Rudy on Leadership: Set The Tone / Start Small

What I learned today from Rudy Giuliani on Leadership:

Set The Tone

• The principle of taking care of first things first extends beyond the morning meeting. So does the concept of taking control early.
• Learn as much as you can about a challenge as early as you can.
• One of the best parts of any leadership role is getting the chance to let people know how much their work means to you.
• Setting the tone early and often is not only good for your employees and for the organization, but for you as well.

Start Small With Success

• Whenever you start a new endeavor, look to have a clear, decisive victory as early as you can. It doesn't have to be a large initiative, and in fact is usually better if the problem is small enough so that it is easily understood and yields an unambiguous solution.
• The power of starting small with success: by combining several small victories we can achieve the larger result.
• Small successes can in themselves boost the morale of anyone in an organization who might be feeling left out.
• This approach shouldn't be limited to one's own initiatives. Part of good leadership is giving others under your authority the same tools you'd expect.
• Early successes, while not of major significance on their own, provide critical evidence that plans can be put into action, and that you expect results.
• Each subsequent initiative becomes easier to enact because people start to accept the premise that things can be done -- that progress is possible.

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Joe