The World's Best Book Summaries
What are the characteristics of a great leader? What makes a person fail as a leader? The characteristics of a great leader are courage, fairness, self-control, charisma, and empathy. On the other hand, a bad leader will be self-centered, disloyal, unimaginative, and authoritarian. To be successful in leadership, you must adopt the qualities of a good leader. Read on to discover more about the characteristics of a great leader.
What constitutes effective feedback? How can you ensure that your feedback is acted upon? According to Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, the authors of Thanks for the Feedback, there are just two elements of feedback: 1) the looking-back element, and 2) the looking-forward element. To ensure your feedback is taken on board, make sure that the receiver understands both parts. Here is how to structure feedback to ensure both the giver and the receiver are on the same page.
Have you read Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet? What leadership lessons can be learned? In Turn the Ship Around, David Marquet tells the story of how a captain turned the U.S. Navy’s worst-performing nuclear submarine crew into one of the best by replacing the Navy’s traditional “leader-follower” (or command-and-control) structure with a “leader-leader” model that gave crew members control over their work. Its lessons are applicable to any organization—business, nonprofit, or government. Read more to learn the lessons of Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet.
How can you get more out of your team by decentralizing authority? How is this different from a traditional leadership structure? When David Marquet took command of USS Santa Fe in 1999, he revolutionized the way the crew was led. He decentralized authority, which is the key to a leader-leader model. This switch from a traditional leadership structure had amazing results. Read more to learn how decentralizing authority can make a positive difference for an organization.
Are you looking for Good Strategy, Bad Strategy quotes by Richard Rumelt? What are some of the most noteworthy passages worth revisiting? Richard Rumelt is one of the world’s foremost thinkers on strategy, having guided organizations ranging from small, entrepreneurial start-ups to large, multinational conglomerates, as well as several governments and the U.S. Department of Defense. In Good Strategy Bad Strategy, he lays out the essential components of good strategy and the faulty thinking behind bad strategy. The following Good Strategy, Bad Strategy quotes highlight his key points.
How does one tell a bad strategy from a good one? What are the signs that your business is operating under a misguided strategy? According to author and UCLA management professor Richard Rumelt, there are four elements that can signal a misguided strategy: 1) fluff, 2) failure to identify the challenge, 3) conflation of goals with strategy, and 4) misguided strategic objectives. The effects of bad strategy can be seen in everything from the failures of corporations to the poor performance of our educational system. Keep reading to examine four elements that can create a misguided strategy.
When you take pride in your work, what difference does it make for you—and your work? How can you, as a leader, help others have this attitude—and behavior—of pride? David Marquet shares leadership principles that he employed to turn around a demoralized submarine crew. He offers practical ways—such as the three-name rule—that you can take pride in your work and turn around things for your team. The key is to start with behaving proud, and thinking proud will follow. Read more to learn how taking pride in your work can lead to a change in thinking and morale.
Do you have a feedback system at your organization? Do you feel like your employees take on the feedback provided by senior management? There’s no such thing as a perfect feedback system for any given organization. Every system will have tradeoffs. It will work well for some, be adequate for others, and be poorly suited to still others. There are some things you can do, though, to give your chosen system the best shot at success. In this article, we’ll examine these techniques through three perspectives: 1) senior leadership and HR, 2) team leaders and coaches, and 3) receivers.
What is the book Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work about? Why doesn’t motivation based on financial incentives work anymore? How can employers make employees feel motivated to do their best work? In the book Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work, Paul Marciano argues that engagement stems from respect and that employees don’t want to feel like a cog in a chain. That’s why Marciano suggests that managers use the RESPECT model to motivate their employees. Continue reading for an overview of Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work and the RESPECT model.
What is effective team communication in the leader-leader model? How can leaders communicate without controlling? Submarine captain David Marquet found that brief and early conversations with his crew at all levels were the key to effective team communication. Ultimately these conversations saved time, prevented mistakes, and focused efforts on the right objectives. Read more to learn this method of effective team communication.