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Book Review on The leader who had no title: A modern fable on real success in
business and in life, by Robin Sharma, New York: Simon & Schuster, Adult Publishing
Group, 2010, 224 p...

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Forster 207
Book Review
Robin Sharma, The Leader who had no Title: A Modern Fable
on Real Success in Business and in Life. New York: Simon &
Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 2010, 224 pp., $15.63
[Hardback].
Each one of us is born into Genius… successful human being to go through turbulent times.
Sadly, most of us die amidst mediocrity
Whereas only the mediocre die always at their best, real
leaders improve and raise their bar on ‘how superbly they
can perform and quickly move…’.
Dedicating his present title ‘The leader who had no title:
A modern fable on real success in business and in life’ to
the readers at large saying ‘your readiness to leave everyone
you meet better than you found them encourages me to
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give even more of my life to helping people lead without
a title’.
M
This handy book is a result of nearly 50 years of the
author’s experience as a leadership adviser to many
M
Fortune 500 companies. A constructive browsing through
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the seven chapters of the book depicted in the form of
fictional characters and a dialogue story will experience
C
explosive results in any professional’s work area through
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helping their organization to rise towards a new level of
innovation, performance and customer loyalty.
FO
Emphasizing the key thrust area of his title, the author
comments, ‘The need of the hour is towards growing and
developing the leadership talent of every single individual
T
throughout the organization faster than its competitor.’ For
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that, the only way to avoid getting eaten alive is for com-
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panies to strengthen the capacities of employees at every
level to lead in everything they do. Throughout this book
the author proposes that ‘every single one of us has the
power to show leadership in all that we do—if we are
serious about surviving and thriving in these times of head
spinning changes’.
Beginning with an inspiring story through ‘Leadership
and Success are your Birth Rights’ the author emphasizes
about transmission of parental values to a self-made char-
acter Mr Blake Davis saying, ‘They did not have a lot of
things, yet in many ways they had everything, they had the
courage of their convictions, they had superb values and
they had self respect. I still miss them deeply and not a day
goes by when I forget to appreciate them’. Perhaps one of
Vision
15(2) 207–208
© 2011 MDI
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/097226291101500211
http://vision.sagepub.com
the finest gifts Mr Davis got from his parents was ‘A Love
of Learning’ and in this context the author has explained
that relentless learning is one of the prime traits for being
an open and powerful person. An obsessive and ongoing
self-education is one of the greatest survival tactics of a
SE
In the second chapter of the book; while dissecting the
term Leader without a title (LWT) the author cites an in-
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spirational conversation by sharing the insights of trans-
formational philosophy for leadership in business and
L
success at life. A fascinating and successful individual
IA
mentor, Mr Tommy, has propagated some of the path-
breaking strategies to a sceptical Mr Blake Davis in the
C
form of a discourse, which has been beautifully carried out
in a lucid way. The aim of the conversation is not only
getting towards becoming world class in one’s career, but
also reaching the absolute best in terms of health, rela-
tionships and happiness. A few excerpts of their discussion
are as follows:
1. To succeed, everyone must see themselves as part of
the leadership team. One just does not need formal
authority to lead anywhere—it’s only a desire to be
involved and the commitment towards making a
positive difference do wonders.
2. On the other hand, the only way an organization—
and say human being for that matter will win in these
times of revolutionary changes is all about creating
an environment and culture where everyone needs to
show leadership.
3. The highest of human abilities is the ability each one
of us has to choose how we respond to the envir-
onment we find ourselves with in. And when each
one of us chooses peak performance and personal
leadership the organization can become world class
speedily.
4. A restaurant is the only place where you get the good
stuff first and then you pay the price. In work and
life in general—you need to pay the price of success
before you get all the rewards due to you.
5. Average life has only nine hundred and sixty months
and only about twenty nine thousand days, so the
time to set up real leadership is now.
 208 Book Review
In one of the dialogues, the author opines, ‘…you do not
have to have a title to be a leader. You just need to be a
living human being. That’s all it takes because every single
one of us alive in the world today has unrecognized powers
and disowned potential. Once one learns how to awaken
and then apply those powers, every element of one’s life
will explode into success. And the secret is the more I let
go of needing all the things most people worry so much
about and to focus on doing brilliant work and reflecting
some real leadership in my behaviour.’
Creating an open forum of learning the author, in sub-
sequent chapters, has driven the journey of Mr Blake Davis
towards making him learn from the four of the most
naturally powerful and radiantly noble peoples, those who
have reshaped Mr Blake’s career into something resembling
a wonderful work of art.
The intellectual interaction happened at a countryside
Graveyard between Mr Tommy and Mr Blake have been
brought out saying, ‘…CEO gets buried next to the street
cleaner. And on your last day, all that matters is whether
you get to know your inner leader and if you did, whether
you had the bravery to allow it to offer its gifts to the world
around you.’ The crux of their discussion has been con-
veyed through 10 human regret states vis-à-vis 10 human
victories, and some of the highlights are as follows:
1. If you cannot lead yourself, you will never be able to
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lead anyone around you.
M
2. Getting up early is one of the intelligent daily prac-
tices that leaders without a title perform with acute
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consistency as Ben Franklin said, ‘…there will be a
C
plenty of time to sleep once you are dead.’
3. It is fine to be content, but never be satisfied. So
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better improve everything. Improve it all daily,
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relentlessly and passionately.
4. Success is created through the performance of a few
small daily disciplines that stack up over time to
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produce achievements for beyond anything you
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Vision, 15, 2 (2011): 207–208
View publication stats
could have ever planned for. And any successful
human being just goes with seemingly small, insig-
nificant daily acts of excellence stacking them up
over time to a best in class career and a world-class
personal life.
5. The real key to success is to bring some emotion,
energy and passion into the equation. That is when
real breakthrough happens.
6. By infusing leadership into everything you do and
each thing you touch, you can live remarkably. You
truly can realize your original genius and you really
can be one of the greatest ones.
While debating through sharing some of the live hap-
penings on the context of success, the author has expressed
SE
that ‘Success is created through conscious choice and it is
the eventual and inevitable consequences of superior deci-
sion making. Anyone can be successful. Few choose to be.
U
As you begin to do more of what leaders without a title do,
you are certain to receive the spectacular rewards that
L
leaders without a title get.’
IA
After all, the theme of the book conveys that, we need to
C
assume personal responsibility by becoming the CEO of
our own roles and leaders within our current positions. It is
ER
worth it to hear somebody say ‘I have left my ego on the
front door every morning as I have walked into my organ-
ization, being far more concerned about doing fantastic
work, supporting my team mates and showing real leader-
ship than without having some lofty title on my business
card’.
L.K. Jena
Dy. Manager—HR (Training)
Training & Development Institute,
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited,
P.O. Sunabeda, Koraput
Orissa 763 002, India