The Well-Balanced Leader: Interactive Learning Techniques to Help You Master the 9 Simple Behaviors of Outstanding Leadership

Book excerpt: Empower your people, your company—and yourself—with leadership egolibrium egolibrium: the ability to toggle between egocentric and “other-centric” attitudes, values, and behaviors for organizational success There’s no doubt about it: the very best leaders are deeply in tune with their behavior and understand the impact it has on others. As one of the world’s top trainers in the field of accelerated experiential learning, Ron Roberts understands this more keenly than anyone, and in The Well-Balanced Leader, he helps you re-envision your own behavior to become the best leader you can be. Roberts makes the process of finding the perfect leadership balance—what he calls egolibrium—personally enriching and easy to achieve. He begins by identifying the nine human behavioral dichotomies that most affect the quality of leadership: Nonjudgmental / Judgmental Nondefensive / Defensive Relinquishing Control / Controlling Openness to learning / Know it all Doing the right thing / Doing whatever you want Patience / Impatience Letting go / Holding on Acceptance / Resistance Other-centric / Egocentric Everyone’s behaviors fall somewhere between each dichotomy. Using the activities, action steps, games, and thought exercises included for each pair, you’ll figure out exactly where your behaviors land, and then learn how to move that position in one direction or the other to find the right balance or your specific needs.When you transcend your personal needs and focus on the needs of others and of the organization, everyone benefits—including you. The result is not only greater job satisfaction for people at all levels, but greater productivity— regardless of the organization’s field, product, or service. The Well-Balanced Leader gives you the tools for making the small, incremental changes in behavior that lead to big changes in awareness—and huge changes in your leadership effectiveness.