My Leadership Principle is:
Good is the Enemy of Great
Understanding this Principle: Early in the book the following statement was made to help provide
clarification as to what “good is the enemy of great” meant. “Few people attain great lives, in large part
because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great,
precisely because the vast majority become quite good—and that is their main problem.” I believe that
we often allow ourselves to believe that if we are good at something or simply better than someone else
than we have reached an acceptable level of success. In my opinion someone has settled for mediocrity
in a scenario such as this. Good is not enough and if we have allowed our thoughts and our actions to
conform to this standard we are doomed to live a mediocre life. Here are some attributes from this
book and from my own observations that are attributes of being “Great” not simply good.
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Great Leaders/Companies do not focus principally on what TO DO to become great; they focus
equally on what NOT TO DO and to STOP DOING.
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Great Companies include 3 major elements: Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought and
Disciplined Action
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Great Leaders have a blend of Personal Humility and Professional Will
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First Who….Then What: Great Leaders put the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the
bus and the right people in the right seats—then they figure out where to drive it.
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Confront Brutal Facts: Great Leaders maintain unwavering faith that they can prevail in the end
regardless of the difficulties and at the same time has the discipline to confront the brutal facts
of your current reality.
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A Culture of Discipline: When you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy.
What I learned:
I evaluating what I have read I have come to the following conclusions: (1) I think I need to take a hard
look at what we may need to modify in our current policies that may be hindering our success. This may
be a humbling exercise as no one ever wants to admit that they have or are currently making decisions
that are not effective. (2) I was reminded that it is all about GREAT people. We could have the best
protocols in the world but if we don’t have the right folks in place that have the heart and the discipline
to achieve excellence we will never reach Greatness.
How I will Implement
There are few key elements that I will implement after reading portions of this book regarding “Good
being the Enemy of Great”
(1) Cancellation Procedures: I believe the cancellation protocols in place currently hinder our
success in either convincing customers to stay and/or creating a healthy environment when they
leave. I plan on carefully reviewing this policy for inefficiencies and provide new training based
off of my research.
(2) Employee Integrity: Understanding that Discipline, Humility and Professional Will are key
elements of a healthy employee I will work with each Manager to evaluate the success and
behavior of their employees to make sure we have the very best people in place to achieve
greatness. I will also increase accountability in adhering to current company protocols to
improve the overall discipline of our employees.
Adam