The Executive's Paradox: How to Stretch When You're Pulled by Opposing Demands

“When I find a short seller, I want to tear his heart out and eat it before his eyes while he’s still alive.” That’s Dick Fuld, the high-commanding former CEO of the now-defunct Lehman Brothers (founded in 1850)... Before the Great Recession, Fuld's chief risk officer at Lehman Brothers issued a warning about the “sense of complacency” regarding risk. Two months later, the bull-in-the-china-shop Fuld gored his own risk officer. Fuld sacked her because he was unable or unwilling to address THE EXECUTIVE'S PARADOX. In fact, Fuld failed to stretch when he was pulled by two distinct paradoxes — one leadership and one strategic... Instead of managing the tension between his commanding leadership style (take-charge drill sergeant) AND his empowering style (take-care servant leader), Fuld's drill sergeant always won the tug-of-war. In addition, Fuld also failed to manage a strategic paradox - the one most responsible for the Great Recession: increasing profits AND mitigating risk... --- Unfortunately, Fuld is not the great exception of what happens when leaders mismanage THE EXECUTIVE'S PARADOX, he is the great example. Fuld has a lot of company. Consider... 1... Toyota, long the high-flyer in the auto industry, crashed and lost $2.5 billion more than General Motors during the Great Recession. Toyota leaders over-focused on growth instead of managing the tension between growth AND quality. 2... Boeing’s innovative 787 aircraft, the Dreamliner, was more than three years late and billions of dollars over budget because executives mismanaged the stability AND change paradox. 3... High-tech guru Geoffrey Moore points out that many former technology giants, such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Silicon Graphics, and Wang, lost their way because they failed to stretch when pulled by today’s realities AND tomorrow’s dreams. --- These anecdotes are the tip of the iceberg. There is a mass of evidence below the surface demonstrating that leaders who fail to manage THE EXECUTIVE'S PARADOX fail to lead. One study of 1,000 organizations over a 20-year period discovered that 45 out of every 100 executives suffered sinking profits because they mismanaged their paradoxes... If you ever feel like you're paddling down a raging river with crowds of demanding stakeholders on opposite riverbanks, all shouting at you to paddle to their side at the same time, this book is for you. --- THE EXECUTIVE'S PARADOX teaches you how to avoid picking sides when you're pulled by opposing leadership and strategic demands. You learn stretch, not snap, as you develop new, business-boosting skills, such as how to::: A --- Expand your long-term, strategic thinking AND deliver short-term, bottom-line results. B --- Gain buy-in to any change AND build a platform of stability. C --- Demand accountability for results AND increase employee engagement. D --- Innovate by exploring the future AND optimize by exploiting the present. --- DAVID JENSEN knows your leadership challenges because he faced them when he was an executive. He understands that you have many options to deal with your challenges because he’s studied them as a researcher. Dave delivers proven tools that get results because he’s tested what works with over 10,000 leaders. Isn’t it time to put his decades of leadership experience to work for you? - When you purchase THE EXECUTIVE'S PARADOX, you also are also buying access to the 360 assessment - THE EXPANSIVE LEADERSHIP MODEL tm (XLM) at no extra charge. Your book gives you the website, where you can complete the assessment FREE. After you complete the assessment, you can download XLM 25-page report for free too. Your report provides your scores (and other raters' scores, if you choose to invite them to rate you) on each 16 core competencies described in the book. - Thus, you get the book and the XLM 360 leadership assessment all for one low price. Isn't time to turbo charge your leadership skills now?

As a former researcher at the UCSD and executive at UCLA, DAVID JENSEN understands leadership from both the academic and pragmatic side. That is how he is able to transform the predictive power of research into bottom-line results for you. Over the past two decades, Dave has taught and/or coached 10,000 leaders worldwide. These executives have learned how to conquer their complex challenges and achieve their conflicting goals based on Dave's analysis of studies involving 171,000 leaders. Dave's unique ability to translate academic research into practical applications is at the heart of his groundbreaking book. It is a synthesis of what increases your effectiveness in today's paradoxical environment. You learn to s-t-r-e-t-c-h when you're p-u-l-l-e-d by opposing demands. Isn't time you and your team learned to lead by managing THE EXECUTIVE'S PARADOX?