new book by steve denning

 

Please join me in a special celebration of the publication of The Secret Language of Leadership. If you buy the book now, you'll also get an impressive array of supplementary leadership tools from all around the world, including US, UK, France, Denmark and Australia at no extra cost to you. (Note: some bonus tools are in limited quantities.)

After you order the book from Amazon, come back to this webpage and enter your Amazon order number in the form at the bottom of this page to redeem your supplementary leadership tools. Scroll down for details of the bonus tools.

Buy from Amazon

What The Secret Language of Leadership is about ...

Just think about all the people in your life who are not currently doing what you might have liked.

Or not acting with the energy and enthusiasm you might have desired.

• Imagine if you had the capacity to inspire changes in their behavior so that they were energetically pursuing your worthwhile goals. And also inspiring others to do likewise?

• What if you knew how to transform difficult, skeptical, cynical hostile listeners into enthusiasts who were ready to champion your worthwhile cause?

• What would your world be like if you could instill sustained excitement in the people who work for you?

• Imagine if you could induce your boss to see your point of view and get passionately behind the worthwhile things that you want to do?

• Just think if you could elicit enduring enthusiasm in your kids for the right things in life?

• What if you had the capacity to powerfully influence your community, your company, your profession?

• What if you knew, not only how to find the leader deep within yourself, but also to activate the leader hidden deep within other people?

The Secret Language of Leadership explains what's involved in developing these capabilities.

And to celebrate the launch of this book, my colleagues and I are offering to all who buy the book this week, not just the new book, but also valuable supplementary leadership tools that will help implement the ideas in the book more easily and quickly, including:

LEADERSHIP TOOLS
Bonus Tool #1: Jim Kouzes – What’s old, what's new, in leadership? (35 minutes ; MP3)
Bonus Tool #2: Chip Heath – How to make ideas stick (25 minute interview; MP3)
Bonus Tool #3: Larry Prusak on Conversation (60 minutes MP3)
Bonus Tool #4: Kevin Eikenberry: 101 Ways To Be A Remarkable Leader (6 pages)
Bonus Tool #5: Katalina Groh: Ben Zander and The Art of Possibility (streaming video)
Bonus Tool #6: Seth Kahan’s legendary jumpstart storytelling methodology (8 pages)

Bonus Tool #8:
International Leadership Association interview with Harsh Verma (5 pages; pdf)
Bonus Tool #9: Rob Cross: Managing the Energy that Drives Innovation
(20 pages)
Bonus Tool #10: Dave Zinger: Change On A Page (1 page, PDF)
Bonus Tool #11: Tony Ingram: Mythology, Leaders and Leadership (25 pages)

Bonus Tool #12: Steven Sonsino & Jacqueline Moore: The Seven Failings of Really Useless Leaders (25 page pdf)

Bonus Tool #13: Daniele Chauvel & Stefane : Leadership en francais (50% disccount on Paris workshop )
NARRATIVE TOOLS
Bonus Tool #14: Annette Simmons: Building Trust Several Stories High (13 pages)
Bonus Tool #15: Cliff Atkinson: Getting Started with Beyond Bullet Points (28 pages)
Bonus Tool #16: Lori Silverman: 5 Sides To Every Story: Which Are You Missing? (5 pages)
Bonus Tool #17: Shawn Callahan: The Ultimate Guide to Anecdote Circles (32 pages)
Bonus Tool #18: Richard Stone: The Healing
Art of Storytelling (autographed copy)
Bonus Tool #19: Katharine Hansen: Storytelling That Propels Careers (10 pages)
Bonus Tool #20: Svend-Erik Engh - Guide to becoming a better storyteller (9 pages)
Bonus Tool #21: Randy Dipner: Telling the compelling technology story (9 pages)
Bonus Tool #22: Larry Johnson: How Storytelling in School Creates Successful Leaders (63 minute podcast)

Bonus Tool #23: Rachel Carey DeBusk et al: Sharpening Your Culture Quotient (4 megs pdf)
Bonus Tool #24: Connie Ingram: Mentoring in the Mirror (5 page article)
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Bonus Tool #25: Stan Garfield: 36 Useful Maxims for Knowledge Sharing (2 pages)
Bonus Tool #26: Steve Denning The hidden side of KM: Risk management (27 pages)
Bonus Tool #27: Steve Denning: What is knowledge management? (20 pages)
COACHING AND MENTORING SESSIONS;
Bonus Tool #28: Richard McDe
rmott: Consulting session on communities of practice (45 minutes)
Bonus Tool #29: Madelyn Blair: Coaching session to keep your knowledge fresh (1 hour)

Bonus Tool #
30: Svend-Erik Engh: Telephone coaching session in storytelling (1 hour)
Bonus Tool #3
1: Michael Margolis: Crafting the right story for innovation (1 hour)
Bonus Tool #3
2: Connie Ingram: On-line coaching session (1 hour)
STEVE DENNING'S BONUS TOOLS
Bonus Tool #3
3: Steve Denning’s leadership exercises and templates (15 pages)
Bonus Tool #3
4: Steve Denning’s implementation tips and tricks: (90 minutes: MP3)
Bonus Tool #3
5: Steve Denning's DVD in Streaming video: Mastering the Springboard Story: (54 minutes)
Bonus Tool #3
6: Steve Denning reads the Preface to The Secret Language of Leadership
Bonus Tool #37
: Ten Minutes That Helped Change The World Bank (slides)
NEW BONUS TOOL
Bonus Tool #38: Michelle James: Coaching Session for Entrepreneurs: Your Future Story (1 hour)

Bonus Tool #39: Dave Snowden: Facilitating Innovation Within The Organization (3 pages)

Here’s how to get the book and all the supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost to you:

Line

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the extraordinary supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost. You can scroll down here.

