Read Now You Are Not Special: High-Performance Leadership Through Selfless Service RTF
An effective leader provides a sense of direction, leverages the unique talents of team members to overcome barriers toward their objective, and provides a source of energy. Leaders are not leaders because they are special or possess any extraordinary personality traits. Instead, they are leaders because someone believes they can drive an organization toward accomplishing its mission. In You Are Not Special, U.S. Army Sgt. Ian Curtis proposes that the task of a leader is just that, a task. It is an action or a series of actions that motivate one or more individuals to successfully complete a grand mission. While some personalities seem to lend themselves better to the task of leadership, becoming a better leader is not a matter of changing who you are, but rather improving your ability to lead. This book will provide you with concepts on how to be an effective leader, such as coaching and developing your teams by sacrificing your own time and effort, showing empathy, establishing and growing relationships, and investing as much or more energy into a task than any individual team member does. Ultimately, leadership is extremely difficult work. If this is not the work you are willing to take on, then the dying art of leadership is likely not for you.
