#1: Also, do not fear surrounding yourself with more intelligent people than you.
#7: If you are the ranking person in the room, speak last unless the team is going in the wrong direction. As a leader, you want the rest of the team to bring their ideas or options to the table because now that the boss has spoken first or early with an idea/option, everyone else has shut down.
#9: Sometimes, writing a Word document and letting people read it during or before the meeting is an excellent approach to convey your message. I am not against PowerPoint, but I think we use it excessively as it is easier to create, and Word documents require more effort, but you put your thoughts better and think better with a Word document (for some, it could be writing in a notebook).
What has worked for me(not a complete list), but it is a sample size of 1, so take it with a big grain of salt:
1. Unless you are building a nuclear bomb or trying to go to Mars, you only need a few good (very high IQ) people in each area to get anything significant done. In most cases, people with very high IQ have a big ego, which hurts more than help.
2. If you make a mistake, accept it and correct it rather than keep arguing about it.
3. Praise openly and punish privately.
4. As a leader, if things go well, give all the credit to the team, but if it goes wrong, it is your fault. This creates loyalty and encourages team members to take risks as they know you will protect them. The buck stops at you.
5. Spend at least 30 minutes every day reading outside of your field. I found that so many ideas and solutions came from outside my field.
6. Always observe how other people do things. If you find someone doing something better than you, steal it.
7. You cannot experience everything, so learn from other people’s mistakes and successes.
8. Remember, luck plays a significant role in life. Raw talent generally takes you only so far.
9. The only shortcut in life (except luck) is working for an expert.
10. If you are the most intelligent person in the room, it is usually time to leave.
11. The half of the battle is showing up. Know that most people give up too fast on ideas or problems.
12. What you will focus on will grow (you will improve), and what you will not focus on will shrink.
13. You always have a choice; it may not be your best choice.
14. No risk, no gain. Calculated risks are essential for success.
15. No one knows everything about a topic, including you.
16. Always leave the door ajar for other possibilities.
17. Never take a job because it pays better unless you need money desperately or believe “the person with the most toys in the end wins.” In most cases, liking your job is more important than money, as if you like your job, you will do well and learn, which will most often translate into more success/money or a better job elsewhere.
18. Judging others by what we see is easy, but that may not be the complete story.
19. As a leader, your job is to build psychological safety so people can speak when they have ideas or if they see something wrong.
20. Cut your losses as quickly as you can. Dragging a situation never helps. For example, once you know you have hired the wrong person, let the person go, even if it looks like your mistake, especially someone managing a team. Nothing takes a team's morale down more than a bad manager. People do not leave an organization; they leave their managers.
21. Be a giver or a matcher in almost all transactions with other people. Takers go far only in specific organizations or industries. Know what kind of organization you work in and leave it if it does not match your personality. Never change your personality to match the organization unless it is the right thing to do.
22. Sometimes, you will feel that no good deed goes unpunished or will provide a return, which is normal.
23. The quote, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it,” is accurate in most cases.
23. Work on complex tasks/projects. You learn more by doing difficult things, and there is less competition
24. Unless you are dealing with a new technology or situation, old books offer much more wisdom as they have survived the test of time.
25. “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
26. The famous quote to remember “ You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” - Donald Rumsfeld
27. Generally, people who go further than others, excluding for pure luck, follow the motto “I shall either find a way or make one."
Do not believe in shortcuts or providing partial information. I will write like you and others and share in the future. These comments are just my practice runs.
Here is a great quote I found about leaders, but I do not know who said it:
"In my experience, the people who make the best leaders are those who are drawn to the responsibilities, not just the rewards. They're excited about the opportunity to coach and develop others, to set strategy and make tough decisions, and to be accountable for the team's outcomes. The title, the status, the compensation - those are all nice things, but they're not what drives true leaders..."
Love the unspoken expectation one. We have a tendency at times to think people just know how we want them to execute but quite often people don’t and unnecessary fail.
I recently completed 3 years in the corporate world of which I worked 9 months in sales. I had 3 managers over the course of those 9 months and it made me realise how a good mentor shapes your entire experience of a job. It is so important to learn the art of building engaged teams because the management has so much influence on the lives of its team. a bad day at work usually gets carried over to life outside of work and vice versa. I loved your insights here Martin!✨
Good list—I read through the comments, and I don't think I saw these two, which I'm borrowing from the folks over at Admired Leadership: 1) Fanness—Fanness is about leaders being the ultimate supporters and champions of their people. It's proving through everyday actions that you believe in your team members and want their success as much as they do, in both good times and bad; 2) Focus on Process, how things get done (mostly in your control) over outcomes (mostly outside your control).
Great article Martin. I'm reading and nodding, and reading some more and nodding more vigorously.
I've just passed my 25 years and you've got me wondering what my top 25 at 25 might be!!!
Yes! Please write them! Tag me so I don’t miss it!
Excellent post!
A few suggestions or modifications:
#1: Also, do not fear surrounding yourself with more intelligent people than you.
#7: If you are the ranking person in the room, speak last unless the team is going in the wrong direction. As a leader, you want the rest of the team to bring their ideas or options to the table because now that the boss has spoken first or early with an idea/option, everyone else has shut down.
#9: Sometimes, writing a Word document and letting people read it during or before the meeting is an excellent approach to convey your message. I am not against PowerPoint, but I think we use it excessively as it is easier to create, and Word documents require more effort, but you put your thoughts better and think better with a Word document (for some, it could be writing in a notebook).
