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THE ONE THING

1. Shaq’s Advice on Leadership: “Just Be Nice”

Entrepreneur magazine published an interview with Shaquille O'Neal about his leadership style.

His greatest piece of advice came from his mom:

The takeaway

Kindness and niceness are underrated in leadership.

• Disagreeing about an opinion? Be kind.

• Negotiating a contentious request? Be kind.

• Reprimanding someone about negative behavior? Be kind.

You can still be a strong leader and get your point across while being kind.

How you say something during difficult conversations is sometimes more important than what you say. And people always remember the former more than the latter.

INSIGHTFUL THOUGHTS

2. How to Ensure Attention to Detail: "No Brown M&Ms”

Van Halen’s contracts with concert promoters included a “No brown M&Ms” clause.*

It was a genius move to ensure safety.

David Lee Roth (the lead singer of Van Halen) insisted on adding a clause that stated that a bowl of M&Ms should be provided in the backstage area but that every single brown M&M should be removed.

The penalty for leaving one in was unforgiving: cancellation of the show and full payment to the band.

The reason for that clause was to make sure that people read the contract carefully.

Van Halen’s productions were massive, and they included very complex requirements that could easily lead to technical and often catastrophic errors.

For example, applying the wrong specs to the girders could lead to the stage falling apart.

Finding a brown M&M meant that the band was guaranteed to run into a production problem and had to recheck everything in detail.

The takeaway

This is a smart lesson on writing business contracts in general, but it also applies to communicating anything sensitive.

As a leader, use your version of a “No Brown M&Ms” clause when you want to make sure that people read an instruction carefully.

For example, if you’re writing an important email, add a weird question or an incorrect date that would prove to you that the recipient read the whole message.

*This is an anecdote from Atul Gawande's book, The Checklist Manifesto, about the importance of using checklists to get things right

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WORDS I LIKE

4. On the Most Important Job of a CEO

THE 80/20

5. An 80/20 Tip You Can Apply Today

Here’s a low-effort, high-impact tip you can use with your team today:

• What: Assign tasks to specific individuals (and not to groups)

• Why: This helps avoid the bystander effect (where everyone’s responsibility is no one’s responsibility).

• Example: “Sarah will be responsible for completing this task, and both Jessica and Steve will help her out,” is more effective than “Sarah, Jessica, and Steve will be responsible for completing this task.”