Principles of Execution

Insights From Steve Jobs On Visionary Leadership

 “The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist”. Eric Hoffer

What did he have to overcome growing up?

• He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs who lived in Mountain View California. 

7 Things We Can Learn From Bill Gates About Innovation

  “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning,” Bill Gates

Jack Welch Style Of Leadership

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

Kenneth Hartley Blanchard

Resources for Continuous Improvement

 “Our lives improve only when we take chances – and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves,” by Walter Anderson.

 
Frank Lloyd Wright:

• Was commissioned to design and build the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo Japan.

Effective Communication Skills

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value.” Albert Einstein, physicist.

Accomplishments:

• He delivered two or three speeches a day for General Electric Theater as a tour guide for its 139 plants.

Who’s on your team?

“When you're part of a team, you stand up for your teammates. Your loyalty is to them. You protect them through good and bad, because they'd do the same for you. “ Yogi Berra 

• He was selected in the first round of the 1967 NBA draft and won two NBA titles throughout his 13 year career.

Are You Getting The Results You Want?

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”  Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

Accomplishments:

• He created one of the most prestigious and innovative auto companies the world has ever known.

Are You A Systematic Problem Solver?

“We lift ourselves by our thought, we climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always, everywhere - your ideal of what you long to attain - the ideal of health, efficiency, success.” Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924)

• He never attended college because of his mother’s illness and an accident in which he lost a number of teeth while playing hockey in high school.

The Competitive Advantages of Risk Management

“I believe that one of life's greatest risks is never daring to risk”. Oprah Winfrey

• He understood the importance of managing risk and being prepared to make life or death decisions.

10 Things Every Stakeholder Wish You Knew

 “For [a product] to surprise me, it must be satisfying expectations I didn't know I had. No focus group is going to discover those. Only a great designer can.” Paul Graham, Made in USA

•  He was commissioned in the US Army as a second lieutenant in 1958 and is a veteran of the Vietnam War from 1962 – 63 and 1968 – 69.

Visualize Your Outcome

“Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.” Henry Ford

• He turned a last place organization into one of the world’s most popular sports brands with 28,000 employees and $15 Billion in worldwide sales. 

Keen Observation Helped Him Build An Empire

“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.” Confucius

 He was a connector of people and always treated his employees as the most important part of his business life.

Your Attitude Makes the Difference: Kindness with Competence

"It’s not what you do once in a while; it’s what you do day in and day out that makes the difference." Jenny Craig

He was known for making a difference. One of his favorite sayings was "Digging for gold is more important than the gold itself; that why I say let's play two." 

What are your top 3 struggles that keep you from consistently achieving your personal or organizational goals?

The Principles of Execution blog is the personal blog of Gerald J. Leonard and is developed to provide personal examples of people from all walks of life who exhibit my top 10 Principles of Execution.