Strategies For Becoming The Person Others Follow

Yes, it will take you some time to read Joshua Spodek's book, Leadership Step by Step. Yes, it will be a little like doing "homework." Yes, this is a book you'll read and likely need to revisit a few times for the concepts to fully sink in. Yes, this is a book you must read if you want to become the person others will follow.

The time and effort you put into, Leadership Step by Step, will be well worth it!

Spodek guides you through what to do and how to do it in an integrated and comprehensive progression of exercises designed to cultivate key abilities, behaviors, and beliefs through experiences.

The progression contains four units:

Understanding Yourself
Leading Yourself
Understanding Others
Leading Others

Each chapter within the four units provides you:

Hands-on Exercises
Reflection Questions
Post-Exercise Observations

"By the time you finish the book, you'll have competed 22 exercises." explains Spodek, who is an Adjunct Professor at NUY and a lecturer for Columbia Business School.

Joshua Spodek

Spodek kindly answered these questions regarding his book published earlier this year:

Question: Which of the following units do most leaders struggle most with? And, why?

Understanding Yourself
Leading Yourself
Understanding Others
Leading Others

Spodek: My experience tells me leaders struggle equally with all four areas, though they excel in all four too. We all have blind spots, and those blind spots show up in each area, so most leaders could stand to improve in each.

What Vince Lombardi said about winning applies to leadership: it's not a sometimes thing, it's an all the time thing. If you lead effectively some of the time, or in some areas, but not all the time, or in all areas, you're liable to fail unexpectedly.

The good news is that improving in each area, when you have effective exercises that give you relevant experience, is rewarding and often fun. My book is about improving, not just analyzing, so doing the exercises will create rewarding experiences in each area.

Question: To help set expectations, how long should a reader expect to spend with the book to complete the 22 exercises?

Spokek: I designed the course so people could work at the pace they desire, and I've resisted the call for clickbait tactics like "Do this one thing that made JFK great and you'll be a great leader!"

Teaching piano like that would teach you chopsticks but not how to genuinely and authentically express yourself. Developing the experience to lead effectively, genuinely, and authentically takes years without an integrated, comprehensive progression of exercises like mine. My course will get you nearly all that experience in a fraction of the time. It will also give you direction to keep practicing for the rest of your life.

I assign my college and business school students one or two exercises a week and they finish in 13 weeks, or just over three months. A dedicated person without a full course load could possibly do them in half the time. I've also had one-on-one coaching clients who chose to delve into single exercises for months to really understand them.

Like jump shots in basketball that LeBron James practices as much as a beginner, you will find value doing the exercises as much in ten years as now. I still practice them.

Thank you to the book's publisher for sending me a copy of the book.

Comments

How To Uncover Your Blindspots To Become A Better Leader

What you don't see about yourself can hold you back as a leader. That's typical for many leaders. What we don't see is what we can't see: we have blindspots . Your blindspots prevent you from achieving your greatest success. “It turns out that we're often not great judges of ourselves, even when we think we are. Sometimes we're simply unaware of a behavior or trait that's causing problems,” explains Martin Dubin , author of the new book, Blindspotting: How To See What’s Holding You Back As A Leader . “Bottom line: until we uncover these blindspots, we can't move forward. The good news is that you can learn to do your own blindspotting .” “Most of us understand the idea of blindspots in a general sense—areas we can’t see, to take the term most literally, or places we have gaps that we may not even realize, to be a little more abstract,” says Dubin. “But in the context of this book, I’m defining blindspots quite specifically: They are...

Three Essential Parts Of A Mission Statement

A lot of companies struggle when creating their mission statement. Author Peter F. Drucker provides the following good advice in one of my favorite book's of his, The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization : Every mission statement has to reflect three things : Opportunities Competence Commitment In other words, he explains: What is our purpose? Why do we do what we do? What, in the end, do we want to be remembered for? How well does your mission statement meet Drucker's recommended three requirements?

10 Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership -- John C. Maxwell

Soon I'll post my full review of John C. Maxwell's latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership . In the meantime, here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should become a must-read book by any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catal...

How to Be a Leader – 9 Principles from Dale Carnegie

Today, I welcome thought-leader Nathan Magnuson as guest blogger... Nathan writes : This is it, your first day in a formal leadership role. You’ve worked hard as an individual contributor at one or possibly several organizations. Now management has finally seen fit to promote you into a position as one of their own: a supervisor. You don’t care if your new team is only one person or ten, you’re just excited that now – finally – you will be in charge! Unfortunately the euphoria is short-lived. Almost immediately, you are not only overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a team, but you quickly find that your team members are not as experienced or adroit as you. Some aren’t even as committed. You find yourself having to repeat yourself, send their work back for corrections, and staying late to fill the gap. If something doesn’t change soon, you might just run yourself into the ground. How did something that looked so easy ...

