Taking People with You - Leadership

Taking people with you by David Novak is one of the best books I have read on leadership and business.The main thesis is appreciating people for the work they do. It is important because you don’t want people to reach the end of their career without having ever felt the joy of getting appreciation on a job well done.
Here are three good questions that can help us as leaders.
What is the single biggest thing you can imagine that will forward your business or change your life?
Who do you need to affect influence or take with you to be successful?
What perceptions habits or beliefs of this target audience do you need to build change or reinforce to reach your goal?
There is also a mention of step change. This means if you had achieved 3 percent growth last year then you should make it 15 percent. Double your target goal and shorten the timeline. Remember what Peter Theil says if you have a 10 year timeline ask why it cannot be achieved in 6 months.
There is a chapter on being yourself. He coins the term extraordinary authenticity. As a leader you should be vulnerable. Accept when something goes wrong and be yourself. Don’t be a boss be a leader. Also understand where you are today and where do you want to be in future. Use positive self-talk and positive thought to get out of your comfort zone. Be an avid learner and eliminate not invented here syndrome.
One of the key success strategies of a leader is to define reality. Understand the customer reality, the team reality and competitive reality. Another interesting suggestion is called second set. If you have played tennis you know that when you win the first set you often lose the second set because you get complacent or opponent understands you better. So never be complacent in the second set and change your tactics before you lose.
Another key strategy is the leader has to create a vision and personalize it. Create a noble cause as people want to feel meaning in their work. Use power language and an example here is in 2007 Randall Stephenson of AT&T used “mobilize everything” which helped define the vision of the company.
Finally there is a formula called DANCE. First is Desire which is a big goal. Second is Action which means taking massive action towards the big goal. Third notice what is working and what is not. Fourth Change anything that is not working till you get what you want. Finally celebrate everything you want with extraordinary results.
There are a lot of examples in this book and it is a wonderful primer on leadership.
The views expressed here are my own and do not represent the organization.

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