Remarkable leadership paper

RUNNING HEAD: REMARKABLE LEADERSHIP 1

Book Review

Remarkable Leadership by Kevin Eikenberry

Aditya Boyilla (1010699)

Hanumanth Reddy Pailla (1010527)

Vijay Simha Reddy (1010686)

Rajendrasinh Dodia (1011001)

University Canada West

Professor: Chehra Aboukinane

MBA- 504 & Strategic Leadership

February 21st 2012

REMARKABLE LEADERSHIP 2

Abstract

In this paper we have written a summary of a book written by Kevin Eikenberry,

Remarkable Leadership. The book teaches us how to be a remarkable leader by

respecting others, values etc. The author has mentioned many tricks and trades which

should be followed to a great and successful leader. Few of the topics covered in this

book are communication styles, are leaders born, supportive behavior, influence impact,

focus on customers, responsibility, process and project management to name a few. My

team has covered all the essential topics in the book and summarized it in a way that

could be understood by all without many complications.


REMARKABLE LEADERSHIP

Are leaders really born?

The author starts the book with this eternal question, whether leaders are born or

made. He went on to support his claim about leaders being made, by illustrating various

instances, but their may be some unique abilities with, which one born with when honed

becomes a remarkable leader, later the author goes about to say “Every person has a

leader in them” and there is need to bring it out. The author has written this book to help

people identify their potential and become remarkable leaders in life (Kevin Eikenberry,

2007).

Philosophy: It is clear that the beliefs and values of this have guided his through the

book, the author believes there is a vast potential out their, which needs to be brought out

and the choice and opportunities one has makes the end limitless, the author insists that “

One should not settle with what he has achieved” he believes that in the pursuit of

becoming a remarkable leader, one should be better than a mediocre leader. The book

focuses on thirteen core competencies/skills that a remarkable leader should poses, which

include communication skills, relationship building, Innovation, decision-making and

some others. The author believes that “ It is the skills at, which you are excel make you

remarkable” (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

The book talks about the importance of knowing ones strengths and weaknesses,

it is obvious that for leader to become truly remarkable, he has to overcome his weakness

and hone his innate abilities. Interestingly in here, the author stresses on a key element

“Strengths”, he believes that spending time on strengthening ones strengths rather then

working on your weakness in ones pursuit towards becoming remarkable leader. The


author truly believes that every other human being is born with innate talents or skills, he

also believes that, there is a leader in every one and it only takes effort and potential and

the will to do, that can transform a person into a remarkable leader. The book later

focuses on Leadership development process, most of the organizations have different

process involved to serve this cause. The author has mentioned about the traditional

method, which solely involves training as flawed, as the author believes that training

alone cannot bring out the remarkable leadership ability in a person. He believes that

along with training it is the learning part, which is crucial. To achieve this, the author has

mentioned about leadership development models, for instance a model of his involves the

need or desire, having a goal, knowing you strengths and weaknesses, finally ways to

learn, practice and organize (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). Ultimately it is comes down to

time and focus, which decide the end result.

It is evident from the book; continuous learning has a substantial impact on the

leadership abilities in a person. The author has termed leadership as rather complex

Endeavour, able to be a role model to others and helping other grow is one of the key

qualities that remarkable leader should poses. The author believes, it is the learning

quality in a leader, which makes him truly remarkable. In here the book mentions about

the cycle of learning, which starts at having an experience then followed by reflection

later generalizing and finally action and then the cycle repeats itself. In her the author

stresses the point remarkable leaders learn from the situations (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

Championing Change:

Change is one such key element, which has a substantial effect on both the

organization and the individual, as the book mentions, a remarkable leader would have


the ability to bring, manage change effectively with his set of skills and makes the

transition a smooth one for both the individuals and the organization. In here the author

talks about the four change skills that a leader should poses.

Levers of change

Planning and implementing

Being a change champion

Moving past the blockers/resistance

The author then talks about the role played by feelings, change levers and

dissatisfaction and their effect on the change process and the importance of having a

vision and goal.

Resistance: The book also mentions about Rick Maurer’s “three levels of resistance”

(Rick Maurer, 1996). The author describes resistance as the power to create and move

change forward (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007)

Communication Styles:

According to Kevin Eikenberry (2007), the ability to communicate powerfully does

not mean it should be comfortable to the leader but it should be communicated in a way

that the other person quickly connects to it. There are four classic communication styles.

i. The Doer: A person who wants to get results. Their focus is in the present;

they value action, achievement and progress. They use the simplest and the

straightforward approach.

ii. The Feeler: A person who is connected to the emotion/feelings and thoughts

of others. They believe communication is very important to spread the

message.


iii. The Thinker: A person who likes to solve problems. They think things

through and want all the data provided to them.

iv. The Imaginer: A person who has an ability to envision the big picture/future.

