The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in

by Robin Sharma

New conditions call for different technique. You need to adapt.”

fast companies get that unsettling times are actually gifts for them and periods to get so far ahead of the competition that they can never catch up.”

it’s the most uncomfortable of conditions that can be the crucible that forges the best leaders.

they have an intense understanding that hard times are the best opportunities to show leadership. The more extreme the conditions, the more excited they get about the chance to not only see what they’re made of, but also to step into their greatest selves. So rather than resisting discomfort, they run to it,

The more time you spend outside of your comfort zone, the wider it grows.

when you get on the steep slopes, your weaknesses begin to show up.

And that’s another opportunity, because you get to see what you need to improve if you want to get better.”

the absolute necessity of choosing growth over complacency—even though complacency feels better in the short term.

things often have to fall apart before they can be rebuilt in a much better way.

all of the fears that are chaining your progress as a leader and as a person are nothing more than the lies you’ve sold yourself. Stop investing in them! Because life’s just too big to play small.”

Lucky people don’t get lucky. Lucky people create lucky.

during the transition process that lies between the old structures coming down and the new ones being put in place, it’s a really stress-filled, uncertain time.

Disruption is usually the beginning of real improvement showing up.

as a ski instructor, I’d be teaching someone a lesson on the mountain,” Ty continued. “Let’s say they were a pretty good skier when they first arrived. Then I’d take them through some exercises to teach them to ski even better. I’d share a few new concepts and offer them a bunch of advanced techniques. Well, guess what would happen to their skiing after my lesson?” “Obviously, they’d improve,” I replied. “Nope. They’d actually ski worse.” “No way? Seriously?” “Yup. But just for a short while—until the new learning had been integrated. See, Blake, part of the process of changing and growing is going from where you currently are to breaking down all you’ve known so you can rebuild in a way that’s even better. Once again, skiing’s a great metaphor for this. My client would learn all these fantastic new skills, but they disrupted the way they’d been skiing before they had their lesson with me. They needed to think differently and act differently in order to get to their next level of excellence as a skier. So they inevitably went through a period of transition filled with confusion.”

Their technique broke down and fell apart. It looked terrible, and some students would get frustrated. But they needed to be patient with the process of change.

Change is always messiest in the middle.

“Problems are only problems when we make them problems. Victims cry, ‘Why me?’ Leaders, on the other hand shout, ‘It’s up to me!’ ”

The S in SPARK stands for Speak with Candor. Leadership Without a Title has so much to do with being a pristine, truth-filled, and inspirational communicator.

candor,

The people around you would rather hear the truth as to the way things really are than some plastic sloganeering that you do to avoid confronting reality.

Delivering the naked truth, and nothing but the naked truth, promotes trust and respect for you.

An important part of showing leadership is to be more committed to speaking honestly than receiving the approval of others.”

especially in tough times, it’s essential not only to communicate impeccably, but also to actually overcommunicate with each of your stakeholders.

This prevents rumors from starting and gossip from spreading.

if something’s important to someone important to you, it should become important to you as well.”

“There’s a difference between being candid and being rude,

you can say whatever you want so long as you say it with respect.”

if someone’s making a lot of mistakes, the common way of dealing with them is to say, ‘You’re not doing a good job, and things better improve.’ But that kind of communication discourages people. Yes, be candid and clear. Of course, be a strong leader. But why not say ‘I appreciate that you’re putting in a lot of effort and I’d like to share some of the opportunities I see for you to take your performance to its next level’?

you’ll get so much more speaking encouragingly. You can say exactly what you need to say but using uplifting words.

Leaders Without a Title are truly impeccable with the words they use. They don’t gossip. They don’t complain. They don’t condemn. And they never swear. The only words they try their best to use each day are those that inspire, engage, and elevate.” “Not only those around them but themselves.”

P in SPARK. P stands for Prioritize. With all the turbulence in business now, it’s so easy to get disconnected from your mission, vision, values, and goals. When things feel like they are falling apart, there’s a powerful pull to get nailed by the seduction of distraction.

Focus on the Best and Neglect All the Rest.

leadership is about knowing very little about most things and a staggering amount about a few things.

getting things done is not the same as doing great things.

Personal energy is the single most valuable asset in business today. You can be a genius, have a world of gorgeous opportunities, and a plan to make it all happen. But if you have no energy each day, nothing gets done.

shift from complexity to simplicity by cutting out all the low-impact activities of your workdays to make room for an obsessive focus around your high-impact ones.”

Because the person who tries to achieve everything ultimately accomplishes nothing.

80/20 Rule: 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your activities.

make the time to think. Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up. Thinking in silence while the rest of the world is asleep is an excellent discipline for exceptional performance. Self-reflection creates intensity of clarity.

“And the A?”

Adversity Breeds Opportunity.

keep moving forward. The singer Joan Baez put it perfectly: ‘Action is the antidote to despair.’ In challenging conditions, just stay in movement.

Persistence and patience. Two extraordinary leadership virtues to get you through challenging and change-rich times.

obstacles just show up to measure how badly you want something.

SPARK acronym. The R will remind you to Respond versus react when turbulent times hit.

initiative and hard work is the warm-up act for a headliner called success.”

the K in SPARK?” I asked.” “It will remind you to offer Kudos.

shine a light on people. It’ll help you remember that people need to be appreciated—for even the smallest things that they do in the face of adverse and stressful times.

Recognize excellence. Praise good work. Honor mastery.

The Deeper Your Relationships, the Stronger Your Leadership.