Personal review

This is a very inspirational book. It makes the reader want to embrace change, to start acting differently towards not just being a better leader, but towards having a better life.

It is not a typical leadership book where the author would write in first person, talking directly to the reader. Instead, the book has a story with six main characters, where five of them give their knowledge to the main character, making it a little bit lighter to read and digest. However, it is still a business leadership book, and not a novel, so you cannot expect a literary masterpiece: characters are not developed in depth, and dialogues are very thin. Something I didn't like is how much emphasis they make on the fact that the main character is a US military veteran. As much as I respect them, I think the book could be better without all those repetitive comments.

This book is filled with pearls of wisdom; it feels like every page has a motivational quote, some borrowed from famous personalities, but most apparently are the author's own. Unfortunately, some of them may feel like clichés. Personally, I liked most of them.

I was already familiar with most of the content of the book. I don't think there is a whole new material here that you might not have found before in other leadership books, but I did find that this book presents the content in a very nice way, with a very clear structure, in a very light reading.

Summary

Introduction

In our modern world, there is fierce competition in every line of business. In order for any organization to grow faster than their competitors, they need to grow and develop the leadership talents of every single person inside the organization.

The message of the book is not that organizations don't need titles and that hierarchical structures are not needed, or that everyone should be satisfied with their current rule and facilitate the job for the guys in HR departments. It's the complete opposite. The message is basically that you don't need to wait for a title, a formal authority, to start behaving like a leader, to start inspiring people around you, and to take ownership and responsibility over your results.

Main message

Everyone should be driving innovation.
Everyone should be inspiring their teammates.
Everyone should embrace change.
Everyone should take responsiblity of the results of the team, and the success of the company.
Everyone needs to stay positive, no matter what difficult times the team is going through.
Everyone needs to be devoted to deliver their absolute best.
Everyone needs to start being excellent in the own role.

Your natural powers

Human beings are all born with a set of natural powers that are not granted by a formal title (or blocked by a lack of one):

Everyone alive has the power to express their absolute best.
Everyone has the power to inspire and influence, by being a great example for others.
Everyone can passionately drive change positively in the face of negative conditions.
Everyone can treat their stakeholders with respect, appreciation, and kindness.
Everyone has the power to make choices, and the more you own that power, the more powerful your choices become.

Success vs. Failure

Success: it is created through the execution of small daily habits that stack up over time. The stack doesn't grow linearly, but exponentially. You need to be patient and persistent.

A "lucky break" is nothing more than an unexpected reward for intelligent choices we've chosen to make.

Failure: it is the inevitable outcome of small and consistent acts of daily neglect, that over time take you past the point of no return.

4 Principles

There are 4 principles to achieve the complete leadership mindset, and each principle has an acronym that represent five rules that will help us live according to those principles.

You don't need a title to be a leader.
-- Work on your own leadership IMAGE.
You can only be a great leader after living through hard times, and learning from those experiences
-- Be the SPARK that lights the flame to provide light in dark and turbulent times.
You can only build a strong leadership after forging deep relationships
Be HUMAN.
Be a great person
Let your internal leadership SHINE

1. You don't need a title to be a leader

⭐IMAGE ⭐

Innovation

Consistently make things better around you.

Make everything better than you found it
Small daily improvements lead to stunning results over time.
It is fine to be content, but never be satisfied.
Improve everything.

Evolution over Revolution

You will not reach your next level of excellent by some revolutionary idea.
You need to evolve, through slow, small and steady improvements, that probably don't look like much by themselves.

Mastery

Commit yourself to achieve mastery at what you do. Do nothing less than your very best.
FMOB:

Be THE FIRST
Be THE MOST
Be THE ONLY
Be THE BEST

Raise your own expectations.
Mastery takes time, effort and patience.
"A mediocre idea excellently acted on is more valuable than a genius idea poorly performed".

Authenticity

Be who you are.
Say what you feel.
Be real, consistent, and congruent.
Be true to your values.
Be true to your talents.

Guts

Be persistent and courageous.
Accept risks, and know how to manage them. You cannot live "risk free".
Have the guts to see opportunities where others see challenges.
There will always be people criticizing you when you try to embrace changes, because they are afraid of changing themselves.

Ethics

Stay consistent to your values, and protect your name.
People will follow you, or run from you, based on your reputation.

2. Turbulent times build great leaders

⭐SPARK⭐

Speak with candor

Be honest, and you will get trust and respect. Always tell it like ~~it is~~ you see it.

