Distilling what Owen has to say, the fifty lessons come down to:
• Leadership is a team game – you can't have leaders without followers, pick your team well
• Consider your obituary – how do you want to be remembered? Do that stuff now.
• Accept that you're not perfect – figure out what you're good at, do that, lead in that area
• Remember you're visible – be a role model
• Figure out what your values are and live them, visibly (and pretend when you can't quite measure up)
• Accept responsibility – the buck stops here
• Earn respect, forget about being liked
• Be positive and decisive – even when thought unreasonable
• Be passionate about it, or don't bother
• Luck has nothing to do with anything
• Technical skills are only there to give you credence, beware how you use them
• Fear is not a motivator, nor is ""compliance""
• Integrity is not the same as ethical: people can make up their own minds on your ethics – just be true to yourself.
• Find what matters and focus – yourself and everyone else
• Don't expect life (or business) to be fair – it isn't – remember you're paid to exploit that: read Sun Tsu on the art of war
• Accept that change is inevitable and whether it is the economy, the technology or the globalisation change is really about people – manage it accordingly
• Accept the limits on resources: cut what doesn't matter, but sell it well – make more-for-less a challenge not a constraint and reward those who meet it
• Leaders can be created, they don't have to be born fully-formed
• Leadership is a team game – you can't have leaders without followers, pick your team well.<br>• Consider your obituary – how do you want to be remembered? Do that stuff now.<br>• Accept that you're not perfect – figure out what you're good at, do that, lead in that area.<br>• Remember you're visible – be a role model.<br>• Figure out what your values are and live them, visibly (and pretend when you can't quite measure up).<br>• Accept responsibility – the buck stops here.<br>• Earn respect, forget about being liked.<br>• Be positive and decisive – even when thought unreasonable.<br>• Be passionate about it, or don't bother.<br>• Luck has nothing to do with anything.<br>• Technical skills are only there to give you credence, beware how you use them.<br>• Fear is not a motivator, nor is ''compliance''.<br>• Integrity is not the same as ethical: people can make up their own minds on your ethics – just be true to yourself.<br>• Find what matters and focus – yourself and everyone else.<br>• Don't expect life (or business) to be fair – it isn't – remember you're paid to exploit that: read Sun Tsu on the art of war.<br>• Accept that change is inevitable and whether it is the economy, the technology or the globalisation change is really about people – manage it accordingly.<br>• Accept the limits on resources: cut what doesn't matter, but sell it well – make more-for-less a challenge not a constraint and reward those who meet it.<br>• Leaders can be created, they don't have to be born fully-formed. If that adds up to somewhat less than 50fifty, maybe it explains the degree of repetition you'll find in the book.
The bottom line is that actually Owen has nothing very new to say. What he does is to break it down into manageable chunks and throw in a few amusing anecdotes to sweeten the pill.