Les McKeown - Do Lead Share your vision. Inspire others. Achieve the impossible

When Les writes, I read. Dont be deceived by this books diminutive size its like a rich, chunk of leadership fudge that you never want to end. This eye-opening, challenging, and encouraging book may be small, but it packs a big punch.

Steve McKee, Businessweek.com columnist and author of When Growth Stalls

If you dont think of yourself as a leader think again. Les McKeown shows you how to be a great one. This is a must read for anyone who leads (or wants to lead) a company, team or group.

JJ Ramberg, Host of msnbcs Your Business

Les McKeowns latest book, Do Lead , is a thoroughly refreshing take on what real leadership is all about. It is not about heroics or headlines, it is about achieving real results in the here and now. Its short, to the point, and not to be missed.

Rita Gunther McGrath, Professor and author of The End of Competitive Advantage

Do Lead is a stimulating page turner that will help you grease those rusty leadership gears youve been neglecting for some time now.

Michael Port & Associates, Book Yourself Solid

If youve ever worried that your everyday acts of leadership dont quite measure up to slipping into a superheros outfit and fighting evil, then you can relax. In this funny yet practical book, Les McKeown gets down to what it really means to lead.

Michael Bungay Stanier, author of Do More Great Work

Do you want to be a better leader? Do Lead paves the way to get you started right here, right now. By providing plenty of actionable insights, Les becomes your own personal mentor with the turn of every page ... Do Read!

Lon Southerland, Senior Director of Global Food and Beverage Marriott International

Do Lead embraces both diversity and engagement as it speaks in understandable terms that everyone can be a leader.

Jim McIntyre, President and CEO Otter Tail Corporation

Whether you are a company president, a junior executive, or an intern you will gain stunning new insights on what it takes to be an impactful leader. This book is a must read for anyone looking to beat the competition and ensure you have the best people doing the best work to be the best organization.

Justin Nelson, Co-Founder & President, National Gay & Lesbian Chamber
of Commerce

Do Lead is a book you wish you would have read decades ago. Brush up on your leadership skills and then pass this brilliant account on to a new graduate. The knowledge they obtain from this book will be priceless.

Pat Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Career Systems International

Not everyone is a leader by title, but everyone can be a leader by action. Do Lead will teach you that leadership can (and should)
be attained by anyone, including you. Especially, you.

Nilofer Merchant, bestselling author of 11 Rules for Creating Value In the Social Era

Do Lead is an inspiring must-read that will have you re-examining everything you thought you knew about leadership. Instead of being a trait held by an elite group of individuals, youll find that leadership is accessible to everyone.

Kate Marshall, Award-winning Speaker, Facilitator, Coach Building Business Athletes

In Do Lead , Les McKeown helps you make being a leader not just what you do, but who you are. Read this book and make a difference regardless of your industry, background or title every single day.

Carol Roth, CNBC contributor, entrepreneur and bestselling author of
The Entrepreneur Equation

Do Lead breathes new life into the concept of leadership. Like many business owners, I once viewed leadership as a function of management. After reading Do Lead , however, I realized that every employee could be exercising leadership to achieve common goals.

Leslie Pembrook, President and CEO of The Medical Team, Inc.

Do Lead

Share Your Vision.

Inspire Others.
Achieve the Impossible.

Les McKeown

To JMW

Published by The Do Book Company 2014
Works in Progress Publishing Ltd
thedobook.co

Text Les McKeown 2014
Illustrations Millie Marotta 2014

The right of Les McKeown to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced to a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be sent to: info@thedobook.co

To find out more about our company, books and authors, please visit thedobook.co or follow us on Twitter @dobookco

5% of our proceeds from the sale of this book is given to The Do Lectures to help it achieve its aim of making positive change www.dolectures.com

Cover designed by James Victore

Book designed and set by Ratiotype

Made in Britain

Printed and bound in Wales by Gomer Press Ltd on Naturalis, an FSC-certified paper made in Scotland

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-907974-18-2

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Introduction

Its commonplace today to hear people talk about a leadership vacuum. And its true at the present time we have few real leaders we can look to, and those we do look to for leadership are judged by a low standard.

Look at any sector where we expect to see inspirational leaders politics, business, entertainment, law enforcement and instead we see scandal after scandal, each peeling away another layer of our implicit trust in, and respect for, our leaders.

But are there fewer real leaders? Or, as I believe, has the entire concept of leadership been distorted over the last half-century shifting our perspective and preventing us from seeing acts of true leadership?

When we consider the idea of leadership, we see it as an elite act, set apart from everyday life and undertaken by people who are somehow special. That leadership is something other, something practised by people who are not you, not I.

And, of course, once we outsource the idea of leadership place it in the hands of these others, two things immediately begin to happen: first, we start to lose trust in the others; and secondly, we get to exempt ourselves from their failures. If leadership is undertaken by people other than ourselves, then their failures are their fault and their problem not ours. Whether its an expenses scandal or obscenely intrusive spying or botched corporate governance or outright fraud, we get to stand aside, wash our hands of the consequences and tut.

It is said that every generation gets the leadership they deserve, and at present were reaping the consequences of this outsourcing of leadership: our leaders are letting us down, and as a consequence our institutions are failing.

But this doesnt need to be so. Over and over again, Ive proved in my own career, working with institutions, organisations and their leaders for three decades, that this slide can be halted, and real, effective leadership restored in almost any environment. It takes only one realisation: leadership isnt an elite act. We can all, any of us, lead at any time. And in fact, more of us should.

In this book, youll learn what it truly means to lead, and how to do it (if you want to). In the first four chapters of the book well demolish the four myths that have paralysed leadership in our modern era: that leadership has to be heroic; that to be a leader you have to be a certain type of person; that you can only lead from in front; and that leadership is only revealed at times of crisis.