The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights, reviewed

By Simon Cocking, review of The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights by Douglas R. Conant, available from Wiley.

Lift your leadership to new heights

Doug Conant, Founder of ConantLeadership, former CEO of Campbell Soup Company, and former President of Nabisco Foods, shares transformational insights in his new book, The Blueprint. Conant is the only former Fortune 500 CEO who is a New York Times bestselling author, a top 50 Leadership Innovator, a Top 100 Leadership Speaker, and a Top 100 Most Influential Author in the World. 

Get Unstuck

In 1984, Doug Conant was fired without warning and with barely an explanation. He felt hopeless and stuck but, surprisingly, this defeating turn of events turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. Doug began to consider what might be holding him back from realizing his potential, fulfilling his dreams, and making a bigger impact on the world around him.

Embarking on a journey of self-reflection and discovery, he forged a path to revolutionize his leadership and transform his career trajectory. Ultimately, Doug was able to condense his remarkable leadership story into six practical steps. It wasn’t until Doug worked through these six steps that he was able to lift his leadership to heights that ultimately brought him career success, joy, and fulfillment.

The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps reviewed

Conant has had a long and successful career working as the CEO as several large and influential companies. His goal in this book is to then leverage these experiences and successes to help share insights for others looking to lead successfully too.

It’s clear that for too long leaders & the systems they represent have worked disproportionately for some at the expense of others, in this & other cases at the deadly expense of the Black community & communities of color. That must change. My statement: https://t.co/T4mOJp0YbZ

— Doug Conant (@DougConant) June 1, 2020

Interestingly he begins with his own experience of getting fired unexpectedly at 32, to a large degree because he was not conveying his true talents to his employers, simply because he was too quiet and inward facing. Subsequently with a redundancy counselor he became aware of the disparity between the motivated person he was, and the impression he was conveying to those he worked with and for. This starting point helps to convey that he is able to empathise with the challenge of doing leadership well.

ConantLeadership's mission is “championing leadership that works in the 21st century.” The recent killing of George Floyd, the outcry of pain and mourning, and the countless similar injustices that preceded it, call us to reflect on the question, “leadership that works for who?”

— Doug Conant (@DougConant) June 1, 2020

The book systematically takes you through a series of useful steps to refine and evolve your strategies to become a better leader yourself too. It is written in a clear, jargon-lite way, which helps to ensure it is understandable and coherent. It seems unfortunate that we have so many poor global leaders at the moment and it would be great if more of them had taken the time to work out what it means to be a good, ethical leader, rather than simply pursuing power for the sake of ego and self-advancement.  A book worth reading.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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