This book by Jack Stahl, former Revlon CEO and former president of Coca-Cola, is presented in a very simple to understand style that offers some essential lessons on leadership with valuable framework on leadership, indispensable skills for someone to have even in a non-corporate world.
Stahl in an interview with Business Week says, “Leadership is a bundling of very concrete action steps that can be taken and that what’s I have tried to outline in Lessons on Leadership.”
The book progresses step-by-step leading you from valuable information on how to actively develop your leadership and management skills to people management and financial policies and models that are appropriate for your business.
Some of the examples that Stahl gives from his Coco-Cola days and Revlon experience are insightful and offer the first hand cognitions on leadership qualities and people management skills.
I loved the “leadership insights” and the “key points” or the highlights all through the various chapters. These are simple and quite often known words of wisdom in the corporate world but often it is the simple things that we miss out in dealing with large organizations and projects.
Use these simple tips at all management and entrepreneurial levels – put them up in a poster format or just as reminders on your laptop or handheld devices, you’ll never go wrong with these, some of these I list here – leaving a strong desire for want for more!
- A modest view of your future brings modest results and rewards. Think
big and give people the opportunity to win big. - Prioritize your potential marketing programs and then focus on quality execution on the programs you have selected. This will maximize impact on the marketplace and the growth of your brands.
- Be disciplined about not committing retargets to low-return capital projects and investments.
- Listen closely to learn about the little things you can do as an added service to your customer. They may be big to them.
But note that these values not only for your walls as a motivating adornment but must be truly used daily in developing your management and leadership abilities.
The book discusses the seven fundamental management skills for leaders at all levels. Whether you are a budding entrepreneur or at any level of management ladder in your organization, reading these valuable tips from one of the stalwarts of management success presents a marvelous opportunity that you don’t want to miss.