A Leadership Kick in the Ass
How to Learn from Rough Landings, Blunders, and Missteps
Bill Treasurer offers tips from the trenches on how leaders can recover from failure, rejection, and embarrassment and he manages to make it sound like fun.
Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take
Very few great leaders haven't had at least one good ass-whuppin'. Of course, that's cold comfort at the time. When it happens, it feels like the end. But leadership development expert Bill Treasurer says it can be a new beginning.
Treasurer knows what he's talking about. Not only has he worked with thousands of leaders over a twenty-year career, but a boot to his own nascent-leader posterior is what started him on this path. He realized the kicker was right: he was a terrible leader. So he learned how to be a better one.
If you have the right attitude, that kick can be transformative. Treasurer shows how to step back and treat it as your own very painful teachable moment. He discusses the different ways your ass can get kicked over the course of your career a new leader will make very different mistakes than a veteran and how to learn from each one. Ultimately, the key is to find the midpoint between being self-assured and self-effacing. Both can be virtues, but overdo one or the other and you're either a jerk or a wimp and you're setting yourself up for a bruised keister. To achieve that balance, you need to master the art of what Treasurer calls confident humility.
Steve Jobs, who ended up doing pretty well for himself, 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 you use that kick to move forward instead of fall down. If you succeed, the next place you get kicked might be upstairs.
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