Stanford Executive Briefings: Leadership

The Mastery of Speaking as a Leader
Terry Pearce demonstrates ways in which a leader can elevate a speech into a more powerful and ultimately productive experience for both speaker and listener. Pearce explains three rules that set the stage for consistently engaging presentations: speak on topics you care about, incorporate personal experiences, and structure your speech as a story.

A Leader's Legacy
Based on 25 years of research, Jim Kouzes explores the tough and often ambiguous issues that today's leaders must grapple with, including how you can't take trust for granted, why failure should always be an option, and how to liberate the leader in everyone.

Executive Leadership
Strong leadership is critical to the success of any enterprise, and the most powerful value-based leadership styles are powerful. Effective leaders frequently use everyday actions to model the traits that reflect the values of their organizations. This 10-DVD set presents invaluable skills and leadership techniques from some of the brightest thought leaders in modern business.

The Exceptional Leader
Jack Zenger believes that average managers can develop the traits shared by exceptional leaders—traits that improve retention, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and bottom-line profitability. Based on the best practices of leading organizations, he offers ten specific recommendations proven to enhance leadership development.

How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People
Dr. Charles O'Reilly argues that the source of sustained competitive advantage already exists within every organization. O'Reilly's prescription for an overheated labor market: abandon the obsession with hiring high-priced stars, instead motivating ordinary people to build a great company and achieve extraordinary results.

Fear of Feedback
In most organizations, there is a two-way conspiracy of silence that subverts honest feedback and causes a downward spiral of maladaptive behaviors. Myra Strober and Jay Jackman detail a road map for moving out of the fear and anger that lie beneath these behaviors, and into a mode that encourages open communication.

People-First Management
Daniel Amos follows two straightforward management principles: he sets clear expectations, and he listens to employee concerns. His focus is communication followed by action. Amos ensures that employees experience an evenhanded response to their input, and he provides a reward system that gives them a vested interest in the profitability of the company.

Executing Leadership Transitions
Scott McNealy believes leaders cannot be created—only identified. But even natural leaders need exposure. That's where coaching comes in. McNealy explains how to develop your own strengths to lead other leaders, and shares his methods for selecting and grooming dynamic leaders.

Leveraging the Spotlight of Leadership
Managers and executives sit in a natural spotlight because of their leadership role. The best leaders harness the spotlight as a powerful tool to get things done – influencing the behavior and decision-making of their staff, even when they are not present.