Skip to main content

Book Review: The Four Hats of Leadership by Drake Taylor

The Four Hats of Leadership by Drake Taylor is an excellent book for honing up leadership skills. This short, yet comprehensive, book holds a different narrative by showcasing four types of hats (methods) that can optimistically change the course of any leader's or normal-sounding person’s career path or life, all the more, the book is highly relevant to the people working in the business and the corporate world. No matter, where you work or live, leadership is needed, even at your home to protect and guide your kids. So, given the opportunity, one should not shy away from gaining the skills from all possible sources, because true leadership is something that affects the humanity most – be it history or now.


To understand this book, one needs to delve a bit deeper in the philosophy attached with each concept. Being a leader never means a towering personality and passing orders in a stern voice. To become perfect in leadership, one needs to wear four hats i.e. The Farmer’s Hat, The Drill Instructor’s Hat, The Psychologist’s Hat, and The Self-Care Hat. These hats are not physical attributes or imply donning all four hats at a same time (that would look funny). Rather, it means, subjectively, that one has to carry the mix of all these four types of personality patterns to become one solid leader, who can always deliver without flinching a bit.

The first hat talked about is Farmer’s Hat? How is that relevant? Just a farmer selects the seeds, sows, and then monitor the crop, and identify the potential and threat. Similarly, a leader too has to go through this process in order to get the best from his/her people. Getting the best from the team people is as good as delivering the best as a leader.

Another interesting hat is, Drill Instructor. Its semblance looks aggressive, however, that’s not the case. DI hat instills a sense of obedience in the team. There are many aspects that can be used under this hat, such as Shock, Surprise, Stern Voice, Talk in the Face, and so on. This hat is quite practicable in armed forces, as the author himself was into the US Air Force. Thus, inclusion of DI hat, and the wisdom associated has spiraled from his own experiences.

Remaining two hats are The Psychologist’s Hat, and The Self-Care Hat. They too are important, though sound subtle. Points touched in the Self-Care Hat are indeed worth noting down. As a leader, one must know how to take care of oneself. Devoid of this hat can make one devoid of basic aspects and ultimately leads to exhaustion and frustration. Yes, it is the self-care hat that keeps a leader cool and composed.

The major takeaway from the book is that often books on management and leadership skills teach how to become a leader, but this one equally focuses on follow as well. A true leader has to follow as well to keep his intuitive and learning curve steep. Leading and following gives 360 degree angle to the overall leadership approach. For extracting better off dogma, it is recommended to read this book at least twice.

Drake has composed an essential book on leadership, with inclusion of real-life stories and his own experiences. Well-written, with no boredom at all. Had there been more pictures, it could have lured many more hearts.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...
65 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...
68 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more