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    52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories for the Modern Leader
    52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories for the Modern Leader
    52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories for the Modern Leader
    Ebook192 pages1 hour

    52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories for the Modern Leader

    By John Parker Stewart

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    About this ebook

    Stories to inspire and drive successful leadership

    From the creators of the award-winning LEAD NOW! Leadership Development Model, 52 Leadership Lessons uses the power of storytelling to illustrate and illuminate essential leadership principles for success.

    In 52 short, easily digestible true stories and parables from nature, history, and business, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the 21 essential leadership dimensions in the LEAD NOW! Model, with accompanying tips and reflection exercises to help you apply these lessons in your leadership. Discover:

    - How prescribed burns in the world's forests relate to today's leaders who desperately need strategic planning
    - What a spider trapped in the space shuttle can teach skills essential for today's leaders faced with managing change
    - What baboons and impalas can tell us about how successful teamwork?
    - What the discovery of penicillin can tell us about the vital skills needed for results-driven innovation - And 48 more!

    To be used as a standalone handbook, or as a companion text to other titles in the LEAD NOW! Series—including 52 Leadership Gems and LEAD NOW!—52 Leadership Lessons is a book you’ll return to again and again for inspiration, guidance, and enjoyment on your leadership journey.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Parker Stewart
    Release dateJan 5, 2022
    ISBN9781774582213
    52 Leadership Lessons: Timeless Stories for the Modern Leader

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      Book preview

      52 Leadership Lessons - John Parker Stewart

      Introduction

      Wisdom begins in wonder.

      Socrates

      We love stories! We have since we were small. Stories capture our interest, draw us in, and often teach us things we could learn in no other way.

      The quotation at the top of the page, Wisdom begins in wonder, is the essence of this collection of leadership lessons. Stories kindle our childlike curiosity and nudge us to learn by engaging our wonder. Stories, or analogies, have the potential to teach powerful lessons.

      Over the years, I have had a special appreciation for stories that illustrate a vivid point in the field of management, leadership, and life in organizations—especially when the stories are the result of some strange or unusual aspect of life. I particularly enjoy vignettes from nature or history.

      The analogies may be drawn from some vital aspect to the life of a plant, the daily routines of an animal, or the innovative discovery of a product or new procedure. These stories are both interesting and applicable in most cultures and societies, and consequently are easily used in large or small classroom settings.

      For the past thirty-plus years of teaching professionals from all varieties of backgrounds around the globe, I have used these stories to make a point or teach a valuable principle. They often elicit an audible Aha from the audience as I share them, because usually the story is known to them, but the application is not.

      It finally occurred to me to publish a volume that would make these stories available to you, the reader. Each is followed by a handful of questions or coaching tips for you to consider. Here are fifty-two of my favorite stories. Enjoy!

      Part I

      The LEAD NOW! Leadership Development Model

      Becoming an agile , flexible leader requires easily accessible leadership development tools. While partnering with countless corporate and government organizations for over three decades, I’ve recognized a great need for such a toolkit.

      In collaborating with over 10,000 busy supervisors, managers, directors, senior executives, presidents, and CEOs in corporations, and military officers, including generals, I’ve observed their desire—and struggle—to drive better results while meeting the everyday demands and goals of their respective positions. Part of their challenge was a lack of clear definition and processes to follow for their leadership development. Consequently, at Stewart Leadership we developed the LEAD NOW! Leadership Development Model, a simple, comprehensive framework that helps leaders develop the tools they need to assess and improve their ability to lead and coach others at a moment’s notice.

      The LEAD NOW! Leadership Development Model is a user-friendly, complete action guide for leaders at every level of the organization. It is built on the assumption that all leaders must achieve aligned and positive results—with their people and in their business—from both a marketplace (external) and an organizational (internal) perspective. This model is composed of Leadership Quadrants supported by 21 Leadership Dimensions that provide the basis for in-depth leadership skill building and action planning. A successful leader builds capability in all the quadrants. The quadrants and their respective dimensions are discussed more fully below.

      Quadrant I: Create Purpose (Externally Focused Business Results)

      A leader is responsible for defining the group’s vision and strategy. Creating purpose means identifying what the organization stands for, what it is going to do, why it needs to be done, and how it is positioned in the marketplace. This involves studying the competition, analyzing industry trends, thoroughly knowing the customer, and communicating effectively.

      Quadrant I: Dimensions

      The dimensions that allow you to create purpose are:

      Customer Focus: Deliver your product or service in such a way that you fulfill the needs, wants, and values of your customer better than anyone else.

      Effective Communication: Express an intended message, through the correct medium, in a manner that the recipient of the message will understand.

      Presentation Skills: Effectively communicate ideas to large or small audiences.

      Strategic Thinking: Balance short- and long-term actions to optimize business results.

