Growing @ The Speed of Change
Ken Altenbach
I coach serious and engaged individuals to uncover their inner wisdom through a personalized coaching process that sparks transformative insights, empowering them to create the life they envision.
As a leader, you are obligated to assess your skills to see where there might be a weakness or two to overcome. Once identified, you must take the proper steps to do whatever it takes to rectify the identified weaknesses. Most of the time, rectifying weaknesses doesn’t require formal educational training, just picking up a book and reading from those who been where you are currently can help you tremendously. Here is a review of one such book that should be high on any leader’s agenda.
Mind Blowing Experience
I want to prepare you for the mind-blowing experience you will encounter when you read the book Growing @ The Speed of Change by one of my favorite leadership author’s Mr. Jim Clemmer. Let me be clear, mind blowing meaning, not in the sense that this reading will confuse you but how much practical and very useful information is contained within the pages. This is not a “how to” book about leadership in the concept of running a business per se; it is a “how to” manual for running yourself through an ever changing fast-paced world…Personal Leadership. In the introduction, Mr. Clemmer explains how to read this book and why he didn’t write it in the traditional way as chapter by chapter with different headings. Instead, he cleverly wrote it as main parts with sub-topics, stories, and articles related to the main parts for the purpose of reading only what interests you or referring again and again to particular topics of interest.
Wallowing, Following and Leading, The WFL Model
What I enjoyed the most is how Mr. Clemmer categorizes three areas that we “choose” to live and practice in our life…Wallowing, Following and Leading and gives an example of a simple model called WFL in a sloping manner with leading at the top and wallowing at the bottom. Wallowing people are the pessimistic kind who complain, criticize, make excuses and blame others for their misfortune. Followers are waiting for others to lead them; they are comfortable and willing to let others make the tough decisions. Leaders are the action and risk takers who take charge, facing changes and challenges head on and viewing everything in an optimistic perspective. From this point on, he references all three categories and gives examples how a person can fall in either category, but more importantly how one can leave the wallowing and following behind to gain personal leadership, which in turn helps to lead others. Beware, he writes in a no-holds barred manner and he will give it to you straight, identifying who you are. If you are a very pessimistic person not interested in changing your views and thoughts, this book is not for you. And followers are the fence sitters who could either stay on the fence or jump ship.
Finding More Resources
Finally, do not try to read this book in one sitting. At the end of each main topic Mr. Clemmer gives references to follow-up websites and other books to read, including his own. I checked on many of the suggested sites and found many interesting follow-up references. His website www.JimClemmer.com is packed full of information and it’s free to subscribe. Check it out and see all the useful information that can help a leader to grow or improve any identified weaknesses and to help others grow as well.
What leadership books can you recommend? Let us know by writing a sentence or two why you recommend us to read it.
To your growth and success
