The culmination of six years of research and development,The Work of Leaders presents a simple structure that neatly captures the complexity of contemporary leadership. The goal of this book is to make this wealth of leadership insight accessible to anyone who wants better results as a leader.

The work that leaders dothe work that really mattersis boiled down to three areas: crafting a vision, building alignment, and championing execution. Vision, Alignment, and Execution are magic words. They strike a chord that turns the goal of leadership into tangible steps.

With passion and insight, the authors draw from the best-known leadership authorities, while leveraging their unparalleled access to data from thousands of leaders and followers and their connections to hundreds of organizational development consultants. Interwoven with humor and drawing from real-world scenarios,The Work of Leaders distills leadership best practices into a simple, compelling process that helps leaders at all levels get immediate results.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Julie Straw oversees Inscapes network of more than 1,800 trainers, coaches, and consultants and has guided development of this book from the readers perspective.

Mark Scullard, PhD, leads all aspects of research for Inscape and personally combed through all of the datahundreds of thousands of item responsesthat made this book possible.

Susie Kukkonen leads all product development efforts at Inscape and juggled the writing of this book with a full-tilt product development schedule.

Barry Davis oversees both marketing and product development for Inscape, and his passion for innovation means that he doesnt understand the phrase, But thats how weve always done it.

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword byDr. Bernard W. Franklinxiii

Introduction xvii

1 Welcome to the Work of Leaders 1

Vision 11

2 Introduction to Crafting a Vision 13

3 Crafting a Vision Through Exploration 23

4 Crafting a Vision Through Boldness 33

5 Crafting a Vision Through Testing Assumptions 43

6 Summary of Crafting a Vision 53

Alignment 59

7 Introduction to Building Alignment 61

8 Building Alignment Through Clarity 69

9 Building Alignment Through Dialogue 79

10 Building Alignment Through Inspiration 89

11 Summary of Building Alignment 99

Execution 105

12 Introduction to Championing Execution 107

13 Championing Execution Through Momentum 113

14 Championing Execution Through Structure 125

15 Championing Execution Through Feedback 135

16 Summary of Championing Execution 147

Afterword: Using VAE in Your Organization 153

Appendix A: The Development of the Work of Leaders VAE Model 161

Appendix B: Feedback Outtakes 189

References 193

Resources 197

About Inscape Publishing 201

About the Authors 203

Index 207