A Leadership Kick in the Ass: How to Learn from Rough Landings, Blunders, and Missteps

Summary

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.