Leadership Mastery: How to Challenge Yourself and Others to Greatness - Softcover

Preface

Where have all the leaders gone? There is a vacuum of leadership in the world, in all of our major institutions: government, education, business, religion, and the arts. The crisis has arisen in part because many of those institutions have been reinvented. Life is therefore much more uncertain and leadership is hence much more risky. However, most of the leadership crisis has crept up on us because of the incredible technological revolution we're now experiencing. We are told that the scientific method can solve all our problems and that technology can distribute the answers to those problems far more quickly and efficiently than before. A global society connected by the Internet is emerging, yet never have so many people felt so isolated from one another. Individuals the world over find themselves disconnected from their roots and unsure of their future. This is because in a world quickly becoming more virtual, the skill of human relations is quickly being lost. Thus, never before has the skill of human relations been more valuable and sought after.

Just about everyone who is anyone has a Web site and an e€‘mail address. The only way to differentiate yourself and your business is to become exceptionally skilled at leading and persuading others. Think of it: In the previous era of hierarchical organizations, big government, and traditional families, the need for leadership was evident. We knew what the rules were. We needed the leaders to hold us to those rules. However, in an era of flattened organizations, the increasing irrelevance of government, and two-career families, we no longer have a clear set of rules to follow.

What's more, the command-and-control leaders who try to hold us to seemingly irrelevant and arbitrary rules are no longer successful. What's needed is a new type of leader, one who can inspire and motivate others within this virtual world while never losing sight of the leadership principles that never change. Therefore in this cutting-edge book, we'll introduce you to a new type of leader: a leader who is flexible and adaptable. We'll introduce you to an individual who is a servant, not a slave, to his or her partners; a distributor of power, trustworthy, tough, and decisive.

The core philosophy of this book will be taken from the man whose name has become synonymous with influence and human relations, Dale Carnegie.

In the words of Dale Carnegie himself:

And now I've just got time to tell you about a couple of simple tests that you can make to prove to yourself how easy it is to make people like you instantly; here they are. Test one, starting tomorrow morning, you smile at the first five people you see at work every day for a week. I mean a good, broad, genuine smile and a hearty good morning. Test two, pick out just one person every day for a week, one person who has never meant very much to you, and become genuinely interested in him and show that you're interested in him with a smile and some friendly comment. Now two words of warning; be sincere, utterly and eternally sincere. You will just be wasting your time if you pretend to be interested in other people in order to get something out of them. That's foolish as well as wrong, because you'll be found out sooner or later. Why not make those two simple tests yourself and keep a record of the results. Remember if you want to be liked instantly, do as the puppy does: Become genuinely interested in other people and show it.

These human relations principles have made Dale Carnegie a household name for more than fifty years. Throughout this book, you'll read Dale Carnegie's famous leadership principles exactly as he wrote about them in some of his classic works. Principles like these will never change. It is how they are applied that will change. In the past, an order from the boss may have given the employee enough want. Today leaders must create that want by engaging others in the mission with same the goals but by different processes.

What's more, you'll learn how the virtual world does not have to become more impersonal. You can use high-tech tools to stay in touch as a leader. Yes, leadership, like any other skill, is not something you are born with. It must be learned. When you have read this book and completed all of the action steps at the end of each chapter, you will possess the most vital skill for succeeding in the new economy: the skill of leadership. The need for this skill will only grow in value as our virtual world expands.

Finally, once you have completed this book you'll no longer ask, "Where have all the leaders gone?" You'll realize that leadership is no longer for the chief executive officer, the president, the general, the boss, or the mom and dad. Leadership is available to each and every one of us at every level of organization, be that society, business, government, or family. Complete this book and discover your full potential. Become a leadership master. Copyright © 2000, 2009 by Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.

Ï»¿

Keep your mind open to change all the time. Welcome it. Court it.
-- Dale Carnegie

Chapter 1

What Leaders Do

In the chapters that follow we'll be engaged in a very ambitious and extremely important undertaking. It will be of great benefit to you, and also to everyone who comes into your life both personally and professionally.

We'll be exploring a fundamental principle of human behavior. It's the basis of successful companies and even of whole nations and cultures. This is the concept of leadership. More specifically, we'll focus on the meaning of leadership in the context of business and entrepreneurial success. We'll see how leaders made the most of prosperous times, and how they survived even severe downturns in the business cycle.

Who are the leaders? What are the leaders made of? Who are the men and women who "made it happen" for themselves and the people around them? How did they overcome obstacles? Where did they discover opportunities? This is critically important information for anyone who aspires to financial success, personal satisfaction, and the sense of accomplishment that comes when potential turns into actuality.

In today's world, the quality of leadership is both respected and revered, but it's also subtly devalued. We celebrate the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, great leaders of the past, yet we are deeply suspicious of those who occupy leadership positions in the present day. Perhaps it's because we know too much about them in our present media-dominated environment. No one knew what Washington and Lincoln did every day, much less every minute of the day. Incredible as it now seems, Franklin Roosevelt served more than three terms as president without the majority of people even aware that he could not walk.

As a first step toward grasping the real meaning of leadership -- and more important, as a step toward becoming an effective leader yourself -- your present view of leadership may need to be reconsidered, reinvented, and even reborn. This book will give you the tools for doing that. By making full use of those tools, you can take a big step toward achieving all your personal and professional goals.

This raises a very important point that should be emphasized here at the outset. Our purpose here is something much more than theoretical or intellectual understanding of leadership. You're going to learn what leaders have done so that you can start doing it yourself, right away, in your own life and career. That's leadership mastery. It's putting what you learn into action.

This is an extremely ambitious undertaking, and we have some powerful tools to bring it to a successful conclusion. Very simply put, the foundations of our work toward leadership mastery are the insights, writings, and life example of Dale Carnegie. Known the world over as one of the most influential voices in the history of personal development, his lessons are more relevant today than ever before.

We'll be looking at up€‘to-the-minute issues in today's fast-changing workplace. We'll meet the people, study the organizations, and identify the challenges they face, and that you're facing, on the road to professional success and personal fulfillment.

THE LONGEVITY OF LEVI STRAUSS

Levi Strauss & Co. has been in business for more than 150 years. Over those many decades there have been plenty of peaks and valleys such as the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, which destroyed the company showroom and many local businesses.

Despite the obvious hardships, the company continued to pay its employees while new buildings were built, and extended credit to its wholesale suppliers whose facilities had also been destroyed. Ethical leadership has always been a core value at Levi Strauss, whether the challenge was a major earthquake or competition from Calvin Klein. In keeping with an "aspiration statement" that the company issued in 1987, managers at Levi Strauss know that they're evaluated in many other areas besides financial performance.

As much as 40 percent of Levi Strauss's management bonuses are based on measures of leadership in ethics, human relations, and effective communication.

IBM: BUSINESS AND BELIEFS

More than twenty years before Levi Strauss created its aspiration statement, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., then the head of IBM, wrote a book called A Business and Its Beliefs. Watson knew that one of his most vital responsibilities as a leader was to clarify the core values of IBM. The values he led by made IBM one of America's truly dominant companies throughout the '50s, '60s, and '70s.

Interestingly enough, years before he wrote the book, Watson foresaw the problems that would almost cause IBM's downfall when the technological revolution dawned. Thirty years before anyone had ever heard of a blog or a Web site or an e€‘mail, Watson told an...