Dear friends,
Here is the sample chapter of my award-winning
book, “Smart Leadership: Lessons for Leaders” (ISBN: 978-81-207-7415-5)
published by Sterling Publishers. It was also published as a Spanish language
e-book. Fons Trompenaars wrote foreword
for this book. It received endorsements from internationally renowned thinkers
including Marshall Goldsmith, Frances Hesselbein, Vijay Govindarajan and Dipak
C. Jain (Dean of INSEAD). Here are the links to buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9S8SCW
and http://www.amazon.in/Smart-Leadership-Lessons-M-S-Rao-ebook/dp/B00D9S8SCW
I appreciate your kind review on Amazon. Also, I appreciate your comment and
share with your connections.
“If any of you are around when I have
to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver
the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. . . . Tell them not to mention that
I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that
I have three or four hundred other awards, that’s not important. . . . I’d like
somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King Jr tried to give his life
serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King Jr
tried to love somebody. . . . I want you to say that I tried to love and serve
humanity.”—Dr Martin Luther King
Dr
Martin Luther King Jr (1929 - 1968)—The Man Who Moved the Mighty
Dr Martin Luther King Jr was one of
the most inspiring leaders, who touched the world through his courage and
convictions. He was a symbol of right as against might and proved to the world
that it is the right that wins at the end of the day rather than the might. It
was very difficult to lead a Civil Rights movement in America in those days,
when whites dominated and discriminated against blacks. He was courageous enough to take on the
mighty through the right means and methods. Although there have been a number
of courageous leaders in the past, Dr King is still remembered for his amazing
and exemplary leadership.
Dr King was one of the youngest
leaders to achieve fame and success. At 33 he led the Civil Rights movement in
America. At 34 he delivered the famous
speech I have a Dream. At 35 he won the Nobel Peace Prize. At 39 he
was assassinated. He achieved such a lot by the young age of 39, brought
revolutionary changes within the American society and made a great impact
globally with his principles of peace and non-violence by following the footsteps
of Mahatma Gandhi.
Dr King was a visionary who led from the
front and used words skillfully to connect with his people. He was a
transformational leader who changed the American society by bringing an end to
racial segregation and discrimination. He was named the Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963 and became not only the
symbolic leader of American blacks but also a global leader. He is truly a legend who showed exemplary and
amazing leadership when odds were stacked against him and, that too, through
non-violent and peaceful means. Here are
the lessons we can learn from his leadership:
Leadership
Lessons from Dr King
"If a man is called to be a
street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or
Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the
host of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper
who did his job well."
- He believed in his values and principles. Despite facing innumerable threats to his life and being subjected to several abuses, he did not give up his Civil Rights movement. He remarked, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
- He had excellent communication skills. He knew how to mould and articulate his vision effectively. His speech I have a Dream is one of the finest motivational speeches in the world and raises the key issues regarding equality of blacks with whites.
- He shared whatever he had. He shared the prize money from the Nobel Prize with others for furtherance of the Civil Rights movement.
- He said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” His dream was fulfilled and this made a huge difference to the lives of the blacks and the oppressed.
Learning
Lessons
“Whenever you make a mistake or get
knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way
of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your
capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when
they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will
you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will
come.”—Og
Mandino
It is a fact that life is a series of
lessons which have great value provided we learn from them. Do not panic during
the difficult times in your life. These
situations make you tough and should draw the best out of you. Do not get
dejected. Observe and analyze closely
what went wrong, learn from it, and move on.
Leaders learn from multiple sources
such as from observation, teaching, training, experience, interaction, evaluation,
and feedback. They also learn by studying other successful leaders. Though
leadership is not something that can be learned by reading books alone, reading
books will help to minimize mistakes and maximize outcomes. Smart leaders learn
the techniques of leadership quickly and acquire the tools and skills to lead others
effectively.
What
is Smart Leadership?
Leaders like Jeff Immelt of General
Electric, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, and Steve Jobs of Apple Computers
have one thing in common, that is, they are all smart leaders. For Jeff Immelt, taking over as CEO of General
Electric was really a challenging task, because people had huge expectations after
Jack Welch had led the company successfully for many years. Jeff managed to
establish his credentials through smart leadership. Both Michael Dell and Steve
Jobs faced tough competition and managed their companies successfully through
smart, innovative strategies during the recession.
