Flow-based Leadership


Book Description

This book describes what flow is and what flow-based decision making and flow-based leadership look like.




Leadership Flow


Book Description

In Leadership Flow: The Unstoppable Power of Connection, author Peri Chickering offers a refreshing approach to leadership development—a philosophy that is bold and current and yet, in many respects, as old as humanity. Peri proposes there is a flow—an underlying rhythm to life—that fuels and evokes effective leadership. We can all lead more productively and sustainably, in or out of the workplace, by learning to access our natural strengths and connect them with the power of the larger order of all things. Written in a clear voice and peppered with practical exercises, thoughtful anecdotes, and personal stories, this guide supports new and experienced leaders alike. Peri Chickering draws on the human relationship to the natural world, spirituality, the traditions of Taoism, and leadership structures of indigenous cultures to form specific tools and practices readers can use daily and invites them to understand where their natural skills fit within the ecosystem of life. At once accessible and eye-opening, Leadership Flow will help readers uncover a pleasant truth: It’s far easier to get things done when we open ourselves to other people and the ever-present invitation and engagement of our connected universe. We are each here for a reason, and we are all needed. In honor of the wisdom traditions of indigenous cultures, which are the foundations of Leadership Flow: The Unstoppable Power of Connection, Peri Chickering has dedicated all proceeds from the sale of this book to First Nations causes.




Good Business


Book Description

Since Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi published the groundbreaking Flow more than a decade ago, world leaders such as Tony Blair and former President Clinton, and influential sports figures like Super Bowl champion coach Jimmy Johnson have all been inspired by the book. In today's corporate upheaval, a new business paradigm is evolving. While many CEOs are being exposed for their greed, truly visionary leaders believe in a goal that benefits themselves as well as others. They realize that it is their vision and "soul" that attract loyal employees willing to go above and beyond the call of corporate duty. And their employees are realizing the same thing: while 80 percent of adults claim they'd work even if they didn't have to, the majority of them can hardly wait to leave their jobs and get home. Good Business starts with the premise that this is an age in which business and work have replaced religion and politics as central forces in contemporary life. The book reveals how business leaders, managers, and even employees can find their "flow" and contribute not only to their own happiness, but also to a just and evolving society. It identifies the factors crucial to the operation of a good business: trust, the commitment to fostering the personal growth of employees, and the dedication to creating a product that helps mankind. Good Business is sure to become a must-read text for anyone who values the positive contributions of individuals in the changing world of business.




Superbosses


Book Description

"Superbosses is the rare business book that is chock full of new, useful, and often unexpected ideas. After you read Finkelstein's well-crafted gem, you will never go about leading, evaluating, and developing talent in quite the same way.”—Robert Sutton, author of Scaling Up Excellence and The No Asshole Rule “Maybe you’re a decent boss. But are you a superboss? That’s the question you’ll be asking yourself after reading Sydney Finkelstein’s fascinating book. By revealing the secrets of superbosses from finance to fashion and from cooking to comic books, Finkelstein offers a smart, actionable playbook for anyone trying to become a better leader.”—Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive A fascinating exploration of the world’s most effective bosses—and how they motivate, inspire, and enable others to advance their companies and shape entire industries, by the author of How Smart Executives Fail. A must-read for anyone interested in leadership and building an enduring pipeline of talent. What do football coach Bill Walsh, restauranteur Alice Waters, television executive Lorne Michaels, technol­ogy CEO Larry Ellison, and fashion pioneer Ralph Lauren have in common? On the surface, not much, other than consistent success in their fields. But below the surface, they share a common approach to finding, nurturing, leading, and even letting go of great people. The way they deal with talent makes them not merely success stories, not merely organization builders, but what Sydney Finkelstein calls superbosses. After ten years of research and more than two hundred interviews, Finkelstein—an acclaimed professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, speaker, and executive coach and consultant—discovered that superbosses exist in nearly every industry. If you study the top fifty leaders in any field, as many as one-third will have once worked for a superboss. While superbosses differ in their personal styles, they all focus on identifying promising newcomers, inspiring their best work, and launching them into highly successful careers—while also expanding their own networks and building stronger companies. Among the practices that distinguish superbosses: They Create Master-Apprentice Relationships. Superbosses customize their coaching to what each protégé really needs, and also are constant founts of practical wisdom. Advertising legend Jay Chiat not only worked closely with each of his employees but would sometimes extend their discussions into the night. They Rely on the Cohort Effect. Superbosses strongly encourage collegiality even as they simultaneously drive internal competition. At Lorne Michaels’s Saturday Night Live, writers and performers are judged by how much of their material actually gets on the air, but they can’t get anything on the air without the support of their coworkers. They Say Good-Bye on Good Terms. Nobody likes it when great employees quit, but super­bosses don’t respond with anger or resentment. They know that former direct reports can become highly valuable members of their network, especially as they rise to major new roles elsewhere. Julian Robertson, the billionaire hedge fund manager, continued to work with and invest in his former employees who started their own funds. By sharing the fascinating stories of superbosses and their protégés, Finkelstein explores a phenomenon that never had a name before. And he shows how each of us can emulate the best tactics of superbosses to create our own powerful networks of extraordinary talent.




A Fish Out of Water


Book Description

Available for the first time in paperback, Barna unveils the results of years of research and hundreds of interviews, and emerges with a new definition of what leadership is--and isn't.




Team Topologies


Book Description

Effective software teams are essential for any organization to deliver value continuously and sustainably. But how do you build the best team organization for your specific goals, culture, and needs? Team Topologies is a practical, step-by-step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction based on four fundamental team types and three team interaction patterns. It is a model that treats teams as the fundamental means of delivery, where team structures and communication pathways are able to evolve with technological and organizational maturity. In Team Topologies, IT consultants Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais share secrets of successful team patterns and interactions to help readers choose and evolve the right team patterns for their organization, making sure to keep the software healthy and optimize value streams. Team Topologies is a major step forward in organizational design for software, presenting a well-defined way for teams to interact and interrelate that helps make the resulting software architecture clearer and more sustainable, turning inter-team problems into valuable signals for the self-steering organization.




Real Leadership


Book Description

Too many organizations today play follow the leader: the commander articulates a “vision” and people uncritically go along with it. But this type of leadership—what Dean Williams calls "counterfeit leadership"—generates an unhealthy dependence on an authority figure and relies on dominance, control, and group seduction to get things done. By hampering people's ability to anticipate and react to changing circumstances, it creates a self-limiting cycle. And if the leader's vision is flawed, the entire organization suffers. The true task of a leader, Williams argues, is to get people to face the reality of any situation themselves and develop strategies to deal with problems or take advantage of opportunities. Real leaders don't dictate; they help people face their challenges and make adjustments in their values, habits, practices, and priorities to ensure the enterprise is given its best chance to succeed. Williams details how to apply this new approach to the challenges every organization or community faces. Throughout, he demonstrates the practical application of real leadership in the real world through examples from his own experiences working with organizations as diverse as the government of Singapore, Aetna Life and Casualty, and the nomadic Penan tribe in Borneo, as well as historical examples and the insights gleaned from his many interviews with presidents, prime ministers, and business leaders. At a time when so many “visionary” leaders have led their organizations to disaster, Real Leadership offers a needed, proven alternative.




Living in Flow


Book Description

Harness the principles of synchronicity and flow to live better, work smarter, and find purpose in your life When we align with circumstance, circumstance aligns with us. Using a cutting-edge scientific theory of synchronicity, Sky Nelson-Isaacs presents a model for living "in the flow"--a state of optimal functioning, creative thinking, and seemingly effortless productivity. Nelson-Isaacs explains how our choices create meaning, translating current and original ideas from theoretical physics and quantum mechanics into accessible, actionable steps that we can all take to live lives in better alignment with who we are and who we want to be. By turns encouraging and empowering, Living in Flow helps us develop an informed relationship to meaning-making and purposefulness in our lives. From this we can align ourselves more effectively within our personal, professional, and community relationships to live more in flow.




64 Shots


Book Description

64 Shots: Leadership in a Crazy World is a compendium of value-accelerators for business and life. It is gathered as a 64 shot method from the astute observations and remarkable life of creative business leader and iconoclast Kevin Roberts. A provocative figure traversing the peaks of global commerce, media and sport, Kevin Roberts - creator of the groundbreaking idea Lovemarks - is recognized as one of today's most uncompromisingly-positive and inspirational leaders. In 64 Shots, Roberts draws on the biggest ideas, toughest experiences and greatest influences of his life to present 16X4 stripped down, straight-forward and instantly-absorbable insights on how to bring order to the chaos of business and life. The punchy insights into winning - hitting readers lightly jab after jab - are an array of one-liners, sound bites, tweets, charts, quotes and historical reference points. They are loaded with Roberts' experience, story, brio, provocation and direction. The language is extreme, brimming with the irrepressible attitude and provocation that fueled Roberts' meteoric career. While there is a sequence, the 64 shots are stand-alone signposts towards living an enterprising and winning life. Anyone can dip into the book anywhere and find value. The writing is accompanied by (not necessarily linked to) a visual order of black-and-white photos of leaders in their cultural fields, some modern, many historical, some famous, and all personal. This eclectic selection of people are both direct and indirect influences to Kevin Roberts' life. They all have an interesting - and some mysterious - connection to concepts of leadership in a crazy world. Examples are: Mary Quant, Vince Lombardi, Margaret Thatcher, Vivienne Westwood, Twiggy, Tom Peters, Peter Drucker, Martin Luther King, Renzo Rosso, Brigit Bardot, Bob Dylan, Sean Fitzpatrick (a rugby player). The book is high touch and glossy. It feels like Apple, not Shakespeare. 64 Shots - will you take them?




Finding the Flow


Book Description

This is one of the most practical books available regarding how to develop transformational leaders who can in turn lead transformational groups. What sets their work apart from all the other small group books out there is their focus on the leader of the group. I've seen Jenn and Tara at work firsthand in the church where I pastor, and they've taken the small group ministry to a new level of effectiveness.''