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:
- Handling failure
- Managing your self-image and beliefs
- Indecisiveness
- Perfection
- Hiring and Firing
- 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:
- Failure is a loop in the progression towards the expected outcome
- Most likely, people see you differently from how you see yourself in a challenging moment
- Be fast in reversible decisions, and spend time on irreversible ones
- Be the self you want to be
- Adapt to the changing situations, don’t be unbendable
- What got you here won’t get you there
- Decision and outcome are not the same things. A good decision may result in a bad outcome.
- Focus on the intersection of what matters and what you can change.
- Break things down until they become a micro habit