Smart leadership is a blend of both
soft and hard skills, and soft and hard power. It effectively links both hard
and smart work. Smart leadership can be
defined as the process of setting goals, influencing people, building effective
teams, motivating people, and, finally, aligning their energies and efforts
towards organizational goals and objectives both through soft and hard skills
as well as soft and hard power.
Smart leaders possess presence of mind
and are tactful in dealing with people.
They have the art of leading and managing the emotions and egos of their
people. They are ready to perform the role of a manager or a leader as the
situation demands. They are smart in learning lessons quickly from the mistakes
of others and leveraging on the experience of others. They believe in quality
performance and results. They display
entrepreneurial skills, believe in innovation and creativity, possess
flexibility and adaptability, and possess many skills like communication
skills, team building skills, cross cultural skills, presentation skills,
empathy, and humility, to name a few. In
brief, they are smart at people skills besides having the necessary technical
skills for the job.
Eric M. Jackson of Canada based
Jackson Leadership Systems identified eight key attributes of smart
leadership. They are: breeding
“proactive paranoia”; “we work for the shareholders” mentality; the executive
team and board have the answers, not the CEO; preventing groupthink; projecting
authentic leadership; facing reality; desire to learn from mistakes; and,
finally, personal accountability.
Smart leaders know their strengths and
weaknesses thoroughly. They are a blend
of both personal humility and professional will and are Level 5 Leaders in the
language of Jim Collins. They continuously
prepare themselves to shift from one effective zone to another when they find
that the effective zone has become a comfort zone. They constantly rediscover
and reinvent themselves with changing times and technologies. They are far
ahead of their time. They love to live
on the edge and prefer to be in the effective zone.
Smart leaders focus on people through
soft leadership and on goals and objectives through hard leadership. They
have smart work plans which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic,
and can be tracked. They are more of
democratic leaders who consult others in decision-making and take their teams
into confidence about the goals. They do
not let a few people dominate the decision-making. They are aware that leadership is not just a
matter of issuing commands, but involves leading by example and getting others
to do what you want.
Smart
Leadership = Soft + Hard Leadership
Smart leadership is all about making a
balance between soft and hard power. Soft
power is the art of getting the outcomes you want by attracting and persuading
rather than by coercing and manipulating.
In contrast, hard power depends on inducements by way of rewards, or
threats of punishment. It is more of a carrot-and-stick
policy. Soft power believes in win-win while hard power follows win-lose policy.
It is often seen that military leaders
believe in hard power while civilian leaders, especially the leaders in
democratic countries, believe in soft power. Hitler demonstrated the power of
hard leadership and Dalai Lama symbolizes soft leadership. What is required, in fact, is a blend of both
soft and hard leadership, which is called smart leadership.
Businesses are changing rapidly and
their needs have to be addressed through smart means and methods. As we are moving
from market economy to network economy, there is a need for smart leadership
that focuses both on soft and hard skills and makes a balance between both soft
and hard power for handling the current complexities of the corporate world.
In the subsequent chapters, we will
discuss in detail, with illustrations, examples, and case studies as to how to
excel as smart leaders.
Reference
Smart Leadership: Lessons for Leaders http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9S8SCW
Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million
Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html
Life is great!
Professor M.S.Rao, India
Founder of MSR Leadership
Consultants India
Listed
in Marquis Who's Who in the World in 2013
Vision 2030 Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBCO-gWmTRk
Twitter: @professormsrao
Google
Plus: https://plus.google.com/+ProfessorMSRao
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/profmsr7
Global Top Gurus 30: http://www.globalgurus.org/leadership/upcoming.php
Speakerpedia:
http://speakerpedia.com/speakers/professor-msrao
21
Success Sutras for Leaders:
Top 10 Leadership Books of the Year (San Diego University) Amazon URL: http://www.amazon.com/21-Success-Sutras-Leaders-ebook/dp/B00AK98ELI
Thanks for reading!
Kindly share your thoughts and
comments below, I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.
Copyright©2015 MSR Leadership
Consultants India. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part
without permission is prohibited.
This is a nonprofit blog to share
Professor M.S.Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global
leaders by 2030. Please don't cut articles from my blog and redistribute by
email or post to the web. The use of this material is free provided copyright
is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in. This material may not be sold, or published
in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party
without permission.
