John Fechter, Professor, School of Engineering, University of St. Thomas
I’ve known Ron Bennett for over 30 years. He’s got an engineer’s mindset—watching things happening and asking himself “how is that happening? What’s the process?” Once the process is known and understood, he can’t help asking “could it be improved?”
Ron seeks every opportunity to share how a process works with anyone who can benefit by applying that understanding to their own circumstances. He especially wants to share with current leaders and up-and-coming new leaders. Imagine what they—you—can accomplish by learning from these stories without the pain, delay, and effort required to acquire that knowledge through personal experience in the school of hard knocks.
This book is a delight. Real stories, real people.
Circumstances presented these people with an opportunity or the responsibility to make things happen. They took action. They developed and applied their leadership skills out of necessity. Something was awry, progress was waning, someone needed to do something—and they did.
The stories aren’t bragging or posturing or showboating or lecturing. They are stories from real people who acted instead of complaining or being a spectator. Sometimes they made mistakes, but they turned that knowledge into cause-and-effect learning so the mistakes didn’t happen twice. They learned what works and what doesn’t. I know some of the leaders in this book and the people they worked with in their companies. I’ve seen them in action. You’d like them.
These women and men know they’re accomplished. They know they did good things and made a positive impact on people and organizations. But they’re sincere, not self-important. And they listen. Gathering knowledge others share. Noticing people whatever their station in life, listening, then asking, and more listening, to understand people and to learn what needs to be done. They listen for the good and for the not-yet-good that needs improvement.
And they care about their teams, employees, families, customers and investors. Lots of “just get it done” examples. No old war stories of interest only to the teller. Instead, timeless truths and good practices that apply to today’s circumstances as well.
I think you’ll be inspired by what they did, how they did it, and by how practical and useful their leadership lessons are. The stories are inspiring and fun.
Thank you, Ron, for gathering these stories. And thanks to the people interviewed here, for their enthusiasm and candor, sharing their lessons so we can learn from them.