P.S. Please go ahead and share this offer with your friends!

 

This book is different

You’ve seen leadership books before. If you’re like me, you’ve probably invested countless hours seeking to learn how to be a more effective leader. You may have even paid thousands of dollars to attend leadership workshops and retreats. Only to wind up, frustrated by the ordeal, and thinking, where’s the meat?

This book is different. If you want to unlock the mysterious door behind which the secrets of leadership lie, read on.

What do the leadership gurus say?

Financial Times: “If business leaders do not immediately grasp the vital insights offered by this book, both they and their organizations are doomed.”-- Stefan Stern, Financial Times, August 29, 2007.

Chip Heath: "Steve Denning is the Warren Buffett of business communication. He sees things others don't and is able to explain them so the rest of us can understand.” --Chip Heath, co-author of Made to Stick Professor of Organizational Behavior, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

Jim Kouzes: "I highly recommend you get it today and read it tonight. Tomorrow will be an entirely different kind of day if you do. –Jim Kouzes, Co-author of the best-selling, The Leadership Challenge and A Leader’s Legacy

James MacGregor Burns: "I don’t think I have ever read a more compelling preface. And best of all, the advice Denning gives to the reader about speaking and writing is exemplified in the way he has written this impressive book." –James MacGregor Burns, Author of Leadership

Larry Prusak: “Engaging and erudite, this book draws on very wide reading and research to help any leader or manager master the arts of narrative in a way that is both pragmatic and original.” –Larry Prusak, Co-author, What’s the Big Idea? and Working Knowledge

Get your copy now, along with valuable supplementary leadership tools at no additional cost to you:

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the extraordinary supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost. You can scroll down here.

P.S. Please go ahead and share this offer with your friends!

 

What are the benefits?

What are the benefits you’ll get from reading The Secret Language of Leadership?

Here’s what other reviewers have said:

“The Secret Language of Leadership is not only the best analysis I have seen of how and why leaders succeed or fail, it's highly readable, as well as downright practical. It should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in engaging a company with big ideas who understands that leaders live and die by the quality of what they say.” Richard Stone, StoryAnalytics Master, i.d.e.a.s. 

 

"A primary role of leaders is to create and maintain meaning for their organizations. Denning clearly demonstrates that meaning-making comes from stories well told." --  Thomas Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor of I.T. and Management, Babson College, Author of The Attention Economy

 

"Steve Denning is one of the leading thinkers on the power of narrative in business settings. His latest book is a smart, useful guide than can help leaders of every kind add value to their organizations and add meaning to their own journeys." -- Daniel H. Pink, author of A WHOLE NEW MIND

 

“The Secret Language of Leadership shows why narrative intelligence is central to transformational leadership and how to harness its power.” Carol Pearson, Director, James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland; Co-author of The Hero and The Outlaw

That’s just a start. Here’s a look at thirty-three benefits you’ll get from this book:

Thirty-Three Benefits that you'll get from The Secret Language of Leadership

Plumbing the meaning of
transformational leadership

  1. Learn how to enhance the effectiveness of your personal persuasiveness so that people share your worthwhile goals and do what you want.
  2. Understand how to inspire enduring enthusiasm a worthwhile cause in any audience, even one that is difficult, cynical, skeptical or even hostile.
  3. Discover how, not just to change people’s behavior, but how to get people to want to change their behavior and turn them into champions who inspire others.
  4. Get beyond temporary motivational spikes and inspire sustained gains in productivity: discover how to inspire others to carry on your goals long after you are gone.
  5. Learn how to energize a wide variety of audiences – your subordinates, your boss, your kids, your spouse, your community, your town, your profession, your country.
  6. Learn how to get crystal clear on your own goals; learn how to evaluate whether they are genuinely worthwhile.
  7. Develop your own narrative intelligence so that you are more able to understand and interact with the world in narrative terms.
  8. Enhance your capacity to practice deep listening to your audience, so that you can anticipate accurately what will excite and energize them.
  9. Discover how to develop your stage “presence” so that you sound like you mean it; learn the body language of leadership so that your presentations become electrifying.

Discovering  the secret language of leadership

  1. Understand why the traditional communication (state problem>> analyze problem >> give solution) not only doesn’t work: it’s counter-productive!
  2. Understand how we can fundamentally rethink communication so as to make a step change in our communication effectiveness.
  3. Know how to engage people’s positive emotions and connect with people at a deeper level.
  4. Know how to get people on the edge of their seats so that they give rapt attention to what you are about to say.
  5. Learn when to stress the negative and when to accentuate the positive
  6. Discover 20 ways to get an audience’s attention and learn which work best.
  7. Discover 17 ways of attempting to perform the miracle of stimulating desire in people to want to change.
  8. Learn how to make your reasons compelling and memorable, so that you will never be boring again.
  9. Know how to continue the conversation so that your audience stays committed and energized.
  10. Learn the right sequence of steps to put together an overall presentation and why this is crucial; know how to put together whole presentations that are seamless.
  11. Understand how the different tools of communication – stories, metaphors, questions, challenges, offers, images etc – relate to each other and how they can complement each other to enhance the effectiveness of your communications.

Applying  where and how to apply what you learn

  1. Know how to deploy storytelling as a leadership tool, in organizations and beyond.
  2. Discover how to cope with the “white water” of the rapidly shifting global economy.
  3. Understand how to satisfy the multiple constituencies that want to have a say in how any significant organization is run.
  4. Learn how to connect with radically diverse audiences in the workforce or in the marketplace.
  5. Understand the options when you’re told to do something you don’t believe in
  6. Know how to get beyond a glib sales pitch and become a trusted partner that generates lasting loyalty; learn how to speak with integrity and authenticity
  7. Learn why most good ideas in organizations go nowhere and how you can get your ideas not only accepted but implemented.
  8. Know when to lead and when to manage.
  9. Understand how to build your brand into an enduring icon.
  10. Understand why narrative and storytelling have emerged as important business tools at this particular time.
  11. Discern the significance of winning and achieving instrumental benefits like making money or career success in your life.
  12. Learn how to fill your own life and the lives of others with rich deep meaning.
  13. Learn how to use PowerPoint to energize and excite your listeners, rather than de-energize and bore them.

Here's how to get the book and the supplermentary leadership tools:

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the extraordinary supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost. You can scroll down here.

Please go ahead and share this offer with your friends!

Line

 

Why all the bonus gifts?

And it’s not just the benefits you’ll get from reading the book. Don’t overlook the valuable supplementary leadership tools that I and my colleagues are offering, at no additional cost to you. There are audio tapes, videos, templates, exercises, tips, tricks, interviews, coaching and mentoring, and more. To see what the supplementary tools are in detail, click here.

Why are we (literally) giving away the store? In my case, it’s because my overriding goal is to enable you to change the world. You see, as I look around the world, I know that there are many problems, big problems, problems that need fixing—badly. And yet I know that I’ll never have time to be able to fix all those problems single-handed.

But I also know that if I can show tens of thousands of leaders around the world to learn how to spark change and get others to buy into their cause, then there’s a chance of making the world a better place.

Having stumbled on the power of narrative and then having studied and perfected what I learned in years of practical implementation, with many of the major corporations around the world, I want to share what I’ve learned so that you will be able to build on my experience and to spark change in the world.

It’s all about authenticity

Is the book offering a set of glib and superficial party tricks, by which listeners are hoodwinked into doing something they don’t want to do? No, it’s not. (If it was, it wouldn’t be getting the kind of endorsements from the world’s top leadership experts that it’s already received.)

In fact, a huge part of the transformational leadership agenda is about communicating genuinely, honestly, truthfully and authentically. Tell the truth and people trust you. In some ways it’s as simple as that. Trickery is the antithesis of transformational leadership.

And yet, there’s more to it than that.

This is about enabling an audience to see possibilities that they have hitherto missed. It means creating the capability in the audience to view for themselves the world and their relations with others in a new and more truthful light. It involves pointing a way forward for people who find themselves—for whatever reason—cornered by the current story that they are living. It entails enabling the audience to recognize a new, different, and more promising story that they could be living, which they for some reason have not visualized up till now.

Deep listening

And it’s about deep listening. Transformational leadership entails figuring out why our followers don’t see our change ideas as positively as we do. Within what story do they find themselves cornered? What artificial walls have the listeners constructed around their current existence so that they don’t see the same future we do? What imaginary constraints are hampering them from imagining something different? What mythical limitations are hobbling their vision? Which of their most heartfelt dreams are currently unfulfilled? If we can understand these aspects of the audience’s story, then crafting a new story that will resonate with them is often relatively simple.

All around the world people are waking up to the power of the language of leadership and the potential of this fundamental rethinking of communication.

Now you too can learn the secrets of the language of leadership, and discover learn how even ordinary people become extraordinary.

And remember you get more than the the book. Take a look at what Larry Prusak, Jim Kouzes, Chip Heath, Seth Kahan, Kevin Eikenberry, Annette Simmons, Cliff Atkinson, Shawn Callahan, Katharine Hansen, Dave Zinger, Richard Stone, Stan Garfield, Svend-Erik Engh and Madelyn Blair are offering as their contribution to the supplementary leadership communication tools to anyone who purchases the book this week. To see details, click here.

Here's how to to get not only the book but also the valuable leadership tools that supplement the book and that will accelerate your implementation of the book’s principles.

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the extraordinary supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost. You can scroll down here.

P.S. Please go ahead and share it with your friends!

 

A special message from Steve Denning

I’m celebrating the launch of my new book by offering a wide array of valuable supplementary leadership tools. If you want to see the details of the impressive array of these bonus gifts, you can scroll down by clicking here.

I think you’ll have fun with the audio recordings in the supplementary leadership toosl. They’re conversational, insightful and above all, funny. Put them in your iPod and listen to them anywhere.

The streaming video from my DVD will give the essentials of what's involved crafting and performing a springboard story.

The templates and the exercises are what I and other practitioners use in workshops with Fortune 500 companies. They push participants to get to the nitty-gritty of the language of leadership. Some of them have never been published before.

The interviews will broaden and deepen your understanding of what’s involved in implementing the language of leadership.

The offer of free coaching in storytelling by Svend-Erik Engh is really an amazing offer.

In using these materials, you’ll learn how to communicate quickly and convincingly, connecting with your listeners and engaging them at a deep level.

The basic elements are very simple and their gist can be picked up in minutes. But be warned! To take full advantage of what's involved will take a lifetime.

Here’s how to get the book and all the supplementary leadership tools...

line

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the amazing supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost. You can scroll down here.

P.S. Please go ahead and share it with your friends!

 

A fundamental shift in the way we communicate

Are you ready to become a transformational leader and fill your own life—and the lives of other people—with deep meaning? Are you ready to enable others to see possibilities they—for whatever reason—have until now been unable to see?

  • What if you learned that for several thousand years, the human race has been going about leadership communication in a way that is fundamentally flawed?
  • What if everything you’ve been taught at school, and in organizations, about how to communicate to a difficult audience was not only ineffective but counter-productive?
  • What if you discovered that there was a solid body of psychological research showing why this is so?
  • And what if, every day, you could observe leaders in organizations, in politics, in communities and in families, go on making the same mistakes, over and over again, all the time wondering why their communications are greeted with misunderstanding, apathy, pushback or antagonism?
  • What if you were to discover that there’s a set of simple communication principles that lead to the opposite result: sparking energy, excitement, dynamism and enduring enthusiasm?
  • And what if you were to learn that getting access to these principles isn’t going to cost you an arm and a leg? That they are available to you when for just US$18.45 you get The Secret Language of Leadership, and the valuable supplementary leadership tools that my colleagues and I are offering.

