When Fatigue Catches Up: A Hard Truth About Leadership and Life
When Fatigue Catches Up: A Hard Truth About Leadership and Life Fatigue doesn’t show up all at once. It creeps in. A late night here. A missed dinner there. One more weekend of…
Leadership Resources
Nothing of consequence is ever accomplished without some form of leadership. Leaders are the change agents of society. They architect the future by challenging the status quo and striving to make things better. They lean into big problems and seize large opportunities. They create opportunities for others to find meaning through doing good work. I have been fortunate to work closely with hundreds of leaders through the years and this category is inspired by this experience.
Blog Posts
Are You Growing… or Just Staying Busy? The Discipline Behind Intentional Personal Growth
Are You Growing…or Just Staying Busy? The Discipline Behind Intentional Personal Growth After 23 years as a Vistage Chair and a total of 30 years in professional services, seeing more than 1,000 speakers,…
Meetings Aren’t the Problem—Misunderstanding Leadership Is
Meetings Aren’t the Problem—Misunderstanding Leadership Is Why CEOs and Business Owners Need to Rethink Meetings and Their Role I’m always fascinated by leaders who complain about being in too many meetings. At a…
A Leadership Conversation with Jesus of Nazereth
The Setting: The Hills of Galilee – The Night Before The Sermon on the Mount Evening settles over the hills of Galilee. The last light brushes the limestone cliffs of Arbel before fading…
For Leaders, Spring Is a Choice: Planting the Seeds for What Comes Next
For Leaders, Spring Is a Choice: Planting the Seeds for What Comes Next I’ve always loved the changing of the seasons. There’s something grounding about it. A quiet reminder that everything has its…
The Mirror Test: 5 Truths About Leadership Accountability Every Leader Must Face
The Mirror Test: Five Hard Truths About Leadership Accountability Leadership conversations often revolve around strategy, vision, and growth plans. Those things matter. But after years of working with business owners and executives, I’ve…
Leadership Is Always on Stage
Leadership Is Always on Stage Every morning when a leader walks into the workplace, something important happens—whether they realize it or not. People watch. They watch how the leader greets people. They notice…
Management vs Leadership: The Journey from Manager to True Leader
Management vs Leadership: The Journey from Manager to True Leader Part of my work — and frankly, part of my calling — is helping participants in my Vistage Emerging Leader and Advancing Leader…
Presidents’ Day Leadership Lessons: What George Washington and Abraham Lincoln Teach Us About Grit, Resilience, and Courage
Presidents’ Day is more than a long weekend or a retail event. At its core, it is a moment to reflect on leadership at its highest stakes. It is a day to ask…
Growth Regardless of Obstacles
Growth Regardless of Obstacles: How Small Business Leaders Build Sustainable Growth in Any Economy Growing a business is rarely a smooth, predictable process. In fact, most business growth happens during seasons that feel…
Recommended Reading
Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History’s Greatest Speakers
This book is a field manual. Not theory. Not fluff. It shows you how leaders use language to move people—to act, to believe, to follow. And if you lead anything—a company, team, or…
Extreme Ownership
Book introduction Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win is a leadership book that centers on one powerful idea: you are responsible for everything in your world. Jocko Willink and Leif…
Be The Best Part of Their Day
Introduction—Be the Best Part of Their Day Communication matters. Every leader leaves a footprint after every interaction. The only real question is: did you lift people up—or wear them down? In Be the Best…
Language and the Pursuit of Leadership Excellence
Language and the Pursuit of Leadership Excellence How Extraordinary Leaders Build Relationships, Shape Culture and Drive Breakthrough Results(2nd Edition) Leadership Isn’t Just About Action—It’s About the Words That Shape It We’ve all seen…
Bad Leadership
Facing the Hard Truth About Leadership: A Closer Look at Bad Leadership Most leadership books aim to inspire. They showcase heroic figures, bold visionaries, and transformational change agents. But what if we flipped…
The Secret Stock Market by Mark Parrott
If you’re focused solely on today’s income, you’re likely sacrificing tomorrow’s wealth. The Secret Stock Market gives you the clarity, tools, and strategic mindset to shift from business operator to business architect—someone who…
Layered Leadership
Armstrong walks you through the layered approach, showing how great leaders don't just build businesses; they build other leaders. The book breaks down how to intentionally create layers of leadership that align with…
Managing Oneself
Whether you're a young professional mapping out your future, a business owner seeking clarity, or a seasoned executive facing reinvention, the insights within this book can become a personal compass.
A Sense of Urgency
Urgency isn’t running hot; it’s running clear. It’s fewer, better fights—and faster finishes. Build it, protect it, and your business becomes the kind of place where people do their best work and customers…
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
In a world full of slide decks and “big ideas,” the winners are the teams that ship. Bossidy and Charan cut through the noise and show you how to build a culture where…
How To Be A Leader
You don’t need a louder voice or a bigger title to lead well. You need clear motives, steady habits, and the courage to do what’s right when it costs. Start there. Keep going.…
Leading with Questions: How Leaders Discover Powerful Answers by Knowing How and What to Ask
In short, this book is a powerful reminder that leadership isn’t about knowing it all. It’s about being bold enough to ask, humble enough to listen, and wise enough to act on what…
How To Be A Leader: An Ancient Guide To Wise Leadership
How to Be a Leader: An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership Lead with wisdom, not just willpower.What if the clearest playbook for today’s toughest leadership problems was written two millennia ago? How to…
Your Next Five Moves
Markets are noisy, talent is scarce, and attention is fleeting. The teams that win aren’t just fast—they’re deliberate. This book helps you slow the game down: define what you truly want, map the…
The Truth About Leadership
Trends come and go; trust and example-setting don’t. This book distills decades of evidence into practical truths you can act on right now—whether you run a shop floor, a service crew, or a…
Myself and Other More Important Matters – Charles Handy
Growth targets and dashboards can’t answer the bigger questions: What’s the point? What’s enough? What kind of leader do I want to be? Handy doesn’t preach; he shares honest accounts of choices and…
Managing Up and Across
The book shows how to read what your boss actually needs, how to adapt to different styles, and how to collaborate across teams that don’t share your deadlines. You’ll set working agreements, pre-wire…
The Obstacle Is The Way
The Obstacle Is the Way is a manual for tough seasons. See clearly, act wisely, and strengthen your will. You don’t have to enjoy the challenge to benefit from it—you just have to…
Leadership and Self-Deception
Arbinger’s core idea is simple and unsettling: when we betray our own sense of what’s right toward others, we feel the need to justify ourselves. That self-justification is self-deception—what the book calls being…
Getting To “Yes And” – The Art of Business Improv
Getting to Yes, And How improv builds better teams, faster decisions, and real momentum.Inspired by Bob Kulhan’s book Getting to “Yes And”: The Art of Business Improv (Stanford Business Books, 2017). Most teams…
The Breakthrough Company
Most companies don’t stall for lack of effort—they stall because the systems that got them here can’t carry them there. The Breakthrough Company lays out how solid, real-world firms push past the plateau:…
Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric
This isn’t just about General Electric. It’s about any company—big or small—that grows faster than its systems, confuses activity with progress, or lets pride outrun the facts. If you lead people and manage…
How To Be A Great Boss
How to Be a Great Boss Simple, repeatable systems to set clear expectations, coach well, and get results—without drama. Most managers don’t struggle for lack of effort—they struggle because the job isn’t clear.…
BE (Beyond Entrepreneurship) 2.0
If you want your company to outlast your own leadership, start with BE 2.0 by Jim Collins. Use it to realign your team around enduring values, strengthen your culture, and prepare your organization…
Managing The Nonprofit Organization
Even if you run a for-profit, Drucker’s nonprofit playbook sharpens fundamentals: clarify mission, translate it into measurable performance, align resources, and develop people. The nonprofit lens strips away buzzwords and forces focus on…
How To Think More Effectively: A Guide To Greater Productivity, Insight and Creativity
Leaders win or lose on the quality of their thinking. This How to Think More Effectively summary is especially valuable for founders and managers who must set strategy under pressure, navigate ambiguity, and…
American Dialogue: The Founders and Us
American Dialogue What It’s Really About This is not just a history book. It’s a warning. Joseph Ellis takes you back to the early years of the United States and shows you something…
Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business
At the center of Traction is the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a practical framework designed to help leadership teams align around what matters most and execute on it relentlessly. Wickman’s premise is straightforward:…
Coaching for Performance, Fifth Edition (25th Anniversary Updated Edition): The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership
Coaching for Performance by Sir John Whitmore is a timeless and transformational guide to leadership excellence. Its emphasis on awareness, responsibility, and human potential makes it as relevant today as it was when…
Winning
In Winning, Jack Welch shares hard-earned lessons about competition, strategy, people management, and organizational culture. Rather than offering abstract frameworks, he answers the questions leaders actually face every day—how to win in the…
Jack: Straight From the Gut
Introduction Straight from the Gut is Jack Welch’s candid and deeply personal account of his journey from a young engineer to one of the most successful CEOs in business history. In this autobiography,…
Conversational Capacity
Conversational Capacity There’s a reason this book keeps showing up in serious leadership circles. It addresses a problem most leaders feel but can’t quite name. Conversations break down. Not because people lack intelligence—but…
Never Split The Difference
Most people negotiate as if the goal is compromise. Meet in the middle. Be reasonable. Split the difference. Voss says that this is often lazy thinking. Sometimes, landing in the middle can be…
Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Organizations Do Differently
Don Yaeger’s Great Teams looks at high-performing teams across sports, business, and organizations—and pulls out something useful: Great teams are built on habits, not talent alone.
