Leadership Isn't For Cowards

A no-nonsense guide to driving performance while still maintaining a great place to work Leadership Isn't For Cowards offers straightforward steps to leading courageously and practical tips for driving performance. Courageous leadership means toughening your approach by being rigorous in the application of your values through the company culture. It means confronting and challenging people, and not letting them get away with being less than you know they can be. The path to courageous leadership has six components: Accept Your Current Circumstances, Take Responsibility, Take Action, Acknowledge Progress, Commit to Lifelong Learning, and Kindle Relationships. These manageable steps include: Identify the area in your business or life where a gap exists between your current reality and your desired reality Align yourself with a person or a group of people who can commit to holding you accountable for closing the gap Make a specific commitment to the outcome(s) you want and assign dates to them With courageous leadership, you'll create a culture and a mindset that encourages and demands excellence! Follow these steps to bring out the best in your employees and lead your company to significant success.

Acknowledgments ix Section 1 You are Messing with People’s Lives 1 Chapter 1 Do You Know What You are Doing? 3 Chapter 2 How Much of an Impact are You Really Having? 7 Chapter 3 Are You a Coward? 11 Chapter 4 Is Culture Overrated? 17 Attack 23 Section 2 Accept Your Circumstances 25 Chapter 5 How Great is Denial? 27 Chapter 6 What are You Pretending Not to Know? 33 Chapter 7 Are You Honest? 37 Chapter 8 What is Real? 43 Chapter 9 Where is Your Focus? 47 Section 3 Take Action 51 Chapter 10 Are You Good at Analyzing? 53 Chapter 11 When are You Ready? 59 Chapter 12 How Present are You? 65 Chapter 13 Do You Remember a Time when You Hesitated and Lost? 71 Chapter 14 Are You In, or Aren’t You? 77 Section 4 Take Responsibility 83 Chapter 15 Want to Responsibly Scare Some People? 85 Chapter 16 How Much Blame Can You Take? 91 Chapter 17 What Difference Do You Make? 97 Chapter 18 What Kinds of Responsibility are You Taking? 101 Chapter 19 Are You Truly Free? 107 Section 5 Acknowledge Progress 113 Chapter 20 How Goal-Driven are You? 115 Chapter 21 Are You Too Harsh? 121 Chapter 22 Are You an Over-Recognizer? 127 Chapter 23 What, When, and How? 133 Chapter 24 Are You about Effort or Achievement? 139 Section 6 Commit to New Habits 143 Chapter 25 Just How Much Accountability Can One Person Stand? 145 Chapter 26 Do You Need to Be Committed? 151 Chapter 27 Just How Different are You? 157 Chapter 28 What’s That Weight on Your Back? 163 Section 7 Kindle 169 Chapter 29 Is It Really Just an e-Reader? 171 Chapter 30 How are You Feeling? 175 Chapter 31 Did You Seriously Think That Would Work? 181 Chapter 32 Do You Ever Notice? 187 Chapter 33 Ever Given Birth? 193 Section 8 Now What? 199 Chapter 34 Do You Want To? 201 Chapter 35 Are You Willing? 207 Chapter 36 Can You Please Just Get On with It? 211 Index 215