Book Review: The Third Opinion - How Successful Leaders Use Outside Insight to Create Superior Results - by Saj-Nicole A. Joni, Ph.D. - Introduction

Introduction
LEADERSHIP HAS CHANGED
HABIT OF MIND
HABIT OF RELATIONSHIP
HABIT OF FOCUS
HOW INNER CIRCLE RELATIONSHIPS PROGRESS THROUGH THE STAGES OF LEADERSHIP
Remarks
Reading Suggestions & CONTENTS
About the Author

Introduction

What does it take to be a successful leader today? Besides the more obvious answers—commitment, intelligence, compassion, curiosity, and courage—there is one that is less obvious—the wisdom of others. Working with a circle of thinkers and advisers enables leaders to reach, and to sustain, peak performance. Such an advisory network offers more than just industry expertise; it assures a range and diversity of opinion, and the objectivity of an external perspective. Objectivity can only come as a result of a special kind of trust—structural trust. Those who provide that invaluable “third opinion” must have no need to advance their own self-interest.

From her own experience over more than twenty-five years as an adviser and thinking partner to business leaders around the globe, Saj-Nicole Joni, in order to fully understand the dynamics of leadership, and the role played by advisory networks, undertook a three-year research project in which she interviewed hundreds of executives and their thinking partners and advisers, to understand these issues in depth. That research project led to two major insights that form the core of The Third Opinion. First, leadership today requires three habits: Habit of Mind, Habit of Relationship, and Habit of Focus. Second, development of these habits can begin at any time in a leader’s career.