Possibly the hardest thing for leaders who have taken over the direction of a product or service is to sound off clearly on what needs to be done. "The leader’s first task is to be the trumpet that sounds a clear sound,” says Peter Drucker.
Once upon a time, a company imagined a future where music, video and books were all digital, instantly available through a hand-held gadget. It saw itself as a big seller of that digital content. No, we’re not talking about Apple, but about Barnes & Noble.
Charlie Munger, able partner of financier Warren Buffett, got frustrated early in his career because, as Buffett describes it, “he thought he was smarter than everyone else he was working for. So he decided he was going to do something smart for his most important client—himself ..."
In 2009, when the rest of the financial industry faced a crisis of legitimacy, Standard Chartered was raising its standing, increasing its overall lending and handing out small and midsize business loans. Today, the bank’s motto says it all: “Here for good.”
A potent quote, perhaps one learned early in your career, can convey your vision of life and work to your people. Enrique Salem, president and CEO of Symantec, reels off a few of his favorite leadership lessons, which happen to be quotes:
Anyone who has used a Dyson vacuum knows just how revolutionary it is. Yet its inventor, James Dyson, didn’t find fertile ground for his idea easily. His biggest mistake of all, he says now: He shopped his idea around to manufacturers. No one would license the machine because it didn't have a bag. His biggest mistake also turned out to be his most brilliant one.
Forget the first-mover advantage. Arriving late to the game is much more critical to creating a successful product or business, says Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink. Even the much-applauded Google co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, aren’t “breakthrough guys,” says Gladwell. “They’re tweakers.”
Knowing how to ask the right questions about the future can be more valuable than knowing the right answers about the past. Seven questions to help steer your business toward future growth:
People set goals all the time, but the majority end up unfulfilled or abandoned. Mark Murphy, founder and CEO of Leadership IQ and author of Hard Goals, tells us about the secret to getting from where you are to where you want to be.
It takes skill to imagine something, that is, literally see it in your mind, and then snap apart the components, rotate them, bend them, fold them and scan them from different perspectives. But that’s exactly the trick visionaries like Jeff Hawkins excel at.