It is more important to be honest, than to receive approval of others.
You can say what you want, as long as you say it with respect.
How can you build a great company if your people is not talking truthfully about what needs to be improved?

Overcommunicate
Be impeccable with your words. Be aware of how powerful words can be.

Don't

Don't gossip
Don't complain
Don't condemn
Don't use tough talk to get better results

Inspire
Engage
Elevate
Speak encouragingly

Prioritize

You have 3 precious but limited leadership resources, and you must not waste them:

Your time
Your talent
Your energy

If you try to accomplish everything, ultimately you will accomplish nothing.
You are not expected to know a lot about everything, that is not possible. Leadership is about knowing very little about most things.
80% of your results come from 20% of your activities.
Do fewer things. Focus on your high-impact activities.

You will do those things better.

Adversity breeds opportunity

Hard times make better people.
Problems are platforms for opportunity.
Failures always bring gifts in the form of learnings.
Obstacles allow you to work on your patience and persistence.
When you are at the edge of your limits, you make your limits expand.

The more you are out of your comfort zone, the wider it grows.
If you don't feel discomfort, your are not growing, you are not changing.

Transform fear into power by daily doing what frightens you.

Respond versus react

A reaction is an emotional response --> you act without thinking
A response is an intelligent reaction --> emotional intelligence
Take the initiative to face the challenges.
Don't worry about things you can't control; focus on improving the areas you control.
Become the source of the solution.

Kudos

Leadership is not about correcting people when they are wrong.
People need to feel appreciated.
Recognize excellence, praise good work.
Don't wait for your manager to do that. You can do it whenever you see it, to whoever you want.

3. The deeper your relationships, the stronger your leadership

⭐HUMAN⭐

Helpfulness

Always do more than what you are paid to do.
Commit to becoming the most helpful person you know.
Help people get to their goals, and people will help you get to yours.
See business as a vehicle to help people, to help your customers achieve their goals.
The more value you create for your stakeholders, the greater will be your financial success.

Understanding

Speak less, and listen more.
Deep and active listening. Consciously focus on understanding the other person.

A lot of people participate in conversation just waiting for the other person to finish, so they can the reply something they have been rehearsing in their head.
Our ego usually speaks too loud; it doesn't let us listen. It is very hard to turn down the volume of our ego, but we need to make a conscious decision to do so.

A lot of people is still stuck in an outdated model of leadership, thinking that the best leader is the one who talks the most, speaks the loudest, and therefore listens the least.

Mingle

Internally

Connect with your teammates

Believe in them
Engage them
Bond with them
Serve them
Celebrate them

The quality of an organization is directly related to the quality of the relationships between its individual teammates. The stronger the bonds, the stronger the results.

Externally

Network with your customers.
People love doing business with people they like.

Amuse

Having fun while you do great work will help you boost your productivity
When people are enjoying themselves at work:

their stress levels are lower
they are far more willing to overdeliver for their customers
they are excited to work a whole lot harder
they collaborate more

Nurture

Balance these things:

Being compassionate with being courageous
Being friendly with being firm
Being sincere with being strong

Make time each day to grow your relationships
Offer those around you a smile, a positive word, or a caring gesture

4. Become a great person

This is all about leading yourself first, in order to be able to lead others.

You need to be like an high performing athlete, in constant training and preparation.

⭐SHINE ⭐

See clearly

Accept that we see the world as a reflection of who we are, not as it really is.
We are blind to our blind spots.
Train to concentrate on opportunities when challenging situations appear, rather than seeing them with eyes of fear and focusing on difficulties.
Let go of those experiences that have discouraged you. Take whatever you can learn from those situations, and let the rest go.

Health is wealth

When we are young, we sacrifice our health for wealth.
When we become old and wise, we'll be willing to sacrifice every bit of our wealth for just a day of good health.

Inspiration matters

Alternate between peak performance and inner renewal. If you are always at your peak, your reservoirs will deplete, and you'll burn out fast.
Find ways to feel inspired constantly; e.g.: spend time with nature.

Challenges of life will drain your inspiration every day.

Neglect NOT your family

Basic needs to be happy:

Work you can be proud of
Food on your table
Wonderful health
People you love

Elevate your lifestyle

Enjoy life along the way.
Do something everyday, however small it may be, to improve your lifestyle.

The Leader Who Had No Title, by Robin Sharma