Leadership

Take ownership of your work and unleash the power of agency in your organization!

To help give employees the power, influence, and voice necessary to truly excel in their workplace, organizational development experts Miller and Katz reveal the importance of agency and offer practical advice on how to achieve it.

With more knowledge workers entering the workplace, many are being stifled by traditional employee-manager relationships that hamper their ability to fully contribute and feel engaged at work. And in a constantly changing and competitive world of work, organizations must evolve to keep up with worker satisfaction or else face a decrease in performance and loss in talent.

The solution? Enabling your employees to exercise their individual agency in the workplace. Through an actionable roadmap that highlights common pitfalls and practical steps necessary for establishing a culture of greater agency, this book will provide individuals, teams, managers, and leaders with concrete ways to clarify their current level of agency and identifies specific actions they can take to exercise greater agency.

“This inspiring book belongs on the desk of every CEO and politician. With eye-opening case studies and recommended behaviors in every chapter, it's an indispensable user guide for servant leaders.”
-Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The New One Minute Manager and coeditor of
Servant Leadership in Action

On the most fundamental level, leaders must bring divergent groups together and forge consensus on a path forward. But what makes that possible? Leadership educator Marilyn Gist says what is most important is far too often overlooked: humility, which she defines as a deep regard for others' dignity.

Gist offers a model of leader humility derived from three questions people ask of their leaders: Who are you? Where are we going? Do you see me? She explores each of these questions in depth, as well as the six key qualities of leader humility: a balanced ego, integrity, a compelling vision, ethical strategies, generous inclusion, and a developmental focus. Much of this book is based on Gist's interviews with a dozen distinguished leaders of organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, Costco, REI, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, and others. The foreword and a guest chapter are written by Alan Mulally, the legendary leader who brought Ford back from the brink of bankruptcy after the 2008 financial collapse and who Gist sees as an exemplar of leader humility.

Learn how to lead in uncertain times, build resilience, and generate credible hope when chaos threatens-using practical faith-based leadership tools and AI-powered imagination to navigate the future with confidence.

You're facing unprecedented chaos. Faith and hope are collapsing worldwide. The institutions, norms, and alliances that once felt stable are fracturing. As a leader—in business, government, nonprofits, or faith communities—you're struggling to inspire confidence in any future at all. Your people can't work toward futures they can't imagine or trust futures they haven't been invited to shape.

What you need is a new path forward. This book gives you practical tools to generate credible hope when everything feels uncertain:

• The Credible Hope Compass—a practical framework for making leadership decisions when faith has been weaponized and hope feels naive
• Methods to use generative AI to envision alternative futures and expand your team's imagination
• Faith-enhanced leadership practices that move you beyond denial or despair into action

Following two personas navigating leadership in chaos, Johansen, Doyle, and Kirshbaum show you how to treat imagination as a leadership practice and make repair something visible, communal, and real. You'll learn to generate and share calm trust in futures worth striving for—giving your people the credible hope they desperately need.

Stop running toward someone else’s definition of success, and start intentionally shaping your own. This prequel to Aesop’s famous tortoise and hare fable shows exhausted professionals how to shift from chasing external validation to creating internal meaning and alignment.

Stop chasing visibility. Start creating meaning.

In today’s high-pressure workplace, professionals are depleted from constantly proving themselves to others—yet struggling to find genuine satisfaction in their work. What if the breakthrough isn’t working harder within the system but instead reimagining what success means to you?

Stop Chasing, Start Creating reveals the untold story of Tano the tortoise before his famous race with the hare. In this prequel to the beloved Aesop’s fable, we discover that Tano wasn’t always the steady, purposeful creature we know. He once chased visibility, approval, and validation just like the rest of us—until a moment of awakening changed everything.

Through Tano’s journey from external pressure to internal clarity, readers discover the crucial difference between chasing meaning and creating it. Grounded in motivation science, this framework shifts professionals from extrinsic motivation (external rewards, recognition, and belonging) to intrinsic motivation (purpose, contribution, and alignment).

Perfect for burned-out professionals in healthcare, education, nonprofit management, and other purpose-driven fields, this story-first approach offers the metaphor-rich reflection modern workers crave without feeling like another productivity manual.

The rules of business are changing dramatically. The Aspen Institute's Judy Samuelson describes the profound shifts in attitudes and mindsets that are redefining our notions of what constitutes business success.



