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    Great Leaders Always Follow: The Paradox of Great Leadership
    Great Leaders Always Follow: The Paradox of Great Leadership
    Great Leaders Always Follow: The Paradox of Great Leadership
    Ebook101 pages1 hour

    Great Leaders Always Follow: The Paradox of Great Leadership

    By Rob Fontenot

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    Introducing the paradox: the greatest leaders are often recognized for their characteristics and competencies. Most leaders who are considered great have their name in the headlines. Neither characteristics and competencies nor media attention makes you a great leader. We have seen many leaders with the right characteristics, the right competencies, and the attention of the press who have fallen from the pedestals they were placed on. The real key to a sustainable legacy of great leadership is not only about how well you lead, it is about how well you follow. This is the paradox of great leadership: who, what, and how you follow will determine your leadership legacy. Whether you are a CEO or frontline employee, it is critical to understand how this paradox will impact your personal leadership journey.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateFeb 16, 2018
    ISBN9781973617938
    Great Leaders Always Follow: The Paradox of Great Leadership
    Author

    Rob Fontenot

    Knowing who and how to follow is essential training for future leaders. A leader always follows someone during his or her entire life. Rob has a keen eye on this relationship and shares his insights via practical and interesting examples. This is a great read for many, especially future leaders. Dave Durand, CEO of Best Version Media and Best-Selling Author

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      Book preview

      Great Leaders Always Follow - Rob Fontenot

      Copyright © 2018 Rob Fontenot.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

      Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

      WestBow Press

      A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.westbowpress.com

      1 (866) 928-1240

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-9736-1791-4 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-9736-1792-1 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-9736-1793-8 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2018901403

      WestBow Press rev. date: 2/7/2018

      Contents

      Acknowledgements

      Preface

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 Great Leaders Follow Another Great Leader

      Chapter 2 Great Leaders Always Follow Vision

      Chapter 3 Great Leaders Always Follow Indicators

      Chapter 4 Great Leaders Always Follow Their Gut

      Chapter 5 Great Leaders Always Follow Through

      Chapter 6 Great Leaders Always Follow Up - Communication

      Chapter 7 Great Leaders Always Follow Up - Continual Improvement

      Chapter 8 How Great Leaders Always Follow

      Notes

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      I want to give a special thank you to my wife and children. Without their love and sacrifice, this book would not exist. Because of them, I have a more profound drive and desire to become a great leader.

      I also want to say thank you to many others who played essential roles in the creation of this book:

      • Tammy McCray who introduced me to many of the leaders I had the privilege to interview

      • Brenda Anderson who unknowingly re-inspired my love for writing

      • Carly Dotson and Rebecca Rice who helped in the early stages of editing and content feedback

      • Susan Yauck who provided great editorial advice at mid-stage

      • Kim Logan who introduced me to Buba Turner

      • All of the leaders who graciously allowed me to interview them and allowed me to use their wisdom and leadership insights

      PREFACE

      Throughout the process of writing this book, I have had many people ask me why I was writing it and why I felt qualified to write a book on leadership. I will start things out by addressing both of those excellent questions.

      The reason for writing this book is twofold. I am a student of leadership, and I know that there is no better way to learn than to teach. The second reason started with a challenge. I was never fond of reading, and few books captivated me while growing up. After graduating college, I did not immediately get into reading books on business, leadership, or any other topic for that matter.

      It wasn’t until I saw a post on social media that the world’s top business leaders read at least 12 books a year. Knowing what I wanted out of my career, I already saw myself at a disadvantage since reading was not a practice of mine. To change that, I challenged myself to catch up by reading 30 business or leadership books from August 2016 to August 2017. I fell in love with reading, and by May 2017 I had read 35 books on business or leadership.

      What I learned from some of the world’s greatest business leaders, thought leaders, and professors cut my learning curve, and I was able to apply much of what I learned into my profession. Leading a global team, I found these new insights to be incredibly beneficial as a leader. I was able to learn from other’s mistakes, insights, and experiences and avoid wasted years of doing things the wrong way until I figured it out myself. I am far from perfect (as my team will likely tell you), but I know that I am much further along than I would have been otherwise.

      In the midst of the incredibly positive year of reading, something was missing. Much of the material I read had pointed to something insightful. Then it hit me. I was inspired to write this book to share the insight I had. So what happened? What was the insight?

      I noticed a gap in mainstream teachings on leadership. Many of the materials out there are on the characteristics and competencies of leaders. While this is necessary and beneficial, it is not complete. There is also material on the difference between managers and leaders. Again, another helpful delineation, but it still does not fill the gap. In all of this material, it is clear what a leader looks like and what makes individuals want to follow a leader. What is less clear, and what I believe to be a paradox of great leadership, is what determines how great an individual is at leading by how well they follow.

      Do not get me wrong, the concepts in this book are not all new. The reason why I felt compelled to write this is I have yet to find a comprehensive overview of what great leaders follow and how they do it. It is my firm belief that great leaders follow all seven of the topics I cover, and it is when they stop following them or stop following them in the right way that great leaders falter.

      To address the second question of why I felt qualified to write this book, I don’t. At the time of writing this, I am still a relatively young leader. I know that my limited experience is not sufficient to write a book. However, each point I make in this book comes from either experience, observations of great leaders, or shared insights from great leaders. Knowing that my personal experience would be insufficient, I sought out exceptional leaders from across the globe and interviewed them on the subject of leadership. Each leader I spoke with addressed many or all of the aspects which I will cover in the next eight chapters. Each of them provides compelling stories from their own experience which complement the points I make throughout each section.

      I know that we are all busy individuals, so I was intentional about keeping the material short, sweet, and to the point. I do not like to read books that say the same thing, multiple ways, and I will respect your time by not doing the same. I have personally learned so much and have grown significantly through the process of writing this book and learning from many exceptional leaders from across the world. I hope that you too will benefit from the points of the ensuing chapters and the lessons and stories of the great leaders I had the privilege to learn from.

      INTRODUCTION

      The Hebrew language is a language of symbolism. Each letter and number in Hebrew has a meaning. In Hebrew, the number 7 represents completion. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.¹ Our seven-day week is based on this event. In the spirit of the Hebrew meaning for the number 7, I aim to provide a complete view of why and what great leaders follow in the first seven chapters.

      The number 8 in Hebrew represents new beginnings. With all of the corruption and negative press around CEOs over the years, the scandals in big corporations, and the withering trust of corporate leaders in

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