Leadership

Seven practical habits for people ready to stop observing broken systems and start changing them, whether at the neighborhood level or the global stage.

Adam Kahane, bestselling author of Collaborating with the Enemy and a veteran facilitator who has worked with presidents, executives, and community organizers across dozens of countries, distills decades of real-world experience into a clear, actionable framework for everyday changemakers.

This book is built for people working on problems that feel too big or too entrenched to move, including climate advocates, healthcare reformers, nonprofit leaders, local activists, and organizational managers who want their work to have lasting impact.

Inside, you will find

• the 7 habits that help ordinary people become effective agents of systemic change,
• strategies for collaborating across deep political and organizational divides,
• methods for identifying leverage points that others overlook,
• real examples from peacebuilding and community transformation, and
• guidance for sustaining momentum through setbacks.

Rather than offering inspiration without instruction, Kahane gives readers concrete behaviors they can practice in their existing roles and communities.

If you work within systems that feel resistant to change, this is a grounded, experience-backed guide to making progress anyway.

In a world of chaos, how can generative AI help leaders lead?

Over the next decade, all leaders will be augmented with some form of generative artificial intelligence, or GenAI. For the best leaders, this will mean dramatic improvement. For mediocre leaders, this will mean persistent confusion, distraction, and pretense. With futureback thinking-looking ten years ahead, then planning backward from future to next to now-this third edition of Leaders Make the Future shows how people can improve their leadership skills while expanding their human perspective.

Now 75 percent revised and expanded with resources from the Institute for the Future, this new edition is organized around ten future leadership skills:

• Augmented futureback curiosity
• Augmented clarity
• Augmented dilemma flipping
• Augmented bio-engaging
• Augmented immersive learning
• Augmented depolarizing
• Augmented commons creating
• Augmented smart mob swarming
• Augmented strength with humility
• Human calming

AI-augmented leadership will be key for any organization to tackle the uncertainty of the future. And by incorporating practical methodologies, ethical guidelines, and innovative leadership practices, this book will help leaders develop their clarity and moderate their certainty.

Transform your connections and leadership with five research-backed humor tactics to master authentic workplace comedy, boost team engagement, and lead with laughter.

Discover the secret weapon that transforms relationships, boosts creativity, and enhances leadership: humor. The Laughter Factor reveals how laughter isn't just a source of joy—it's a powerful tool for connection and success. Whether you're a leader, teacher, salesperson, or simply someone seeking stronger relationships, this book equips you with five humor tactics to captivate, connect, and inspire.

With decades of experience as a comedian and keynote speaker, author Adam Christing shares his proven methods to make humor work for anyone, anywhere. These five fundamental humor strategies include:

• Surprise—Use the power of the unexpected to delight and captivate.
• Poke—Master the art of self-deprecating humor and gentle teasing.
• In-Jokes—Foster bonds through shared laughter and unique moments.
• Wordplay—Enhance your wit with clever banter and sharp language.
• Amplify—Turn ordinary stories into extraordinary, memorable moments.

Humor is your ticket to breaking barriers, fostering trust, and standing out in personal and professional settings. From boosting your leadership presence to lightening tense situations, The Laughter Factor is your ultimate guide to wielding humor as a force for good.

Build real trust in the remote workplace by mastering proven strategies for leading employees who work from home, the corner coffee shop, or the downtown office.

The shift to remote work has fundamentally changed how we build and maintain trust in organizations. Drawing on extensive research and experience, trusted leadership expert David Horsager and communication scholar Dr. Peggy Kendall present the seven essential strategies that create strong virtual and hybrid workplace relationships.

Readers will learn to do the following:

• Amplify communication
• Clarify direction
• Build predictability
• Redefine accountability
• Create connections
• Equip their people
• Leverage in-person experiences

Trust at a Distance addresses common remote-work challenges, such as unclear communication, lack of information, and weakened relationships. This guide is perfect for leaders navigating hybrid and remote teams. By the time readers are finished reading, they will be inspired and confident that trust really can be built at a distance!

A practical leadership framework for the era beyond VUCA, built to help organizations build resilience when systems are brittle, anxiety is constant, and complexity defies explanation.

