Leadership Smarts


Book Description

Impact the lives of those around you by becoming a person of influence. Let one of the most revered leadership and management experts in the world show you how!




Smart Leadership


Book Description

Escape the mediocrity that ensnares so many in business and become a better, more effective leader. Have you ever wondered what it would take to be a better leader, or achieve your wildest dreams, or make a bigger difference in the world? The answer lies in the choices you make: about everything from how you spend your time to the way you view the world. Smart Leadership is the latest essential business title from internationally bestselling author of Win the Heart and Chess Not Checkers Mark Miller. In this book, he shares the four research-based “smart choices” the best leaders make to scale their influence and results. By teaching you how to Confront Reality, Grow Capacity, Fuel Curiosity, and Create Change, Miller will help you: Bring fresh eyes and fresh thinking to your leadership approach. Increase your confidence in your ability to make a difference. Lead at levels you never thought possible. Accelerate your learning curve so that all these benefits come faster and more naturally. With this guide, your leadership—and your life—will be transformed forever.




Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams


Book Description

A proven approach for helping leaders and teams work together to achieve better decisions, greater commitment, and stronger results More than ever, effective leadership requires us to work as a team, but many leaders struggle to get the results they need. When stakes are high, you can't get great results by just changing what you do. You also need to change how you think. Organizational psychologist and leadership consultant Roger Schwarz applies his 30+ years of experience working with leadership teams to reveal how leaders can drastically improve results by changing their individual and team mindset. Provides practical guidance to help teams increase decision quality, decrease implementation time, foster innovation, get commitment, reduce costs and increase trust Outlines 5 core values leadership teams can adopt to exponentially improve results Author of The Skilled Facilitator and The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook Get the results you and your team need. Start by applying the practical wisdom of Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams.




The Ideal Team Player


Book Description

In his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player. In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle’s company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess, and then build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues. Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players. Whether you’re a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling.




Leading Leaders


Book Description

Expert Help for the Special Challenges of Managing Other Leaders Whether you were born a leader or have had leadership thrust upon you, you’re in for a whole new set of challenges when managing other leaders. Think of the qualities that have brought you to a leadership role: your vision, confidence, and charisma, or perhaps your experience, unique skills, expertise, or network of powerful allies. Now remind yourself that other leaders share some or all of these qualities with you. The leaders you are called upon to lead may be other executives, highly educated experts, investors, board members, government officials, doctors, lawyers, or other professionals. The potential contributions of these elites to any organization are vital, but the likelihood of friction is also high if you don’t manage relationships carefully. In any case, they are people with significant resources -- and strong opinions. How do you leverage the assets of the talented and powerful while making sure that egos remain unbruised? Leading Leaders breaks the challenge down into the Seven Daily Tasks of Leadership, and shows you how to carry out each task when you have to manage other leaders. The seven tasks and the special challenges they entail in leading leaders are: 1. Direction How do you negotiate a vision for the organization that other leaders will buy into? 2. Integration How do you make stars a team? 3. Mediation How do you resolve conflicts over turf and power among other leaders so the organization can move forward? 4. Education How do you educate people who think they are already educated? 5. Motivation How do you move other leaders who already seem “to have everything” to do the right thing for the organization? 6. Representation How do you lead your organization’s outside constituents while still leading leaders inside? 7. Trust Creation How do you gain and keep other leaders’ trust, the vital capital that your own leadership depends on? Drawing on the author’s own leadership experience as well as his research in the corporate, political, academic, and professional worlds, Leading Leaders answers these questions with a clear set of effective rules for all managers to follow in successfully leading other leaders.




Taking Smart Risks: How Sharp Leaders Win When Stakes are High


Book Description

In today’s market, playing it safe is not an option Lead your company to sustainable success by taking the RIGHT RISKS The business world is in flux, and you have to think and act quickly in order to stay competitive. But the last thing you want to do is make reckless business decisions. You have to find the middle ground. You have to take SMART RISKS. In this groundbreaking book, leadership expert Doug Sundheim explains how to find that precise point between comfort and danger for generating the sustained ability to work at the highest level of performance. Taking Smart Risks reveals the secrets to discovering, planning for, and acting upon the kind of risks that will move your company forward and ahead of the competition. Learn how to: Find Something Worth Fighting For—What do you care enough about to risk time, energy, and money to try to make happen? Determining this is half the battle. See the Future Now—Clarify your big idea in terms of real objectives, plans, and intended results. Act Fast, Learn Fast—Make your move quickly, but be sure you don’t squander valuable resources in the process. Communicate Powerfully—Assume communication will break down at points, plan accordingly—and don’t shy away from the tough conversations. Create a Smart Risk Culture— Build teams that share the same mindsets and values about expected smart risk behavior. Applying Sundheim’s advice will help you let go of old assumptions, explore new possibilities, move your organization out of its comfort zone, and experience long-term success. When you take smart risks, you will create. You will innovate. You will grow. And you will WIN. “From Sherwin Williams to Moo.com, Doug Sundheim is onto something here: your work is worth fighting for. A worthy read for everyone in your organization.” —Seth Godin, Author, The Icarus Deception “The risk-taking concepts in this book lie at the heart of effective leadership. Using case studies and stories from executives who have ‘been there, done that,’ Doug Sundheim teaches us that sometimes the most dangerous thing to do—in business and life—is to play it safe.” —Marshall Goldsmith, million-selling author of the New York Times bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There “Sundheim delivers a message that every business needs to hear right now: excessive risk will kill you, but so will complacency. . . . If you’re charged with driving growth in your organization, buy this book—but more importantly, use it.” —Jed Hartman, Group Publisher, Fortune & CNNMoney.com “A spectacular book! The stories were powerful, the advice was crystal clear, and every few pages called me to action. I have bookmarked more pages in Taking Smart Risks than I have in any book since reading Peter Drucker’s classics.” —Michael Hejtmanek, President & CEO, Hasselblad Bron Inc. “Doug Sundheim does an excellent job of demonstrating not only how to take smart risks, but also how to lead the process of risk-taking—a critical skill set for leaders today.” —Cindy Zollinger, President & CEO, Cornerstone Research “A compelling case for why smart risk taking is so important in today’s fast-paced, uncertain world.” —Willie Pietersen, Professor, Columbia Business School; former CEO, Tropicana and Seagram USA




