Leadership described as extreme endeavor
By Ray Allegrezza -- Furniture Today, April 10, 2005
New Orleans — According to Steve Farber, good leadership often means going to extremes.
"Real leaders are already embroiled in extreme acts," said Farber, an author and keynote speaker at this year's Myriad Software User Conference here.
"They're taking us to places we've never been, turning nothing into something, taking something good and turning it into something great, helping us to grow as human beings and changing the pieces of the world that they touch. The Extreme Leader is, therefore, the only true and authentic leader," he said.
Farber is president of a San Diego-based firm called Extreme Leadership Inc. and is a former vice president of business guru Tom Peters' company. He shared with Myriad users the central message of his most recent book, "The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson In Extreme Leadership."
The book, a recipient of Fast Company magazine's Readers' Choice Award, focuses on the characteristics that make up an extreme leader.
"For the record, people who call themselves leaders without executing those extreme acts are posers, not leaders," he said.
He said real leaders cultivate an environment of Love, generate positive Energy, inspire Audacity and provide Proof of their leadership. "Looking at each of those upper-case letters, you can see where the LEAP in radical leap comes from," he said.
Farber gave some examples of what each capital letter means.
"Customers have a choice where they shop. And your employees have a choice where to work," he said. "As a leader, you need to create an environment that facilitates your employees loving working at your company.
"Similarly, you need to find ways to make your customer love you. So much so that if you blew up their building, they would shrug and say, 'accidents happen'."
Extreme leaders generate positive energy, Farber continued. "A simple test is to ask yourself if you generate more energy when you walk into a room or walk out of it."
Leaders draw their energy from helping others become excited about improving the business they're in, Farber said.
Audacity, he said, is best defined as "a bold and blatant disregard for normal constraints." Noting that the business world always talks about thinking outside the box, Farber said a truly audacious leader asks, "What box?"
But he stressed that he was not suggesting audacity for audacity's sake. "The extreme leader embraces audacity to change the world of our customers, our employee and the world at large for the better," he said.
Lastly, the extreme leader offers proof.
"Extreme leaders go first and prove by their actions that they mean what they say," said Farber. "That's how extreme leaders separate themselves from extreme posers."
-
Sealy Forms Division for Specialty Sleep
Oct 12, 2011 -
Strategy, Design Firm Info Retail Restructures
Jul 19, 2011 -
Reaction to Deal Positive
May 27, 2011
Featured Company
-
Wright Labels
Bill and Tom Wright founded Wright of Thomasville in 1961 on the idea that printing was a creative medium and the belief that "a promise made is a promise kept." The Wright brothers focused their attention on providing exceptional printing for the... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
