The Act of Leadership – A playbook for leading with humility, clarity and purpose

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