Leadership Archives - Palladian Park

Sam Walton’s 10 Rules for Running a Successful Company

Sam Walton, Sam Walton: Made in America, Walmart

Sam Walton began in retail as a management trainee at J.C. Penny in 1940. While there, one of his managers told him he wasn’t cut out for retail. Fast forwarding a few years, Walton was operating the most successful Ben Franklin store in the entire franchise system. He then went on to found his own retail company: Wal-Mart. Today, the rebranded Walmart has outlived Walton, employs over two million employees globally, and is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Clearly, Walton had a business framework that worked.

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Yarak: The Performance State

Jake Taylor, Motivation, Performance, The Rebel Allocator, Yarak

In falconry, yarak is the state that falcons must be in for their best hunting. When falcons are not in yarak, they are poor hunters.

Yarak can be represented on a spectrum. Starvation is on one end of the spectrum, where the animal is deficient in energy. Contentment is on the other end, where the animal has no motivation to find food. Yarak is the confluence of particular conditions that motivate optimal performance.

Yarak is great for falconers. But it’s also immensely useful for individuals and leaders because the principles behind yarak apply to people as well.

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Avoid the Disease of Victory

Adolf Hitler, Alex Ferguson, Blockbuster, Jocko Willink, Leading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United, Marc Randoff, Maria Konnikova, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, Napoleon, Netflix, Olympics, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea, The Dichotomy of Leadership

The problem with victory—especially frequent victories—is that it breeds arrogance and complacency. This phenomenon, known as “the disease of victory”, has ensnared countless individuals and groups throughout the ages. Be aware of this tendency and guard yourself against it.

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Our Agency Over Fear

Courage is Calling, Fear, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ryan Holiday, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Simon Sinek, Start with Why, Yuval Noah Harari

Mastering the tools for combating fear puts you in a strong position as an individual and as a member of a team. These tools are also necessary to be an effective leader for yourself and others. Like most things, this skill set isn’t magically acquired. It requires thoughtful practice and discipline.

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Performance and Trust in Elite Teams

Lights Out by Thomas Gryta, Navy SEALs, Performance, Simon Sinek, The Infinite Game, Thought Experiment, Trust, Warren Buffett

Elite teams are comprised of high-performing people who trust each other. That’s the recipe: performance and trust. Although both qualities are important, one is much more so.

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Businesses are not Families

Netflix, Shopify, Toby Lutke

Organizations of all types use the term “family” to describe themselves. In a time when loneliness is pervasive, this can be a heartfelt sentiment. It plays into our inherent need to belong to a group, our tribalism. But it’s misleading and produces a false sense of security. It often does more harm than good.

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The Pygmalion Effect: Our Beliefs Impact Others

Confirmation Bias, Maya Angelou

Beware your beliefs: they have the power to influence others. Both positively and negatively. That’s the power of the Pygmalion Effect.

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Leadership