The BANI framework, developed by futurist Jamais Cascio and expanded here with leadership expert Bob Johansen and United Way Worldwide CEO Angela F. Williams, gives leaders a shared language for conditions that traditional strategic tools were never designed to handle. Where VUCA described volatility and uncertainty, BANI goes further, naming the deeper texture of today's disruption.

The book moves in two directions, first diagnosing each BANI condition with real-world examples, then offering a counterpart for each one:

• Brittle systems → build Bendable resilience
• Anxious environments → lead with Attentive empathy
• Nonlinear causality → develop Neuroflexible, improvisational thinking
• Incomprehensible complexity → respond with Interconnected, full-spectrum perspectives

Designed for executives, nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and teams navigating sustained disruption, the book closes with 7 leadership strategies grounded in future scenarios and includes a discussion guide for group use.

If your organization is operating in conditions that no longer respond to standard playbooks, this is a structured starting point.

Most leaders assume they're good communicators. What they're actually doing—most of the time—is telling. And telling, even when well-intentioned, is a subtle power move that shuts people down, withholds critical information, and quietly erodes trust.

Humble Inquiry makes the case for a different approach: asking questions you genuinely don't know the answers to, from a posture of curiosity rather than authority.

What you'll find inside this fully updated third edition:

• The ORJI cycle—why conversations go wrong in a split second, and how to interrupt the pattern
• A levels-of-relationship model to diagnose where your team is—and how to move toward real openness and trust
• Why hierarchy and “tell” culture actively undermine psychological safety—and what to do about it
• A new chapter on humble inquiry in remote and hybrid work (spoiler: it works—and may work better)
• Reader exercises, twelve mini case studies, and a discussion guide for teams

Best for: managers, leaders, coaches, healthcare professionals, and anyone navigating complex, interdependent teams. This is a mindset shift, not a script.

Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier. Based on Edgar H. Schein's fifty years of research at MIT. Over 300,000 copies sold.

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.

North American Book Awards How-to Gold Medalist. Winner of The BookFest Award for Best Nonfiction Book in Business Leadership – Professional Growth. Longlist selection for the 2025 Non-Obvious Book Awards. Recipient of the 2026 Literary Titan Gold Book Award for Nonfiction.

Break free from perfectionism and finish your creative projects. This unconventional guide shows you how to overcome creative blocks and finally complete your work through strategic imperfection.

The world is full of creative people. So why do some get their ideas out in the world while others don't? Why are some incredibly prolific while others struggle with deadlines or can't complete projects? In this book, Jason F. McLennan-a master in “getting stuff done”-shares secrets to boosting productivity, innovation, and personal success. By adopting his “¾ baked” philosophy and the key lessons that surround it, readers will be able to dramatically increase their output while also keeping their creative juices flowing.

McLennan's recipe for creative success includes the following ideas:

• Look forward to failure
• Discover the power of feedback
• Learn to become a “trim tab”
• Harness the power of momentum to drive creativity

We've all heard the phrase “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Perfection is often what holds so many people back. Trying to reach it means that nothing much can get completed, and inspiration itself is often blocked as people either procrastinate or endlessly self-edit. By chasing perfection, it remains elusively further away.

The world is full of half-baked ideas-but almost no perfect ones. With The Magic of Imperfection, readers will learn how to seriously amp up what they do, how fast they do it, and simultaneously how well it gets done.

Transform your leadership. Unlock your team's potential.

In today's rapidly evolving workplace, traditional management is no longer enough. Drawing from three decades of global executive coaching expertise, Damian Goldvarg offers a proven approach to leadership that creates trust, engagement, and measurable results.

This valuable guide breaks down essential coaching competencies, inspired by the International Coaching Federation, into actionable frameworks you can implement immediately. Discover how to accomplish the following:

• Create psychological safety that empowers innovation
• Master the art of active listening and powerful questioning
• Transform conflict into productive collaboration
• Lead virtual teams with confidence and clarity
• Develop strategic thinking that prepares your organization for the future

Through real-world examples from global organizations, Goldvarg provides a roadmap for evolving from manager to coach-leader. Whether you're a seasoned executive or emerging leader, these proven techniques will help you build the collaborative, high-performing teams needed to thrive in our complex business landscape.

