Jim Collins advises: “The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.  The best people don’t need to be managed.  Guided, taught, led — ]]> “Surround yourself with great people and get out of the way; don’t try to micro-manage.” — Howard Schultz

Jim Collins advises: “The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.  The best people don’t need to be managed.  Guided, taught, led — yes.  But not tightly managed.”

Marcus Buckingham, author of best-seller, Now Discover Your Strengths, recommends: “Identify a person’s strengths.  Define outcomes that play to those strengths.  Find a way to count, rate or rank those outcomes. And then let the person run.”

The Bottom Line: Leaders “macro-manage”: they hire the right people, define desired outcomes, and then get out of the way.

Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express, explains: “When we judge people in the company, one of the first questions I ask, in addition to what were the outcomes, is does this person have any followership? Because ]]> “The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers.” — Max De Pree

Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express, explains: “When we judge people in the company, one of the first questions I ask, in addition to what were the outcomes, is does this person have any followership? Because when people ask, “Well, how do you know who’s a leader?’ Pretty easy: Just look at the followership.”

Tom Peters, writer on business management practices and author of bestseller, In Search of Excellence, writes: “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.”

The Bottom Line: Leaders have followers, and, work intentionally to build those followers into leaders.

In his bestselling book, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Patrick Lencioni highlights the four disciplines of great leaders.  He says the third discipline, over-communicate, is “the ]]> “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” — George Bernard Shaw

In his bestselling book, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Patrick Lencioni highlights the four disciplines of great leaders.  He says the third discipline, over-communicate, is “the simplest,” but it’s also “the one most under-achieved.”  He adds, “To effectively communicate, a simple message must be repeatedly delivered in a cascading manner through multiple channels.”

It is essential to convey the message verbally and in writing to account for the different ways people receive information.  Peter Drucker points out: “There are readers and listeners…and people are rarely both.”

The Bottom Line: Leaders repeatedly communicate a simple message through multiple channels — both verbally and in writing to make sure communication is achieved.

Lou Gerstner, who orchestrated the turnaround at IBM as CEO from 1993-2002 writes: “I came to see, in my decade at IBM, the culture isn’t just one aspect of the game — it is the game.”

Tony Hsieh, CEO of internet shopping website ]]> “Culture drives great results.” — Jack Welch

Lou Gerstner, who orchestrated the turnaround at IBM as CEO from 1993-2002 writes: “I came to see, in my decade at IBM, the culture isn’t just one aspect of the game — it is the game.”

Tony Hsieh, CEO of internet shopping website Zappos.com, who is credited with building an exemplary employee culture that consistently delivers exceptional service experiences observes: “Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.”

The Bottom Line: Leaders intentionally build their culture knowing it will ultimately drive results.

Sara Blakely, the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire and founder of Spanx, a multi-million dollar undergarment company, admitted: “My dad encouraged us to fail.  Growing up, he would ask us what we failed ]]> “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford