The Go-Giver Leader: A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business (Go-Giver, Book 2)

by Bob Burg, John David Mann

Overview

 “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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399562945
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/29/2016
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	390,967
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

BOB BURG and JOHN DAVID MANN are the bestselling coauthors of The Go-Giver (embraced by hundreds of thousands of people around the world) and Go-Givers Sell More.

BURG is a highly sought-after conference speaker who teaches the principles at the core of The Go-Giver to audiences worldwide. A former top sales professional, he is also the author of Endless Referrals and Adversaries into Allies. He was named by the American Management Association as one of the Top 30 Most Influential Thought Leaders in Business for 2014.
 
MANN is an entrepreneur and award-winning coauthor whose titles include the New York Times bestsellers Flash Foresight and The Red Circle and the national bestsellers Among Heroes and The Slight Edge. His Take the Lead (with Betsy Myers) was named by Tom Peters and The Washington Post as Best Leadership Book of 2011.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Taking Leadership 5

2 The Question 13

3 The Top Floor 21

4 The Substance of Influence 29

5 The Heart of the Operation 39

6 The Language of Strength 51

7 The Work 67

8 Being Muddy 73

9 Birth and Death 87

10 An Imprint on the Soul 95

11 Robbie 105

12 Chaos 113

13 The Speech 121

14 Giving Leadership 131

Ben's Manifesto: The Five Keys to Legendary Leadership 143

Discussion Guide 149

Q&A with the Authors 153

Acknowledgments 161

About the Authors 165

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher