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Lead With (un)Common Sense
Book

Lead With (un)Common Sense

Simple truths great leaders live by — that most leaders miss

David Mead
David Mead, 2025
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Editorial Rating

8

getAbstract Rating

  • Applicable
  • Eloquent
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Leadership consultant David Mead explains that effective, skilled leaders help people thrive – as employees and as human beings – while enabling their organizations to succeed. Even amid contemporary challenges, they optimize their company’s returns and efficiency. But they don’t stop there: they also embody good character. Mead argues that exemplifying strong values and treating people with “honesty, humility, and humanity” is the most reliable formula for enduring employee engagement and organizational success. This isn’t just a big-picture, philosophical view; Mead also provides practical strategies you can use to shape your leadership journey.

Summary

Good leaders inspire people to follow them.

Aspiring leaders should aim for “dual mastery” — a blend of operational (hard) skills and human (soft) skills. True leadership doesn’t mean just conducting efficient meetings, delivering great performance reviews, and keeping the bottom line healthy. It also means being a good person and treating others with respect. While operational skills — such as goal setting and strategic thinking — matter greatly, organizations tend to overemphasize their importance, often at the expense of the human side of leadership.

In that light, you can define leadership as “the daily practice of building your character so your influence — formal or informal — allows people to thrive and fuels sustainable progress for them and the organization.”

Effective leaders set high standards through their actions. Leadership built on power and control alone might deliver short-term financial success, but it rarely earns employee commitment. When leaders say one thing but do another, their employees perceive them as inauthentic, and trust erodes. Team members might work with such leaders to get their jobs done, but they won’t be engaged, loyal, or...

About the Author

Leadership consultant David Mead has worked with more than 300 companies in 23 countries. In 2017, he co-authored Find Your WHY with Simon Sinek and Peter Docker.

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