Page 37 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

18 • CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization

to the event. He asked me to represent him at another corporate gath-
ering outside the organization, where he wanted company represen-
tation. And it just kept going on from there.

ƒ

I act as a clipping service. I scan newspapers and trade publications
that will be of interest to my colleagues. I cut them out and send with
comments. I don’t worry if they’ve already seen it; it lets them know
I’ve seen it and have taken notice.

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I wasn’t brilliant, but I was stable and calm and willing to do what-
ever task needed to be done.

You reinvent yourself when you seek significant responsibility to
begin with and then reach for more beyond that, all the while consistently
exceeding expectations.
Resist the obvious and easy way. Don’t do shortcuts. Don’t shirk
from the dirty work—“grab a paddle and get wet.” Be willing to do some-
thing because it’s hard, beneath you, and not what you were hired for.

A guy in my company who is definitely on my radar screen uses a cer-
tain expression whenever I say, “We need to do some task.” He’ll
immediately respond with a firm, “Consider it done,” and about the
time I turn around, he is doing something or has already completed
it with no fanfare, just action ...I like that a lot.

Your boss doesn’t have the time to give out new assignments. He or
she wants someone savvy enough to look around and see priorities in
where you should be spending your time. Your discernment shows that
you understand the needs of the business and have a finger on the pulse
of it, which impresses the boss and makes the white space between you
and others bigger.
By generating work, you can be the one who digs a project out of a
hole or ingeniously initiates cost reductions in your department.