Publisher's Synopsis
Power Up Brilliance gives take-charge innovation leaders a proven formula to lift teams above fear and complacency - because you can't do innovation unless you sell innovation, even when the easy obvious conventional answers won't get your enterprise to the next level. Surveys say that Fortune 1000 CEOs demand brilliance and creativity from their stars - but stars often find it too hard and frustrating to wrestle down the key issues and champion innovation. Despite what is emblazoned in their credos and core values, many enterprises have a bias against creativity that rewards mediocrity and conformity and makes it hard for innovators to get traction. Power Up Brilliance gives leaders a proven 5-part formula to bring out truly great thinking from other cubicles across the hall or from other centers of excellence around the globe. It says, "If you 'get it' and 'see it, ' the mantle of leadership passes to you - no matter where you sit on the formal hierarchy." The question is whether you'll find the courage to take that mantle - and inspire courage in others when your great ideas shake their world. The 5 Courage Activators described in this book have 10+ years of solid research behind them, from innovation hotbeds like the Israeli high-tech miracle and dozens of American, Canadian, European, African and Asian success stories. Despite its research base, this is not an academic book. It's a practical "how-to" guide, written about business leaders for business leaders - about the uphill climb that is inevitable when you have a unique brilliant perspective on innovation and when you step in, reach out and try to power up brilliance in others. Whether you are a middle manager, a project orchestrator, a technical expert or "the big boss," Power Up Brilliance gives you tools that you can use right away to seize promising opportunities, wrestle down real issues, mobilise the right people and achieve breakthroughs rather than incremental improvements. Leaders get a diagnostic tool to tell whether the team they need to mobilize is oblivious or defensive, engaged or luminary - and a roadmap for success when they need to lift a fearful or reluctant team to a higher level with influence not authority. Leadership development practitioners get an action learning formula to build courage into leadership curriculum - and achieve a fast sustainable ROI. The 5 Courage Activators are a formula for leading change that anyone selling innovation in a matrix management structure can use. If you are orchestrating a product team, a lean process improvement, a post M&A task force or a new managed care initiative - and are reaching out across diverse cultures from any rung of the hierarchy to get the buy-in, investment and co-operation you need to power up brilliance - this book is for you.
