Leaders Leap

In a fast-paced world, leaders must look to themselves to stay afloat.   

Renowned thought leader on business strategy and innovation Steve Dennis argues that most business transformations are doomed to fail due to two fundamental reasons: their leaders don’t aim high enough, delivering mostly incremental changes rather than something truly remarkable, and they move far too slowly to keep up with the pace of disruption. This gap between what is required in a world of seismic shifts in technology and customer requirements and what is typically delivered risks putting many organizations on the road to extinction.

Solid strategy, team building, and process planning are essential—and there are plenty of books out there to show you how to improve them all—but these elements are not enough on their own to ensure success. During a 40-year career where he ascended to the senior leadership roles at two Fortune 500 companies, followed by becoming an in-demand strategic advisor and keynote speaker, Dennis observed C-suite executives underestimate the scope, magnitude, and speed of change needed to survive, much less thrive. In Leaders Leap, he makes the case for why a complete metamorphosis of leadership mindset is essential to prevent organizations from becoming irrelevant and explores seven profound “mind leaps” leaders need to make now to transform at the speed of disruption. 

This book takes leaders on a courageous journey of self-reflection, personal accountability, and growth, exposing the ways in which our ego defects, blind spots, confirmation bias, and defense mechanisms get in the way of the progress we need to make:

• How the accelerating pace of disruption is making old strategic frameworks useless and why we need to think bigger, act more boldly, and move much faster.
• How the executive ego prevents us from seeing this new reality and can limit our acceptance of new strategies for strategic change.
• How fear and pride constrain vision and lead to timid transformation programs that are virtually guaranteed to fail.
• Why decades of leadership experience can undermine the ability to let go of outdated ideas to think and act more boldly.

With illuminating case examples and hard-earned personal wisdom, Dennis helps you create important strategic and mental shifts to find humility, sharpen your customer focus, amplify your brand’s wow factor, and truly innovate at the speed of disruption. If you want your organization to make the leap from imperiled to thriving, Leaders Leap provides an inspiring call to action and the catalyzing ideas to guide you to a more remarkable and sustainable future.

Steve Dennis

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker on retail innovation. As a senior executive at two Fortune 500 retailers and as a consultant, Steve has worked with dozens of brands to reignite and accelerate their growth. He is a Forbes senior contributor, has been named a top global retail influencer by multiple organizations, and his commentary on the future of shopping is regularly featured in the media and on the Remarkable Retail podcast, which he hosts. He lives in Dallas, Texas.