Four Towering Conclusions About Leadership
All of the experience, thinking, testing and probing, interviewing, research, discussion, and observation that spawned my understanding of leadership also yielded four conclusions that tower over every other piece of knowledge.
The first towering conclusion is that people commit to other people, so anyone who wishes to lead, to win the commitment of others in order to create change, must become the kind of person who attracts commitment. It is more than a matter of learning skills or competencies. It is a matter of living a life. As one leader told me, “How wonderful would it be if you were known through your life as ‘Honest Abe’? How much could you do? Wouldn’t that be amazing, to have that reputation?”
52 Years To Write A Book (And Notes Of Thanks)
The two questions I am most often asked as a book author are:
1- How long does it take to write a book?
2- Where do you get your ideas?
52 Years?
My answer to the first question depends on what I have in mind as my starting point. The questioner is usually thinking of the moment that I wrote the first paragraph. But there is a difference between writing a book and working on a book. I worked on each of my books, without being aware that I was doing so, for years before I plunked my butt in a chair to lay down the first words.
