Scott O’Neil Recap: Leadership Highlights from the Interview
9 Feb 2022 · 4 min
James Laughlin recaps his interview with Scott O'Neil, former CEO of Madison Square Garden. O'Neil's three leadership moves: assume positive intent with open body language, pick three daily priorities that move the needle, and practice presence by being where your feet are.
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Welcome back to Lead on purpose. It's that time when we have a leadership highlight, a little bit of a recap from our last interview. So I was lucky enough to get Scott o' Neill to sit down for an hour and talk about life, about lead leadership. And Scott, he was the CEO at Madison Square Garden, 76ers, the New York Knicks. Like, such an amazing leader, amazing dad, and now author of be where your feet are. If you haven't got the book, definitely go and get it. Great for leaders, great for parents, amazing books. I'm going to share with you the three key takeaways. If you've got a pen and paper, take them down. You might apply one of them to your life and it'll make such a massive difference. First big takeaway was API. Assume positive intent. So apply that in the workplace, right? So somebody makes a big mistake, assume positive intent before you have a discussion with them. You know, they most likely didn't intend to make that mistake. The vast majority of people have good intentions. So as a leader, as somebody who has to address this mistake or this failure, when you walk into that conversation, assume positive intent. Another thing he said was palms up, you know, rather than arms crossed and being that grumpy guy. Palms up. Hey, API and palms up. And he also talked about how that plays out at home. He's got three daughters. And often, you know, as all of you parents will know, anyone that's got kids, like, drama plays out at home. So for you, you know, apply that to your life. Where could you assume positive intent? Maybe a family member or friend has said something and you have not assumed positive intent. Give them benefit of the doubt, you know. Second big takeaway was how to increase productivity. And honestly, Scott has a simple but incredibly effective approach, and that is to pick three things that you're going to achieve. Three needle movers, three priorities that day. And when you think about it, I look at priorities like 1, 2, 3, many, right? We don't want to go more than three. Our brain doesn't process things in large chunks. So you know, at the start of each day ask yourself what are my top three outcomes? That way you're going to get to work. Your subconscious mind is going to go, yep, these are my priorities. Third takeaway, be where your feet are. If you're standing in the kitchen with a family member, be there. Don't be in the boardroom, don't be on the football field, Be where your feet are. If you're in a business meeting and it's really important stuff going on, don't be at home in your mind. Be where your feet are. It's incredibly important to get present to be in the moment. So those were three of the big takeaways and I'd love you to think about how could I apply that to my life Today I want to wish you nothing but the best. Get out there and lead your life on purpose. Sa.
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