Why does adversity make some leaders and break others? Dr James Kelley stumbled across the answer – he thought he was going to write a book on corporate wellness, but what emerged from his conversations with over 100 CEOs was a pattern of how effective leaders choosing to redefine a…
Karen Morley knew there’d be no problem writing about the principles of leading like a coach, and she found it relatively easy to structure her ideas and practice into a methodology. But how to bring that alive for a reader? The answer of course was to use stories, and Karen…
A few of my favourite moments from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes, and this time it’s all about grit – which seems to be an inevitable ingredient in the writing of a business book. Ayse Birsel on optimism and finding the best answers in the worst places Elaine Halligan,…
Writing a great book is a good start. But it’s only a start. After that comes the marketing, which is every bit as important as the writing. ‘If you’re not going to be the biggest champion for your book, who is?’ asks Pete Williams. The author of several best-selling books…
Elaine Halligan has an extraordinary story. Her journey to becoming one of the world’s leading parenting experts began with her own son’s difficulties at school and her determination to do whatever it took to allow the amazing potential she saw in him to flourish. But when it came to writing…
‘A 20th-century leader was very analytical, it’s all about the drill-down into detail and numbers. But frankly, that did not serve us very well, and that’s partly what led to everybody being blindsided by populism. So we say, in the 21st century, you can do analytical, but you have to…
‘You’ve got to ask yourself what is more important. Is it selling books, or starting a movement?’ Sam Conniff Allende is in the business of movement-making. A young entrepreneur himself, he’s since inspired a generation of young entrepreneurs and hustlers, and when he decided it was time to write a…
‘Now, I look at work and life and what I know in a different way, it’s almost like I’m attuned to looking for opportunities to bring my thinking together and get it out there by way of a book.’ Michelle Sales never thought of herself as a writer. She didn’t even…
‘The first draft of the manuscript is just ugly. There are pieces, and parts, and this part doesn’t match that part. It looks like a Frankenstein monster. And that’s why I call it Frankendraft. It sets that expectation low, that this will be an ugly, ghoulish creation with parts and…
‘When you’re being creative, all you’re trying to do is see the same things differently, and from that, see if you can drive new ideas, solutions and new value.’ Ayse Birsel, multi-award-winning designer, decided to try an experiment. She tried to catch herself being creative and reverse engineer exactly what…
