Colin Powell on Leadership

Leadership lesson #18  "Command is lonely."

Harry Truman was right.  Whether you're a CEO or the temporary head of a project team, the buck stops here.  You can encourage participative management and bottom-up employee involvement, but ultimately the essence of leadership is the willingness to make the tough, unambiguous choices that will have an impact on the fate of the organization.  I've seen too many non-leaders flinch from this responsibility.  Even as you create an informal, open, collaborative corporate culture, prepare to be lonely. 

Colin Powell on Leadership

Leadership Lesson #17

"Have fun in your command.  Don't always run at a breakneck pace.  Take leave when you've earned it:  Spend time with your families.  Corollary: surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard."

Herb Kelleher of Southwest Air and Anita Roddick of The Body Shop would agree:  seek people who have some balance in their lives, who are fun to hang out with, who like to laugh (at themselves, too) and who have some non-job priorities which they approach with the same passion that they do their work.  Spare me the grim workaholic or the pompous pretentious "professional;" Ill them find jobs with my competitor.