Skip to main content

David Grossman Authors Heart First For Emerging Leaders

 

Three years ago, wise, and award-winning leadership and communications expert David Grossman authored Heart First, which I named the Best New Leadership Book of 2021

I selected Heart First because the book is easy to read, incredibly engaging, and is filled with inspirational and powerful stories of lessons learned by a wealth of leaders with diverse backgrounds. Plus, it covers pertinent topics for workplace leaders, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and culture. 
It’s a playbook you’ll want to read and then refer to time after time.
 
Now in 2024, Grossman has released Heart First For Emerging Leaders. Like the original book, this updated version is a treasure trove of valuable information.

“The experience of the pandemic and ensuing social unrest helped many leaders realize the strength of bringing empathy, humanity, and authenticity to leadership. I believe as strongly as ever in the power of that human approach,” says Grossman. “The first version of Heart First was written for the more senior leader. This newly updated emerging leaders edition is specifically designed for college students and young professionals, to help them build important leadership skills early in their careers.”

Grossman adds, “Giving back to the next generation of leaders to carry our industry forward is a passion of mine. There’s no better time than now – as organizations are facing unprecedented change – to help emerging leaders uplevel their skills and make the workplace better.”

Fortunately, and appreciatively, Grossman’s vision is to empower every communication student and young professional in the U.S. with learnings from the book. Through his Great Giveback Giveaway, professors, students, and young professionals can request free copies of Heart First for Emerging Leaders. To date, David has given away more than 15,000 copies of his Heart First books.  

Get your free copy today via this link this link.


Throughout the impressively designed book, you will meet nearly two dozen exceptional Change Makers – leaders at all levels who describe what exceptional leadership looks like.

Some of the key takeaways for me from Heart First For Emerging Leaders are:
  • Heart first does not mean choosing our heart over our heads. It’s about marrying the heart with the head to be an extraordinary leader.
  • Good leaders make you feel good about yourself. They don’t demean or demand. They support and guide. They inspire you to follow them. 
  • Don’t spend too much time thinking about the future and not enough observing all there is to learn in the moment.
  • Build leadership skills through volunteer work.
  • When you feel at home at work, you are seen, heard and what’s important to you is valued.
  • Good leaders keep employees informed. They explain the “why” behind decisions. They communicate frequently enough and in a timely way. And they ask for feedback.
  • While it takes time to have a conversation, it often saves time and confusion in the long run.

Finally, as a special value add to help you lead and communicate even better going forward, Heart First readers have exclusive access to The Grossman Group’s most sought-after and often-used leader tools where you’ll gain online access with a special code found at the end of the book.

___

In addition to Grossman being my go-to person for expert advice on leading and communicating effectively, he is best known for known for his thoughtful, personal, and pragmatic approach, and coaches leaders at all levels to utilize communications as a strategic business tool.

He helps leaders drive productivity and get the results they want through authentic and courageous leadership and communication and is a sought-after speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 leaders.

Grossman is Founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, whose client roster represents a wide range of industries and includes some of the world’s leading companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Amazon, Hillrom (now a part of Baxter), Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, Microsoft, and SC Johnson, among others. He has been featured on “NBC Nightly News,” CBS MoneyWatch, in the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, LA Times, and the World Economic Forum.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How To Harness Employee Experience Design To Attract And Retain The Best Talent

  Employee Experience Design (EXD) is designing with people and not for them. It’s a proven method for engaging and collaborating with your employees to help solve your most difficult workplace challenges.   You’ll learn all about EXD in the new book, Employee Experience Desing: How To Co-Create Work Where People And Organizations Thrive , by Dean E. Carter , Samantha Gadd, and Mark Levy .   “Many organizations are drowning in policies and initiatives. EXD is a way to reduce that burden while delivering better results both for employees and for the bottom line,” explain the authors.   The book includes inspiring stories from brands like Airbnb and Patagonia, among many others, including those in retail, healthcare, hospitality, apparel, and biotech. It describes the power that’s unleashed when organizations design with and not for their employees.   The first part of the book covers The Why of why EXD is so important and addresses legitimate – and tough –...

How To Survive, Reset And Then Thrive

“Uncertainty is here to stay. Rather than seeing it as an obstacle to overcome, integrate it into your strategic approach to invigorate your high-growth potential and outperform competition under any market condition,” explains  Rebecca Homkes , author of the book,  Survive, Reset, Thrive .   “Most books aren’t honest enough about how hard it is to  reset ,” adds Homkes. Yet, resetting and leaning into change is essential. “If you are ready to embrace change as a central element of your growth strategy, this book is for you.” Homkes’ book is a timely, comprehensive, and essential read for business leaders looking to take the next step toward ensuring high growth for their companies. The book brings together more than 15 years of Homkes working directly with high-growth companies of all sizes and across a wide variety of industries.   Survive, Reset, Thrive (SRT) is a practical and innovative  interconnected three-mode approach :   Survive : Stabil...