Don't just manage. Coach. Lead. Transform.

Nine science-backed leadership capacities, drawn from over fifteen thousand studies, that help any leader model, inspire, and empower others to perform at their best.

Two Thinkers50 Award–winning experts in neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and organizational behavior distill decades of research into a practical, progressive framework built around 9 capacities organized across 3 levels: self-oriented, other-oriented, and system-oriented.

Each capacity is grounded in real stories, science summaries, and hands-on practices and includes guidance on avoiding the pitfalls of overuse.

Inside this book:

• A 9-capacity framework built on over fifteen thousand studies in human performance
• Tools for becoming more conscious, authentic, relational, compassionate, and transformational as a leader
• Practices applicable at every level, from emerging managers to C-suite executives and professional coaches
• Real-world stories that make complex behavioral science immediately actionable

What readers gain: Greater ease in leading, reduced ego-driven friction, stronger team outcomes, and a sense of fulfillment that grows alongside impact.

Ideal for leaders who want research-backed development, not generic advice.

The bestselling guide on empowering introverted leaders to thrive in an extroverted world.

Now updated with 20% new content, including strategies for remote and hybrid workplaces.

In this expanded third edition of the bestselling The Introverted Leader, Jennifer Kahnweiler equips introverted leaders with essential tools for success in an extrovert-centric business world. With over 120,000 copies sold across multiple languages, this timely update addresses the evolving needs of introverted leaders, including in navigating remote and hybrid work environments such as:


• Navigating the challenges of Zoom calls
• Getting noticed when working remotely
• Applying innovative meeting techniques for engaging introverts

Kahnweiler's proven four-step strategy based on lessons from thousands of introverted leaders-Prepare, Presence, Push, and Practice-provides a concrete framework for introverts to leverage their natural strengths and overcome challenges in key areas such as public speaking, project management, and networking. The book includes:


• Practical applications of the 4 Ps approach in six crucial workplace scenarios
• A new chapter on leading effectively in remote and hybrid spaces
• The “Quiet Wrap-Up Journal” An action-oriented study guide for ongoing development
• Customized hiring and coaching strategies for introverts

Drawing from extensive research and over 100 interviews, Kahnweiler demonstrates how introversion can be a leadership asset, particularly in listening and written communication. This essential guide empowers introverted leaders to embrace their authentic selves while advancing their careers and making meaningful contributions to their organizations.

The productivity classic—now updated with powerful new tools.

You know that task you keep avoiding? The one that would actually move the needle—but somehow never gets done?

Legendary success coach Brian Tracy has the answer: Eat your frogs first.

Your “frog” is your most important, most challenging task. Tackle it first thing each morning, and everything else becomes easier. Procrastination loses its grip. Momentum builds.

Tracy's 21 battle-tested principles show you how to wake up knowing exactly what matters, break intimidating projects into action, eliminate what's holding you back, and build unstoppable momentum.

New in the fourth edition:

• New chapter: “Form New Habits, Become a New Person”—lasting productivity isn't willpower; it's rewiring your defaults
• Four accelerator systems for calendar organization, productivity, self-discipline, and task completion
• Discussion and action guide for immediate results

Decision. Discipline. Determination. These three essentials have transformed millions of lives.

Your most important work is waiting. Eat that frog.

An Instant New York Times Bestseller
Winner, 2025 Good Business Book Awards (Business – Management)
Finalist, 2025 IAN Book Awards (Business/Leadership/Management)

What if the most powerful growth strategy in business today isn’t AI or cost-cutting—but your people?

In an era defined by talent shortages, employee disengagement, DEI backlash, and pressure for measurable ROI, this groundbreaking leadership book delivers a bold answer: share power to unlock performance.

Based on research from more than 1,200 companies—including Walmart, Google, and JPMorgan Chase—this data-driven business book reveals how employee empowerment, inclusive leadership, and human capital strategy drive profitability, retention, and long-term growth. For the first time, the research quantifies the financial impact of investing in people.