The Leader’s Bookshelf
The Leader’s Bookshelf – James Stavridis & R. Manning Ancell Why this book matters Most leaders read. Very few read with intention. This book makes a strong case: what you read shapes how…
Leadership: Essential Writings By Our Greatest Thinkers
For leaders who want more than surface-level guidance, this anthology provokes reflection: What does it mean to lead in the face of tension, complexity, and contradiction? How do values shape action in uncertainty?…
Trillion Dollar Coach
For founders, executives, and senior leaders, Trillion Dollar Coach reframes leadership as a daily practice of presence: showing up, asking hard questions, holding people accountable, and supporting them as humans, not resources. It’s…
The Infinite Game
Business isn’t finite. It’s infinite. There is no finish line. No final victory. No permanent winner. There is only staying in the game.
Leaders Eat Last
Leaders Eat Last — Simon Sinek Why this book matters Most people think leadership is about authority, strategy, or results. Sinek makes a different claim: leadership is about responsibility. Specifically, the responsibility to…
Start With Why
Start With Why – Simon Sinek Why this book matters Most leaders know what they do. Many know how they do it. Very few know why they do it. Simon Sinek argues that…
Time Really is Money
lee’s core argument is simple: time is the medium through which value gets created, and most people waste too much of it on low-value work. The book’s stated goal is to help owners…
The Great Game of Business
Most companies say they want engaged employees. Very few are willing to run the business in a way that actually creates engagement.
Coaching Questions: A Coach’s Guide To Powerful Asking Skills
Coaching Questions – Tony Stoltzfus Why this book matters Most leaders underestimate the power of a good question. They think progress comes from answers. It doesn’t. It comes from clarity. And clarity is…
Skin In The Game
Taleb’s central point is clear: People should have something to lose. Not abstractly. Directly. When someone makes decisions that affect others—but carries no real risk themselves—you get bad outcomes. Poor advice. Weak systems.…
Founding Fathers on Leadership
The Founding Fathers were not aligned by default. Different backgrounds. Different interests. Different visions for the country. And yet, they had to build something together. That’s leadership.
How To Lead
How to Lead David Rubenstein didn’t set out to write a leadership theory book. He did something more useful. He sat down with people who have actually led—presidents, founders, generals, and operators—and asked…
Effective Succession Planning
Most companies treat succession like a contingency file—“Who steps in if John leaves?” That’s reactive thinking. Rothwell pushes something stronger: build a talent pipeline that is always developing people for future roles. Not…
Reflections On Life and Leading
Reflections on Life and Leading This book reads like a distillation of years spent in rooms where decisions mattered—where leaders had to look at themselves honestly and then go do something about it.…
On Leadership and Business
On Leadership and Business doesn’t chase theory. It doesn’t try to impress. It goes straight at the real work—what leaders do, what they avoid, and what it costs them over time. This is…
Leadership In War
Andrew Roberts studies nine leaders—Churchill, Napoleon, Lincoln, Hitler, Stalin, among others—and asks a simple question: what actually separates those who lead well in crisis from those who fail? The answers are uncomfortable. They…
Martin Luther King, Jr. on Leadership
King did not lead in comfortable conditions. He led when it was dangerous. Criticism. Threats. Opposition—constant. And still, he moved forward. That’s courage.
