Book Review:
You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader:
How Anyone, Anywhere, Can Make a Positive Difference
Name: Class Name and number: Professional Roles: Leader, NURS 4250
A. Bibliographical information:
(syllabus format)
Sanborn, Mark, You don’t need a title to be a leader: how anyone, anywhere, can make a positive difference, New York, Doubleday Broadway Publishing, 2006, 102 pgs.
(APA 6th ed. format)
Sanborn, M. (2006). You don’t need a title to be a leader: how anyone, anywhere, can make a positive difference. New York: Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group.
B. Author information:
Mr. Mark Sanborn is a cum laude graduate of The Ohio State University and the president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., which is a company designed to give presentations and provide resources to help people develop or improve their leadership, teambuilding, customer service, and adaptation to change in both the business and private life settings. Mark has had 7 books published, created over 20 training program videos, and presented more than 2,000 speeches and seminars to over 1,500 multi-million dollar corporations.
C. Content summary:
No matter what a person’s official title or position, anyone, who wishes to take control of their life and wants to positively influence the lives of others, anywhere, at anytime, can learn how to be a leader by understanding and implementing six simple leadership principles into their everyday lives. The author separates the book’s contents into three main parts: 1) A Leader Is…, 2) The Six Principles of Leadership, and 3) Making a Positive Difference.
Mark Sanborn simply defines leadership as “an invitation to greatness that we extend to others”. The catch is that a person can’t extend this invitation without accepting it themselves first; they can’t expect a commitment from others that they aren’t willing make themselves. A genuine greatness is based on what a person gives and contributes through their actions.
The author then investigates many leadership stories and examines the many different characteristics, roles, and actions involved with positive leadership qualities. He especially emphasizes the importance of using a lower-case “l” in the word leader because people perceive that using an upper-case “L” reserves the practice of the leadership roles to only those people occupying the executive suites or titled, “Leader” positions. True leaders accomplish their goals by increasing their, what the author calls, “Relationships, Outcomes and Improvements (ROI)” through mastering the six, principle-based, leadership skills.
The Power of Self-Mastery principle simply emphasizes that in order to lead others a person must first lead themselves. Many people feel “paralyzed” by their lack of control in life, and the principle suggests that channeling their focus more towards the things they can control which allows them to begin to lead their life, rather than letting life lead them. A leader’s credibility can be evaluated on the basis of what the author calls the 3Cs: Character (who they are), Competency (what they do), and Connection (how they relate to others).
The principle of the Power of Focus broadcasts the idea that a person’s applied levels of focus and determination towards achieving their objective is more powerful than their acquired levels of education and intelligence. The ability to achieve exceptional results directly correlates with a leader’s ability to motivate, persistently progress, and channel focus towards doing what is important. Leaders possess the ability to identify a clear agenda and a sense of priority for themselves, which more importantly helps concentrate the focus of those around them.
The Power With People principle captures the key leadership concept that everything leaders accomplish happens not only through their individual effort but through the efforts of others. Sanborn distinguishes the differences between real leaders and others by comparing the roles or functions of a manager to those of a leader. Managers react to change and are given employees to exercise their power over people, but leaders create change and earn their followers by exercising their power to lead/work with people. The power to motivate makes a positive influence with increasing their follower’s compliance, thusly increasing production.
The leadership ability to practice the Power of Persuasive Communication theory emphasizes that while most people tell, leaders sell. While other people communicate to impress, explain, inform, relay only facts, and gain recognition, leaders communicate to influence, energize, inspire, tell vivid stories, and strive for understanding. Leaders persuade the audience to comprehend the message and then attempt to influence their actions.
The 5th leadership principle, The Power of Execution, is basically the evaluation of a leader’s ability to produce. Sanborn’s Implementation Quotient (IQ) tool measures how successful a leader’s actions are in means of production and satisfaction. Leaders have high IQ’s when it comes to implementing an action because of their positive attitude and ability to lead or teach. Overcoming barriers, fears, and resistance will produce a high leadership IQ, thusly reflecting improved production, competence, and confidence.