What has worked for me(not a complete list), but it is a sample size of 1, so take it with a big grain of salt:
1. Unless you are building a nuclear bomb or trying to go to Mars, you only need a few good (very high IQ) people in each area to get anything significant done. In most cases, people with very high IQ have a big ego, which hurts more than help.
2. If you make a mistake, accept it and correct it rather than keep arguing about it.
3. Praise openly and punish privately.
4. As a leader, if things go well, give all the credit to the team, but if it goes wrong, it is your fault. This creates loyalty and encourages team members to take risks as they know you will protect them. The buck stops at you.
5. Spend at least 30 minutes every day reading outside of your field. I found that so many ideas and solutions came from outside my field.
6. Always observe how other people do things. If you find someone doing something better than you, steal it.
7. You cannot experience everything, so learn from other people’s mistakes and successes.
8. Remember, luck plays a significant role in life. Raw talent generally takes you only so far.
9. The only shortcut in life (except luck) is working for an expert.
10. If you are the most intelligent person in the room, it is usually time to leave.
11. The half of the battle is showing up. Know that most people give up too fast on ideas or problems.
12. What you will focus on will grow (you will improve), and what you will not focus on will shrink.
13. You always have a choice; it may not be your best choice.
14. No risk, no gain. Calculated risks are essential for success.
15. No one knows everything about a topic, including you.
16. Always leave the door ajar for other possibilities.
17. Never take a job because it pays better unless you need money desperately or believe “the person with the most toys in the end wins.” In most cases, liking your job is more important than money, as if you like your job, you will do well and learn, which will most often translate into more success/money or a better job elsewhere.
18. Judging others by what we see is easy, but that may not be the complete story.
19. As a leader, your job is to build psychological safety so people can speak when they have ideas or if they see something wrong.
20. Cut your losses as quickly as you can. Dragging a situation never helps. For example, once you know you have hired the wrong person, let the person go, even if it looks like your mistake, especially someone managing a team. Nothing takes a team's morale down more than a bad manager. People do not leave an organization; they leave their managers.
21. Be a giver or a matcher in almost all transactions with other people. Takers go far only in specific organizations or industries. Know what kind of organization you work in and leave it if it does not match your personality. Never change your personality to match the organization unless it is the right thing to do.
22. Sometimes, you will feel that no good deed goes unpunished or will provide a return, which is normal.
23. The quote, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it,” is accurate in most cases.
23. Work on complex tasks/projects. You learn more by doing difficult things, and there is less competition
24. Unless you are dealing with a new technology or situation, old books offer much more wisdom as they have survived the test of time.
25. “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
26. The famous quote to remember “ You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” - Donald Rumsfeld
27. Generally, people who go further than others, excluding for pure luck, follow the motto “I shall either find a way or make one."
Wow, I think that’s the longest comment I’ve ever seen but also the most insightful. Thank you. 🙏
😆
Do not believe in shortcuts or providing partial information. I will write like you and others and share in the future. These comments are just my practice runs.
Here is a great quote I found about leaders, but I do not know who said it:
"In my experience, the people who make the best leaders are those who are drawn to the responsibilities, not just the rewards. They're excited about the opportunity to coach and develop others, to set strategy and make tough decisions, and to be accountable for the team's outcomes. The title, the status, the compensation - those are all nice things, but they're not what drives true leaders..."
These are fantastic insights and each deserve their own article. Since you asked for input, two things I'd add are:
1. You expect from others what you expect from yourself.
2. Unspoken expectations are guarenteed to be violated.
Works in work and life and it's something you can see in how people respond to you.
Love the unspoken expectation one. We have a tendency at times to think people just know how we want them to execute but quite often people don’t and unnecessary fail.
Exactly
Congrats on 20 years.
Your emphasis on building strong relationships and prioritizing learning over money really stands out. I would add two things:
Encourage Feedback Loops – Regular feedback helps individuals grow and aligns team goals.
Embrace Flexibility – Adapting to change keeps teams resilient and innovative.
Thank you for sharing these valuable lessons, Martin.
Definitely feedback loops. To make that work you need your team to feel comfortable speaking out. You can build that confidence over time.
Flexibility is a great one. I had a team member once who refused to do something because it wasn’t in his objectives.
I recently completed 3 years in the corporate world of which I worked 9 months in sales. I had 3 managers over the course of those 9 months and it made me realise how a good mentor shapes your entire experience of a job. It is so important to learn the art of building engaged teams because the management has so much influence on the lives of its team. a bad day at work usually gets carried over to life outside of work and vice versa. I loved your insights here Martin!✨
That’s right. It can have many cascade effects across peoples lives.
Great list Martin.
The one thing I’d add is something one of my mentors told me many years back, that as a leader you are always on stage.
The importance of smiling, courtesy and manners are also often ignored the higher up the corporate ladder you get.
A simple good morning to the cleaner or security guard makes more of a difference than you think.
An action like picking up some trash and putting it in a bin, gets noticed.
As does holding the door open for anyone.
People watch the details.
That’s a great one Richard. People are watching how you respond in all situations. Being the person who stays calm will permeate across the team.
Good list—I read through the comments, and I don't think I saw these two, which I'm borrowing from the folks over at Admired Leadership: 1) Fanness—Fanness is about leaders being the ultimate supporters and champions of their people. It's proving through everyday actions that you believe in your team members and want their success as much as they do, in both good times and bad; 2) Focus on Process, how things get done (mostly in your control) over outcomes (mostly outside your control).
Thank you for sharing, Martin! My personal take away is for meetings - speak early and speak often!