Living Leadership by Insight: A Good Leader Achieves, a Great Leader Builds Monuments

By Gardner E. Daniel

Learning not shared is learning wasted. In my thirty-five years of experience in the oil and banking industries, including ascending levels of management and leadership responsibilities, I have gained what I believe to be valuable insight into many styles of leadership.

Former President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, once said Its what you learn after you know it all that really counts. We must continue our education if we want to keep pace with progress. The learning process that begins with our parents and through the influence of others with whom we associate continues throughout life.

The insight I have received into what is successful has been clearly revealed through years of experience. There have been failures and there have been successes and it has not been difficult to discern the reasons for either. Careful thought has led to the extraction of the traits and characteristics that provide a leader with the best chance of success and they are delineated in this book.

We should all be teachers and mentors and strive to improve the lives of those with whom we become associated. Our legacy in life is to live on through the lives of those we have touched.

This book will enlighten you about the successful strategies I have employed in a myriad of situations as a leader and manager.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499083101

Gardner E. Daniel

Mr. Daniel has lectured on leadership and business ethics at the college level and taught numerous classes. He was also asked to chair an economic impact study that included a number of distinguished academicians. The results of the study were used by a well-known college in a national fund raising campaign. One of his great joys in life is sharing and exchanging information with others. Gardner Daniel’s email address: [e-mail]

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Gardner E. Daniel.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2014918477

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-8307-1

      Softcover      978-1-4990-8308-8

      eBook      978-1-4990-8310-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 10/13/2014

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Contents

About The Author

Introduction

Chapter 1:   Insight

WHAT IS A MANAGER?

Chapter 2:   Preparation

1.   Earning The Position

2.   Workplace Demeanor

3.   Time Management

Chapter 3:   Management Focus

1.   Personnel Management

2.   Manager Of A Function

3.   Management Of An Organization

4.   Management Of People

Chapter 4:   Styles Of Management

1.   Management By Intimidation

2.   Autocratic

3.   Passive

4.   Goal Oriented

5.   Human Relations Approach

6.   Visionary

Chapter 5:   Developing The Skills Needed To Be An Effective Manager/Leader

1.   Education

2.   Empathy For Others

3.   The Practice Of Patience

4.   Do The Right Thing

5.   Being Flexible

6.   Being A Good Listener

7.   Being A Teacher

8.   Using Common Sense

9.   Avoiding Fraternization

10.   Being Adaptable

11.   Awareness

12.   Leading By Example

Chapter 6:   Characteristics And Traits Of An Effective Leader

1.   Insight

2.   Time Management Expertise

3.   Appearance

4.   Analytical Ability

5.   Enthusiasm

6.   Being Bold

7.   Being A Catalyst

8.   Communication Skills

9.   Ability To Recognize Strengths And Weaknesses Of Others

10.   Knowledge Of Economic And Social Environs

11.   Forensic Analysis

12.   No Quit

13.   Taking Ownership

Chapter 7:   Teamwork

1.   Trust

2.   Commitment

3.   Division Of Labor

4.   Comprehension

5.   Focus

Chapter 8:   Characteristics And Traits Of Team Leadership

1.   Common Bond

2.   Recognize Your Limitations

3.   Resource Utilization

4.   Organizational Control

Chapter 9:   Management Tools

1.   Job Description/Position Description

2.   Planning

3.   Budgets

Chapter 10:   Treatment Of Employer And Associates

Employer

Associates

Chapter 11:   Treatment Of Subordinates

1.   One-On-One

2.   Salary Administration

3.   Time Off With Pay

4.   Mutual Respect

5.   Decision Making

6.   Hiring

7.   Termination

Chapter 12   Crisis Management

Chapter 13   Your Choice

Chapter 14   Conclusion

Postscript

Acknowledgments

Work Bio

A leader must be firm but not dogmatic, sensitive to time constraints but not Impatient, firm but not uncaring, strong but not impolite, contemplative but not slow to act, aggressive but not overbearing.

Gardner E. Daniel

I think abstract thoughts; therefore, I am.

I cannot be something without thinking,

and what I think determines what I will be.

We set our own course by our thoughts,

and we can be whatever we want to be

through the pursuit of what we think we are.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After having faced many competitive challenges in the United States Air Force and receiving numerous awards that led to a management trainee position in the oil industry and later a position as supervisor of policy planning, Gardner Daniel advanced through virtually every officer position available in the banking industry.

He held titles as staff officer, assistant vice president, vice president, and manager of the operations division for a major Midwest bank, senior vice president, executive vice president, president and chief executive officer, and subsequently, president and chief executive officer of a bank-holding company. He also served on numerous boards of directors and was honored with state appointments.

His career was noted for the successes he had in correcting problems at banks that had been designated by regulatory authorities as problem banks. At one point in his career, he was president of a bank that was part of a twenty-seven-bank group with common ownership. The group of banks got into serious trouble and became the largest chain-bank failure in US banking history. Mr. Daniel’s bank survived and remained open even though at one time it was designated as the worst bank in the nation.

Throughout his career, Mr. Daniel has promoted civic activities and actively participated in those efforts. He has been honored as an honorary member of the Tennessee General Assembly, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, and has served as chairman of the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority. He has served on numerous boards, including the Kentucky Financial Institutions Board, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, and Community Bank Board, among others. He was also honored by being one of the first one hundred businessmen in Kentucky to be selected to attend Leadership Kentucky.

Mr. Daniel has lectured on leadership and business ethics at the college level and taught numerous classes. He was also asked to chair an economic impact study that included a number of distinguished academicians. The results of the study were used by a well-known college in a national fund-raising campaign.

One of his great joys in life is sharing and exchanging information with others.

INTRODUCTION

At different times in our life, we define success differently. In our younger years, we think we will have made it if we can just make a team, be invited to join a club, win a class election, be popular, and any one of a myriad of other things. We think we will have it all when we can drive a car, own a car, get the date of our dreams for the prom, graduate, get accepted into the college of our choice, and so on. The point is that our definition of success is fluid. So then, what is success really? It isn’t a single accomplishment. It is a composite of how we live our lives in the pursuit of happiness.

I had an opportunity during my career to participate in a management seminar hosted by a top psychiatric firm that specialized in counseling returning war veterans and providing leadership training to business executives. At one point in the seminar, my group had thermometers attached to us, and we were led through an exercise whereby we increased our skin temperature by simply concentrating on making it warmer. At its conclusion, I was surprised to learn that I had raised my skin temperature by fourteen degrees, thus demonstrating what could be accomplished through absolute mental focus on one goal. Another exercise involved taking us into a state of deep meditation. While in that stage of deep meditation and at a peaceful place we had mentally selected, we met ourselves as a seven-year-old and then as a seventy-year-old and had a dialogue. At seven years old, I expressed the fears of not being able to make it successfully through life, and as a seventy-year-old, I was told I made it. So did that mean my whole life was just about making it? Is that what life is all about, or is there something more?

Just making it is not a formula for a happy or successful life. So while young, we need to carefully examine not only our goals in life but also why we have selected those particular goals. When you have written the last page of the last chapter of your life, how