Page 22 - The extraordinary leader

INTRODUCTION

“What will I gain from reading this book?”
“Will it be worth the effort I expend in plowing into its contents?”
“Will there be a good return on the time I invest in reading and studying it?”
“What about this book is different than other books on the subject of
‘leadership’?”
Those are justifiable questions. The more you know about our objectives
and the nature of this book, the easier it will be for you to arrive at good
answers to those questions. Purchasing any book lightens your purse or wal-
let a tad, but the real investment is not dollars. Reading any book consumes
an extremely valuable commodity—your time.
We had three primary objectives in writing this book. First was simplicity.
We insisted that the book provide a clear, understandable message. Nothing
is more irritating than to read a book on a topic of great personal interest and
then close the book and not be able to summarize the book’s point of view or
basic thesis. We do not expect everyone to agree fully with all the conclusions
we put forth.
But agree or not, this book contains a simple model of leadership, our
answer about whether leadership can be developed, how leadership can be
developed by individuals themselves, and what organizations can do to
develop leaders. We present a case study of an organization that successfully
transforms people into effective leaders. We present 20 insights, many of them
new ideas, about leadership. These create the framework of the book.
Our second objective was that the contents be actionable. We do not expect
that every idea in the book will be something you can implement immedi-
ately; but success for us will be your ability to take a great portion of our find-
ings and be able to do something with them. We believe that real learning
shows up in new behavior.
If this book is a serious vehicle of learning, then the way to measure
its value is via the new actions you take. In leadership development
programs, there is the perennial plea to the instructors for “What do I do on

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