How to Lead without Domineering

29 Smart Leadership Rules

Rolf Arnold

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781475809749
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Leadership in Education

How to Lead without Domineering: 29 Smart Leadership Rules is a kind of tool book which contains almost 30 suggestions for self-reflection of leaders in any kind of leading situation – on the job, in a honorary post, or in any other context. Leaders reach their own limits and the limits of others, but how can they overcome these limits? What is characteristic for a good leader and how is it possible to achieve one's objectives in cooperation with others?

Clever and wise leaders support contexts, form relationships, and promote spirit by consolidating the momentum or dynamic of groups, teams, and organizations. Clever leaders rarely use commands or lay down the law, even though instruments of power and their handling are not unknown to them. Clever leadership implies taking risks, as leaders who adopt the principles of this book give up one-dimensional arguing and if-then-logic statements.

Professor Dr. Rolf Arnold presents different tools for clever and effective leadership, and he shows how the typical challenges for a leader in the nowadays world can be met. His book is based on recent scientific findings in the field of leadership research and on almost thirty years of practical experience as a leader, supervisor, and coach within different fields and organizations worldwide.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: From Transformative Leadership to Transformative Learning: New Approaches in Leadership Development
• Rule 1 Demonstrate How You Become Certain, but Instill Confidence
• Rule 2 Practice Forming the Vision
• Rule 3 Identify and Reinforce Talent and Potential
• Rule 4 Use Time-outs to Reflect, Focus, Visualize, and Formulate Your Organization’s Strategic Guidance
• Rule 5 Question the Beliefs that Shape Your Decisions and Actions
• Rule 6 Stimulate Creativity when Performing Tasks and Requirements
• Rule 7 Ensure a Systematic External Audit and Specify Criteria or Key Measures to Provide Information to Evaluate Success
• Rule 8 Develop an Understanding of the Social Environment
• Rule 9 Conduct Regular Exploratory Conversations with Employees
• Rule 10 Practice Employee Counseling Sessions
• Rule 11 Practice the Art of “Eloquent Silence” in Meetings
• Rule 12 Attempt to Orchestrate Conflict with New Ideas
• Rule 13 Practice Skills Development with Your Employees
• Rule 14 Promote Team Development
• Rule 15 Create a Learning Organization
• Rule 16 Practice Capacity Building—Support Individual and Organizational Networking
• Rule 17 Be a Friend to the Unexpected
• Rule 18 Avoid Elaborate PowerPoint Presentations
• Rule 19 Learn to Distrust Yourself—The More Confident and Decisive Your Actions, the More You Should Distrust Them
• Rule 20 Acknowledge Your Inner Images of Leadership and Loyalty
• Rule 21 Analyze Your Attitudes and Your Motives
• Rule 22 Make an Attempt at More Elegant Communication
• Rule 23 Redefine “Difficult” Colleagues and Practice Your Emergence View
• Rule 24 Exercise Change Management through Self-Transformation
• Rule 25 Banish the Ice-Cold Manager in You—Become a More Humane Leader
• Rule 26 Accept the Limits of Leadership and Learn to Manage Dissent
• Rule 27 Work with Synergy Markers. Avoid the Trap of Individualizing and Personalizing
• Rule 28 Learn to Lead Knowing that You Can Be Replaced and Ensure the System You Are Responsible for Will, Temporarily, Live On
• Rule 29 Distrust Rules and Examine Your Own Relationship to Rules
• Afterword
• Notes
• Bibliography