The 6th and final leadership principle, The Power of Giving, simply states that the purpose of leadership is to serve. Leaders strive to make the world a better place through the “giving” of their services. They give to gain views of perception (self and others), help others, improve their surroundings, and make themselves feel good, useful, and productive.
In conclusion, the simple fact is that everyone makes a difference, but it is every individual’s choice whether the difference they make is a positive or negative one. Leadership is that invitation to making a positive difference on a person’s own life and the lives of others. Leaving a leadership legacy through positive actions and influential behaviors has numerous beneficial repercussions and will not be forgotten.
D. The book’s importance:
This book presents an ideal definition of leadership and a detailed discussion of an excellent leader’s roles, responsibilities, skills, and abilities as it relates to producing a positive influence on life. The entire detailed contents of this book’s leadership concepts can be directly applied and related to all aspects of life at home, work, or in the community. The incorporation of the six leadership power principles is consistently evident in the nursing profession.
Nurses display their principle self-mastery by making a lifelong commitment to education, implementing change, and gaining clinical experience in order to become increasingly competent in their ability to provide quality patient care. As a leader a nurse’s confidence in their evidence-based judgments and skills are essential for establishing the professional trust needed for creating effective communication connections between themselves and the patient, doctor, family, and other healthcare team members.
Nurses lead by possessing the ability to channel focus and determination by clearly identifying and prioritizing various goals for all the different areas of their professional scope; patient, self, healthcare team, family, unit/department, hospital, etc.. Ongoing education and experience acquired allows a nurse to build confidence and competence in their clinical assessment and intervention skills in order to effectively focus quality patient care and utilize the appropriate healthcare team resources.
The Power with People leadership principle is evident in quality nursing care every day. Nursing leaders identify, communicate, implement, and follow-through with beneficial interventions by utilizing all the appropriate healthcare service resources. Nurses positively influence and motivate their clients to be compliant in order to achieve positive outcomes.
Nurses consistently practice their leadership ability to professionally communicate to “sell” or persuade their care. Nurses are a resource of information that initiates, influences, energizes, and inspires all healthcare team members and services. Nurses utilize their experiences from similar previous situations to anticipate and directly communicate possible patient reactions, identify specific normal or abnormal signs or symptoms, interventions, and treatment progressions to the patient and/or their families.
The power to produce positive results is the ultimate priority in nursing care. A nurse’s success is ultimately a direct reflection of their patient’s condition, progression towards desired outcome, and perception of their healthcare service experience. Good nurses have a high IQ because they have the ability to learn and teach paired with a positive attitude that overcomes any barrier or complications along with improving their clinical competence and skill confidence, thusly producing an increase in patient satisfaction and care outcomes.
Nurses exercise the Power of Giving on a daily basis simply because that’s the definition of nursing in general. Nursing leaders give their nursing services by acting as a healthcare advocate or supervisor for each patient’s plan of care as in order to help quicken their recovery time and return to their normal or improved level of function. Nurses manage a patient’s condition, utilize resources, reviews results, implement interventions, and are rewarded with the ability to directly observe a patient’s treatment progression and rising level of satisfaction.
Good nurses have chosen this career because it allows them to have the ability to directly intervene on improving the overall health and well-being of a person’s life every day. Nurses strive to make a positive difference on not only the lives of their patients, but themselves and other around them by communicating health preserving education and leading a healthy lifestyle.
E. Your personal response
Mark Sanborn has developed a very influential and beneficial disposition on the concepts and principles of leadership by relaying a strong and positive message with vivid examples, clear definitions and evidence of the leadership theories, skills, and abilities required to be a good leader; with or without a title. This short book educates the reader’s awareness of the leadership abilities they already practice or possess and enlightens their ability of when and how to respond to leadership opportunities. If you want to make a positive difference, learn to lead, and take control of your life, I highly recommend reading this book.
This book taught me a tremendous amount about the leadership skills I have and the ones I don’t have, but most importantly it taught me how to identify and react to leadership opportunities in all the different parts of my life. I believe it will be essential, for the success of my career as a nurse, to always be a leader and utilize my abilities to increase not only my professional confidence and clinical competence but also my patient’s satisfaction with their care.