These leadership lessons work for leaders at every level when everything goes wrong, from the doctor who saved lives after the 9/11 attacks, in war-torn Ukraine, and on the NFL sidelines.

Dr. Thom Mayer doesn’t just talk about leadership: he lives it in the world’s most high-stakes situations. From commanding the 9/11 Pentagon rescue operation to rushing onto NFL fields during medical emergencies to training doctors in war-torn Ukraine, Mayer has learned that leadership isn’t about titles or positions. It’s about action.

In this practical guide, Mayer reveals eleven provocative principles that flip conventional leadership wisdom: “Leadership is worthless . . . but leading is priceless.” “Power is worthless . . . but influence is priceless.” “Success is worthless . . . but failure is priceless.” Through gripping stories from the Pentagon’s smoking corridors, NFL sidelines, and Ukrainian hospitals, he shows how real leaders emerge not from corner offices but from moments of crisis when someone must step up and act.

Whether readers are managing a team, raising a family, or facing a crossroads, Mayer’s hard-won insights will transform how readers think about influence, teamwork, and making decisions under pressure. This isn’t theoretical leadership. Mayer offers battle-tested wisdom from someone who has led when lives hung in the balance.

Now in paperback with a new discussion guide for leadership development programs.

In a time of increasing disconnection and uncertainty, Leading with Joy shows how leaders can reclaim their purpose and embrace joy in service of social transformation.


Leadership that connects people and centers compassion and trust instead of competition and disconnection is needed more than ever before. There are plenty of manuals that show people how to manage organizations, but what is really needed in this moment is a book that shows us how to include kindness and inspiration within leadership. Leading with Joy promotes a courageous and compassionate approach to leadership that can sustain purposeful action and social change.

This book takes the form of a series of vignettes about the authors' insights and stories, with reflection questions at the end of each one. Through these stories-which address topics such as workplace triumphs and lessons, family relationships, and even near-death experiences- Akaya Windwood and Rajasvini Bhansali illuminate different aspects of leadership, such as humility, forgiveness, and kindness, and invite leaders to respond to the current moment.

The book draws on the authors' lived experiences as leaders, including their encounters with oppression, and their wisdom in principled leadership. They demonstrate how leaders can create conditions of abundance and well-being, which are necessary for long-term social transformation.

With almost 3 million copies sold worldwide, this new edition of an enduring classic is the definitive guide to dramatically improve leadership effectiveness, transform personal and professional relationships, and unleash organizational results.

Significantly revised throughout, this edition includes updated stories, brand new content, and a practical group discussion guide.

Over two decades since first being published, Leadership and Self-Deception continues to help readers discover and overcome the persistent lies that are at the heart of the people-related dysfunction that plagues relationships and hinders organizational results. Told through an engaging story, this book reveals the ways we blind ourselves to our true motivations and unwittingly sabotage our efforts to achieve success and rebuild broken relationships.

Completely rewritten throughout, this fourth edition features important updates:
• A broader cast of characters who resonate with a wide and diverse audience
• Updated stories and examples that help readers immediately apply these timeless concepts to the modern workplace
• An individual study and group discussion guide to facilitate personal and team discoveries
• Practical guides to apply the tools on a personal, team, and organization-wide level

Explore the ideas that have helped millions of people and thousands of organizations sustainably transform relationships and results.

Award-winning guide to transitioning leadership and creating lasting business impact.

Winner of the NYC Big Book Award in Business-Entrepreneurship & Small Business and silver winner of the Nonfiction Book Awards, this acclaimed handbook shows you how to transition leadership, implement shared ownership, and preserve your organization's core values—setting the stage for your business to thrive for generations to come.

This visionary but practical guide offers mission-driven business owners a roadmap for ensuring their company's lasting impact, building leadership internally, and fostering participatory management. Through inspiring real-world stories of B Corps, worker co-ops, ESOPs, and employee ownership trusts, this book demonstrates how to create resilient organizations that benefit workers and communities.

