Three Big Takeaways:
 

1. You either tell your day what to do or you will wonder where it went.  The more efficient you are, the more energy you will have. (pg. 45)
    

2. You will lose good people when you don’t throw water on the drama that is a natural result of humans working together. Part of leading well is creating an atmosphere where justice prevails. That means unresolved conflict is a leadership breakdown. (pg. 149)
    

3. Have your secretary post every employee's birthday on your personal calendar so you can send them an email with birthday wishes.  This small effort creates a big result. (pg. 245)
   
    

Other Key Ideas:
 

Any time I am going into any situation, meeting, or event, my assistant gives me a tour book that has all the participants’ bios. (pg. 17)

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To whom much is given, much is expected.  We have financial and other blessings because of this job.  What goes with that is we must take our responsibility as leaders very seriously. (pg. 18)

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Strong leaders share their vision with their team early and often.  It is impossible to talk about it too much. You have to discuss the vision of the organization twenty-one times before people start to hear it.  (pg. 26)

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Company goals must be specific and measurable, have a time limit, must be your goals, and must be in writing.  (pg. 34)

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If you spend fifteen minutes planning your day on paper every morning, you will add 20 percent to your productivity. (pg. 49)

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Keep your calendar on Outlook.  Have your assistant view it and change, and allow several other people to have access so that they can find time to connect with you on things you are working on. (pg 51)

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When scheduling a meeting, take time to prepare for the meeting.  Too many times we go into a meeting and wing it. (pg. 53)

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One person who can kill productivity is the person who resists technology and doesn’t use the huge time-saving benefits of electronic calendars and email.  Don’t lose several hours a week to your resistance to technology. (pg. 54)

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You will never be able to run a large organization until you reach the point where someone else does the stapling and filing.  Your job is not to do that - it is to set the vision of your company and lead well in all aspects, and only do “stuff” that takes brain power and intentionality. (pg. 56)

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Ninety percent of making the right decision is the gathering of information. (pg. 68)

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Teach your people to come to your office with a problem only after they have found three or more possible solutions and suggested course of action. (pg. 70)

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If you can find someone who can stay on a mission, on task, with focused intensity for an entire decade, I will show you someone who is world-class in their chosen area.  The key to unusual heights of success is spending ten thousand hours of practice at your chosen craft. (pg. 86)

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By far our most successful hiring procedure is referrals from existing team members.  We pay our team a bounty of $250 in cash, handed out and applauded in a staff meeting, when we hire someone they sent us and that person makes it through the probationary period.  (pg. 136)

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In most cases you are going to be working really closely with the people you hire.  Don’t force yourself to work with people you don’t like or don’t have anything in common with. (pg. 141)

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Do you have key metrics outlined so that your employees know how their success is measured?  If a clear description of how success is measured is not clearly communicated, that is a leadership problem. (pg. 148)

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Jim Collins says to ask yourself this about a problem team member: If you hadn’t hired them yet, would you hire them again? If you would never hire someone in a million years, why are you keeping them? (pg. 151)​​

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​You can use the “reprimand sandwich” when giving a reprimand (having a coaching conversation).  Praise the person about their good qualities, hit the problem behavior directly and hard, then remind the person of their value to you personally and to the organization. (pg. 156)​​

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Lack of communication is caused by many things, but there are two main reasons: 1) companies don’t make communication a priority, and 2) leadership is so arrogant or fearful that they intentionally under-communicate. (pg. 214)

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When the team doesn’t know what is going on in the company fear and anger set in.  When people don’t know the truth they generally start to assume the worst. Sadly this describes most companies. (pg. 214)

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Leadership has to repeatedly share the dreams, visions, mission statements, and goals with their team.  When sharing your vision you must do so twenty-one ties before your team actually starts to believe. (pg. 215)

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Strong leaders make feedback on job performance continuous. For this reason, there isn’t really a need for the annual review, but an annual checkup can be valuable. Job evaluation should be an ongoing discussion.  (pg. 223)

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One thing that great leaders do is Management by Walking Around.  A couple times a week walk through a building. In as little as thirty minutes you can wander around and take the temperature of the company. (pg. 225)​

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One leader is a master at sending follow-up notes and also sending hundreds of thank you notes a year. best of all, he sends hundreds and hundreds of handwritten notes on embossed stationery recognizing people. He recognizes his team, his leaders, their spouses, customers, and even strangers, in writing. (pg. 243)