University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Leaders Open Doors
Book

Leaders Open Doors

A Radically Simple Leadership Approach to Lift People, Profits, and Performance

Bill Treasurer
ASTD Publications, 2014
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Early in his career, Bill Treasurer discovered to his dismay that he was a bad leader. To become a better one, he read leadership books, studied leadership as a graduate student and wrote his thesis on leadership issues. Yet he didn’t discover the true meaning of leadership until his son’s preschool chose little Ian, age 5, as “class leader” for the day. When Treasurer asked the boy what he did as class leader, Ian explained proudly, “I got to open doors for people!” Treasurer presents his inspiring concept of “open-door leadership.” He dispels the myth that your door should always be open to interruptions, since you’d never get any work done that way. Instead, he says leaders should open doors that give other people opportunities, thus helping their employees’ careers and their own. getAbstract recommends this concise, uplifting and practical manual to leaders and those who want to lead.

Summary

Leaders “Open Doors”

What do comedians Bill Maher, David Letterman, Roseanne Barr, Ellen DeGeneres, Jay Leno, Joan Rivers, Tim Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and Drew Carey have in common? They share the career boost Johnny Carson provided. During Carson’s long reign as the king of US late-night TV, every comedian aspired to get on The Tonight Show because Carson loved to give young talent a break. He opened doors for plenty of now-famous stars. He exemplified “open-door leadership.”

Leadership Is Simple

Leadership’s real mission is to open doors of opportunity, growth and personal development for others. Leadership is just that simple. Many consultants are heavily invested in – and heavily rewarded for – “the complexification of leadership.” Their livelihood depends on “plumbing, parsing and peddling” information on how to lead. Leadership is now “the most overanalyzed, thoroughly dissected and utterly confused topic in business.”

In contrast, the concept of leaders as the “creators of opportunity for others” is straightforward, though it can prove difficult to implement. To become “open-door leaders,” most executives must change their mind-sets, which...

About the Author

Bill Treasurer, “chief encouragement officer” at Giant Leap Consulting and author of Courage Goes to Work, advocates for people with disabilities and donates his royalties to charities that help special-needs children.

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