What You Really Need to Lead: The Power of Thinking and Acting Like an Owner

Description

What makes a leader? Can you really learn to lead? You might think that leaders need to be born with the right skills or personality attributes. Perhaps you believe you don't have the right experience or that you need to hold an important job to be a leader. Maybe you believe you need permission to lead. As Harvard Business School professor and business executive Robert Steven Kaplan explains in this powerful new book, leadership is accessible to all of us-today-and it starts with an ownership mind-set. You don't need an invitation to lead. Leadership is a dynamic way of thinking and acting that anyone can take on. For Kaplan, acting as a leader is a function of three key questions: 1. Do you work to figure out what you believe as if you were an owner? 2. Do you take action based on those beliefs? 3. Do you focus on adding value to others and take responsibility for the impact of your actions on others-both positive and negative? The book is full of stories taken from the author's own leadership experience as well as from his work helping various types of leaders and organizations. What's revealed is that leadership is not a role reserved for an elite few blessed with the right skills and key positions-it's about a focus on taking ownership and adding value to others. What's more, leadership is a lifelong journey of learning for which you must take responsibility. It's about learning to ask the right questions and learning to understand yourself.

Robert Steven Kaplan is president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Previously, he was the Senior Associate Dean for External Relations and Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is the author of three books: What You Really Need to Lead, What You're Really Meant to Do and What to Ask the Person in the Mirror.

"Authoritative... This book aims to demystify leadership and outlines a specific regimen that will empower you to build your leadership skills. Kaplan asks probing questions, provides exercises, and suggests concrete follow-up steps that will help you develop your necessary skills." -- PS News (Australia) "The resulting call for learning, asking questions, taking action and making decisions promises to help individuals across organizations of all sizes to become better leaders." -- David Slocum, FORBES "The book skillfully walks through the intellectual and emotional issues of leadership, the requirement to be "in shape" to lead, and lays out thoughtful questions to ask yourself as a leader." -- CBC News ADVANCE PRAISE for What You Really Need to Lead: ROSABETH MOSS KANTER, professor, Harvard Business School; author, MOVE and Confidence-- "What You Really Need to Lead is like having your own personal coaching sessions with a very wise and highly successful leader. Rob Kaplan offers down-to-earth advice about the virtues of listening, engaging others, and taking responsibility, through meaningful, engaging stories." ROBERT J. BEALL, President and CEO, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation-- "Rob Kaplan understands that leadership is not just about taking action-- it's also about asking the tough questions again and again, listening with an open mind, and bringing others--regardless of rank--into the decision-making process. For anyone interested in truly owning their professional and personal growth as a leader, What You Really Need to Lead provides an outstanding and very practical guide." ALAN MULALLY, President and CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes; former President and CEO, Ford Motor Company-- "Rob Kaplan captures the elements of effective leadership throughout an organization that continuously delivers increasing value for all stakeholders through a reliable process in a rapidly changing world." NARAYANA MURTHY, founder, Infosys-- "Rob Kaplan's book is a must-read for every manager throughout the world. He uses compelling, real-life case studies to help managers understand critical facets of leadership and to become highly effective, empathetic, and successful leaders." MITCHELL E. DANIELS JR., President, Purdue University; former Governor of Indiana-- "You'll probably see something of yourself in Rob Kaplan's real-world case studies, and you'll definitely be a more capable and confident leader after you've absorbed and applied his road-tested, highly practical principles." ERIC GREITENS, Navy SEAL; New York Times bestselling author, Resilience-- "If you want a tough, wise, and capable coach who can help you to become a better leader, then crack open Rob Kaplan's excellent new book. You'll strengthen yourself, and you'll have a more powerful impact on the lives of those you lead."