Now you might begin to see why leadership guru, Jim Kouzes, author of the best-selling Leadership Challenge, has said about The Secret Language of Leadership:

“Get it today, read it tonight. Tomorrow will be an entirely
different kind of day if you do.”

Do you want tomorrow to be a different kind of day?

If so, this book is waiting for you, along with an impressive array of supplementary leadership tools to speed you on your learning journey.

The practical distilled wisdom in this book will guide you through the intricacies of transformational leadership, the difficulties of getting other people to change.

But here’s a warning! If you do so, it may be impossible for you ever to look on your life or think about your place in the universe in the way ever again.

A book for everyone

The final fact is this: no matter how you are—young or old, weak or strong, good looking or plain, powerful or powerless, rich or poor—your future and your happiness depend in many ways of your ability to influence others and to get them to see your point of view, to share your goals, and to implement them. If you can’t do that, your life will be filled with trouble and aggravation.

If on the other hand you are able to inspire enduring enthusiasm in others for your own worthwhile causes, your life is going to be very different. You’ll feel energized, rewarded and fulfilled, as you look out on the world and see all the leaders that you have inspired into action.

Who doesn't need this book? Anyone who is totally happy with everything that's happening in their work, their family, their community, their profession, their town, their country or the planet, has no need of this book. But for all the rest of us, who can see more than one or two things out there that need fixing, this book has a vital message.

A remarkably interesting offer

Where else in the leadership field can you invest just $18.45 and get, not just a book, but a whole set of valuable leadership tools to accelerate your leadership learning journey?

Now, with brilliant simplicity, the practical, implementable principles that you’ve been searching for, are laid out clearly and succinctly, along with practical steps as to how to go about implementing them.

And what’s more, for US$18.45, you can also receive an extraordinary array of leadership communications tools, never before offered as a package.

I’m also offering a 100% unconditional money-back guarantee on your purchase: if you’re not satisfied for any reason with the book. Just send the book back to me, along with evidence of your purchase, and I’ll refund you whatever you paid for it.

And the time to get started is not next week. Or next month.

If you’ve ever dreamed of being an effective leader, you’re in luck. Now is the moment to seize the opportunity that is being presented to you and become the authentic inspirational leader you’ve always dreamed of being.

And be sure to pass the message along to friends, colleagues, your boss, your boss’s boss, your staff, your family, so that they can share in this exciting offer and learn the hitherto secret language of leadership.

Look how simple it is.

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon this week:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the amazing supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost. You can scroll down here.

P.S. Please go ahead and share this offer with your friends!

 

Become an inspiring leader

In just two minutes, you can start accessing the insights that you need to become an inspiring transformational leader.

The Secret Language of Leadership is published this week, but it has already enjoyed some remarkably positive reviews. For instance, here’s the 700 word review from the Financial Times:

Financial Times Book review:
Let me tell you a story about Al Gore

By Stefan Stern

August 29, 2007

If business leaders do not immediately grasp the vital insights offered by this book, both they and their organisations are doomed. But the good news is that there are examples of executives out there who have taken this book’s messages to heart, and have acted successfully on them.

Got your attention? That opening paragraph was a ham-fisted attempt to put some of Stephen Denning’s theories into practice. Leaders who want their businesses to embrace change, he says, must first get the attention of the people who matter. Negative messages (or bad news) tend to attract people’s attention more effectively than good news.

But bad news alone might just be depressing. Hence the need for the second sentence of this review. The desire for change must be stimulated, Denning argues, by holding out the prospect that a better world can be  and indeed already is being created.

This new book is Denning’s latest attempt to explain why storytelling – or “narrative” – has such an important role in leadership. In the past few years he has written of the need for “springboard” stories – the sort of tale that can spark a reaction even among jaded and cynical audiences. He wrote an extended parable, published in 2004, about a community of squirrels, and the way in which powerful storytelling saved them from disaster.

This new book represents a considerable advance on the earlier work. The squirrels have been superseded by an intelligent and sustained analysis of the art of contemporary leadership. Those bosses who quietly despair of ever getting their people to change should spend a bit of time learning how to speak Denning’s “secret language”.

One leader who does seem to have got the message is former US vice-president Al Gore. In a superb opening section, Denning takes Gore’s lousy presidential bid of 2000 apart, showing how at each stage the man of destiny from Tennessee blew his  chances.

The author describes 10 ways in which candidate Gore failed the test of leadership. His campaign was confusing and uninspiring, Denning says. He lacked commitment. His body language sucked. He misread his audience. He lacked “narrative intelligence” – in other words, Gore just couldn’t tell a story that people wanted to hear.

He did not talk straight, unlike the apparently much more direct Governor George W. Bush. He lost people’s attention, if he ever had it. He campaigned as the candidate of change, but failed to get people interested in the sort of change he was promoting. His supposed strengths came across as weaknesses. And, in the end, every attempt to establish a dialogue with the electorate  failed.

“Fast-forward to 2006, and what do we see?” Denning asks. “Millions of people have paid more than $40m to watch a movie of Al Gore’s PowerPoint presentation. And Gore’s live talks enjoy the response of a rock star.”

What has changed? “In his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore conveys a passion for a subject he cares deeply about,” Denning explains. “Now he isn’t merely repeating what his political managers or handlers have told him to say...it also helps that he has learnt not to take himself so seriously in his public speeches and is able to poke gentle fun at himself. Even more important, the Al Gore of 2006 has abandoned speaking in a tangle of complex abstractions and used appropriate narratives.”