The Do's And Don'ts Of Effective Listening

Here are some great tips from Michelle Tillis Lederman 's book, The 11 Laws of Likability . They are all about: what to do and what not to do to be a leader who is an effective listener : Do : Maintain eye contact Limit your talking Focus on the speaker Ask questions Manage your emotions Listen with your eyes and ears Listen for ideas and opportunities Remain open to the conversation Confirm understanding, paraphrase Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile) Ignore distractions Don't : Interrupt Show signs of impatience Judge or argue mentally Multitask during a conversation Project your ideas Think about what to say next Have expectations or preconceived ideas Become defensive or assume you are being attacked Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language Listen with biases or closed to new ideas Jump to conclusions or finish someone's sentences

How To Lead With Deep Purpose

Having conducted extensive field research, Ranjay Gulati , author of the book, Deep Purpose , The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies , reveals the fatal mistakes leaders unwittingly make when attempting to implement a reason for being. “My interviews with well over 200 executives across 18 firms revealed the secrets of these companies—not the usual facile frameworks, but new ways of thinking about business that allow leaders and companies to operate with heightened passion, urgency, and clarity,” shares Gulati. “I call this, deep purpose .” Furthermore, Gulati explains that most leaders think of purpose functionally or instrumentally, regarding it as a tool they can wield. On the other hand, deep purpose leaders think of it as something more fundamental; an existential statement that expresses the firm’s very reason for being. These leaders project it faithfully out onto the world. “Rethinking the nature of purpose should prompt you in turn to re-imagine ...

How To Harness Your Experiential Intelligence

“Experiential Intelligence provides a new lens from which to view what makes you, you—and what makes your team and organization unique,” says Soren Kaplan , author of the book, Experiential Intelligence . Kaplan explains that over 100 years ago, we established IQ (Intelligence Quotient) to predict success. Then we explored Emotional Intelligence (EQ), the theory of multiple intelligences, and mindsets that broaden the definition of smarts. “Today, Experiential Intelligence ( XQ ) expands our understanding of what's needed to thrive in a disruptive world. While you can't change the past, your unique experiences and stories contain hidden strengths and untapped potential for the future,” explains Kaplan. Experiential Intelligence is the combination of mindsets, abilities, and know-how gained from your unique life experiences that empowers you to achieve your goals. It allows you to get in touch with the accumulated wisdom and talents you have gained over time through your ...

The Science Of Dream Teams

Why do some teams succeed while others stumble? Because hiring, developing and engaging talent requires careful decisions that are too easy to get wrong without data. In The Science of Dream Teams: How Talent Optimization Can Drive Engagement, Productivity, and Happiness , author Mike Zani introduces the science of “ talent optimization ,” a new discipline that’s a far more reliable way to manage your employees than your gut instincts. “ Proper talent optimization lifts morale, builds teams, and turbocharges productivity ,” explains Zani. With simple steps, Zani (a former US Olympic sailing team coach) shows how companies of any size can collect and analyze voluntary data about their employees to purposefully align a company’s business and talent strategies. The book explores how CEOs and management teams can collect and use data to: Build effective teams of highly sought-after professionals while optimizing costs. Create a company culture based on coaching versus ...

How To Predict And Prevent Conflict At Work And At Home

T he book, How To Get Along With Anyone , by John Eliot and Jim Guinn , is the playbook for predicting and preventing conflict at work and at home. As you read the book, you will discover how to defuse any heated conflict by learning which of the five conflict styles you are and how to resolve even the most sensitive dispute with this must-read guide. Through decades of building and facilitating team chemistry for Fortune 500 companies, professional sports franchises, schools and government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and families, Eliot and Guinn have discovered people respond to conflict in one of these five ways: Avoider : Uninterested in minor details; excels in solitary work with a knack for concentration. Competitor : Always pushing the envelope; never rests on laurel and takes risks for achievement. Analyzer : Evidence-based and methodical; patiently gathers information before acting. Collaborator : A deeply caring individual, relying o...

How To Become More Courageous

“Fear creates the gap between who you are and who you can be. Courage closes it,” explains Margie Warrell, PhD , author of the book, The Courage Gap: 5 Steps To Braver Action . “To clarify, closing your courage gap is not about 'de-risking' your life or sheltering from problems—natural and human created. Rather, it is about bringing the bravest version of yourself to every situation,” adds Dr. Warrell. That includes actively taking on rough problems, doing what is unpopular, facing storms head-on, and maybe even reshaping the broader landscape in the process. Dr. Warrell empowers us to recognize that courage is a learnable skill accessible to everyone, regardless of how risk-averse, timid, or defensive we may be. Additionally, for leaders , The Courage Gap provides a guide to operationalize and scale the courage mindset across your team and organization to deepen trust, dismantle silos, foster innovation, accelerate learning, and unleash collective courage toward a ...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog