LEADERSHIP BY THE BOOK By Ken Blanchard, Bill Hybels, and Phil Hodges

Reviewed by Mrs. Ancy Radhakrishnan

Ken Blanchard is explaining the characteristics of a SERVENT LEADER by considering Jesus as a leadership model and BIBLE as the textbook. According to him faith walk leadership meant not to convert leaders into Christianity but use the wisdom of Jesus to solve various problems related to customer services, business ethics and personal integrity.

There are two kinds of leaders: those who are leaders first and those who are servants first. People who are leaders first are possessive about their leadership position and they don’t like feedback. They are considering feedback as threat to their position.

Servant leaders have certain values and characteristic in common. They assume leadership only if they see it as the best way they can serve. They aren’t possessive about their leadership. Their paramount aim is the best interest of those they lead (shepherd is for the benefit of sheep). They gain personal satisfaction by watching the growth and development of those they lead.

Leadership begins with a clear vision, which has four aspects: purpose, image values and goals. The traditional pyramidal hierarchy is applicable for the visionary aspect of leadership. Leaders cant and wont delegate the responsibility of establishing vision and direction. But the effective implementation requires the traditional hierarchical pyramid upside down. So the customer contact people can be at the top of the organization and soar like eagles.

A servant leader can follow a five-step way to transform the potential winners to winners.

1. Tell them what to do.
2. Show them what to do.
3. Allow them to try.
4. Observe their performance.
5. Praise their progress and redirect.

Servant leadership is not about pleasing everyone. Jesus simple concern was to please God. Leadership without relation to God leads to ego trip. Servant leaders focus on spiritual significance (values) rather than earthly success. They are more concerned about developing loving relation, service and generosity than power, recognition and wealth.

Reading ‘Leadership by THE BOOK’ will help anybody who would like to be a servant leader. Ken Blanchard has pictured various aspects of true leadership in a very simple and accurate way through the conversation between a Professor, a minister and a market leader. Remember, Jesus taught his disciples through simple parables closely related to day-to-day life.

More From the Book:

Extracts from ‘Leadership by the Book’

Checkpoint 1

My Servant HEART-Leadership Character

1. Effective leadership starts on the inside.

• Real change in behavior eventually requires a transformation of the heart. That’s where the core of who I am resides.
• Jesus’ message was not just for the mind. It was directed at my heart. It was a real heart attack; it was about character change. Jesus is interested in me being a different person-a good and caring human being.

2. True leadership starts on the inside with a servant heart, then moves outward to serve others.

• As a servant first and a leader second, I will assume leadership only if I see it as a way in which I can serve. I’m “called” to leadership, rather than driven to it, because I naturally want to be helpful.

• Jesus did not want his disciples to be leaders first; he wanted them to become servants first. He told them: “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave to all.

3. Leaders with servant hearts have certain characteristics and values in common:

• My paramount aim is the best interest of those I lead.

• I gain personal satisfaction from watching the growth and development of those I lead.

• I have a loving care for those I lead.

• I want to be held accountable; I ask, “Has my performance met the needs of those I serve?”

• I’m willing to listen. In fact, I love feedback and advice-any information that will help me serve better.

• I have my ego under control. I don’t think less of myself, I just think about myself less. I don’t Edge God Out!

Checkpoint 2

My servant HEAD-Leadership Methods

1. Leadership begins with a clear vision.

• There are two aspects of leadership-a visionary role (doing the right thing) and an implementation role (doing things right)

• A Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion, and it’s this passion that I and other people want to follow. An organization without clear vision is like a river without banks-it stagnates and goes nowhere.

• A clear vision has four aspects:

• Purpose-telling me and others what business we’re in • Image-proving a picture of what things would be like if everything were running as planned

• Values-determining how I and others should behave when working on the purpose.

• Goals-focusing my energy and the energy of others right now.

• The traditional pyramidal hierarchy is effective for the visionary aspect of leadership. People look to me as their leader for vision and direction. While I should involve experienced people in shaping direction, I can’t and won’t delegate the responsibility for establishing vision and direction.

2. If I want people to be responsible, I must be responsive.

• The implementation role-living according to the vision and direction-is where most leaders and organizations get in trouble. The traditional pyramid is kept alive and well, leaving the customers uncared for at the bottom of the hierarchy. All the energy in the organization moves up the hierarchy as people try to please and be responsive to their boss, leaving the customer contact people-those closest to the customer-to be “ducks,” quacking away: “It’s our policy,” “I just work here,” or “do you want to talk to my boss?”

