How To Make The Leap To Becoming A Leader

Here’s another must-read book to add to your list as you transition from manager to leader. It’s The Leap to Leader, by Adam Bryant. As the creator of the iconic “Corner Office” column in the New York Times, Bryant has spoken with more than a thousand leaders over the years about the challenges and nuances of leadership. Many of his discussions are included in his interview series on LinkedIn.

“The goal of this book is to provide an intensely practical guide to making that transition by sharing insights, stories, and approaches from hundreds of leaders to build the skills you will need to make the leap to leader,” explains Bryant.

He adds that the book is useful to everyone who is interested in leadership, regardless of where they are in their career.

The book covers:

The central paradox of leaders: selfless vs. self-centered.
How to perfect the do-to-say ratio.
Ways to navigate office politics.
Tactics to making better decisions.
The crucial art of compartmentalization.
How to build your self-awareness muscle.

Regarding the do-to-say ratio, Bryant shares that one of the easiest ways to set yourself apart is to build a reputation for reliability and follow-through—somebody who always does what they say they are going to do. “As obvious as this advice seems, people follow it much less than you might think,” says Bryant.

Leap to Leader is your trusted playbook for making the biggest jump of your career. You’ll learn how to make the leap, and will gain practical strategies and tactics for building a loyal following, moving up quickly to broaden your impact, and making the subtle but crucial mindset shifts that are required to lead others effectively.

In addition, among the many leader profiles in the book that you’ll read about are:

Marcus Kennedy, General Manager, Gaming Division, Client Computing Group, Intel
Molly McKenna, Senior Director, Global Brand Communications, McDonald’s
Balaji Krishnamurthy, Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Sustainability, Chevron

“Leadership is incredibly hard and nuanced work, and a win for me will be if you will come to rely on this book as a trusted guide as you move into new leadership roles,” says Bryant.

Today, Bryant shares these additional insights with us:

Adam Bryant

Question: How useful can The Leap To Leader book be to the reader if they have not already read your, The CEO Test, book?

Bryant: The two books are complementary but very different. The CEO Test is about the key challenges that all leaders face in their roles, and we provide a practical playbook on how to navigate those challenges. That book, in essence, is about what leaders do. The Leap to Leader is more about the mindset shift that you need to make to be a leader.

Question: What drove your decision to include the Leadership Profiles within the The Leap To Leader book?

Bryant: Although I quote more than 100 leaders throughout the book to bring the core insights and themes to life, I also wanted to provide the extended Q&As with these up-and-coming leaders to give readers fuller portraits of how individual executives navigate the challenges of leadership and how they made the leap themselves. And as I say early in the book, I encourage readers to think about how they would answer the questions that I ask of the people I’m profiling in those Q&As.

Question: How did you decide to include the eight individuals you feature in The Leap To Leader book?

Bryant: My main goal was to interview people who I knew would be thoughtful and open about how they’ve navigated the many challenges of leadership. Most of the leaders profiled are people I’ve met over the years, and I was introduced to others by some people in my network after asking them if they knew somebody who would be great for these kinds of interviews.

Question: What is the most important thing you've learned about leadership from your interview series on LinkedIn?

Bryant: So many lessons and insights, so it is very difficult to pick just one. Between the LinkedIn series and the “Corner Office” series I created and ran for a decade, I’ve interviewed more than 1,000 CEOs and other senior leaders. Those interviews provide a constant and important reminder that leadership is personal. Although there are core fundamentals about leadership, everybody has to make sense of leadership on their own and develop an approach to leadership that reflects their values and who they are as a person. The leaders who do that effectively are better able to answer the simple but difficult question, “Who are you as a leader?” Knowing the answer to that question, and being consistent in your leadership approach, helps build authenticity, trust, and followership.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

Coach Campbell's Leadership Principles And Winning Approach

Trillion Dollar Coach is about Bill Campbell , someone you likely never heard of, who coached several of the biggest names in Silicon Valley during a 16-year tenure, and who’s behind-the-scene wisdom helped created over a trillion dollars in market value. Authored by Eric Schmidt , Jonathan Rosenberg , and Alan Eagle , they share that from Steve Jobs and Dick Costolo to Larry Page and Sundar Pichai, these big names in Silicon Valley give credit to Campbell for much of their success. Campbell, who died in 2016, started his career as a football coach at Boston College and Columbia then switched to business in 1979. As leaders at Google for more than a decade, Schmidt, Rosenberg, and Eagle had the benefit of experiencing Campbell’s executive coaching firsthand. In addition, for the book, the authors interviewed over 80 people with whom Campbell also worked. Through stories from those interviews, Trillion Dollar Coach features specific strategies and action ste...

The Phoenix Encounter Method For Leaders

“All businesses sooner or later face the need to reconstruct their future,” explain the authors of the new book, The Phoenix Encounter Method . “They will need to destroy part or all of the incumbent business model in order to build their breakthrough, future-ready organization.” Therefore, this book shares a new method of leadership thinking – the Phoenix Encounter – relevant to all organizations in today’s ever-changing environment. Readers will learn how to proactively bridge the gap between perceiving a threat and doing something about it. Written by three INSEAD professors ( Ian C. Woodward , V. “Paddy” Padmanabhan , Sameer Hasija ) and Rum Charan , you’ll learn the steps needed to create a wider range of options to: Defend your organization Fortify its core business Build specific renewal initiatives The steps are grounded in transformation that includes these three elements : The Phoenix Attitude : a set of mindsets, habits, and behaviors that allows a leader to ...

