Technological Institute of the Philippines

Book Summary: Leadership Secrets by Micheal Heath

Coderes, Calvin Carl R.

This book Leadership Secrets is a quick and easy to understand guide to the fundamentals of leadership. It helps the readers to understand and develop their own leadership style. It identifies strategic goals and gives idea how to motivate and manage teams of all sizes. Build a culture of results and responsibility. Lead the way out of a crisis. This book will guide the readers in becoming a good leader by defining the characteristics of a leader as well as its responsibilities and roles. Everything will be discussed and tackled in this summary. The secrets behind Leadership are within the seven chapters of the book. Leadership Character. There is a core of behaviors, values and characteristics that great leaders have. These characteristics are the backbone that makes the leader strong and stood out. Being a leader means having a character that makes the people working with you to look up to you. Such characteristics and values are needed in order to make a great leader out of you. Leadership Responsibilities. Leaders change things. They are responsible to the changes in a team or even a company. They reshape and remodel the team, strategy or approach in order to adjust and meet the demand of tomorrow. It is also the leaders responsibility to make sure that his members are well aware and knowledgeable of the teams goals. Leadership Strategy. The ability to set a strategic direction is where leaders thrive or fall. Putting up a strategy, changing and adjusting strategy; the things that a leader should know how to do. Managing sudden changes and adapting to it whilst creating a strategy to cope with it. Leadership and Execution. A leader should know how to make things work. Not just talk the talk. Executing the plan and executing the leadership is important since its about getting everyone walk the walk. A good leader has his good followers. Leadership and Change. Change happens. The working world doesnt have a habit of waiting around for others to catch up. But not everyone in the team thinks the same. It is the leaders task to make sure that the team can cope with the changes. Leadership Influence. You need friends. Not so much in high places but in the important places. Friends that will help you build your character to the right path. They need also need nurturing if youre serious about getting your initiatives off the ground. Leadership and the Team. As a leader, you need great people around you. Those people that will help you in good and in bad times of work. As a leader it is also your task to continuously challenge them to keep them great. Theyre going to have to pick up the goals and make them their own.

These are the seven things that make up the secret on being a Successful Leader. With these explained further, you will understand and learn how to make yourself a great leader.

LEADERSHIP CHARACTER The most important of being a leader is your backbone or what makes you a leader. Attributes traits and character that makes up a leader, different styles in leadership all depends on these. Without these attributes theres nothing to support you as a leader, thus resulting into a bad management of team. A leader should have courage. As a leader you will feel and experience emotional and physical discomfort. Having courage to face such discomfort is valuable for a leader. Leaders are always in the face of making decisions, having dozens of choices. Many will just walk away from these just to play safe, afraid of making mistake, failing or even trying. Courage is about having the strength to stand for the whole team and even walk in the dark path; not backing down, standing firm amidst adversities in front of him. It is about acting out of integrity and being true to ones principles. It is the courage of a person who, when they realize that something important is being lost, they will take stand and ask the questions that no one else dare ask. As a leader you must show that fears and doubts are what holding back the team. Thats why as their leader you must be the first source of their courage. A leader who displays this moral courage honors those who also show the same behavior. It is the beginning of an ethically motivated team. Be mentally tough. We all have these moments in our lives when we are in a difficult situation. Moments like there are sudden changes in the world that affects the goals and plans of the team. Circumstances that create walls to prevent you and your team achieve your goals. Such moments are lonely. And its often these moments that highlight just how isolating the position of being a leader is. Mental toughness is about recognizing the fight as a long one and being prepared to it. Having a firm decision and conviction that even there are times when youre on your own or times when the whole team is with you, you still manage to handle the stress and carry on. Either way, a mentally tough leader will be determined to see it through to achieve what they know is the right outcome. A leader must have self-discipline. Putting aside what you want to do for the things you need to do. A leader cant look away from his responsibility. Self-discipline is the same choice. If you go with your emotions rather than your inner strength and

