Smart Leadership

Escape the mediocrity that ensnares so many in business and become a better, more effective leader. Have you ever wondered what it would take to be a better leader, or achieve your wildest dreams, or make a bigger difference in the world? The answer lies in the choices you make: about everything from how you spend your time to the way you view the world. Smart Leadership is the latest essential business title from internationally bestselling author of Win the Heart and Chess Not Checkers Mark Miller. In this book, he shares the four research-based “smart choices” the best leaders make to scale their influence and results. By teaching you how to Confront Reality, Grow Capacity, Fuel Curiosity, and Create Change, Miller will help you: Bring fresh eyes and fresh thinking to your leadership approach. Increase your confidence in your ability to make a difference. Lead at levels you never thought possible. Accelerate your learning curve so that all these benefits come faster and more naturally. With this guide, your leadership—and your life—will be transformed forever.

A proven approach for helping leaders and teams work together to achieve better decisions, greater commitment, and stronger results More than ever, effective leadership requires us to work as a team, but many leaders struggle to get the results they need. When stakes are high, you can't get great results by just changing what you do. You also need to change how you think. Organizational psychologist and leadership consultant Roger Schwarz applies his 30+ years of experience working with leadership teams to reveal how leaders can drastically improve results by changing their individual and team mindset. Provides practical guidance to help teams increase decision quality, decrease implementation time, foster innovation, get commitment, reduce costs and increase trust Outlines 5 core values leadership teams can adopt to exponentially improve results Author of The Skilled Facilitator and The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook Get the results you and your team need. Start by applying the practical wisdom of Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams.

Smart Leadership provides a completely up to date overview of thecurrent thinking on leadership. It outlines the latest theories andprinciples you need to apply to be a successful leader and includestips and wisdom from the greatest business thinkers andwriters. Smart books are essential primers to the key issues facing businesspeople. They are practical and action-oriented, providing instantknowledge for ambitious and hungry professionals who want to make alasting impression throughout their career. Smart books aredesigned to give killer approaches to key business subjects, anddeliver sound principles in a style that is both informative andhas attitude. They are the prefect resource for time-starved,information-hungry business people everywhere!

Wherever they are in their career, this guide will give professionals a comprehensive understanding of the basic building blocks of effective leadership and management. For all professionals, knowledge of the key elements of high-quality leadership is vital, whether they are existing managers, taking on additional managerial responsibilities, or looking ahead to their career goals. This base of knowledge stretches from the individual - leading yourself - to the group, leading teams and even entire organizations. In tackling all these key aspects, the book equips individuals to progress in any area of leadership and management, from team-building to strategic planning. It also addresses the unique challenges of remote leadership that have arisen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an essential guide for anyone looking to thrive in a new era of modern leadership.

"“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. The way we learn those lessons is not to deny the feelings but to find the meanings underlying them.” -Stanley Lindquist It is rightly said that wise persons learn from the experiences of others whereas foolish persons learn by their own experiences. This book helps you become a wise person by learning from the experiences of others. It is packed with the case studies of various international leaders such as Peter Drucker, Marshall Goldsmith, Frances Hesselbein, Florence Nightingale, Barack Obama, and Steve Jobs. It inspires you to learn from their success stories and assists you to discover your blind spots. It is a “short-term course” on leadership meant for those who lead a hectic life but want to excel as smart leaders. The book will make valuable contibutions to enhance your leadership qualities and effectiveness. It is useful to leaders from various fields working at different levels including entrepreneurs, educators, and life-long learners. International Acclaim for Professor M. S. Rao’s Book! “The international leadership guru, Professor M. S. Rao, outlines the essence of leadership lessons that help you become a smart leader. I strongly recommend this book.” Vijay Govindarajan Among World’s Top 3 Management Gurus “In his book, Smart Leadership – Lessons for Leaders, international leadership guru, Professor M. S.Rao, gives us a curriculum for becoming ‘smart leaders’ – several lessons for achieving such status and excelling in this new role. Without having to enrol at your local university or college, you’ll be treated to a brilliant ‘guest lecture’ in each chapter by some of the world’s smartest leaders – Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Peter Drucker, just to name a few. In his ‘six steps for success’ within the book, Professor Rao gives us the key to enter the elite world of ‘smart leaders’. He teaches us to have ‘clarity of purpose first,’ then to tackle his six steps, and ultimately, to unlock our secret potential.” Marshall Goldsmith Author of the New York Times bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There “Smart Leadership brings essential leadership lessons, not for the leaders of the past, but for the leaders of the future. Professor M. S. Rao’s book will inspire, engage and move us to share its messages widely. Moreover, it’s fun to read, to contemplate, and make it our own.” Frances Hesselbein President & CEO, The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute (Formerly, The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management) Former CEO, The Girl Scouts of the USA “Professor M. S. Rao has compiled a thought-provoking treasury of leadership wisdom in this slim book, going to the heart of principles that support enlightened management practice. Of special value is his focus on cultivating skills that produce both success and broader significance. These are ideas that can create a better world.” Dipak C. Jain Dean, INSEAD "

Escape the mediocrity that ensnares so many in business and become a better, more effective leader. Have you ever wondered what it would take to be a better leader, or achieve your wildest dreams, or make a bigger difference in the world? The answer lies in the choices you make: about everything from how you spend your time to the way you view the world. Smart Leadership is the latest essential business title from internationally bestselling author of Win the Heart and Chess Not Checkers Mark Miller. In this book, he shares the four research-based “smart choices” the best leaders make to scale their influence and results. By teaching you how to Confront Reality, Grow Capacity, Fuel Curiosity, and Create Change, Miller will help you: Bring fresh eyes and fresh thinking to your leadership approach. Increase your confidence in your ability to make a difference. Lead at levels you never thought possible. Accelerate your learning curve so that all these benefits come faster and more naturally. With this guide, your leadership—and your life—will be transformed forever.

In his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player. In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle’s company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess, and then build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues. Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players. Whether you’re a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling.

1 Nurture the professionals - an environment of value is one where teachers are trusted to function, not de-skilled -- 2 Nurture a much wider and less impoverished view of what constitutes achievement -- Case study - symposium on education North Devon April 2014 -- 3 Nurture the learner - thinking for themselves -- 4 Nurture human connections - introduce learners to each other -- Notes -- 11. Listen to the music (and help change the song): Wise leaders and transformative change -- Concerns, not demands -- Creativity and empathy -- Global leadership -- Transformative change and the culture of an organisation -- Getting to yes: the bottom line and the skill of negotiation -- Two metaphors -- Listen to the music (and change the song) -- A course in executive education based on this idea -- Notes -- 12. Leadership with spirit: Wisdom and the black box of power -- Ten commandments for the wise leader in highly complex times -- Notes -- Postscript -- Motivational drivers and human value theory: Maslow revisited -- The dog that didn't bark -- Motivated by power -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index.