Lead yourself first so you can lead others 

During my working career, I have collected thoughts about management in a little red notebook. I have kept those thoughts with me as a guideline in many different life situations. I wrote one of the most important instructions in that red notebook more than 20 years ago and it reads like this: "Lead yourself first so you can lead others."

In order to manage yourself, you must first learn to know yourself. Managing yourself is not an easy task. Each of us knows how nice it would be to move from a boring task to a more meaningful one or to postpone an encounter that seems unpleasant to a later time. Quite often, it is moved to the side of the difficult matter, until it finally comes up. Managing yourself is a disciplined job, you have to persistently push yourself towards areas of discomfort. However, the reward is great when you get that annoying thing that has been bothering your mind or a task that seemed boring done.

By leading people, things also follow

Another important piece of advice I have for young people is related to leading others. In my red hat it is written in the form "By leading people, things also follow." 

Traditionally, management is divided into case management and people management. However, I am of the opinion that without people things and tasks will not progress and operational processes will not be carried through. It's pointless to manage things if there are no people doing them. People have always been the number one thing for me.