Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part review of the book, "Master Leaders," which came at the recommendation of reader Dave Steinmuller of Hammons Products.In case you missed Part I from last week's column, here's the brief background to this uniquely written book: The author, George Barna, gleaned a plethora of savvy leadership insights from discussions with 30 world-class leaders who were each waiting in the green room before speaking at a major leadership conference.
"Master Leaders," lets readers listen in on his conversations with experts such as Ken Blanchard, Seth Godin, Warren Bennis, Newt Gingrich, John Kotter and Patrick Lencioni, as they discussed, sometimes vociferously, their views of leading people.
There were so many takeaways from this book I thought there was merit in presenting several more. At the top of my list of leading wisely from the experts:
No. 1. You have to lead by example. You cannot talk about greatness if you don't pursue it yourself. You can't talk about working hard if you don't work hard.
No. 2. Leaders hold people accountable. Too many leaders worry about being popular or well-liked. Sometimes you must push a person to achieve a higher level, and when you do, it's because you believe in their abilities.
No. 3. Everybody in your organization must understand your core values. And you, as the leader, must make certain people understand those values as well as you want them to.
No. 4. Leadership is about listening, learning, helping and leading - in that order. Listening is trying to understand what people are saying and what it means to them. Newt Gingrich refers to this as "appreciative listening."
No. 5. You must explain to everyone in the organization how they're going to benefit when you reach the goal. If they don't understand that, they won't wholeheartedly buy in to the plan.
No. 6. Too many leaders are interested in establishing themselves as being superior to or better than the people they lead - smarter, more articulate or better problem solvers. But good leaders believe in the worth of others and give them the dignity they deserve.
No. 7. The best leaders are the ones who have a voracious appetite for discovering reality.
No. 8. Good leaders have an orientation toward results. People who lead well cannot exist in an organization that does not create very tangible results.
No. 9. Leaders today must be able to create a proper sense of urgency among people. Organizations must learn to morph to the next transitional point in their development, one that meshes with fast-moving changes in a turbulent environment.
No. 10. Good leaders have the ability to embrace negative reality in a spirit of both grace and truth. In other words, they don't blow a gasket when the numbers are off; they embrace bad news. They don't run from problems; they face them head-on.
No. 11. Good leaders are almost always on an active search to identify what needs to get better. They're not ones to stick their heads in the sand. They genuinely want to know what's really going on in the environment.
No. 12. Leaders make things grow. Rather than simply maintaining, they're always willing to take the next step even when it involves taking risk.
No. 13. Good leaders' character gives them an orientation toward transcendence. They realize it's not about them, it's about things larger than themselves. It's about values, the people they serve, their constituents, the stockholders, the mission and God himself.
No. 14. Good leaders are humble.
Springfield-based consultant Mark Holmes speaks nationally on increasing employee and customer retention and improving employee performance. He is the author of "Wooing Customers Back" and "The People Keeper," and writes a blog at www.managemyemployees.com. He can be reached at mholmes@thepeoplekeeper.com.
