TOO MANY BOSSES, TOO FEW LEADERS: SUMMARY OF THE TOOL KIT

RAJEEV PESHAWARIA

FREE PRESS; 222 PAGES

AT A GLANCE: SUMMARY OF THE TOOL KIT

Most people accept leadership position without fully understanding what’s involved, and without asking themselves if leadership is for them.  Many underestimate the task of leading.  There are far too many bosses, but very few good leaders around.

Leadership is the art of harnessing human energy toward the creation of a better future.  Leaders must overcome significant obstacles, and succeed in spite of their environment.  Leadership is hard, and there is no guaranteed reward at the end.  True leaders undertake the journey for the journey itself.  The reward at the end is just the icing on the cake.  Leaders need to find their own personal sources of energy and figure out a way to renew it regularly so as to have the staying power even when faced with the toughest obstacles.  Leaders also need the energy to motivate the energy of others.  Energy can neither be learned in a classroom nor acquired through a big title position.  Energy must be discovered.

Leadership journey begins at home.  The first step of the journey is to make sure you even want to be a leader, and why.  Define your purpose and values.  Leadership is the work of creating results.  Hard work and conviction sets a powerful example for others, motivates them to participate.  Without clear purpose there can be no leadership.  Purpose defines the destination.  Values determine the route.

Values form personal belief system that guides behaviour.  Clarity about values helps determine the way you chose.  There are a lot of non-leaders in leadership positions because they have not clarified their own purpose and values.  They live their lives reacting rather than proactively creating a better future.

Once the foundation of leadership (purpose and values) have been built, you can begin the journey of energizing others.  To be able to do differently to motivate and energize others, you need to know what they want.  Each individual is motivates differently, but everyone who works in a large organization wants 3 fundamental things:

1.        To know what’s their Role

2.       To know what’s the work Environment like

3.       To know the prospects for growth and Development

Energizing others is knowing their preference under the buckets of Role, Environment, and Development (RED).

The hardest career transition is moving from mid-management to an enterprise level position.  Enterprise leadership means leading more people than you can maintain a direct boss-subordinate relationship with.  The transition involves 2 changes:

1.        Learning to stop ‘doing’ and start ‘facilitating’.

·        It is less about creating the results yourself, and more about creating conditions in which many others can create successful results.

2.       Shift in personal orientation

·        Need to get comfortable with the idea that you may not receive direct credit for results

·        Your job is to make others successful

The following activities provide the most leverage:

-         Setting directions (the BRAINS of the business)

-         Designing the organization (the BONES of the organization)

-         Creating a culture of excellence (the NERVES of the business)

These activities are full-time jobs.  Enterprise leaders should delegate almost everything else.  At the end of the day, leadership is about channelling energy.  The best leaders energize themselves by:

-         Defining their purpose and values

-         Energize individuals around them by understanding

-         Meeting their expectations (RED)

They energize the enterprise by focusing on the 3 most important levers of a business:

1.        The BRAINS

2.       The BONES

3.       The NERVES

Good leaders is a function pf skill and will.  While some may be born, leaders can certainly be made as well.  No one can actually teach you leadership.

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