Simple Truths of Leadership Book Summary - Simple Truths of Leadership Book explained in key points

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Simple Truths of Leadership summary

Name: Simple Truths of Leadership
Rating: 4.7 (289 reviews)
Author: Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley

Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley

52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust

4.7 (289 ratings)

20 mins

What is Simple Truths of Leadership about?

Simple Truths of Leadership (2022) explores simple principles that elevate leaders from good to great. It reveals the common mistakes that leaders make – and uncovers the behaviors that result in better team performance and closer working relationships.

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Simple Truths of Leadership
summarized in 12 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Discover the simple truths that shape every great leader.

It’s a well-known fact: organizations are only as good as the people who lead them. Without great leadership, a company and its staff can’t reach their full potential. It’s just not possible.

But what is great leadership?

It may sound counterintuitive, but being a great leader actually involves . . . being a servant! Servant leadership is a way of leading that puts your employees and customers first, and you second. It’s not an easy skill to develop, but it can have a big impact on how effective you are as a manager – and on the results of your team.

In these blinks to Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley’s Simple Truths of Leadership, you’ll discover common-sense leadership tips that make a big difference. Although we can’t cover all 52 truths, we’ve cherry-picked what we think are the most useful takeaways.

Great leadership involves serving others.

To figure out what type of leader you want to be, you need to do one simple thing: listen to your heart. What does it say? Does it whisper that you should serve the common good? Or does it tell you that you should follow your own narrow self-interest and not care about who gets hurt along the way?

Once you understand your inner motivation, you’ll know whether you want to be a bad leader – or a servant leader.

As a servant leader, your priority is to serve your subordinates and your wider organization rather than yourself. In practice, that means giving your people a strong sense of direction. A servant leader’s team should understand exactly what results they’re working toward – and what success looks like.

So far, this might sound like pretty standard leadership behavior. But the servant leader does something else, too. Once you’ve given your people some goals, you help your subordinates achieve these goals. You serve your staff by offering feedback and training opportunities. You also take the time to listen and find out what support they need.

By providing strategic direction and a lot of day-to-day support, you’ll enjoy great results and great working relationships with your people.

Give your staff a vision of the future.

Do you have a vision for your company’s future? To be a great servant leader, you’ll need to create one – and share it with your staff to inspire and motivate them toward a common goal. Creating a vision isn’t complicated. But it does involve answering three big questions.

The first question is, What’s the overall purpose of your company? In other words, what kind of business are you actually in? To find your answer, try to go as deep as possible. Take, for example, Disney. Disney’s vision isn’t to be an entertainment company; instead they describe themselves as being in the “business of happiness.”

The best leaders disrupt the traditional hierarchy.

Who’s at the top of the food chain in your business? For most companies, it’s the leader. And the job of everyone below the leader is to be responsive to their wants and needs.

But this kind of setup is a mistake. Why? Because leaders shouldn’t be at the top of the pyramid. The top spot belongs to someone else: your customer.

Successful leaders use plenty of praise.

Bad leaders are a lot like seagulls – when their colleagues aren’t making enough progress toward their goals, they swoop in, make noise, dump on their team, and then make a quick exit.

Luckily, making the transition from seagull to great leader is easier than you might think. It all comes down to a secret weapon: praise.

Sometimes, a redirect is better than a reprimand.

As you’re probably aware, humans make mistakes. And your staff are no exception! As a leader, it's your duty to pay attention when mistakes are made – and to make sure the same mistakes don’t happen again.

How you react when an employee makes a mistake should depend on how experienced they are. If someone’s underperforming but has the skills to do better, then a short reprimand is in order. When you reprimand the person, make sure you criticize their behavior rather than them as a person.

Vary your leadership style according to your team members’ competence and commitment.

Once a leader has developed their own style of leadership, they usually stick to it. In fact, half of all leaders never vary their leadership style at all. But the best leaders know that flexibility is important; to get optimal results, they lead different team members in different ways.

Instead of having a one-size-fits-all approach, look at the profile of each of your subordinates before deciding how to lead them. Specifically, ask yourself how competent the person is – and how committed they are to their job. Then lead accordingly.

Your employees are your customers, too!

