The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life [Paperback]

Robin Sharma (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 28, 2010

For more than fifteen years, Robin Sharma has been quietly sharing with Fortune 500 companies and many of the super-rich a success formula that has made him one of the most sought-after leadership advisers in the world. Now, for the first time, Sharma makes his proprietary process available to you, so that you can get to your absolute best while helping your organization break through to a dramatically new level of winning in these wildly uncertain times.

In The Leader Who Had No Title, you will learn:

• How to work with and influence people like a superstar, regardless of your position

• A method to recognize and then seize opportunities in times of deep change

• The real secrets of intense innovation

• An instant strategy to build a great team and become a "merchant of wow" with your customers

• Hard-hitting tactics to become mentally strong and physically tough enough to lead your field

• Real-world ways to defeat stress, build an unbeatable mind-set, unleash energy, and balance your personal life

Regardless of what you do within your organization and the current circumstances of your life, the single most important fact is that you have the power to show leadership. Wherever you are in your career or life, you should always play to your peak abilities. This book shows you how to claim that staggering power, as well as transform your life—and the world around you—in the process.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For more than fifteen years, Robin Sharma has been quietly sharing with Fortune 500 companies and many of the super-rich a success formula that has made him one of the most sought-after leadership advisers in the world. Now, for the first time, Sharma makes his proprietary process available to you, so that you can get to your absolute best while helping your organization break through to a dramatically new level of winning in these wildly uncertain times.

In The Leader Who Had No Title, you will learn:

How to work with and influence people like a superstar, regardless of your position

A method to recognize and then seize opportunities in times of deep change

The real secrets of intense innovation

An instant strategy to build a great team and become a "merchant of wow" with your customers

Hard-hitting tactics to become mentally strong and physically tough enough to lead your field

Real-world ways to defeat stress, build an unbeatable mind-set, unleash energy, and balance your personal life

Regardless of what you do within your organization and the current circumstances of your life, the single most important fact is that you have the power to show leadership. Wherever you are in your career or life, you should always play to your peak abilities. This book shows you how to claim that staggering power, as well as transform your life--and the world around you--in the process.

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Amazon Exclusive: A Note to Readers from Author Robin Sharma

Thank you for the opportunity to share a little about The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life. First, the book is the result of the 15 years I've spent as a leadership advisor to many of the FORTUNE 500 companies, including FedEx, Nike, Microsoft, GE, IBM, and organizations like Yale University and Young Presidents Organization--as well as to many über successful entrepreneurs. I mention that so that you know the book is built around real-world insights, lessons and tactics that the best quietly use to win in business (and within their personal lives). If you're at a point where you are ready for extraordinary performance, exceptional leadership and to play full out with your life, this book will be highly helpful to you.

Second, the book is written as a story-with a group of unforgettable characters that bring the whole Lead Without a Title process to life. The goal was to write a book that not only is full of powerful success tactics to become your leadership best but also one that entertains and deeply inspires. In this way, all the learning is sticky--and therefore valuable to you.

Finally, this book is really about not only the opportunity every human being has to show leadership (regardless of whether they have a title or not) but the responsibility we all have to work at our best potential--and make a difference in the lives of everyone around us in the process. Because the ultimate end-game of leadership isn't just positively influencing other people. It's transformation.

Best,

--Robin Sharma

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A Conversation with Author Robin Sharma

Q: Is it really possible for anyone to be a leader?

A: Absolutely. The core message of The Leader Who Had No Title is that every single one of us has the opportunity to show leadership in our work and within our lives--every single day. This isn't some motivational platitude. It's a reality that i've helped everyday people in organizations like Microsoft, GE, FedEx, Yale University and IBM achieve. Because leadership isn't really about the title on our business cards. Leadership is about the strength of our influence, our willingness to innovate, the quality of our attitide and our commitment to excellence. This doesn't mean that organizations should get rid of titles and structure. It simply means that leadership is a behavior--and anyone of us can show it.

Q: This is obviously a time of deep change. Does the "Lead Without a Title" philosophy you share in your new book speak to this?

A: Yes. The #1 competitive advantage any organization has right now is growing the leadership potential of EVERY employee, at all levels. From the mailroom to the boardroom, the companies that will win in these highly uncertain times will be those that get people Leading Without a Title. To succeed in this economy, the best organizations will encourage their people to think, feel and behave like leaders, delivering wow results within their work.

