The Act of Leadership: A Playbook for Leading with Humility, Clarity and Purpose (Paperback)

About the author ix

Introduction xi

Part I: The ‘you’ stuff 1

1 Is this book for you?: what kind of leader do you want to be? 3

2 Be mindful, not mindless: the importance of being in the moment 25

3 Assume nothing: the biases that stop you from seeing what’s really there 43

4 How to turn it around: why you don’t learn from your mistakes 61

Part II: The ‘you and them’ stuff 83

5 Mum was wrong: it really does matter what others think of you 85

6 Make it safe to stuff up: high performance is not about being perfect 103

7 Less carrot, less stick: find out what makes people tick 121

8 Be better at change: stop trying to get people on the bus 141

9 Less is more: create space so your team can step up 165

Part III: The tactical stuff 183

10 Stop wasting people’s time: running meetings that matter 185

11 No more sh!t sandwiches: have better 1:1s with your team 203

12 Have less difficult conversations: start having adult ones instead 223

Conclusion: Roger Federer still feels the need for a coach, and you don’t? Seriously? 241

Acknowledgements 257

Index 259