"For newcomers and upper management alike, leadership can be overwhelming and overcomplicated. By building core tenets of leadership around two key words for each chapter, Bill Treasurer simplifies the equation.
Congratulations, new leader! You've joined the ranks during an exceptionally complicated time.
Our current workplace climate is fraught with political divisions, economic disparities, and ever-shifting social dynamics. Leaders are managing remote teams across larger geographic distances and facing new roadblocks to onboarding, giving performance feedback, and nurturing healthy relationships.
Leadership Two Words at a Time speaks directly to the plight of the new leader and is divided into three parts: Leading Yourself, Leading People, and Leading Work. Rather than overintellectualize the practice, Bill Treasurer breaks up the concept into essential and understandable learning nuggets-summed up by two-word headers-that provide the practical guidance and support that leaders often don't get. The result is time-tested wisdom that new leaders can grasp immediately and implement easily-and, with a little practice, master completely. Consider it a personal leadership playbook.
This book gives you the basic building blocks to gain both competence and confidence, take on greater responsibility, and learn what it takes to be and stay a leader."
"'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."
"Bill Treasurer's book starts with an immovable truth: sooner or later, everyone fails at leading, especially when new at it. When it happens, Treasurer calls it 'a leadership kick in the ass.' But fear not, by mastering the skill of 'confident humility' you can move from rejected to respected.
It's a sad fact. You have to be bad at leading others before you can learn to be good at it. Sooner or later, every leader runs into a wall of incompetence, weakness, or hubris that Treasurer calls 'the leadership kick in the ass.' Do you derail from being a leader or learn from scraping your knees?
Treasurer finds that the most difficult problem leaders face is finding the right midpoint between overconfidence and indecisiveness or weakness. Just about all leaders land on the wrong side of this tough balance at some point-and that's when they get their asses kicked. Although most leaders say it can be a very valuable experience, Steve Jobs, who definitely favored one side, famously said, 'Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to me.' This book is a survival guide, coach, and morale booster to help the reader master the art of 'confident humility.' If you succeed, the next place you get kicked might be upstairs."
"Leadership is the most overanalyzed, thoroughly dissected, and utterly confused topic in business. In Leaders Open Doors, author Bill Treasurer helps lighten the leadership load by distilling that leaders are simply creators of opportunity for others. Using personal stories and anecdotes, Treasurer presents the idea of open-door leadership–that is, the responsibility that leaders have for noticing, identifying, and creating opportunities for the benefit of people, organizations, and society. Each chapter includes useful and specific tips that can immediately be put into practice.
Drawing on two decades of consulting experience, Treasurer introduces six unique opportunity doors:
the proving-ground door
the thought-shifting door
the door to a second chance
the doors you open for others
the door to personal transformation
the door to your open heart
Treasurer shows that leadership isn’t a complex and abstract concept. It’s a set of practices and ideals passed from one person to another, across organizations and generations. It is a tradition that makes people’s lives better by opening doors of opportunities for them to thrive, achieve, and lead."
