This book, Full-Stack Leadership, is the fourth one from PM Power and is based on PM Power’s Leadership Framework.
Leadership is influencing and guiding people to achieve a shared vision or goal. Leadership can be exercised by an individual or a group of individuals acting together. It is not influenced by the person’s title or position in a hierarchy. Even the lowest-ranking member in a hierarchy can exercise effective leadership. You can see that in the army, platoon sergeants sometimes are able to exert leadership influence on and coach and mentor younger lieutenants who are technically leading the platoons.
An effective leader has emotional intelligence, integrity, self-confidence, a vision for the future, good communication skills, empathy, strong managerial abilities, willingness to take risks when required, ability to think differently, creatively, and innovatively, ability to listen to people and willingness to change when necessary, resilience, persistence, and proactive behavior in times of crisis.
Leaders emerge in all groups and societies, unless suppressed by conflicting interests. In these cases, leadership is not a self-declared attribute. Leadership is evident and validated when there is followership. Effective and persuasive communication is a key skill here.
Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela are examples of effective leaders who emerged in highly oppressive and discriminatory environments and managed to lead large groups of people to independence and self-confidence. Jamshedji Tata, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are examples of leaders who started and led organizations to great success.
Strong leadership is critical to a business’s success. Good leaders can drive innovations and change required for the business to stay competitive in the market. At the same time, they will stay grounded in reality. Transformational leaders have the right traits and are able to rise to any situation. A good leader will have their head in the sky and feet on the ground.
Over the years, we have found that leadership is expressed through three aspects or dimensions, each equally important – Leading Business, Leading Execution (Process and People), and Leading Self. A successful business leader has to attain effectiveness in all these three dimensions of leadership. They have to be what we call a full-stack leader.
Full-stack leaders are generalists who are versatile, adaptable, and agile enough to steer their charges in fast-changing business or other environments. A full-stack leader has the skills and proficiency to navigate all levels and aspects of the object of leadership. They can work at conceptual, strategic, and tactical levels of leadership with a broad understanding of the whole canvas, while being able to focus and deep-dive into critical aspects of the job at hand. They can navigate the seas of technology and business and the complexities of the environment of different types of stakeholders.
This book is largely based on PM Power’s Leadership framework. We have included several more principles and practices to ensure that the book is comprehensive and addresses all levels of leadership, from the board, CEO, and President level of strategic leadership to the VP and General Manager level of tactical leadership.
In the book, Leading Business entails creating an environment where the organization is able to understand, adapt, and respond to the changing marketplace and market needs, customer asks, and competitor moves. It means continuous value delivery to stakeholders. Business excellence is driven by organizational agility, innovation, and high levels of quality, performance, and competitiveness. It is also driven by the people who lead the business. Ideating and creating business goals, deciding on the direction of the business, innovating, creating the capabilities, skills, and diversity required to run the business, establishing trust pipes with the stakeholders, and providing continuous value to stakeholders are all done by business leaders.
Leading Execution involves taking ideas put forward by the business and creating value with it – value for all stakeholders, including customers, associates, and shareholders. Execution here means much more than development and implementation. Bringing ideas to life, implementing them, taking them to market, testing them, improving them, letting them grow, and at the end of the day, developing them from an idea to a true innovation by means of bringing value to the market and stakeholders – that is execution. Leading Execution also includes leading the people in the execution. Leading the people in the execution means achieving required goals by working with others as a team using knowledge, skills, competence and understanding of how to engage, motivate and manage people. For this, one must set the vision, strategy and objectives and enable people to achieve those. This does not apply to only one’s immediate team. It means managing customers. It means managing up – managing your managers and shareholders; managing sideways – managing peers and other stakeholders, and managing down – managing one’s team.
Leading Self refers to the ability of an individual to effectively manage and direct their own actions, behaviors, and emotions. It encompasses self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, and a strong sense of personal accountability. Leading oneself involves setting goals, making decisions, and taking responsibility for one’s actions and their consequences. It is a fundamental aspect of leadership development, as effective leaders must first be able to lead themselves before they can effectively lead others. Leading Self involves understanding and preparing for the exercise at hand – in short, imbuing oneself with the required emotional intelligence to lead the effort and transmitting these abilities to leaders down the line. And this needs understanding and employing mindful leadership or the ability to be present and have a nonjudgmental and unbiased mind. This is what helps with developing empathy.
The objective of the book is to inform leaders and aspiring full-stack leaders, for whom the book is intended, that leadership is not just about leading people. It involves leading the business leading the execution of ideas through people. Finally, to drive home the point that these two aspects of leadership – Leading Business and Leading Execution (process and people) – will come to nothing unless a leader is able to lead self. Mastering Leading Self helps the leader jump the chasm to the next level of leadership. The book is packed with practical insights, proven principles, and actionable practices to help you become a strategic thinker who anticipates market shifts and drives innovation; leads and motivates your team to achieve exceptional results; develops your emotional intelligence and self-awareness for effective decision-making; and navigates complex situations and builds resilience in the face of challenges.
Leadership can take on many forms. These different forms of leadership may require different mindsets and thinking and may operate under different values and principles. Business leadership, technology leadership, military leadership, non-profit leadership, thought leadership, political leadership, and educational leadership are some of the many forms that leadership may need to take. This book focuses on business leadership along with some aspects of technology leadership.
The book is available for purchase at the sites mentioned below.
Flipkart; Amazon.com; Amazon.in; Notionpress
For a detailed synopsis of the book click here
For endorsements of the book from industry experts click here
Paramu Kurumathur 