1st Edition

Gear-Shifting Leadership A Manager’s Guide for Developing Effective Leaders, Second Edition

By Leon Cai Copyright 2021
    200 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    200 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    200 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    Drawn from his experience as the executive dean of Wilner Sales and Leadership Institute, Leon Cai shares his proven philosophy and methods for improving leadership skills among middle and high-level managers. Leon is one the top ten most influential trainers in China winning “Honor China Award” and is a leading figure in China’s training and consulting industry.

    Gear-Shifting Leadership, now in its Second Edition, is a book designed to improve leadership ability of practicing managers and addresses the full spectrum or panorama of what is expected from successful leaders. Managers need to grasp more than just one or two aspects of leadership, but the whole content and complete framework of it. Gear-Shifting Leadership, Second Edition provides the concepts, tools, and examples needed for managers to become effective leaders.

    Updated with new examples and tools, this second edition of Gear-Shifting Leadership synthesizes dozens of leadership models, and fully displays "the panorama of leadership." The author demonstrates the panorama by showing the links and connections between different parts of leadership. The book displays the four gears and nineteen components of leadership managers need to develop. The four gears are: Followership, Face-to-face Leadership, In-Direct Leadership, and Organizational Executive Leadership.

    • Followership refers to the ability of leaders to win the trust from subordinates, superiors, and counterparts through demonstrative self-management.

    • Face-to-face Leadership demonstrates the leaders’ ability to drive, encourage, instruct, manage, control, and develop direct subordinates and core teams. It exhibits leaders’ one-on-one leadership abilities targeted at their direct subordinates.

    • Indirect Leadership shows the leaders’ influence and driving power towards indirect subordinates and the whole team, and it can be defined as the leaders’ role in managing the team as a whole.

    • Organizational Executive Leadership shows leaders’ acute insight of the dynamic changes in their organizations, and the leaders’ ability to optimize their own approach to managing the team and in so doing, adapt to changes in both the internal and external environment of organizations.

    The book walks readers through each gear as well as the several components it comprises. Many leadership books have excellent concepts and ways of thinking, but lack practical sheets, models and tools, so that books of this type can only improve leaders themselves and can’t be widely used in their organizations. Gear-Shifting Leadership illustrates the model, tables, evaluation questionnaires, and simplified tools that will make the material in this book practical and applicable.

    Table of Contents

    About the Author

    Preface

    Introduction: Four Gears of Leadership Development ------------------------------

    • Mid- and High-level Managers Need More "Comprehensive" Leadership ---------
    • Four Gears of Leadership Development ------------------------------------------------

    Part One Followership ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Chapter One Followers and Leaders

    • Why Should Leaders Develop "Followership"? --------------------------------------------
    • The Basic Definition and Connotation of Followership------------------------------------
    • Interaction Between Followers and Leaders-------------------------------------------------

    Chapter Two Two Cores of Followership

    • 5Q Model of Leaders’ "Self-management" ---------------------------------------------------
    • Seven Laws of Leaders’ "Upward Management" --------------------------------------------

    Part Two Face-to-face Leadership ----------------------------------------------------------

    Chapter Three Four Driving Wheels of Face-to-Face Leadership

    • The Four "don’t know" Root Causes of Performance Gap --------------------------------
    • Four Driving Wheels of Face-to-face Leadership -----------------------------------------

    Chapter Four Face-to-face Leadership--Boundary-defined Delegation

    • Form Closed Loops of Execution Through Effective Delegation -----------------------
    • Boundary-Defined Delegation --------------------------------------------------------------------
    • Guard Against "Anti-delegation" From Subordinates ---------------------------------------

    Chapter Five Face-to-face Leadership--Inner-driven Motivation

    • Inner-driven Motivation V.S. Material incentive -------------------------------------------
    • Four Types of Inner Drive ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    • Eight Incentive Levers of Inner-driven Motivation ------------------------------------------

    Chapter Six Face-to-face Leadership--Dual-track Mentoring

    • Two Major Tracks of Subordinate’s Ability -------------------------------------------------
    • Forms and Rules of Perfect Coaching -------------------------------------------------------
    • Modes and Principles of Effective Counselling --------------------------------------------

