Extracts from

*The Five Temptations of a CEO*

An excellent book by Patrick Lencioni

1/5. Make results the most important measure of personal success, or step down from the job. The future of the company you lead is too important for customers, employees and stakeholders to hold it hostage to your ego.

2/5. Work for the long-term respect of your direct reports, not for their affection. Don’t view them as a support group, but as key employees who must deliver on their commitments if the company is to produce predictable results.

3/5. Make clarity more important than accuracy (being right!). Remember that your people will learn more if you take decisive action than if you always wait for more information. And if the decisions you make in the spirit of creating clarity turn out to be wrong when more information becomes available, change plans and explain why. It is your job to risk being wrong. The only real cost to you of being wrong is loss of pride. The cost to your company of not taking the risk of being wrong is paralysis.

4/5. Tolerate discord. Encourage your direct reports to air their ideological differences and with passion. Tumultuous meetings are often signs of progress. Tame ones are often signs of leaving important issues off the table. Guard against personal attacks, but not to the point of stifling important interchanges of ideas.

5/5. Actively encourage people to challenge your ideas. Trust them with your reputation and your ego. This is the greatest level of trust you can give. They will return it with respect and honesty and with a desire to be vulnerable among peers.

Print this and stick it on your wall

1. Choose results over status

2. Choose accountability over popularity

3. Choose clarity over certainty

4. Choose conflict over harmony

5. Choose trust over invulnerability