WCAGLS and Colin Powell

I gotta be honest, when I read Colin Powell was going to be at The Global Leadership Summit I was turned off. People I knew were excited to see him and I didn't understand why. I mean he is a former U.S. Secretary of State so how interesting can he be?! I was so wrong, General Colin Powell was awesome! He was funny and he had so much good information to share. Below are some of the notes I took during his session. 

There is no such thing as an unimportant person.

Invest in the people that get it done. This means give resources to them and take resources from them.

Power subordinates and trust them.

Constantly repeat themes.

Execution is the most important part of leadership.

It's all about attitude and aspiration. Say things like, "It'll look better in the morning."

Persuade to share interest not order.

Get mad and then get over it (shortly).

It freezes an organization when leaders get mad.

Find strengths and weaknesses in everyone. No one is perfect.

Leaders are people who solve problems. 

Ego is a red flag with an emerging leader.

Promote people based on potential not performance.

Adapt to the personality of your subordinates. Do not make them adapt to you.

Do the best you can with the opportunity you have.

If you want to be a great leader, take care of your troops.

Trust is the glue that holds an organization together and the lubricant that keeps moving forward.

We have missions and goals, but it is the vision and purpose that matter most.

Leaders inspire people to reach beyond themselves. 

I needed to hear Colin say, "Get mad and then get over it." Lately, I have been struggling with anger and holding grudges and he had a very good point. If I get mad over the small things or even big things for that matter and can't get over it quickly, people are going to stop coming to me. Not only will they not tell me the bad things, but they may stop telling me the good things and then maybe, somewhere down the line, they stop talking to me altogether. Plus, wouldn't you rather they came to you when the bad thing was like peanut sized not 13 pound ham size and too big to fix? I know I would so now, I am working on my anger and working on getting over it shortly.