      Quadrant II: Deliver Excellence (Internally Focused Business Results)

      A leader must deliver operational excellence—translating the strategy into day-to-day execution for the organization. Delivering excellence means ensuring that metrics are clear and deliverables are accomplished. This involves clear decision making, building consistent and measurable processes, continual improvement, and behaving with integrity.

      Quadrant II: Dimensions

      The dimensions that allow you to deliver excellence are:

      Decision Making: Understand not only why a decision needs to be made but also how to define, analyze, reach, and implement the decision, while communicating with those who will be affected by its outcomes.

      Delegating: Assign and communicate a task so that the individual understands the objective and timeline, is provided resources to complete the task, and knows you will support and not abandon or take over the task.

      Dependability: Receive an assignment and consistently follow through and deliver on the expected results.

      Focusing on Results: Focus on the desired outcome with precision and conviction.

      Personal Integrity: Demonstrate consistent honesty and commitment to your word.

      Problem Solving: Define and analyze a problem to deliver a high-quality solution with appropriate buy-in.

      Quadrant III: Develop Self and Others (Internally Focused People Results)

      Leaders must value learning for themselves and for others. Developing self and others means spending time building the talent on their teams, coaching others effectively, and staying current on professional and industry advances. This involves seeking personal improvement opportunities, managing their time, managing their egos, honing technical expertise, building and managing team dynamics, and coaching and developing others.

      Quadrant III: Dimensions

      The dimensions that allow you to develop yourself and others are:

      Coaching: Guide an individual to achieve improved performance through self-discovery, feedback, encouragement, and skill development.

      Ego Management: Develop a balanced level of confidence in your own skills, tools, judgment, and experience.

      Listening: Understand the intended message while having an awareness of the attitudes and feelings of others.

      Personal Development: Pursue the continual improvement of your abilities and knowledge.

      Team Building: Help a group of individuals work together to accomplish a common goal.

      Time Management: Plan and control how you spend the hours in your day to accomplish your goals and meet deadlines.

      Valuing Others: Recognize the potential within others and let them know that their capabilities, experience, and contributions are important.

      Quadrant IV: Lead Change (Externally Focused People Results)

      A leader is responsible for creating and championing change that will benefit the organization. Leading change means understanding the broader marketplace and engaging and unifying others to create sustainable growth. This involves encouraging innovation, sponsoring change projects, influencing key decision makers, empowering stakeholders, managing resistance, and making change stick.

      Quadrant IV: Dimensions

      The dimensions that allow you to lead change are:

      Change Management: Communicate a compelling vision, lead minor and major changes within an organization, and sustain the change over time.

      Innovation: Apply new and better solutions to current or future needs.

      Inspiring Commitment: Earn the hearts and minds of the people with whom you associate.

      Organizational Savvy: Know how to get things done through formal and informal channels.

      The Four Relationships

      One of the most powerful aspects of the LEAD NOW ! Model is how each axis describes the needs of the four critical relationships of a leader. Tailoring your communication based on the needs of the person with whom you are interacting will help you build stronger rapport in the four key relationships that a leader needs to be successful.

      Boss  Business results (revenue, expenses, punctuality, quality)

      Direct Reports  People results (engagement, career development, team dynamics)

      Peers  Internal focus (resource allocation, budget, process handoffs)

      Customers  External focus (customer needs, competitive analysis, market trends)

      Business Results

      To build a relationship with your boss and upper management, use the language of business results. Your boss is focused on results and is expecting you to deliver them. Business results are primarily what your boss is evaluated on. You will want to convey how you will achieve these results in your communication with your boss.

      People Results

      To build a relationship with your direct reports, use the language of people results. Direct reports are focused on how the dynamics of the team are going, the level of engagement, how they are being developed, and how talent is being promoted in the team.

      Internal Focus

      To build a relationship with your peers, use the language of internal focus. Peers are concerned with how resources are being allocated and how work is being done internally. Building effective relationships with peers is about managing these resources and the day-to-day work.

      External Focus

      To build a relationship with your customers, use the language of external focus. This concerns the broader marketplace in identifying the competitive landscape, industry trends, and current and future customer needs. This is focused on building effective relationships with key stakeholders outside of the organization.

      It is essential that you understand the language, and establish and maintain each relationship for balanced performance. The LEAD NOW! Model teaches a leader what the four critical relationships are, and how to build them to accomplish the needed business results and people results.

      The Personal Development Process

      Five Steps to Sustain Personal Change

      Over the years, I have witnessed countless attempts by professionals from all walks of life to change some aspect of their behavior in leading others. Studying why some have failed while others have succeeded reveals tremendously helpful insights. The difference between the two has led us to develop a simple and practical five-step model that can be followed by anyone who desires sustained personal change in any aspect of life.

      Following all five

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