What You Really Need to Lead ─ The Power of Thinking and Acting Like an Owner

What makes a leader? Can you really learn to lead? You might think that leaders need to be born with the right skills or personality attributes. Perhaps you believe you don’t have the right experience or that you need to hold an important job to be a leader. Maybe you believe you need permission to lead.

As Harvard Business School professor and business executive Robert Steven Kaplan explains in this powerful new book, leadership is accessible to all of ustodayand it starts with anownership mind-set. You don’t need an invitation to lead. Leadership is a dynamic way of thinking and acting that anyone can take on. For Kaplan, acting as a leader is a function of three key questions:
1. Do you work to figure out what you believe as if you were an owner?
2. Do you take action based on those beliefs?
3. Do you focus on adding value to others and take responsibility for the impact of your actions on othersboth positive and negative?

The book is full of stories taken from the author’s own leadership experience as well as from his work helping various types of leaders and organizations. What’s revealed is that leadership is not a role reserved for an elite few blessed with the right skills and key positionsit’s about a focus on taking ownership and adding value to others. What’s more, leadership is a lifelong journey of learning for which you must take responsibility. It’s about learning to ask the right questions and learning to understand yourself.

As in his earlier books, Kaplan asks probing questions, provides exercises, and suggests follow-up steps that will help you develop your skills, create new habits, and move you toward reaching your unique potential.

What You Really Need to Lead is your key to unlocking the power of thinking and acting like an owner.

Robert S. Kaplan is the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean for External Relations. He is also co-chairman of Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm, as well as chairman and a founding partner of Indaba Capital Management LLC. He is the author of several case studies and articles and two books:What You’re Really Meant To Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential, andWhat to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential. Prior to joining Harvard Business School in September 2005, Rob served as vice chairman of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. He was also a member of the firm’s Management Committee and served as co-chairman of the firm’s Partnership Committee and chairman of the Goldman Sachs Pine Street Leadership Program.