Elegant Leadership: Simple Strategies, Remarkable Results - Softcover

Neitlich, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0971470804 ISBN 13: 9780971470804

Publisher: Chatham Business Press, 2001

Synopsis

Elegant Leadership: Simple Strategies, Remarkable Results seeks to raise the bar for what it means to lead -- and help leaders improve performance in ways that are simple, practical, powerful, and even graceful. Unlike most leadership books, Elegant Leadership does not provide a pat set of answers. Rather, it provides frameworks, tools, worksheets, and guidance -- along with a structured set of powerful questions -- to enable readers to come up with their own answers and action steps. It combines the best practices of leadership development with a simple, efficient process for leaders to look in the mirror and take their performance to the next level.

Topics covered include: getting grounded, eliminating disagreeable behaviors, strengthening professional relationships, developing a compelling strategy, influencing others, collaborating, building for the future, and moving things forward. The content is concentrated, so that readers can reflect and improve their leadership capabilities rapidly and practically. This book will become a lasting reference for executives, entrepreneurs, consultants, and executive educators.

About this title

About the Author

Entrepreneurs and executives come to him to clarify their strategy and goals, develop new skills, engage and mobilize colleagues, and strengthen their organizations. He has worked with executives in a wide variety of industries and sectors: healthcare, technology, government, foundations, consumer goods, professional services, and education. He speaks nationally about leadership, and produced a television series that explored leadership. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

From the Inside Flap

Why not lead elegantly?

Leading elegantly means getting results in ways that are simple, powerful, practical, and graceful. Wouldn't you rather be an elegant leader?

This book is an indispensable guide for leaders who want to make a lasting, positive difference in their organizations. Whether you lead a start-up or major corporation, whether your organization is in the for-profit or non-profit sector, Elegant Leadership will become a lasting reference.

You will learn how to take your career and your organization to the next level:

- Develop a compelling strategy that beats the competition.

- Build a nimble, high-performance organization that will endure.

- Engage and mobilize your team to achieve amazing results.

- Strengthen the professional relationships that determine your success.

- Communicate simply, powerfully, and authentically.

- Be resilient and resourceful when others are ready to give up.

This cutting-edge guide will accelerate your career. Why wait?

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction (Excerpted)

The purpose of this book is to significantly raise the standards by which we judge and measure leaders. Today, the word "leadership" is almost meaningless. We tell workers to display leadership by having a good attitude and showing up on time. We call training in basic supervisory skills "leadership."

And when people do exert leadership, they are often sloppy about it. Many sacrifice relationships. Some compromise ethics. Others exhibit all sorts of disagreeable behaviors. Still others fail to think rigorously about the right strategy or course of action. We excuse this sloppiness by arguing that results justify the means.

"Elegant leadership" tolerates neither watered-down definitions of leadership, nor sloppiness. In this book, leadership means creating a significantly better future than would have been possible without a leader. A good leader creates something out of nothing, and the results are significant. And the leader matters: without his or her contribution, results would not have been nearly as impressive.

There are four essential ways in which an elegant leader creates the future:

1. Simply. Elegant leaders distill infinite information and possibilities into the one or two essential elements that will make the largest difference. Their speech, thinking, and actions all reflect simplicity.

2. Powerfully. Simplicity alone is superficial. Elegant leaders create the future in simple ways that also have power. Like the lever in basic physics, elegant leaders find ways to have a huge impact with minimal force.

3. Practically. Elegant leaders are not dreamers, or academics. They live in the real world, take action, and focus on what will work. An elegant leader will implement an 80 percent solution, or make decisions with 60 percent of the information he or she wants, in order to move things forward in a practical way.

4. Gracefully. Elegant leaders do their work with refinement. They are consummate professionals, simultaneously strengthening relationships while moving toward their goals. They maintain impeccable character, and remain resilient in good times and bad.

Why lead elegantly? Because by leading elegantly, you will get better results in less time, with stronger professional relationships, and with greater personal and professional fulfillment.

This book provides simple, powerful, practical, and graceful strategies and tools to help you lead elegantly. It offers frameworks, worksheets, questions, and assessments that will help you clarify your thinking, expand your skills, and get better responses from colleagues. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of elegant leadership. Depending on your interests, you may focus on one, some, or all, of the chapters.

This book is not for everyone -- only leaders with courage and thick skin. It asks you to assess yourself honestly, ask others for advice, make difficult choices, and change ineffective behaviors....

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatham Business Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0971470804
• ISBN 13: 9780971470804
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224