The Art of Leadership by J. Donald Walters - Limit Breaking Summary

What is Leadership?

• Leadership is not an ego game.
• Leadership means taking responsibility and setting aside personal desires.
• Leadership means service, loyalty, and support.
• Leadership means taking action not relying only on talk.
• Leadership is intuition guided by common sense.
• Leadership is an art.

 Characteristics of True Leadership 

• Develop an inspiring vision 
• Find creative solutions to challenging problems
• Win the loyalty of others
• Combine intuition with common sense 
• Avoid ego games
• Run ahead of the pack 

 

• Genuine Leadership is supportive. It leads and involves people (people are more important than things).

• Greatness is the ability to see lesser in relation to the greater; the immediate in relation to the long term; the need for victory in relation to needs that will arise once victory has been achieved.

• Great Generals ask only of others what he would do first, feels at one with his men, doing a job together.

• Only with Vision can a great general inspire his men to heroic action and to desire victory by the power of his own conviction.

• Involve others in your vision, and inspire others to be visionaries.

 

“Death in a great cause is a life lived victoriously.”

 

• A Great General is loyal to his soldiers, only in this spirit does he demand loyalty in return.

• Leadership is supportive.

• One must assume themselves sensitively to the requirements of the medium they are using.

• Finesse and Patience are essential to win people’s support.

 

*Kindness is a principle.*

 

1. Genuine Leadership is supportive, not coercive.
2. True Leaders try to lead others, not to drive them.
3. Leadership means involving others.
4. Leadership means vision first and above every-thing; action, secondarily.
5. Leadership means understanding that people are more important than things.
6. Leadership is an art, to be learned and applied sensitively.

 

Chapter 2: Leadership is not an Ego Game

  True Fulfillment: 

• Self-Expansion 
• Progress
• Creativity 

 

• Every group endeavor is a reflection of the spirit of its leadership.

• Rules and procedures do not substitute creative leadership.

• Leadership means cultivating (developing) people.

 

“For as the leader is, so will the group be.”

 

• Creativity can develop us to our highest potentials.

• Enlightenment exists in our ability to raise ourselves and improve our material lot.

• Use the Ego creatively. The thought of “I” generates creativity.

 

“I accept the responsibility of leading to B.Y.L.T.” 

 

• Directing one’s flow of energy outward becomes expansive and magnetic.

 

*Focus on Creation > Self (Job > Role).*

 

1. Self-Importance in a leader is Self-Defeating.
2. The Spirit of a group reflects the spirit of its leadership.
3. The Ego can be either a hindrance or an aid to creativity. It is an aid if it’s energy flow is toward the job to be done, rather than inward upon itself.
4. Leadership is not an ego game!

 

Chapter 3: Leadership means Responsibility 

• Genuine Leadership demands a sense of responsibility.

 A True Leader is only concerned with:

• Truth
• Getting a job done
• Inspiring others to join in working toward a common goal

• The Genuine Leader is indifferent equally to praise and blame. Willing to assume responsibility and take the risks.

• The Role of Leadership is to get people to start acting on getting the job done.

• Leaders self-generate their actions to be actively creative and responsible to focus on getting the job done.

1. See Leadership in terms of responsibility.
2. Be only concerned with the Truth.
3. Be only concerned with Taking Action to getting the job done.
4. Accept Responsibility means accepting finding Creative Answers when there are ‘none’.

 

Chapter 4: Leadership means setting aside Personal Desires

• A True Leader puts his personal wishes last, not first. 

 

 

• Leaders are obedient to give to whatever the circumstances call for: 

• Leaders consider the feelings of others in order to stay guided away from personal desires, aversions, likes, and dislikes.

• Leaders understand the importance of support from others in order to bring great ideas to life.

• Genuine Leaders are people of genuine feeling, directing their feeling outward in giving to others. 

• Leaders have compassionate concern for those with them and win their support. 

 

Chapter 5: Leadership means Service

• Strong Leaders win support for their position by using their authority to focus attention on the work to be done. 

• Leaders and Followers both contribute whatever skills they possess to the advancement of an undertaking.

• A Leaders job is to work through others.

• Leadership requires humility over recognition. 

• Humility is a sign of strength, truthfulness, and self-honesty. 

• Humility is seeing everything simply as it is. 

• Humility in Leadership can be achieved by viewing their role as a simple service to others. 

• Give thanks and credit to GOD, offer your service to him.

 

Chapter 6: Leadership means Loyalty

• No matter how good an Idea, if the people you lead aren’t ready for it they will obstruct your efforts to implement it, or else change it in some way to reflect what they are ready for.
• People are more important than things. No matter how good an idea, if the people under you are not ready for it, respect their position. Work with them as they are, not as you would like them to be.
• Be Patient, it takes time to bring people to new points of view.  
• Be concerned only with being loyal yourself.
• Never demand Love of others, one who gives love freely is the most certain to receive it back.
• Wait until the right time to speak, when what you have to tell them will do the most good.  

