The Touchstones Of Leadership

By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer

Joseph Carleone has spent most of his life in executive leadership positions from companies in the defense industry to chemicals, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. In those 45-plus years he experienced significant change in technology, market shifts, and the nature of the workforce. However, he lived and led by a consistent set of principles.

Joe often found himself expressing guidance to his executive leadership teams by sharing the very principles by which he lived, short memorable lessons often wrapped in real-world examples. One member of an executive team recommended that he write these lessons down and share them in a book. So, he did, and there are forty-five of them in “The Touchstones of Leadership-Essential Principles for Business Leaders.”

Being a successful executive leader is hard! Each busy day is filled with addressing problems, communicating purpose and direction, anticipating issues, developing subordinates, keeping your fingers on the pulse of a complex organization and much more.

Joe adopted a model for successful leadership containing four features or aspects using a house analogy.

• Managing oneself-the foundation.
• Interpersonal skills-the structural framework.
• Management-the organized interior.
• Strategic perspective-the roof.

Each of the 45 touchstone lessons are memorable principles with brief explanations and meaningful examples. They are easy to digest and apply. I took Joe’s advice to work on oneself and read a different one each morning.

Some of the advice you’ll encounter:

• Don’t focus on things outside your control.
• Never negotiate line-by-line and bottom-line simultaneously.
• Forecasts should be accurate and targets should be ambitious.
• The human soul hungers to be appreciated, valued and recognized.
• Assuming your competition will fail is a losing strategy.
• And there are forty more!

I highly recommend Joe’s book, get a copy and enrich your next 45 days!