To celebrate Heretics to Heroes’ upcoming July 6th release, I’m taking a bit of time to blog about why I wrote it. As I pointed out in my “Not Another Leadership Book” post earlier this week, the market is full of books catering to leaders. There are also plenty of coaching books––many of them excellent. But most of those are how-to guides that focus on method and speak exclusively to coaches, not to the coached.
Heretics to Heroes uniquely addresses CEOs, executives, and coaches. Instead of offering checklists that’ll only get one group or the other so far, or pontificating about abstract theories, this book is first and foremost a compelling story. Readers are in the room with me as I face the daunting personal and professional challenges that have shaped my successful coaching approach.
I wrote with a specific type of reader in mind.
Heretics for Heroes is for the senior leaders who are skipping the gym before the sun comes up and are missing family dinners after the sun has set to sit alone in their empty offices, pondering a team’s poor performance and agonizing about the way forward. It’s for the executives who recognize changing markets mean businesses must adapt or die. It’s for the CEO who wonders what an elite coaching engagement can and should be.
Coaches, Heretics to Heroes is also for you. I acquired most of what I have learned about coaching by watching masterful coaches in action. A lot of coaches don’t have that opportunity. In this book, you’ll learn about my proven approach to coaching leaders at the most senior levels by watching it happen. While there are many process-based coaching books, virtually none of them focus specifically on how to coach senior leaders, which is distinctly different than typical coaching and team building.
If you’re ready, you’ll gain the following insight and learn how to use it:
Becoming a leader is a hero journey.
The only leader who needs to change is you.
The modern workplace is social and emotional, and demands a dramatically different approach than most of us have been trained to employ.
By committing to this new framework––I call it All-InTM Leadership––you can achieve results you once thought were impossible and outpace your competition.
To give you a sense of the storytelling style I have referenced so often, here’s an excerpt from the book:
Tim knelt down next to me and patted me on my back. “It’s not your fault,” he said. “You didn’t kill Harry. Don’t put this all on yourself. We all played a role in this.”
I appreciated that Tim was attempting to make me feel better, but deep down I knew that if I had done my job, Harry would probably be alive. I had to face that we’d killed him because he, being a contractor, didn’t matter to us. Harry had not been worthy of my concern simply because of the station he held in life. I knelt on the floor, weeping and thinking to myself, How did I come to be such a person? Is that really who I am? Am I that heartless?
That heartbreaking, eye-opening experience occurred early in my hero journey. I had to go through a lot to get to where I am––and I’ll never pretend that I didn’t. If this resonates with you, Heretics to Heroes is for you.
Heretics to Heroes is NOT for:
- Leaders who want less emotion and fewer social connections in the workplace
- Individuals who prefer to view employees as tools instead of people
- People who crave comfort more than growth
- People who are afraid of offending others
- People who are easily offended
Heretics to Heroes IS for:
- Leaders who want to create extraordinary performance and a legacy that will continue to improve their organization, even after they’re gone
- Individuals who believe in the power of one person to drive sweeping change
- People who are unhappy with the status quo and sense more is possible
- People willing to analyze the way they think and act
- People who value other people
Which group are you in?
You can pre-order Heretics to Heroes today via Amazon. Let’s go All-In.