Drawing on his 50-year journey with South Mountain Company and extensive research, Abrams outlines five critical transitions for mission-driven businesses to become what he calls a CommonWealth company:

• From founder to next-generation leadership
• From sole ownership to widely shared
• From hierarchical control to democratic management
• From unprotected mission to preserved purpose
• From business-as-usual to B Corp force for good

From Founder to Future is an essential guide for mission-driven leaders seeking to reshape their businesses for inclusivity, longevity, and positive impact. Whether you're a retiring owner planning your exit, a young entrepreneur building for the future, or an employee working in a purpose-driven business, this book offers a blueprint for creating enduring, values-driven enterprises in the emerging regenerative economy.

As 3,000,000 US small business founders over 55 prepare to retire, $10 trillion in assets will change hands over the next two decades. This timely guide shows how to preserve your company's mission and legacy while empowering the next generation.

Leadership legend and bestselling author Ken Blanchard and trust expert and thought leader Randy Conley present this carefully curated collection of fifty-two essential leadership principles that are easy to implement and practice.

Effective leadership comes down to implementing everyday, commonsense practices to help organizations thrive-and yet so many leaders are still missing these fundamental principles from their personal and professional lives. Renowned business experts Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley disclose the simple truths about leadership they have gathered over their long and distinguished careers to help bring common sense into common practice.

Featuring two sections-servant leadership and building trust-this book is a collection of Blanchard's greatest hits. It is chock-full of profound and memorable (and in some cases counterintuitive) leadership wisdom, such as

• Create autonomy through boundaries.
• People who plan the battle rarely battle the plan.
• A relationship with no trust is like a cell phone with no internet. All you can do is play games.
• The most important part of leadership is what happens when you're not there.

This book will help readers incorporate these integral practices into their leadership style, build trust through servant leadership, and make a difference in their own life and the lives of those they influence.

The billion-dollar employee engagement industry has failed workers. This guide shows the data-driven alternative: measuring and improving employee well-being for lasting results.

For years, companies have trumpeted employee engagement as the lifeblood of success, weaving grand promises of thriving workplaces and soaring performance. Yet, Gallup's data shatters this façade: a mere 30 percent of US workers and 21 percent globally are engaged today, dismal figures essentially unchanged for over a decade. This rather damning reality exposes a commitment not just half-hearted but utterly disingenuous. Perfunctory surveys, dusted off once or twice a year, vanish into the void, sparking no meaningful change, while ineffective or toxic managers sidestep accountability with ease. The fallout is a workforce drowning in disillusionment, tethered to a metric that's broken beyond repair. In The Power of Employee Well-Being, Mark C. Crowley unveils a revolutionary vision, proving well-being ignites fierce commitment, unleashes boundless productivity, and forges workplaces where people and profits thrive.

Why Well-Being Matters
Drawing on a University of Oxford study of 17 million workers, Crowley urges leaders to abandon flawed engagement metrics and champion well-being. Far from a soft idea, it drives results. Gallup, Harvard, and London School of Economics studies show organizations prioritizing well-being gain 27 percent higher profitability, lower turnover, and better customer satisfaction. Yet, with three-quarters of US professionals facing burnout and a 74 percent surge in mental health–related leave (2023–2024), the crisis is urgent. Crowley highlights belonging-feeling valued, respected, and connected-as well-being's core, yet 94 percent of leaders overlook this vital driver.

A Practical Roadmap
Building on his trailblazing book Lead from the Heart, Crowley delivers a concise, actionable guide for busy managers to cultivate well-being and unlock team potential. Through practical strategies, he equips leaders to meet workers' core needs: caring leadership, manageable workloads, emotional support, growth opportunities, and fair treatment. Unlike hollow wellness programs, debunked by Oxford research, Crowley's methods reshape daily team experiences. His insights, forged over decades as a leader and researcher, are anchored by formidable data, including a British Telecom study linking well-being to higher sales and customer satisfaction.

A Leadership Revolution
With a foreword by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, a four-time New York Times bestselling author, The Power of Employee Well-Being is a clarion call to reject superficial fixes and ignite a leadership revolution. Crowley brilliantly distills complex ideas into a vital guide for busy managers. With 52 percent of workers willing to take a 20 percent pay cut for better well-being, stakes are high. This is the essential playbook for leaders to build thriving workplaces where retention soars and teams excel.

Find out how bold actions by visionary leaders can inspire powerful stories that drive culture change.

Data indicates that most strategic efforts to change a company's culture fail. So how do companies succeed in this endeavor?

