RIGHT

'Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends, fads and popular opinion.'  

- Jack Kerouac  

Our economy is one which has been invaded by ‘smart money’ chasing the foolishness of ‘disruption.’  With remarkable regularity, these ‘disruptive’ companies have been exposed in time to be emperors with no clothes; the true greatness in business comes from firms – and teams – which do the simple, unglamorous, necessary things with remarkable precision, consistency, and discipline.  The greatness of great service is not in its disruptiveness, it is in its inconspicuousness.  I will focus upon doing the right things, not the flashy ones.

'If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.'  

- George S. Patton  

To be consistently right is to be consistently challenged.  My leadership and operating model necessitates the infusion of new ideas, of rigorous self-reflection, and of a decision-making process predicated upon candid, honest, respectful argument.  I embrace the necessity of discourse and commit to accurate decisions through debate.  

'There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.'  

- Ronald Reagan  

I am challenged every day by difficult circumstance, but difficult and complex are not the same.  I will seek to create simplicity in all solutions, whether to internal or external challenges, and to relentlessly execute against these simple answers.

'Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.'  

- Hunter S. Thompson  

To do the right thing is not always to do the known thing.  The embrace of the necessary over the disruptive and of the simple over the complex requires a willingness to recognize and welcome the need for change.  To be right is to anticipate change – and to live in a mental framework which embodies that anticipation.  I want to be right tomorrow, not yesterday.

'Beware of little expenses.  A small leak will sink a great ship.'  

- Benjamin Franklin  

Small mistakes – small departures from what is right – are the root cause of great failures.  Whether expenses, data inaccuracies, or process misalignments, few great catastrophes begin as such.  It is essential that teams operate with a fanatical emphasis on being right on the small things – the big things are comprised of many, many small ones.

'Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.'  

- Harry S. Truman  

My embrace of debate, enthusiasm for disagreement in decision-making, and emphasis on finding simplicity requires a willingness to peel back the emotion of circumstance and find strength in the rationality of true root cause.  To do this effectively necessitates a commitment to remove the intensity of feeling – positive or negative – from the debate.  I will never mute my desire for discourse but must rely upon its rationality in seeking to find the truth.  I will lead organizations with the intention of seeking truth, not indulging emotion.

'How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg?  Four.  Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.'  

- Abraham Lincoln  

What is true is true – regardless of the desire to evade culpability or to avoid confronting the brutal realities of a situation, I choose to accept that the truth is not a malleable entity, but one which is incontrovertible and universal.  I will always adhere to the principle that something may be unpleasant or distasteful, but those qualities do not reduce its veracity. 

'If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?'

- John Wooden  

Opting for the expedient at the expense of the necessary is a guaranteed down payment on rework.  Business and leadership necessitate difficult choices, and my emphasis upon doing the right things in the right way at the right time is not negotiable.  Focus on doing work right and doing so quickly, not one or the other.

'Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.'  

- Carl von Clausewitz  

Find the right answer, then run at it with all enthusiasm.  Few problems have ever been able to withstand the concurrent forces of accuracy, force, and determination – and this principle has held true in my experience almost universally.  Once the right answer is identified, do not ‘sell past the close.’  move instead to executing with force and determination.

'He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.'  

- Benjamin Franklin  

Excuses are simply elaborate methods of denying that which is right – that there was a failure or that something must be done.  I will embrace the commitment I make to my team, will recognize the weakness a chronic excuse-maker brings to the team, and will exit that person immediately.

'Fear is stupid.  So are regrets.'

- Marilyn Monroe  

I will be wrong – this is one of life’s truest certainties.  When wrong, I must not spend thought capital wallowing in self-flagellation and regret.  Rather, my focus must immediately shift to what must be done to address the shortcoming, and to what can be learned from it.  At the same time, this likelihood of failure should not reduce the speed with which I sprint toward my desire to execute.  I will have failures.  I need not have fear or regret.

'In business, if you realize you’ve made a bad decision, you change it.'

- Richard Branson  

Again, I will be wrong, and I will make bad decisions.  What will mark any team as a great one is the willingness to change those decisions when the circumstances have changed.  By and large, most people's decision-making is good.  It requires strong feedback and proactive insight to be successful.  We must embrace those two burdens – feedback and proactivity – in order that we might be right more frequently and more quickly.