Decades of teaching and reinforcing shareholder return as the single objective function of a well-run business has resulted in corporations focused entirely on quarterly profits and rewarding short-term-oriented investors. This has been at the expense of employees, long-term vision, and stewardship of natural resources. But we are now starting to see social forces and public expectations giving shape to a new kind of business ethic, as reflected in the Business Roundtable's 2019 Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.
Judy Samuelson, vice president at the Aspen Institute, lays out six new rules that can help a business free itself from the tyranny of shareholder primacy and become an active force for solving the world's problems:
1. Reputation, trust, loyalty, and other intangibles drive real business value
2. Businesses serve many objectives beyond shareholder value
3. Corporate responsibilities extend far outside the business gates
4. Employees are allies, not expenses
5. Culture is king and talent rules
6. Co-create with your competitors to win
These new rules create real value and have the staying power to reverse decades of value-destroying decisions in business.

“Fear and doubt are the two greatest enemies of high performance in the workplace. This powerful book shows you how to instill more and more courage and confidence in every person, releasing personal potential you didn't know you had available.”
-Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!


The hardest part of a manager's job isn't staying organized, meeting deliverable dates, or staying on budget. It's dealing with people who are too comfortable doing things the way they've always been done and too afraid to do things differently-workers who are, as Bill Treasurer puts it, too “comfeartable.” They fail to exert themselves any more than they have to and make their businesses dangerously safe.

Treasurer, a courage-building pioneer, proposes a bold antidote: courage. He lays out a step-by-step process that treats courage as a skill that can be developed and strengthened. Treasurer differentiates what he calls the Three Buckets of Courage: TRY Courage, having the guts to take initiative; TRUST Courage, being willing to follow the lead of others; and TELL Courage, being honest and assertive with coworkers and bosses.

Aristotle said that courage is the first virtue because it makes all other virtues possible. It's as true in business as it is in life. With more courage, workers gain the confidence to take on harder projects, embrace company changes with more enthusiasm, and extend themselves in ways that will benefit their careers and their company.

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.

Bias is real and we all have it, but there is good news: even though bias is part of the human condition, we are not powerless against it. The secret is building authentic, deep relationships across differences.


Everybody's biased. We all harbor unconscious assumptions that get in the way of our good intentions and keep us from working harmoniously and effectively with other people. In our increasingly diverse society this can be a real stumbling block.

Tiffany Jana and Matthew Freeman-consultants who also happen to be a biracial couple-argue that ultimately the only way to really overcome bias is to focus our energy on building relationships. We need to extend our circle of trust to include people who are different from us in many ways – race, religion, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education, socioeconomic class, and ability. These differences can enrich our lives and expand our perspectives.

Overcoming Bias doesn't advocate setting some kind of friend quota, merely that we seek out experiences that challenge our presuppositions and expose us to people, cultures, and ideas outside of our usual comfort zone. But this also requires some work on ourselves. Through vivid stories, soul-searching reflection, and fun (yes, fun!) exercises and activities Jana and Freeman help us become aware of our own biases, stereotypes, and unacknowledged privileges. This book will provide you with everything you need to understand bias, talk about it with increased fluency, and overcome it so you can build stronger relationships.

This guide shows readers how to transform a traditional organization into an evolutionary one with a framework and mindset that offer a new way of leading and approaching change.


The key to surviving organizational change is sorting through the truths, half-truths, and lies-beginning with the ones you tell yourself. That way you don't end up overpromising and underdelivering, and you can weather troubling times in your organization. Truth, including inner truth, is key to surviving organizational change and achieving truly agile leadership.

Using case studies from the most successful companies, Michael and Audree Sahota demonstrate how creative, collaborative, and adaptive thinking can ripple from the leader outward. If you can change your own mindset, you can change your organization. This holistic approach bridges the gap between traditional management and agile ways of working. If you can truly understand the reasons people resist new ways of working, you will no longer meet passive resistance, and an authentic transformation will result.

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.

Ranked #7 on Forbes.com's Top 10 Customer Experience Books of 2024

True inclusion happens when leaders stop relying on HR practitioners to own full responsibility for DEI initiatives. The small, intentional daily leadership practices in this book are the key to creating truly inclusive organizations.

Diversity and inclusion training and books have flooded the market, but the gap between what is promised and what is delivered is beginning to undermine the progress that has been made.

There are millions of people who strive to make a difference in workplace diversity and inclusion. And with this practical, leader-friendly framework, Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders will equip readers with the actionable tools they've been searching for.

Leaders will learn:
● Why they are the key to inclusion
● Insights for the lifelong journey
● Successful practices they can start today
● And more

With the era of big DEI coming to an end, leaders will make big strides through small daily changes in their processes that lead to creating an inclusive workplace culture. With this toolkit of actions, activities, and tactics leaders will become the foundation of diversity and inclusion in their organization.

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.

Top consultant Sarah Beaulieu offers a five-part framework that enables employees to have difficult but necessary conversations about sexual harassment and violence and develop new, better ways of working together.