Denning is a subtle and astute reader of audiences’ minds. Don’t try to out-reason deeply sceptical employees, he says. You have to make a personal – and emotional – connection with them first. Indeed, facts may be the last thing people want to hear right now. They will simply be discounted and rejected.

Of course, there is still a need for reasoned arguments, he says, but it is crucial to get the “sequencing” of messages right. Get people’s attention, “stimulate the desire for change”, and then wheel out the rationale.

“Leadership communications begin as monologue,” Denning says. “If they are successful they turn into dialogue and then conversation. The conversation emerges because of the enduring enthusiasm for change that has been inspired.”

Some business leaders may be sceptical about the need for language skills these days, but this “secret language of leadership” will reward further study.

.......................

Stefan Stern asks: Do you want to be doomed as a leader because you haven’t read The Secret Language of Leadership? Frankly, although I love his review, Stefan might have gotten a little carried away with his enthusiasm here, but hey, what he’s trying to say is clear enough: this book is important and urgent and needs to be read by anyone who’s trying to get something worthwhile done in the world.

And you can get your copy of The Secret Language of Leadership now, as well as a whole array of valuable supplementary leadership tools.

Here’s how:

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon this week:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the amazing supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost. You can scroll down here.

P.S. Please go ahead and share this offer with your friends!

 

What is leadership?

For a very long time in my life, I imagined that leaders were a special kind of people. I looked from a distance at people with charisma. People like Gandhi. And Martin Luther King. And Nelson Mandela. I was dazzled. And I thought to myself. They are different. They are a special kind of people.

And as a corollary, I also assumed: I could never be one of these charismatic leaders. I don’t have charisma. I don’t have any striking physical characteristics or advantages. I’m not a great speaker. In fact, making presentations has been identified in my personnel evaluations as one of my weakest points. I’m not a natural communicator. Quite the opposite.

So I assumed I could never be a leader who could mobilize tens of thousands of people for a cause.

How mistaken I was!

The power of storytelling

When I found myself in a situation in 1996, when I had no choice but to try to mobilize a large number of change-resistant people to understand and get behind a strange new idea, I stumbled on the power of narrative to communicate complex ideas and spark action.

In the Preface to the The Secret Language of Leadership, I tell the story, blow by blow, of how and why this happened.

"I don’t think I have ever read a more compelling preface."

James MacGregor Burns, author of Leadership

I found that leadership was not only about discovering the leader deep within yourself. Equally importantly, it's about being able to stimulate the leader deep inside others. And I found that certain kinds of narrative had the capacity to do just that.

And once I had stumbled on the power of narrative, I spent the next decade or so, broadening and deepening my understanding of how narrative works and what it means for leadership today.  My new book, The Secret Language of Leadership, is the fruit of those labors.

An intensely personal journey

When I was writing the book, I did wonder about the wisdom of including so much of myself in the book. I talk about things I’ve never talked about before—how a profoundly moving experience as a young adult changed the course of my life, what it meant to me and my family, and later on my leadership struggles at the World Bank—I wrote about things that I had experienced first hand, as well as about the wider global scene of transformational leadership.

As I was writing the book, I wondered whether those personal events, which were so pivotal to me, would mean anything to other people. Would anyone care?

As it turns out, several reviewers have noted that the personal aspects of the book are what gave it for them a special meaning. For instance, here’s what Jim Kouzes, author of the best-selling Leadership Challenge, has to say:

“There is something very special about The Secret Language of Leadership. A lot of authors write about storytelling and other methods of leadership communication. What sets Steve Denning apart is his authenticity. He is one of the rare few who write about it from intensely personal experience. This book offers a genuinely refreshing perspective and an uncommon insight into the narrative life of leadership." Jim Kouzes, Co-author of the best-selling, The Leadership Challenge and A Leader’s Legacy

How ordinary people can become extraordinary

And in due course, in my work at the World Bank, I did get meet—and work with—heads of state, CEOs and ministersas well as people who inspired change withouto any hierarchical authority.

From this experience, I’ve come to see that most of the great transformational leaders are not born with special innate physical advantages. In fact, they are ordinary people, but they speak and act in a different way. Once I figured out the elements of the language of leadership that they are using, and how they are using it and supporting it, then I came to the stunning realization: anyone could learn and use that language and become a transformational leader—and become someone who could move other people and inspire action!

Now you too can become an extraordinary leader. Here's how:

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon this week:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the extraordinary supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost.

P.S. Please go ahead and share this offer with your friends!

And here are the details of the bonus gifts:

Get All These Free Bonus Tools
to accelerate your implementation of
the ideas in the book

at no additional cost

by purchasing
The Secret Language of Leadership

NOTE: SOME BONUS TOOLS ARE IN LIMITED QUANTITIES:
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED

New Bonus Tool
Michelle James

Bonus Tool #38: Michelle James: Free telephone coaching session for Entrepreneurs “Creating Your Future Story” (1 hour). (LIMITED QUANTITIES)

Emerging your future story leads to fresh business ideas and approaches. Michelle James, CEO of The Center for Creative Emergence and business creativity coach, is offering free telephone coaching sessions for entrepreneurs to develop the story of what's next in your business based on what's most alive for you. In the session, you will access and cultivate the emergent story upon which you can take inspired action. NOTE This offer is limited to the first fifteen people who apply.