Jackson offers 9 proven strategies:

• Centering employee voice
• Building mutualistic, high-trust workplaces
• Advancing intersectional inclusion
• Reimagining employee benefits
• Activating frontline leaders
• Hiring STARs (Skilled Through Alternative Routes)
• Developing deep talent benches
• Using human capital reporting as competitive strategy
• Practicing distributed leadership

For CEOs, CHROs, HR leaders, and managers, this practical guide shows how equity and profits rise together—proving that people-first leadership is a competitive advantage.

The workforce crisis is here-and retaining your best employees is no longer optional.

In Targeting Turnover, Dick Finnegan draws on decades of experience and groundbreaking data to reveal a stark truth: the US is running out of workers. As baby boomers retire and birthrates fall, the only sustainable path forward is to keep the good employees you already have.

This book offers a proven, research-backed strategy for doing just that-by building trust between employees and their immediate supervisors.

Forget one-size-fits-all solutions like pay and perks. The top predictor of retention and engagement is whether employees trust their boss. Yet most first-line leaders have never been trained-or held accountable-for building that trust.

Finnegan delivers a call to action: make employee retention an executive-driven priority and equip your leaders to lead differently.

You will learn how to do the following:

• Use stay interviews and practical tools to reduce turnover
• Hold managers accountable for engagement and retention
• Understand the real costs of attrition-and how to reverse them
• Apply forecasting and metrics to drive leadership behavior

At a time when there are fewer workers and more complex employee needs, Targeting Turnover gives leaders the tools to stabilize teams, improve performance, and face the workforce future with confidence.

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.

Winner of the 2025 North American Book Award Bronze Medal for Leadership and Management, selected by Porchlight Book Company as one of the Best Business Books of 2025, and recipient of the 2026 Literary Titan Gold Book Award for Nonfiction. Winner of the 2026 PenCraft Seasonal Book Award Winter Competition for Nonfiction Business/Finance.

“What’s wrong with nice?!” A simple and powerful question. It demands we interrogate the unspoken rules that shape our lives, often without our realizing it.

“It costs nothing to be nice!” What a travesty of logic. Niceness is not free—it comes at a steep price. It’s a velvet glove over an iron fist, stifling dissent, prioritizing comfort over progress, and conditioning us to accept the status quo. Niceness is one of the most insidious social constructs, keeping us compliant, silent, and complicit in inequity. If we don’t question it, we stay exactly where power wants us—agreeable, easy to manage, and stuck.

The Price of Nice is about breaking free. Amira Barger deconstructs our cultural obsession with niceness, exposes its hidden costs, and offers a practical framework for real change. With sharp analysis and personal insight, she helps readers disrupt the narratives that keep them stuck and reclaim their power.

Guided by four dimensions rooted in social psychology—think, feel, do, revisit—this book offers immediate, adaptable practices for creating change. Because breaking free isn’t only what you know—it’s what you do next.

If you're tired of “good enough,” this book will challenge you, change you, and call you to more.

Most books on listening teach you to nod and repeat back what you heard. Radical Listening teaches you something more foundational: how to set a clear intention before the conversation begins, and how to use that intention to build real connection, not just comprehension.

Written by Christian van Nieuwerburgh and Robert Biswas-Diener, two leading positive psychology researchers and coaches, this practical framework organizes six core competencies into two skill sets that work together:

Internal listening skills — the mental habits that shape how you receive:

• Noticing — tuning into what's said, unsaid, and felt
• Quieting — managing inner noise so you can truly be present
• Accepting — suspending judgment to make space for others

External listening skills — the behaviors that signal deep attention:

• Acknowledging — validating the speaker's experience
• Questioning — asking in ways that open thinking, not close it
• Interjecting — knowing when and how to respond without redirecting

A dedicated chapter on listening across cultures makes this especially valuable for managers of diverse teams, and the research grounding throughout—including data on loneliness and its measurable health consequences—gives the framework real weight.

Ideal for coaches, leaders, therapists, and anyone whose work depends on human connection.

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.