A new approach to leading teams and distributing power in organizations from one of business's foremost thinkers, written in the tradition of Lencioni, Kotter, and Quinn. Power-With Leadership is a fictional story exploring how power can be jointly developed and used cooperatively rather than as a top-down means of control. It offers anyone who works in a team--at work or at home--a transformative new way to make decisions, empower teammates, inspire creative thinking, and ensure success in any environment. And all in a fun, squirrely narrative accompanied by resources to help deploy power-with principles quickly and effectively.
Author, leadership trainer, and psychology researcher Tania Lunia offers the story of Sam Squirrel, branch manager of Nuts for You, Inc., whose company is facing a recession caused by a new human condo development. Sam employs the leadership techniques his boss, Jack Walnuts, had taught him ("know the way and make them go your way") but achieves only distrust, disengagement, poor performance, and attrition. During Sam's last-ditch effort to meet performance quotas, he finds a little-known, thriving community that shows him a different way to share knowledge, cultivate talent, organize people (or squirrels), and grow his business. But is it enough to save Nuts for You--and help Sam reach his goal of becoming Chief Nut Officer?
Power-With Leadership springs from Luna's experience using its principles to help grow her company, LifeLabs Learning, to 150 employees, $30m in revenue, 96% employee engagement, and less than 2% attrition in 6 years without any outside funding. For readers of Patrick Lencioni and John Kotter parables, Daniel Quinn philosophical fiction, and pulling on research in psychology and the organizational theory of Mary Parker Follet, Power-With Leadership is for any leader, manager, professional, or even family member interested in a more personal, sustainable, democratic, and equitable way of achieving goals and becoming more effective.