The Inspiring Leader

In their bestselling work The Extraordinary Leader, performance thought leaders John Zenger and Joseph Folkman revealed the 16 key competencies that separate the top 10 percent of leaders from the rest. Since that book’s publication, they and coauthor Scott Edinger discovered, through an extensive study conducted over four years, that leaders who possessed the ability to inspire and motivate outperformed all others. The authors found that the impact of inspiring and motivating others is consistent across different kinds of organizations and within different cultures. The Inspiring Leader reveals the authors’ newest proprietary research on how top leaders inspire teams to greatness. It discusses the behaviors exhibited by the most successful leaders and includes advice on how to implement them. Drawing from statistically significant data and objective empirical evidence, the book shows how to: Establish a clear vision and direction Use the power of emotions Create stretch goals for your team Foster innovation and risk taking Encourage teamwork and collaboration Champion change, and much more Zenger, Folkman, and Edinger lay out the strategies and concepts used by the world’s greatest leaders to motivate their teams. With The Inspiring Leader as your guide, you will learn how to put those strategies to work in your own business.

Can you inspire your team hearts and minds every day? If you can your organization will become one of the best in the world, and your team will perform at heights you never imagine. Harvard Business School gathered data from assessments of more than 50,000 leaders, and the ability to inspire stood out as one of the most critical competencies. Inspiration creates the highest levels of engagement, it is what separates the best leaders from everyone else, and it is what employees want most in their leaders. The Inspirational Leader, Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible was written to help all leaders successfully navigate all the disruptions in today fiercely competitive world because we need a new generation of leaders who care deeply for the well-being of their team and who understand that their people are the heart of their leadership. Whether you are the leader of a large, medium or small organization; a Teacher, a V.P., CEO, Father, Mother, Police Officer, or Hustler; this book was written to help you inspire your team to believe in the impossible. Each chapter in this book will push you to become the leader you were destined to be; a leader of influence, a leader of value, a leader of vision and most importantly, an inspirational leader.

The Inspirational Leader argues that leaders are not born but made. Taking the form of conversations between a young chief executive and the author, it explores the nature and practice of leadership. Each aspect of leadership is studied and discussed, so that the key skills are revealed for anyone to adopt and use to inspire and encourage others. Thought-provoking and accessible, it will help you to develop the necessary charisma and qualities to make you an inspiring leader. Leaders are not a particular type of person, and the valuable advice presented in this book can help anyone realize their full potential.

People can learn how to lead. This was the position John H. Zenger and Joseph R. Folkman took when they wrote their now-classic leadership book The Extraordinary Leader—and it’s a fact they reinforce in this new, completely updated edition of their bestseller. When it was first published, The Extraordinary Leader immediately attracted a wide audience of aspiring leaders drawn to its unique feature: the extensive use of scientific studies and hard data, which served to demystify the concept of leadership and get readers thinking about the subject in a pragmatic way. Now, Zenger and Folkman revisit the subject to address leaders’ most pressing concerns today. The result is an up-to-date, essential leadership guide for the twenty-first century that includes: Late-breaking research on the psychology of leadership New information on leading in a global environment A breakthrough case study on measuring improved leadership behavior Studies revealing the importance of follow-through The Extraordinary Leader is a remarkable combination of expert insight and extensive research. The authors analyzed more than 200,000 assessments describing 20,000 managers—by far the most expansive research ever conducted for a leadership book. Zenger and Folkman have created the leadership book of the ages. The Extraordinary Leader explains how to build leadership skills that will take you and your organization to unimagined success.

Do you consider yourself to be a successful leader, or do you aspire to be so? If so then this book is for you. Do you wish to lead your teams in the most effective and energising way? Are you a follower seeking to be well led? Are you in the business of helping others to improve their performance? If you answer yes to any of these questions then you'll find much to help you in these pages. From the authors own practical experience, from his observation of other leaders and from his wide research he found that people who have become highly respected usually display the eight characteristics described within the inspiring leadership philosophy. Employing these qualities is how they manage to get others to follow them willingly. You could do the same. A coaching client, Sarah Jane Mills, who critically reviewed a draft of this book, described the benefits as follows: "This is a fresh approach to leadership and it is named perfectly. It brings together a wealth of different ideas and concepts under a very clear and simple set of 8 principles. This is about leadership based on relationship. It gives people permission to be inspiring leaders. You can analyse your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats using the compass and you will be given a set of tools to develop your skill so you become a better inspiring leader. If you focus on these principles you will affect others in a highly positive way."

The definition of great leadership, backed by ground-breaking research When Execution Isn't Enough examines the essential leadership skills that go beyond simply executing strategies well. It examines the leadership skills that inspire excellence and drive growth. Great leaders think differently, but their secrets, values, and behaviors can't be bottled—or can they? Is leadership so contextual that it defies standardization? In this book, McKinsey's global head of leadership development draws on ground-breaking McKinsey research to uncover 20 distinct leadership traits. All are important, but some make all the difference in inspiring organizations to exceptional results and growth—and a select few create the vast chasm between strong and weak organizations in terms of leadership effectiveness. Structured as a business parable, this book employs a rich cast of corporate characters to illustrate the critical behaviors of inspirational leadership and the outcomes that become possible. Attempting to nail down exactly what makes a leader inspirational is like trying to capture lighting in a bottle, but new McKinsey research has identified the behavioral leadership catalysts that inspire greatness. This book describes the behaviors to inspire that can be learned—to turn a good leader into a great leader. Understand the neuroscience of inspiration Tailor your inspirational approach to different leadership scenarios Initiate an inspiration cascade to influence people at scale The picture of leadership has changed over time. Today's great leaders are authentic, enthusiastic decision-makers with engaging visions, who are quick to communicate and take action. Less than half of all CEOs believe that their training investments will pay off, yet everyone agrees that leadership drives performance—where is the disconnect? It's in the belief that simple leadership behaviors equal results, forgetting that exceptional results only come from inspiration. When Execution Isn't Enough shows you how to attain the missing link of great leadership to bring exceptional results of your organization.

The inspiring, life-changing bestseller by the author of LEADERS EAT LAST and TOGETHER IS BETTER. In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn inspire their colleagues and customers. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, including more than 28 million who’ve watched his TED Talk based on START WITH WHY -- the third most popular TED video of all time. Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it. START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way -- and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.