The 360 degree leader

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Another self help book full of platitudes. But it did have some interesting anecdotes and thought provoking aspects to it. Here are my take aways from it:

  • Even if you are not a manager, you should strive to enhance your influence in your organization. I feel the best way to do this is to help others- they could be in your team or another team, but you never know when you might need them to return the favor! "Influence must be earned." "The person who keeps busy helping the one who is below him won't have the time to envy the person above him."
  • Try and network more. Easier said than done, but it would be good to strike up conversations with folks while in the elevator, while getting coffee...you get the idea. The problem here is not that you know this needs to be done, it is how you actually do it. Different ways will work for different folks, but it is good to keep this at the back of your mind. Maybe you could try and setup some knowledge sharing sessions within your team as well as invite folks from other teams to talk about their products and roles.
  • As we move up (or want to move up) we need to shift our priorities from being a specialist to a generalist. This does seem like a big challenge since you need to be a specialist to excel in your current role, but unless you know about other areas you are probably not going to move up. 
  • First do your own job well and then ask your boss how you can help him out with some of his tasks. We might consider it presumptuous or might be shy to ask this question, but it is in our interests to find out what is important to our boss. Something to consider for your next 1 on 1 perhaps. We should also observe our boss more closely to find out what is important to them, what irritates them and so forth.
  • Henry Ford - "Don't find a fault; find a remedy." Anytime we bring up something to our bosses that can be improved, we should accompany that with some ways we think we would solve the problem rather than just point out the problem.
  • Talk about what you do with your peers and those above you. This will give us new insights to our craft.

Some quotes in the book that I liked:
  • "Praise publicly and criticize privately."
  • "If we despise the position we have, it may be because of...the greener grass syndrome."
  • I love this Churchill quote about Clement Attlee that the author shares- "He is a modest man with much to be modest about."
  • Zig Ziglar - "There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.". Do more than what is expected of you if you want to stand out.

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