Tom put his heart into this as his capstone book. Displayed in an energetic design, his most important concepts come in rapid-fire format. The main point, over and over, is that leadership is about caring for your people, the ones who make it happen, and the customers they serve. ( )

I'm so not a fan of stream of consciousness writing, but there are exceptions to every rule and Tom Peters is one. What he says appeals to me. For example: Tom says the 4 most important words are: “What do you think?” I've been saying for years those are the four most important words! He also says: “How are we doing?” [to the customer]. Four more good words. Snippets; staccato thoughts; wisdom nuggets. Where Peters's early works tended to the pedantic, his later material has been distilled to just the points. And, as I said, it appeals to me.

Biggest takeaway:
EXCELLENCE is not an “aspiration.” Excellence is the next five minutes.

Obvious, right? Anyway, selected highlights, my comments in [brackets]:

If you agree with the above [listening is important], shouldn’t listening be . . . a Core Value?
“We are Effective Listeners – we treat Listening EXCELLENCE as the Centerpiece of our Commitment to Respect and Engagement and Community and Growth” – or some such
[Again, obvious, and yet the only time I've ever known "listening" to be an evaluation factor was in kindergarten and first grade.]

What about Listening?
Or negotiating?
Or hiring?
Or promoting?
Or giving help?
Or asking questions?
Or expressing appreciation?
Or …
All these latter items, and many more such as “giving help” and “apologizing” and “conducting meetings’” are what managers … DO FOR A LIVING. Each of these arenas are vital to leaders’ effectiveness—or ineffectiveness!

And on meetings...

Meetings are #1 thing bosses do. Therefore, 100% of those meetings [should have]:
EXCELLENCE.
ENTHUSIASM.
ENGAGEMENT.
LEARNING.
TEMPO.
[be a] WORK-OF-ART.

How many ineffective meetings have I sat through? Worse, how many ineffective meetings have I been responsible for? (I tried to not have them, but I'm sure I have contributed to the problem.)

[We all hear "service" as a core value]

Organizations exist to serve.
Period.
Leaders exist to serve. Period.
Service is a beautiful word.
Service is character, community, commitment.
(And profit.) [For private sector, obviously]
Service is a beautiful word.
Service is not “Wow.”
Service is not “raving fans.”
Service is not “a great experience.”
Service is “just” that –
SERVICE.

[Period}]

[And his Twitter-world summary]:
In Search of Excellence basics in 127 characters including quotation marks and spaces:
“Cherish your people, cuddle your customers, wander around, ‘try it’ beats ‘talk about it,’ pursue excellence, tell the truth.”
[Peters is big on Hewlett Packard's "Management by wandering around." (MBWA) I adapted that for me as "Management by walking about" because while I can wander, I usually do it with some purpose.} ( )