Advice on Life from your Grandad

A few times this month at least, I've come across some solid leadership or business advice and had a funny feeling that I'd heard something similar somewhere before ... we may be going so fast and innovating so hard that we're forgetting to check in on some of the words of wisdom from people very close to home who have lived through some highs and lows. Your grandad for example, if you were lucky enough to know yours.

I still know mine. He's 93 and strong as an ox. He lives with his girlfriend, in Liverpool where they were both born. As a child in the city centre he was part of a gang of barefoot boys who would often make friends with workers on the docks and labour for them in return for a share of their lunch. His first 'real' job was as a bookies-runner which meant collecting horse racing bets on a street corner and passing them to the book-maker who of course could not be seen in public because it was an illegal enterprise. He was then a welder, metal fabricator, foreman, draftsman and small business owner. During that career there were wars and children and all kinds of life going on. He knows a thing or two about relationship building, collaboration, communication, strategic and financial planning, negotiation, etc etc although I doubt very much he would recognise those terms.

So, here are some things he's told me that work today. I'd love to hear what advice you got from your grandad that you still use or maybe forgot to.

Next week we could do Grandma's advice. Hers is possibly even better ....

#1 Don't just do something, stand there - when he completed his time as an apprentice welder his first job was to make industrial oven doors. He was to be paid based on finishing a quota of doors each day. On the morning of the second day, he stopped for four hours and designed a 'jig' which was a frame that allowed him to arrange the metal in a way that made the task much faster to complete. During the four-hour 'production delay' he was derided by his fellow welders and his foreman. By the end of the week the department payroll couldn't cover his wage and he gladly took on a much larger quota.

#2 Measure twice, cut once - I read a great quote in the John Wooden management coaching book which was something like "if you don't have time to do it right first time, when are you going to find the time to fix it?" ... my old grandad told me this while he was wood-working in his shed years ago.

#3 A closed mouth gathers no foot - he may have also said "if you really want to be heard, talk quietly" although I might be getting him mixed up with Bill Shankly on this. I heard a Head of Engineering introduced on stage for a presentation recently with one of the best compliments I've ever heard. The Marketing VP who introduced her said, "whenever this person is in an hour long meeting, she may only say 10 words but as we all leave everyone knows that they were the most important 10 words". I'd really like someone to say that about me one day.

#4 Demand excellence of yourself first and then others - when he played football at the local club he was captain of the first XI. Part of that responsibility was picking the team each week. After a run of 5 or 6 games where he had played badly he dropped himself to the second team, and played in a lower league until he had regained some form and felt like he deserved a call-up again (by himself). Not only did he demonstrate the level of performance required, but he also demonstrated that level applies to everyone. This is the story that makes us all laugh and roll our eyes when he launches into it because we've heard it a thousand times at family get-togethers. I love it every time still.

#5 If you pick it, it will never get better - I can't think of the business application for this sage counsel, but there probably is one.