Book Review:

The Leader Who Had No Title – Robin Sharma

In a Nutshell...

The book is a modern fable focusing on 4 for leadership concepts that encourage people
and organisa ons to live out world class lives through the techniques taught in each leadership
conversa on. The single best book for anyone from the CEO, the Street sweeper and in
between. This book will offer you something exceptional. Snippets of First chapters

Quotable Quote: if everyone would sweep their own street the whole world would be clean.
In light of a great organisation, “ what would happen to the sound of s symphony if even one of
its players was out of tune and less the suburb at his art? ” How many of your employees are
out of tune?

No role is a small role – everyone needs to drive innova on. Everyone needs to inspire their
teammates. Everyone needs to embrace change. Everyone needs to take responsibility for their
results. Everyone needs to be posi ve. Everyone needs to become devoted to expressing their
absolute best. And once they do, the organisa on not only will adapt beau ful to the changing
condi ons, it will actually lead within its field. Each one of us has total control over of how you
show up in your current role. The highest of all human responsibili es is the ability each one of
us has to choose how we respond to the environment we find ourselves within.

You must pay the price for success before the rewards are due to you. However, the less
you focus on the goods you receive most of care about at work, the more you receive it. The
best way to help poor people is to ensure you don’t become one of them . Quotable quote:
“there’s only one of you in the whole world now and forever more. And no one else can ever
be as good as you as you.”

Average life is only 960 months or twenty thousand days. The days slip into weeks and the
weeks become months and it all goes by in a blink.
 Your workplace can change from a dead end job and reshaped into something resembling a
work of art.

Snippets of Chapter 3

Sad cost mediocrity and the spectacular rewards of leadership mastery: Few things generate
as much happiness as knowing that you are fully realising your genius, doing brilliant work, and
spending your life beautifully.

And with the catalys c change in our society right now, leadership has become the single
most important master skill for success in business. We need to prac ce leadership in every
arena we play. If you can’t leader yourself you will never lead anyone around you. How to start:
One of the best things you can do is get up early; it’s one of the most intelligent daily prac ces
the leaders without a tle perform with acute consistency. – Plenty me for sleeping when you
are dead. Ge ng up one hour earlier gives us an extra hour per day, 7 extra hours per week.
That’s thirty fresh hours in a month. Almost an extra work week every thirty days. That’s me
you can exploit to build your plans, refine vision and develop your best projects. Time you can
leverage to reflect on your values, remove your inner barriers and rethink your thinking.

Graves are great things – they serve to drama cally remind us of how short life is – you
know, we all end up in a pile of dust. And on your last day, all that truly ma ers is whether you
got to know your inner leader, and if you did, whether you had the bravery to allow it to offer
it’s gifts to the world ar ound you.

Each one of us alone creates the lives we get to live...

True human heartbreak is reaching your final moments and realizing that you wasted the
most important gi that was given to you – the chance to present your magnificence to the
world around.

Success is created through the performance of a few small daily disciplines that stack up
over me to produce achievements far beyond anything you could have planned for. “
Successful people all perform the same few leadership disciplines. They consistently prac ce
the same few fundamentals. But their seemingly small, insignificant daily acts of excellence
stack up over me to a best-in-class carer and world-class personal life. Failure on the other
hand is a succession of a few bad fundamentals performed daily – such as smoking. Which will
amount to something greater than you expected – cancer or worse. Its small acts of daily
neglect performed consistently until you reach point of no return (e.g. business bankruptcy).

Sustained change only happens when we shi emo onal rather than logical level. There is
no dead end job in this whole wide unpredictable world of ours – only dead-end thinking.

By infusing leadership into everything you do and each thing you touch, you can live
remarkably. You truly can realize your original genius. You really can be one of the great ones.
 Life stands as a model of possibility

Leadership Conversations:

The Book is based on four leadership conversations around creating leadership mastery.

The first Leadership Conversa on: You need No Title to Be a Leader One of the greatest
freedoms each of us has as people is the freedom to choose how we view our roles in the world
and the power we all have to make posi ve decisions in whatever condi ons we happen to
find ourselves.

You can choose to set yourself a high standard and deliver nothing less than my very best
to each job. When giving your absolute best you create your own ‘luck’. Always giving more
than your best at every job, steadily will improve your life.

Lucky breaks are nothing more than unexpected rewards for intelligent choices we’ve
chosen to make. Success doesn’t just happen because someone’s stars line up. Success, both in
business and personally, is something that’s consciously created. It’s the guara nteed result of
deliberate series of acts that anyone can perform.

Anyone can truly be successful, but few choose to be.

