Course

This passage is from the syllabus of my Leadership in Action courses at Columbia and St. Gallen Universities. But I don’t see why the course should be available to only those students who can afford to enroll in top business schools. So in the spirit of calling forth and empowering leaders everywhere, I have decided to make the same course available to you, wherever you are on the planet.

1. ENHANCE YOUR POWER TO get whatever you want (well, as long as it’s legal and ethical, and not robbing a bank or opening a prostitution ring). Boost your speed from idea to accomplishment.
2. FREE YOURSELF. Take charge. Take a quantum leap in your self-determination and self-knowledge.
3. BUILD that most precious currency of leaders—effective relationships, trust, credibility, shared values, shared interests—that makes people follow you.
4. DESIGN YOUR VISION. Learn how to stand in the future, build the big picture for yourself and with others, and kill resignation.
5. BUILD A ROADMAP from the future to now that makes success inevitable. Break your vision down into strategic, achievable chunks.
6. BE UNSTOPPABLE. Act decisively. Learn to turn any obstacle into an opportunity.

I have distilled into this course what I learned the hard way, over three decades, working and living on four continents, about leadership. This methodology is at the heart of all my successes, from building a 28-people company in 12 countries and selling it, to teaching at top business schools, to publishing 7 bestsellers and reaching 50,000 readers, to helping CEOs and senior managers at 40+ Fortune 500 companies lead, innovate and meet business imperatives, helping them produce over $9 billion in profits or value-add (and, touch wood, becoming wealthy beyond my wildest dreams myself).

I CUT THE TALL GRASS FOR YOU. I have had the privilege to work with tens of thousands of leaders in all sectors, from heads of state like Nelson Mandela to people infected by HIV/AIDS in Haiti, from CEOs and senior managers to entrepreneurs, from government and UN officials to military people. Over time I was able to refine the system and make it into a fool-proof turnkey solution. My intention is that you can accomplish what took me 30+ years—in the course of one year, or half a year, or even faster.

Module 2: Self Leadership components

• BASICS. Already the ancient Romans said, “It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself.” I help you build self-awareness as a robust foundation for your leadership.
• DIAGNOSTICS. I help you run diagnostics on yourself (and by extension on your team, your company, even your society) so that you can understand your own blind-spots and take charge of yourself and your life.
• HIDDEN DRIVER. I help you reveal the engine that runs everything in your life—your mindset, thinking, actions and results.
• FUZZY THINKING. I help you recognize and arrest automatic patterns of thinking so that you can make better, less biased, more rational decisions.
• 5 TYPES OF POWER. I help you distinguish 5 types of power so that you can be aware of your powers, and consciously choose what power to wield.
• ETHICAL DILEMMAS. I help you deal with ethical dilemmas so that you can prioritize your values and make faster and better choices.
• STILLNESS. I help you create pockets of serenity so you can step back periodically and see what really counts.
• CULTURE CLASH. I help you to diagnose issues across cultures so that you can avoid huge costs that stem from cultural blind-spots.
• DECODING CULTURES. I help you decode any culture—national or corporate (e.g. the culture of a competitor or a negotiating opponent), or even of another unit (for example if you are R&D and the other person is Marketing)—so that you can achieve your objectives across borders.