Book Summaries
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The Leadership Challenge
By Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner
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This book touches on many of the areas in which CEOs often overlook. From being more visible to more approachable, this book is a must read for any CEO looking to give their business and their leadership style a facelift. The leadership challenge discusses five actions or practices as being the keys to Exemplary Leadership:
- Model the Way: living the life in which you want others to adopt (talk the talk and walk the walk)
- Inspire a Shared Vision: people are inspired more by ideals in which they can get passionate about, more than fear or any reward
- Challenge the Process: leaders flourish and grow through the most challenging situations. They're innovators
- Enable Others to Act: Encouragement alone is not enough. Leaders need to create an environment that enables people to feel comfortable in sharing and incorporating new ideas
- Encourage the Heart: As previously mentioned, people are most productive when they're passionate about the cause. Leaders need to enthusiastically engage their constitutes and spread the stories of success.
Embedded throughout these practices are, what Kouzes and Posner refer to as, the "Ten Commitments of Leadership":
- Find your voice by clarifying your personal values
- Set the example by aligning actions with shared values
- Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities
- Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations
- Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve
- Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes
- Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust
- Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion
- Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence
- Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community
These guidelines help to not only form the blueprints of leadership and business, but also to assist us all in living more successful lives. Therefore, this is a must read for anyone committed to bettering themselves as a leader for their company.
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Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence
By Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
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Primal Leadership is a book for leaders and those who want to learn what makes leaders effective. Using scientific research and real-world examples, the authors point out how humans have a biologically innate need to lead and be led and how understanding emotions is a vitally important but often overlooked aspect of effective leadership. They discuss the four domains of emotional intelligence and how competence in these areas contributes to different leadership styles. The book also states that leaders with high emotional intelligence are the best leaders above and beyond those with high IQs and that emotional intelligence is crucial for good leadership.
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Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
By Daniel Goleman
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This book explains why high IQ is no guarantee of success in the business world. It details the 5 crucial skills of emotional intelligence and shows how they determine our lives in various ways. Goleman reaches out to studies of human biology and neuroscience that back up his claims that increasing one's emotional intelligence can improve one's life. This book is for anyone interested in leadership or seeing their company flourish.
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Douglas McGregor, Revisited: Managing the Human Side of the Enterprise
By Gary Heil, Warren Bennis, and Deborah C. Stephens
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Over four decades ago, Douglas McGregor wrote about The Human Side of Enterprise and how important it was for companies to devote attention to their workers. At the time, his insights were largely overlooked by business people who weren't ready for such new thinking. Now, in Douglas McGregor, Revisited, the authors bring back some of the management guru's most provocative ideas with new relevance for the 21st century. They explain why he matters now and how we can apply his ideas to our business world today.
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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
By Jim Collins
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Jim Collins set out to answer the question: "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" To answer this question, he and his research team analyzed extensive amounts of data to uncover similarities among top performing companies. Using 11 companies he deemed "good to great" companies and comparing them to ones that didn't show the same successes, he delineated several key characteristics that all good to great companies possessed. This is a great book for anyone interested in understanding what makes some companies successful and others not. It is considered a must-read by business professionals and management executives everywhere.
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The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable
By Patrick M. Lencioni
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A unique presentation with the use of a chance encounter between two people to highlight some key mistakes CEOs make. Designed to be read in one sitting, the book is a quick guide to common pitfalls management professionals may make followed by remedies for these mistakes. The author is a screenwriter and business coach who lays out the 5 temptations and then attempts to offer alternatives.
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The 80/20 Individual: How to Build on the 20% of What You Do Best
By Richard Koch
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The 80/20 Individual is based on the principle that 80% of the changes in the world result from the best 20% of ideas people have. Using this idea, Koch discusses how one can hone their 20% to produce the great results. Examples such as Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates are used to show how everyone can learn what they personally do best and maximize those skills to their greatest advantage. A book for everyone to become the best version of themselves they can possibly be.
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John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do
By John P. Kotter
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This book is a collection of articles by John P. Kotter, widely regarded as the world's foremost expert on leadership in organizations, from the Harvard Business Review. Based on more than a thousand interviews and fourteen formal studies, John P. Kotter has compiled his work into one book to tie his observations and results together. He offers compelling insights into management and leadership in organizations and contends that the vast majority of organizations are lacking proper leadership. This is a book for those interested in becoming more effective leaders which explores issues critical to management and offers advice for stellar leading.
360° Feedback
What is 360° feedback?
360° feedback, also known as multi-rater feedback, is a process in which one person, often referred to as the subject, receives anonymous feedback from the people that he/she works with. The people involved in the feedback process can include, but are not limited to, managers, peers, direct reports, customers, and the individual being evaluated. Individual ratings and feedback are typically provided by at least 6 – 12 people. All responses are aggregated to ensure that each person's individual responses remain confidential.
Each person involved in the 360° process completes an online survey that measures a broad range of work-related competencies. Ratings, or scores, are provided for each question and written comments are included to supply more in-depth information for the individual being rated. The information collected from the 360° process is used to get a better understanding of individual strengths and weaknesses and assists in creating personal development plans based on the feedback from multiple sources.
Typical uses of 360° feedback
360° feedback can be used for many purposes; however, there are three major purposes, or goals, for using 360° feedback.
- Individual development: Individual development is the most popular use of 360° feedback. The feedback collected during the 360° process helps increase individual levels of self-awareness while providing data that is used in personal development plans. When used for individual development, coaching is often incorporated into the feedback process.
- Administrative decision making: 360° feedback can be used to assist in making both individual and organizational decisions. 360° feedback can be used as part of a company's performance management system to provide performance-based feedback on employee performance. The information collected in the 360° process can also be used to assist with succession planning decisions.
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Organizational development: 360° feedback can assist with many organizational interventions such as: teamwork, communication, and increasing customer feedback.
*Organizational Surveys, Kraut
What does 360° feedback measure?
360° feedback is used to measure numerous work-related competencies and behaviors. Examples of competencies used in the 360° process include, but are not limited to: leadership, communication, teamwork, listening, developing others, customer focus, strategic planning, communicating the vision, and building relationships.
Who can benefit from the 360° process?
The 360° process can benefit anyone, at any level of the organization. The 360° process can be used to provide performance-based feedback to CEOs/presidents, senior level executives, team leads, sales staff, and high potential employees.