HOW TO THINK LIKE A LEADER

Remind yourself once again that you are not pulled to high levels of success. Rather, you are

lifted

there by those working beside and below you.

Achieving high-level success requires the support and the cooperation of others. And gaining

this

support and cooperation of others requires leadership ability. Success and the ability to lead

others—

that is, getting them to do things they wouldn’t do if they were not led—go hand in hand.

The success-producing principles explained in the previous chapters are valuable equipment in

helping you develop your leadership capacity.

USE GOALS TO HELP YOU GROW

Every bit of human progress—our inventions big and little, our medical discoveries, our

engineering

triumphs, our business successes—were first visualized before they became realities. Baby

moons

circle the earth not because of accidental discoveries but because scientists set “conquer

space” as a

goal.

HOW TO TURN DEFEAT INTO VICTORY

Social workers and others who work on skid row find many differences in age, religious faith,

education, and background among the tragic souls who have dropped into America’s gutters.

Some of

these citizens are surprisingly young. Others are old. A sprinkling are college graduates; a few

have

essentially no formal education. Some are married; others are not. But the people on skid row

do

have something in common: each one is defeated, whipped, beaten. Each one has encountered

situations that conquered him.

GET THE ACTION HABIT

Here’s something leaders in every field agree on: There is a shortage of top-flight, expertly

qualified

persons to fill key positions. There really is, as the saying goes, plenty of room at the top. As

one

executive explained, there are many almost-qualified people, but there is one success

ingredient often

missing.

THINK RIGHT TOWARD PEOPLE

Here is a basic rule for winning success. Let’s mark it in the mind and remember it. The rule is:

Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you

want to

be is the support of others.

Look at it this way: an executive depends on people to carry out his instructions. If they don’t,

the

company president will fire the executive, not the employees.

MAKE YOUR ATTITUDES YOUR ALLIES

Can you read minds? Reading minds is easier than you think. Perhaps you’ve never thought of

it, but

you read the minds of other people, and they read your mind, every day.

How do we do it? We do it automatically, through attitude appraisals.

Remember the song “You Don’t Need to Know the Language to Say You’re in Love”? Bing

Crosby made it famous some years ago.

MANAGE YOUR ENVIRONMENT: GO

FIRST CLASS

Your mind is an amazing mechanism. When your mind works one way, it can carry you forward

to

outstanding success. But the same mind operating in a different manner can produce a total

failure.

The mind is the most delicate, most sensitive instrument in all creation. Let’s look now and see

what makes the mind think the way it does. Millions of people are diet conscious. We’re a

calorie

YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK YOU ARE

It’s obvious much human behavior is puzzling. Have you ever wondered why a salesperson will

greet

one customer with an alert “Yes sir, may I serve you?” but virtually ignore another? Or why a

man

will open a door for one woman but not for another? Or why an employee will consistently carry

out

the instructions of one superior but only grudgingly do what another superior requests? Or why

we

will pay close attention to what one person says but not to another?