First-Class Leadership” by Hamid Safaei.
Hamid is a well-known author, speaker, coach, and consultant with a lot of passion and knowledge for helping people maximize their potential.
First-Class Leadership is the second book of Hamid (he have written the beautiful “Your Journey to Fulfillment: A Step-by-Step Guide to Realizing Your Dream“) and it is an excellent book focused on leadership and discussed many basic leadership principles while establishing a solid foundation for developing highly effective teams!
It is a guide for all leaders, business owners, freelancers, coaches and consultants want more information about the puzzle of leadership and on how to develop effective teams to achieve your goals.
Moreover, though, this book focused on you and how to become more capable, intentional and knowledgeable in attaining your goals.
The Why Of Leadership Today
It is not always easy to define leadership. Let alone to learn what it is and use it with the responsibility and accountability it deserves!
It is something different for different people and for different circumstances. But everyone agrees that it is recognizable, present and designated to fulfill a much-needed vision.
This is the reason that makes it so difficult to codify leadership in a consistent and beyond doubt way! But times are changing and people adopt new ways of doing things and take ownership of their lives and dreams.
Self-leadership is a must today as a valid way of changing current problems, develop new options and opportunities and take the ownership of your life.
But that it is not always intentional nor usually a “commodity in demand”. People have various wrong or elusive ideas about leadership and, moreover, they find it difficult to implement it in the ordinary day-to-day framework of their lives and work.
But beyond theories and the dominant leadership approaches, leadership is something much simpler and much required as this new book reminds us. And it is always a matter of people! Because in leadership as in many filed today, people are first.
What A Coach Can Tell You About Leadership
To lead today it means to be responsible for your actions and of their results performed as a way to bring about the desired outcome (vision) valid and desirable for a large group of people.
First-Class Leadership reminds us this simple truth utilize the collected experience of its author and cases by many people and organization want not just to be effective but also to raise in predominant positions in today’s market.
The central position of this book is that nothing stands by chance and leadership, as the development of effective winning teams is, is the result of intentional and deliberate activities.
These activities though are not random and someone to become a leader needs a solid foundation. A foundation Hamid calls QPA.
QPA stands for Qualities, Principles, and Attitudes and according to Hamid, are basic elements a leader can base his/her action towards his/her objectives.
According to the author:
- “Quality is a level of excellence. Qualities determine how successful we become.“
- “Principles are fundamental assumptions by which we behave and live. They define whatever we are. One may possess remarkable leadership qualities while not believing in certain principles. For example, respectfulness is a principle, while inspiring others is a quality.“
- “Attitudes are choices we make in our lives, related to our principles and qualities. Attitudes define how we live our life. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can choose how to react to it.“
These 3 elements are the pillars of First-Class Leadership, which is not a new brand of leadership but a specialization and a framework of what leadership is and should be in the modern times of digital economy.
First-Class Leadership: The Book
The First-Class Leadership is a guide of what leadership should be, including all the important parts of a great leadership: principles, attitudes, beliefs, courage, mental toughness, autonomy, habits, authenticity, humility, responsibility, etc.
It includes all the best characteristics a leader should have, filtered via the long experience of a person focused on coaching and developing effective teams and successful people. And that experience is very important, especially when we talk about leadership.
But it does not include just that. Hamid encompasses many, common but easily forgotten features of today, as basic premises of a leadership practice. Things like GPS positioning, integrity, trust, leading by example, positivity, purpose, passion, strategy, communication, focus, etc.
All people know these things, but the problem, today, is how many people live in such premises and attitudes!
Even though the book is focused on developing highly effective teams, the main concern of Hamid is to clear up the way for understanding the basic elements and concepts of leadership, today.
For this reason, he structured the book into 3 main inter-supporting parts:
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Part I – First Class Leadership which is focused on principles and attitudes.
- Part II – First Class Leadership Qualities which is focused on quality deemed as necessary in the leadership practice and
- Part III – Highly Effective Teams which focused on how to develop effective teams.
The whole book is well-research and contains a lot of information about leadership and developing effective teams.
Especially for the teams, Hamid remarks:
breakthroughs can only be achieved by highly effective teams, and someone has to build these teams.
connecting directly the leadership part of the effective team building part.
In total the First-Class Leadership is an excellent book, all leaders, business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs should read!
I highly recommend it for any person want to achieve his/her goals.