Make lists based on your action points: one on a Sunday evening for the week ahead; then daily for each day's work. Put each item in priority order and do them in that order. Do not go home until they are completed. Manage the expectations. Eliminate unpleasant surprises. Keep an account of all important calls, conversations and meetings, either in a dedicated notebook, or direct into a file. Make notes action orientated, not minutes. Reply to all calls, letters, messages and emails the same day, even if it's to say you will give a fuller response later. Make absolutely sure everybody knows and agrees the scope, tasks and timing of the work; the schedule and budget; and the KPIs. It is disrespectful to be badly prepared for meetings and calls, or to be late. Do not rely on memory. Ideas are precious, so write them down immediately. Backup and archive everything.
Learn how to write a brief and to analyse the briefs you take. There is no task, however large, that cannot be expressed on a single page of A4 when structured simply: background; objectives; method; budget; timing. What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.
Fear (a bad adviser) paralyses: but all tasks, however monumental and daunting, can be achieved by cutting them into small pieces.
Thinking is hard (which is why most people avoid it), but it's just as important as doing. Make sure you carve out discrete blocks of time in your day just to think.
Fountains are positive, optimistic, creative, fun, energetic, helpful, and good to be around. Drains are negative, pessimistic, dull, obstructive, and depress everybody around them. Be a fountain. Not a drain.
Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions. If you don't understand something, say so. Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you do get questions, you haven’t explained yourself clearly. Always try and anticipate and answer questions.
Be ambitious: ambition being defined as something that thrills and terrifies you in equal proportions. Go the extra mile. Don't be satisfied with the good, always go further, looking for the best. But don't let the perfect be the enemy of the perfectly good.
Never give up. Just fail better. There is no problem without a solution. When in doubt, do nothing. Don’t just do something, stand there. Resilience is about accepting a new reality, and reacting positively to it. You must get back on the horse.
Prepare and rehearse everything. Have a Plan B. 'Luck' is simply when preparation meets opportunity. Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted. Never enter a meeting without knowing all there is about everybody and everything in it. Going to meetings and writing emails are activities. They aren't achievements. Never let a reference (a name, a place, a word) pass you by. Look it up, and understand it. And never write anything down until you know what it means. Everything must be founded in quantifiable fact, and the insights we get from it. Interrogate the data. Anecdote is not data. Don't be a sample of one.
Learn from your mistakes. The difference between a fool and an intelligent person is not that the latter doesn't make mistakes; it's that the former keeps repeating them. Success is a bad teacher because the lesson most people take away is “I can’t fail”. Celebrate by all means, but treat it like an imposter. Mistakes will happen, but they are always made worse by covering up, or by tardy/half-hearted apologies. When there is a task to be done, the question is not “when will I have time to do this?”, but “how do I make sure this is done on time?” Never, ever, miss a deadline. That will define you in the eyes of others.
Leaders inspire through example. Never ask anybody to do anything that you are not prepared to do yourself. Act with integrity. It is not enough to oppose wrong doing in principle, you must do so in practice. You must speak truth to power. Never do something you would be embarrassed to see published on the front page of your favourite newspaper. The purpose of management is to create self confidence amongst the managed; provide them with the ability to exercise their own judgement; and increase their self-esteem, courage, determination & commitment. In short, to instil in them the belief that they can achieve any goal which is set. Good managers are good teachers. We have a duty of care for everybody in the team. The team includes external partners, freelancers, sub-contractors and suppliers. Treat everyone on the team as you would expect to be treated
Successful people aren't just hardworking, resilient, committed, take ownership, are self-disciplined & self-starting, and with outstanding attention to detail; but they also add value by solving problems, and having original insights and ideas. Above all, they have good judgement. Show, don’t tell. Art is long. Life is short. Opportunity is often fleeting, so seize the day. Judgement is difficult. Experience can be deceitful.
Giving constructive and helpful feedback can be as difficult as asking for it. Train yourself to do both. Never act in anger. Write that email, then throw it away. Or rewrite it the next morning. For important matters, always take at least three attempts: One for meaning. One for clarity. One for conviction.
Business is a team sport. Which is why letting the team down is the only unforgivable sin. We win together. We lose together. And we learn together. So, get to know the qualities & skills, strengths and weaknesses of your colleagues. Always have the courage to tell people the truth, and nothing but the truth. The only alternative to the truth is silence. Everybody has two bosses. Of the two, the customer is always the most important, because they are the only ones who can fire everybody in the company you work for, from the CEO on down, simply by spending their money somewhere else.
Always work with people that are smarter than you, or who know more stuff, preferably both. If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room. Never say 'no'. But sometimes we say 'maybe'. Don't make promises you can’t keep. And don’t make them easily or quickly. Not keeping them destroys your credibility.
Clarity is the essence of good communication. Listen for what is not being said. Read between the lines. Sense the tone. The most common form of management thinking is wishful thinking. And the second is received wisdom (aka ‘groupthink’) Don’t follow, lead. Work is something you do, not somewhere you go. The best ideas often come from moments when you are doing something (walking, showering, staring out the window) that allows your mind to wander, and wonder.
Find out what you are really good at (i.e., better than everyone around you) and stick to it. You must use your head to handle yourself; but to handle others, you must use your heart. Know thyself, and then become who you are: a person of value. The best way to be sure of sustained personal growth is to be able to adapt and change quickly. When the facts change, we change our minds. De-stress by any method that suits, but exercise is best. Good health is important (so be careful about your diet), but good energy is vital. Don’t work when you are ill. And don’t bring your sickness to work.
Read as much as you can about the business you are in; about what's going on in the world; and how the world works. Ancora imparo. Life is more important than work. But work should be an important part of life. So, find a balance. Develop a hinterland, something that has nothing to do with work, but that you find equally interesting; and strive to be good at that too.
Part of the purpose of work is the purpose of life. To acquire wisdom. Profitably. Are you a hedgehog or a fox? By all means steal, but only from the best. Climb onto the shoulders of others, but only of giants. There are two kinds of motivation – intrinsic (when you understand that a task, such as exercise, is doing you good) and extrinsic (when you gain a reward such as money for work). The key is to create a crossover, when a task performed for money becomes an enjoyable discipline that you can appreciate is doing you good. Never lose sight of the end goal and load it with value, writing down the positives and repeatedly visualising life after your goal has been achieved. This will steady the ship when setbacks happen; which they will.
Most strategy problems can be solved by watching 'The Godfather’. Most of life’s problems (pace Homer Simpson’s views on alcohol) can be solved by reading Kipling’s ‘If’.