Valuable leadership tools
Jim Kouzes

Bonus Tool #1: Interview with Jim Kouzes (35 minutes audio)

Jim Kouzes’s book, The Leadership Challenge, co-authored with Barry Posner, has already sold several million copies and has just been published in a fourth edition. In this 35 minute interview, Jim talks about both what's new and what's timeless in the field of leadership.
Chip Heath

Bonus Tool #2: Interview with Chip Heath (25 minutes audio)

Chip Heath’s book, Made to Stick (Random House) went right to the top of the best-seller list when it was published in January 2007, and has remained there ever since. In this 25 minute interview, Chip talks about what makes an idea be remembered and implemented.
Larry Prusak

Bonus Tool #3: Larry Prusak discusses conversation in organizations (60 minute audio)

The Secret Language of Leadership presents leadership as an interactive conversation. In this 60 minute presentation, knowledge guru, Larry Prusak, talks about the role of conversation in organizations. He explains how to go about transforming antagonistic management talk into energizing conversation.
Kevin Eikenberry

Bonus Tool #4: Kevin Eikenberry: 101 Ways to Become a Remarkable Leader (6 pages, pdf)

This Special Report will inform you . . . and inspire you with things you can do every day to become more of what you were meant to be!

It contains 101 specific things you can do - regardless of how busy you are
- to continue on your personal path towards remarkable leadership and remarkable results.

 

Katalina Groh

Bonus Tool #5: Katalina Groh: The Art of Possibility (streaming video)

Whether you have experienced the acclaimed Leadership: An Art of Possibility film or are new to Groh Productions, please enjoy the bonus content from our inspiring Possibility Series, retail value $1,495, absolutely free!

Seth Kahan

Bonus Tool #6: Seth Kahan’s “jumpstart storytelling” (8 pages)

An ability to get people quickly working together is a key aspect of The Secret Language of Leadership. In this 8 page paper, Seth Kahan offers his famous methodology for jumpstart storytelling, which can large numbers of people working together fast..
ILA logo

Bonus Tool #8: Interview with Harsh Verma, author of The Avatar Way of Leadership (5 pages)

Each month the International Leadership Association (ILA) interviews a member-author of a recent leadership book and shares excerpts of that book with its membership. In this interview with Harsh Verma, author of The Avatar Way of Leadership, the reader will learn about a model of leadership in India based on the literature of three mythical Indian figures.

Rob Cross

Bonus Tool #9: Rob Cross: Managing The Energy That Drives Innovation

Rob Cross, University of Virginia, Jane C. Linder, Accenture Institute for High Performance Business and Andrew Parker, Stanford University: (19 pages) Leaders readily acknowledge that energized employees are more likely to produce valuable innovations than those who have become passive or reactionary. The coauthors studied 15 organizations to identify ways energy is created and diffused in networks. This article illustrates the substantial impact that energizing interactions have on innovation as well as three important ways managers can influence energy and innovation in strategically important groups.

Dave Zinger

Bonus Tool #10: Dave Zinger: Change On A Page (1 page)

Brevity is the soul of wit, and here Dave Zinger show why. Are you on the same page when talking about change? Dave, an expert on employee engagement and strength based leadership, offers a powerful one page perspective on change: CHANGE IS. David offers 7 cogent concepts to give you a quick handle on change.

Tony Quinlan

Bonus Tool #11: Tony Quinlan: Mythology, leaders and leadership (article, 25 pages)

In every culture, certain events and individuals stand out – becoming legendary in their re-telling. And each story will reinforce some value within the organisation – but not always the one that we think it’s telling. In this article, the chief storyteller of the UK firm, Narrate, Tony Quinlan explores the relationship between leadership and mythology.

Steven Sonsino

Bonus Tool #12: Steven Sonsino & Jacqueline Moore: The Seven Failings of Really Useless Leaders (30 page chapter and Webinar)

We generally learn more from our failures than our successes. In their insightful book chapter and webinar, Steven Sonsino and Jackqueline Moore show not only how really useless leaders kill explanation, emotion, engagement, enthusiasm, rewards, culture, trust and action but also how to do the opposite and inspire people to higher levels of performance, productivity and profitability.

Daniele Chauvel

Bonus Tool #13: Daniel Chauvel and Stephane Baillie-Gee: Leadership (en francais): Workshop in Paris (50% discount)

Aujourd’hui le leadership c’est pour chacun, et pour une durée limitée, la capacité d'intégrer et d'exprimer sa vision, de se donner et de donner aux autres les moyens d'apprendre et de partager l'expérience, d'accompagner et de piloter le changement, et enfin, le cas échéant, de poser les limites. Séminaire pour deux jours en français à Paris, 13, rue des Ecoles, Paris 5°, France le 29-30 janvier 2008, donné par Daniéle Chauvel et Stephane Baillie-Gee. Le prix normale est 1300 € HT. Vous bénéficierez d’un rabais de 50% et vous épargnerez  650 € HT.

Valuable narrative tools

Annette Simmons

Bonus Tool #14: Annette Simmons: Building Trust Several Stories High (13 pages)

Current interpretations of rational decision-making may systematically erode trust between individuals working in/with organizations. In this article, storytelling guru, Annette Simmons, presents storytelling as a powerful tool for blending imprecise, technically irrational yet vitally relevant perceptions of fairness back into rational decision making without abandoning the ideals of rationality or floating into never-ending relativism.

Cliff Atkinson

Bonus Tool #15: Cliff Atkinson: Getting Started with Beyond Bullet Points (38 pages)

Transform your presentations--and boost your impact--with practical, easy-to-apply techniques for using PowerPoint 2007. Best-selling author Cliff Atkinson is helping revolutionize the way Fortune 500 companies design and deliver their critical PowerPoint presentations. Download an advance chapter from the new edition of Beyond Bullet Points (Microsoft Press, 2007).

Lori Silverman

Bonus Gift #16: Lori Silverman: Five Sides to Story: Which Are You Missing?" (5 pages, pdf)

In this article from Communication World, storytelling expert Lori Silverman uses examples from organizations around the world to highlight five practices surrounding the use of stories. Also revealed for the first time, showcasing the true power of stories, are the aggregate results from the more than 70 examples in her book, Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results.

