Great Leaders Have No Rules summary

Imagine you’re an employee on an overnight business trip. Complying with company policy, you’ve made your reservation at a Motel 6. But there’s an issue when you arrive – no room is available. The other motel in town has availability, but its rooms are $10 more than you’re allowed for accommodations. What do you do? Well, luckily your company accepts car-rental expenses; so your best option is to rent a vehicle for $250 and drive four hours to another Motel 6. Sorted. Wait, what?

This may sound senseless, but many workplaces are riddled with rules that defy common sense. The bigger the company, the more rules it’s likely to have. When leaders don’t have direct contact with employees, they rely on those rules to maintain professional standards and mitigate risk. But rules undermine trust. And an untrusted employee is one who underperforms.

The need to be liked is an innate part of the human experience. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which maps the stages of human development, places our need to belong directly after our most basic requirements, like food, shelter, and safety.

A 2017 Gallup survey found that employees with close work friends were the most highly engaged, proving that a sense of belonging has positive outcomes in the workplace. This explains why so many Silicon Valley enterprises encourage social connection at work by hosting regular company parties, installing foosball tables in staff rooms, and more.

In 1513, Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli penned The Prince, a political treatise used as an instructional guide for new royals. In it, he claimed that being feared by those you manage was more effective than being loved – a sentiment still revered by many business leaders today.

While fear-based leadership might bully employees into working hard, it doesn’t create a productive work culture. In fact, fear reduces creativity, stifles innovation, and prevents open communication. Fear causes stress, and stress drives employees to look for jobs elsewhere.

While researching for his book 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, Kruse interviewed over 280 high performers, from Olympic athletes to entrepreneurs. What he learned shocked him. Hardly any of them used to-do lists to organize their time.

Despite what most of us have been taught, to-do lists aren’t that helpful when it comes to getting things done. In fact, research has found that 41 percent of to-do list tasks are never completed. And knowing that there’s a long list of items awaiting completion increases our stress levels. So, to become a highly effective leader, stop writing lists and start focusing on how you’re using every minute of the day.

In 2017, former NFL Super Bowl Champion Gary Brackett was a guest on Kruse’s podcast, The LEADx Leadership Show. After retiring, Brackett started a restaurant franchise called Stacked Pickle. Asked what advice he’d give a new manager, Brackett said not to treat people equally, but to treat them fairly.

Brackett meant that you should always consider the broader context when it comes to an employee’s performance. For instance, if a normally punctual employee is late one week due to car problems, she should be treated differently to someone who’s been rolling in to work late every morning since he started. The rule is universal – show up on time – but the ramifications of breaking that rule should change according to the individual.

How would you react if an employee sent you an email accusing you of being disorganized and unprepared for a meeting? What if they told you that your underperformance was unacceptable and mustn’t happen again?

This happened to Ray Dalio, founder and CEO of Bridgewater Associates. But Dalio wasn’t offended by his employee’s blunt email; he was delighted. Dalio had implemented radical transparency at Bridgewater, meaning nothing is hidden or off-limits, including holding the boss accountable. This policy has transformed his company into the world’s largest hedge fund with $160 billion in assets.

The most popular segment of Kruse’s podcast is when his guests share a time they’ve failed. Listeners love hearing high performers talk about something other than how successful they are. Knowing that even great leaders make mistakes helps the audience relate to them.

Vulnerability doesn’t come naturally to most people. Evolution has made us fear being weak. We don’t want to be the gazelle that the lion singles out for dinner.