A good friend of mine shared this powerful observation with me that has now become an EOS staple.

A Visionary often is the person who conceived the company, who had the original great idea and who continues to have ideas about how to expand the business and make it all he ever conceived it would be. Visionaries often focus on the big picture, culture, client relationships. An Integrator is the person who thrives on creating order out of chaos. She is the person who is naturally suited to setting priorities, solving conflicts, removing obstacles, getting the company from point A to point B. Its not that the Visionary couldn’t do what the Integrator does, its just that he would become bored. He would be cutting against the grain, to mix metaphors, and working far harder than necessary.

Great leadership is more about what you do than what you are born with.

Natural charisma may be valuable in some situations, but it has nothing to do with leadership. Being decisive is also useful, but doesn’t mean you effectively lead people. And innate assertiveness may just mean you push people around to get your own way.

In an interview with Adam Bryant that appeared in the New York Times, March 14, 2010, Kip Tindell, CEO of the Container Store shared one of his foundation principles, “… that one great person could easily be as productive as three good people. One great is equal to three good. If you really believe that, a lot of things happen. We try to pay 50 to 100 percent above industry average. That’s good for the employee, and that’s good for the customer, but it’s good for the company, too, because you get three times the productivity at only two times the labor cost."

Book reviews aren’t something I normally do, and it isn’t the intention of our blogs at EOS Worldwide, but I hope and trust that you will gain tremendous benefit from this book, as it so validates and compliments our teachings.