logic, your purpose or goal may smash upon the rocks. Exerting will-power against things that will hinder you in doing the things you must do is what we need. Overpowering temptations, habits and desires that takes us away from responsibility, this is what a leader should know how to do. A leader must value his character. We all have different values, good and bad. Whats important is that we acknowledge these and accept it as part of us. But as a leader we must focus more on our good values. Making sure that in every decision we make, base it on our good values and moral ethics. This will ensure us that the decisions we make the right ones. Projecting Confidence is also a part of good traits there is in a leader. A good leader projects a good stance or appearance. This will be seen by his followers; his confidence. You must project a positive attitude, no matter what situation the team is in; never give them that negative aura. Maintain appropriate eye contact. Watch those hands as well as other body movements. Action speaks louder than words and through those actions people around can see if youre relaxed or not. Prepare thoroughly for any task. Dress Confidently. Choose your opinions carefully. Lastly notice any feelings of vulnerability. Be passionate, enthusiasm and patient. Inspire those whom you work with. Understand them and motivate them. Passion and enthusiasm spread like virus and is contagious. Always maintain an optimistic outlook. But never let your enthusiasm interfere with your objectives and goals. Be always patient. Not all results will come out as fast as we need them. Not all goals can be achieved faster than we know. Not all of the persons working with you will be that easy to lead. You must stand on your ground and the things that you believe in. Be a warm touch and develop yourself. Be sincere and caring for the people working with you. It is better to be cold but honest leader that a false, insincere one. Always show that smile and greet people. Have a relaxed and open body language and avoid aggressive behavior. Tend to help your team, may it be physical or emotional, some people are just down at some times. All they need is encouragement from their leaders. Develop your skills and acquire more knowledge. The world is continuously growing. Implement trainings for your team. We need to develop and improve in this ever changing world. LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITES It is the leaders responsibility to ensure to make visions, goals, plans and strategies into motion and reality. Spot the changes and decide how the team or department should position itself to meet their goals. A leader must foresee this future that they want to realize. And then turn this abstract future into something concrete.

Motivate the team and communicate with them in detail what success looks like and why. Make sure that the team is on the right track in your journey. And the team should be prepared to meet this future, building up their confidence and providing them with new skills through training and development. On leading the team we must not forget to manage. As a leader you wont just be ensuring that your members are doing it right. You must also make sure to maintain the system and create stability. Lead to bring about climate change. Changing the climate or the environment of the work field is part of the responsibilities of a leader. Innovate, bring sense of responsibility to the members, set standards to follow and identify what commitment the team has in common. The leader must know the status of the teams morale; he then can change the climate for improving it. Be confident but humble as a strong leader. When you become a leader you get used to assuming command. As a leader you must love leading. Be ready to become unpopular since being leader also breeds haters and disobedient members. Confront difficulties and love challenges. Be cool under pressure and stay focused on the right thing. But never forget to be as humble as you can. As a leader you should think about others too. Being humble stops you from making decisions that would bring a humiliating reality. Humble people are genuinely open to the views of others, when they know theyre not right they concede, open about their faults to others, gracious when others are praised over them. Also as humble leaders, we must also not forget to open up to people. Being a leader doesnt mean working alone and standing there on top like a general. Good leaders know decisions are helped by access to the best information. And the information is out there. A leader just needs to have time for people and approach them. Always smile and be aware of their body language. Dont just talk about work to clear lingering stress and try to listen to others.

LEADERSHIP STRATEGY If you really see yourself as a leader, you have to develop and implement strategy. To do this you need to think in terms of the big picture. Set your visions to what you and your team what to achieve. Formulate a strategy in basis to that vision. Always look at the bigger picture. Mostly we forget about the ultimate goal that we want to meet. We focus more on the smaller picture or the small things that we are facing in everyday work. Sometimes short-term solutions bring long term problems. Always consider the effects and consequences of every movement. You have to be able to view the strategy in its wholeness and see how all parts of it interconnect. A strategy is worthless if your members doesnt know it or dont understand it the way you want them to. It is a leaders job to make sure that his followers know how to

do things. They should know what the strategy is, how to implement it, and what the results in the end are. As a leader, make sure to present and deliver the strategy that you made. Keep this strategy concentrated on key top-line themes. Express your objectives in measurable terms. People buy in to a strategy when they are intellectually and emotionally convinced. But never forget to turn your strategy into action. Its not about the talk, its about the walk. But in order to make your strategy works make sure that the needed resources are in place. Create a detailed action plan, since there will be dozens of task and process. Make sure that your members will not go off course. You can adjust dates of deadlines if needed. Change in tactics and strategy sometimes will be done in order to adapt to the new situation the team is in. Dont forget to implement economics. A leader must know how business works. And always look for improvements. Reading helps you know whats new in your working life. Have a passion for learning new things and always be competitive.

