The Unforgiving Minute - Craig Mullaney

This was an inspiring book, but also one with serious undertones. The key thing I learnt from this book is that leadership is not simply another job that one takes up - there are responsibilities to your people and their lives that you shoulder once you pick up the mantle. In the extreme case of the army, you are responsible for lives.

There are more parallels in leadership between the military and the real life than I thought. The concepts that Craig brought up: leading is actually a pull - one has to lead from the front, trust and empower your people but verify, and that competence is the biggest morale booster, are true gems. I think this means that the person leading has to push himself harder than everyone else on the team. In addition, I think demanding excellence from the team actually pays off in the long run - achievement and competence are indeed greater rewards than praises that ring empty.

It also gives me some comfort that all the training that I'm putting myself through, be it forcing myself to think with greater clarity, enforcing greater discipline on myself, reading a diverse range of books to steal from ppl's experiences - the sum total of all the moments where I could have rested but pressed on, shapes me up to be able to respond in the right way when the unforgiving minute arrives.

This was a gift from a colleague and also a friend, someone who has been further down the road and has much more experience about leadership than I can imagine at this pt. Appreciate all the guidance and advice so far! :)

Doing What Matters - James M Kilts

All in all, this is a great book. Pragmatic experience and advice that is immediately applicable everyday.

1. Getting to the heart of the issue. Looks like this is one of the skills that would be transferable. Need to train myself to be able to first ask myself fact based questions that lead to the heart of the problem, and then force myself to give simple and clear answers. I believe that this is one aspect of clarity of thought that can be trained.
2. Focus on 3-5 concepts only. These should form the fundamentals of how one drives success in an organisation. Consistent effort and being in the top 1/3 continuously is the key to success.
   
3. Intellectual integrity. Being able to face harsh facts in the face and address them. Kill the snake! :)
4. Enthusiasm as a nonstop activity. Keeping the momentum going is not just about one-off appearances or rallies. This is something that I have to learn! Use weekly meetings to stoke accountability and make people act.
   
5. Out-execute competition. Planning is only a small part of the game. It is rare that fantastic ideas lead to fantastic outcomes. The winner is the one who out-executes an ordinary plan against competition.
   
6. Energy as a key pillar for talent. Darn - I'm maxing out my caffeine intake already. How!
7. Have a roadmap and vision. This is also one area to work on. Am beginning to shift more of my energies each day towards planning, rather than doing things. It doesn't help that I can't delegate much of my work away though.
   

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