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A Leadership Kick in the Ass
Book

A Leadership Kick in the Ass

How to Learn from Rough Landings, Blunders, and Missteps

Bill Treasurer
Berrett-Koehler, 2017
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Leadership consultant Bill Treasurer once led a high-diving team that put on exhibitions. To get the results he wanted, he routinely bullied the divers on his team. That changed when one diver called him out. “If you keep talking down to us,” the diver told Treasurer, “I’ll walk.” This was the kick in the backside Treasurer needed to transform from being a bad leader to being a good one. Now a stand-up leader with no boot marks on his behind, Treasurer explains why a leader sometimes needs a good jolt to get on the right path. If you consider the book’s title offensive, be warned: vulgar terms crop up often. getAbstract recommends Treasurer’s smart, useful guidance to those learning to lead and to experienced leaders who need inspiration, a refresher course or a swift kick.

Summary

Every Leader Needs an Occasional Kick

Leaders fall into the following two categories: those who have suffered humiliation and those who will. Many times, the agent who delivers a life-changing kick-in-the-pants moment is a leader’s staff member, colleague or boss. This is just one of the factors that makes leadership hard.

Leaders can reduce this difficulty by placing their egos in check. Ego gets most leaders in trouble and earns them well-deserved kicks. As Gandhi said, “The truth only hurts if it should.” Some leaders need humiliation as a wake-up call in order to see their flaws and become more effective.

Such kicks can be career changing. Think of them as “transformative humiliation.” Colleagues administer wake-ups in the face of “overly strong or anemically weak leadership.” To accept these jolts as valuable learning experiences, leaders can put “adaptability over obstinacy.” Adaptability is a crucial leadership skill.

The swift kick of awareness generally unfolds in four stages:

  1. “Comfortable oblivion” – Many leaders aren’t in touch with themselves – or their shortcomings – until someone administers a rude awakening. They...

About the Author

Bill Treasurer is the “chief encouragement officer” at Giant Leap Consulting, which helps people and organizations become more courageous.

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