Page 10 - Fearless Leadership

Introduction

was having a cup of coffee with a CEO of a global company when he
I said, “I’m a big fan of leadership books. I love learning all the latest con-
cepts like synergism, emotional intelligence, team learning, and dialogue.
But I have absolutely no idea how to apply them.” This wasn’t the first time
I had heard this comment. Several months prior, I was speaking to a group
of executives from the energy industry. The CEO of a major utility com-
pany came up after my presentation and said, “I like your explanation of
how to build a high performance organization in such a no-nonsense man-
ner. I know what I want, but I don’t know how to get there. Would you
help me?”
It took one more encounter for the message to hit home. I was work-
ing with a senior leader who had at least a half dozen leadership books on
his desk. He said, “According to these books, I need to develop my attune-
ment, orchestrate a massive cascade, harmonize individual energies, and
be a pathfinder. All I want is an aligned team. How the heck do I do this?”
The message snapped into place: CEOs, executives, and leaders wanted
to know how to take intellectual abstraction and turn it into practical
action that could be integrated into the fabric of their organizations.
Although every organization is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all
approach, it was clear to me that leaders needed a comprehensive road
map for how to engage and align people to work together effectively to
achieve enterprise objectives. These leaders viewed transforming their
organization as an urgent priority. They wanted a method that would
accomplish this transformation during their tenure in office, not a long,
arduous, intergenerational process.
Our organization, Malandro Communication, had developed and per-
fected a methodology that was now in its maturity stage (approaching 30
years) and had successfully helped hundreds of organizations worldwide

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