Erik Reagan

Book Notes

The Leadership Pill

Book cover for The Leadership Pill
Kenneth Blanchard and Marc Muchnick

This is a very short book that’s writ­ten as a fable. Basi­cal­ly there are two types of lead­ers com­pet­ing to see whose team per­forms bet­ter. One leader is tak­ing a pill that alleges to pro­vide the best qual­i­ties a leader needs, while the oth­er leader, who is called The Effec­tive Leader, doesn’t take the sup­ple­ment and just works his lead­er­ship mag­ic with what he calls his secret blend.

There are a few quotes I want­ed to cap­ture from the book, most of which come from a recap at the end.

>Lead­er­ship is not just what hap­pens when you’re there; it’s what hap­pens when you’re not there.

>Lead­er­ship is not some­thing you do to peo­ple, it’s some­thing you do with them.

The three ingre­di­ents that make up ​“the secret blend” for The Effec­tive Leader: integri­ty, part­ner­ship, and affirmation.

I’ve includ­ed a tad bit more on these ingre­di­ents below.

Integri­ty

  • Lead­ing with integri­ty means being the per­son you want oth­ers to be.
  • Trust is what hap­pens when val­ues and behav­iors match up.
  • Peo­ple are more apt to trust and respect you when what you say and what you do are one in the same.

Part­ner­ship

  • The key to effec­tive lead­er­ship is the rela­tion­ship you build with your team.
  • Shar­ing the big pic­ture puts every­one on the same page.
  • It is eas­i­er to get up the hill when you climb it together.

Affir­ma­tion

  • Praise is the eas­i­est way to let peo­ple know they are appreciated.
  • Each of us has the pow­er to rec­og­nize the good­ness in others.
  • You will go a lot fur­ther if you stop to refuel.

Per­fect­ing the blend

  • Peo­ple will think for them­selves when you quit doing it for them.
  • Lead­er­ship is the process of get­ting every­one to the place they are sup­posed to go.
  • The high­est achieve­ment as a leader is win­ning the respect and trust of your team.

All excerpts © 2003 by The Blanchard Family Partnership and People First Group Holdings, LLC

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