Take the Pill Free Challenge!

What if there was a pill that could actually stimulate the natural powers of the mind and body to provide effective leadership? That is the premise of The Leadership Pill, an entertaining, quick read by Ken Blanchard and Marc Muchnick. The authors don’t waste words; this book is very simple yet offers tremendous wisdom for today’s managers. The parable begins “one sunny day in Corporate America” with an announcement by Leadership Pill Industries (LPI) that a groundbreaking product has been developed that compresses all of the attributes of effective leadership into a single “magical” new pill. As you might expect, it catches on like wildfire, and the authors display a terrific sense of humor as they describe the sequence of events that follows.

Alas, not everyone buys into the idea. The Effective Leader, for decades a respected business guru, becomes a staunch critic of the Leadership Pill, and proposes a Pill-Free Challenge to prove that the qualities that make a truly great leader cannot be packaged in a pill. His pill-free style of leadership incorporates innovative concepts such as the Triple Bottom Line, the Secret Blend, mental hygiene breaks, and other ideas.

Things heat up as two teams are formed from the “bottom of the barrel,” so to speak, of two struggling companies. The Effective Leader heads up one team, and must remain pill-free during the contest, while the leader of the other team takes the Leadership Pills as prescribed. The lessons learned sum up what good leadership is all about, and offer something for everyone, whether first time supervisor, or CEO.

Contact Delene at Delene_Murray@mnccpa.com.