Anytime a successful leader identifies the maxims that lead to success, it gets my attention…

Case in point: Norm Brodsky recently posted an article in Inc. Magazine outlining 6 controversial business ideas that business leaders can leverage for success:

1. Competition is great
2. Employee referrals cause trouble
3. Sales commissions don’t work
4. Drug testing is a good idea
5. Marketing is a waste of money
6. The less you’re around, the better for business

If you’re like me, the first thing you do is decide whether to give these ideas a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. You quickly run them through the filter of your experience, then make a judgment call on whether Norm is a brilliant maverick or a lucky fool.

You may/may not agree with him, and whether his ideas would translate to your culture is certainly debatable. But, as I said earlier, anytime successful leaders identify the maxims that have led to their success, it gets my attention.

So rather than asking yourself, “Will these work for me,” I invite you to look at the list again and ask the question, “Why did these work for him?”

Look through the article to see the reasoning behind his ideas. Then identify the leadership principles that may have driven Norm and his team to adopt these 6 approaches to doing business.

In my next post I’ll let you know which leadership principles I saw, then we can compare notes.

To be continued.