• Effective implementation requires turning the traditional hierarchical pyramid upside-down so the customer contact people are at the top of the organization and can be responsible-able to respond and soar like eagles-while leaders like myself serve or are responsive to our people helping them to accomplish goals and to live according to the vision and direction.

• The essence of servant leadership as symbolized by Jesus washing the feet of his disciples becomes operational only when the vision and direction are made clear to everyone.

• Clear vision comes first from the traditional hierarchy; implementation then follows with servant leadership, in which the shepherd is there for the benefit of the sheep.

3. The servant leader as a performance coach.

• There are three aspects of an effective performance management system:

• Performance Planning-All good performance starts with clear goals.

• Day-to-Day coaching-Observing a person’s performance, praising progress, and redirecting efforts that are off-base.

• Performance Evaluation-Final assessment of a person’s performance over a period of time.

• Most organizations emphasize performance evaluation, with some attention to performance planning. The area most often neglected is day-to-day coaching. This is the most important area for servant leaders.

• The five key steps for me, as a servant leader, to help potential winners become winners are:

a) tell them what to do

b) show them what to do

c) let them try

d) observe their performance, and then

e) praise their progress, or redirect

• The step that’s most often missed is observing performance. When I stop noticing performance, I have stopped being a performance coach. After Jesus gave his disciples the great commission, he told them he would be with them forever. He is always there ready to help. All servant leaders should do the same.

• My key to developing people is to catch them doing something right. In the beginning, when they’re learning something new, it can be approximately right. I praise progress. I know it’s a moving target.

Checkpoint 3

My Servant HANDS-Leadership Behavior

1. Servant leadership is not about pleasing everyone.

• I want to serve and help people to accomplish their goals and be effective, but my emphasis is on obedience to a higher mission and set of values.

• Jesus certainly did not try to please everyone. His simple concern was to please God.

• Servant leadership without a relationship to God can lead to an ego trip. E.G.O. = Edging God Out.

2. Servant leaders focus on spiritual significance more than earthly success.

• I’m more concerned about generosity than accumulation of wealth.

• I’m more concerned about service than recognition.

• I’m more concerned about developing loving relationships than power and status.

• When I focus on spiritual significance, fulfilling earthly success can then follow.

3. Effective servant leaders develop a triple bottom line.

• I emphasize that profit is the applause we get by serving our customers well and providing a motivating and empowering environment for our people.

• All three factors-financial strength, raving-fan customers, and gung ho people-are important. If one is overemphasized at the expense of the others, our long-term effectiveness is limited.

4. On a daily basis, effective servant leaders recalibrate their commitment to serve.

• I have a support/accountability group to keep me on track

• I make frequent use of the three disciplines: solitude, prayer, and the study of Scripture.

• I work my way through the twelve steps to Faith Walk Leadership.

Twelve Steps to Faith Walk Leadership

1. I admit that on more than one occasion I have allowed my ego needs and drive for earthly success to impact my role as a leader-and that my leadership has not been the servant leadership that Jesus modeled.

2. I’ve come to believe that God can transform my leadership motives, thoughts, and actions to the servant leadership that Jesus modeled.

3. I’ve made a decision to turn my leadership efforts over to God, and to become an apprentice of Jesus and the servant leadership He modeled.

4. I’ve made a searching and fearless inventory of my leadership motives, thoughts, and behaviors that are inconsistent with servant leadership.

5. I’ve admitted to God, to myself, and to at least one other person the exact nature of my leadership gaps-when I behave in ways that do not make Jesus proud.

6. I am entirely ready to have God remove all character defects that have created gaps in my leadership.

7. I humbly ask God to remove my shortcomings and to strengthen me against the temptations of recognition, power, and greed.

8. I’ve made a list of people whom I may have harmed by my ego-driven leadership, and I am willing to make amends to them all.

9. I’ve made direct amends to such people whenever possible, unless doing so would injure them or others.

10. I continue to take personal inventory regarding my leadership role, and when I am wrong, I promptly admit it.

11. By engaging the disciplines of solitude, prayer, and study of the Scriptures, I seek to align my servant leadership efforts with what Jesus modeled, and to constantly seek ways to be a servant first and a leader second with the people I encounter in my leadership responsibilities.

12. Having had a “Heart attack” regarding the principles of servant leadership, I have tried to carry this message to other leaders, and to practice them in all my affairs.

