Nathan Magnuson's New Book Teaches, Inspires And Builds Your Leadership Confidence

New to your leader role? Or, already a leader, but looking to hone your skills? Then, the new book, Ignite Your Leadership Expertise: Become the Trusted Advisor Others Seek, by Nathan Magnuson, is the book for you.

With 10 leadership topics and easy to read within two hours, this book will both teach you and inspire you. Plus, it will give you the confidence to become a leader and/or improve your leadership capabilities. You will learn actionable techniques you can put into play the next day.

If you don't want to read the book in one sitting, follow Nathan’s suggestion to read one or two leadership topics (one topic per chapter) at a time, and then reflect on and practice the techniques he teaches. Perhaps read one topic per month and spend virtually the entire year learning something new and devoting a whole month to each topic to really solidify your newly learned skills.

The book covers these topics and more:

Trust
Leading by example
Listening
Asking powerful questions
Coaching
Culture

At the end of book, Nathan shares valuable links for recommended reading on leadership, career and life topics. And, sprinkled throughout are motivating leadership quotes.

Nathan Magnuson

A few days ago, Nathan kindly answered these questions about his new book:

Question: Tell me more about how you selected the topics you decided to cover in your book.

Nathan: I didn't think much about leadership until I was a senior in college. On the recommendation of some friends, I took a leadership class in my final semester with Dr. Jeff Myers, to whom this book is dedicated. That class was where I realized I wanted to pursue leadership as a career. By now, I've spent about a decade in corporate leadership development. During this time, I've noticed that many people become very interested in leadership at some point in their career journey. Maybe they read a book, attend a talk or participate in a development program at work. Sometimes they encounter a leadership challenge for the first time they don't know how to handle. One of the things that has surprised me is how many of these folks consider themselves novices at leadership but are strong experts in other areas.

My goal with this book is two-fold. First, it's to decentralize leadership expertise by demonstrating how we can all become leadership experts - starting right where we are. My second goal is to show the difference between knowing and influencing. On its own, leadership expertise won't actually make much of a difference unless people trust you. As Theodore Roosevelt famously stated, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Each topic in this book aligns with those themes.

Question: How often do you believe someone looks to a person for influence when that person may not even know they are fulfilling that leadership role?

Nathan: I think it happens much more frequently than most people think. Younger kids look up to older kids to a tremendous degree. Young professionals pay attention to their colleagues who know what they're doing. Even mature leaders have their own professional and industry heroes. On a basic level, we all have friends and acquaintances we share our personal and vocational challenges with. That's essentially an invitation to allow the other person to influence us.

One of the last sections in the book is called "The Applause of a Single Human Being." It doesn't always feel like it, but if we only knew the extent of our own influence, we'd take ourselves a lot more seriously!

Question: How best do you balance being “generous with your applause” with not wanting to share too much praise that it becomes ineffective?

Nathan: That's a great question - I'm actually asked this more than you'd think. John Maxwell said that encouragement is the oxygen of the soul. You simply can't give too much of it! I've often said that if you have to ask yourself if you're giving your team enough praise, you aren't. Studies show that praise has a direct correlation with employee engagement. Sustain the praise, sustain the engagement. The best part is that it's free to give! The only time praise becomes cheap is if the it isn't genuine or if you praise work (or effort) that isn't good.

Question: What critical leadership lesson did you learn from observation during your military service?

Nathan: In the book, I share that one essential (and free) ingredient to growing a leadership expertise is to learn by observation. The military gave me more lessons by observation than I can count! Almost everyone was given some form of leadership responsibility, which meant I was constantly surrounded by living, breathing case studies. Some were exceptional, some left a bit to be desired. Almost all were a work in progress.

Like I mention in the book, any leadership mistake you can learn from someone else, you can avoid making yourself. Probably the biggest lesson I learned in the military that has been reinforced in the corporate world is that if you can only lead when you have authority, your influence will be low and your impact will be minimal.

