So you want to be a tough guy? Lesson in leadership.

Several year ago I read "Swim with the sharks without being eaten alive" from Harvey Mackay.

It's a very good insightful book and I recommend it. But there is one set of advice he gives in his book that I've been applying for years now. And it serves me well. Here they are, for your consideration:

If you are determined to be a tough guy, wisdom says you better bring these strengths to the fore:

• exceptional intelligence with the ability to ask tough questions from 9:00 A.M. until quitting time, whenever that is
• fair-mindedness (you might call it the ability to hit with either a left jab or a right cross)
• maintenance of extremely high performance standards for yourself
• commitment to keep your guard up continually (and cynically)
• the ability to shed criticism like a duck shedding raindrops

In other words, you must have the mind-set of a drill sergeant. Your troops aren't going to love you necessarily, but they'll respect you - as long as you can prove to them your're tougher than they are and you're willing to drive yourself even harder than you're driving them.

Of couse all this must be used with the right dose at the right time. But no one ever said that being a leader is an easy thing. Nor that it is given to anyone.