Leading Minds: An anatomy of leadership. By Howard Gardner.
Synopsis and ‘Mabo’ of the book:
An analysis of 12 leaders through history. It starts with a great explanation of leadership, but the chapters on the actual leaders tend to focus heavily on the what happened rather than on showing the examples of the theory from the first part of the book.
I found the first part really, really useful, and then skimmed the actual meat of the book being the discussion of the actual leaders themselves.
Three things in this book for a new leader:
1. Stories are really powerful for influencing people
2. Leaders communicate powerfully, but more importantly, they embody the stories they employ as influence tools
3. Part of the power of stories is the sense of identity they impart to the listener
Three things in this book for an experienced leader:
1. We identify who we are in part (or in large part) by understanding which groups we belong to, and the stories that resonate within that group
2. Stories will appeal to both our rational selves and our emotional selves
3. To be a leader means helping people understand, in part, who they are.
A quote that captures the essence of the book:
“…stories speak to both parts of the human mind - its reason and emotion. Further, it is stories of identity - that is, narratives that help individuals think about and feel who they are, where they come from and where they are headed, that constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leaders arsenal.”
Three lessons that can be put into practice:
1. Listen for the stories that get told on a daily basis, and what they say about the groups they are being told in
2. Understand the context of the situation, and how the group would see an influential person within that group, in that context
3. Tell my kids more stories
Any further reading that it prompted:
Storytelling for Leaders