Leadership Sustainability: Seven Disciplines to Achieve the Changes Great Leaders Know They Must Make

Book description

MAKE YOUR LEADERSHIP EFFORTS STICK

Every day, thousands of people put great effort--and money--into becoming more effective leaders, through seminars, personal coaching, and employee development plans. These undertakings can do wonders to help leaders of all stripes improve their effectiveness. But not every leader finishes what he or she starts--and many revert back to less effective habits, often without even realizing it.

How can you ensure that you stick with all the positive changes you have made? How do you make sure you don’t slip back into your old ways?

Answer: Leadership Sustainability

Dave Ulrich--the man BusinessWeek referred to as the "#1 Management Educator and Guru"--teams up with leadership expert Norm Smallwood to go where no leadership guide has gone. This dream team provides sophisticated, proven leadership sustainability ideas and tools that you can put to use immediately.

Leadership Sustainability helps you turn good intentions into effective actions by mastering seven critical disciplines:

    • Simplicity: Focus on the few key behaviors that will have the most impact.
    • Time: Allocate your time so your calendar matches your intentions.
    • Accountability: Take personal responsibility for doing what you say you will do.
    • Resources: Support your leadership with effective, ongoing coaching and HR systems.
    • Tracking: Develop metrics for measuring your leadership improvement.
    • Melioration: Learn from your mistakes and demonstrate resilience.
    • Emotion: Draw on deep personal values to keep yourself motivated.

The journey to great leadership doesn't end with learning and implementing effective new skills. Great leadership is about consistency, and the drive for consistency is a never-ending process. Use Leadership Sustainability to ensure leadership greatness today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life.

PRAISE FOR LEADERSHIP SUSTAINABILITY:"Dave and Norm propose a practical approach to solving the problem of leaders turning what they intend into what they do. The seven principles provide a simple and practical way to get things done." -- Ram Charan, coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Execution

"Dave and Norm do a great job about teaching leaders not just what to do, but how to make sure that they do it. The ideas in the book are insightful, specific, and actionable." -- Gina Qiao, SVP Human Resources, Lenovo

"Finally, a 'how-to' book that is grounded in the real-world dynamics of leading organizations!" -- Dixon Thayer, CEO, HealthNEXT

"Dave and Norm provide both an in-depth understanding of why we often fall short and a set of tools for getting on with it." -- Morgan W. McCall, Jr., Professor, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, and author of High Flyer

"Leaders all over the world will celebrate Dave and Norm’s powerful new gift: the concept of Leadership Sustainability and its seven disciplines." -- Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO, The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute

"Finally, we have two scholar-practitioners who correctly address evidence that one of every two leaders fails and offer solutions about proper execution that leads to sustainability." -- W. Warner Burke, Professor of Psychology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

"Dave and Norm understand that one of the keys to success is disciplined continuity and sustainability--which constitute a required core competency among leadership." -- Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, Chief Human Resources Officer, Walgreen Co.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. LEADERSHIP SUSTAINABILITY: Seven Disciplines to Achieve the Changes Great Leaders Know They Must Make
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. CONTENTS
  6. Preface
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Chapter 1 Do Not Walk Home
    1. Real-World Leadership Development
    2. The Personal Case
    3. The Company Case
    4. The Implications
    5. Leadership Sustainability
    6. Our Leadership Journey
    7. Conclusion: Leaders in Flight
  9. Chapter 2 Simplicity
    1. Real-World Complexity
    2. Building Simplicity
    3. Focus on What Matters Most
    4. Tell Stories, Create a Narrative
    5. Avoid Concept Clutter
    6. Conclusion: Leaders as Taxonomists
  10. Chapter 3 Time
    1. Real-World Use of Time
    2. The Mirror of Truth
    3. Mastery of Time
    4. Conclusion: Leaders as Time Loggers
  11. Chapter 4 Accountability
    1. Real-Life Accountability
    2. Who, Me?
    3. Take Personal Responsibility
    4. Go Public
    5. Be Consistent with Personal Values and Brand
    6. Hold Others Accountable
    7. Conclusion: Leaders as Responsible Adults
  12. Chapter 5 Resources
    1. Real-World Use of Resources
    2. Coordinating Effort
    3. Coaching
    4. Choice of Coach
    5. Enabling Good Coaching
    6. Expectations of a Coach
    7. Institutionalizing Change Through HR Practices
    8. Conclusion: Leaders as Teammates
  13. Chapter 6 Tracking
    1. Real-World Tracking
    2. Tracking in the Workplace
    3. Conclusion: Leaders as Trackers
  14. Chapter 7 Melioration
    1. Real-World Melioration
    2. Melioration in the Workplace
    3. Conclusion: Leaders as Pioneers
  15. Chapter 8 Emotion
    1. Real-World Emotion as a Driving Force
    2. Powering Growth with Emotion
    3. Conclusion: Leaders as Meaning Makers
  16. Chapter 9 Conclusion
    1. Diagnosing Your Leadership Sustainability
    2. Leadership Sustainability Application Tool
    3. Responsibility for Building Leadership Sustainability
    4. Conclusion: Time to Soar
  17. Notes
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: Leadership Sustainability: Seven Disciplines to Achieve the Changes Great Leaders Know They Must Make
  • Author(s): Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood
  • Release date: April 2013
  • Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
  • ISBN: 9780071808538