Monday Morning Mentoring

I have been spending some time re-reading Monday Morning Mentoring, Ten Lessons to Guide You Up the Ladder. A great book by David Cottrell founder of CornerStone Leadership. I am learning so much from this book that I thought I would share some thoughts. This book is based around a story. Jeff, a manager of a Fortune 500 company, is receiving mentoring from Tony, a semi-retired successful leader.

Getting Past Splat – the first Monday

• There are few leaders, if any, who have not faced the same issues that you face.
• It’s never too late to change.
• A leader is no longer a “passenger” in the “car”. They are the “driver”. As a driver, you no longer have the right to mess around as passengers do such as “looking around” or “listening to loud music”.
• Making excuses rather than accepting responsibility for your actions will destroy your effectiveness as a leader. Nobody needs a leader to find excuses or to find others to blame for failures … everyone can do that on their own.
• When you place blame, you focus on the past. When you accept responsibility, you focus on this time forward – on the future.
• You have the power to choose to accept responsibility for improving things.
• You have control over how you react to situations.