it will take over and turn to paranoia and defensiveness and risk aversion
- Convert your priorities clearly and repeatedly, morale can be boosted just by taking guesswork out of their daily life
- Embrace change
- It’s about the future not the past, be optimistic even when your sense of your self is on the line
- You have to do the homework but you’ll never have 100% certainty, at the end of the day it comes down to one persons instinct
- As a leader, you embody the company and your values and integrity will be judged as if it’s the company
- There’s no short term gain that’s the worth the long term erosion of trust that occurs when you go back on the expectation you created early on
- Most deals are personal, be aware at what’s at stake for the other person
- It’s not good to have power for too long - your voice becomes too loud even to the leaders around you
- Hold on to your awareness of self