Summary
Today you must be your own CEO and take responsibility for your own growth
Key Takeaways
Success tends to come to those who know themselves - strengths, weaknesses, how you work with others, your values and where you can make the greatest contribution
You must be working from your strengths in order to make your greatest contribution
People are often wrong in what they think their strengths and weaknesses are. Must discover strengths through feedback analysis. Write down what you think will happen in a given situation and revisit 9-12 months later and compare the two. It will clearly show you your strengths and weaknesses and then put yourself in situations where you can focus on and improve your strengths. Recognize where the gaps in your knowledge are and where your intellectual arrogance is causing disabling ignorance and overcome it.
Being bright is not a substitute for knowledge
Ideas do not move mountains. Plans and actions do
Manners are the lubricating oil of organizations
Civility costs nothing and buys everything - Mary Montagu
Important to know whether you and others are readers or listeners
Vital to know how you learn. There is no one right way to learn but must know if you're a writer, by taking copious notes, by doing, by hearing yourself talk, do I work well with people or am I a loner, are you a leader or do you learn best as a subordinate, do you perform well under stress, with little or much stress, do you like structure from a big organization. Whatever it is, don't try to change yourself but work on improving your strengths
It is often not very helpful and too often hurtful to try to plan too far ahead
The secret of managing up is knowing how those above you work, learn, what their strengths and weaknesses are, etc.
The secret to effectiveness is understanding the people you work with and depend on, both above and below you, and adapting yourself to their individual styles
False duality of whether you should manage up or manage down. Must do both!
What I got out of it
Some good advice on how to get to know how one thinks, learns, operates and why that is important