Lincoln on Leadership
I’ve worked with leaders who want better results but avoid the hard choices that produce them. Lincoln didn’t have that luxury. He made decisions knowing they would be criticized, misunderstood, and resisted. And…
Nightly Business Report Presents Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn From The Top 25 Business People Of Our Times
Nightly Business Report Presents Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn From the Top 25 Business People of Our Times Most leadership books try to give you a formula. This one does something better.…
Inspirational Leadership: Timeless Lessons for Leaders from Shakespeare’s Henry V
At its core, this book argues that inspirational leadership is not theater. It is character under pressure. Purpose made visible. Words backed by action. Self-mastery: strong enough to steady others. A leader who…
Abe’s Final Masterpiece
Abe’s Final Masterpiece: A Symphony of Lessons for Business and Life This is a book about mentorship. Real mentorship. Not theory. Not frameworks. Not abstract leadership ideas. Conversations. Stories. Corrections. Perspective. Mark Luterman…
Make The Noise Go Away
You don’t need to carry the business alone. With the right second-in-command and a clear operating agreement, the noise goes down, execution goes up, and you get back to leading the business you…
Fatal Illusions
Every leader, every operator, every person trying to build something meaningful runs into the same problem: we don’t just deal with reality. We interpret it. And over time, those interpretations harden into beliefs.…
Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Make
Most leaders don’t fail because they lack effort. They fail because they keep using the same thinking that got them to where they are. John Maxwell makes a simple but uncomfortable point: what…
Setting The Table
Service is what you do. Hospitality is how people feel when you do it. You can deliver the food on time, answer the phone correctly, and solve the problem efficiently. That is service.…
The Head Game
Head Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems This is a different kind of book. It doesn’t try to inspire you with stories. It trains you to think…
You’re Not Listening
Most people think listening means sitting quietly while someone else talks. It isn’t. Listening is active work. It requires attention, curiosity, restraint, and—this is the hard part—humility. You have to accept that the…
The Five Dysfunctions of A Team
Patrick Lencioni doesn’t hide behind theory. He shows you what actually breaks teams—and more importantly, what leaders allow to break them. This is not about strategy. It’s about behavior. And behavior is where…
The One Thing
Please click on this link for The One Thing Book Summary. What’s your ONE thing? People are using this simple, powerful concept to focus on what matters most in their personal and work…
The Strategy Focused Organization
Kaplan and Norton argue that strategy must become a management system—something that shows up in how you plan, measure, communicate, and lead every day. When it does, execution stops being reactive. It becomes…
Peak Performance: Aligning The Hearts and Minds Of Your Employees
Drawing on an in-depth study of carefully selected enterprises, Jon Katzenbach found distinct patterns in how companies engage their employees to capitalize on emotional energy and consistently achieve higher levels of performance than…
Leading Change
Leading Change – John Kotter John Kotter didn’t write this book to sound smart. He wrote it because most change efforts fail—and he got tired of watching leaders repeat the same mistakes. If…
John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do
Management brings order—planning, budgeting, organising, and controlling. It keeps the machine running. Leadership sets direction, aligns people, and motivates them to move somewhere new. It changes the machine.
The Leadership Challenge
There are leadership books that inform you, and there are those that quietly raise the standard you hold yourself to. The Leadership Challenge sits firmly in the second category. It doesn’t offer tricks…
Learning Leadership
Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have spent decades studying leaders across industries. Their conclusion is simple and grounded: Leadership is not a gift. It’s a set of behaviors. That changes the conversation. It…
The Five Temptations of a CEO
The Five Temptations of a CEO This is a short book. You can read it in a sitting. But if you sit with it, really sit with it, you’ll realize it’s not…
The Four Obsessions of An Extraordinary Executive
The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive This is a short book that doesn’t try to impress you with theory. It tries to correct behavior. And it does it by forcing a simple…
Death By Meeting
Patrick Lencioni makes a simple but uncomfortable claim: meetings aren’t boring by accident—they’re boring by design. And worse, that boredom is costing you clarity, alignment, and results. This book is a sharp correction.…
Silos, Politics and Turf Wars
At the center of the story is a struggling company brought back by a leader who does one thing well: he forces his executive team to act like a team. Not a collection…
American Icon: Alan Mulally and The Fight to Save Ford Motor Company
American Icon by Bryce G. Hoffman tells the story of Ford Motor Company in the years leading up to and through the 2008 financial crisis—and the leadership of Alan Mulally, the outsider CEO…
What The Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
What The Dog Saw This is a different kind of book. It’s not a single argument. It’s a collection of stories—profiles, investigations, and essays—that all circle one idea: the world is not what…
Reading Excerpts
Layered Leadership by Lawrence R. Armstrong
Layered Leadership by Lawrence R. Armstrong Book Excerpts INTRODUCTION Leadership, whether of a startup; Small, mid-sized, or large firm; team; church; or any organization, must work as a whole across the continuum…
Principles By Ray Dalio
