It's Not Always Right to Be Right: And Other Hard-Won Leadership Lessons

Description

A breakthrough guide to the real lessons of business Have you ever noticed that individuals of brilliance often fall short of their true potential? Great ideas, concepts and initiatives seldom break through the sea of business mediocrity. As a senior international leader with over 30 years corporate experience, Hamish Thomson has discovered that true transformation and breakthrough comes from personal insight — derived not from intellect or technical mastery, but from experience and observation of real-life occurrences. It’s Not Always Right to Be Right offers unique business and leadership insights, teachable models, and practical advice on what one needs to do differently to achieve desired results. Writing in a casual, autobiographical style, Hamish shares the key experiences and hard-won lessons that enabled him to drive significant change when all the right ways of doing things didn’t work. Packed with fascinating true-to-life stories and powerful, often counterintuitive lessons, this invaluable guide: • Distills a lifetime of business wisdom into a single volume • Offers honest business and leadership lessons drawn from a long and successful corporate career • Features learning messages, practical steps, and shareable strategic models and frameworks to help you make a tangible difference where it counts • Provides strategic models that can be used to frame discussions and drive change in individuals, teams, and entire organizations It’s Not Always Right to Be Right is a must-read for anyone starting out in the business and corporate world, for anyone in the middle of their career looking to break through to the next level, and for senior leaders seeking to improve performance and drive meaningful change. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Purpose: What’s in it for you? Introduction: Good, but not Great Chapter 1 Law, Logic andRelationships A lesson I never forgot The practical part Models for the whiteboard Chapter 2 Drains and Radiators Negativity hurts Leadership energy The practical part Models for the whiteboard Chapter 3 The Man Who Used to Smile Reality bites Where I went wrong The practical part Models for the whiteboard Chapter 4 Results Are Nice but awards Matter Awards are talent magnets Awards give rise to breakthrough and to ‘special’ Awards provide clarity of focus and direction A boozy lunch lesson Winning: the drug of choice Risk vs awards How to win Cannes Global Advertiser of the Year The practical part Chapter 5 It’s Not Always Right to be Right Getting to win–win Exceptions to every rule The practical part Chapter 6 Noticed, Remembered, Understood Three steps to exceptional Noticed Remembered Understood The practical part Models for the whiteboard Chapter 7 Ever Heard of Harry Redknapp? The ability to manage and negotiate emotion The ability to learn through adversity The ability to learn through others The ability to learn through immersion The ability to learn through self Believe in experience Introducing Harry Listen, refine and grow Personal learning Strategic learning Functional learning Chapter 8 Bad Bosses Are Great Bosses The peril of bad bosses My bad bosses My lessons learned Chapter 9 The 3 A’s (and one critical E) Centralisation station Assist, add value or accelerate Operational/Local teams Centralised/Regional/Global teams Chapter 10 It Only Hurts When You Write the Cheque The message Chapter 11 Get a Life Time on the ball The importance of messaging A question of choice The practical part Models for the whiteboard Chapter 12 What Would Margaret Thatcher say? The value of being liked The science of likeability No dickheads Chapter 13 Bring On the Grilling Theory of reactance Samson fires up the grill The British grillmaster Chapter 14 The Hardest Part of a Decision Reflectors VS forward-lookers Decision-making non-negotiables The practical part Models for the whiteboard Chapter 15 Culture Doesn’t Matter Corporate culture A story of foolhardiness Cultural crisis The practical part Models for the whiteboard Chapter 16 Constant Dissatisfaction Channeling dissatisfaction A dissatisfied person’s approach to business models ‘Sustaining success’? Impossible Realignment: trickier than it looks Dissatisfaction’s fallout The practical part Models for the whiteboard Chapter 17 The Authentic You My wake-up call The practical part Models for the Whiteboard Chapter 18 Who Is Writing Your Agenda? Leading my agenda The practical part Models for the whiteboard Close: If Not You, Who? INDEX EULA