Most leaders understand that their company’s customers should be their top priority. But great leaders know that the most important customers sit inside – not outside – their organization. That’s because they consider every single person who works for them to be a customer, too.

This might sound bizarre, but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. After all, customers are so precious because they create profits for your business. But isn’t that exactly what your staff members do, too? It's only thanks to their capabilities in areas like sales, marketing, product development, and customer care that you even have external customers. Therefore, your staff are actually your most important customers; their hard work drives your bottom line.

Your staff need boundaries to work freely.

Some leaders think that empowering their people means giving them the freedom to do whatever they want. But great leaders know that the best way to make their people autonomous . . . is to give them boundaries.

Not convinced?

A trusted leader is a compelling leader.

Trust is an essential part of leadership. When your people trust you, they’ll be more creative, work more efficiently, and enjoy better levels of morale. On the other hand, if you're viewed as untrustworthy, then your team will meet you with resistance, lower productivity, and disengagement.

But what qualities does a trusted leader embody? First off, they’re competent. Everyone in the team believes that the leader knows how to do their job. Second, they have integrity. When they say they’re going to do something, their people know that they’re actually going to do it. Last but not least, they’re warm. These leaders can be trusted to make their employees feel safe. Not only are they friendly, they also demonstrate real care and concern for their people’s well-being.

Your people shouldn’t be afraid of you.

Some leaders treat fear as a leadership technique; they believe that people work harder for leaders they’re a little afraid of. These are the leaders who shout at people, criticize them, and highlight every little mistake they make. But great leaders know that instilling fear doesn’t get good results. In fact, it's the opposite. When people are afraid of their leader, they don’t perform better. Instead, they simply work harder to hide their mistakes. They also avoid taking on big, challenging goals because they know that failure will not be tolerated.

On the other hand, great leaders work hard to minimize or eliminate any fear their employees might feel toward them. But how?

The most effective leaders prioritize integrity.

Great leaders all have one quality in common: integrity. The word integrity originates from Latin and, roughly translated, means whole or not fragmented. When you have integrity, your whole self is aligned, and your words match your actions. When you act without integrity – when you talk the talk but don’t walk the walk – the trust crumbles between you and your employees. Why? Because they can no longer trust a word you say.

You can act with greater integrity by staying true to the Five P’s of Ethical Leadership. The first P stands for purpose; leaders with integrity use their overall purpose to drive their daily behavior. The second P stands for pride; rather than being egotistical, good leaders have a healthy sense of pride that’s based in self-confidence. This self-confidence comes from knowing that they’re competent. The third P stands for patience; leaders with integrity believe that, as long as they stick to their guiding values, things will eventually work out. The fourth P stands for persistence; every good leader has the grit to stay the course when things get tough, and they stay loyal to their principles. The last P stands for perspective; leaders with integrity not only keep their whole self in alignment – they keep their actions aligned with their company’s bigger picture, too.

A hallmark of great leadership is being able to apologize.

It’s sad but true: at one point or another, we all break someone’s trust. Although this break can feel irreversible, there’s actually a simple thing you can do to get a relationship back on track. You can apologize. That being said, there’s an art to making an effective apology; if you want to restore the relationship, you have to say sorry in the right way.

When making an apology, start by taking responsibility for what you’ve done. Don’t try to excuse it or use conditional words like “if” and “but.” These words imply that you’re shifting the blame. Second, make it clear to the person that you understand the pain you’ve caused them; don’t try to minimize this pain to make yourself feel better. Give the person space to tell you about this pain, too. Listen to the impact that your actions have had on them. Finally, be sure to end your apology by committing to not repeating whatever you’ve done. Remember, your apology is only worth something if you don’t duplicate the trust-shattering behavior.

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About the Author

Ken Blanchard is an author, leadership consultant, and motivational speaker. He cofounded The Ken Blanchard Companies, an international leadership training and development firm. Throughout his career, he has published over 60 books – including The One Minute Manager, which has sold over 15 million copies.

Randy Conley is the Vice President of Client Services and Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies. His clients include American Express, American Honda, and Pfizer.

Who should read Simple Truths of Leadership?

New managers eager to build strong relationships with their teams
Seasoned leaders looking for a fresh perspective
Entrepreneurs hoping to brush up on their people skills

Categories with Simple Truths of Leadership

Management & Leadership Career & Success

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