Too many of us take jobs for granted and fail to see all the posi ve results they contain. We
wish for something be er rather than realizing we currently have. We just need to look a li le
deeper, try a little harder and lead a little better.

It’s impossible to build a tribute to success on the founda on of excuses. Never play vic m,
show leadership. True leadership is about having unshakable faith in your vision and
unrelen ng confidence in your power to make posi ve change happen. Albert Einstein “great
spirits have always encountered opposi on from mediocre minds”. If you stumble a bit, that
part of the game. You learn to walk by falling. You learn to lead by trying. Great people
construct monuments with the stones their cri cs throw at them. Go to work each and see
yourself as an ar st of sorts, and each day you’re fortunate enough to be able to express your
highest crea vity on canvas that others call work. Titles bring power. The power that comes
with being a managing director, for example, only lasts for as the person has the tle managing
director. If it’s taken away, all the power that was associated with it was taken out the door
with it. The influence that comes with having a title is fleeting at best.

Firm yet friendly, tough yet tender and courageous yet compassionate. Four Natural
Powers:

1. Each of us alive in this moment has the power to go to work each day and express the
absolute best within us. And you need no title to do that.

2. Everyone one of us alive today has the power to inspire, influence and elevate each
person we meet by the gift of a great example. And you need no title to do that.

3. Every one of us alive with life can passionately drive posi ve change in the face of
negative conditions. An you need no title to do that

4. Every one of us alive to the truth about leadership can treat all stakeholders with
respect, apprecia on and kindness – and in so doing raise the organisa ons culture to best of
breed, and you need no title to do that.

Simply remember that no ma er what your posi on within any organisa on and no ma er
how old you are or where you live throughout the world, you have the power to show
leadership. And no one and nothing can ever deny you that.. There is a difference to being alive
and knowing how to live Two choice really, Vic mhood or Leadership. First me in history of
man we have this opportunity – every can lead in their work and within their lives. Shining
example of leadership – if you elevate the lives of ten people per day in three months that 300
people you posi vely influenced. At the need of your year that over 3000 people. Management
Tip:

The single best move any organisa on can make – whether the organisa on is a business or
a non-for-profit or government or school or even a na on – is growing the leadership poten al
of every one of its cons tuents. Leadership versus vic mhood – those who are superb at
making excuses are usually are not suburb at doing much else. Vic ms live by excuses – and
ultimately die with them.

You always behave in a way that is consistent with yourself image. So see yourself as
nothing short of brilliant.

Focus: Focus married with me produces mastery. You really need to focus on the par cular
job you want for ten years. Only then you will be an overnight success. Along with the excuses
we make, we also allow ourselves to get distracted by a million li le things and eventually
amount to nothing. We all have the capability in us; very rarely do we have the discipline to
exercise it. The only economy that ma ers is the one between your two ears. Ideas: Ideas are
ul mately worthless unless you ac vate them with focused and consistent ac on. The best
leaders never leave the site of a good idea without doing something – not ma er how small –
to breathe some life into it. Lots of people have good ideas. But the masters become masters
because they had the courage and convic on to act on idea. Just start whatever it is that you
know you need to do to take your work as well as your life to where you know it can be. Small
consistent steps drive momentum. Daily Ripples of excellence-over me- become tsunami of
success.

Practise of success – Daily 5

Imagine doing 5 li le yet focused acts everyday to get you closer to your most important
goals. A er one month that’s about one hundred and fi y goals you have realised. Then a er
12 months, you’ve achieved over two thousand goals. Just imagine what the next twelve
months would like, not only for your work, but your health, your rela onships – you have
achieved over two thousand li le but focused and meaningful outcomes. I – innova on. Daily
and relentless progress. All great leaders flex their minds and elevate their abili es by
consistently asking themselves “What can I Improve Today?” Make your present be er than
your past, develop an innova ve mindset. Daily ripples of superior performance add up over
me to a tle wave of outrageous success. Start off small and just do li le improvements every
day. Few things are as foolish as hoping old behaviours will somehow present new results.

M – Mastery . “What would the person who is the best in the world at what I do be doing
right thus very moment”. Please note, you’ll find that you don’t have a lot of company on that
extra mile. Work wasn’t at all something that is merely a vehicle to pass the me and pay my
bills. It was gi . And a spectacular way to access my leadership best and in doing so, not only
become happier human being, but also to make the world a better place in the process.

A – Authen city: It’s never been so important to keep the promises you make to your
teammates and customers. It’s about knowing who you are, what you stand for, and then
having the courage to be yourself. Rather than defining success by what you get, they define
their success by what you give.

