Management and Strategy

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership is a great read for people who want to improve their Leadership skills. I have read many articles on leadership and everyone of them focuses on different aspects of leadership.

Best part about this article is it tells you to focus internally to look at your own history and learn from that. Authors focus on following key aspects of your life to learn from

• Learn from your own life story
• Know your authentic self
• Practice your values and principles
• Balance your extrinsic and intrinsic motivations
• Build a support team to learn and get guidance from
• Integrate your life by staying grounded

Original Article: http://hbr.org/2007/02/discovering-your-authentic-leadership/ar/1

Authors: Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean and Diana Mayer

Synopsis:

During the past 50 years, leadership scholars have conducted more than 1,000 studies in an attempt to determine the definitive styles, characteristics, or personality traits of great leaders. None of these studies has produced a clear profile of the ideal leader. Thank goodness. If scholars had produced a cookie-cutter leadership style, individuals would be forever trying to imitate it. They would make themselves into personae, not people, and others would see through them immediately.

No one can be authentic by trying to imitate someone else. You can learn from others’ experiences, but there is no way you can be successful when you are trying to be like them. People trust you when you are genuine and authentic, not a replica of someone else. Amgen CEO and president Kevin Sharer, who gained priceless experience working as Jack Welch’s assistant in the 1980s, saw the downside of GE’s cult of personality in those days. “Everyone wanted to be like Jack,” he explains. “Leadership has many voices. You need to be who you are, not try to emulate somebody else.”

This Article by Daniel Goleman is a great read on different leadership styles and how leaders can use them in different scenarios to get results. In this article Goleman explores which precise leadership behaviors yield positive results. He outlines six distinct leadership styles, each one springing from different components of emotional intelligence. Each style has a distinct effect on the working atmosphere of a company, division, or team, and, in turn, on its financial performance.

You have to read the article to get the full picture. You can access it at http://hbr.org/product/leadership-that-gets-results/an/R00204-PDF-ENG . Below is a preview…

1. Coercive leaders demand immediate compliance.
2. Authoritative leaders mobilize people toward a vision.
3. Affiliative leaders create emotional bonds and harmony.
4. Democratic leaders build consensus through participation.
5. Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction.
6. Coaching leaders develop people for the future.

Leadership Styles at a glance

The research indicates that leaders who get the best results don’t rely on just one leadership style; they use most of the styles in any given week.

Amazing what couple of years make in the industry. Ford and GM are back in action and Toyota is now struggling. Good to see US Auto industry recovering. A good decision my Obama government to invest in very important sector.

Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. vehicle sales fell in 2010 while industrywide sales rose 11 percent and every other major automaker reported gains. Ford Motor Co. moved up to second place behind only General Motors Co.

Ford displaced Toyota as No. 2 in the U.S. with 1.97 million vehicles sold in the year, up 17 percent from 2009, compared with Toyota’s sales of 1.76 million cars and trucks. GM retained the top spot with U.S. sales of 2.22 million vehicles, an increase of 7 percent. Deliveries in December accelerated to the fastest pace of the year

Toyota Still Under ‘Clouds,’ Falls Behind Ford in U.S. Sales – BusinessWeek

Author: Tim Harford

This book was recommended to me by my colleague Richard Chin, who is a PHD in economics. Me and Richard were waiting in our café and I started talking about how bad the choices were. At that point he started talking about Undercover Economist.

Have you ever wondered by food in tourist places is horrible or Have you ever wondered why wine is expensive in restaurants? Tim has done amazing job of explaining simple complex and boring economic concepts with simple daily examples.  

It took me a while to read this book more because I could not give time to it but it is a great read. If you liked Freakonomics you will love this. I enjoyed second half much more.

Best example discussed in book was on what happened during different government auctions of cellular radio spectrum, i.e., the right to create cellular networks and thus sell phone service to customers. How the auctions were set up played a major role in determining if the auctions were effective in raising revenue for the government. Tim compares the spectrum auctions to auctioning off your house, worth $300,000 and receiving either $3,000 or a whopping $2.3 million. Tim talks about Game theory and how it impacts decision.

Great read.

Author: Michael Lewis

I had heard about this book a while back but after last years Wall Street Crash it was right time to read it. It took me a while to read it. It is not a very easy read. But I am glad I read it though.

Michael Lewis has shard story of Soloman Brothers and their collapse. Lewis illustrates how economic decisions made at the national level changed securities markets and made bonds the most lucrative game on the Street. His description of the firm’s personalities and of the events from 1984 through the crash of October 1987 are vivid and memorable.

It is a very good book to learn how Wall Street actually runs, what goes in mind of people at Wall Street. How investment backs make money etc…

It is fascinating to see how history repeats itself. You will read this book and think as if it was written after last years crash. This book is from 80’s.

It is a great read for anyone who wants to learn how mortgage securities market took off and how credit swaps came in play. Great book.

Author: Chip & Dan Heath

This is an awesome book. I was looking for book on storytelling this is an ideal book on that.

Made to Stick focuses on telling your story/message in a way that it sticks with the audience. Author focuses on very common themes like Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, Stories to make the stories stick.

Book also has some good punch line which are good. The one I liked and remembered was “Avoid burying the lead. Don’t start with something interesting but irrelevant in hopes of entertaining the audience. Instead, work to make the core message itself more interesting.”

Other Good quotes:

• "And that’s the great thing about the world of ideas — any of us, with the right insight and the right message, can make an idea stick."
• "Becoming an expert in something means that we become more and more fascinated by nuance and complexity."
• "Abstraction is the luxury of the expert. If you’ve got to teach an idea to a room full of people, and you aren’t certain what they know, concreteness is the only safe language."

It is really great book to read. I will try to take authors class if I get a chance it is that good. Enjoy.

There are very few books or videos that really change your life. Last lecture is one that will really change your life. It is all about achieving your childhood dreams.  Randy is no more with us but he has left a legacy. Dream and Dream big and then work hard to achieve them. I had seen the lecture first and then I read this book. Book provides background on the lecture and Randy’s life. Was a great read. Actually some portions of book are really emotional. Great read I will highly recommend watching the lecture and reading the book.

[rating:5]

Author: Dan Roam

Amazingly easy read. You will learn something and will be able to use it in your work life next day. I actually started using some things from the book and the ideas really work.

This book is about visual thinking. In short how do you draw your ideas and how that helps you think about a problem and come up with solutions. Had 3 hour meeting today discussing about our product’s future. I thought this book gave me great ideas on how to think about things. Loved it…

Suggestion: Do not read it on Kindle which I did. Images are really horrible on Kindle. I had to borrow a copy from my friend to look at images.

Of course I will highly recommend this book to anyone.

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

This is a great read. I read it in 1 week. I have never read a book in that short period of time. This book is about Success…

Outliers says success follows a predictable course. It is not the brightest who succeed. Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is rather a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.

Great read and I highly recommend it to y’all.