How to move from Good School to Great School?

This article is extracted from ‘From Good Schools to Great Schools: What Their Principals Do Well’, by Susan Penny Gray and William A. Streshly, published by Corwin Press.

In 2001, when Jim Collins went to identify what great CEOs do that others don’t (for his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don’t), he began by asking, “Why?” Why were these companies great and how did they get that way? As we started our research, we became convinced that we could use the same approach Collins used in order to gain insight into the characteristics and behaviors of our very best principals. We discovered that outstanding principals represent a wide range of personalities, and at the same time exhibit a solid core of leadership qualities and characteristics that coalesce to create startling success in their schools.

1. First, Build Relationships

In the private sector, where making a profit is the goal, leaders are not normally required to exert extraordinary effort building relationships because they usually have the luxury of getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.

Unfortunately, public education leaders do not have that luxury and must often work with a staff that they did not personally select. Student learning is the goal and people are the mechanisms for producing and sustaining student achievement. For this reason, a key prescription for principal leadership is the ability to work with people and build relationships with teachers, students, parents, and the community.

Focusing on relationships is not a gimmick for improving student test scores, but rather a means of laying the foundation for sustaining improvement over the long run. The principal’s efforts to motivate and invigorate estranged teachers and to build relationships among otherwise disengaged teachers can have a profound effect on the overall climate of the school.

2. Exercise Professional Will, But Stay Humble

While on the surface the great CEOs in Collins’s study seemed quiet and reserved, hidden within each of them was intensity, a dedication to making anything they touched the best it could possibly be.

We found evidence of this duality in every one of our highly successful principals. For example, one principal spoke very quietly. But his shy and unassuming nature was not a sign of weakness. When asked about reasons for the success of his school, he was adamant about the efforts he made. “I would hope people know that I did everything possible to support teachers in making sure students were successful at our school,” he said. “That was my Number One priority.”

Other principals exuded energetic, enthusiastic, and unreserved personalities. Still, they shared stories that revealed their humility. “The first year we created a vision and mission statement,” said one bold principal. “I had already spent a year working on my own vision. I had my rose-colored glasses on. I quickly realized we needed to spend time developing a collective school vision.”

3. Credit Others, Accept the Blame

Successful business executives talk about their companies and the contributions of others, but avoid discussion about the part they personally played. When things go well, they give credit to others; when things go badly, they accept the blame.

Similarly, highly successful principals consistently give credit to the work of teachers at their schools and take blame for decisions or programs that failed. For example, one principal we interviewed shared that some of the teachers at her school grumbled about having to implement guided reading every day. “I was pushing them too fast,” she said. “So I backed off.”

Another principal observed, “I don’t think of myself as the leader of the school. I think of myself as just one of the leaders at this school. It’s really them, not me. If they were not doing the work, the work would not be done. They are the ones in the trenches.”

4. Be Ambitious for the School’s Success First

The transformation from good to great in the private sector comes about by a snowballing process—step by step, action by action, decision by decision—until the company reaches greatness. Collins referred to this process as the “flywheel.” All of the characteristics and behaviors discussed thus far are the necessary ingredients that make up the flywheel pattern.

This process occurs in the schools of highly successful principals as well. In our interviews with these leaders, when asked what factors contributed to the success of their schools, they would reveal that success wasn’t due to a single program or event but instead was a process that evolved over time. Often the media covers the success of a school after it has made its breakthrough, giving the impression that the transformation occurred overnight. In reality, the transformative process of getting there was probably slow.

5. Resolve to Do What Needs Doing ... Then Do It!

Successful leaders identified in Collins’s study were determined to get what they wanted, when they wanted it. They adopted what Collins described as a “workmanlike diligence—more plow horse than show horse ... fanatically driven, infested with an incurable need to produce results.”

We found it easy to understand why CEOs in the private sector would be fanatically driven to produce profits, but we wondered just how school leaders would be so driven. As it turns out, all the highly successful principals in our study displayed an enduring resolve to meet the challenges of improving student learning at their schools.

For example, one principal was adamant that there be no barriers to incorporating guided reading strategies every day: “A couple of the teachers said it was a good idea but that it required too much preparation. I prepared all of the materials for them, so they had no excuse. If a teacher said, ‘This program isn’t working for me,’ I’d say, ‘Can I come in and teach it?’ I was obstinate. I just would not let them not do it.”

