Most our corporate leaders and political netas may fail at one of the first questions that Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller pose in ‘The Secret: What great leaders know and do,’ second edition (www.tatamcgrawhill.com): “Am I a self-serving leader or a serving leader?”
Great leaders don’t become great in a moment – or in a month or a year. They become great leaders one day at a time throughout their lifetimes, the authors note. As a leader, you can constantly and continuously find new ways to serve, and every time you do, your leadership skills will improve and you’ll become a better leader, they assure.
The mantra offered in the book is SERVE, an acronym that gets unravelled through the chapters. For instance, ‘See the future’ comes at the start. “A compelling vision stirs passion within you. It tells everyone who works with you who you are, where you’re going, and what will drive your behaviour.”
If you aren’t passionate about something out there in the future, if it doesn’t fire you up and get you out of bed in the morning, you can bet your team is not going to be passionate, either, say Blanchard and Miller.
Their counsel for leaders is to balance between ‘heads up’ and ‘heads down’ activities. The former is about vision and direction, with the leader devoting time to see the future and communicating the same to the team. This is a necessary activity because, over time, vision evaporates, the authors caution. “Unless you keep replenishing that vision, it will gradually disappear.”
And the ‘heads down’ business is all about implementation, to make the vision a reality. “Leaders must constantly evaluate how they invest their time. Some time must be devoted to heads up, and some must be devoted to heads down.”
Coherent presentation.
