What It Means to Lead

Mike Slade
CEO, Starwave Corp.
Bellevue, Washington
mike@starwave.com

I've worked for three people in my career -- Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Paul Allen -- and I've learned a lot from each of them about leading and competing. For example, I'm continually amazed at how naive most businesspeople are about their competition. I subscribe fully to the Bill Gates-Andy Grove School of Paranoia: You should know your competitors and their products inside-out.

And don't limit your definition of the competition. Think outside the box! The conventional boundaries that separate industries mean less and less; develop your peripheral vision to scope out latent competitors. You want to be sure to see them first. Then you need to pick apart their products and state eloquently why yours is totally superior. Chances are the competition is too busy solving internal problems to pay as much attention to these shortcomings as you can. That's your opportunity to get a leg up.

You can build a better mousetrap!

Dee Hock
Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa
Pescadero, California
deehock@ix.netcom.com

Given the right circumstances, from no more than dreams, determination, and the liberty to try, ordinary people consistently do extraordinary things. To lead is to create those circumstances, then go before and show the way.

Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time leading yourself -- your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers. If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled "subordinates," then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.

Marilyn Moats Kennedy
Managing Partner, Career Strategies
Wilmette, Illinois
mmkcareer@aol.com

Leaders can't succeed if they care more about how people feel than how they perform. So focus on output, not on attitude. Employees who get results should be taken at face value. Sincerity and competence rarely share a soul. Reward the latter and forget the former.

Hatim Tyabji
President and CEO, Verifone Inc.
Redwood City, California
hatim_t@verifone.com

The first principle of leadership is authenticity: "Watch what I do, not what I say." If you want your company to exude a sense of urgency and a drive to get things done, then act that way on a daily basis. If you want your people to put the needs of the customer first, then do that too -- in every situation. If you want your people to be frugal, then don't spend money on perks designed to make your life more comfortable.

Leadership requires moral authority. You can't have moral authority if you behave differently from your people.

Andy Law
Chairman, St. Luke's
London, England
alaw@stlukes.co.uk

The essence of work is teamwork. And yet think back: When was the last time you worked together truly in a team? In your job? Your marriage? A team at school? Or with a friend, lost in play?