COMMIT TO SUCCESS
Successful leaders pour enormous energy into projects and stay with an issue until it gets resolved. That commitment galvanizes an organization, big or small.

SET PROPER PRIORITIES
Organizations typically have trouble setting priorities for three reasons: (i). Difficult to identify a limited number of actions (ii). Communicate them in a clear, logical. (iii). A struggle to manage the trade-off between conflicting objectives, such as profit and growth

DEMAND HIGH STANDARDS
A leader must have high standards for integrity, excellence and performance and observe them. Good leaders promote a healthy level of productive tension one that results from employees’ wanting to rise to extraordinary challenges and be held accountable.

BE TOUGH, BUT FAIR
Leaders must be tough strong, firm in demanding performance and accountability, just as boards of directors must be tough with CEOs and management teams. People need room to fail and to learn from failure. If problems persist, then it’s time for a change.

CONCENTRATE ON POSITIVES
Leaders invest their energy in reaching ambitious but attainable goals. They don’t waste time trying to undo outcomes that can’t be undone. Nothing can be gained by tilting at windmills, but much can be accomplished by focused efforts to achieve the possible.

DEVELOP A SENSE OF URGENCY
Problems don’t go away because people ignore them; they only get worse until they’re resolved. It’s particularly important to address operating and people problems quickly, because they cause the most trouble in the short term.

PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL
Getting as much information as possible is critical to making good decisions. That takes hard work, and there are no shortcuts. Leaders also must recognize when they don’t know what they don’t know. At Emerson, when we’re not comfortable with an analysis, even if we can’t explain why, we insist on doing more work.

PROVIDE FOR FAILURE
Organizations must find ways to motivate people to think boldly and creatively.

BE PERSONALLY INVOLVED
It’s impossible to be aloof and inspirational at the same time. Yet personal involvement is a scarce resource. The concept of loose-tight controls guide decisions. Leaders focus tightly on some issues while delegating responsibility and following loosely on others. This individual autonomy is another characteristic of high-performing organizations. As CEO, I put my focus where I could have the greatest impact on performance, by spending more than half my time in planning.

HAVE FUN
People should take pleasure in their work. More fundamentally, though, the fun comes from collaborating with people who want to do well. Maintaining our record streak of annual increase in earnings, earnings per share and dividends per share was din. It provided motivation and pride.