Beyond Success

It's amazing what is accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit." John Wooden

Beyond Success is an astonishing reading that deals with the pyramids of success from Transformational Leadership perspective respectively. Brian D. Biro theory states in order to transform the culture of an organization, it begins with the leader, who develops a new vision and guides the organization through a transformative phase. This theory ties to the success of the great basketball coach John Wooden. John Wooden was the head coach of the men's UCLA basketball program for twelve years and during those twelve years won ten men's college national basketball championships transforming the culture of UCLA basketball and the NCAA college basketball culture. Coach Wooden's bottom line will insist that the ultimate success factor is for leaders to help their team members develop their own special qualities to build an effective and efficient team.

The first concept discussed in Beyond Success is industriousness. Industriousness behavior primarily focuses on the creation of "results" as the function of learning with the most efficient constraints, rather than focusing on the amount of time individuals and groups put into when working on results. For example, during an industriousness meeting the overall goal is to be punctual, thus beginning and ending the meeting on time, actively involving everyone or involving the majority of the participants during the meeting. The outlook of and industrious meetings is to produce progress in an organization with time restraints but achieving the most during a meeting. The intent of an industriousness meeting is for each person to walk away from the meeting clear on what should and needs to be accomplished.

Leaders should also have enthusiasm about what they are doing and love to do it. When leaders are enthusiastic about what they are doing, the leader quires more focused on each single detail, which ignites their resourcefulness. The three areas of enthusiasm that Biro states an effective leader should focus on is, transcending their energy on people, fundamentals and learning. Leaders who are enthusiastic about what they are doing, exemplifies energy that transcends to other people making it an enjoyment to learn, thus building their confidence, and enhancing their performances. The mastery of fundamentals of the task will drive and sustain your attention to details, consequently creating coherent environments for learning between the leader and the subordinates.

As discussed in the textbook Leadership by Peter G. Northouse the concept of friendship with subordinates is also discussed in Beyond Success within the establishment of great leaders. When friendship is involved, it dictates a level of respect, creating a confidence between the leader and the follower during times when tough question and decisions may arise. Friendships help to avoid the creation of defensive and angry reactions. Biro goes on to suggest that the base of friendship is through mutual esteem. A social environment with mutual esteem creates leader-subordinate relations that consist of high level of expectations, but maintains dignity and respect for both parties. The most important concept to leader-subordinate relationships, is focusing on the overall results and not the credit to whom it goes.

Building solid friendships, involves maintaining loyalty in a relationship. Loyalty is speaking well about people when they are present, as well as speaking well about people when they are not around. Loyalty includes supporting people when they make errors as well as when they excel. Loyalty means having consideration for the friendship and never abusing it. Loyalty will transform the mindsets of people, encouraging friends to maintain self-respect and refusing to compromise their values to gain an advantage or advancement. When businesses inspire loyalty within