They like concepts, ideology and discovery.

Storytelling is an art, to be a remarkable leader; the person should master this art (Kevin

Eikenberry, 2007). Few types of stories are:

i. Official Stories: Stories told by institutions, government, schools, it is used to

help build public relations.

ii. Invented Stories: They are adapted stories and usually don’t have a point. But

if the leader is using this strategy, he/she should make a point so the listeners

can recognize it.

iii. Firsthand Stories: The stories that have actually happened to us. If the leader

tells the story in a positive way, it may impact big with the audience.

iv. Secondhand Stories: Telling the stories of others might not cause as big an

impact as firsthand stories. But a leader might have lots of stories to tell.

My team members can relate the storytelling concept with Dr. Ireland’s think-a-piece, it

came to our attention that storytelling is an important stepping-stone in a pathway of

becoming a remarkable leader.

Building Relationships:

Kevin Eikenberry (2007) says they are four skills to learn to build better and strong

relationships. They are


1) Likeability: Being likeable helps other people to open to you. They will be

willingly listening to your ideas; it helps to build a personal connection that is an

important part of successful communication.

i. Be friendly

ii. Be relevant

iii. Be caring

iv. Be genuine

2) Listening: Listening is not just hearing what the other guy says, but to understand

what he says and then respond. The author has mentioned few key techniques to

be an active listener in the book.

3) Building trust: Trust is an important part of relationship building Trust has four

factors

i. Believability

ii. Dependability

iii. Emotional Closeness

iv. Selflessness

4) Networking: The value of networking for leaders is significant. Leaders need to

build professional network that can provide tremendous value to the organization

such as visibility, credibility, and profitability.

Developing others:

According to the author, an important part of a leader’s responsibility is to develop

others. You might have your own perceptions of others and might favor the person who


you think has the potential but a leader should give everyone a chance before coming to

his/her own conclusion.

Supportive Behaviors:

According to a survey from Gallup research (Rath and Clifton, 2004) approximately 61%

of the Americans received no praise at their workplace, this lead to employees walking

out of the organizations and joining others. Eikenberry (2007) said leaders should be

supportive and gave 10 valuable tips to be followed, they are

i. Be flexible: Allow the employees to complete the tasks in their own way.

ii. Collaborate: Give the employees more chance to be involved.

iii. Help out: Help a team if its facing deadline and a lot of work need to be done.

iv. Be of service: Be available to people.

v. Value the person: People make mistakes; nevertheless leaders should value

the person.

vi. Recognize and support their goals

vii. Encourage effort: The results might not be up to the mark but leaders should

encourage the effort so they will do a better job next time.

viii. Praise success: Leaders should praise their employees when they reach the

required goals.

ix. Celebrate

x. Be accountable

Mentoring: It basically means partnership for learning. The main focus is to share

information and help the other person to succeed through learning. The skills and


behaviors of great mentors are build rapport, Listen, Build trust, make other connections,

maintain focus, remember the purpose of the relationship and offer advices.

Focus on Customers:

Eikenberry (2007) said, “Your customers, regardless of what you call them, write

your paycheck” I agree with the author. Every organization has internal customers as well

as external customers. Kevin Eikenberry (2007) had mentioned six specific ways to

improve internal customer services, they are

i. Model the value: Thinking of the team as customers might put a new light on

the leader’s role.

ii. Understand their expectations

iii. Innovate collaboratively: Involve everyone participating to improve the work.

iv. Foster cross training: Means putting yourself in others shoes.

v. Celebrate more broadly: Your group or other group success should be

celebrated as one.

Building relationship with the customers is very important. According to the author,

retaining 5% of loyal customers might boost anywhere from 25% to 125%. There are 5

steps to make partnership a reality, no matter the size of the organization

i. Set expectations and objectives

ii. Consider new behaviors

iii. Make new commitments

iv. Consider creative alliances

v. Share best practices

Remarkable Leaders Influence with Impact:


In this chapter author is trying explain about the skills of a leader to

influence people. Charisma is one of the important characteristics for the leader to

inspire and influence people. Your values are those ideas, beliefs, and concepts that

you hold most dear and guide your behavior daily (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

People who have very good values will be much stronger in influencing and

inspiring their followers because they grow personal attractiveness that explains

charisma of a leader. Defining your personal values will be the best way to influence

people. Being influencing will benefit many people and personally even with or

without rank, seniority and the role (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

Creditability is the mixture of trustworthiness and expertise. Every leader must

have expertise in his own field because it shapes his personality and creditability.

Having very good expertise and knowledge consistently increases influence and

charisma.