    Chapter Seven Face-to-face Leadership -- Preventive Intervention

    • Behavioral Intervention VS Performance Assessment ---------------------------------
    • Five "Murphy’s Behaviors" In Urgent Need of Intervention ----------------------------
    • Seven Golden Steps of Intervention Interview --------------------------------------------

    Part Three Indirect Leadership ----------------------------------------------------------

    Chapter Eight Three Major Roles of Indirect Leaders

    • Upgrade From Face-to-face Leadership To Indirect Leadership ---------------------------
    • WWH Analysis Model of Macro Performance ----------------------------------------------
    • Three Key Roles of Indirect Leaders ---------------------------------------------------------
    • Three Performance Indicators of Indirect Leadership ------------------------------------

    Chapter 9 Enhancement of The Centripetal Force of a Team

    • The 3V Tools of "Psychological Contract" ----------------------------------------------------
    • Value Root --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    • Vision Anchor -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    • Victory Chain ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Chapter 10 Enhancement of The Executive Force of a Team

    • Three Components of the Executive Force of a Team -------------------------------------
    • Absolute Non-Negotiables -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    • Standard Execution Procedures ------------------------------------------------------------------
    • Key Responsibility Matrix ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Chapter Eleven Enhancement of The Cohesive Force of a Team

    • Interpersonal synergy Quotient of a Team -----------------------------------------------------
    • Fellowship with complementary roles ------------------------------------------------------------
    • Informal Group Alliance ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    • Trust Circle ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    PART Ⅳ Organizational Executive Leadership ---------------------------------------

    Chapter Twelve Three Dynamic Optimizations of Organizational Executive Leadership

    • Three dynamic Optimizations of Organizational Executive Leadership ----------
    • Dynamic Optimization of Organizational Talent Pool --------------------------------------
    • Dynamic Optimization of Decision-making Modes -----------------------------------------
    • Dynamic optimization of leadership styles ------------------------------------------------

    Conclusion Learning and Practice of Gear-shifting Leadership ----------

    Biography

    Leon Cai is a global partner of Perth Leadership Institute and represents Perth in Shanghai, China. He is also the Dean as well as Chief Consultant of Wilner Sales & Leadership Institute. Leon was once ranked among the top ten most influential Chinese trainers and was the winner of the "Honor China Award". He was recommended by the Discovery Channel of CCTV (Central TV station of China) as a leading figure in China’s training and consulting industry. Leon Cai graduated from Fudan University, a top-level university in China. He had been a management consultant in a renowned consulting firm and a senior marketing director in a fortune 500 company before starting his career as a trainer, speaker and writer. He was certified as "writer of the year" by Enterprise Management Publishing house as well as China Fortune Press.

    Leon Cai is the author of many bestsellers in China. Besides Gear-shifting Leadership, he has also published Key Controlling Points of Sales Management; Soft Negotiation; Blue Marketing, Red Sales;  Left -Hand Service, Right-Hand Sales; and Strategic Selling.

    The US is still trying to figure out how China got to do an end-run around US management theory and practice. In this book Gear-Shifting Leadership, author and business leader Leon Cai, who lives in Shanghai, sets out leadership and management as seen by leaders who have only known fast, aggressive growth and the ability to overcome obstacles that would fell almost all of us.

    • Ted Prince, founder and CEO of Perth Leadership Institute  

    Using practical models, tools and examples, Gear-Shifting Leadership shows how to successful apply a broad array of proven management techniques. The reader will leave with an interrelated framework to navigate management and leadership challenges.

    • Robert Calvin author of Entrepreneurial Management and Sales Management -- both part of The McGraw-Hill Executive MBA Series


    My friend, Mr. Leon Cai, has absorbed many strong leadership lessons from international speakers whom he worked with.  I believe that the best lessons from Western teachers have been assimilated by Leon Cai into a coherent master structure tailored for audiences all over the world. I applaud Leon Cai’s work and urge students of leadership to take advantage of the broad-based wisdom in his book.

    • Larry Donnithorne, author of The West Point Way of Leadership