Mastering Self Leadership : Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence

by Manz, Charles; Neck, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780131400467
• ISBN10: 0131400460
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

Mastering Self-Leadership is a comprehensive self-help guide that is thoroughly grounded in sound principles and research. It effectively addresses the most interesting subject you will ever encounter-yourself. If you want to be more effective in your work and life, this book is for you. Mastering Self Leadership provides powerful advice and the tools for leading yourself to personal excellence. Informative sidebars written by experts in the field are included in this updated third edition, as well as a new chapter focused on the crucial self-leadership challenge of creating good health and fitness. This landmark book offers a practical perspective that should serve as the foundation for the study of management and is grounded in a simple yet revolutionary principle: First learn to lead yourself, and then you will be in a solid position to effectively lead others.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
About the Authors	xiii
The Journey	1	(6)
Leadership	1	(1)
Sources of Leadership	2	(1)
We All Lead Ourselves	2	(3)
Self-Leadership	5	(2)
Mapping the Route	7	(7)
External Factors	8	(1)
Personal Factors	8	(2)
We Do Choose	10	(4)
Rough Roads, Detours, and Roadblocks	14	(24)
World-Altering Strategies	18	(2)
Self-Imposed Strategies	20	(15)
The Case of the Sales Rep Who Neglected to Bring in New Clients	35	(3)
Scenic Views, Sunshine, and the Joys of Traveling	38	(20)
The Natural Rewards	41	(1)
What Makes Activities Naturally Rewarding?	42	(3)
Tapping the Power of Natural Rewards	45	(9)
A Closing Comment	54	(1)
The Case of the External Rewards That Were Just Not Enough	55	(3)
Travel Thinking	58	(11)
Our Psychological Worlds	59	(3)
Is There Power in Positive Thinking?	62	(7)
Travel Thinking Continued . . .	69	(12)
Imagined Experience	69	(6)
Opportunity or Obstacle Thinking: An Example	75	(3)
The Case of the Problem Employee That Was All in Her Mind	78	(3)
Team Self-Leadership	81	(14)
Self-Leadership and Teams	82	(1)
Behavioral Aspects of Team Self-Leadership	82	(1)
Mental Aspects of Team Self-Leadership	83	(2)
Team Self-Leadership Still Means Individual Self-Leadership	85	(2)
Balancing the ``Me'' with the ``We''	87	(8)
Reviewing Travel Tales of Previous Journeys	95	(16)
Self-Leadership Applied to Personal Problems	95	(1)
Applications in Athletics	96	(2)
Applications in Work/Organizational Situations	98	(1)
Uniquely Autonomous Jobs	98	(2)
Organizational Management Positions	100	(6)
Nonmanagement Jobs	106	(5)
The Destination	111	(10)
Self-Leadership	111	(2)
A Tale of Self-Leadership	113	(6)
The Tale in Perspective	119	(2)
Fitness and Self-Leadership	121	(13)
What Executives Say About the Importance of Fitness	121	(1)
The Impact of Fitness on Job Performance	122	(3)
Exercise and Diet: The Keys to Fitness	125	(1)
Self-Leadership, Fitness, and Personal Effectiveness	126	(8)
The Journey Completed	134	(14)
Personal Effectiveness	135	(2)
Some Additional Thoughts	137	(5)
The Tale Continued	142	(6)
Epilogue	148	(3)
Index	151

Excerpts

"Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours." - RICHARD BACH History provides numerous examples of successful people who were confronted with many "can'ts" in terms of making their dreams come true. Sandra Day O'Conner,the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, could not get a job as a lawyer on graduating from law school. The only job offered to her was that of a legal secretary. Michael Jordan,arguably the best basketball player of all time, was cut from his high school basketball team. Ludwig van Beethoven,one of the world's major composers, was told by a music teacher that he had no talent for music. In fact, this teacher once remarked about Beethoven, "As a composer he is hopeless." As a young man,Walt Disney,the great cartoonist and movie producer, was advised to pursue another line of work by a newspaper editor in Kansas City: "You don't have any creative, original ideas." A Munich schoolmaster told 10-year-oldAlbert Einstein,who later became a brilliant scientist, "You will never amount to much." In 1962, Decca Recording Company turned down the opportunity to work with an unknown music group calledThe Beatles.Their rationale was "We don't like their sound and guitar music is on the way out." This unknown singing group subsequently became a legendary group of musicians. Dr. Seuss'sfirst children's book,And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,was rejected by 27 publishers. The 28th publisher, Vanguard Press, sold 6 million copies of the book. The bookChicken Soup for the Soul,written byJack CanfieldandMark Hansen,was turned down by 33 publishers before Health Communications agreed to publish it. All the major New York publishers said, "It is too nicey nice" and "Nobody wants to read a book of short little stories." Since that time, more than 80 million copies of theChicken Soup for the Soulseries have been sold worldwide, with translations in 39 languages. In 1935, theNew York Herald Tribune's review ofGeorge Gershwin'sclassicPorgy and Bessstated that it was "surefire rubbish." Thomas Edison,the inventor of the electric light, the phonograph, and more than a hundred other useful items, was told by a teacher that he was too stupid to learn anything. During their first year in business, theCoca-Cola Companysold only 400 bottles of Coke. In response toFred Smith'sterm paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service, a Yale University management professor wrote, "The concept is interesting and well formed, but in order to earn better than a C, the idea must be feasible." Smith went on to establish Federal Express Corporation, based on the ideas in this "average" paper. InventorChester Carlsonpounded the streets for years before he found backers for his Xerox photocopying process. Before he founded Apple Computer Incorporated,Steve Jobswas rejected by Atari and Hewlett-Packard during his attempt to get interest in his personal computer idea. HewlettPackard personnel remarked, "Hey, we don't need you. You haven't gotten through college yet." Jobs thus pursued the idea himself, and Apple's first year's sales exceeded $2.5 million. In December 1977, with only $20,000 to his name,Michael Burtonwas laughed at by colleagues and bankers when he quit his lucrative small business consulting job and vowed to turn his snowsurfing concept into a popular sport. By 1998, however, Burton was owner of Burton Snowboards, the largest pure snowboarding company in the world, with annual sales of more than $150 million. Due to Burton's promotional efforts, snowboarding is enjoyed by 8 million people worldwide, and it officially became a medal sport in the 1998 Winter Olympics. Who's laughing now? These are just a few