Leadership

Two leadership consultants identify three keys to being a more effective leader: knowing your strengths and investing in others' strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Brené Brown has taught us what it means to dare greatly, rise strong, and brave the wilderness. Now, based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers, and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put those ideas into practice so we can step up and lead. Don’t miss the five-part HBO Max docuseries Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart! NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work. But daring leadership in a culture defined by scarcity, fear, and uncertainty requires skill-building around traits that are deeply and uniquely human. The irony is that we’re choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the exact same time as we’re scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines and AI can’t do better and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection, and courage, to start. Four-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture? In this new book, Brown uses research, stories, and examples to answer these questions in the no-BS style that millions of readers have come to expect and love. Brown writes, “One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.” Whether you’ve read Daring Greatly and Rising Strong or you’re new to Brené Brown’s work, this book is for anyone who wants to step up and into brave leadership.

General Rick Hillier’s views on leadership evolved over his three decades as a soldier. Early in his career he watched as many of his superiors made bad decisions. Later he learned at the school of hard knocks as the head of emergency rescue operations in Canada and international task forces in eastern Europe and Afghanistan. Never one to be shy with his opinions, Hillier is as frank and straightforward in Leadership as he is in his #1 bestselling memoir, A Soldier First. For Hillier, leadership is all about people—embracing those you are in charge of and winning over those you need to work with—not about risk aversion or management fads. Leaders think long and have a plan. Their actions speak, not their words, and they make their own luck. But leaders also act out of moral courage, take advantage of crises, accept failure and remain perpetually optimistic. Whether on the front lines of a business or in any situation that requires strong communication and vision, leaders go with their gut and make the tough decisions look easy. Leadership is an inspirational, easy-to-read and, in true Hillier fashion, often humorous collection of fifty principles that will challenge the way you run your business, start a project or take that next step in life.

These chapters on ‘Responsible Leadership’ represent the latest thinking on a topic of increasing relevance in a connected world. There are many challenges that still remain when it comes to establishing responsible leadership both in theory and practice. Whilst offering conceptualisations for the improvement of leadership is a first and perhaps easier response, what is more difficult is to facilitate the actual change to happen. These chapters will not only generate interest in the emerging domain of studies on responsible leadership, but also will pave the way for future research in this area in the years to come. Previously Published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 98 Supplement 2, 2011​

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller A compelling look inside the mind and powerful leadership methods of America’s coaching legend, John Wooden "Team spirit, loyalty, enthusiasm, determination. . . . Acquire and keep these traits and success should follow." --Coach John Wooden John Wooden’s goal in 41 years of coaching never changed; namely, to get maximum effort and peak performance from each of his players in the manner that best served the team. Wooden on Leadership explains step-by-step how he pursued and accomplished this goal. Focusing on Wooden’s 12 Lessons in Leadership and his acclaimed Pyramid of Success, it outlines the mental, emotional, and physical qualities essential to building a winning organization, and shows you how to develop the skill, confidence, and competitive fire to “be at your best when your best is needed”--and teach your organization to do the same. Praise for Wooden on Leadership: “What an all-encompassing Pyramid of Success for leadership! Coach Wooden’s moral authority and brilliant definition of success encompass all of life. How I admire his life’s work and concept of what it really means to win!” --Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People and The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness “Wooden On Leadership offers valuable lessons no matter what your endeavor. 'Competitive Greatness' is our goal and that of any successful organization. Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success is where it all starts.” --Jim Sinegal, president & CEO, Costco

In Energy Leadership, renowned coach Bruce D. Schneider teaches how to understand the most important personal resource of all -- energy, and shows how to harness it to achieve success in the workplace, the home, and in the world at large. This engaging and fast-paced story clearly explains how managers and leaders from all walks of life can use the principles of Energy Leadership to inspire themselves and others to achieve extraordinary results in whatever they do. The author provides insight into a cutting edge coaching process he has developed, which has positively impacted the lives of tens of thousands of people in both the corporate and private sectors. You will learn how to: Recognize the seven distinct levels that are the key to understanding why everyone thinks and acts the way they do, in life and specifically within the workplace. Distinguish truly effective leaders from those who deplete the energy of the people around them, and specific techniques to shift energy levels to inspire peak performance. Become powerful leaders who motivate themselves and others to reach their true potential. Identify the Big Four Energy Blocks and discover proven techniques and strategies for overcoming these and other obstacles to success. Develop the ability to shift internal energy to meet any leadership challenge, and use this newfound power to inspire respect, confidence, and loyalty in others. If you always try to inspire others but sometimes feel like something?s missing, something is. Energy Leadership puts you in touch with the missing link between your ambitions and your ability to achieve them.

It’s a fact of life: birds flock, fish school, people “tribe.” Malcolm Gladwell and other authors have written about how the fact that humans are genetically programmed to form “tribes” of 20-150 people has proven true throughout our species’ history. Every company in the word consists of an interconnected network of tribes (A tribe is defined as a group of between 20 and 150 people in which everyone knows everyone else, or at least knows of everyone else). In Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright show corporate leaders how to first assess their company’s tribal culture and then raise their companies’ tribes to unprecedented heights of success. In a rigorous eight-year study of approximately 24,000 people in over two dozen corporations, Logan, King, and Fischer-Wright discovered a common theme: the success of a company depends on its tribes, the strength of its tribes is determined by the tribal culture, and a thriving corporate culture can be established by an effective tribal leader. Tribal Leadership will show leaders how to employ their companies’ tribes to maximize productivity and profit: the author’s research, backed up with interviews ranging from Brian France (CEO of NASCAR) to “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, shows that over three quarters of the organizations they’ve studied have tribal cultures that are adequate at best.

Some leaders make it look easy. Others who have every opportunity to lead effectively make it appear impossible. One thing is certain with leadership: People notice it when it is absent. W. James Weese, a professor of leadership at one of Canadas top universities, advances the concept of leadership in his exciting book. In doing so, he argues that the best leaders exhibit 5C qualities: credibility, compelling vision, charismatic communicator, contagious enthusiasm, and culture builder. He explores how leaders can effectively: energize colleagues to solve problems; engage as a partner and a participant in the leadership process; develop a community of leaders committed to a clear vision; and open the way to greater clarity, alignment, and effectiveness. The author provides a thorough overview and theoretical grounding for each of his 5Cs in addition to exercises and a diagnostic tool so readers can assess their leadership strengths and areas for development. Discover the foundational components you must cultivate to inspire others, overcome challenges, and achieve results with the lessons outlined in The Five C Leader.