Fire and Knowledge

Effective management without effective leadership is, as one individual has phrased it, “like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.” No management success can compensate for failure in leadership.

—Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 102.

If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to live me and each other — while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity and insincerity — then, in the long run, I cannot be successful. My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do — even using so-called good human relations techniques — will be perceived as manipulative.

It simply makes no difference how good the rhetoric is or even how good the intentions are; if there is little or no trust, there is no foundation for permanent success. Only basic goodness gives life to technique.

—Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 21.

It’s amazing how someone’s IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.

—Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek (2007), p. 106.

Try this: For one week treat every idea that comes your way from another person with complete neutrality. Think of yourself as a human Switzerland. Don’t take sides. Don’t express an opinion. Don’t judge the comment. If you find yourself constitutionally incapable of just saying “Thank you,” make it an innocuous, “Thanks, I hadn’t considered that.” Or, “Thanks. You’ve given me something to think about.”

After one week, I guarantee you will have significantly reduced the number of pointless arguments you engage in at work or at home. If you continue this for several weeks, at least three good things will happen.

First, you don’t have to think about this sort of neutral response; it will become automatic….

Second, you will have dramatically reduced the hours you devote to contentious interfacing. When you don’t judge an idea, no one can argue with you.

Third, people will gradually begin to see you as a much more agreeable person, even when you are not in fact agreeing with them.

—Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (2007), pp. 52-53.

1. Specialize in a very small niche; develop a core skill.
2. Choose a niche that you enjoy, where you can excel and stand a chance of becoming an acknowledged leader.
3. Realize that knowledge is power.
4. Identify your market and your core customers and serve them best.
5. Identify where 20 percent of effort gives 80 percent of returns.
6. Learn from the best.
7. Become self-employed early in your career.
8. Employ as many net value creators as possible.
9. Use outside contractors for everything but your core skill.
10. Exploit capital leverage.

—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 188

It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.

—Dee W. Hock, as quoted in Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start (2004), p. 100.

The key to earning more and working less is to pick the right thing to do and to do only those things that add the highest value.

—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 188

It is often easier to make an enthusiasm into a career than to become enthusiastic about a career dictated by others.

—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 167