Improve Yourself 8: You Can Learn Parts of How to Lead

This continues our series how to improve yourself to get the biggest raises & best promotions

Sharon portrayed natural leadership. She listened to people with her full attention. She inspired people to better performance and greater vision. People stretched to achieve her expectations.  She enjoyed a great reputation in the organization and in the world. Employees from other departments flocked to work for her. While she worked hard in her career to improve her leadership skills, she also possessed a knack for leadership.

Great Lessons on Leadership

Dr. Timothy Clark writes and teaches about leadership in his column for the Deseret News, his books The Leadership Test and Epic Change, and presentations. You may improve yourself by learning and practicing leadership skills taught by great authors:

• Stephen R. Covey: Principle Centered Leadership & 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Jim Collins: Good to Great and Built to Last
• Bill George: True North How to Find Your Authentic Leadership
• Timothy R. Clark: The Leadership Test and Epic Change
• John Wooden: Wooden on Leadership
• Sun Tzu: The Art of War
• Warren Bennis: On Becoming a Leader
• Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince
• Liz Wiseman: Multipliers
• Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Some Things You May Not Learn

Timothy R. Clark says

“Can you learn to be a leader? Much of it can be learned. But some of it can’t be taught. How can I teach you more tolerance for ambiguity and risk? How can I teach you to challenge conventional wisdom? How can I give you the makeup and disposition to push boundaries and thinking? How can I convince you that it’s time to create a disturbance in your organization because people are under the false assumption that the organization competes on a global standard? How do you know when you’re stretching people appropriately or just being a jerk? I can teach you principles. I can give you tools. We can go through some case studies. But that’s as far as I can go. You take it from here.”

Friday we review another of Dr. Timothy R. Clark’s lessons on leadership

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