The ability to identify and deal with fools protects leaders and organizations.

Foolishness has nothing to do with intelligence or talent. Smart, gifted people are prime candidates for foolishness.

Twelve ways to spot fools:

1. Believe they are right.
2. Hate accountability and practical strategies.
3. Love blaming and reject responsibility.
4. Pursue personal ease rather than challenge.
5. Expect you to adapt to them.
6. Reject instruction.
7. Can’t see their foolishness.
8. Express frustrations quickly and openly.
9. Gossip and cut down privately while complimenting publicly.
10. Act confidently.
11. Enjoy talking.
12. Despise listening.

Bonus: Fools don’t seek help, but the wise love and seek wisdom. Fools seek their own way because others are wrong and they are right.

Dealing with fools:

Stop talking:

Fools reject responsibility. Stop talking, once you realize you’re dealing with a fool. Talking doesn’t help. They love talking and are usually good at it. Talking drags you into the fool’s world.

Set limits:

Say…

Average leaders get things done. Exceptional leaders build environments where others get things done.

Average leaders fix. Exceptional leaders build.

You begin thinking leadership is all about results, but come to learn it’s about the way we treat each other. Results matter, but how you achieve results matters more.

“Results only” is the formula for toxicity.

Great places to work are about the way things get done.

When all that matters are the numbers, eventually, people don’t matter.

How:

Exceptional leaders embrace the power of how.

1. How are we connecting?
2. How do we support each other?
3. How does the team feel?
4. How is respect expressed?

Exceptional leaders define “the way” things get done.

Courageous leaders challenge back-stabbing and office politics, for example. They say, “That’s not the way we do things around here.”

Evaluate:

Organizations that neglect how things get done become lousy places to work. Frankly, soft-skills are hard…