“Harvard Business Review’s Leader’s Handbook — Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level” by Ron Askenas and Brook Manville.The authors define leadership as: “Achieving significant positive impact — by building an organization of people working together toward a common goal.” Keywords in their definition are — “significant” and “organization of […]
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“Harvard Business Review's Leader's Handbook — Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level” by Ron Askenas and Brook Manville.
The authors define leadership as: “Achieving significant positive impact — by building an organization of people working together toward a common goal.” Keywords in their definition are — “significant” and “organization of people.” Significant means scaling results to transform the way a business does business. “Organization of people” means any group collaborating at any level. The keywords drive a leader's message that emphasizes change as vital to the process of personal and company growth.
The authors identify six leadership practices: 1. building a unifying vision, 2. developing a strategy, 3. getting great people on board, 4. focusing on results, 5. innovating for the future and 6. leading yourself. While the practices are interdependent, their cohesion depends on 1 and 6.
Here's a snapshot of those two: 1. Building a unifying vision goes beyond a mission and values. Vision defines the “what the organization wants to accomplish.” It embraces the uncertain future where achievement addresses obstacles and takes advantage of opportunities presented by changes in market technology, competition, etc.
A vision statement gives employees a “connected sense of purpose.” It should be short, clear and aspirational — like Amazon's: “To be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
6. Leading yourself deals with knowing, growing, sharing and taking care of yourself. Leaders develop followers; they understand how their behavior affects others. When followers sense the leader isn't living the vision, they question the leader and the vision and disengage.
Leaders look for ways to strengthen their strengths and use the strengths of others to complement their efforts. They use feedback — positive and negative — to feed-forward.