LEADERSHIP AND EXECUTION Leadership is about unknowns. You will have to make tough decisions in hard situations. Your members will see how your leadership is through these moments. How you execute your leadership and authority, as well as your power in facing these hard situations. Always remember to get tough with tough decisions. Once youre fully decided of a decision, have an unbreakable will to it. A wavering decision making will cause your followers to slowly lessen their trust to you. In order for you to be sure of a right decision make sure to decide if its really your own. Make a research and study the case. Take your time and dont neglect looking help from others. Make sure that the people following you know when to deliver and finish their tasks. You have to mind your way through roadblocks. Life is never an easy journey, as well as your job as a leader especially in making decisions. Obstacles will always be there, you just need to identify it and be prepared to it. Be flexible in every situation and have a clear communication. Being leader means being someone they can talk to, not someone who yells at them. If you keep your team happy and satisfied, good results will come. Fight battles worth winning. Dont head to a fight that wont give benefits to your team and to your goals whether you win or not. Respond to underperformance and make a change to it. Dont just let your team fall from its standards. Negate the negative conflict. These conflicts can affect your teams performance. Always have regular ones-to ones with the people you lead. And watch signs of stress in your employees. It is most likely the start of a conflict.

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE People dont hate changes. But they do hate change they dont understand or doesnt agree with. So selling the change is important. As a leader you have to make them want to go with you, deal with their anxieties and respect the emotions that change stirs up. Develop a vision of change everyone sees. These visions must be handled down to staff. It must be concise, realistic and has conviction. Your vision must set out the destination you want to reach and why its worth reaching. As a leader you should also know how to convince people why they must change. It is your responsibility to communicate with them the reasons why they must comply to such changes. They will want to know why the change is needed and where it is you want the team to head on. All is flux; nothing stays still. People deal with change in very different ways. There are many who are open to change and see it as a normal part of working life. There are others who dread it. They experience a sinking feeling the moment anything new is announced and dearly hope that it may never happen. Invite resistance. Employees fear the unknown. The change may exist in the leaders head but sometimes its not yet logged in the teams. Your followers must be convinced why theres a need to that change. There will be feedbacks, from you, the team, and even the higher-ups. Feedback often supplies the high-quality information you need. But you have to be mature enough to open yourself up to accurate, constructive feedback. Listen to it carefully and dont react or get defensive. If you hear something you disagree with ask for more information, dont just justify or defend. Explore any underlying reasons why the feedback took form it did. It is easy to make decisions when you have all the information you need. A little experience, a lot of thought and analysis, and youll soon arrive at the right choice. Innovate for a great Plan B. In every change process there will be unexpected obstacles or roadblock. Those most successful people are those who are good at Plan B. Always make sure that you have an alternative or substitute plan or strategy for these sudden roadblocks. If your Plan A is already jeopardized, without have a prepared Plan B your team is already doomed.

LEADERSHIP INFLUENCE Followers follow not just because a leader is intelligent, they follow his because of his influence. Influence is like a super power that turns your people to follow you in your plans and ideals. It is a strong character that a leader must possess. Your people need to feel that presence in you that tells them unconsciously that you are the right person to follow. Influence can help you in gaining trust and help. But exercise your influence carefully, for this influence can result to bad feedbacks as well as enemies. Always be ethical and rational. They say influence is power therefore you need to be responsible with it. Having influence automatically displays power and sometimes authority. Spread your influence to your team. Be their influence. Your ideals and good characters can be passed on to your team through this.

LEADERSHIP AND THE TEAM There wont be a leader if there wont be a team to lead. Your team is the most important part of you being a leader. It is your job and responsibility to make the team work out your plans and strategy. Your team will be with you in good and in bad times. So you need to take care of them. The best leader is the one whose team chooses to follow. To be a successful leader you need a great team around you. But the team has to be dynamic, focused and able to deliver. You need to build an empowered team. An empowered team makes decisions that have real impact on the success of the organization. Mentor your future leader and develop their ability to think for themselves. Be sure to always meet your team. A good communication is the best way to get to them.