William Wu Personal Blog

Yesterday I had a discussion on Leadership with someone young and ambitious. This person has been on a fast track of future leaders of a well-known Fortune 500 company.  His understanding of being a great leader is to set a clear goal for others in the team and be the front person that removes obstacles for the team.  I think this view skews the leadership definition more toward a manager instead of a leader.  Like probably most people, I didn’t really grasp the differenence between a great manager from a great leader until I started learning from many other great leaders at Microsoft & its wonderful senior leadership training program.

The easist thing to remember when it comes to judging a person’s leadership is his or her ability to influence. . This is best described in John Maxwell’s excellent book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.Â

To quote from his book, this is called “The Law of Influence”.  It is the true measure of leadership - nothing more, nothing less” John Maxwell’s favorite leadership proverb is, “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” 

Leadership is influence; without influence one cannot lead.

Princess Diana and Mother Teresa are two of the most influential persons who ever lived. Both had the ability to make things happen and to make the world take notice. Princess Diana started out simply as a spokesperson for fund-raising, but she grew to become more influential even after losing her title as wife of Prince Charles. By her influence, she drew the world’s attention to issues such as AIDS research and the banning of landmines.

Five Myths About Leadership:

1. The Management Myth. Management can maintain direction. Influential leadership is what changes the direction of an organization toward positive change.
2. The Entrepreneur Myth. People may be buying what somebody is selling, but they are not necessarily buying into his leadership or vision.
3. The Knowledge Myth. Mental superiority does not necessarily equate to leadership.
4. The Pioneer Myth. The one in front is not necessarily the leader. The leader is the one with the vision that people want to follow.
5. The Position Myth. Maxwell quotes Stanley Huffty, It’s not the position that makes the leader; it’s the leader that makes the position.

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I recently read a book called “Eat That Frog!” by Brian Tracy.Â

The name of the book caught my attention and it offers 21 great ways to stop procrastingting and get more done in Less Time.  Here is the main idea from the book:

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do somoething about it.  It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment. 

2 rules of frog eating accrording to the book:

• If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.
• If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.

The key to reaching high level of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning.  You must develop the routing of “eating your frog” before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it.  The reality is there will never be enough time to do everything you have to do, so things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least!

Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu once wrote, “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.“  This is a great strategy for overcoming procrastination and getting more things done faster.  As Frank Tibolt said, “We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing.  Action always generates inspiration.  Inspiration seldom generates action.”  So remember: Footprints on the sands of time are never made by sitting down.

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If you like quotes, you will probably enjoy the book compiled by Joel Weiss called “The Quotable Manager - Inspiration for Business and Life.” Â

On the book cover, it referenced a quote from John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the U.S. on Leadership:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Immediately inside the book cover is a great inspiration poem from Rudyard Kipling, a famous English author & Nobel Prize winner in 1907.  Here are what Mr. Kipling wrote:

IF

By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated don’t give way to hating,
Yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams you master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all of your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing to you
Except the will which says to them: “Hold On!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the earth and everthing that’s in it,
And - what is more - you’ll be a man, my son!

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