Sometimes I review books.  Most of the time, I have no relationship with the author and feel free to write whatever I want.  For those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while, you would agree that I am, generally, not afraid to say what is on my mind.

 But, this book is different.  I know the guy who wrote it.  We’re not best buddies and we don’t hang out but I’ve contributed to his blog (salesgravy.com) – the most important sales blog on the internet.  That means that if his book is garbage and I say so, he could use his influence to crush me, and my modest success, like a garbage truck running over a grape.

 Luckily for me, Jeb Blount has, once again, provided the business world with something extraordinarily useful.  His book, People Follow You, provides direction to business leaders – especially sales leaders – through a pleasing combination of wisdom, guidance and anecdotes.

 Let’s take a look under the hood:

 Jeb’s first chapter sets up the reason he wrote the book.   Bad leadership causes more damage to companies than any other single factor – and it is often ignored as the root cause of a lack of employee production.  From this theme, he takes us down the path of explaining how business leaders can achieve greater employee production .

 I loved the descriptions of the Seven Essential Principles of Leadership:

1. You need your people more than they need you
2. Follow the Golden Rule
3. You are always on stage
4. People don't do dumb things on purpose
5. People do things for their reasons, not yours
6. Change behaviors, not beliefs or styles
7. You are not normal

Jeb explains the importance of each and he provides examples of real-life managers that have made the mistakes that inspired the passages.  These anecdotes make the book very easy to read with a pleasant cadence and a sense that Jeb is actually sitting with you telling stories in your favorite reading room.

 Some books simply reflect the opinions of their author – based on the author’s experiences and their interpretation of those experiences.  Jeb does some of that in the book, but he also has put in the hard work of interviewing business leaders to glean their insights and build statistical significance for his conclusions.  For this reason, you’ll especially enjoy the discussion of the Five Levers of Leadership:

1. Put people first
2. Connect
3. Position people to win
4. Build trust
5. Create positive emotional experiences

 The rest of the book builds on the foundation established in these early chapters.  Jeb demonstrates clearly how others use the Essential Principles and pull on the Five Levers to achieve greatness in their organization and he shows you how you can do it, too.  What’s cool is that his advice is applicable to any size business in any industry category.

I highly recommend the book and strongly suggest you buy a copy for yourself and your boss.  Want a preview?  Here's a link to the first chapter.