Leadership lessons from a chief executive

Richard Anderson, chief executive of Delta Air Lines, shares some of his leadership lessons in this article from The New York Times:

• I’ve learned to be patient and not lose my temper...people look at everything you do and take a signal from everything you do. And when you lose your temper, it really squelches debate and sends the wrong signal about how you want your organization to run.
• You’ve got to be thankful to the people who get the work done, and you’ve got to be thankful to your customers. So, I find myself, more and more, writing hand-written notes to people. I must write a half a dozen a day.
• I think this communication point is getting more and more important. People really have to be able to handle the written and spoken word...And a lot of what we do in communication, when you write e-mail, you need to express yourself very clearly so people understand whether we’re going to L.A. today or we’re going to Boston today.
• It’s not just enough to be the best person operating an H.P. calculator. You have to have the emotional intelligence to understand what’s right culturally, both in your company and outside your company.
• [on time management] Only touch paper once. No. 2, always have your homework done. No. 3, return your calls very promptly. No. 4, stick to your schedule.
• I don’t think it’s appropriate to use BlackBerrys in meetings. You might as well...open the newspaper up in the middle of the meeting.