“I met last week with your leaders,” Ben began. “I heard what they had to say. And you know, they make a good point.” He paused. Take charge, Ben, he told himself. Take control. He looked around the conference room. Take, take, take. Was that really what he was here to do?
With their acclaimed bestseller The Go-Giver, Bob Burg and John David Mann proved that a heartfelt parable could also express a powerful idea. In The Go-Giver Leader (originally published as It’s Not About You), they offer an equally compelling tale about a struggling small business and the ambitious young executive trying to lead them to a crucial decision.
Allen & Augustine has manufactured high-quality chairs for decades. Its people take pride in their work and feel loyal to their owners and management team. But this revered company is now at a crossroads, hurt by a tough economy, foreign competition, and a cash crunch. The air is filled with the scent of uncertainty, anxiety, perhaps even panic.
Into this setting enters Ben, who’s been assigned by a larger firm to promote a merger that will rescue Allen & Augustine. Ben’s facts are undeniable: the chair maker can either merge and modernize or go bankrupt and vanish. So why can’t he persuade anyone to buy in, from the CEO on down?
Will Ben find a way to sway the employee shareholders before the climactic vote? And can Allen & Augustine survive without losing its soul? The answers may surprise you as you follow Ben on his journey to understanding that the path to genuine influence lies less in taking leadership than in giving it.
This revised and updated edition includes a new introduction, a discussion guide, and a Q&A with the authors.
“We should all seek to practice the message illustrated so elegantly in
The Go-Giver Leader—that great leaders don’t try to act like ‘leaders,’ they strive to be more
human.”
—
Simon Sinek, optimist and author of
Start with Why and
Leaders Eat Last“This book captures the essence of life and leadership. I recommend it!”
—
John C. Maxwell, author of
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership “
The Go-Giver Leader carries an important message for leaders, parents, and all other humans—that leadership, fundamentally, is about other people.”
—
Captain L. David Marquet, U.S. Navy (ret.), author of
Turn the Ship Around! “Genuine leadership is about your team, your customers, your community, and your legacy. Share this book with those you care about.”
—
Seth Godin, author of
Linchpin,
Tribes, and
Purple Cow “Burg and Mann have, once again, masterfully employed common sense and good judgment to show that success happens when you have an egalitarian spirit, practice Golden Rule behavior every day, and empower your people to make decisions from their hearts and souls. I LUV this book.”
—
Colleen Barrett, President Emerita of Southwest Airlines
“Burg and Mann are not just great storytellers, they are also men of heart and soul.
The Go-Giver Leader gets to the heart of lasting business success.”
—
Gary Keller, author of
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results “A manifesto for twenty-first-century leadership packaged in a fun and engaging story. Buy this book and get it in the hands of everyone in your company!”
—
Darren Hardy, publisher of
SUCCESS magazine, author of
The Compound Effect
“A fast read that reinforces leadership fundamentals … truly applicable to any manager, anywhere.”
—
Booklist
“Burg and Mann, authors of the best-seller
The Go-Giver, have written a compelling fable that succeeds as both a thought-provoking learning tool and, rather surprisingly, as a work of fiction with an unexpected plot twist at the end.”
— Soundview
“The Go-Giver books are love manifest in a system.”
— Robert G. Allen, New York Times bestselling author,
Multiple Streams of Income and
The One Minute Millionaire
