Fatherly Advice - A Recipe for Success

For some of us the best advice we received from our fathers might have been "measure twice, cut once".  I was fortunate in my life to not only have one Father who passed along that wisdom to me, but I had two fantastic Fathers who passed along that advice as well some other wisdom that I have found are critical to building strong teams and ensuring success.

If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.

Dr. Gerald Godden PhD
NASA Rocket Scientist

My father worked for many years at NASA as an actual Rocket Scientist on exciting programs such as the Space Shuttle, Hubble, EOS, Modis and IRAS.  While working on these programs he was surrounded by immensely intelligent people, but he always told me "If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room".

It was his way of saying, you cannot know everything . . . you cannot micro-manage every decision . . . you cannot be everywhere.  

Instead you need to empower a team of smart people to help you, to fill in the blanks in your experience or knowledge, and to help you be agile and responsive in your work.

Be nice.

Tip Huntwork
Director of Engineering of R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company

I was immensely blessed that my father-in-law also was my best friend.  He was a truly fantastic person.  We all know the type . . . a good natured, friendly, happy person who people genuinely liked.

But he did not take his good natured manner for granted, he worked at it.  He spent time on the shop floor talking with all the employees, knowing who they were, what their families where doing, and listening to what mattered to them.

We have all heard the quote "It costs nothing to be nice", so why don't more people do it?  Being nice, affable, and approachable is imperative to creating a strong motivated team.

Diversity is key. 

Tom Godden
Technology Executive, CIO, CTO

Throughout my recent ExPat assignment and through my work at a large multi-national company I have been fortunate to been able to lead a diverse group of people from places like: Romania, The Netherlands, Belgium, UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Germany and the United States.

What this has taught me is the fresh perspective that comes from diversity.  As Americans we often are isolated from this diversity and as such we are often missing out on the richness and perspective that are crucial to success.

Sometimes what you need is a fresh perspective that comes from outside your sphere of influence. If you surround yourself with people like you, you run the risk of getting "group think" and missing out on so much.

You should hire people who challenge your way of thinking, who make you consider your positions and preconceived norms, and who bring experience and knowledge that you may not have.

To see what a fresh perspective means, take a look at this world map.  It is actually a world map, but it is a 'South-up oriented map' that is centered on Indonesia rather than Europe or North America.

A little different perspective isn't it?

To build strong teams and succeed you need to hire and empower smart people, you need to bring the best out of them by being a nice person and treating them with respect, and you need to introduce diversity and fresh perspective.

Success will follow.