The Leadership Habit

The 10 essential skills to transform the way you lead The Leadership Habit provides the framework for patterns of behavior that will transform the way you lead. By articulating a clear, well-defined standard of what it means to be a leader, this book condenses volumes of advice and opinion into 10 key areas and teaches leaders how they can create daily habits surrounding these centers of excellence. Leaders who can commit to creating change will develop more productive teams and will build long-term growth for their organization. This book is your invaluable guide to being one of the greats, with proven advice and a concrete framework for leading well. Through expert discussion and deep dissection of these critical areas, you’ll discover how to drive for results, build the best team, execute on vision, foster innovation, and more. Learn how to: Transform your habits across 30 specific skill areas Model personal growth, focus, and positivity Accelerate productivity and maintain your organization’s competitive advantage As a leader, your team's performance and your organization's outlook are direct reflections of you. Discover how to become a catalyst for driving performance and results by transforming your actions every day.

In leadership as in life, only practice makes perfect. Habits are powerful, and The Leader Habit offers a simple, original approach to dramatically improving even our weakest areas. Routines quietly undergird large portions of what we do and how we function. Habit formation can speed success in the workplace as well--even in complex areas like leadership. Leadership training expert and bestselling author Martin Lanik spotlights 22 essential leadership abilities, breaking them down into a series of small, learnable behaviors. In The Leader Habit, you will find: Compelling evidence on how habits shape our lives, and how leadership is simply a series of habits Content based on original research that looks at 795 leaders across the globe, identifying 22 essential leadership skills and 79 micro-behaviors that make up those skills Simple exercises to turn effective leadership behaviors into ingrained habits, along with clear cues that tell you when to practice each A Leader Habit Quiz that assesses 6 personality traits and points to behaviors that you’ll find most rewarding Tips for staying motivated, avoiding procrastination, and sustaining progress The book's simple formula focuses on developing one skill at a time: sell the vision, delegate well, innovate often, empower others, overcome resistance, build strategic relationships, focus on customers, listen actively, negotiate effectively, and more. Many of us aspire to great leadership by consuming books and training. However, unless you intentionally reinforce the right behaviors, results are fleeting. The Leader Habit builds the "muscle memory" to turn leadership skills into lasting habits.

"Leadership as a Habit of Mind is an insightful and original work. The book is compulsively readable for its stories of personal experiences that have shaped the way leaders think and act. Even better, it offers a new concept-"habits of mind"-that will help other leaders and would-be leaders to understand their own formative experiences and use them wisely." -HOWARD SCHULTZ, Chairman and Chief Global Strategist, Starbucks Coffee Company "What an amazing way to think about leadership! These fascinating real-leader stories persuasively teach that sustainable public victories come from the inner work of private victories." -Dr. STEPHEN R. COVEY, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People "A deeply moving book about leaders who know how to move leaders to great possibilities. Spiritual and practical. Complex and profoundly simple. "An important and unique addition to the leadership literature." -WARREN BENNIS, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, and author of Managing the Dream and On Becoming a Leader "The mystery of leadership gets a jolt of real-life enlightenment thanks to Mackoff and Wenet's sparkling new book. The authors supply a big missing piece-what really goes on inside a leader's head-by tapping into some of the best leadership talent around and giving us a front-row seat to the way these people think. Instead of offering the same tired old profiles and how-tos, this book bristles with energy, originality, and oomph." -NANCY K. AUSTIN, coauthor, A Passion for Excellence "Enlightened leadership comes from within, as Drs. Mackoff and Wenet's provocative new book clearly illuminates. This intelligent, well-researched book should be required reading for executives and entrepreneurs alike, it is an invaluable guide for those who aspire to inspire the people and organizations that will flourish in this new century." -JANE ADAMS, author of Women on Top and Making Good: Conversations with Successful Men

Children in today's world are inundated with information about who to be, what to do and how to live. But what if there was a way to teach children how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them? The Leader in Meis that programme. It's based on a hugely successful initiative carried out at the A.B. Combs Elementary School in North Carolina. To hear the parents of A. B Combs talk about the school is to be amazed. In 1999, the school debuted a programme that taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleto a pilot group of students. The parents reported an incredible change in their children, who blossomed under the programme. By the end of the following year the average end-of-grade scores had leapt from 84 to 94. This book will launch the message onto a much larger platform. Stephen R. Covey takes the 7 Habits, that have already changed the lives of millions of people, and shows how children can use them as they develop. Those habits -- be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw -- are critical skills to learn at a young age and bring incredible results, proving that it's never too early to teach someone how to live well.