Nathan Magnuson is a corporate leadership consultant, author and communicator. His writing “career” began as a kid with a monthly family publication of Nate’s News and continued with various blog, article and book projects along the way. His articles are posted on NathanMagnuson.com and in various leadership publications. Ignite Your Leadership Expertise is his first book publication.

Nathan has worked in a staff or consulting role with several Fortune 500 companies and large public service organizations, including Accenture, MASCO, FBI, and Defense Intelligence Agency. Nathan is also a military veteran, having served a tour with the Army Special Operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Thank you to Nathan for sending me an advance copy of his book.

Comments

Five Essential Principles For Sustaining Growth Through Innovation

Even though many companies strive for innovation, most struggle to achieve meaningful change. The largest reason for this disconnect? Playing it safe. Leaders and organizations want to implement new ideas, but too often they are held back by the fear of failure, even though setbacks are intrinsic to the innovation process. In the new book, No Fear, No Failure , by Lorraine H. Marchand (with John Hanc), readers will learn how to overcome the status quo that stifles creative thinking and how to create a culture that encourages innovation. Marchand provides a framework for sustained growth built on the “ 5 Cs ”: Customer First Culture Collaboration Change Chance She draws on more than 120 interviews with leaders across industries, real-world case studies, and her firsthand experience and shares step-by-step, field-tested strategies, tactics, and tools that practitioners can use to embed creativity within organizational cultures. Marchand is a former Big Tech and Big Pharma ex...

Leadership Lessons From Kent Taylor, Founder Of Texas Roadhouse

From cover-to-cover of Made From Scratch you’ll learn the leadership lessons of the late Kent Taylor , founder of the restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse. In the new book, Taylor recounts how he built the restaurant chain from the ground up after being rejected more than 80 times as he pitched the idea for the business. His approach to business was often out-of-the-box, however, his business lessons and leadership lessons from the course of his life and career are invaluable. Here are some of my favorite leadership lessons from Kent and his book: The best leaders stay down-to-earth and approachable. In a bottom-up company, the leader learns from frontline people. As soon as you make a profit, find a way to give back. Be willing to laugh at yourself. Become a student of your craft. Positive reinforcement inspires much greater performance than fear ever can. Want to get the respect of your people? Then roll up y...

Teach An Employee Something New Today

Take the opportunity today to teach an employee something new. Nearly everyone likes to learn and is capable of tackling a new challenge. Teach your employee something that expands their current job description. Teach something that will help them to get promoted within your organization at a later date. Teach them a skill that uses new technology. Or teach them something that will allow them to be a more skilled leader and manager in the future. You can even teach something that you no longer need to be doing in your position, but that will be a rewarding challenge/task for your employee. The benefit to your employee is obvious. The benefit to you is you'll have a more skilled team member who is capable of handling more work that can help you to grow your business and/or make it run more efficiently. Be a leader who teaches.

10 Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership -- John C. Maxwell

Soon I'll post my full review of John C. Maxwell's latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership . In the meantime, here are some of my favorites quotes from the book that I believe should become a must-read book by any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catal...

How To Be A More Human Leader

“To be most effective in today’s environment, leaders must be human leaders. Human leaders must be able to lead not only with their heads but also with their hearts and souls,” says veteran executive coach Hortense le Gentil , author of the book, The Unlocked Leader: Dare to Free Your Own Voice, Lead with Empathy, and Shine Your Light in the World . She adds, “In addition to being respected, seen, and valued, employees also seek leaders who feel human, not distant and perfect beings with whom they can’t connect.” Additionally, leaders need to put the collective interest before their own and work hard to make other people’s good ideas happen. “And although the book focuses on leadership at work, each of us is a complete individual, not a sum of separate, isolated parts. As such, the process presented in the book applies to all areas of your life,” shares the author. She further explains that becoming a human leader is a journey, not a desti...

