What makes a leader relevant? It's not their place of employment, job title, experience, or status in life?it's their resilience. The true measure of any leader is his or her ability to react based on past experience and gut feelings, respond in real time to current circumstances, and then to recover quickly and move on with new lessons learned. The Little Book of Leadership combines classic style with the latest innovations to challenges the reader to self-evaluate every facet of their leadership, coaching, and communication abilities in order to better formulate what actions can be taken to improve their natural skills. Ideas and answers are provided for every challenge.
- Chapters include information about the 12.5 leadership strengths: From insights to legacy and every element in between. Morale, Attitude, Resilience, Opportunity, Guts, Measurement, Coach, Celebration, Next-level, and Lost Secret of Leadership
- Foreword by Dr. Paul "Doc" Hersey, creator of Situational Leadership
- Other books by Gitomer: The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource, Revised Edition, also by Wiley, The Little Red Book of Selling (Bard Press) The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude (Pearson)
Whereas other books rely on theory or philosophy, The Little Book of Leadership takes leadership into the real world of business, providing proven methods for becoming a successful leader.
Q&A with Author Jeffrey H. Gitomer
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I grew up in a family of leaders. My father, all of his brothers, all of my aunts and uncles, and all of their parents were business people. All the conversations and stories at our dinner table and family events focused around business and what all these people (men and women) did in their leadership positions. Without realizing it at the time, I had been exposed to solid business leadership lessons way before I ever went to college. I have always owned my own business. I have always been the leader of people and salespeople --not just from the perspective of how to lead, but also by being the example of leadership resilience. How to think about, how to react to, what to do with, how to respond to, and how to recover from whatever happens in business. Resilience is the true mark of any leader and is the common thread throughout this book. My writing inspiration comes from a combination of all these elements, and from my own personal experiences.
Who do you see as the audience for this book?
The obvious audience for this book is people in leadership positions. Not just owners of companies, but anyone in a C-suite, anyone in a management position, and anyone who is responsible for others. The not so obvious audience is aspiring leaders, people who want to become better than they are right now, and people who want to take on the challenge of leadership who are looking for education before they take on the challenge. It is my hope that the knowledge in this book will serve as a standard for how non-leaders can transform and emerge as new leaders.
What is the most important thing you hope leaders learn from reading this book?
When I was writing the book, I wanted to make certain that self-awareness was a key element. All leaders have flaws. The challenge is to strengthen, not simply learn. That’s why I’ve called the chapters “strengths,” and that’s why I’ve created self-evaluations along the way. I want leaders to look at the strengths within the book as self-evaluations, not simply as knowledge.
What is the biggest mistake you see leaders making today?
The obvious mistake leaders make is being unprepared and unaware. Unprepared with fundamental leadership knowledge, unaware of the importance of their attitude, and unprepared to make immediate decisions necessary to carry out their leadership responsibility. I have addressed all these potential mistakes in my Little Book of Leadership. Moreover, this book challenges the reader to think, understand, take action, become proficient, and then master the strengths that are imperative to a leader’s success and the strengths that will lead to a leader’s fulfillment.
