What I’m Reading: “The Leadership Pill: The Missing Ingredient in Motivating People Today,” by Ken Blanchard and Marc Muchnick

Book review by Charisse Toale, MBA, president of imatters inc., a national ophthalmic recruiting organization, Winter Park, FL

I found this book to be [an] easy read with a great message: Tune into what people really want and you will create the motivated dream team.

Blanchard (author of “The One Minute Manager,” “Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service,” and “Gung Ho! Turn on the People in Any Organization”) with the addition of Muchnick (author and founder of People First Group, focusing on Generation X at work) collaborated on “The Leadership Pill.”

The book introduces us to a miracle pill, “the leadership pill,” which, when swallowed by even the worst manager, [enabled him to show] outstanding improvement with leadership and team spirit instantaneously. A magic pill for effective leadership would be welcomed in any office, including imatters.

As in the book, it becomes a worldwide success. The pill is challenged for effectiveness by one of the management leaders within the company, and a comparison test is embraced. This manager, withheld from use of the leadership pill while using practical skills and essential tools, names his method the “secret blend.”

Key components of this recipe include:

• Build an infrastructure of trust and respect; leadership is a two-way street.
• Affirmation lets people know that what they do is important.
• Leadership is not something you do to people, it is something done with them.
• Leading with integrity means being the person you want others to be.

Effective Leaders earn the respect and trust of their team, each day, with the “secret blend” of integrity, partnership, and affirmation for the office culture.

As with most of our practices [in the ophthalmology community], we have a blend of Generation X and more “seasoned” employees. It can be a challenge to create a message that works for all types. I started to implement this into my team [by] having them read the book and write their findings as part of my understanding of each person’s vision of success and what motivates them.

Kyle Hocking, our media relations coordinator, writes the following book review.

A second perspective

Although the aspect of the “pill” is somewhat corny and banal, “The Leadership Pill” is an easy read and is exceptional at helping to put things about the workplace into perspective.

The book itself is more about how a supervisor should act rather than how to manage people. The book jumps back and forth between two different leadership styles: an old-versus-new leadership mentality, where working together excels over the “my-way-or-the-highway” technique.

The message here definitely is one I intend to put into everyday use -- support co-workers, involve others in the decision-making process, and give others value by letting them know that what they do is important.

I agree that leadership is a two-way street between the leader and the employee. A beneficial example is when the Effective Leader talked about certain employees coming to a meeting whenever they wanted and how this was a direct reflection of their integrity. [This behavior is] almost like an insult to the Effective Leader -- that they did not respect him or other co-workers.

The best part for me was when the Effective Leader [took] the graveyard shift to work with some of the company workers. They were in complete shock to see their leader there. By the end of the night, workers saw that the leader wanted to get to know them, acknowledged what they did, and saw the value in their work.

To me, knowing what everyone does and realizing that your work isn’t the only important work is crucial to working as a team and excelling beyond expectations.