Full Engagement By Brian Tracy

Best-selling author Brian Tracy's book, Full Engagement , provides practical advice for how to inspire your employees to perform at their absolute best. He explains that above nearly every measure, employees' most powerful single motivator is the "desire to be happy." So, Tracy teaches you how to make your employees happy by: Organizing their work from the first step in the hiring process through the final step in their departure from your company so they are happy with you, their work, their coworkers, as well as in their interactions with your customers, suppliers and vendors. Full Engagement includes these chapters and topics: The Psychology of Motivation Ignite the Flame of Personal Performance Make People Feel Important Drive Out Fear Create That Winning Feeling Select The Right People Internal Versus External Motivation At a minimum, Tracy suggests that managers do the following when managing their employees : Smile Ask questions Listen ...

29 People Who Taught Us Life Lessons In Courage, Integrity And Leadership

The 29 profiles you will read in Robert L. Dilenschneider’s new book, Character , are about people who are exceptional exemplars of character. They’re inspirational because they used their abilities at their highest levels to work for causes they believed in. Because of character, they influenced the world for good. The dictionary defines “character” as the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual, the distinctive nature of something, the quality of being individual in an interesting or unusual way, strength and originality in a person’s nature, and a person’s good reputation. “But beyond these definitions, we know that character is manifested in leadership, innovation, resilience, change, courage, loyalty, breaking barriers, and more,” explains Robert (Bob), “Character drives the best traits in our society, such as honesty, integrity, leadership, and transparency, and it drives others to exhibit those qualities.” Profiled in the book ar...

Five Essential Principles For Being The Leader You Want To Be

“By focusing in specific ways on five key leadership elements— Purpose, Process, People, Presence, and Peace —you can increase your time, capacity, energy, and ultimately your leadership impact,” explains Amy Jen Su , author of the book (released today, October 22), The Leader You Want To Be: Five Essential Principles for Bringing Out Your Best Self—Every Day . Su shares both Western management thinking and Eastern philosophy to provide a holistic yet hands-on approach to becoming a more effective leader with less stress and more equanimity. She draws on rich and instructive stories of clients, leaders, artists, and athletes. And, she focuses on three foundational tenets: s elf-care, self-awareness, and personal agency . Most important, Su explores in depth, chapter-by-chapter the Five Ps : Purpose – Staying grounded in your passions and contributions, doing your highest and best work that has meaning and is making a difference. Process – Relying on daily practices and ...

How To Play Bigger And Be A Category King In Business

"The most exciting companies create. They give us new ways of living, thinking, or doing business, many times solving a problem we didn't know we had -- or a problem we didn't pay attention to because we never thought there was another way," explain the four authors of the dynamic new book, Play Bigger . They add that, "the most exciting companies sell us different. They introduce the world to a new category of product or service." And, they become category kings . Examples of category kings are Amazon, Salesforce, Uber and IKEA. Play Bigger is all about the strategy that builds category kings. And, to be a category king you need to be good at category design : Category design is the discipline of creating and developing a new market category, and conditioning the market so it will demand your solution and crown your company as its king. Category design is the opposite of "build it and they will come." Key traits of category design...

How to Be a Leader – 9 Principles from Dale Carnegie

Today, I welcome thought-leader Nathan Magnuson as guest blogger... Nathan writes : This is it, your first day in a formal leadership role. You’ve worked hard as an individual contributor at one or possibly several organizations. Now management has finally seen fit to promote you into a position as one of their own: a supervisor. You don’t care if your new team is only one person or ten, you’re just excited that now – finally – you will be in charge! Unfortunately the euphoria is short-lived. Almost immediately, you are not only overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a team, but you quickly find that your team members are not as experienced or adroit as you. Some aren’t even as committed. You find yourself having to repeat yourself, send their work back for corrections, and staying late to fill the gap. If something doesn’t change soon, you might just run yourself into the ground. How did something that looked so easy ...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog