America’s most sought-after executive coach shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladder…

The corporate world is filled with executives, men and women who have worked hard for years to reach the upper levels of management. They’re intelligent, skilled, and even charismatic. But only a handful of them will ever reach the pinnacle — and as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shows in this book, subtle nuances make all the difference. These are small “transactional flaws” performed by one person against another (as simple as not saying thank you enough), which lead to negative perceptions that can hold any executive back. Using Goldsmith’s straightforward, jargon-free advice, it’s amazingly easy behavior to change.

Executives who hire Goldsmith for one-on-one coaching pay $250,000 for the privilege. With this book, his help is available for 1/10,000th of the price.

 

 Marshall Goldsmith Interview [23:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Sooner or later, we are all called to lead in some capacity. Leadership skills are vital in corporate settings, small businesses, church or community organizations, and even within the home. Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward have recognized this need and have jointly created an in-depth, step-by-step guide for developing leadership skills.

Utilizing an abundance of historical examples, the authors have developed a unique 5-step plan that charts a course for creating and maintaining strong leadership in any organization. The plan guides the reader through the “Five Levels of Influence”:

• Learning: a leader must be able to learn from anyone
• Performing: perservere through failure to find success
• Leading: extend your ability by expanding your team
• Developing Leaders: learn to trust your people
• Develop Leaders who Develop Leaders: create a legacy

This book is full of prescriptive advice, quotes and anecdotes that illustrate their principles.

 

 Chris Brady Interview [19:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The vast majority of small businesses stay small—and not by choice. Only the most savvy and persistent—a tiny one tenth of one percent—break through to annual sales above $250 million. In The Breakthrough Company, Keith McFarland pinpoints how everyday companies become extraordinary, showing that luck is a negligible factor. Rather, breakthrough success turns out to be associated with a clearly identifiable set of strategies and skills that anyone in any business can emulate—from small startup to industry leader.

Encouraged by experts such as business legend Peter Drucker and Good to Great author Jim Collins to identify the drivers that enable a company to push past the entrepreneurial phase, McFarland spent five years building and analyzing the world’s largest growth-company performance database and interviewing more than 1,500 growth-company executives on four continents. His goal was simple: to identify the secrets of breakthrough.

The Breakthrough Company is the result. Winnowing a study pool of more than 7,000 companies down to nine that have made the transition to major-player status, McFarland highlights real-world tools and myth-busting insights that can be used by anyone wanting his or her business to join this exclusive circle. Among the book’s takeaways:

• Common wisdom holds that the founders and core entrepreneurial leaders of a company must step aside for the business to reach the next level. Not true—as long as founders “crown the company” instead of themselves.

• It’s not reckless to make ever-escalating bets on your company’s future, even going nose to nose with competitors many times your size. In fact, it turns out that the only safety comes in constantly upping the ante in exactly this way.

• A Business Bermuda Triangle does exist, gobbling up companies on the verge of breakthrough. Presented are three ways to navigate this potentially deadly hazard successfully.

• However good you are—or think you are—you can’t do it alone. Learn how to surround your company with networks of outside resources, aka “scaffolding,” and how to enlist the aid of “insultants”—people who are willing to question a firm’s existing assumptions and ways of doing business.

With powerful and specific action steps concluding each chapter—and invaluable advice on virtually every page from business leaders who’ve taken their companies to extraordinary levels of growth and profitability—The Breakthrough Company is one of the most provocative, inspiring, and instructive business books you’ll ever read.

 

 Keith McFarland Interview [23:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Dan Coughlin distills over 3,000 hours of on-site executive coaching in over 20 industries into 20 management lessons to catapult your career and sustainable, profitable growth for your business. Research for Accelerate included 1,500 executive coaching sessions at clients including Toyota, McDonald’s, Marriott, St. Louis Cardinals, and Coca-Cola over a ten-year period.

 

 Dan Coughlin Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download