An excellent post from Six Disciplines blog is Leadership Lessons for Small Business CEOs.

In here is summarized the checklist of Jeff Immelt which is one of those taught in GE’s famed management development center. It is always great to read from people who have been there, and done it. If they have gone through it and talk about it, the advice sounds more practical, unlike some book writers who spawn management theories but who have never managed a corporation, whose advise might sound good, and yet may sound too idealistic, and seemingly done with no firm feet on the ground.

Among the ten things, I particularly identify with these:

2. Simplify Constantly. “Every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can’t, then you’re not leading well.”

3. Understand Breadth, Depth and Context: “The most important thing I’ve learned since becoming CEO is context. It’s how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.”

4. The Importance of Alignment and Time Management: “At the end of every week, you have to spend your time around the things that are really important: setting priorities, measuring outcomes and rewarding them.”

5. Leaders Learn Constantly and Teach: “A leader’s primary role is to teach. People who work with you don’t have to agree with you, but they have to feel you’re willing to share what you’ve learned.”

6. Stay True to Your Own Style: “Leadership is an intense journey into yourself. You can use your own style to get anything done. It’s about being self-aware. Every morning, I look in the mirror and say, ‘I could have done three things better yesterday.”’

You can also read all 10 in Jeff’s interview with Fast Company.

In a previous post, I talked about the difficulty of changing people and their ways.

Apparently, if it is easier for us to change ( for the better), we would eliminate a lot of things that is preventing us from grief. For instance, if it were easier for us to change our bad habits of eating, or not exercising, or gambling, or smoking, then obviously we can easily be on our way to more happiness.

There seems to be a physiological explanation about our habits. IN this latest CNEWS column, they provided studies that shows that some section of our brain is associated with habits, addiction and procedural learning, and why sometimes ( or most times) it is so hard to break habits…

Many of us don’t know that the plans to develop Windows actually started in 1983, and it was first released in November 1985 in Las Vegas. That time, it was version 1.0, and Windows did not actually become popular until 7 or 8 years after it was conceived. It was only on version 3.0 around 1990 that Windows finally made it.

Michael Miller of PC Magazine traces the 20 year evolution of Windows from version 1 up to the present and to the future of Vista here….

I was quite intrigued when Keith Casey compared looking at how you do your work with how you drive a stick shift car, which makes a lot of sense. When you are driving in stick shift, you become aware about what gear to use, when to change gears, and how to do it in such a way that you would not want to have a bumpy ride.

It goes back also knowing at what stage of the ride you have, and what gear to use, and the ability to shift gears to suit the task at work. It also means knowing what to prioritize.

At any rate, I would like to add just a little bit to an otherwise great provoking piece, by adding that while it is important to know how to drive, it is more important to know where you are driving to - and to understand where you are going.