At a leadership conference I was fortunate enough to attend in California, Susan O’Malley, former president of Washington Wizards NBA team shared with us her 7 rules for success. The comments in the parenthesis are my own interpretations.
1. Make your bed every day. (a little discipline to start your day)
2. Plan your work and work your plan. (critical as your in basket will never be empty. I go home when all my things on my daily plan are completed)
3. Outwork everybody, everyday. (initiative and hard work does eventually pay off - I did say “eventually”)
4. Set expectations. (Make sure your subordinates and colleagues understand clearly what you need - be specific)
5. When you mess up, make it right. (admitting your mistakes, taking responsibility, and learning from them is the behavior of a leader)
6. Do the right thing, even when no one is looking (always maintain your personal values and integrity. They are precious and not for sale)
7. Have fun - make work fun. (Life is short, much shorter than we think, don’t waste your precious time in a pursuit you don’t enjoy)
She also had three values for a successful business:
1. Value people
2. Foster teamwork
3. Listen to the customer
I hope you find these as inspiring as I did. There were several workshops during the seminar and we had to choose one main theme we embraced as most important.
Not surprisingly I chose relationship. There is precious little we can accomplish in isolation at work and at home, our dependency on each other is our humanity.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Great blog Kay!
I love these 3 points:
1. Value people
2. Foster teamwork
3. Listen to the customer
When you value people, you realize that every person add a little something special to the mix. Realizing and validating people’s uniqueness’ is the foundation of building effective & balanced teams where folks can complement and complete each other.
And now that I work in Customer Svc, I realize how important it is to listen and hear what’s being said, and especially to what’s not being said. You can get a lot from people’s tones, insinuations, and remarks. I find that letting someone just talk, without interupting them, without finishing their sentences, without judgment or comment, really appeases them. They feel heard, which makes them feel valued, and worthwhile. Even if in the end, you can deliver what they need, if you’ve taken the time to listen, most often, that just makes their day.
Love the blog - keep it up
You’re so right Mary-Lynn. When I’m faced with a really angry person and I’m at fault, I say “you’re absolutely right”. This is incredibly powerful because there is nothing else to say. It takes away all their mad (anger). This only works if you take full responsibility without qualifying it, especially with a “but” which just makes people madder.
I find it mildly annoying that you’ve learned so much in your twenties when you should have had to suffer like the rest of us until at least your forties.
Silly question: is there a reason why these are gender-specific, why they are rules for women in leadership? Are there different rules for men? Or does the order, the priority, change? I wonder if a man, following these same rules, would be viewed as effective, or whether our standards of effectiveness are also gender-specific. Any thoughts, oh wise progenitor?
Not silly, brilliant offspring. It’s a fair question. I will answer it the best I can based on my experience and education. The rules are definitely different however, in my view if men followed the 7 rules they would be successful. I would say that many men would not choose these as their path to success. For me, the rules are for all of life, not just work life. Standards of effectiveness are gender specific. Perhaps this is necessary for the species since in some ways we are hard coded. The hunter instinct. A man will stay in a job he hates because it will bring him to the next level, normally a woman won’t. For the same reason, the no. 1 reason women leave their husbands is lack of emotional support. My take is women needs are different. How do you see this now that you live with a woman. Thanks for writing.