The Five Critical Roles You Need To Build A Winning Team

The new book, Team Players , by leadership expert and New York Times bestselling author, Mark Murphy , explains why a team needs more than strong leaders—it needs the right mix of five roles and talents to succeed. In addition, Murphy reveals that the secret to extraordinary teams isn’t making everyone the same—it’s embracing and leveraging fundamental differences through those five distinct team roles. No amount of teambuilding, trust, or cohesion can overcome having the wrong mix of people in the room. The five essential roles and talents are: The Director assumes a leadership role within the team, guiding its direction and making important, difficult, and even unpopular decisions. The Achiever immerses themselves in the details of accomplishing tasks and getting things done, with a keen eye for delivering error-free work. The Stabilizer keeps the team on track with meticulous planning, processes and procedures, clear timelines, and organi...

Leader's Playbook For Perpetual Innovation

For over twenty years, Dr. Behnam Tabrizi has taught organizational transformation at Stanford University in its Executive Program, which he also directs. And now he’s written, Going on Offense: A Leader’s Playbook for Perpetual Innovation . In a seven-year study, Tabrizi found that companies that focus their energy on building a supportive, purpose-driven culture that keeps people on edge, and boldly adapts to new environments are the companies that truly excel. “Most companies pray for one innovation to skyrocket their growth. But the secret to success for the most innovative and agile companies is not just one good idea, rather a dedication to perpetual innovation and relentless experimentation that pulses through an organization, top to bottom,” explains Tabrizi. His new book provides an insider view into the drivers of success and challenges in 26 organizations—including industry giants like Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks—along with a...

10 Disciplines To Help You Stay Sharp And Energetic

The new book, Shine , is a transformative guide that illustrates how looking inward is the key to unlocking true entrepreneurial freedom. Certainly, Shine is a book for entrepreneurs, however, it is bound to benefit any business leader. “Entrepreneurs often have a burning need to succeed. But that same relentless brilliance that propels you in your career can take a toll on your teams, personal relationships, and even your health,” explain author Gino Wickman and coauthor Rob Dube . “Our book will help you strike a crucial balance between those inner and outer worlds while taking your success to new heights.” In Shine , Gino shares 10 disciplines to help you stay sharp and energetic without burning out. The 10 Disciplines teach you how they can lay a foundation that creates space in your busy life for you to consistently and optimally perform and achieve your inner peace. “I have helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs achieve significant business succ...

How To Conduct A Successful Post-Merger Integration

Most business leaders think that mergers fail because of bad strategy or overpaying. But according to former senior partner at McKinsey and Harvard Business School’s David Fubini , that’s not where deals break down. They fail in what comes during and after integration. More specifically, “Integration is what makes or breaks the success of a deal. Not design, not financing, not due diligence, not negotiations of structure,” says Fubini. “Because no matter how expertly you manage these elements, if you can’t bring all the pieces together, all your efforts might as well have been an academic exercise." Fortunately, in his new book, Post-Merger Integration: Building The Mindset, Skills, And Discipline Needed For Deal Success , Fubini (along with Patrick Sanguineti ) offers a behind-the-scenes look at how deals actually succeed and where they go wrong. And he shows leaders how to develop an Integration Mindset that will enable you to navigate the complex, nuanced reality...

Find The Truth In The Middle

If you're a parent of two children you already know that when the two are fighting and child #1 tells you what happened, you then ask child #2 what happened, and most often the truth is somewhere in the middle of what the two children have told you. Surprisingly, many managers, even when they are parents, don't use this parenting "discovery" skill in the workplace. Instead, they often listen to only one side of a situation. Whether it is because of lack of interest or lack of time, they don't proactively seek out the other side of the story. The unfortunate result is those managers form incorrect perceptions that can often lead to poor decisions and/or directives. So, the next time two employees are at odds, or when one department complains about another department within your organization, take the time to listen to all sides of the situation to discover the truth that's in the middle .

Business And Life Lessons My Father Taught Me

I post this every year on or near Father's Day because the business and life lessons my father taught me stay with me forever. What he taught me has served me well--even lessons I learned when I didn't at the time necessarily realize I was learning from him. So, I thank my dad for teaching me the following business and life lessons : Listen - Growing up, I thought my Dad was perhaps shy or quiet. Really, he was just a great listener. I believe that's what made him so wise. He would listen to anyone. Young or old. New acquaintance or friend. Provide - My Dad provided for me. Music lessons. Vacations. Summer camp. Boy Scouts. He gave. He put others' needs first. Today, I find in volunteering likely the same satisfaction he felt when he provided for his family. Educate - My Dad's passion was education. He loved to learn. He loved even more to teach. He lived to help other people learn. In the workplace, providing learning opportunities is one of the most powerful ...

The 10 Essential Elements Of Dignity

In their book, Millennials Who Manage , authors Chip Espinoza and Joel Schwarzbart , quote Donna Hicks 's explanation about how dignity is different from respect . Dignity is different from respect in that it is not based on how people perform, what they can do for us, or their likability. Dignity is a feeling of inherent value and worth. Therefore, Espinoza and Schwarzbart recommend that leaders treat those they are leading with dignity and follow Hick's 10 Essential Elements of Dignity : Acceptance of Identity - Approach people as being neither inferior nor superior to you. Assume that others have integrity. Inclusion - Make others feel that they belong, whatever the relationship. Safety - Put people at ease at two levels: physically, so they feel safe from bodily harm, and psychologically, so they feel safe from being humiliated. Acknowledgment - Give people your full attention by listening, hearing, validating, and responding to their concerns, feelin...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog