How Leadership Fables Make You A Better Leader- Valutrics
Can a leadership fable make you a better leader? The short answer is Yes! If you don’t want to be overburdened with heavy business jargon and advanced management concepts, a fable can make you a better leader. Consider these management fables:
-
The Servant
by James C. Hunter
Crafts a tale about a Monk and a businessman to help the reader learn how leadership is about serving those you lead.
-
Who Moved My Cheese
by Spencer Johnson with Kenneth Blanchard
Presents a story of mice in a maze to drive home the point that attitude matters most in times of great transition.
-
Our Iceberg Is Melting
by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber
Employs penguins on an iceberg as a device to suggest an approach to manage change.
-
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni
Uses a fictitious CEO to help the reader learn how to overcome obstacles to success.
Each of these books offers great advice through vivid storytelling and easy-to-read and easy-to-relate-to narrative.
Indeed, fables can simplify what textbooks make complex. This style of storytelling can be particularly valuable for young professionals who are early in their leadership careers as well as everyday people who just want to be better leaders in their personal life.
My book contains over 60 leadership tips which summarized for easy consumption and quick reference at the end of each chapter. Here is a small sample of the kinds of tips that you’ll find in It’s Good To Be King:
1. New Leaders need to create and share a vivid and compelling vision in order to engage and inspire their people.
2. An “outside-in perspective” can inform what the “new normal” can and should be.Seeing the world from the viewpoint of those that an organization (or the group) serves will enable breakthrough thinking and lead to the delivery of exceptional results.
3. Communication is the key to engagement. Your people need to know where you are, what you want and how you expect them to get there. Be sure to put the right kinds of communication mechanisms in place to keep your group properly informed.
4. It’s almost never too late to right the ship. Even when the situation looks dire and the challenges insurmountable, there may be a path to success that can be discovered through creative thought and perseverance.
5. Taskmasters will devastate self-starters and those with the aspiration to contribute within a collaborative work setting.
6. Being “in it together” is the only way to drive widespread change. People want to be part of something bigger than them. Make a “cause” out of your transformation effort by helping people understand what’s in it for them and they will pull together to make it happen.
To close, regardless of the context in which you lead – at work, in the community, where you volunteer–a fable can make you a better leader. Pick one up, read it and you’ll surely agree!