How To Be A Superboss

Here are ten questions (or bundles of questions) you should ask yourself to ensure you are thinking and acting like a  superboss . These are from  Sydney Finkelstein 's book,  Superbosses . Do you have a specific vision for your work that energizes you, and that you use to energize and inspire your team? How often do people leave your team to accept a bigger offer elsewhere? What's that like when it happens? Do you push your reports to meet only the formal goals set for the team, or are there other goals that employees sometimes also strive to achieve? How do you go about questioning your own assumptions about the business? How do you get your team to do the same about their own assumptions? How do you balance the need to delegate responsibilities to team members with the need to provide hands-on coaching to them? How much time do you usually spend coaching employees? When promoting employees, do you ever put them into challenging jobs where they potentially might fail? I...

How To Build Great Work Relationships

Here is a book I wish was published back when I was early in my career. It’s called,  Bosses, Coworkers, and Building Great Work Relationships . It’s one of four books in the new  Harvard Business Review  ( HBR )  Work Smart Series .  The book includes adapted content from 20 articles that previously appeared on HBR.org.  “We probably spend more hours with our coworkers than with anyone else. So even if they’re not all perfect, it’s worth it to build connections that will provide you with support, help you network and learn, and keep your career moving forward,” shares HBR.  “This book helps readers make so-so work relationships better, keep the bad ones from bringing them down, and help them build lasting connections with incredible people.”  HBR adds that the book includes chapter takeaways and dozens of resources so that you can go beyond the book to engage in the media (video, audio, etc.) you learn from best.  As you read Bosses,  C...

Don't Delay Tough Conversations With Your Employees

If you have an employee who needs to improve his/her performance don't delay the tough conversation with them. If you don't address the issue right now, the employee has little chance to improve, and you'll only get more frustrated. Most employees want to do a good job. Sometimes they  just  don't know they aren't performing up to the required standards. Waiting until the employee's annual performance appraisal to have the tough conversation is unhealthy for you and the employee. So, address the issue now. Sit down with your employee in a private setting. Look them in the eye. First, tell them what they do well. Thank them for that good work. Then, tell them where they need to improve. Be clear. Be precise. Ask them if they understand and ask them if they need any help from you on how to do a better job. Explain to them that your taking the time to have the tough conversation means you care about them. You want them to do better. You believe they can do better. ...

How To Be A Generous Leader

Speaking about his book,   The Generous Leader , author   Joe Davis   says, “This book is about the ways in which you can become a generous leader to be part of something   bigger than yourself .”  He adds that the old model for a leader – a top-down, unilateral, single-focus boss, isn’t effective in today’s workplace. “That old model no longer attracts talent, invites collaboration, or gets the best results from the team. That leader’s time is passed. Today, there is a need for a more human-centered, bighearted, authentic way to lead,” adds Davis.   To help you become a generous leader, Davis introduces you to seven  essential elements that he believes will develop you into a leader for the future .   The seven elements are:   Generous Communication : Be real to build deep connections. Be available to connect with the person, and not just the person in their role to make them feel seen. Generous Listening : Be sincerely curious about another...

Honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day On January 19 By Volunteering

As the nation honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, January 19, volunteer or make the decision to volunteer in your community. King routinely asked “ What are you doing for others ,” and January 19th is the ideal day to ask yourself that question. The federal holiday was first observed in 1994 when Congress designated it as a National Day of Service, inspired by King’s words, “everybody can be great because anybody can serve.” You can turn to  Idealist (.org)*  and similar types of websites to find volunteer opportunities right in your neighborhood or nearby surrounding area. Visit the web site, type in your zip code/city, and you will be presented with a variety of organizations seeking volunteers. And, if you are a leader in the workplace, encourage your team members to volunteer in the community as individuals. Or organize team volunteer afternoons or evenings for your employees. *VolunteerMatch merged with Idealist in January 2025.

Dig Deep For Ideas

The next time you are looking for ideas for how to grow revenue, streamline processes and procedures and/or reduce expenses, dig deep within your organization . Don't ask only your direct reports for their suggestions. Instead, ask everyone at all levels . Some of the best ideas will come from your lower and mid-level employees who are interacting with your vendors, customers and co-workers every day in the very areas that, if improved, could make the most dramatic impact. Be sure to acknowledge receipt of each idea . Keep everyone informed of the types of ideas you've received . Perhaps update them on a monthly basis. When you implement a suggestion, recognize and reward the submitter , including possibly financially. Feel free to accept ideas anonymously. But, if employees know you are sincere about wanting their input, and witness you acting upon suggestions, most of your team members will be proud to tie their names to their ideas. Finally...

Listen Carefully

Being an expert listener is one of the most powerful things you can do as a manager. When you listen carefully to your employees, you'll gain their respect and you'll learn more about what's going on within your organization. Listening involves much more than what you hear. When you listen carefully, you are maintaining eye contact with the person speaking. You are watching for non-verbal clues, body language, gestures and facial expressions. Being an effective listener also means repeating back to the employee what you heard her say to ensure that you understood her correctly. This is a crucial step that many managers forget to do. Being an expert listener is not easy, but it's vital to making a manager successful.

Don't Micromanage

You've surely heard it before, but whatever you do in your manager and leader role, don't micromanage. You are likely micromanaging if you answer "Yes" to the following four questions: Do you fear having your employee's mistakes attributed to you? Do you require subordinates to report on everything? Do you think I could do it better? Do you believe you are indispensable but find yourself stuck in a rut? And remember, Don't be a bottleneck Focus on outcomes, not minutiae You can learn more about how not to micromanage in the booklet Best Life: Tips for 2009.