A top strategy professor and two highly successful CEOs found that, in companies that had successfully changed their culture, leaders had taken dramatic actions that embodied the new cultural values. These actions inspired stories that became company legends, repeated in every department and handed on to new employees.

Through compiling and analyzing 150 stories from business leaders who have achieved change, they identified 6 attributes that every successful culture change story has in common:

1. The actions are authentic
2. They revolve around the CEO
3. They signal a clean break with the past, and a clear path to the future
4. They appeal to employee heads and hearts
5. They're often theatrical or dramatic
6. They're told, and re-told, throughout the organization

With extensive and inspiring examples of stories containing these attributes, the authors illustrate how readers can harness the power of stories within their company in order to change or create a winning culture to align with any strategy.

Leave the power tie at home. The old rules of influence don't work anymore.

It's time to throw out the old rules of influence and become the leader you've always wanted to be.

A new type of leader is emerging-one with a bold mission who empowers others through transparency and unwavering passion. Modern-day executive presence mandates levels of authenticity and honesty never before seen in the C-suite.

Personal branding and reputation management expert, Lida Citroën guides leaders through this new paradigm of executive presence and influence. Through inspiring examples, compelling stories, and practical exercises, Citroën helps leaders tap into their passion, connect authentically with others, and create space for inclusivity and community.

Greta Thunberg is a powerful example of a new paradigm leader. The Swedish teenager ‘s influence arguably exceeds that of most CEOs or political leaders. The youngest person to be named Time's Person of the Year, she radically upended Swedish politics and world climate policy. Nothing about her conforms to the typical expectations of a leader's executive presence-her power comes from her absolute honesty and genuine passion to make the world a better place.

Design and cultivate remote work teams that actually work.

From the experts who brought you The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate comes the proven and practical guide for leaders to consciously design teams, define and create their desired culture, and encourage and nurture employee engagement-all from a distance.

Team design and culture are often presented as separate concepts when they are in fact intertwined in the remote work setting. Using the 3C model of communication, collaboration, and cohesion, leaders will be given the tools to overcome challenges, such as proximity bias and deteriorating social connections, to create an environment where everyone can contribute and add value equally, regardless of location.

The 3Cs are

• Communication-While communication is a fundamental part of being human, it is also a critical foundation of successful work. Without it, teams break down.

• Collaboration-Remote leaders face the misguided belief that physical presence is required to have a collaborative team. The truth is that proximity has nothing to do with successful collaboration.

• Cohesion-This dimension includes decidedly nonstructural aspects, such as relationships, trust, and accountability. While difficult to measure, a team's cohesion is critical to its success.

Using this framework, leaders of all levels will learn to assess, design, and develop their communication channels, methods for remote collaboration, and ability to foster cohesion to build successful long-distance teams. While a hybrid culture will be different, it can, when done right, be better than what existed before.

Burnout rising. Systems cracking. Talent leaving.

The solution: design for human dignity and full-person diversity—with this award-winning guide.

The Canary Code reorganizes work for thriving—starting with those first impacted by faulty systems, like canaries first sensing toxic air in coal mines. Neurodivergent talent (members of ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, and learning-differences communities, and others who think and experience life differently) offer unique skills and exceptional work ethics, yet face employment barriers. Their unique abilities and perspectives are excluded, and their canary warnings about bullying, broken workflows, or ethical drift are ignored.

This practical guide helps CEOs, managers, HR leaders, and changemakers improve work for all. Drawing on science and lived experience, 2025 Thinkers50 Talent Award winner and internationally renowned management expert Ludmila Praslova shows how embracing neurodiversity creates healthier, more innovative systems. A neurodivergent organizational psychologist with over twenty-five years of global practice and research on inclusive organizations, she offers the following:

• A holistic framework of human differences (social, cognitive, emotional, physical)
• An intersectional, whole-person approach to neuroinclusion
• Dignity-based talent practices, from hiring to leadership development
• Global perspectives celebrating diverse neurodivergent voices
• Actionable strategies for change at any organizational level

Blending lived experience, academic rigor, and accessible writing, this groundbreaking work exemplifies neuroinclusion. It clearly indicates academic, applied, and personal content, supporting an individualized reader experience.

