The Ceo Should Have the Most Difficult Job

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

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Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com

Episode #352: Patrick Lencioni - The Five Key Actions Of Excellent Leaders

Notes:

• Leaders who sustain excellence =
  • Humility - They don't feel they are more important than others, but they realize that their words and actions carry more weight.
• "Leadership is a privilege... It's about serving others. A lot of leaders lead because they think it looks cool."
• "Leadership has to be about what you can give, not what you can get."
• Exploring the two leadership motives:
  • Reward-centered leadership: the belief that being a leader is the reward for hard work, and therefore, that the experience of being a leader should be pleasant and enjoyable, avoiding anything mundane, unpleasant or uncomfortable.
  • Responsibility-centered leadership: the belief that being a leader is a responsibility, and therefore that the experience of leading should be difficult and challenging (though certainly not without elements of personal gratification).
• One of the questions to ask yourself:
  • “How do you see your job in terms of verbs?” — what do you do to really help the business?
• The leader must be a constant, incessant reminder of the company’s purpose, strategy, values, & priorities.  You’re not only the CEO, you’re the CRO.” Chief Reminding Officer
• The actions of great leaders:
  • Running great meetings
  • Managing the executive team
  • Managing the executives as individuals
  • Having difficult conversations with people
  • Constantly communicating and repeating key messages to employees
• "The CEO should have the most painful job in the company."
• For the mid-level manager -- "Am I waking up with the right rationale to do this job?"
• Love is a verb:
  • Time
  • Affection
  • Discipline
• "Leadership is not a noun, it's a verb."
• Running great meetings:
  • "Meetings are the central activity of leadership.  Bad leaders have other people run their meetings."
    • Good meetings have debate and conflict.  People are able to be passionate without consequence.  The leader prioritizes what will be talked about.
• CEO's are responsible to build teams.  Your job is to build teams based on trust
• When receiving a message from a cynical leader who says "You don't understand."  Our response? "No, we're not going to be that way.  The ones who do the hard work change the world."
• Micro-managing vs. Accountability:
  • "There is an abdication of management.  You should know what your team is doing."
• Parenting: "The great news about being a parent is it's humbling."
• The leader must be the chief reminding officer:
  • "Constant, incessant, reminder of the company's purpose, strategy, values, and priorities. You must over-communicate."
• Marriage advice:
  • "Be completely humble, vulnerable, especially in front of the kids.  Engage in healthy conflict.  When people can't argue, that's a problem."