The Ordinary Leader: 10 Key Insights for Building and Leading a Thriving Organization

by Randy Grieser

An ordinary leader is someone who leads a small organization or team that is doing great things. They manage the majority of the world’s workforce, but they don’t lead large corporations or big government agencies. Ordinary leaders are rarely written about in books or quoted in magazines. They are, however, important. Maybe not globally, but in their own realm of influence, their leadership makes a difference. The term “ordinary” is also used to highlight the belief that no one ever arrives as a leader. In fact, if someone thinks of themselves as extraordinary, they will not be a very effective leader.

Author Randy Grieser presents 10 key insights for building and leading a thriving organization. These are the principles he identifies as instrumental to success as a leader. Writing for leaders everywhere, he inspires, motivates, and explains how to make each insight a reality in your organization.

Become a more passionate, productive, and visionary leader by exploring and embracing these 10 insights:

Motivation and Employee Engagement: Organizations flourish when employees go
beyond what is expected of them.

Passion: A passionate, inspired workforce begins with the leader.

Vision: Visionary leaders energize and inspire people to work towards a future goal.

Self-Awareness: Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is vital for leading any
organization.

Talent and Team Selection: The right employees must, first and foremost, fit the
workplace culture.

Organizational Health: Employees are most engaged when leaders are committed to the
emotional well-being of everyone.

Productivity: Focusing on how and what things get done increases efficiency.

Creativity and Innovation: Building processes for innovation puts creativity to work.

Delegation: As you free up your time, you will also increase employee engagement.

Self-Improvement: Personal development makes all the other principles easier to achieve.

Also included are the perspectives of 10 ordinary leaders from a range of professions, survey feedback from over 1,700 leaders and employees, and a resource section that provides detailed guidance and examples for putting these ideas into action.

Genres: Business, Management, Leadership, Nonfiction

210 pages, Hardcover

Published January 17, 2017

About the author

Randy is the Founder and Chief Vision Officer of ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership and the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute (CTRI), which are two divisions of the same company. He is the author of The Ordinary Leader and co-author of The Culture Question and Don't Blame the Lettuce. Randy is an intuitive and visionary leader who, together with a team of employees and trainers, has positioned these organizations to be leading providers of professional development training.

Randy is passionate about sharing the importance of creating healthy workplace cultures and believes that leadership requires us to always be intentional about what we do and how we do it. He gives presentations on leadership and workplace culture to a wide range of audiences. Randy is a dynamic speaker who delivers insightful presentations that are engaging, humorous, and informative.

Some fun facts about Randy are that he has a graduate degree in Social Work, and earlier in his career, he worked as a Mental Health Counsellor. He is enthusiastic about life and has many interests. He and his son Ben have a shared passion for basketball. He and his wife Heidi have a shared passion for mountain biking. And with his daughter Ana, he shares a passion for climbing mountains and eating good cheese. You can usually find him involved in one of these activities in his spare time.

To learn more about Randy and ACHIEVE, please visit www.achievecentre.com.

Find Randy’s latest thoughts on leadership at TheOrdinaryLeader.com.

Reviews

[Becky Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read loaded with helpful suggestions on engaging employees (once you've hired - and how to hire - the right ones), improving organizational health and delegating effectively. In particular, the recommendations on clearly defining the vision and culture of the organization are useful.

[Natasha Ybarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for every person in a leadership role! I have given this book to my own manager to read and asked that my fellow supervisors be required to read it.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for all leaders

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Randy Grieser does a great job of sharing his insights and knowledge about leadership in a very authentic way. His focus on self-awareness and organizational health is absolutely refreshing.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this easy read. It was full of insights and questions that really resonated with me. I identified with many points: As a small business owner developing a team it was excellent to have a literal roadmap of how to develop a great team; conversely I had several "ah ah" moments as I related my past working experience with poorly run organizations that are currently and might always struggle with retention etc. I particularly loved the research and surveys that Randy drew upon to assert his 10 insights. I will be sharing this with my business partners!

[Nick Ladd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read! Easy to understand, practical, down-to-earth, engaging and inspiring. I think it has appeal for a broad range of people. I'm taking it with me to share this week at our church's leadership retreat. Wish I would have ordered more than one copy... I'll definitely be getting more to share.