Literature of Leadership - Lead. Care. Win

LEAD. CARE. WIN. How to Become a Leader Who Matters. Dan Pontefract. (2020, Print Edition)

If you believe that people in leadership roles are in the relationship business, keep reading. If you aren’t sure, but you are open to the notion; keep reading. If you are vehemently in disagreement, keep reading anyway; as reading is food for the mind and good for the soul (a personal opinion of this book reviewer). In the Chair Academy’s Leadership Development Programs, the art and science of leadership is discussed as being a “social endeavor”, with “relationship-building” a fundamental leadership strength and “leading with heart” among the essential capabilities for leading transformative change. All this to say, Lead. Care. Win. by Dan Pontefract is a thought-provoking leadership book on a topic that matters.

Dan Pontefract is a best-selling author of three leadership books: Open to Think, The Purpose Effect, and Flat Army, and a renowned speaker and contributor to leading publications such as Harvard Business Review and Forbes. Based, in part, on his experience as the Chief Learning Officer at TELUS, a Canadian national telecommunications company, the focus of Lead. Care. Win. is about how to develop one’s ability to lead with heart, and to make one’s relationships with others more respectful, meaningful and mutually productive. Accordingly, Pontefract sets out nine core principles, referred to as leadership lessons which, in brief, include:

1. Be Relatable: be authentic, respectful and empathetic

2. Play for Meaning: be values-centered and purpose-driven

3. Stay Present: use your time effectively

4. Remain Curious: invest in lifelong learning

5. Embrace Change: adapt and reframe your thinking

6. Dare to Share: promote organizational learning

7. Command Clarity: think and act strategically and with clarity

8. Commit to Balance: create an environment of diversity and inclusion

9. Champion Others: model the way with humility

Each of the nine leadership lessons is the subject of a separate book chapter. Each chapter features leadership stories, reflective questions for self-assessment, key benefits that reinforce the importance of the leadership lesson, practical suggestions for building leadership capacity in the identified area, as well as links to online resources available on the author’s website. A thought-proving read!

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