Leaders Talk Leadership

Each section consists of thought pieces and interviews by some of the leaders who are successfully navigating the contemporary difficult and changing market environment.

The New York Times bestseller by the acclaimed, bestselling author of Start With Why and Together is Better. Now with an expanded chapter and appendix on leading millennials, based on Simon Sinek's viral video "Millenials in the workplace" (150+ million views). Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things. In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why? The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. "Officers eat last," he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What's symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort--even their own survival--for the good of those in their care. Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a "Circle of Safety" that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.

Leaders Talk Leadership is an impressive collection of interviews with some of the world's most respected corporate leaders and management scholars. Edited by Ashby and Miles of the preeminent executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles, this compilation of thought leadership spanning industries and geographies addresses the key issues facing executives today such as governance, leadership and strategy, how to lead in volatile times or through a corporate transformation, how to best leverage human capital and how to achieve competitive advantage in today's environment. Some of the CEO's featured in the book include Ken Chenault, of American Express, Steve Reinemund of PepsiCo, Heinrich von Pierer of Siemens, Ken Lewis of Bank of America, Edward Tian of China Netcom, Fred Smith of FedEx, Hank McKinnell of Pfizer, A.G. Lafley of Proctor and Gamble, Klaus Zumwinkel of Deutsche Post World Net, William Haseltine of Human Genome Sciences, Linda Sanford of IBM, Larry Weinbach of Unisys and Michael Dell of Dell Computer. Framing these cutting-edge concepts are interviews and written essays by preeminent academics, including Jay Conger from London Business School, Jim Collins of Good to Great, Mohanbir Sawhney of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University. Serving as the line executive's roadmap to recruiting, retaining and developing talent and an encyclopedia of MBA students worldwide, this book represents path-breaking leadership perspectives from path-breaking leaders.

If you take a chain, pile it up and then push it, what direction will it go? Nowhere you can predict and not very far. If you take it by the end and pull it, which way will it go? It will follow you. Leadership is not about what sets you apart from those you lead—it’s about what binds you together. It is not about controlling others—it’s about trusting others. It’s not about your achievements—it’s about unleashing your team’s greatness. In short, leadership really isn’t about you—it’s about your people. Take Bob Davids, co-author of this book and successful leader of six businesses in fields as diverse as engineering and winemaking. His achievements often came thanks to being able to refrain from acting when others might have found intervening irresistible. By trusting his employees to be better than him in their area of responsibility and letting them act, Bob unleashed the human greatness that no one else—including employees themselves—suspected. Yet to lead without acting does not mean doing nothing. It means creating conditions in which things happen by themselves. Leadership Without Ego is about a transformation of the concept of leadership in the past two decades: a change of beliefs about how best to lead, along with radically different leadership practices. The ideas in this book have already changed the fortunes of hundreds of businesses and the lives of tens of thousands of employees. They can do the same for your business, your people—and you.

Make every communication count—with a simple, four-step speaking model Whether it's among colleagues at lunch or an audience of a thousand, a leader's role is to move and inspire others. It's not only the big occasions that test a leader's mettle, but the little ones as well—in a casual conversation in the elevator, in phone calls, or one of many incidental, seemingly "insignificant" interactions in everyday work life. Written by one of the world's leading communications coaches, Speaking as a Leader shows you how to make the most of your daily communications, creating a presence on the job as a genuine and constant leader. In this eye-opening guide, aspiring (and established) leaders can enhance their reputations and influence by following a few simple steps. Speaking as a Leader: Shows how to structure your thoughts and message in any situation using a four-step model Offers tips on listening effectively, in three dimensions Details why you are the best visual and how to avoid "Death by PowerPoint" Offers guidance on taking the "numb" out of numbers Includes tips on moving from subject to message With Speaking as a Leader, you'll learn to tap into your innate leadership skills at every occasion—whether small or large—and earn the sort of respect that creates devoted friends and passionate supporters.

