Graceful Leadership 101: Free PDF Book

People are promoted to lead others based on their seniority in technical areas. Others become managers after getting a management degree from a b-school that never taught them the fundamentals of dealing with people. They end up putting off people through their behavior and set a wrong example for their subordinates to follow.

In a business setting, the cost of having such leaders is invisible, but often huge. When they try to “drive” others through their narrow views and focus too much on “monitor and control”, they kill initiative. Over time, this builds culture where people don’t own things up, pass the buck, blame others and cruise along the status-quo – exactly opposite of what we need in an initiative-led and innovation-oriented business environment.

Leadership is a privilege, a huge responsibility and a glorious opportunity to add value – to business, to team members and customers. In my view, many competent and well-intentioned managers today can elevate their team performance only if they become a little more graceful. More considerate and kind.

Graceful Leadership 101 (Free PDF Download) is a running list of simple (and common-sense) ideas that can help leaders become more graceful. You can call them “managerial manners” or “leadership etiquette”, these are 101 simplest ways to add remarkability and result-orientation to your leadership style.

How can you use this list?

1. Share this list with all your senior managers, middle managers and technical leaders. This should serve as a good starting point for focusing on the “human” aspect of work. Use this as a part of “new manager induction”.

2. Hand this over to any one you know who aspires to be a manager/leader. Share this with MBA students you know.

3. Tweet about it, share it on Facebook for the benefit of people in your network.

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