Next Level Blog

Video Book Club: Onward by Howard Schultz

After an extended hiatus, I’m back today with a new installment of the Video Book Club.  If you’ve ever been to a Starbucks and if you’re a student of leadership, you’ll likely be interested in Onward, the new book by Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz.

In this edition of the Video Book Club, I talk a bit about two leadership qualities of Schultz that really come through in his book and how he used them to drive the remarkable turnaround that Starbucks has had in the past couple of years.

Video Book Club: Difficult Conversations

The Video Book Club is back from a brief hiatus with one of my favorite books,  Difficult Conversations.  It’s full of practical and proven ideas for moving from talking past each other to talking with each other to solve problems. It’s also a book that can help you learn more about yourself and your unconscious tendencies. My copy is full of notes in the margins.

In this video clip, I talk through one of the main ideas in the book.

Video Book Club: The Next Level, 2nd Edition

This week’s installment of the Video Book Club can’t hit any closer to home for me. Today, October 19, is the official publication date of the second edition of my book, The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success. 

With thanks for indulging me for three minutes, in this video clip I want to share with you (and show you) some of the new features in the second edition. It builds on everything that my clients and readers have told me they like about the first edition and, among other things, adds some fresh executive insights, field tested coaching tips and highlights of the specific behaviors that rising leaders need to master.

I think you’ll like the new edition of The Next Level and hope you’ll check it out. It’s available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and wherever books are sold.

Here’s more info on what’s new in the second edition:

Video Book Club: The Leadership Pipeline

In this week’s installment of the Video Book Club, I’m sharing what I like about The Leadership Pipeline. The book has been around for about ten years and it’s become a go to resource for anyone charged with developing senior leaders.

In the video review, I walk through the simple yet resonant model of career path transitions that the authors Charan, Drotter and Noel outline in the book. Ten years later, the model holds up as a very practical and applicable road map and diagnostic for developing leaders.

 

What Presenters Need to Learn from Luke Skywalker and Yoda

This week’s installment of the Video Book Club features a new favorite of mine, Resonate by Nancy Duarte.  The subtitle of the book sums up what it’s about: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences. If you’ve watched some of the speaker videos from the TED conference, you’re familiar with Nancy’s work. She and her company help speakers present stories that engage the audience mentally, visually and emotionally. 

Her book, Resonate, explains her philosophy of presentations and reveals, step by step, how she puts them together. In this video clip, I go into a few of the details that shares in Resonate including her belief that presenters need to view the audience as the hero, let’s say Luke Skywalker, and themselves as the mentor, Yoda for instance. 

Intrigued? Watch the video. Make a lot of presentations? Buy the book. You won’t be sorry.