The Origin Point Field Guide

The skills that got you promoted won't keep you here.

Sixty percent of new managers fail within their first two years. Not because they aren't smart enough. Because nobody taught them the job changed. Yesterday you were the best engineer, analyst, or researcher on the team. Today you're supposed to lead that team - and the skills that made you exceptional as an individual contributor are actively working against you as a leader.

The Origin Point Field Guide is a leadership book built like a naturalist's field guide - because the first step to leading well is learning to see clearly. Before you can change your behavior, you have to recognize your patterns. Before you can develop your team, you have to understand who's in it.

Part One: The Species Guide catalogs eight leadership archetypes you'll recognize immediately - in yourself or in the people around you. The Controller who can't delegate. The Ghost who avoids every difficult conversation. The Performer who manages up brilliantly and neglects the people who do the work. The Firefighter addicted to crisis. Each archetype comes with identifying marks, field descriptions, and two practical sections: what to do if this is you, and what to do if you lead one.

Part Two: Ten Field Chapters walks you through every territory of leadership:

• Making the shift from individual contributor to leader

• Building trust deliberately - not hoping it develops

• Delegating without micromanaging and coaching without solving

• Giving feedback that actually changes behavior

• Navigating conflict and having the conversations you've been avoiding

• Building execution rhythms that replace chaos with cadence

• Managing up and across without losing yourself

• Communicating in ways that open doors instead of closing them

• Building your personal Leadership Playbook

Every chapter includes field exercises for real-world practice and blank Field Notes pages for your own observations - because leadership develops in the doing, not in the reading.

Part Three: Quick Reference gives you species identification charts, framework summaries, and a glossary you can flip to two minutes before a conversation you're not sure how to navigate.

Written by Anthony Zamora - a retired Air Force Master Sergeant with 20 years of service in high-stakes environments - this book doesn't trade in motivational platitudes or personality quizzes. No four-letter codes. No colored quadrants. Just observable patterns, practical frameworks, and the honest, direct guidance that new leaders actually need.

This is the field guide you carry into the room. The one that gets dog-eared, written in, and worn from use. Because a field guide that stays on the shelf is just a book. A field guide in your pocket changes what you see.