Think, Act and be a Leader!

Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra

Harvard Business Review Press £20 /$30

This is a book not for faint hearted people with tunnel vision, but ideal for thinking big and outside the box.

It is myth that you need to learn to act like a leader and think like a leader. The metamorphosis of transition to leadership will be messy, unpredictable and emotionally charged. You want to lead with greater impact but you are lost in day-to-day demands of life. You know you have to time manage efficiently your day job to build and develop leadership skills. You may be feeling the frustration of having too much on your plate and not enough time to reflect on how your business is changing and how to become a better leader. The important challenge is to play a leadership role: you can only learn what you need to know about your job and about yourself by doing it—not by just thinking about it.

The only way to think like a leader is to act like one and dive in to different projects and activities, amalgamate with different kinds of people and venture into unfamiliar means of getting things done. New experiences can enhance your thinking and help you to achieve new purposes, new goals and valuable things to do.

Herminia Ibarra vividly quotes eminent social psychologist Karl Weick “How can I know who I am until I see what I do”. Populate your ideas by redefining your current job as the first step to increasing your outright by changing your scope of your day job away from technical and operational demands in favour of more strategic concerns. Focusing activities that make you more attuned to your environment outside your firm and grabbing opportunities to work on projects outside your main area of expertise, expanding your professional contributions from outside in, while doing your daily schedule tasks relentlessly will give the vision you need to think more like a leader. Our contacts and networks are vital factor for leadership development with effective motivation and inspiration, because we need advice, feedback and learning from people who have been there and help us grow, learn and prosper.