Description
Book SynopsisTo survive disruption, organizations need disruptive leaders.
So they hire them. And then they fire them.
It’s the open secret everyone in the leadership industry knows but nobody is addressing: leadership culture is toxic, and leadership systems have failed. Publicly, organizations say they want leaders to be innovative thinkers who challenge the status quo. Privately, conventional leadership culture wants nothing of the sort. Leaders deemed as ‘a bad culture fit’ quickly find themselves marginalized, ostracized, and even exorcised. The qualities that get them hired are the ones that get them fired. Yet, these rebels and nonconformists often embody the very leadership qualities that organizations so desperately need to navigate disruption and adapt to the “new normal” of constant change.
Radically refreshing and practical, this book identifies five leadership qualities (F.I.R.E.D. Leadership™) that are key to tomorrow’s leadership success and offers a step-by-step blueprint to show organizations how to integrate these five crucial qualities into their current leadership identification, recruitment, onboarding, and development processes.
'Exactly what we need to fix our broken leaders.’- Whitney Johnson
‘A necessary read for anyone wanting to lead bravely.’ John Spence
Leadership maverick Paul McCarthy shows organizations how to reframe how they view their troublemakers, agitators, rebels, oddballs and shit-stirrers – to see the hidden leadership qualities driving those behaviors, and why they need them so desperately.
Trade ReviewA wake up call to organizations who are stagnant in their way of thinking - LinkedIn
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Foreword
Part I| Leadership is broken
1| Introduction
Don’t shoot the messenger
Tallying the failure of leadership
Don’t ignore your saviors
F.I.R.E.D. Leadership
Why I wrote this book
Ego-based leadership landmines
Sparks from this chapter
2| The cost of leadership dysfunction
What ‘normal’ looks like
It’s ‘normal’. That doesn’t make it right
Perpetuating the vicious cycle
The price of toxicity
What we’re missing
Sparks from this chapter
3| Today’s failure to develop tomorrow’s leaders
Drowning out the voices you need to hear
A glimpse of the skills your leaders need… and aren’t getting
Things need to change – especially when they don’t work
New organizational structures = new leadership needs
Sparks from this chapter
4| The 13 unlucky steps to leadership identification, recruitment, onboarding, and development
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Introductions
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Informal 1:1s
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Formal interviews
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New hire processes
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Onboarding Orientation
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The honeymoon period
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Prescribed learning pathway
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Formalized 1:1 coaching
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Learning and development checklist
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Performance metrics
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Performance coaching and mentoring
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Annual performance review
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To promote or not to promote
Sparks from this chapter
Part II| F.I.R.E.D. leadership
5| F is for fresh thinking
Fresh thinking in action .
Fresh thinking in absentia
Refusing to listen to the prophets of doom
Seeing Fresh Thinkers for who they really are
Identifiers of fresh thinking
6| I is for inquisitive nature
Suppressing inquisitive natures
Why curiosity is crucial
The hypocrisy of valuing curiosity
Encouraging your inquisitives
Identifiers of being inquisitive
7| R is for real and accountable
The masks we wear
The art of authenticity
The art of accountability and responsibility
Identifiers of being real and accountable
8| E is for expressive and challenging
Seeing your challengers in a different light
Expressive and challenging in the real world
Listening and inviting challenge: The other side of the coin
Identifiers of being expressive and challenging
9| D is for direct and transparent
The games we’re forced to play
The high stakes at the table
Review of Test Data Indicates Conservatism for Tile Penetration
Identifiers of being direct and transparent
Part III| Continue the conversation
Notes
Index