Shawn Callahan

Bonus Tool #17: The Ultimate Guide to Anecdote Circles (32 pages)

Shawn Callahan is Founder of Anecdote, an Australian corporate anthropology firm that helps companies retain valuable knowledge when people retire, facilitates change management, helps assess the impact of hard to measure initiatives (like culture change or learning programs) and helps foster effective knowledge flow and collaboration. This guide to anecdote circles will show you how to find stories in your organisation so you can better understand what's really happening.

Richard Stone Healing Art

Bonus Tool #18: Richard Stone: The Healing Art of Storytelling (autographed book) (ALREADY CLAIMED)

Storytelling is not merely an art; it is a lifeline to understanding, both between persons and within an individual psyche. Richard Stone's book offers a series of exercises to help individuals reclaim and polish the stories our real lives are waiting for us to tell. An an excellent resource for teachers, seniors, and spiritual seekers. Note: this offer was limited to the first person to apply. The winner was Mike Cormack, Lidcombe, NSW, Australia.

Katherine Hansen

Bonus Tool #19: Katharine Hansen: Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers (10 pages)

This chapter of Katharine Hansen's book focuses on a powerful use of storytelling - telling stories to advance your career, whether by moving up in your current organization or landing a job in a new organization.

Svend-Erik Engh

Bonus Tool #20: Guide to crafting a better story: Svend-Erik Engh (9 pages)

Svend-Erik Engh is a master storyteller in Denmark and he has been teaching for 20 years, in universities, high schools and in business. Svend-Erik shows here how to improve your story so that it fits your purpose.

Randy Dipner

Bonus Tool #21: Randy Dipner & Mark Henry: Telling the Compelling Technology Story (9 pages)

Telling a compelling story about innovative technology should be easy, but for many writers it is a challenge. In “Telling Your Technology Story” Randy Dipner and Mark Henry, the SBIR Guys, present a concise methodology for presenting you technology story in a way that will win support from decision-makers and business plan readers.

Larry Johnson

Bonus Tool #22: Larry Johnson: How Storytelling In Schools Creates Successful Leaders(63 minute podcast)

Larry Johsnon is frequently running into young adults who credit the opportunity to work on storytelling in a comfortable setting in school with giving them the courage and ability to stand in front of groups and talk, with story, as activists, as trainers, or as small business leaders. That's because the skill of communicating and connecting (which story does) orally is central to leadership. This podcast is about why and how to help school children love storytelling and let it impact and strengthen their inherent leadership in family, work, and community.

Rachel DeBusk

Bonus Tool #23: Rachel Carey DeBusk et al: Sharpening Your Culture Quotient (8 pages, pdf)

Culture Mine is a trio of consulting partners—Debbie Cullen, Rachel Carey DeBusk, and Stokley Towles—committed to helping organizations develop a stronger identity through knowing and telling their stories. In this colorful 8 page paper, the trio use a series of stories to explore how the cultures of organizations can help or hinder their success. The piece concludes with some suggestions for leaders looking to explore cultural dynamics in their companies.

Connie Ingram

Bonus Tool #24: Connie Ingram: Mentoring In the Mirror (5 pages)

Very often we can clearly see what others need to succeed. However, it is more difficult to view our own “blind spots”.  Mentoring in the mirror will help women take a closer look at the details of their fulfillment in the workplace and as women. Connie Ingram addresses the question: How can women find fulfillment in their careers and in the workplace in the midst of a masculine oriented work world?

Valuable knowledge management tools
Stan Garfield

Bonus Tool #25: Stan Garfield: 36 Useful Maxims for Sharing Knowledge, Leadership and Personal Growth (2 pages)

Knowledge sage, Stan Garfield, was asked what are the tried and true ‘classics’ and what are the newer or ‘emergent’ maxims that you find yourself relying on in your current conversations. The result is this fascinating collection of insights.

Steve Denning, author of The Secret Language of Leadership

Bonus Tool #26: The dark side of KM: Risk management (27 pages)

Knowledge management has tended to focus on sharing what we already know, and paid insufficient attention to dealing with what we don’t know, i.e. risk. The current economic instability flowing from the sub-prime mortgage debacle shows the costs of not management risk. In this 27 page paper, Steve Denning defines risk management, analyzes its role and modalities and shows what can—and cannot—be done about it.

Steve Denning, author of The Secret Language of Leadership

Bonus Tool #27: What is knowledge management? (20 pages)

This classic paper (20 pages) was a critical input into the 1998 World Development Report on knowledge. Although nine years old, its insights have stood the test of time. Now unavailable on Amazon, you can get it here.

Coaching & Mentoring Sessions
Cultivating Communities of Practice

Bonus Tool 28: Richard McDermott: Free coaching 45 minute free consulting/feedback session on community building (NEW - LIMITED QUANTITIES)

Richard McDermott is co-author of the classic work on creating communities of practice, "Cultivating Communities of Practice" (Harvard Business School Press, 2002). He is the subject matter expert for the largest international study of the impact of communities on individual and organizational performance. Richard is offering 45 minutes free consulting and feedback on community building. The offer is limited to one per organization, and a total of twenty overall. You would pay dearly for this in the marketplace. Here Richard is offering it for free.

Madelyn Blair

Bonus Tool #29: Madelyn Blair: Free Coaching To Keep Your Knowledge Fresh: One hour (LIMITED QUANTITIES)

If you feel that you are not able to stay current or otherwise keep up with changes in your field of work or interest, you might consider a strategy that will allow you to keep your knowledge fresh and alive. Madelyn Blair has been working in this field for the last 20 years and comes with the latest ideas on knowledge and information. She is offering 1 hour of free coaching in this new field. (Skype available) NOTE This offer is limited to the first ten people who apply.

