Develop your leadership skills by John Adair

"Develop your leadership skills" by John Adair-  Leadership decoded!

This book is published by Kogan Page in 2007 and has 144 pages.

Book summary:

Author cautions in the introduction that nobody can teach you leadership, it's something you have to learn. You don't have to be a born leader, you can learn.

You should possess, exemplify and perhaps even personify the qualities expected or required in your working group. The generic qualities of leader are Enthusiasm,  Integrity,  Toughness,  Fairness,  Warmth, Humility and Confidence. Then there may be qualities required for a particular situation or job.  There are four types of authorities: position,  knowledge, personality and moral. A leader needs a blend of all of them. In matters involving leadership there are three variables: the leader,  the situation and the group. Once the group comes together a group personality is formed. This group has following kind of needs: Task needs, Team maintenance needs and Individual needs. You can learn these functions by practice, study, experience and reflection. 

The task of an individual and team should be clear, concrete, time limited, realistic, challenging and capable of evaluation.  Planning requires that the what, why, when, how, where and who questions are answered. Briefing is effective communication skill. One has to be prepared,  clear, simple, vivid, natural. One should also listen. Controlling is ensuring all the energy and resources of team are making things happen. Management implies efficient use of resources as well as their effective use. High performance team has clear realistic objectives, shared sense of purpose, best use of resources, atmosphere of openness, handles failure, rides out the storms. A leader should motivate by understanding inner needs in individuals and how they operate. Key principles of motivating others are: be motivated yourself, select people who are highly motivated, set realistic and challenging targets, remember that progress motivates, provide fair rewards, give recognition. Good leaders respect and work through the systems but they are not bound by them. Leader needs to delegate part of administration so that she has time to think and lead. Administering that scarce resource, your own time, is the priority for any leader. Humility is rarest of all qualities in a leader. 

Be prepared, door into leadership has 'Confidence' written upon it. Experience is a compost heap of success and failures. Be proactive and reflective. Take a 'helicopter view' from time to time. Never let it be said of you what the Roman historian Tacitus once wrote of Emperor Galba: 'No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.'

To be a strategic leader you will need awareness, understanding, skill and personal qualities like enthusiasm, Integrity, Fairness, Toughness, Calmness, Humanity, Resilience, Prudence and Humility. You also need to be able to think clearly and reason cogently. Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco says 'There is a simple recipe for leadership: to find out the truth of situation, paint a picture of where you want to get to,  make a plan and go and do it. 

Leadership key to achieving sustainable business success is to have excellence in leadership at three levels: team, operational and strategic. Leadership development strategy should have importance, long term and multi factored. 

End of book summary. 

In the qualities of strategic leader, vision remains conspicuous by absence. Author also does not speak about Charisma being an important ingredient in leadership. He touches the topic of feedback but does not elaborate it.

Author has provided checklists at the end of topic  to assess the readiness and ability of the reader.  In the appendix of this Book, author has provided a Leadership Checklist. This is a comprehensive checklist that every leader should review regularly to ensure that she is on the right path. He also promotes his other books in the 'Further reading' section. 

Author uses international proverbs, strategically,  to make his point. The proverbs are good and they are used very appropriately. I have listed them here for the readers of my blog. 

Chinese: What does it matter if the cat is black or white,  as long as it catches mice. 

Zulu: I cannot hear what you are saying to me because you are shouting at me. 

Japanese: A manager will take 6 months to get to know his staff, but they will take only 6 days to get to know him. 

Chinese by Lao Tzu: A leader is best when people barely know he exists. 

Hungarian: You cannot put into yourself what God has not put there. 

Chinese: It is very easy to find thousand soldiers but difficult to find a general. 

This is a good book by John Adair. It's not a one time read. A leader should read it at regular intervals as he progresses in his career to ensure that he is doing what his current position demands and he is doing it right. It's a useful book. 

The Sunday Times has called John Adair, the first professor of leadership studies in the world. 

Why did I read this book? Was on my wishlist for long time. 

What I didn't like? Nothing.

What did I like? Author guides, does not preach.

 Recommend reading.