Remarkable Leaders Think and Act Innovatively:

Creativity is one of the aspects of being innovative in work. Thinking habits

and personality types naturally shows hoe a leader thinks and gives an idea about

his creative thinking. Creativity is one of the major aspects to have in an innovative

leader. Many situations like time pressures, solving errors in critical situations

needs to have critical and creative thinking experience in tough situations to handle

time pressures.

The seven ideas that are advised by the author to improve the skills during

brainstorming sessions are warm-up, set a goal, don’t stop, allow more time, Adapt,

modify, steal, save the evaluation and conversation and remember the rules (Kevin


Eikenberry, 2007). Different methods for brainstorming methods give different

information from the people participating and using different brainstorming tools

like round robin, freewheeling, a hybrid, Slips or private brainstorming and small

groups will help them to bring out innovative and creative thoughts from the

participants. Graham Wallas defined four-step process in the book that we wrote

called The Art of Thought (1949) which is been still used and those four steps

include preparation, incubation, inspiration and evaluation. Some of the steps to

increase creative results in the work includes look at problems in different ways,

invite other opinions, force relationship by thinking in metaphors, make thoughts

visible, and make novel combinations (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

Innovation is the act of putting an idea (or ideas) into action (Kevin

Eikenberry, 2007). Author determined six gets which helps team to get more creative

ideas and they are get aligned, get clarified, get organized, get help, get focused, and

get over them. There are some kind of risk involved in the change or innovation like

emotional risk which include fear, foolish, blame, mistake and other is logical or

rational risks which include idea not working, not able to solve the problem.

Remarkable Leaders Value Collaboration and Teamwork:

“We just need to help people get along and get to know each other better”

(Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). Author says this is how a team has to request for team

building. Team performance will improve when all team members come together

and request for team building and get guidance towards building their team, which

make them strong as a team and helps in the growth of the organization.

The CARB Model:


These are the for dimensions which help in the team building

Commitment to the team and each other: Commitment is powerful; without it, the

work of teams won’t be successful as possible (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). Belief,

agreements, trust and support are the critical factors of the commitment to the

team.

Alignment and goal agreement: The main reason for the team being lonely is

optimism, omission, and lack of clarity. It takes effort to get a team in alignment with

the organization’s goals and strategies, and it is impossible if those goals and

strategies don’t exist (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

Relationships among team members: “We need people to get to know each other

better” (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). Relationship in between team members is very

important because the stronger the relationship better the results will be. They have

to know each other very well and also they have to be feel free to ask questions to

each other which makes them strong enough to face any difficult task

Behaviors and skills: When you put people together on teams, they will perform

more confidently and successfully if they have the right skills (Kevin Eikenberry,

2007). People working in teams should have a quality of willing to share or

collaborate. Individuals can solve some problems, sometimes a sub team will tackle

a problem, and sometimes the entire team will be required (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

Willing to continuously learn and improving skills should be in the behaviour of the

leader because today’s job will be much difficult tomorrow. Change in technology

and many other things in the world demands everyone to improve more and more

to be the best always in their field.


The Leader as a Facilitator:

Your role as facilitator is to make it easier for the group to progress toward

its goals (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

The leader is concerned about the content of the meeting; he or she is constantly

thinking about what is being said, if ideas being discussed can be achieved, if they fit

into the budget and the implications of these ideas or actions across the

organization or on other projects (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

A true facilitator isn’t concerned with these questions at all. Rather, the facilitator is

concerned with the process of the meeting; he or she is constantly thinking about

what appending is and how it works toward the successful achievement of the

meeting’s desired outcomes (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

Some of the great skills of a good facilitator-leader are listening, recognizing both

roles, provide suggestions and feedback, provide process structure, keep quiet and

observe without judgment.

Problems and decision-making:

As quoted by John Dulles, “The measure of success is not whether you have a

tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”(Kevin

Eikenberry, 2007). In this chapter, the author has made an enlightening effort in

illuminating the role of decision-making ability in a leader and the approach to maximize

benefits by tackling the situations.

Questioning: According to the author is an important skill to have in a leader, In ones

opinion, it is this skill that effects the decision making ability in a leader, as from

questioning one can explore opportunities to address the issues (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).


Elaborating this fact, the author quotes that” It is the rightful reasons that generate key

questions”, also the success or the desired outcome can only be achieved by having the

right intent (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). In questioning process it always starts with the

purpose or the intent and ends with the action that we desire to take in answering the

question (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

Problem- Solving is another skill set, according to the author is a must have

ability in a leader, the author went on to elaborate in a four step model, The PDCA cycle

(Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). It includes the “Planning step” followed by the “To Do stage”,

next is the “Check step” and finally the “Act step”( Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). Among

these steps it is the Planning stage, which has a substantial weight age and importance in

comparison to the others, it determines the out comes and guides the next following

stages. As quoted by the author, “ During his corporate training sessions in Chevron he

taught a seven step model, out of, which four were in the planning stage”, here the author

is once again trying to stress the point “Planning” as a crucial phase in problem solving.

