On Leadership - Allan Leighton

This is an excellent book on leadership, especially for someone who is in the public sector and longs for an insight into how things are run in the private sector. (Is it just as uninspirational? haha)

This book covers a wide spectrum of issues, from entrepreneurship, day to day challenges, to dealing with the media and managing your people. It is also filled with authentic stories and quotes from business leaders. Somehow it always inspires me when I read what these people have to say.

Here are some of the key nuggets that I've taken away from the book.

1. Leaders have the ability to take apart a complex situation and simplify it into bite-size actionables that people can act on.
2. Be in touch with the ground all the time - the leader has to get to know his front-line staff, customers, how the company really works on the ground. Avoid the ivory tower!
3. Authenticity is what builds people's trust in you. Mean what you say and walk the talk.
   
4. Recruiting great people - those who can take the ball and run is important. That way, you can empower them without micro-managing them, and build trust in the long term. Look for people who can think, analyse, look ahead, ask difficult questions and have a sense of perspective + history.
5. Good leaders have to have passion and confidence, and must exude and infect people with these all the time. Leaders also often suffer from some sort of restless paranoia, which drives them on.
   
6. Be ruthless with your time and prioritise heavily everyday. This is certainly something that I can learn alot from!
7. Building relationships underpin everything.
8. Use all kinds of ways to inspire and communicate to your team in a way such that it will stick.
9. Copy from people and other companies shamelessly!
   

There are many more, but this is what I can reasonably write down without copying down the entire book! Just reading it makes me feel like learning how to lead a team right now. The excitement!