 

*Be loyal first of ALL to your own.*

 

• The Wise Leader knows that the good accomplished for others depends first on the strength of his own team. 

1. Work with People as they are, not as you would like them to be.
2. Work with Things as they are, not as you would like them to be.
3. BE PATIENT, it takes Time to bring people to new points of view.
4. Be Loyal yourself first to win loyalty.
5. Give Love First, to win Love.
6. Consider People’s readiness to hear what you have to say.
7. Be first Loyal to your own.

 

Chapter Seven: Leadership is Intuition Guided by Common Sense 

• The Wise Leader is concerned with What Is, What will Work, the Truth, and is not afraid to testing his Ideas with Reality. 

 

*A Good Proposal, rightly presented, will stand on its own feet.*

 

• Good Leaders know to not squelch their subordinates, but to demonstrate Leadership through their own Conviction.

 

 

• The Best Leaders possess an abundance of Personal Intuition and offer others to respond with their Intuitions.

 

*Intuition provides certain powers that carry throughout the day.*

 

• Intuition can be developed with Practice.

 

*Common Sense is the willingness to learn from Experience.*

 

• Ability is an attribute of Wisdom.

1. The Wise Leader is more concerned with What Is than with What ought to be, What will work than with mere opinions, even his own, with Truth than with being Thought Right.
2. The Wise Leader convinces by Sound Reaction, the magnetism of his own Conviction, not by mere authority of his Position or Past Experience.
3. The Wise Leader presents ideas in a way to invite Intelligent Responses.
4. Always be guided by Common Sense, the Willingness to learn from Experience.
5. Common Sense and Intuition can be developed together. Common Sense should check Intuition, and Intuition should inspire Common Sense to look beyond the Known and look into the Unknown.

 

• Good Leaders realize that Living Situations are ALWAYS fluid, think it can BE.
• Adapt your Actions to Reality.

 

*Too many rules destroy the Spirit.*

 

• Good Leaders must first be Good Listeners.
• Strong Leaders learn to be Centered in self.
• Flexibility is the ability to hear every knock of Opportunity and to Answer it.

1. Be willing to admit mistakes, Truth alone wins out.
2. Keep ideas of Perfection fluid.
3. Adapt Actions to Reality.
4. Be open to other Points of View.

 

Chapter Nine: the Need for Action, not Talk

  

*Any ACTION is better than wasting further hours, weeks, or months arguing the best possible course of ACTION.*

 

• The Effective Leader knows that good ideas are no substitute for actual practice, the essence of leadership is ACTION.
• The most important thing in Leadership is to keep the creative energy flowing, it will open up new possibilities, and create a host of undreamed-of opportunities.

1. Leadership means ACTION.
2. ACTION generates CREATIVITY.

 

Chapter Ten: Giving Support

• The Wise Leader knows that on the strength of his supporters depends the full effectiveness of everything he can hope to accomplish as a leader.
• A Loyal Leader will attract loyal supporters.
• A Good Leader will develop strong supporters, and will encourage them to develop their own qualities of leadership, creativity, and to reach their own conclusion, increasing his own powers of accomplishment along the way.

 

*Certain lessons can only be learned by trial and error.*

 

• Handle any authority people are willing to give to you as a gift.
• A Good Leader should be willing to do the lowest and most difficult task, he should feel that it is his place to serve others.
• The true skill of Leadership is that an organization can flourish once they leave.

1. Strengthen your subordinates in their work, creativity, and quality of work, always encourage them.
2. Never assign any job that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself.

 

 Chapter Eleven: Work with People’s Strengths

• As a Leader, you will get the best results if you work with those who are in tune with your ideals.

 

*The stronger the vortex of positive energy, the greater the creative flow.*

 

• Concentrate on helping individuals develop their natural strengths.

 

 

• Be impartial in your respect and friendship for all.
• Select those with whom you work closely for their qualities of selflessness, of putting the good of all ahead of their own personal interest.
• Exercise common sense in campaigning for what you believe in.
• Urge people to mix with those who are interested in finding solutions, encourage the doers, encourage those who are willing.
• Think of others with empathy, as their sincere friend, from their own inner center, reflect the advice of their higher self.

 

*The best work is always done through inspiring people.*

 

1. Work to strengthen a subordinate’s best qualities, accomplishing far more by encouraging others, working with your organization’s strengths, the positive vortex, to speak solutions, and encourage the doers. 

 

Chapter Twelve: What is True Success?

• A True Leader is neither attached to success nor afraid of failure, it is not the completion of a specific project as the energy that goes into completing it.
• A Good Leader works as much as possible through others, not directly himself. 
• A Leader is more concerned with winning the war, in winning on larger issues.

 

*The outcome of any project always reveals the kind of energy that went into its development.*

 

• A Leader will create in his subordinates the most constructive possible attitudes, and will ensure the best possible long-range results for his and their labors.
• True Success depends on the spirit of the people involved, which is always a reflection of its Leader.