Revive your leadership. Grow healthy teams. See great results. Healthy teams begin with healthy leaders, and at the heart of this dynamic is emotional maturity—the quality the greatest leaders possess. Combining solid theology, cutting-edge brain science, and decades of counseling and consulting experience, Rare Leadership shows you how to take your leadership and team to the next level. It will equip you to: Cultivate emotional maturity in yourself and others Develop the four habits of R.A.R.E. leaders Promote a strong group identity Keep relationships bigger than problems Increase productivity through trust, joy, and engagement Whether you are burnt out or just looking to improve, when you prioritize people and lead from a secure identity, you’ll be amazed at the freedom you feel and the results you see. You can lead from a healthy place, respond rather than react, and build the team of your dreams. If you want to take your organization to the next level, it starts with you. Read Rare Leadership and be equipped to lead joy-filled, emotionally mature, relationally connected teams.

In the 7 Habits series, international bestselling author Stephen R. Covey showed us how to become as effective as it is possible to be. In his long-awaited new book, THE 8th HABIT, he opens up an entirely new dimension of human potential, and shows us how to achieve greatness in any position and any venue. All of us, Covey says, have within us the means for greatness. To tap into it is a matter of finding the right balance of four human attributes: talent, need, conscience and passion. At the nexus of these four attributes is what Covey calls voice - the unique, personal significance we each possess. Covey exhorts us all to move beyond effectiveness into the realm of greatness - and he shows us how to do so, by engaging our strengths and locating our powerful, individual voices. Why do we need this new habit? Because we have entered a new era in human history. The world is a profoundly different place than when THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE was originally published in 1989. The challenges and complexity we face today are of a different order of magnitude. We enjoy far greater autonomy in all areas of our lives, and along with this freedom comes the expectation that we will manage ourselves, instead of being managed by others. At the same time, we struggle to feel engaged, fulfilled and passionate. Tapping into the higher reaches of human genius and motivation to find our voice requires a new mindset, a new skill-set, a new tool-set - in short, a whole new habit.

Coaching is an essential skill for leaders. But for most busy, overworked managers, coaching employees is done badly, or not at all. They're just too busy, and it's too hard to change. But what if managers could coach their people in 10 minutes or less? In Michael Bungay Stanier's The Coaching Habit, coaching becomes a regular, informal part of your day so managers and their teams can work less hard and have more impact. Coaching is an art and it's far easier said than done. It takes courage to ask a question rather than offer up advice, provide an answer, or unleash a solution. Giving another person the opportunity to find their own way, make their own mistakes, and create their own wisdom is both brave and vulnerable. It can also mean unlearning our ''fix it'' habits. In this practical and inspiring book, Michael shares seven transformative questions that can make a difference in how we lead and support. And, he guides us through the tricky part - how to take this new information and turn it into habits and a daily practice. -Brené Brown, author of Rising Strong and Daring Greatly Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching skills, Bungay Stanier reveals how to unlock your peoples' potential. He unpacks seven essential coaching questions to demonstrate how---by saying less and asking more--you can develop coaching methods that produce great results. - Get straight to the point in any conversation with The Kickstart Question - Stay on track during any interaction with The AWE Question - Save hours of time for yourself with The Lazy Question, and hours of time for others with The Strategic Question - Get to the heart of any interpersonal or external challenge with The Focus Question and The Foundation Question - Finally, ensure others find your coaching as beneficial as you do with The Learning Question A fresh, innovative take on the traditional how-to manual, the book combines insider information with research based in neuroscience and behavioural economics, together with interactive training tools to turn practical advice into practiced habits. Dynamic question-and-answer sections help identify old habits and kick-start new behaviour, making sure you get the most out of all seven chapters. Witty and conversational, The Coaching Habit takes your work--and your workplace--from good to great.

The official British Army book on what makes its leadership so successful, and how to become a better leader yourself - whatever your field. ___________________ 'If you want to become a better leader, read this book' Eddie Jones 'An extraordinary read for any leader. Truly brilliant' General Stanley McChrystal, author of Team of Teams 'Excellent. Offers proven tools and strategies' Matthew Syed ___________________ The Habit of Excellence is a unique insight into British Army leadership, explaining what makes it unique, what makes it so effective and what civilians can take from it to become better leaders themselves. Drawing on the latest research in military history, business, sociology, psychology and behavioural science, and with compelling illustration from British Army operations across the centuries, Lt Col Langley Sharp MBE goes beyond the latest leadership fads to distil into one peerlessly authoritative work the essence of leading and leadership from one of the world's most revered institutions. ___________________ 'Excellent. It's hard to see how any leader, whatever their field, wouldn't benefit from reading and rereading it' New Statesman 'Offers lessons for all managers' Financial Times 'Valuable in any walk of life' General Sir Mike Jackson, former Chief of the General Staff 'Very readable. I could not recommend this exceptional book more' General The Lord David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff 'Comprehensive and clearly written' Karin von Hippel, Director-General of RUSI 'Terrific. Full of insights and lessons' General David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA