LEADERS ON LEADERSHIP

One of the best ways to learn about effective leadership is to ask successful leaders to talk about leading.

That's what Todd Tobias did as he conducted research for Put the Moose on the Table: Lessons in Leadership from a CEO's Journey Through Business and Life (the leadership memoir of his father, Randall Tobias, chairman emeritus of Eli Lilly and Co. and former vice chairman of AT&T).

Todd Tobias, who co-authored the book with his father, gleaned a great deal of leadership wisdom from interviews with his father's friends and colleagues. Here are a few brief excerpts.

·  "I think the key to career success is the same ingredient that drives leadership success: encompassing enthusiasm for new ideas," said Steven C. Beering, M.D., president emeritus of Purdue University. "Great leaders demonstrate that ability, and it becomes contagious."

·  "Of all the characteristics that are necessary to be an effective leader, the most important one is the ability to learn," said Sidney Taurel, chairman, president and CEO of Eli Lilly.

·  "Don't try to become a CEO," said Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. "Try to do whatever your current job is to the best of your ability, and then you may eventually become a CEO. But if you start out at the beginning saying, 'I want to be a CEO,' you spend so much time looking at the next rung of the ladder [that] you fall off the one you're standing on."

·  "Leadership begins with the enjoyment of what you are doing," said Dr. Cedric W. Dempsey, president of the National College Athlete Association. "If you don't enjoy it, I think it is very difficult to display the kind of positive leadership people are looking for."

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