Unusually Excellent - Hardcover

by John Hamm (Author)

Master the fundamentals of leadership-at every stage in your career

Often, when leaders experience trouble, they look to blame an outside source or expect a small tweak to right their ship. But many times they've actually lost their grip on the very basic foundation of leadership. The business environment may change, but no management trend can displace the core laws, proven over centuries, of excellent leadership. Unusually Excellent is an essential resource for leaders that brings these fundamentals together in a new and comprehensive way. This book will help leaders at any level keep their focus on the bedrock principles that will make them extraordinary..

• Thoroughly practical, day-to-day primer for achieving and maintaining their highest level of leadership, for today and for a lifetime
• The author's Harvard Business Review articles are among the most highly read in the magazine's history
• Written for all leaders who need to develop and renew their leadership skills

Using a sports analogy, the author breaks the work of leaders into three parts: pregame: a matter of character; game day: a matter of competence; and postgame: a matter of consequence.

Front Jacket

To lead well, as this book makes deeply and powerfully clear, is first and foremost to know yourself, and second to put yourself in service to whatever you value most deeply. If you adopt that posture, whatever follows can be incorporated into making yourself into a better leader. And it is the purpose of this book to help you do so.
--From the Foreword by Geoffrey Moore, managing director, TCG Advisors; author, Crossing the Chasm

Often, when leaders experience trouble, they look to blame an outside source or expect a small tweak to right their ship. But many times they have actually lost their grip on the basic foundation of their own leadership.

Unusually Excellent offers both seasoned and aspiring leaders a framework for understanding and a guide for applying the fundamentals of leadership at every stage in their careers. The business environment may change, but no management trend can displace the core laws, proven over centuries, of excellent leadership.

Leadership expert Hamm explains why leadership can't be mastered as a single concept or tool that can be pulled out of a hat when needed. Excellent leadership is composed of actions, ideas, emotions, cultural forces, history, and expectations that work together in an interconnected system. This system forms the core of the winning combination of superb Character, skill-based Competence, and professional Reputation. Hamm demonstrates that any leader can excel by consistently putting into action the Necessary Nine skills: being authentic, trustworthy, and compelling; leading people, strategy, and execution; communicating, making decisions, and making an impact.

Filled with vivid true stories, Unusually Excellent offers powerful, unforgettable leadership lessons, reinforced empirical evidence, and logical analysis. It will be your personal coach that will prepare you for the lifelong and ongoing journey towards exceptional leadership.

Back Jacket

"To lead well, as this book makes deeply and powerfully clear, is first and foremost to know yourself, and second to put yourself in service to whatever you value most deeply. If you adopt that posture, whatever follows can be incorporated into making yourself into a better leader. And it is the purpose of this book to help you do so." --From the Foreword by Geoffrey Moore, managing director, TCG Advisors; author, Crossing the Chasm

OFTEN, WHEN LEADERS EXPERIENCE trouble, they look to blame an outside source or expect a small tweak to right their ship.

But many times they have actually lost their grip on the basic foundation of their own leadership.

Unusually Excellent offers both seasoned and aspiring leaders a framework for understanding and a guide for applying the fundamentals of leadership at every stage in their careers. The business environment may change, but no management trend can displace the core laws, proven over centuries, of excellent leadership.

Leadership expert Hamm explains why leadership can't be mastered as a single concept or tool that can be pulled out of a hat when needed. Excellent leadership is composed of actions, ideas, emotions, cultural forces, history, and expectations that work together in an interconnected system. This system forms the core of the winning combination of superb Character, skill-based Competence, and professional Reputation. Hamm demonstrates that any leader can excel by consistently putting into action the Necessary Nine skills: being authentic, trustworthy, and compelling; leading people, strategy, and execution; communicating, making decisions, and making an impact.

Filled with vivid true stories, Unusually Excellent offers powerful, unforgettable leadership lessons, reinforced empirical evidence, and logical analysis. It will be your personal coach that will prepare you for the lifelong and ongoing journey towards exceptional leadership.

Author Biography

JOHN HAMM IS ONE OF THE TOP LEADERSHIP experts in Silicon Valley. He was named one of the country's top 100 venture capitalists in 2009 by AlwaysON and has led investments in many successful high-growth companies as a partner at several Bay Area VC firms. Hamm has also been a CEO, a board member at over thirty companies, and a CEO advisor and executive coach to senior leaders at companies such as Documentum, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, TaylorMade-adidas Golf and McAfee. John teaches leadership at the Leavy School of Business at Santa Clara University.