Q: So the nature of leadership is changing?

A: The old model of leadership is dead. Everyone's now a part of the leadership team. And each of us has the responsibility of driving positive results and leading by example. It's now Leadership 2.0. Everybody gets to show their leadership best when they walk in the front door every day. The Leader Who Had No Title shows you how.

Q: Is leadership something we only show at work then?

A: Leading Without a Title is actually a way to express your absolute best at work as well as at home. While the book is definitely for people who want to fly in their careers and win at work, there are some key ideas in the book on personal leadership, getting to peak health, balancing work and family and having a lot more fun on the journey of life.

Q: Why this book and why now?

A: Because we need real leaders. Companies that we used to believe in have gone bankrupt or been bailed out. Leaders we used to admire have lost face. We need to restore the leadership values that made us great. And it starts with every one of us leading ourselves. We all have that power. It's time to reconnect with it.

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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Iraq War vet Blake Davis is working a dull job at a bookstore when he's confronted by an eccentric stranger, one Tommy Flinn, who claims to have known his father and wants to mentor Blake. Thus begins this contrived, faux-inspirational leadership parable from Sharma (The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari). Making the lackluster argument that everyone in an organization has to be a leader, not just the CEO, Tommy schools Blake in the way of the hackneyed Leading Without a Title philosophy. As Blake encounters such saccharine caricatures as Anna, a self-actualized hotel housekeeper; Jackson Chan, a CEO-turned gardener; and Jet Brisley, a superstar massage therapist, he learns that by changing his attitude, he can change his life. Though this message will hit home with magical-thinking acolytes—Blake crows on the first page, The principles and tools you'll discover will automatically cause your career to fly, your happiness to soar, and your absolute best to fully express itself—awkward writing and abundant platitudes make it of little benefit to readers looking for serious leadership advice. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (December 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439109133
• ISBN-13: 978-1439109137
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robin Sharma is one of the world's most highly respected leadership experts. He is devoted to the mission of helping organizations develop people who Lead Without a Title so that they win in this period of intense change. His clients include Microsoft, GE, FedEx, IBM, Nike, NASA, Yale University, and The Young Presidents Organization. Sharma's books, such as The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and The Greatness Guide, have topped best-seller lists across the globe and have sold millions of copies in more than seventy languages. They have been embraced by rock stars, royalty, and many celebrity CEOs.

Sharma is also the cofounder of 960vets.com, an innovative online support resource that helps U.S. veterans successfully reintegrate into civilian life.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing and Invogorating and more... April 6, 2010

By Shawn B. Phillips

Format:Hardcover

I've got too many books to read... too much wisdom waiting for my intake. So, when I came across this book from a favorite, trusted author who I'd reconnected with through the magic of Twitter, I was reluctant to engage.

It's just a time thing, cost vs. benefit. And to be honest, the title didn't really spell it out for me. I couldn't see the connection with my life and needs. Sure, I have a business have moments of accepting my role as a leader but it's not where my focus is at the moment.

Ahhh... But, as luck would have it, as an author myself I had the good fortune to lay my hands on an early copy. I opened the fresh book planning to scan it for high-points and then file in the "get to it soon," pile... Ha ha.

That scanning turning into reading which turned into a completed book. I can't tell you exactly how but I can tell you that I feel an amazing sense of accomplishment, if only in completing something. More so, I am clear and energized. It's an amazing thing how words can awaken your soul and inspire your purpose.

There's a lifetime of wisdom in this masterpeice--but it's truly the power of the story that makes it work. There's a lot of smarts in every book store, online and in the world but so little knowledge matters for it's never effectively or inspirationally shared. Not the case here. Through a magically vivid story Robin shares a lifetime of transformational wisdom so effectively you won't even feel the pain of learning as it's "resistance free."

And as you may have gathered by now, it's not really a book of leadership, in the traditional sense. It's about LIFE and being a leader of self, an egoless leader of others and most notably a man or woman "at cause" in the world, making a difference. That's what truly matters most in this world we live in today.

If you're a place where you could use a boost of power, hope and confidence... have been thinking you could stand to take a strong handle of control in your life, make this the one book you embrace this year. You can thank us both later.