6. Get the Right People on board

CEOs do not need to ask permission to personally fire, demote, or reassign personnel who are not right for the organization. They just do it.

School principals do not have the same luxury, but our highly successful principals showed persistence in getting who they wanted on their staff, and in getting those teachers who did not work with their program to transfer or leave teaching. Once initial changes in staff were made, their teaching staff was very stable, with few teachers ever leaving the school. When these principals did need to hire staff, they were aggressive at finessing, politicking, and persuading to get the teachers they wanted.

7. Confront the Brutal Facts

Great leaders maintain unwavering faith that the company can and will prevail, regardless of present difficulties, and at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of the company’s current reality. Great leaders do not fool themselves or try to sugarcoat problems.

This is also true of great school leaders. The list of challenges facing schools today is long. Some of those we read about regularly in newspapers and journals across the country include accountability and the No Child Left Behind act, the achievement gap among diverse student populations, language barriers, issues with unions and contracts, student discipline, grade inflation, and the shortage of highly qualified teachers. Teachers and principals in schools everywhere can be heard commiserating about students not doing their homework, or parents not being involved in their children’s education.

However, there is hope. Mike Schmoker, in his book Results Now (2006), encouraged readers to see the brutal facts as opportunities to “blow the lid off school attainment, dramatically and swiftly reduce the achievement gap, and enhance the ‘life chances’ of all children, regardless of their social or economic circumstances.” Principals and teachers in some schools are coming together as a collaborative team to face these challenges and do something about them.

8. Be Passionate About Your Educational Engine

There’s an ancient Greek parable that says, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Collins found that the great CEOs “know what their company can do the best, what their economic engine is, and what their passion is all combined into one crystalline concept.”

For school principals, the hedgehog concept consists of knowing what teachers are best at (e.g., skill and determination), determining what drives the educational engine of the school (e.g., increasing time spent teaching reading), and then being a fanatic about driving that engine.

For example, one principal we interviewed saw his school as rich with raw material—the skill and determination of the teaching staff necessary to realize the potential of all students to be successful academically.

This principal knew what drove the educational engine of his school. He named two related factors—increasing the time teachers spend teaching reading skills, and providing more time for students to read during the school day. His staff spent more time in the school day teaching reading and giving students an opportunity to read on their own. They encouraged bright students in addition to helping students who were at risk. “We started with a school where half of the kids fell below the 20th percentile in reading,” this principal says. “Within a few years, very few scored below the 20th percentile.”

9. Build a Culture of Discipline

Most will agree that the idea of a “culture of discipline” is not new. Leadership literature is rich with support for the presence of an organizational culture that includes disciplined people and disciplined actions. Indeed, a culture of discipline encompasses all the attributes that we have examined thus far. On the one hand, a highly successful principal gives teachers the freedom to determine the best path for achieving their objectives. On the other hand, these principals say “No” to teacher proposals that fall outside of the hedgehog concept. All highly successful principals maintain a vision of improving student achievement. They are able to gather together disciplined people who are engaged in disciplined thought and who then take disciplined action to support the principal’s vision.

In business, profits are the economic engine. It is all about making money. In education, it is not as clear because we are talking about educating children, not selling a product. It would be a mistake to directly apply every insight gained from fields outside education to school leadership issues. Nonetheless, it is helpful to consider business leadership successes.

To buy online: From Good Schools to Great Schools

GOOD TO GREAT - Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't Jim Collins, co-author of ‘Built to Last'

About the Author
Jim Collins is considered to be one of the major American business gurus, who is like "a student of and a teacher for" great companies. He learns: how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. The author of the bestsellers has written several management books, including Good to Great and Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

A former teacher at Stanford University, Collins also works as a researcher. He frequently contributes to Harvard Business Review and other magazines, journals, etc.

Book Summary: GOOD TO GREAT - Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Let me start with the first line of Jim Collins: “Good is the enemy of Great.”

This book explores what goes into a company's transformation from mediocre to excellent. Based on hard evidence and volumes of data, the author (Jim Collins) and his team uncover timeless principles on how the good-to-great companies like Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo produced sustained great results and achieved enduring greatness, evolving into companies that were indeed ‘Built to Last'.

