One of my favorite books, which I read quite frequently, is “Everyone Leads” by Dan Zadra. It reinforces for me the basic thought process that influences leadership in organizations today.
Here is his opening outline:
— I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
— Good leaders surround themselves with good people, who in turn become good
leaders.
— The times do not allow anyone the luxury of waiting around for others to lead. All can lead and ought to be invited to do so.
— What makes a company or organization great is not primarily its top leaders, but the quality of its innumerable everyday ones.
— Everyone has a purpose in an organization. You are not there by accident.
— Very few natural-born leaders turn up in the workplace. People become leaders.
— The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.
— Strange as it sounds, the best leaders gain authority by giving it away.
— In a healthy organization, rewards come by empowering others, not by climbing over them.
— Every opportunity counts. When your people come to you for leadership, they're giving you another chance to help them grow into leaders themselves.
— I can lead, and I can follow. An important aspect of leadership is knowing when to do which.
— You don't have to be in “Who's Who” to know what's what.
— Great companies make meaning. A company has a name, but its people give it a meaning.
— If all you take home from your job is a paycheck, then you take home too little.
–The shortest distance between two points is an intention.
My favorite is this: The shortest distance between two people is a smile.
Read this outline on a regular basis and try to implement as many of them as you can. There are many paths to being an effective leader.