To Your Life @ FULL Strength,
Shawn Phillips

Author: Strength for Life: The Fitness Plan for the Rest of Your Life
Creator: Full Strength Premium Nutrition for Men ([...])

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This story gives you a powerful experience, and the principles build you up for an extraordinary life. April 2, 2010

By Tom Marcoux

Format:Hardcover

Do you like a moving story filled with powerful principles for improving your life? If so, this will fulfill your craving. Here's the crucial detail: this story *gives you an experience* so that the principles will stay with you -- and you can apply the principles to your daily life. The context of the story provides power. And here are samples of the principles: "Those who don't make time for daily exercise must make time for daily illness (p. 185)." "If something is important to someone who is important to you, it should become important to you as well (p.112)." "Your former habits of thinking and being must disintegrate before better ways of behaving can begin to integrate (p. 170)." "Take care of people and the money will take care of itself (p. 153)." "Victims recite problems. Leaders present solutions (p. xiii)." "Your words can show people possibilities they never knew existed (p. 113)." This book is a delightful surprise.

Tom Marcoux
CEO,
America's Communication Coach
Author of Be Heard and Be Trusted: How You Can Use Secrets of the Greatest Communicators to Get What You Want
and
Truth No One Will Tell You: How to Feed Your Soul, Save a Business, or Get a Job During an Economic Crisis
and
Nothing Can Stop You This Year!: How to Unleash Your Hidden Power to Persuade Well, Get More Done, Gain Sudden Profits, Command Intuition and Feel Great

35 of 44 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A FRAUD January 3, 2012

By Stefan

Format:Paperback

"The Leader Who Had No Title" is a sleek piece of empty smooth-talk. This so-called modern fable stacks up one easy-bought `truth' after another, hyping them as `explosive secrets', guaranteed to immediately and fundamentally change the life and career of the reader. The only thing this book guarantees, of course, is to make the author a lot of money. (The reader is `strongly encouraged' to visit the author's website, to buy download tools `for real and lasting results', book the author for a presentation, or `invest in copies of this book', which is possible at `a special price on bulk orders.')

"The Leader Who Had No Title" operates in a painfully one-dimensional world where people in the military are `men of honour', where one's parents are the most fantastic and inspirational people on earth, and where everyone can `win', regardless of their abilities, intelligence and psychology. Literarily, this is also a world where the java (of course not `coffee') is `amazing', where everyone `admires' what the other just said and where posh hotel lobbies just happen to be filled with `beautiful models'.

As a manual for changing life and career, "The Leader Who Had No Title" is a well-oiled mish-mash of conventional positivism, `go-out-and-do-it'-attitude and borrowed wisdom quotes. Sadly, this makes for an intellectual collapse, in which reality gives way to sleek superficiality. In instant actions of will, the reader is supposed to perform psychological feats that for the best of people take years, and that for some is, of course, never possible: `...clearing up the emotional dimension of your inner life, releasing any resentments you may be carrying, and letting go of all baggage from the past.' Wow. Less grave, but no less annoying, the book endlessly acts as its own pop-up ad, repeating on every second page (literally) that if the reader follows its lessons, he or she will experience `awesome results', `breathtaking success' and gain `staggering power' in `these wildly uncertain times', `this period of dazzling change', `this time of head-spinning upheaval' etc. etc. Since the ideas in the book are the author's own, it is equally cringing and amusing to find him make the characters non-stoppingly praise each other's statements: `Amazing thought!', `Wow, that's a cool way of seeing it!' or `That makes so much sense!'

As literature, "The Leader Who Had No Title" is a painful read. Shallow and sentimental, it comes up short on all aspects fundamental to a fable: philosophy, psychology and empathy.

"The Leader Who Had No Title" is, in sum, a fraud.

An example of the book's level:

Anna, one of the story's `genious teachers', to the main character, who has done US military service in Iraq: `I honor you and all the other soldiers who've made so many sacrifices for us. You've fought hard so we all could be free. I know it's impossible for me to really understand what you've been through. But I do want to express my deepest gratitude. I love America a lot. And you, along with those who fought by your side, have kept us safe. And strong. So thank you.'

Robin Sharma, you scare me. Your insides must be made of plastic.