Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader by Herminia Ibarra

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Few years ago when I started to lead a team of customer service representatives I was determined to be a good leader for my agents. I started preparing myself by doing my own research on how great leaders lead, communicate, and inspire their followers. I read books, articles, and took courses on management and leadership continuously. I told myself that I had picked up great insights and I am ready to go.


True enough those insights help me and my team achieve our objectives and thereby contribute in one way and another to the success of our program. Nevertheless, when things gotten tough that's when I feel that the insights I learned, though very helpful, are not enough. My personal leadership experience helped me to "feel" what leadership is in action as opposed to "knowing" what leadership is based on my readings.

Herminia Ibarra's book Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader told me that doing the acts of leadership will eventually lead to me think like a leader. I subscribed to this idea since I experienced it myself when I failed to communicate properly with my team. I knew the importance of communication as well as how to do it. However, when things became tough and stressful, my negative emotions has gotten over me. All my knowledge were thrown out of the window, and I started to act less than my ideal self. As a result, my team was pretty shaken and performance started to dwindle. That was the point, when I started to reflect on what happen and all my knowledge came to the rescue only after the storm.

This book also discusses what are the things one has to do to step up to leadership. Herminia guided me on how to navigate the nuances of getting new experiences and exploring the possibilities of working on extracurricular activities that will help not only learning new things but also getting new contacts.

Since sometimes I feel that embarking on a new journey and practicing new behavior feels like "fake", Herminia dedicated a specific chapter in dealing with this feeling of not being authentic.

There are many things you can learn in this book aside from those I have mentioned. The author also shared her experiences as she goes through the lessons in every chapter.

For the person reading this review right now, if you want to become a good leader start focusing on taking actions now. If you don't know how, I recommend this book to you.