Stop Fixing, Start Leading! Summary
Are you satisfied with the old ways of ordering employees around?
Are you exhausted by the usual knee-jerk, firefighting solutions to problems?
Discover how to get the best out of yourself and your employees in this wise, unorthodox book.
Businesses focus on fixing workplace productivity, communication, or other fires. The problem is these are symptoms of the underlying cause of the challenges and obstacles you face.
Would you drive slower if your car engine developed a knocking sound when you reached a certain speed? Or keep the windows rolled up so you can't hear the sound? No, you or a professional mechanic would uncover the cause of the knocking in the engine so you could eliminate it.
Likewise, a manager who attempts to correct absenteeism or increase a department's sales only through old methods, patterns, or approaches is applying a temporary fix at best.
Authentic leadership involves changing employees' beliefs and behaviors by helping them gain self-awareness and accountability for their actions.
People make poor decisions or careless mistakes because they don't think through their actions. If not aware, they unconsciously drift through the motions of their job without much thought about what they are doing.
"The river of unconsciousness" is sweeping them along.
Many managers drift in the "river of unconsciousness" by concentrating on reports, metrics, procedures, and other systemic repetition. They cannot distinguish between management activities and authentic leadership.
When those with management-only attitudes drift down the river of unconsciousness, swollen egos keep them afloat. Those egos fool the manager into believing that to be a leader, they must be superior. They must direct, order, discipline, tell, and condescend. Managers and leaders, in their minds, are the same.
Speaking of managers, realize this: anyone with linear capabilities can be a manager if the systems and processes are repeatable.
Stop Fixing, Start Leading! Reveals how to become self-aware, in touch with your being, and shift your behaviors into a position to build strong leadership qualities.
