Swanson's "Unwritten Rules" for Leaders

Coming to light after decades in the making, Bill Swanson’s flashes of executive wisdom – compiled first on scraps of paper, then in PowerPoint and finally in a booklet last year – have become and underground hit.  Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management, by Ratheon’s CEO, offers these gems, with elaborations here by Swanson himself:

• You can’t polish a sneaker.  “When I was growing up,” says Swanson, “we used white Kiwi polish to make our sneakers look new. But no matter how hard we tried, an ugly sneaker remained an ugly sneaker.”

• Learn to say “I don’t know”.    “If used when appropriate,” says Swanson, “it will be used often. Confident people…don’t try to BS you.”

• You remember a third of what you read, half of what people tell you but 100 percent of what you feel.  A leader needs to communicate in a way that makes people feel what they need to do.

• Look for what’s missing.   Many know how to improve what’s there but few can see what’s in there.

• Treat your organization’s name as if it were your own.

• View decisions as if you were one level up in the organization.  Your perspective will change quickly.

• If you’re never criticized, you may not be doing much.

• A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter – or others – is not a nice person.

Adapted from “The CEO’s Secret Handbook” Paul Kaikla, Business 2.0