10 Truths About Leadership: ... It's Not Just About Winning

10 Truths About Leadership: ... It's Not Just About Winning

10 Truths About Leadership: ... It's Not Just About Winning

10 Truths About Leadership: ... It's Not Just About Winning

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Overview

Many leaders remember those life-changing moments when it suddenly became crystal clear what had to be done to reach their organizations' goals. It wasn't until Pete Luongo was faced with that one epiphany in his life, a difficult period that required him to rebalance life's priorities and bring a new understanding to his work, that he recognized that all results are based upon behaviors appropriate to the circumstances. Through this understanding—that actions are determined by specific, well-defined standards—he developed a model for success, one that is both sustainable and that allows people to retain their personal dignity as they pursue their life plans.

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

Pete Luongo retired as President and CEO of the The Berry Company in August of 2003, a career that spanned more than thirty-three years. During his last nine years, he was part of the team that led the billion-and-a-half dollar yellow page advertising agency through a period of record sales growth, numerous contract acquisitions, and the perpetuation of the nearly one-hundred-year-old company as an industry leader as well as “a great place to work.” While his goal of giving back has encompassed many pursuits, none is more important than taking his 10 Truths About Leadership to organizations throughout the world. An accomplished business leader, corporate strategist and compelling communicator, his message transcends business transformation, emerging technology, product innovation, and strategic imperatives.

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

Introduction

Leaders 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

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