Develop Your leadership skills By John Adair

Just now i completed reading Develop Your leadership skills By John Adair

I started reading this short book from yesterday.

Nice book written by John Adair

I wanted to share few important quotations i found from this book.

1) Some essential qualities

You cannot leave personality and character out of leadership.There are some qualities that you have to have. Basically you should possess, exemplify and perhaps even personify the qualities expected or required in your working group. I have emphasised that because it is so fundamental. Without it you will lack credibility. (Incidentally, here is one of the first differences between leaders and managers: the latter can be appointed over others in a hierarchy regardless of whether or not they have the required qualities.)

2) Qualities of leadership – across the board

Enthusiasm. Can you think of any leader who lacks enthusiasm? It is very hard to do so, isn’t it?

Integrity. This is the quality that makes people trust you. And trust is essential in all human relationships – professional or private. ‘Integrity’ means both personal wholeness and adherence to values outside yourself – especially goodness and truth.

Toughness. Leaders are often demanding people, uncomfortable to have around because their standards are high. They are resilient and tenacious. Leaders aim to be respected, but not necessarily popular.

Fairness. Effective leaders treat individuals differently but equally. They do not have favourites. They are impartial in giving rewards and penalties for performance.

Warmth. Cold fish do not make good leaders. Leadership involves your heart as well as your mind. Loving what you are doing and caring for people are equally essential.

Humility. This is an odd quality, but characteristic of the very best leaders. The opposite to humility is arrogance. Who wants to work for an arrogant manager? The signs of a good leader are a willingness to listen and a lack of an overweening ego.

Confidence. Confidence is essential. People will sense whether or not you have it. So developing self-confidence is always the preliminary to becoming a leader. But don’t let it become overconfidence, the first station on the track leading to arrogance.

3) Review your progress as the profile of your strengths and weaknesses (in terms of personality and character) begins to unfold and change in the positive direction.Always remain open to feedback on that score, however painful it may be.

4) Moreover, you can – by practice, study, experience and reflection – learn to do the functions with skill: they will become your leadership skills.

5) Leadership exists on different levels:

Team leadership: you are leading a team of about five to 20 people;

Operational leadership: you are leading a significant unit in the business or organisation, composed of a number of teams whose leaders report to you;

Strategic leadership: you are leading a whole business or organisation, with overall accountability for the two levels of leadership below you.

6) The best leaders are consistent – you know where you stand with them and they are in many respects predictable.

7) Key principles for motivating others

Be motivated yourself. If you are not fully committed and enthusiastic, how can you expect others to be?

Select people who are highly motivated. It is not easy to motivate the unwilling. Choose those who have the seeds of high motivation within them.

Set realistic and challenging targets. The better the team and its individual members, the more they will respond to objectives that stretch them, providing these are realistic.

Remember that progress motivates. If you never give people feedback on how they are progressing, you will soon demotivate them.

Provide fair rewards. Not easy. Do you reward the whole team, or each individual, or both? Either way, the perception of unfair rewards certainly works against motivation.

Give recognition. This costs you nothing, but praise and recognition based upon performance are the oxygen of the human spirit.

8) Providing an example

‘Leadership is example,’. Certainly it is impossible to think of leadership without example. It may take many shapes and forms, but it has to be there.

9) A short course on leadership

The six most important words…
‘I admit I made a mistake.’

The five most important words…
‘I am proud of you.’

The four most important words…
‘What is your opinion?’

The three most important words…
‘If you please.’

The two most important words…
‘Thank you.’

The one most important word…
‘We.’

And the last, least important, word…
‘I.’

10) Key questions for good leadership

Task. The core action of going out in front on the journey in order to show the way is a form of leading by example. How can you ‘lead from the front’ in your field?

Team. As a builder and maintainer of the team you need to maintain or change group standards – the invisible rules that hold groups together. How can you develop your team’s standards through the power of example?

Individual. Think of each team member as a leader in his or her own right. Each should be a leader in his or her technical or professional role, and a ‘three-circle’ contributor.

11) The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu summed it up in the sixth century before the Christian era:

A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists;
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him;
Worst when they despise him.
Fail to honour people,
They fail to honour you.
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.’

Yes, and perhaps one day they will add about you as their leader, ‘And you made a difference.’ That is the true reward of leadership.

12) Never be afraid of failure. The path forward will be strewn with the results of your failures as a leader.For the only way you can move from being a good leader – where you are now – to becoming a very good leader, even an excellent or a great one, is by aiming higher. And that is bound to generate shortfalls.
But persevere. In the end they may say of you that you are a born leader!


Hope you enjoy reading this book

About the Author

John Adair is the world’s leading authority on leadership and leadership development. Over a million managers worldwide have taken part in the Action-Centred Leadership programmes he pioneered.

John has had a colourful early career. He served as a platoon commander in the Scots Guards in Egypt, and then became the only national serviceman to serve in the Arab Legion, where he became adjutant of Bedouin regiment. He was virtually in command of the garrison of Jerusalem in the front line for six weeks. After national service he qualified as a deckhand in Hull and sailed an Artic steam trawler to Iceland. He then worked as a hospital orderly in the operating theatre of a hospital.

After being senior lecturer in military history and adviser in leadership training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and Associate Director of The Industrial Society, in 1979 John became the world’s first Professor of Leadership Studies at the University of Surrey.

Between 1981 and 1986 John worked with Sir John Harvey-Jones at ICI introducing a leadership development strategy that helped to change the loss-making, bureaucratic giant into the first British company to make a billion pounds profit.

John has written over 40 books, translated into many languages. Recent titles include 'How to Grow Leaders' and 'Effective Leadership Development'. Apart from being an author he is also a teacher and consultant.

From St Paul’s School he won a scholarship to Cambridge University. John holds the higher degrees of Master of Letters from Oxford University and Doctor of Philosophy from King’s College London, and he is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Recently the People’s Republic of China awarded him the title of Honorary Professor in recognition of his 'outstanding research and contribution in the field of Leadership'.