Be Different!

Table of contents

1. Acknowledgments
2. My Journey
3. Introduction
4. Part 1 The Importance of Leadership to Building a Thriving Business
5. Chapter 1-1 What Makes an Effective Leader?
6. Chapter 1-2 Emotional Intelligence is a Key Leadership Trait
7. Chapter 1-3 Set the Right Tone at the Top and Nurture the Right Organizational Culture
8. Chapter 1-4 Always Lead Your Organization with the Highest Level of Ethics and Integrity
9. Chapter 1-5 Lessons Taught by the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster
10. Chapter 1-6 How to Earn Employees’ Trust and Build a High-Performance Team
11. Chapter 1-7 To Improve Your Effectiveness, Relate to Your Employees
12. Chapter 1-8 The ABCs of Decision Making
13. Chapter 1-9 Don’t Micromanage Employees. Empower and Hold Them Accountable for Results
14. Chapter 1-10 To Give Employees the Best Chance to Grow, Push Them Outside of Their Comfort Zone
15. Chapter 1-11 Traits to Look for When Hiring People
16. Chapter 1-12 Hire Employees with Common Sense and Good Critical Judgment
17. Chapter 1-13 Whistleblower Hotlines: A Valuable Resource for Employees, CEOs, and Boards
18. Chapter 1-14 Assessing Employee Performance and Sharing Feedback
19. Chapter 1-15 Do You Have a Tyrant Reporting to You?
20. Chapter 1-16 Staff Unit Leaders: Don’t Adopt Policies That Micromanage Line Operating or Other Staff Units
21. Chapter 1-17 When Asked About Changing a Policy That Doesn’t Make Sense, Don’t Respond “Well, That’s Just the Way It Is”
22. Chapter 1-18 Not Getting What You Need from a Corporate Staff Unit?
23. Chapter 1-19 Set Realistic Goals to Drive Earnings Growth
24. Chapter 1-20 Sometimes, Bad Things Happen, Regardless of Your Tone at the Top
25. Chapter 1-21 Do Your Employees See Your HR Department as a Friend or Foe?
26. Part 2 Building Competitive Advantage
27. Chapter 2-1 Understand Your Competitive Position
28. Chapter 2-2 Become the Preferred Provider to Your Markets—The Holy Grail of Any Business
29. Chapter 2-3 Provide a Great Customer Experience
30. Chapter 2-4 Treat Customers Like You Would Like To Be Treated
31. Chapter 2-5 In Business, Good Is the Enemy of Great
32. Chapter 2-6 Andy Grove Was Right. Only the Paranoid Survive
33. Chapter 2-7 Continuous Improvement Is a Timeless Philosophy
34. Chapter 2-8 Don’t Tell Me It Can’t Be Done!
35. Chapter 2-9 Break Paradigms to Build Competitive Advantage
36. Chapter 2-10 Winning in a Competitive Marketplace
37. Chapter 2-11 When Making Decisions, “Avoid Going to Abilene”
38. Chapter 2-12 To Improve Results, Benchmark Sister Operations
39. Part 3 Advancing Your Career: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone. You Never Know Where the Future Will Take You
40. Chapter 3-1 Be Different Than Your Peers
41. Chapter 3-2 How to Build Your Personal Brand
42. Chapter 3-3 Selling Your Ideas Is the Key to Professional Advancement
43. Chapter 3-4 Successfully Navigate Office Politics
44. Chapter 3-5 Never Violate the Trust That Others Have in You
45. Chapter 3-6 Dealing with Toxic People in the Workplace
46. Chapter 3-7 Want to Learn CEO Skills? Become an Entrepreneur
47. Chapter 3-8 Be Aware of the Unintended Consequences of Your Decisions
48. Chapter 3-9 Push Through Your Self-Perceived Limitations
49. Chapter 3-10 A Lesson in the Power of Networking
50. Chapter 3-11 Learn How to Mitigate Risks and Deal with Failure
51. Chapter 3-12 Be an Effective Negotiator
52. Chapter 3-13 You Are Now Unemployed. What Should You Do?
53. Chapter 3-14 Interviewing for a CEO Position? Be Prepared to Respond to These Five Questions
54. Chapter 3-15 Your First 100 Days as the New CEO
55. Chapter 3-16 Get Out of Your Comfort Zone, Take Risks, Fly High, and Never Compromise Your Ethics or Integrity
56. Part 4 We Can Learn from Leaders Who Are Excellent Role Models, and from Those Who Are Not
57. Chapter 4-1 Leadership, Teamwork, and Athletics
58. Chapter 4-2 Lessons from a Record-Setting NCAA Basketball Game
59. Chapter 4-3 We Should All Possess the Leadership Traits of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain
60. Chapter 4-4 Amtrak’s Joe Boardman—Out in Front When Tragedy Hits
61. Chapter 4-5 Saxbys: Servant Leadership Pays Dividends
62. Chapter 4-6 Leadership Lessons from The Imitation Game
63. Chapter 4-7 Turing Pharmaceuticals: Avoid Behavior That Will Come Back to Haunt You
64. Chapter 4-8 Mylan N.V. There Are Consequences to Acting Like a Monopolist
65. Chapter 4-9 Flint Michigan Water Crisis: A Failure in Leadership
66. Chapter 4-10 Wells Fargo Scandal: Failures in Leadership, Management, and Corporate Governance
67. Chapter 4-11 Volkswagen Employees Responsible for “Dieselgate.” Where Was Your Legal, Ethical, and Moral Compass?
68. Chapter 4-12 Lessons from the Theranos Debacle
69. Chapter 4-13 Massey Energy Mine Disaster: Leaders Have a Responsibility to Keep Their Employees Safe
70. Chapter 4-14 To Maximize Shareholder Return, Treat Stakeholders the Right Way
71. Chapter 4-15 Learn How To Be an Inspiring Leader
72. In Closing
73. About the Author