“Would you like to be good at everything at the cost of being great at something?” Acclaimed author and leadership expert Dr. Pawan Verma asks the fundamental question and suggests that leadership demands excellence, not perfection. Hence, instead of going after fixing your weaknesses and chasing elusive traits to make you perfect, you must own your weaknesses and focus on your strengths to achieve your leadership greatness.
Calling for this much-needed shift of focus from Perfection to Excellence, in his recently launched book, ‘Age of the Imperfect Leader’, Dr. Vermadebunks the myth of the “perfect leader” and reinforces the point that imperfections are the order of the universe and hence, you should be at ease with your imperfections. Further, analyzing the profiles of some of the transformational leaders across the globe, he effectively demonstrates how these individuals achieved their leadership greatness by making their strengths formidable enough so as to make their weaknesses look irrelevant.
The author further goes on to provide insights into how to invest in one’s strengths as well as adopt a strength-based people strategy so that all the members in a team work on their strengths and mutually compensate for each other’s weaknesses. He also discusses the critical eco-system needed for leadership success in the VUCA world and emphasizes that modern leaders have to be passionate dreamers, collaborators & co-creators, agile jugglers, champions of diversity & inclusion and innovators of the future.
Questioning the prevailing mind-sets nurtured by leadership theories, Dr Verma states that “The problem with modern organizations is that they have third-generation strategies, supported by the second generation organizational structures and implemented by first-generation leaders.” But, at the same time, pointing to the current leadership crisis facing the world, he cautions that if we continue to lead today with the methods of yesterday, we are bound to go out of leadership tomorrow.
With a down-to-earth approach, laced with some real life examples of great leaders, the book introduces certain refreshingly disruptive concepts in leadership development. It is a pragmatic guide for leaders aspiring to convert their leadership challenges into a competitive advantage for themselves and for their organizations.
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