Hacking Executive Leadership is one of the books I have enjoyed reading for some time. It offers concise suggestions to some of the most common leadership problems. These problems include:

  1. Handling failure
  2. Managing your self-image and beliefs
  3. Indecisiveness
  4. Perfection
  5. Hiring and Firing
  6. Varying natures of people around

Perhaps the most compelling part of the book is the mindset and perspectives it provides. It takes failure, self-criticizing, and self-worth from different aspects and approaches them from a pragmatic point of view, and uses assuring yet natural language. It does not use complex vocabulary or solutions.

Several things that I particularly liked are:

  1. Failure is a loop in the progression towards the expected outcome
  2. Most likely, people see you differently from how you see yourself in a challenging moment
  3. Be fast in reversible decisions, and spend time on irreversible ones
  4. Be the self you want to be
  5. Adapt to the changing situations, don’t be unbendable
  6. What got you here won’t get you there
  7. Decision and outcome are not the same things. A good decision may result in a bad outcome.
  8. Focus on the intersection of what matters and what you can change.
  9. Break things down until they become a micro habit