Title: It’s Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters
Most In Business
Author: Bob Burg and John David Mann
Subjects: Success in business
Page Number: 127
ISBN: 9781591844198
Summary: This
nonfiction book about leadership and persuasion is written in a fiction style.
The primary character, Ben, has been assigned to promote a merger to a struggling
chair manufacturer with five hundreds employees. During the week, Ben met two
ladies and had lunch meetings with them. Each chapter is titled with what
happened during the day and each day is finalized with Ben’s own notes-Ben’s
Keys to Legendary Leadership. There are five of such Ben’s Keys: Key #1 Hold
the Vision, Key #2 Build Your People, Key #3 Do the Work, Key #4 Stand for
Something, and Key #5 Share the Mantle. There are succinct phrases followed the
title of the key. For example, under the Key: Do the Work, Ben wrote:
Lead from your gut
Know your pegs and shims
Stay hugely humble
Stay grounded
Get mud on your boots
And trust yourself
Those phrases came from the conversations Ben had with the
two ladies at lunch meeting and the interactions with employees of the chair
company as Ben visited and walked the buildings on different floors.
My Read: The
following are the five keys listed at the end of the book: Ben’s Keys to
Legendary Leadership:
Key #1 Hold the Vision
Lead with your mind.
Anyone can come up with a vision. The hard part is the
holding.
Building a business-building anything-is an act of faith.
Keep seeing in your mind’s eye where it is you’re going,
even when nobody else does. Especially when nobody else does. Never forget
where you came from. And watch your personal pronouns.
My note: leaders usually hold bigger pictures. In their
mind, they see farther and beyond.
Key #2 Build Your People
Lead from the heart.
Give people something good to live up to-something great-and
they usually will.
The more you yield, the more power you have. The substance
of influence is pull…not push. Tact is the language of strength. And don’t
react-respond.
My note: to react, one follows the other party’s given
direction thus loses one’s own vision. To respond, one uses her head and tact
to steer the pending issue away from further problematic and create a common
ground to neutralize the situation and build some possible rapport to ease the
other person involved.
Key #3 Do the Work
Lead from your gut.
Know your pegs and shims. Stay hugely humble. Get mud on
your boots. Stay grounded. And trust yourself.
My note: a good leader wouldn’t mind getting her hands dirty
setting examples for the others to follow.
Key #4 Stand for Something
Lead with your soul.
What you have to give, you offer least of all through what
you say; in greater part through what you do; but in greatest par through who
you are. Competency matters. Character matters more. Character is what happens
when life scratches itself on to your soul. You can lead only as far as you
grow. And you will grow only as far as you let yourself.
My note: the best service comes from who you are.
Key #5 Share the Mantle
Let others lead.
It’s not about you…it’s about them. Don’t get it backward:
don’t start thinking you’re the deal. The best way to increase your influence
is to give it away. Sometimes it’s time to move to a bigger building.
My note: when a person is totally engaged at achieving some
missions, there is no self to worry about. Selflessness is a phenomenon as a
person is engrossed in something so profoundly that her soul, body, and mind
blend in with the universe: she becomes the universe and the universe her.
A person can’t
make people do what they don’t like to do. Instead, she has a choice: she can
decide how to live the day. A person can choose what role she wants to play at
work: a prisoner, a passenger, a complainer, or a player. To me, the public
library is a place I can define who I am, a playground I can walk, talk, work,
and play. I am a player.
And, do you know who you are?
Possible Read:
Take the Lead-Betsy Myers
Go-Giver- Bob Burg and John David Mann
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