What if every single legendary leader over the past 500 years used a little-known five-step communication process to inspire people, empower movements, and produce legendary results? What if all business managers - whether leading a team of three or company of 300,000 - can use the exact same step-by-step process to convert average performance into surpassing success by breaking through the "communication wall," influencing with ease, and inspiring enthusiastic action? New Release Promotion You Get the "Public Speaking for Leaders" Bonus Bundle Worth $150 for FREE From a URL Inside. This Includes a Video Course. Limited Edition Version Includes 7 Exclusive Bonus Chapters Why do some leaders and managers effortlessly produce enviable results with less work, while others watch things fall apart around them despite working 65-hour weeks? Because of a proven yet little-known brand of communication: the communication of leadership, used by John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and every single U.S. President since FDR. Don't let weak communication hold back your potential to become a legendary leader and successful business manager by constantly undermining your professional image and minimizing the impact of your words. Don't let it frustrate you and erode your confidence. It's a moral travesty that the country's top MBA programs entirely neglect the communication of leadership. I once experienced these struggles myself. I wrote five best-selling books on the hidden, little-known strategies I used to overcome this, and taught them to the country's top project managers. In this new release, you learn 451 proven, little-known, step-by-step strategies to accomplish the five-step communication of leadership process, including: How to easily inspire high performance with the proven power of psychological coalitions. How to instantly achieve awe-inspiring authority with the secret of the re-diagnoser archetype. How to immediately grab full attention with the proven language pattern of high expectations. How to reliably overcome imposter-syndrome with the little-known leader-mirroring principle. How to authentically convey extreme empathy by speaking to people's pain. How to build trust with both superiors and subordinates with the principle of a bold promise. How to expertly clarify your organization's narrative with the elements of effective stories. How to quickly command complete respect in crisis moments by divulging the brutal truth. How to immediately inspire your people by activating the proven difficulty-confidence matrix. How to easily get complete commitment from your people with the singularity strategy. How to achieve advanced persuasive skill with the 200 core human drives and human needs. How to always harness the ears, eyes and minds of your people with loss-reduction benefits. How to consistently make your ideas seem drastically better with the elements of a good plan. How to effortlessly assert your mandate to lead without bossy command-and-control language. How to always appear like a principled leader with clear and compelling Logos clarification. How to consistently hone the most important aspect of your leadership: communication. How to use 451 expert, advanced communication strategies as your competitive advantage to not only play, but win the game of leadership. The complete table of contents, bonus bundle, and limited-edition chapters are visible with the "look-inside" feature.

Finalist for the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Best business book of the week from Inc.com The author of Power, Stanford business school professor, and a leading management thinker offers a hard-hitting dissection of the leadership industry and ways to make workplaces and careers work better. The leadership enterprise is enormous, with billions of dollars, thousands of books, and hundreds of thousands of blogs and talks focused on improving leaders. But what we see worldwide is employee disengagement, high levels of leader turnover and career derailment, and failed leadership development efforts. In Leadership BS, Jeffrey Pfeffer shines a bright light on the leadership industry, showing why it’s failing and how it might be remade. He sets the record straight on the oft-made prescriptions for leaders to be honest, authentic, and modest, tell the truth, build trust, and take care of others. By calling BS on so many of the stories and myths of leadership, he gives people a more scientific look at the evidence and better information to guide their careers. Rooted in social science, and will practical examples and advice for improving management, Leadership BS encourages readers to accept the truth and then use facts to change themselves and the world for the better.

Wall Street Journal Bestseller From the acclaimed author of Turn the Ship Around!, former US Navy Captain David Marquet, comes a radical new playbook for empowering your team to make better decisions and take greater ownership. You might imagine that an effective leader is someone who makes quick, intelligent decisions, gives inspiring speeches, and issues clear orders to their team so they can execute a plan to achieve your organization's goals. Unfortunately, David Marquet argues, that's an outdated model of leadership that just doesn't work anymore. As a leader in today's networked, information-dense business climate, you don't have full visibility into your organization or the ground reality of your operating environment. In order to harness the eyes, ears, and minds of your people, you need to foster a climate of collaborative experimentation that encourages people to speak up when they notice problems and work together to identify and test solutions. Too many leaders fall in love with the sound of their own voice, and wind up dictating plans and digging in their heels when problems begin to emerge. Even when you want to be a more collaborative leader, you can undermine your own efforts by defaulting to command-and-control language we've inherited from the industrial era. It's time to ditch the industrial age playbook of leadership. In Leadership is Language, you'll learn how choosing your words can dramatically improve decision-making and execution on your team. Marquet outlines six plays for all leaders, anchored in how you use language: • Control the clock, don't obey the clock: Pre-plan decision points and give your people the tools they need to hit pause on a plan of action if they notice something wrong. • Collaborate, don't coerce: As the leader, you should be the last one to offer your opinion. Rather than locking your team into binary responses ("Is this a good plan?"), allow them to answer on a scale ("How confident are you about this plan?") • Commit, don't comply: Rather than expect your team to comply with specific directions, explain your overall goals, and get their commitment to achieving it one piece at a time. • Complete, not continue: If every day feels like a repetition of the last, you're doing something wrong. Articulate concrete plans with a start and end date to align your team. • Improve, don't prove: Ask your people to improve on plans and processes, rather than prove that they can meet fixed goals or deadlines. You'll face fewer cut corners and better long-term results. • Connect, don't conform: Flatten hierarchies in your organization and connect with your people to encourage them to contribute to decision-making. In his last book, Turn the Ship Around!, Marquet told the incredible story of abandoning command-and-control leadership on his submarine and empowering his crew to turn the worst performing submarine to the best performer in the fleet. Now, with Leadership is Language he gives businesspeople the tools they need to achieve such transformational leadership in their organizations.