No Free Lunches, But at Least 3 Free Books:
I allocated a few copies of, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, for faithful readers and contributors here, and I would like nothing more than to give a few away in return for something we can all enjoy…a “Best Leader” story. Share yours, and there might be a free book in your mailbox sometime soon.
The rules are simple:
Submit a brief “Best Leader” story via the comments function here on the blog by next Monday, 10/17, and an unbiased committee of two (of which I am not a member), will select their three favorites to receive books. OK, the committee may be slightly biased. They tell me that they are looking for inspirational stories with lessons we can all learn from on our path to growing and improving as effective leaders.
But wait, there’s more!
From my post last week, “Book Launch and Let’s Get the Conversations Started,” I extended an offer of a one-hour conference call with your team on leadership development for the first four professionals who purchased 5 or more books. I’m extending this to 2 more individuals/teams on first come, first-served basis.
Buy 5 or more on Amazon (or you can buy direct from me), and I’ll be thrilled to connect with you and your team. Happy to supply my pdf “Guide to Starting and Leading a Leadership Discussion” group as well.
And for those who want the personal pitch…
…I momentarily set aside my total and complete discomfort with video (a subject for another blog post), and made my pitch to you for the book. Click, and please keep the chuckles and comments about keeping my day job to a minimum. I actually kind of enjoyed this (after I recovered from the torture) and plan on more video posts.
OK, enough from me. Judging by the mood of many people, we can all use some “Best Leader” stories right about new. What say you?
The Best Leader(s)tread the path less traveled. The path (spiritually speaking) calls for transformative leadership. Transformation is, literally, a forming over, a restructuring. By transformation we speak of the transformation of people–specifically the transformation of consciousness. In this context consciousness does not mean simple waking consciousness. You are keenly aware that you have awareness. In effect, this is a new perspective that sees other perspectives–a paradigm shift. Best Leader is more than talk. Anyone can say that he has integrity, but action is the real indicator of Best Leader(s). Your character and consciousness determines who you are.
One of the best examples of leadership I have seen is where the leader didn’t have a formal development conversation with one of his high potential people. Instead he exposed this person to a series of situations. One was attending a conference together. Another was a stretch project with high visibility. There was an invitation to input into the group’s planning process and so on.
Towards the end of the year, the individual asked to speak about their career path because they had identified what interested them most, what they were good at and the direction in which they wanted to develop. The leader was happy to oblige and provided guidance and support for the subsequent action plan.
It was all about the staff member rather than the leader. They were inspired to work it out for themselves and drive the process for their own development.
Simon, great example! -Art