Approach and Strategies: In here the author talks about the “Famous four”

approaches/Strategies.” Independent, Consultative, Collaborative, Consensus.”

In the whole the author has put immense stress on the importance “Delegating, Values,

Data and Intuition”(Kevin Eikenberry, 2007) he termed these as some of the key decisive

factors having an impact on the leadership abilities of a person.

Responsibility and Accountability: “To be accountable is to be answerable, liable or

responsible”(Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). In this account the author is reiterating the fact

that “ If you want to be a remarkable leader, you must take accountability

seriously”(Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). In a follow through to the above quote, the author


beautifully explained the importance of “Personal Accountability” with his personal

experience in a conference room, he quoted “ There is no they. You are they. Until you

take personal and collective responsibility for what is in your control, you wont move this

organization to where you want it to be.” (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007) Elaborating the

above fact, the author discussed about the two factors, which get in the way of personally

accountability “Blame and being a Victim”. In accordance to the author, Delegating is

another aspect of interest, which has its own “pushers and blockers”, in his opinion the

biggest barriers are the personal beliefs, values, habits, finally you (Kevin Eikenberry,

2007). The author then went on to replace “Delegation “ with “Sharing responsibility” he

also quoted “Remarkable leaders don’t delegate; they share responsibility” (Kevin

Eikenberry, 2007), as he believes it will give a new dimensional approach and improve

the overall efficiency. Coupled with “Delegation” the author tried to shift the focus on

“Empowerment” He states “Delegation is done to people and Empowerment is done with

people” (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). The author then categorized empowerment where it

depends on the boundaries, Resources and Latitude (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). Cultural

accountability is another important term, where the author stressed the fact that “In any

organization, it is the sum of all the people, which makes up the organization as a whole,

so holding the people around you accountable will ultimately lead to a domino effect,

where every individual will in fact become accountable to their actions in the

organization, thereby changing the cultural dimensions.

Project and Process Management: In account to these aspects, the author tried to

differentiate both project from process management, as these two sets of management

abilities go hand in hand. In leaders, the ability to lead the project from the front makes


them remarkable (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). The author went on explaining about

different project management skills. In comparison to the project the process is the step

involved in carrying out the project successfully, they often involve various parameters,

such as the consumers, suppliers and other key contributors. “Remarkable leaders often

support and enable process improvement” (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

Goals and support: In here the author quoted the famous speech of then President of the

United States, John F. Kennedy, the speech was about putting the first man on the moon,

he was a goal setter and after careful assessment set this bold goal, he was an aggressive

and a remarkable leader of that time, having set the humongous task of putting the first

man on moon, the president worked towards making the goal a reality and was successful

in achieving it. It was evident, without setting a bold goal, it would have never been

possible to achieve something of this magnitude in those times (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007).

The above example of the president clearly states the importance of goal setting in ones

pursuit towards becoming a remarkable leader, later the author gave some key pointers in

regard to goal-setting involving the size, belief, investment, action and commitments,

these five aspects play a key role in ones mind-set (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). In his book

the author went a step ahead and gave some key pointer towards personal goal setting as

following.

Step 1: Dream

Step 2: Tangible goal statement

Step 3: List the benefits you’ll acquire

Step 4: Identify the barriers

Step 5: Resources required


Step 6: Need to learn

Step 7: Set a date

Step 8: Commitment

In here the author reiterates the importance of personal goal setting in a leaders

life. As a leader he should be a vision creator, and lead the organization from fore front,

In this book the author discussed about the importance and role of a leader in having a

visionary mind, he should be a motivator and a guide to other subordinates and help them

reach their personal milestones in life done in a collaborative way (Kevin Eikenberry,

2007). As a leader, he should be ever ready to lend support and play an important role in

assisting other individual’s reach their goals.

The power of alignment: In his book the author has also mentioned upon the importance

of alignment of goals in comparison to one individual and the organization (Kevin

Eikenberry, 2007). It is the linkage between an individual’s goal and the organizations,

which makes the company successful. To help us out the author gave several ways to

ensure alignment, which include Understanding, Ask, Create, Identify, Make, Question,

and Eliminate. The author has also gave detailed description about the process involved

in goal setting, they are as follows, Having a clear picture, Communication, Investment

of time, Enthusiasm and finally tracking the progress (Kevin Eikenberry, 2007). Finally it

is this ability of a leader to set goals and support, which ultimately pay dividends to the

organization.


Reference:

Eikenberry. K, (2007). Remarkable Leadership, Publication: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Edition 2007, printed in San Francisco, USA.

Remarkable leadership paper

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