The Ascent of a Leader

1. The Ascent of a Leader A great book on leadership by: Thrall, McNicol and McElrath

2. Some Quotes from the book worthy of thought and discussion • Leadership “is about rising above what you can accomplish or become on your own.” • “To rise above and beyond your individual best, you need a certain kind of environment in which to live and work.” • “Character—the inner world of motives and values that shapes our actions—is the ultimate determiner of the nature of our leadership.” • “This book is about becoming the kind of leader whom others want to follow.”

3. More Quotes and Questions • “Often it’s what we don’t see on the surface that can bring us down: the deeper issues of life that affect who we are and all we do.” (If this is true, then how do we discover these unseen flaws?) • Research studies “show that we desire leaders who are honest, competent, forward looking, and inspiring—and honesty is the runaway most significant attribute.” (But the authors warn against the trap of spending energy trying to appear more consistent. So,…what is the solution to improving our consistency [honesty?])

4. Two Kinds of Environments • The Capacity ladder: Relationships of Power and Leverage in an environment of “perform or there will be consequences” • The Character ladder: Relationships of grace in an environment of grace (If we define grace as “unmerited favor”, does grace make sense in the competitive business world?) • Which environment will generate more hope? Enthusiasm? Creativity? Near term bottom-line performance? Long term bottom-line performance? Character development?.

5. Capacity & Character LaddersCapacity Ladder: Character Ladder:

6. Action Items • What action items suggest themselves to you from this discussion?