Books
Leadership Beyond Reason: How Great Leaders Succeed by Harnessing the Power of Their Values, Feelings and Intuition
Leaders at the forefront of society-executives, business owners, managers and influencers-are constantly pressured to respond to the available research, analysis and other linear sources of information, in order to make critical decisions. But if you rely only on external data, and fail to harness the power of your own subjective experience, you lose access to great value toward your goals and outcomes.
A human behavioral expert and leadership consultant, Dr. John Townsend says there are priceless resources within every leader that are all too often neglected and ignored. Leadership Beyond Reason clarifies the leader’s internal world, and teaches you how to draw on your intuition, emotions and creativity and values. These principles will help you stand out from the rest in a world growing weary of paint-by-the-numbers leaders.
Whether you are increasing your skill set, or are looking for a new way to address your organization’s needs, Dr. Townsend’s insight and advice will train you to take advantage of the ability to look inward as well as outward, and achieve great results.
Endorsements from business leaders for Leadership Beyond Reason:
“John Townsend challenges us to look beyond the usual sources as we develop ‘leadership skill’. Values, Feelings, and Intuition are key tools in producing exceptional leaders. He presents a compelling case for going “Beyond Reason” to acquire all the essential components in a good leader. His thorough assessment of the importance of Values, Thoughts, Emotions, Relationships, and Transformation is productive and thought provoking. Why would we settle for anything less than a complete tool box?” - Bill Yingling, former chairman and CEO, Thrifty Corp
“Dr. John Townsend’s new book, Leadership Beyond Reason, debuts at the perfect moment, amidst the bedlam of our turbulent times. It presents a magnificent challenge to both seasoned and aspiring leaders to approach leadership from a fresh and redemptive perspective, pivoting on the too-long glossed over intangibles — values, thoughts, emotions, & relationships” - Allan O. Hunter, Jr. Cofounder of Rent.com
“Learning what motivates your leadership decisions ‘beyond reason’ will help you make the good ones and just as importantly avoid the bad ones. This book is an intriguing and thought provoking analysis of effective leadership.” - Gary Daichendt, former executive vice president worldwide operations, Cisco Systems
“John takes the leader to a new level of performance by demonstrating there is more to leadership than traditional thinking would suggest. John’s principles take you beyond reason, but they work. You will become a more impactful and fulfilled leader for your organization with the implementation of these principles.” - Greg Campbell, former executive vice president, Coldwell Banker
“John reminds us we are in the people business! Many in leadership roles tend to ignore their emotions or assume their influence is negative, and a threat to their effectiveness. John presents a compelling case for learning to recognize, integrate, and leverage our emotions for greater leadership impact.” - Fred Gladney, owner, Trinity Consulting, and former Compaq Director and General Manager of Services
Leadership Beyond Reason
A human behavior expert reveals that what leaders know about themselves is more important than their leadership skills and job knowledge. Who we are on the inside can determine leadership success more than what we do or what we know. In Leadership Beyond Reason, Dr. Townsend explores the critical role of the leader’s internal world, the world of passion, emotions, intuition, creativity, values, self-awareness, conscience, and spiritual life. Unveiling links between personal and organizational success or failure and the contents of a leader’s “heart,” the author shows that leaders excel not just through skill and smarts but by connecting with others using competencies, like curiosity, attention, reality assessment, distortion detecting, relationship building, ownership, and living with ambiguity. This is the leadership book only a world-respected psychologist could have written, and it is revolutionary in its insight. Buy this book.
Who’s Pushing Your Buttons? Handling the Difficult People In Your Life
Button-pushers can be a co-worker, a boss, a direct report, or a family member. They tend to exhibit behaviors and attitudes that cause difficulty with us, yet at the same time they have a low sense of responsibility for their effect on us. While the quick solution might seem to be to get rid of the person or leave the relationship, there are often strengths and talents they bring which are positive and helpful. Who’s Pushing Your Buttons provides an approach that empowers you to understand what is going on in the button-pusher; free yourself from the reactions you have to him or her; deal with the person in the best possible fashion; and encourage him or her to change and growth.
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say No, To Take Control of Your Life (co-authored with Dr. Henry Cloud).
This two-million selling award-winning book establishes a path for any of us who have said “yes” when we wanted to say “no.” It shows how to set and keep good boundaries, defined as our personal property lines, for our lives and our work. It explains how being clear and defined in our relationships makes life work better. Boundaries provides a way to gain freedom, take responsibility for ourselves, improve our relationships, and gain success. You will learn the 10 laws of boundaries, and how to implement them in your daily life.
How to Have That Difficult Conversation You’ve Been Avoiding (co-authored with Dr. Henry Cloud)
Confrontation at work and at home is necessary to solve problems and re-establish relationships. Yet, most of the time people either find that matters escalate or the individuals become alienated. Often, people simply avoid confrontation altogether, giving up in order to maintain some sort of peace. The problem then becomes that problems don’t get solved, and, over time, things get worse. This book returns effective, constructive confrontation to its rightful place, as a good and helpful skill. It trains the reader in how to approach “the talk”, how to prepare for it, what the skills are, and how to handle excuses, blame and deflections. How to Have that Difficult Conversation will help both work and personal settings find reconciliation and resolution.
It’s Not My Fault: The No-Excuse Plan to Put You in Charge of Your Life (co-authored with Dr. Henry Cloud)
Talented people with a great deal of potential often find themselves not achieving the results they know they could, both professionally and personally. One of the main causes can be a stance of “It’s Not My Fault”, in which we find ourselves blaming external sources for our situation. These can range from jobs, bosses, co-workers, spouses, family members, the economy, and even God. The problem is that this attitude guarantees that we will not make the progress we know we have the ability to make. The book provides principles and action steps to break out of the blame game, change helpless thinking patterns, and learn to take charge and take responsibility for our lives.