G – Guts in Business: Unrealis cally persistent and wildly courageous. The more you leave
your valleys of comfort in the passionate pursuit of your mountains of opportunity, the more
obstacles you’ll face as you make your climb. On the other side of these obstacles lie the
greatest rewards... Cri cism is the defence reac on that scared people use to protect
themselves against change.

E – Ethics: You will never go wrong in doing what’s right. There is nothing more important
than being honest, highly dependable, staying on me and trea ng people the way you want
to be treated. Be ferociously humble. Make sure your video is in sync with your audio. Final
thoughts on first conversation:

Leadership definitely is the single most important advantage of every world-class

organisation, the source of every great achievement, and the bedrock of every extraordinary
life.

Second Leadership Conversa on: Turbulent mes Build Great Leaders Pain is temporary.
Quitting lasts forever.

“ Keep in mind, difficult days never last, strong people always do” I may not be rich, but I
have a rich life...

As a leader without tle, I had a natural power within me to determine what meaning I
a ached to any circumstance I’d been presented with. By finding a posi ve and useful
interpreta on, I’d be fl ipping the switch from vic mhood to leadership. I need to stop making
excuses for what my life looked like, use previous experiences to build and even brighter
future.

One intelligent insight can inspire you to make a decision that shi s you into revolu onary
new way of performing.

Anyone in business is in show business.

Change:

If you s ck your head under the desk and hope the avalanche of change will go away, you’ll
end up suffoca ng. “If you fight against it, you’ll end up in trouble” “It means, to ski down the
tough runs you have to do the very thing that it seems you should most avoid doing ” From a
skier perspec ve: If I don’t lean into the change that’s coming at me and instead try to protect
myself by pulling back into my old way of opera n g, I’ll end up frozen on the mountain, so to
speak. “

The fear you have when going to your outer limits actually causes your limits to expand
When it comes to skiing, anyone can look like a pro and ski on the easy runs. The true test of
your ability is how you ski on the hard ones.

“What you resist will persist, but what you befriend you begin to transcend” RISK: Take
some intelligent risks and have the courage to concentrate your greatest abili es on your
largest opportuni es, even if that thought frightens you. Comfort Zone: You will get back in
direct propor on to what you give. The more you do things you do that scare you, the more
you are showing leadership. If you retreat, you lose the opportunity for the largest growth.

“We all have our Everest lurking within our hearts. You need to be dedicated to climbing it
a small amount everyday”

On the easy stuff, anyone can look like a superstar. Deficiencies get amplified under
pressure, in person or in an organisation – learn from those.

The very things that make you feel afraid are those very doorways into your leadership.
There can be no growth or progress without that feeling of nervousness in the pit of your belly
and discomfort in the core of your body.

Do what frightens you daily, and you’ll elegantly transform fear into power every day.
Growth – Choose growth over complacency – even though complacency feels be er in the
short term.

Growing yourself and your leadership best is your single best survival tac c. “What the
caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls the bu erfly” Richard Bach. Disrup on is
usually the beginning of real improvement showing up. Business Management Tip: Like the
turbulent mes and periods of struggle in business are, in truth, similar opportuni es to grow
wings and express our best. Change: You can be a vic m about the whole thing and feel the
change is something being done to you – that’s fit’s some external force that you have no
control over. Or you can use my natural power and step up to being a leader without tle. Vict
ims Cry why me? Leaders, on the other hand shout “it’s up to me!”!!! Be the light in a dark
turbulent world.

SECOND LEAD WITHOUT TITLE PRINCIPLE: SPARK

S. Speak with Candor – being a pris ne, truth-filled, and inspira onal communicator. Don’t
preserve the status quote with vague generali es. People want truth not plas c sloganeering.
Be courageous enough to speak the truth when it’s difficult or your voice tremors. Without
such truth and candor people live in a place amid delusion and fantasy. Leaders in every
interac on remind people of their best. Superb leaders also employ encouraging, suppor ve
and posi ve words that provoke others into dazzling ac on. Just look at John F Kennedy,
Gahndi, Mandela and Mar n Luther King Jr. Were able to do through the sheer power of their
words.

Management p: Instead of saying not doing a good job, why not say, I can appreciate your
effort. Let’s look at way to take you to the next level or performance. DO NOT GOSSIP. THEY DO
NOT COMPLAIN, THEY DO NOT CONDEMN, THEY NEVER SWEAR. The only words they try their
best to use each day are those that inspire, engage and elevate.

P. Priori ze – in turbulent mes it easy to get distracted from mission, vision, values, goals
and it’s easy to get nailed to the seduc on of distrac on. Focus on the best and forget the rest.
Consider the idea that leadership is about knowing very li le about a lot of things and a
staggering amount about a few things. Note: Even if you were shi ing from busyness to ge ng
things done, i t’s also key to remember that ge ng things done is not the same as doing great
things (shift from chaotic to elegant simplicity).