Edited by legendary business author Ken Blanchard and featuring contributions by authors like Simon Sinek, Brené Brown, Stephen M. R. Covey, and Marshall Goldsmith, this collection offers expert advice on how to implement an increasingly popular and highly effective approach to leadership.

Servant leadership is the secret behind the success of some of the world's leading organizations. Succinctly put, serving leaders lead by serving their people, not by exalting themselves.
Through the stories and reflections of leading businesspeople, bestselling authors, and spiritual leaders, this collection offers tools for implementing this proven but radical leadership model. The book is organized into three sections:
-What is Servant Leadership? describes different aspects of servant leadership
-Models of Servant Leadership focuses on people who have been identified as classic servant leaders
-Putting Servant Leadership to Work features firsthand accounts of how servant leadership has been implemented in various organizations and the difference it has made in both results and human satisfaction.

Hone your skills and strengthen your practice with this series of twenty-five fresh and provocative questions for reflection that challenge the conventional wisdom in the coaching profession.

Like any established profession, coaching is full of unexamined assumptions. These need to be regularly questioned and tested to keep the profession vital and valuable. Coaches need to engage in the same kind of scrutiny and self-examination that offers such powerful benefits to their clients.

In Positive Provocation, coaching thought leader Robert Biswas-Diener asks a series of twenty-five provocative and sometimes playful questions that take a fresh look at some of coaching's most cherished beliefs. What if coaches had agendas? Why are ethics so boring? What's so great about interrupting? Can we trust eureka moments? What if we used less empathy?

This is not an attack on the coaching profession-Biswas-Diener writes with a light, conversational, and often humorous touch. These are positive provocations, meant to stimulate your curiosity, engage you with the latest research, and invite you to see your practice with new eyes.

Biswas-Diener covers philosophies of coaching, communicating with clients, common coaching concepts, coaching interventions, and a big final provocation: should coaching be informed by science? This book will give you a richer understanding of the coaching process, make you more articulate about your own beliefs, and allow you to feel more engaged with the craft.

For newcomers and upper management alike, leadership can be overwhelming and overcomplicated. By building core tenets of leadership around two key words for each chapter, Bill Treasurer simplifies the equation.


Congratulations, new leader! You've joined the ranks during an exceptionally complicated time.

Our current workplace climate is fraught with political divisions, economic disparities, and ever-shifting social dynamics. Leaders are managing remote teams across larger geographic distances and facing new roadblocks to onboarding, giving performance feedback, and nurturing healthy relationships.

Leadership Two Words at a Time speaks directly to the plight of the new leader and is divided into three parts: Leading Yourself, Leading People, and Leading Work. Rather than overintellectualize the practice, Bill Treasurer breaks up the concept into essential and understandable learning nuggets-summed up by two-word headers-that provide the practical guidance and support that leaders often don't get. The result is time-tested wisdom that new leaders can grasp immediately and implement easily-and, with a little practice, master completely. Consider it a personal leadership playbook.

This book gives you the basic building blocks to gain both competence and confidence, take on greater responsibility, and learn what it takes to be and stay a leader.

Discover a more agile, democratic, and effective model of leadership, from legendary business scholar Edgar Schein and Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein.

Legendary organizational scholar Edgar Schein and former Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein say leadership today requires that people transcend their hierarchical roles and relate to each other as human beings-what they call humble leadership. In such relationships new ideas can flow freely, mistakes can come to light immediately, and course corrections can be made in real time rather than “by committee” or by order of the lone heroic CEO.

This second edition includes three new chapters. Chapter 1 zeros-in on the Schein's actionable definition of leadership-relative to management and administration-focused on leading people toward “new and better.” Chapter 2 introduces the concept of “situational humility”-leaders now need to shift between several types of relationships to deal with the accelerating complexity of a supply-constrained, “quiet-quitting,” and “two-days-in-the-office” world. And Chapter 5 explains how to create a culture of humble leadership.

Illustrated with examples from healthcare, government, the military, tech, and more, this is a compact, accessible guide to a leadership paradigm far better suited to a world that demands fast, nimble response to change, and a workplace hungry for mutual respect and trust.

This compelling and inspiring call to action for leaders at every level helps them find their role and voice in affecting societal and workplace change.