There is nothing more important than understanding how reality works and how to deal with it. The state of mind you bring to the process makes all the difference. I have found it…
The Truth About Leadership by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
Myth and legend treat leadership as if it were the private reserve of a very few charismatic men and women. Nothing is further from the truth. Leadership is much more broadly distributed in…
Myself and Other More Important Matters by Charles Handy
Managing a business, or any organization, I came to see, was more practical art than applied science. Yes, there were some useful disciplines, as in any art form, but what worked best could…
Reflections On Life and Leading Book Excerpts – Part 2
Very few of us have a life curve that is only upward-sloping. The difference is that “lucky” people just do not let their periods of adversity define them in unhelpful ways. They just…
Reflections on Life and Leading Book Excerpts – Part 1
You do not have to settle for a life of quiet desperation and hope that one day things will change. The future is now, and the sooner you start living the life you…
On Leadership and Business Book Excerpts Sections 3-5 by Ed Robinson
I believe that business and nonprofit leaders need to think differently about what constitutes success. Besides the quality of their people, what differentiates most high-performing companies is their vision, focus, and discipline. Culturally,…
On Leadership and Business Book Excerpts Sections 1-2 by Ed Robinson
The leadership journey requires you to cogitate constantly on the role you and others should be playing. As you achieve some level of success, your business may challenge your capabilities to lead it.…
How To Lead by David M. Rubenstein
Surrounding yourself with great people. Learning to delegate early on - not trying to do everything yourself. Making sure you've got the kind of people who are praising the team around them, not…
Leadership: Essential Writings By Our Greatest Thinkers edited by Elizabeth D. Samet
Please click on this link for the Leadership – Essential Writings By Our Greatest Thinkers Book Summary STUDYING THE SYSTEM “Our little systems have their day.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson In Organizational…
Leadership In War By Andrew Roberts
Please click on this link for the Leadership in War Book Summary Chapter 1: Napoleon Bonaparte “Napoleon recognized that the best way to inspire his people was through two means: imbuing people…
The One Thing by Gary Keller
Chapter 1: The ONE Thing “What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” “Where I’d had huge success, I had…
How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins
Five Stages of Decline: Hubris Born of Success Undisciplined Pursuit of More Denial of Risk and Peril Grasping for Salvation Capitulation to Irreverence or Death “The concept of hubris is defined as…
Learning Leadership by Kouzes and Posner
Introduction: “The shortage of (exemplary) leaders is a result of three primary factors: demographic shifts, insufficient training and experiences, and the prevailing mindsets that discourage people from learning to lead.” “Exemplary leaders strive…
Time Really is Money By Rob Slee
Please click on this link for the Time Really is Money Book Summary Chapter 1 – Introduction: “…most business owners spend almost all of their time on less than $50 per hour…
Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg
Introduction “Productivity isn’t about working more or sweating harder.” “…productivity is about making certain choices in certain ways. The way we choose to see ourselves and frame daily decisions; the stories we tell…
How to Be a Leader by Martin Bjergegaard & Cosmina Popa
Please click on this link for the How to Be a Leader Book Summary Introduction: Bystanders vs. Leaders “Bystander apathy… Simply put, the more people who can help, the fewer actually…
On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
Introduction to the Revised Edition, 2003 “Bad economic times allow second-rate leaders to exercise power recklessly and with impunity. Good times will come again, and when they do, the leaders who survive and…
Trillion Dollar Coach by Bill Campbell by E. Schmidt, J. Rosenberg, and A. Eagle
Please click on this link for The Trillion Dollar Coach Book Summary Chapter 1: The Caddie and the CEO The Trillion Dollar Coach “In our previous book, How Google Works, we argue…
Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips
Introduction Lincoln stood for all that was right, honest, and self-evident. The foundation of Abraham Lincoln‘s leadership style was an unshakable commitment to the rights of the individual. The genius of leadership lies…
Beneath the Armor by Ole Carlson
Please click on this link for the Beneath the Armor Book Summary Introduction: “There are new frontiers for you to explore, markets to penetrate and a business that deserves your absolute utmost…
The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
Skill 1: Build Safety Chapter 1 “Safety is not mere emotional weather but rather the foundation on which a strong culture is built.” P. 6 “When you ask people inside highly successful groups…
Reading Summaries
Be The Best Part of Their Day
Introduction: Why communication matters on the shop floor (and in the boardroom) Most teams don’t stall out because of skill gaps; they stall because people feel unseen, uncertain, or uninspired. When communication frays,…
Layered Leadership
Central Thesis Leadership is layered, not linear. Enduring organizations align several layers—self‑leadership, team development, clear strategy, disciplined execution, market focus, innovation, culture, and succession—so each layer reinforces the others. The leader’s ongoing task…
Peak Performance: Aligning The Hearts and Minds of Your Employees
Introduction In the pursuit of organizational excellence, aligning the hearts and minds of employees is crucial. Jon R. Katzenbach’s “Peak Performance: Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees” provides a comprehensive guide…
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