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, employees and leaders are struggling with how to respond to the pervasiveness of sexual harassment. Most approaches simply emphasize knowing and complying with existing laws. But people need more than lists of dos and don'ts-they need to learn how to navigate this uncertain, emotionally charged terrain. Sarah Beaulieu provides a new skills-based approach to addressing sexual harassment prevention and response in the workplace, including using underdeveloped skills like empathy, situational awareness, boundary setting, and intervention.

Beaulieu outlines a five-part framework for having conversations about sexual harassment: Know the Facts; Feel Uncomfortable; Get Curious, Not Furious; See the Whole Picture; and Embrace Practical Questions. By embracing these conversations, we can break the cycle of avoidance and silence that makes our lives and workplaces feel volatile and unsafe. Grounded in storytelling, humor, and dozens of real-life scenarios, this book introduces the idea of uncomfortable conversation as the core skill required to enable everyone to bring their full talent and contributions to safe and respectful workplaces.

The ever-increasing complexity we face requires a new way to think and work. To effectively lead an organization, bestselling author Mark Miller says, you have to play chess, not checkers. He shows how this mentality enables you to marshal all your available resources, including every employee, to strategically address challenges and opportunities.

In his latest business fable, top leadership author Mark Miller tells the story of newly appointed CEO Blake Brown, who takes over a company distressed by poor performance and low morale. Nothing Blake learned from his previous job seems to help him deal with the bigger, more complex problems he now faces. The game has changed. As his new mentor points out, Blake is playing a simple game of checkers when he should be playing chess.

Miller uses this metaphor to show how leaders can encourage deep, strategic thinking throughout an organization and utilize the unique abilities of each employee (bishops move differently than knights). He explains how to apply the “chess not checkers” mentality in four critical areas: leadership development, employee engagement, organizational alignment, and execution. This is an appealing, accessible guide to helping all leaders think ahead, plan their moves, and avoid getting checkmated by circumstances or competitors.

A step-by-step leadership framework for moving from passive DEI awareness to active advocacy, grounded in nearly two decades of consulting practice and hard-won personal experience.

Leaders often know inequity exists in their organizations but don't know how to act, or worry they'll get it wrong. This expanded second edition gives them a clear, non-judgmental path forward using the acclaimed Inclusive Leader Continuum, a four-stage model that meets readers wherever they are and maps specific actions for moving forward.

What's inside:

• Four stages of inclusive leadership: unaware, aware, active, and advocate, each with hallmarks, real-world stories, and practical strategies
• Tools including the inner circle inventory, the iceberg identity framework, and a free online inclusive leader assessment
• A new chapter on identity, privilege, and what holds leaders back, written as a “call-in” rather than a call-out
• Chapter discussion guides designed for individual reflection and team learning

Who it's for: Leaders at any level, from first-time managers to senior executives, especially those who feel uncertain about where to start or how to show up more effectively.

What you’ll leave with: The language, frameworks, and confidence to stop sitting on the sidelines and start using your influence to build workplaces where everyone can thrive.

In a world of unprecedented disruption, mastering the art of change isn't just an advantage-it's essential for survival.

Drawing from decades of work with global organizations, military commanders, and NASA leaders, Jeff and Staney DeGraff reveal how true transformation emerges not from avoiding contradictions, but from embracing them.

This groundbreaking book, the third installation in their comprehensive innovation series, introduces a revolutionary framework for understanding and leveraging paradox. Through rich storytelling and battle-tested strategies, the DeGraffs unpack seven fundamental contradictions that define transformative growth:

How do we achieve more by doing less? Why does certainty often lead to failure, while embracing uncertainty paves the path to breakthrough? When does resistance become the catalyst for change? The Art of Change demonstrates how these seeming contradictions hold the key to profound transformation-both personally and professionally.

This isn't just another business book-it's a practical philosophy for navigating complexity in dynamic environments. Whether you're leading a Fortune 500 company, steering a non-profit through turbulent times, or seeking personal growth, you'll discover:

• A proven framework for turning obstacles into opportunities
• Practical tools for making better decisions in ambiguous situations
• Strategies for building resilience through embracing paradox
• Methods for driving innovation by challenging conventional wisdom
• Techniques for leading transformational change in any environment

The Art of Change completes a pioneering trilogy that establishes a comprehensive school of thought around innovation and transformation. Building on the foundations laid in their previous works, the DeGraffs provide their most sophisticated and nuanced exploration yet of how to drive meaningful change in complex systems.

Don't just manage change-master it. Learn how to transform paradoxes into breakthroughs and turn uncertainty into your greatest advantage. The Art of Change is your essential guide to navigating the contradictions that define our era and achieving lasting transformation in an increasingly fluid world.

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.