“What makes your book different?”
I recently received this question from a marketing analytics leader. In the moment, I cobbled together a response that gave me proverbial heartburn shortly after the words dribbled from my lips. But the lingering effects of the question presented an excellent growth opportunity.
I let the question marinate for about a week and came up with three points that distinguish my book from others in the field.
Counter-narratives. Visionary leadership has another side to its story—the counter-narrative. It’s what usually goes on to frustrate a leader after casting a vision. It is what happens in the background of organizational life. Counter-narratives represent a hallmark of my work—they’ve resonated the most with beta readers, focus group participants, and potential readers. I tell the story of what’s happening in the background before the visionary leader takes the stage…and after they leave it.
Here are two popular counter-narratives addressed in my book.
Pitfalls of Vision Adoption. As an innovative idea (albeit larger than life), vision can be accepted or rejected by stakeholders. Founders who come to grips with this fact spare themselves much frustration in the long run. That is what I have observed while working with and inside of over 50 organizations in the last two decades. Rejection of a vision hides in plain sight. It looks like people who stifle progress and sabotage future plans. Why? They feel their leader didn’t give them a voice or a hand in shaping the organization’s future—their future. This book helps leaders to rewind, increase buy-in, prevent a vision from falling into the dreaded adoption pit, and rescue one that has already fallen victim).
Organizational Health Analogies. COVID-19 brought terms associated with immunology to the forefront of human consciousness. Pathogens, like perfectionism, can infect an organization just as diseases can affect the human body. Just because you work remotely doesn’t mean you’re immune to a toxic organizational culture. My book maps organizational antibodies and pathogens that emerge in vision-culture wars.
Spin. The stories of well-known companies like 3M, Starbucks, Google/Alphabet, Facebook/Meta, Blackberry, Blockbuster, Tesla, Apple, Ford, and Toyota are told through the lens of my proprietary model. Each case example is painted in a new way you’ve never seen (even if you’ve attended my workshops and focus groups!). You can import these new insights into your situation to accelerate vision realization and fulfillment.
Comprehensive visionary leadership framework. Can an organization learn to see? If so, how? Seeking answers to those two questions drove my research and writing process. After searching high and low, I decided to assemble a framework that covered the entire life cycle of vision development and realization. The result extends and refreshes the visionary leadership approach for 21st-century organizations and entrepreneurial teams. This book is not about one leader creating and communicating a picture of the future. We have plenty of books on that topic. My book contains a comprehensive and proprietary framework for building a visionary organization. You cannot get this package anywhere else. I should know—because I’ve tried.
The expected release date for Visionary Leadership: A Guidebook for 21st Century Organizations and Entrepreneurial Teams is Oct 29, 2024.
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