Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life

I purchased this book for a conference as pre-reading to our discussion groups. I found the narrative format to be very helpful and have developed some action steps to continue my growth. I've always been told that I'm more self-reflective and self-insightful than most people, so I didn't get quite as much out of the book as most people would (having coached, mentored, or taught hundreds of teens and adults, I have a pretty good insight into this area). However, if you are looking for some direction in your management style or just your ability to grow in your current position, this would be a fabulous read!Caveats: Blake didn't face as many challenges and setbacks as I think would've been realistic, so I would've liked to see him face more adversity (although I believe this choice was intentional by the authors in order to promote positivity and optimism, I think this addition would encourage more people to develop resiliency in studying challenges through the narrative). I also would've liked to know more about Ms. Blackwell's back story and why she is so insightful about her own situation, without giving away anything from the narrative.

I read this book on the recommendation of my Senior Pastor, and I'm glad I did. Filled with simple wisdom, the book makes the case that one's capacity to lead is determined by their capacity to grow. In his usual story-telling style, Ken Blanchard follows aspiring leader, Blake, as he starts his career. Through a series of coffee shop conversations with his mentor and a string of experiences at work, Blanchard leads the reader to learn along with Blake how to GROW as a leader. In the process, the book delivers a concise outline for growing as a leader along with a long list of pithy truisms and questions to spur one's thinking. The book is easy to read and the story keeps the reader engaged. You can easily read the book in one sitting. While I usually don't prefer Blanchard's story-telling style, I liked this volume a lot -- for those who need bullet points, see the final outline at the end and go back and type out all the things you underlined along the way. All in all, a worthy read. Well worth your investment of time.

This book is a dialog between Blake and Debbie who is stepping in as Blake’s mentor after his father’s unexpected passing. Supports the idea that the fastest way to succeed and reach our goals is to find a mentor, someone who has already done what we are trying to accomplish. Blanchard and Miller advice that to become a true leader, we should understand that we have a choice: “In fact, every morning when you get up you have a choice: to serve, or to be served. Putting your own interest ahead of those of your people and your organization is an ever-present danger that the best leaders work to avoid.”They further suggest, to grow as a leader, we need to understand two aspects of leadership and more importantly, in their word, to serve others:“The first aspect is vision/direction. If your people don’t know where they’re going, there’s very little chance they’ll get there. “[…]“Once you’ve decided where you want to go, the second part of leadership-implementation-kicks in. Now the question is ‘How are we going to get there?’ To get where you’re going, you hate to serve others so they have the skills and competencies needed for the journey.”Continue reading at www.alwayskeepgrowing.com

Even though the whole idea of the book is common sense but I liked how they delivered the idea to readers

This book is enlightening, inspiring, and encouraging that leaders are not managers. Manager are hired into a position for whatever reason but you can lead as a manager but you can also lead without being in a position of authority. This is a great book for anyone who who works with people and is a super easy read, coming from a person who doesn’t enjoy ready.

This book did a great job of describing the idea that leadership isn't about position or titles, which is a common misconception many people have. It does an excellent job of describing the GROW principles, which I am currently working to implement in both my personal and professional roles.

I've read his first book, "The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do." Both that book and this one is very practical and applicable. Books often times can be filled with good things to say but have little to no, "This is how you apply it." All of Mark Miller's books outline how to put into practice his leadership philosophies. I would recommend this to anyone who is or is looking to lead a team of any type. Truly something you can read once a year and apply for the rest of your life.

I have been a manager for a couple of years and i really enjoy reading good management books. This one is easy to read with a lot of good reminders on how to grow as a leader. As it's written in a novel form you quickly understand and remember the message. I can recommend this book to everyone even if you are not in a leader position.

easy to read and understanddescribes situations in a realistic way and makes the theory easy to applyuseful background reading for leadership course at university

Iam a regular reader of Ken Blanchard's books on management and leadership. He has an excellent art of delivering the leadership principles in the form a story.Grow Leaders grow is another wonderful book by Ken. Those who have no time to read bulky text books on leadership can read this book of less than 200 pages in short period and grasp key principles of developing leaders.People understand better when the principles are taught through stories. Ken is extremely good at telling stories which are very interesting. In this book Ken also gave a synopsis at the the end of each chapter as 'take-away' from the chapter and a 'recap' of the key message from the story covered in the chapter.I recommend this book for every corporate executive who always run short of time to brush up their understanding in the shortest possible time.

Good to read and repeat read

Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller make it simple to understand in this book.We need to agree that, to be simple is pretty difficult.

Nice book... good on leadership basics