ACTION STEP: Every morning, before you go off to the world, take some quite me for
yourself. During this period, make the me to think. Some mes you need to slow down to
speed up. Thinking in silence while the rest of the world is asleep is an excellent discipline for
exceptional performance.

A. Adversity Breeds Opportunity: Every set back carries an even greater opportunity. Every
seeming failure brings with it some sort of corresponding blessing. Have the courage to walk
through the doorway offered. And for every dream that dies, an even be er can come to life .
Problems are nothing more than pla orms for even brighter possibili es. Crises contain
excep onal opportunity: Remember the strongest and most powerful of leaders were built by
struggle and setback. “Action is the antidote to despair” In challenging times keep moving.

ACTION STEP: KMP – Keep Moving Forward. Just keeping moving forward and taking ac on,
no ma er how hard it seems. Keep progressing Every posi ve ac on yields a posi ve
consequence, even if not immediately.
 “ It's be er to go down in the fiery failure because you chased your lo iest ambi ons than
to spend your best hours watching television in some subdivision. R. Respond Vs react: Don’t
worry about the areas you can’t control and take control of those areas you can. Take Initiative.
Remember the finest hour for every great leader was when everything looked like it was falling
apart.

K. Kudos: Being a Leader without Title is about being a leader and inspira onal in a world
that all too o en celebrates the worst things. Remember to shine a light on people. Life begins
at the end of your comfort zone!

Third Leadership Conversation: The deeper your relationships, the stronger your leadership.

The deeper your relationships the stronger your leadership

Give away that which you most want to receive

Single best way to inspire your teammates to become the natural leaders they are meant to
be is to model leadership mastery yourself

The quality of any organisa on comes down to the quality of the rela onships between its
individual teammates

Being great at business is all about a glorious focus on people. Believing in them and
celebrating them.

Always do more than you are paid to do

H: Helpfulness – be astonishingly helpful

U: Understanding - speak less and listen more. Leadership is about listening, and allowing
others to fell heard. That takes a big person.

M: Mingle – when people are seeing your face, you stand out. They get to know you. They
begin to like you. And remember, people always like to do business with people they like. Now
is the me to be out building bridges, rolling up your sleeves, and connec ng with colleges and
customers while you help them get to where they want to go. Drink coffee with your
stakeholders. Have lunches with your customers. Find out what their concerns and worries are.

A: Amuse – having fun while you do your work will help you boost your produc vity. Fun
makes you more engaged in whatever you are doing.

N: Nurture: Leave every single person who intersects your path be er, happier and more
engaged than you found them. Take care of people and the money will take care of itself. Help
other people get to their goals and people will help you get every single one of yours. People
are the most important element to a winning business
 The Fourth Leadership Conversation: To Be a Great Leader, First become a great Person.

Blood, sweat, and tears are necessary to reach dreams, hopes and joys. Build up such
extreme amounts of internal power that you’re pre y much invincible in the face of deep
change and relentless pressure.

To be a great leader, first you must become a great person. We must lead ourselves first,
only then can you lead other people.

“The me to think about your legacy and how you want to be remembered is not on your
last day, but now. That way you can live your life backward and make certain that you have a
good ending.”

Elevate the lives of everyone around them.

“ The street sweeper gets buried next to the CEO. And tles, pres ge and university degrees
don’t ma er much at the end. All that truly counts is whether you grew into all you could have
been and whether you showed leadership by using your poten al to posi vely contribute to
lives of other human be ings”

In our world we define our success by what we have rather than by the people we’ve
become.

Personal Leadership – Leading from the inside out – is the DNA off all enduring excellence.
Greatness is an inner event with outer consequences. Once you awaken your inner leader,
worldly success is the guaranteed result!

Life waits for no one, don’t put off un l tomorrow what you know you must be done today.
Often we see through eyes of fear versus through lenses of opportunity. Action:

Being posi ve – people who laugh at posi ve thinking should make a study of sports
heroes, of legendary champions. Thoughts in the brain ma er. Every business result is the
direct result of collec ve behaviour of each of its people. And every ac on you take is a child of
a thought.

The results you expect are the results you’ll see. Understand the thoughts in one’s mind.
Be er awareness leads to be er choices, be er choices leads to be er results. 5AM Ritual: this
is me to reset yourself. To lock in to your flight plan for the day. To reconnect with your core
values. To renew, regenerate and reground. It’s a period to work on your mind, strengthen your
body, nourish your emotional life, and fuel your spiritual dimension.