to help you learn and practice the aim of the chapter.
There's also Section III. The Eleven Practices described there aren't tied specifically to any of the Seven Disciplines but affect them all. For example, Practice 1: Hire People Like a Casting Director is a precondition that underlies achievement of the Seven Disciplines. If you hire the wrong people you simply will be unable to get the most from any of the Seven Disciplines. So while the Eleven Practices are described independently, they all are prerequisites to successful leadership.
Given this developmental design feature, you use this book best when you use it for personal, team, and organizational leadership development, either alone or with a formal leadership development program (LDP). You'll find that our paradigm doesn't compete with, but rather complements, any other LDP or process you may now be using.
Leadership development should be practical, interactive, incremental (modular), and experiential to develop mindsets and skillsets that can be transferred and applied at work. It should be aimed at all levels of the organization, and especially at the lower levels, where less experienced employees need the most guidance. (You can read the 12 components in Chapter 13.)
Seven Disciplines of a Leader is organized into three sections: (1) The first offers an overview of effective leadership; (2) the second introduces the Seven Disciplines of highly effective leaders; (3) the third focuses on Eleven Practices that sustain the Seven Disciplines.
Takeaway Exercises
At the conclusion of each chapter you'll read a section titled “Takeaway.” This section allows you the opportunity to evaluate your own leadership style through an exercise that will drive home one or more of the chapter's main points. It's designed to sharpen your leadership skills in a practical way. It doesn't attempt to cover each and every major point in the chapter. But, the benefit of performing these exercises is that you can apply the very same methodology to an entire range of issues at work.
If you do these exercises faithfully, by the time you finish this book you will have improved your leadership skills many times over.
I
The Nature of Highly Effective Leadership
In organizations worldwide, people are promoted to management and leadership positions each day. Through no fault of their own, they seldom have a clue as to how to manage or lead effectively. Their companies, while demanding much of them, fail to provide them with the necessary skills, coaching, training, and tools to lead successfully.
This first section includes four chapters:
Chapter 1: Welcome to Leadership – Nature of the Job
Chapter 2: Who Said It Would Be Easy? – Scope of the Job
Chapter 3: Principles of Effective Leadership – Essence of the Job
Chapter 4: Disciplines and Practices of Highly Effective Leaders
1
Welcome to Leadership
Nature of the Job
Today, there's an unprecedented demand for highly effective leaders. As organizations strive to stay competitive in the tough global marketplace, the ability to develop effective leaders has become increasingly difficult. Organizations are facing – or must face – the reality that effective leaders, at every level, can make or break them.
An aging workforce and retiring baby boomers compound the challenge. Where will tomorrow's leaders come from? Smart organizations must identify and train their talent to meet rigorous leadership demands, or they risk failure.
The Need for Leadership Is Greater Now Than Ever Before
The Gallup Business Journal had it right in its March 25, 2014, article, “Why Great Managers Are So Rare.” According to authors Randall Beck and Jim Harter, “Companies place the wrong leadership candidates in the job 82 percent of the time.”
Think about that number for a moment: 82 percent? Is it any wonder that so many companies fall by the wayside? As Beck and Harter put it, “Bad managers cost businesses billions of dollars each year, and having too many of them can bring down a company. The only defense against this problem is a good offense, because when companies get these decisions wrong, nothing fixes it. Businesses that get it right, however, and hire managers based on talent, will thrive and gain a significant competitive advantage.”
The lack of effective leadership is further evidenced by the staggering number of employees who aren't working to their full potential. In another Gallup Business Journal article, “How to Tackle U.S. Employees' Stagnating Engagement,” dated June 11, 2013, authors Susan Sorenson and Keri Garman claim that only 30 percent of American workers “…were engaged, or involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their workplace.”
They go on to say, “An alarming 70 percent of American workers are not showing up to work committed to delivering their best performance, and this has serious implications for the bottom line of individual companies and the U.S. economy as a whole.”
Mike Myatt, author of the book Leadership Matters…The CEO Survival Manual (Outskirts Press, 2007), writing in Forbes says, “Why do businesses fail? If you're willing to strip away all the excuses, explanations, rationalizations, and justifications for business failures, and be really honest in your analysis, you'll find only one plausible reason – poor leadership. I've often said real leaders refuse to take the credit for success, but they will always accept responsibility for failures. Harsh? Yes; but it goes with the territory.”
Steve Tobak of Fox Business News puts it this way in an article he wrote for foxbusiness.com on January 20, 2013, “Why Good Companies Fail”: “When you cut through all the BS [of a failing business] it always comes down to one thing. People. If you observe the people in charge, ask some good questions, and poke around a bit, you can usually figure out what's really going on. And what's really going wrong.”
Steve continues: “At the core of every company in trouble is usually a management team that's not as competent as it needs to be, more complacent than it should be, and more dysfunctional than it can get away with.”
In such an environment is there any basis for questioning the need for more capable leaders, or as I like to say, highly effective leaders?
Real Life, Real Lessons
I wrote this book after being prodded by thousands of people who have attended my speeches and workshops, the hundreds of executives I've coached, and the countless organizations I've worked with in consulting and training. I designed the book to address and answer a critical question: What can you do to improve your leadership?
This book provides you with simple, pragmatic principles, as well as stories and exercises that can make you a more effective leader as you read and apply the book's lessons.
Leadership is not rocket science. It comes down to living and leading by the golden rule: Do unto others as you want them to do unto you.
Through real-life stories and examples, I provide a window into the lessons gleaned in hundreds of coaching sessions. Certain names and details have
