10 Truths About Leadership: ... It's Not Just About Winning
21210 Truths About Leadership: ... It's Not Just About Winning
212Hardcover
-
SHIP THIS ITEMChoose Expedited Shipping at checkout for delivery by Thursday, April 4PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
In this book, Luongo illuminates the ten most common obstacles to success and pairs them with the ageless principles that help readers overcome them. His straightforward advice, based on data and hard-won experience, provides an understandable and virtually guaranteed plan for improvement and achievement.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781578603022 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Clerisy Press |
Publication date: | 08/28/2007 |
Pages: | 212 |
Product dimensions: | 5.25(w) x 7.25(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Leaders Care but Never Compromise
When any organization is operating at its best, it’s not because of technological superiority, competitive strategies, or product differentiation. Certainly those factors are important, but an organization achieves maximum efficiency through people, relationships, and love—love for ourselves, love for each other, and love for what we do every day.
“Love” is not a word lightly tossed around corporate America. In fact, I would suggest it’s the most underutilized and most misunderstood word in business.
As you’ll soon see, when I brought love into my business vocabulary, it had a dramatic impact on my life. We will use this word many times throughout the book, so let’s examine a few of love’s distinctions.
The first is defining love in a business context. Love of the self at the professional level is simply about faith in who we are and confidence as we approach our life each and every day. Next, love for others is about trust and mutual respect for one another. Love at the professional level is a love for what we do every day and is simply about our passion.
The second distinction is that it’s not an unconditional love without responsibility. It must be conditional love with consequences attached—this is called tough love. It’s a paradox. This is an enormous challenge for everyone involved. Unconditional love is at the core of our marriage vows. It’s also the bond between parent and child.
This same tacit agreement requires honest feedback. Without honest feedback, there are serious limitations on our ability as leaders, coaches, parents, and friends. For without this level of truth, we don’t allow our employees, our athletes, our children, and our friends to develop to their full potential. Far too often, we justify our lack of candor as an excuse for not wanting to cause anger, pain, and resentment, but in reality we are doing more damage than good.
On more than one occasion, I found myself in the emotionally challenging position of telling employees at The Berry Company, “I love you, but you just don’t get to work here anymore.” As difficult as that message was to deliver, they were better off working elsewhere because they were in circumstances where they just weren’t going to prosper.
The third, and last, distinction is that blending strength of character and love for your fellow man does not weaken your manhood or womanhood. Blending character and love is a fundamental quality for leaders, one that I underline with audiences because it’s so important. I have seen far too many leaders who are afraid to show the side that makes them special.
Dr. Robert Quinn, from the University of Michigan, and 10 Truths About Leadership one of the thought leaders who has spoken at the Center for Leadership & Executive Development, spotlights the best leaders as “transformative” and defines them as “those who are enormously demanding and enormously caring.” I’ve worked with countless business leaders, and very few have a problem with the demand side of the model…that’s easy! It’s the caring side of the model that causes most leaders to struggle.
Caring defines our uniqueness not only as leaders but as human beings. Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence was a major breakthrough and much has been written to support his belief that to be effective in getting the most from people around you, they’ve got to know you care. Very few of us are comfortable enough with ourselves to reach that breakthrough in relationships. Paradoxically, far too often we are guilty of over-managing the relationship which takes away the responsibility of people managing themselves. The most effective leaders, as Quinn noted, learn to master both sides.
Table of Contents
IntroductionLeaders Care but Never Compromise
Leaders Know the Value of Good People
Leaders Inspire Rather than Motivate
Leaders Provide Support
Leaders Set Specific Expectations
Leaders Create Leaders, Not Followers
Leaders Provide Honest Feedback
Leaders Breed Trust
Leaders Foster Commitment
Leaders Stimulate Loyalty
Leaders Encourage Self-Acceptance and Acceptance of Others
Final Thoughts