12 Disciplines of Leadership Excellence Summary

Book: 12 Disciplines of Leadership Excellence: How leaders achieve sustainable high performance

Authors: Brian Tracy, Dr. Peter Chee

Summary

The authors describe 12 principles to succeed as a Leader. These can be developed over time by practice and experience. These are listed below:

1. The Discipline of Leadership Excellence

Current age employees most of the times look for what is in-stored for them in any work. Thus in current era, two types of leaders are more valuable as per author - charismatic transformational leaders who inspire people to do their best and transactional leaders who possess the ability to work with and achieve through others.
Great leaders connect their team with the larger purpose by articulating their vision effectively and adding meaning to their team's work. As a leader one should make decisions and take actions and be accountable for the results. Leader should be prepared for adversity by planning for the worst-case scenario. Open, direct and concise communication is the key skill that leader should develop.

2. The Discipline of Clarity

As a leader one should be aware of his/her values and the personal and business goals should be aligned with these values. Write down your vision and goals and sub-goals towards its achievement. Make sure you make a little progress everyday towards the set vision. Have a tracking metrics ready for the set objectives and goals. Ensure that all the stakeholders understand the vision and its objectives. Select your main competitive advantage (edge) and formulate strategies to leverage it. Have metrics to track progress and everyone's performance should be linked to this tracking metrics.

3. The Discipline of Control

Leader should get control of life, feelings as well as job. He/she has to be accountable and take responsibility of the decisions taken by him/her and its results. The team would automatically start taking responsibility for their actions if they have such a leader.

4. The Discipline of Character

As a leader one should never compromise on his/her values and principles especially in the tough times.

5. The Discipline of Competence

The leader must be committed to excellence and continuous learning. Quality is something that should never be compromised on. Develop the core competencies required for the concerned business and focus on building it one at a time.

6. The Discipline of Competitiveness

Knowing what customers want and putting them first can help create a competitive edge for the organization. This can be used to acquire new customers and retain them. Studying the competitors and their strategies to acquire customers and then formulating better strategies for the same and also provide a edge over the competition. 

7. The Discipline of Creativity

Creative thinking is the key to success and the good news is- it can be developed by practicing it till it becomes habitual. Practice of writing ideas on paper, seeing the big picture, brainstorming with the team can help in developing the skill. Testing the worthy ideas and then implementing them is essential rather than getting carried away with the amount of ideas created. In 1975, Mazda faced financial crisis, the leaders implemented a simple 'suggestion box' system. Surprisingly, employees put forth more than 200,000 ideas in the first year; Mazda followed through on 60% of them. Within five years, Mazda was receiving two million suggestions per year and its profits rose 1,800%. Mazda attributed its turnaround to employee creativity and corporate willingness to act on employees’ suggestions. 

8. The Discipline of Courage 

The authors suggest that the leaders should his/her fears and overcome them by taking calculated risks. Leaders shouldn't give up even in the situation of crisis.

9. The Discipline of Caring about People

Leaders must always remember that they are working with people and not machines. People have emotions and do make decisions based on their feelings. Thus, it is important for leader that the people should feel positive about him/her. People are not engaged 100% at work and often leave work undone. The fear of punishment might do no good. Thus, as a leader it is important to motivate employees to take chances and practice creativity. Appreciate the efforts of the employees whenever it is possible. Leaders have a prime responsibility to coach, teach, mentor and develop their employees. Leading by example and participative management can bring in amazing results for the organization as well as leader. Show people that you care and do it genuinely.    

10. The Discipline of Change Management

Authors suggest leaders to accept the change and embrace it. Change is an inevitable part of the business; thus, stay away from the tendency to avoid change for protecting the current business line. Practice scenario planning; plan for any event that has 3% or better chances of occurring. 

11. The Discipline of Concentration

The author suggests keeping to-do lists and prioritizing it as per ABCDE method to manage the most important asset of Leader - the time! The goals and objectives set by the leader should be in-line with his/her values and that should guide the daily and weekly to-do lists. The ABCDE method divides tasks in 5 categories - A: tasks that are absolutely essential, B: important tasks, C: Optional tasks, D: tasks that can be delegated to appropriate (capable) people, E: tasks to be excluded. Also, leader should reserve time for rest, exercise and to spend time with people who matter.

 
12. The Discipline of Personal Excellence 

The focus of the leader and his team should be on the results. This should be achieved by motivating others for their valuable contributions. Leaders should focus on high-impact tasks and should also keep in mind the profitability and ROI (return on investment). The leader must put efforts to hone his/her communication skills, problem solving and decision making skills. The focus should be to find ways to do things 'cheaper, better, and faster'.