Jim Collins and his team selected 2 sets of comparison companies:
1. Direct comparisons – Companies in the same industry with the same resources and opportunities as the good-to-great group but showed no leap in performance, which were: Upjohn, Silo, Great Western, Warner-Lambert, Scott Paper, A&P, Bethlehem Steel, RJ Reynolds, Addressograph, Eckerd, and Bank of America.
2. Unsustained comparisons – Companies that made a short-term shift from good to great but failed to maintain the trajectory, namely: Burroughs, Chrysler, Harris, Hasbro, Rubbermaid, and Teledyne

What the book tells and teaches?
1. Ten out of eleven good-to-great company leaders or CEOs came from the inside. They were not outsiders hired in to ‘save' the company. They were either people who worked many years at the company or were members of the family that owned the company.
2. Strategy as such did not separate the good to great companies from the comparison groups.
3. Good-to-great companies’ focus on what NOT TO DO and what they should stop doing.
4. Technology has nothing to do with the transformation from good to great. It may help accelerate it but is not the cause of it.
5. Mergers and acquisitions do not cause a transformation from good to great.
6. Good-to-great companies paid little attention to managing change or motivating people. Under the right conditions, these problems naturally go away.
7. Good-to-great transformations did not need any new name, tagline, or launch program. The leap was in the performance results, not a revolutionary process.
8. Greatness is not a function of circumstance; it is clearly a matter of conscious choice.
9. Every good-to-great company had “Level 5” leadership during pivotal transition years, where Level 1 is a Highly Capable Individual, Level 2 is a Contributing Team Member, Level 3 is the Competent Manager, Level 4 is an Effective Leader, and Level 5 is the Executive who builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
10. Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company.
11. Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions.
12. One of the most damaging trends in recent history is the tendency (especially of boards of directors) to select dazzling, celebrity leaders and to de-select potential Level 5 leaders.
13. Potential Level 5 leaders exist all around us, we just have to know what to look for.
14. The research team was not looking for Level 5 leadership, but the data was overwhelming and convincing. The Level 5 discovery is an empirical, not ideological, finding.
15. Before answering the “what” questions of vision and strategy, ask first “who” are the right people for the team.
16. Comparison companies used layoffs much more than the good-to-great companies. Although rigorous, the good-to-great companies were never ruthless and did not rely on layoffs or restructuring to improve performance.
17. Good-to-great management teams consist of people who debate vigorously in search of the best answers, yet who unify behind decisions, regardless of parochial interests.
18. There is no link between executive compensation and the shift from good to great. The purpose of compensation is not to ‘motivate' the right behaviours from the wrong people, but to get and keep the right people in the first place.
19. The old adage “People are your most important asset” is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.
20. Whether someone is the right person has more to do with character and innate capabilities than specific knowledge, skills or experience.
21. The Hedgehog Concept is a concept that flows from the deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles:
a. What you can be best in the world at, realistically, and what you cannot be best in the world at
b. What drives your economic engine
c. What you are deeply passionate about
22. Discover your core values and purpose beyond simply making money and combine this with the dynamic of preserve the core values - stimulate progress, as shown for example by Disney. They have evolved from making short animated films, to feature length films, to theme parks, to cruises, but their core values of providing happiness to young and old, and not succumbing to cynicism remains strong.
23. Enduring great companies don't exist merely to deliver returns to shareholders. In a truly great company, profits and cash flow are absolutely essential for life, but they are not the very point of life.

Each and every sentence of this book is inspiring. It’s really a must read research work for business students, CEOs, Managers and everyone related with Companies/institutions/organisations.

According to me ‘Good to Great’ is a valuable resource for Edupreneurs, Educational Leaders and Educators. If people related with educational institutions can co-relate and absorb some of the organisational and team building ideas mentioned in this work, our schools and colleges would have a complete turnaround to greatness. This book gives us reasonable answers for many of the ills our institutions face today. I can’t even imagine how our educational institutions would change for the good if we apply ‘Good to Great’ philosophy of Level Five Leadership.

In my November 15, 2009 posting I have introduced a book titled “From Good to Great School: What Their Principals Do Well” written by Susan Penny Gray and William A. Streshly. This book is a corollary of ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins and his team. You might have read in that posting how public schools and their leaders can use the Level Five Leadership in schools. I strongly recommend all my educator-readers to get the copy of both the books and give a try in your institution and experience for yourself how process management can leap your school to greatness and then to enduring greatness.

"IF YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING YOU CARE DEEPLY ABOUT AND IF YOU BELIEVE IN IT, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE NOT TRYING TO MAKE IT GREAT."

Now let me windup with this message: A Competitive world has two possibilities for you: you can lose or, if you want to win, you can change.

To buy online: Good to Great