Culturally Intelligent Leadership


Book Description

The purpose of this book is to outline the important ideas of cultural intelligence and the steps that must be considered and then practiced to become a culturally intelligent leader. The most important aspect covered within this book is that cultural intelligence is both a strategy and a tool towards cultural competency and proficiency. This book outlines the importance of understanding culture and its impact on organizations, the strategic value of cultural intelligence, and the significance of integrating and practicing cultural intelligence in everyday business life. When all these aspects are properly integrated and applied in the leadership and management process, organizations are more innovative and adaptable to respond to cultural changes.




Beyond Theory and Degrees


Book Description

This book is a must read for anyone who has a passion for leadership. Fitzpatrick’s style and story presentation could be a blueprint for any leader in any profession. His insights into building a culture of leaders, through mentoring and distributing responsibility in growing the capacity of an organization while celebrating and affirming people are the tenants of his approach to authentic accountability, where people when feeling valued become invested and perform at a high level! In the book Fitzpatrick shares the POCDICE theory, the seven key processes of Leadership that every aspiring and seasoned leaders must become good at, while never becoming complacent in improving in their roles. They are: planning, organization, communication, decision-making, influence, coordination, and evaluation. School Leadership and Governance in American schools is at a crossroads. Fewer candidates are entering this noble and honorable profession. We need great leaders for our schools and districts to flourish. This book is designed to inspire candidates to consider school and district leadership while giving insight into school governance from the principalship, superintendency, and Board of Education levels.




Multipliers


Book Description

Are you a genius or a genius maker? We've all had experience with two dramatically different types of leaders. The first type drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the ones around them and always need to be the smartest ones in the room. These are the idea killers, the energy sappers, the diminishers of talent and commitment. On the other side of the spectrum are leaders who use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, lightbulbs go off over people's heads, ideas flow, and problems get solved. These are the leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. These are the Multipliers. And the world needs more of them, especially now, when leaders are expected to do more with less. In this engaging and highly practical book, leadership expert Liz Wiseman and management consultant Greg McKeown explore these two leadership styles, persuasively showing how Multipliers can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect on organizations—getting more done with fewer resources, developing and attracting talent, and cultivating new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation. In analyzing data from more than 150 leaders, Wiseman and McKeown have identified five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers. These five disciplines are not based on innate talent; indeed, they are skills and practices that everyone can learn to use—even lifelong and recalcitrant Diminishers. Lively, real-world case studies and practical tips and techniques bring to life each of these principles, showing you how to become a Multiplier too, whether you are a new or an experienced manager. Just imagine what you could accomplish if you could harness all the energy and intelligence around you. Multipliers will show you how.




Informal Leadership


Book Description

Informal Leadership Tap Into a Hidden Gold Mine! Are you looking for creative ways to improve your team's performance? Do you have to work harder and smarter, or produce more with the same or less resources? Informal Leadership uncovers a valuable human resource hidden inside your group. In this simple and practical book you will discover who these influential leaders are and what drives them, and will be able to increase your success by learning how to tap their talents and skills to: - Increase innovation and performance - Stay ahead of the game - Make more impactful changes - Exceed expectations Informal Leadership provides a short and effective route to mobilize your people-and produce outstanding results. It also provides fresh insights on how to inspire your Informal Leaders and leverage their strengths to achieve results way beyond what is expected. Author Bio: Marcia Smart, Ph.D. is a Leadership Strategist and Inspirational Speaker with over 25 year's experience in corporate and business leadership. In addition to her doctorate in Adult Development, Organizational Learning, she has a Master's in Business Administration. Dr. Smart's diverse clients include Fortune 500 companies, professional associations, universities, faith-based organizations and nonprofits. Visit: www.informalleadership.com