In a world where women and communities of color were disproportionally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it's more important than ever for leaders to truly understand how to support inclusion in the postpandemic workplace.

Drawing on years of work with many leading organizations, Jennifer Brown shows what leaders at any level can do to spark real change and navigate uncharted waters. She guides readers through anti-racism using the Inclusive Leader Continuum, a set of four developmental stages: unaware, aware, active, and advocate. Brown describes the hallmarks of each stage, the behaviors and mindsets that inform it, and what readers can do to keep progressing.

This second edition includes a new introduction and addresses challenges posed by the pandemic-including remote work, flexibility, and mental health. It also gives increased attention to embedding equity, empathy, and anti-racism in the inclusive leader framework.

A self-compassion blueprint for leaders who are closed-off, constantly on the verge of burnout, and/or trapped in the myth of perfectionism.

Through this 6-step framework, leaders will learn that self-compassion is for the strong, to separate their title from their person, and how to care for themselves in order to care for others.

So many leadership and compassion books seek to remind leaders to “behave human” and treat those around them with care. But the truth is that leaders are human. They're not playing at being human or calling forth their humanity on demand. Their struggle in marrying leadership and compassion stems from leaders ignoring self-care-the lack of compassion toward their subordinates is just a symptom.

Human First, Leader Second introduces leaders to the practice of self-compassion through a 6-step framework designed to ease even the most hard-headed and hard-assed leaders into thoughtful, and productive, introspection.

• Backward: Biography, Biology, Backstory
• Forward: Purpose, Values, Priorities
• Inward: Intentions, Feelings, Thoughts
• Outward: Intent, Actions, Behaviors
• Leeward: Self-care and Personal Accountability
• Wayward: Regret and Self-forgiveness

Offering strategies for a personalized exploration of self-compassion-and what works best for the individual-this book will help leaders grow awareness to the importance of self-care while debunking the myth that compassion equals weakness. Regardless of our title or influence, we are all humans first, who need compassion.

PepsiCo's award-winning chief design officer reveals the secret to creating life-changing innovations: putting human needs at the center of any design process.

In every industry, new technologies have lowered the barrier to entry like never before. Either you design exceptional products, brands and experiences, or somebody will beat you to it. And Mauro Porcini - PepsiCo's and 3M's first ever chief design officer - says, the key to real, world-changing innovation is to put people first.
 
Putting people first requires what Porcini calls unicorns: people who are in love with people and who have a genuine fire in them to create meaningful solutions for actual human beings. In this book, he describes them, celebrates them, and details their superpowers so you can find them, hire them, grow them, and retain them. Some have qualities you might expect-the ability to dream and an attention to detail-but when was the last time you heard an executive ask prospective hires if they were kind or humble?
 
Porcini uses his journey across startups and multinational corporations, through successes and failures, to create a handbook for modern innovators. This book is written by a celebrated designer, high-level corporate executive, and a decent human being.

Burnout rising. Systems cracking. Talent leaving.

The solution: design for human dignity and full-person diversity—with this award-winning guide.

The Canary Code reorganizes work for thriving—starting with those first impacted by faulty systems, like canaries first sensing toxic air in coal mines. Neurodivergent talent (members of ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, and learning-differences communities, and others who think and experience life differently) offer unique skills and exceptional work ethics, yet face employment barriers. Their unique abilities and perspectives are excluded, and their canary warnings about bullying, broken workflows, or ethical drift are ignored.

This practical guide helps CEOs, managers, HR leaders, and changemakers improve work for all. Drawing on science and lived experience, 2025 Thinkers50 Talent Award winner and internationally renowned management expert Ludmila Praslova shows how embracing neurodiversity creates healthier, more innovative systems. A neurodivergent organizational psychologist with over twenty-five years of global practice and research on inclusive organizations, she offers the following:

• A holistic framework of human differences (social, cognitive, emotional, physical)
• An intersectional, whole-person approach to neuroinclusion
• Dignity-based talent practices, from hiring to leadership development
• Global perspectives celebrating diverse neurodivergent voices
• Actionable strategies for change at any organizational level

Blending lived experience, academic rigor, and accessible writing, this groundbreaking work exemplifies neuroinclusion. It clearly indicates academic, applied, and personal content, supporting an individualized reader experience.