Svend-Erik Engh

Bonus Tool #30: Improve your storytelling: one-hour FREE coaching by Svend-Erik Engh (LIMITED QUANTITIES)

Svend-Erik Engh is a master storyteller in Denmark and he has been teaching for 20 years, in universities, high schools and in business. Svend-Erik will show you how to improve your story so that it fits your purpose. (Skype available) NOTE This offer is limited to the first twenty people who apply.

Michael Margolis

Bonus Tool #31: Michael Margolis: Free telephone coaching session on “Crafting the right story for Innovation” (1 hour). (LIMITED QUANTITIES)

Who do you need to believe in your story? Michael Margolis, President of THIRSTY-FISH, is offering free telephone coaching sessions on how to craft the right story for innovation — whether it applies to your (1) business, (2) social issue or (3) thought initiative. This session will help you connect to the essence of your story and how to frame it for persuasive impact.

Connie Ingram

Bonus Tool #32: Connie Ingram: Free On-Line Mentoring Session for Women (One hour) (LIMITED QUANTITIES)

Very often we can clearly see what others need to succeed. However, it is more difficult to view our own “blind spots”. Connie Ingram's mentoring addresses the question: How can women take a closer look at the details of their fulfillment in the workplace and find fulfillment in their careers and in the workplace in the midst of a masculine oriented work world. NOTE This offer is limited to the first five people who apply.

Steve Denning's Bonus Tools
Steve Denning

Bonus Tool #33: Leadership exercises and templates (15 pages)

One of the things that makes Steve Denning’s workshops for leaders so valuable is the set of leadership exercises and templates that he uses. Here they are, including some that are not included in The Secret Language of Leadership, and some never published before. (PDF)

Seth and Steve

Bonus Tool #34: Tips and tricks on implementing the book (90 min. audio)

Steve Denning’s discusses with business revolutionary, Seth Kahan, how to go about implementing the principles of the The Secret Language of Leadership: with practical advice on how to get maximum value from the language of leadership, including (1) the enablers of leadership; (2) the language of leadership; and (3) the meaning of leadership.

Steve Denning

Bonus Tool #35: Mastering the Springboard Story (54 minutes streaming video)

The springboard story is the most valuable of the leadership stories. That's because it performs the central task of leadership: communicating a complex idea and sparking action. Steve Denning’s training DVD, on Mastering the Art of the Springboard Story, a 54 minute video, normally sells for $299. Here you get it in streaming video at no additional cost to you.

Steve Denning, author of The Secret Language of Leadership

Bonus Tool #36: Steve Denning reads the Preface to The Secret Language of Leadership (34 minute audio)

In the Preface to The Secret Language of Leadership, Steve Denning tells the story of his own leadership journey.

"I don’t think I have ever read a more compelling preface." 

  James MacGregor Burns, author of Leadership

Steve Denning, author of The Secret Language of Leadership

Bonus Tool #37: Ten Minutes That Helped Change the World Bank (slides)

In The Secret Language of Leadership, I describe a ten-minute presentation to the Change Management Committee of the World Bank in April 1996, which had a dramatic effect on its immediate audience, and ultimately the whole organization. Here you can see the slides of that presentation.

Additional Bonus Tools
Michelle James

Bonus Tool #38: Michelle James: Free telephone coaching session for Entrepreneurs “Creating Your Future Story” (1 hour). (LIMITED QUANTITIES)

Emerging your future story leads to fresh business ideas and approaches. Michelle James, CEO of The Center for Creative Emergence and business creativity coach, is offering free telephone coaching sessions for entrepreneurs to develop the story of what's next in your business based on what's most alive for you. In the session, you will access and cultivate the emergent story upon which you can take inspired action. NOTE This offer is limited to the first fifteen people who apply.

dave snowden

Bonus Tool #39: Dave Snowden: Facilitating Inovation Within The Organization (NEW)

Here's a new bonus tool from Dave Snowden, whose wonderful article, "A Leader's Framework for Decision Making," appears in November's Harvard Business Review. Copyright prevents him from making that article available here. But you can get a lot of the same insights from his 2004 article, "Facilitating Innovation Within the Organisation": it describes the process by which finance can support innovation within the organization (from The Institute of Chartered Accountants - Faculty of Finance and Management: September 2004 Newsletter).

DVD cover

For bulk purchasers of The Secret Language of Leadership, a free DVD: (LIMITED TIME ONLY)

BUY 20 COPIES OR MORE OF THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF LEADERHIP AND GET A FREE TRAINING DVD: If you buy twenty copies or more of this book on or before November 3, 2007 for your boss, your subordinates, your colleagues, your friends and your family you can get a free training DVD showing how to master the springboard story. The DVD normally sells for US$299.00. You get it for free. Just send a copy of your purchase details to steve@stevedenning.com or fax to me at the following fax number: USA: 202-686-0591, along with your mailing address, and I’ll send you the DVD at no additional cost to you.

Here's how to get all the bonus tools now:

The Secret Language of Leadership

First, click here to order the book from Amazon this week:

amazon

Then return to this website and fill out the form below with your purchase order details from Amazon to get all of the extraordinary supplementary leadership tools, at no additional cost.

P.S. Please go ahead and share this offer with your colleagues and friends!

 
Thank you for ordering. Enjoy your bonus gifts!
  Enter your information and order number in this form to receive your bonus tools.
Email
First name
Last name
Country
Amazon order number*
Number of books purchased

Questions? Please e-mail me or write to me at: Steve Denning, 4515 Klingle Street NW, Washington DC 20016.

* Bought the book, but didn't order through Amazon or Barnes & Noble? No problem, send me your purchase details by email or fax (USA-202-686-0591) and I'll be happy to provide you access to the bonus gifts.

Note: This offer is not associated or affiliated with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.

Back To Top