The Hindu Business Line : Leaders must look to see if there are followers

IN AN age of fast foods and crash courses, here comes John C. Maxwell's Leadership 101 because "people are always asking for small books that they can read in one sitting." If you think that to grow you need to break free of leadership, the author points out that the higher you want to climb, "the more you need leadership".

That may sound anachronistic, but here's the clue: "By raising your leadership ability, without increasing your success dedication at all, you can increase your original effectiveness by 500 per cent."

So, what is this leadership ability? It is "the lid on personal and organisational effectiveness" and you can raise it. "Becoming a leader is not like investing successfully in the stock market," so you can't pick up the phone and get your broker to help. And it may come as a shock for many leaders that "at some point in life, we are placed in a leadership position only to look around and discover that no one is following us."

Leaders need to prioritise and a common misconception is that it is a one-time job. No, "priorities continually shift and demand attention." Maxwell proposes 3 Es to keep priorities in place: "Evaluate: Every month review the three Rs — requirements/ return/ reward. Eliminate: Ask yourself, "What am I doing that can be done by someone else?" Estimate: What are the top projects you are doing this month and how long will they take?"

Next E, enquire: Find out where the book is available.

Not miles, only inches

ACCOUNTANTS know about GAAP, but Todd Duncan's Closing the Gap is about the fissures that stand between where we are and where we want to be. Gaps happen in matters of money and relationships, and we know that only too well. The distance looks like daunting miles though it could be only inches. If only we could look at the situation from a different perspective, we might relax and even close the gap.

The book outlines more than forty gaps "most of us will encounter at some point in our lives" and offers practical ideas to resolve. "Balance in life is not a math problem; it is a design problem. It is not a willpower issue; it is a discipline issue. Closing the Gap is about discovering what is truly important and then designing a plan to deal with it."

The part that deals with `maximum wealth' begins with three laws to help you develop discipline with your money. "Law 1 — Track your cash outflow: Until we start tracking where our money goes, we will not know how much we are spending or what we are buying. Law 2 — Understand the cost of waiting: Start saving today. Law 3 — Understand the power of compounding: The wealth-building mantra is pay now, play later, and invest the difference. When money is left undisturbed over time, it can actually outpace the amount of your current contributions."

On the clichéd topic of time management what has the author to say? For a `life-productive behaviour', clarify your values. "Name five things that are important to you." And do time blocking: "Decide in advance what your day will look like," because "you cannot manage time with Post-it notes, scribbled `to-do' checklists, or electronic gadgetry."

Useful reading at least to identify one's own gaps.

From inventor to challenger

CRISSCROSSING in their vans and buses, our leaders are betting on vote banks, catchy slogans and lots of luck. But Mary Burner Lippitt lays down six business priorities that get results. Her book The Leadership Spectrum notes in the intro that leadership theory remains relatively static, "while leadership imperatives have changed dramatically".

And it has two messages: "It's results that matter; and sustained results require a leader to appropriately balance priorities for the organisation's particular circumstances."

A leader who does not focus on results gets "beguiled by style, past practices, and management fads." Business priorities help in result-focus. At times leaders put `simplicity' on a pedestal, and aim at solutions that are quick and cheap. "Wishing for a simple answer, however, will not make one appear or make it work. Solutions are part of a complicated environment." Priorities have to reflect the lifecycle of the organisation. Thus, at inception, you need an inventor; during growth, a catalyst; for stature, a developer; during prime, a performer; at maturity, a protector; and for renewal, a challenger.

The last one is only too relevant for today's context because the challenger serves as "an organisational harbinger, announcing trends, looking at evolving circumstances, or examining ramifications to prepare for the future."

As Stephen Covey has observed, the book is `insightful'.

Thinking about thinking

WITH no dry formulas, boring diagrams or distracting exercises, S. Cannavo's Think to Win is about `the power of logic in everyday life to guarantee success'. We are thinking animals, and the activity of reasoning is familiar to all of us, notes chapter 1. Yet, as chapter 2 would inform, all reasoning is thinking, but not all thinking is reasoning. "Reasoning consists of offering reasons in support of a claim. Logicians call the reasons premises and the claim they support a conclusion. The premises plus the conclusion they call an argument."

What's so great about reasons? They `get your foot in the door'. "Ignorance is not so bad; it is only a temporary affliction. Unreasonableness, on the other hand, is seen as a chronic condition."

Chapter 5 is titled: "Nonsense: Viruses in our knowledge; emptiness in our talk". It explores contradictions that lie at the heart of inconsistency. "Whereas plain falsehoods are contingently false, contradictions are necessarily false." Thus, a lethal weapon against an argument is to spot a contradiction. "Looking for inconsistency is one of the most basic and powerful strategies of discourse. The search, which should be relentless, is the very signature of the critical thinker."

Perhaps, this is what tax planners do when looking for loopholes.

Managing is not leading

PART meditation, part how-to manual. That is how Warren Bennis describes his book Managing the Dream. And Tom Peters writes in his foreword, that the book "reflects humanity, openness, courage, and rigorous thinking in equal measures." Bennis is positive that all leaders have the capacity to create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and the ability to translate that vision into reality. There are five parts to managing the dream: Communicating the vision, recruiting meticulously, rewarding, retraining and reorganising.

How are leaders different from managers? "Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right. Both roles are crucial, and they differ profoundly. I often observe people in top positions doing the wrong things well." Thus, you find around cases of companies that are underled and overmanaged.

A useful book to read and check if you're only managing when you're supposed to be leading.

(Books courtesy: Magna Publishing Co Ltd. www.magnamags.com)

Tailpiece

"I saw a picture that said not a thousand vague words but only two."

"Uh... "

"Poor quality."

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

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Leaders must look to see if there are followers