Amazon ships Leadership Step by Step today!

Several milestones mark a book's publication. Amazon.com is the dominant book retailer and today they officially started shipping my book, Leadership Step by Step. Early reviews look promising: 27 5-star reviews and 1 4-star. Here's a screenshot The book has jumped to 472nd place in leadership, an auspicious beginning. Still, 471 places to go. I recommend reading the reviews and buying copies for everyone you know ;). Thank you! Reaching this point took a lot of work from many people, too many to list. But I have to thank my agent Melissa, who ushered me from drafts whose poor writing…

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Struggling To Find Your Authentic Voice As A Leader? Try These Exercises

My guest post, "Struggling To Find Your Authentic Voice As A Leader? Try These Exercises," posted today on the American Management Association's AMACOM Playbook. It begins What is an authentic voice and why does it matter? I’m asked this question a lot because my company has developed an exercise called “Your Authentic Voice.” First, let’s look at the benefits of an authentic voice and the costs of not having one. Shortly after the presidential election, I led a leadership workshop where all the attendees happened to have supported Hillary Clinton (common in Manhattan). I asked them to forget whether they…

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Join my workshop at the New York Public Library, Sunday February 19!

You've heard a lot about my book, Leadership Step by Step, its 5-star reviews, and how its exercises change people's lives. I may have told you about the standing ovation I got at Saturday's workshop with Marshall Goldsmith. Now you can see me at a public workshop where I'll cover one of my book's most popular (and fun to learn) exercises. Here are the details. Be sure to register! (You can buy a copy of Leadership Step by Step first to prepare for it and for me to sign there.) Meaningful Connection: A Workshop Time: Sunday, February 19, 2017, 2 -…

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Medium awarded me “Top Writer” in three categories

I'm honored that Medium awarded my column "Top Writer" in three categories. "Great Work, Joshua Spodek. Congratulations! You are now a top writer in Leadership." "Great Work, Joshua Spodek. Congratulations! You are now a top writer in Inspiration." "Great Work, Joshua Spodek. Congratulations! You are now a top writer in Self Improvement." You can do what I did to earn it I wrote my book, Leadership Step by Step, to walk you through the steps of being able to inspire others and lead them through their self-improvement. I didn't write it "just" to engage you with inspirational writing, but to…

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Stellar reviews of other courses I’ve taught like Leadership Step by Step

Pre-order Leadership Step by Step on Amazon! or Register for a free webinar on the course! Reviews of Other Courses of Joshua Spodek Below are anonymous reviews by people who did the progression of exercises of other courses that I teach in the same style as Leadership Step by Step. They range from first year undergraduates to graduate students to adult learners to adult clients. (Not all are native English speakers.) -- “This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun. Josh is an incredible teacher, mentor, and friend to everyone…

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Reviews of Leadership Step by Step: the Course

Leadership Step by Step on Amazon Below are anonymous reviews by people who did the book's exercises. They range from first year undergraduates to graduate students to adult learners to clients in their 60s who have sold businesses. (Not all are native English speakers.) “This course really changed by definition of “Leadership.” Joshua is an amazing professor. He taught this class in a way that we learned about ourselves and then to understand others. He taught us how to find the real emotions and beliefs behind someone's behavior and use that emotion to lead them and make them feel understood.”…

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Blurbs and Endorsements for Leadership Step by Step

Reviews of Leadership Step by Step By Joshua Spodek Buy Leadership Step by Step on Amazon! https://youtu.be/3n2gecJha6o Great leaders aren’t born with a ‘leadership gene’; great leaders develop the necessary skills and gain confidence through practice and hard work. In Leadership Step by Step Joshua Spodek presents a thoughtful approach to becoming a highly effective leader that emphasizes the importance of experiential learning. It will serve as a valuable resource for leaders at all levels in any profession. Indeed, Joshua’s practical exercises will help prospective, as well as experienced leaders, to master their craft and ultimately to succeed in leading…

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Reflections on writing

One of my online communities had a thread on writing a book this year. It led me to reflect on writing in a way that might help someone where I was before starting to write. I consider what I wrote relevant to practicing any craft or developing one's passion. Here's what I wrote: Last year was my big year for writing and finishing my book, Leadership Step by Step. It launches on Amazon a month from tomorrow. I got my first hardcovers from the printer a couple weeks ago. Last week I learned that Booklist is giving it a starred…

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Listen to a wonderful interview of me by Sami Honkonen of Boss Level podcast

Sami Honkonen records Boss Level Podcast Interviews with interesting people doing awesome things Boss Level is a podcast on people and organizations aiming for the boss level. Boss level is the status a person or an organization achieves by making a better quality of life for themselves and others by doing what they need to do regardless of all the haters and obstacles out there. I love his interview of me, "Joshua Spodek and seven years of burpees," which he posted today. If you like my material and, especially, if you're curious about my long-term direction and goals for it---my…

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Broaden and Deepen Your Network Using This Simple Hack

Today on Inc., my fellow columnist, Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likable Media, followed up on my recent article about sending gratitude emails. He pointed out how the practice works beyond what we expected, since he promotes gratitude exercises too. Read the article to see how the practice led us to meet and immediately and easily connect because of it. In particular, we found ourselves in the middle of a tighter circle of mutual connections of valuable people than either expected. The article, "Broaden and Deepen Your Network Using This Simple Hack," begins Broaden and Deepen Your Network Using This Simple…

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The Unmistakable Creative podcast interviews me

Listen to the podcast The Power of Experiential Learning with Joshua Spodek The Unmistakable Creative podcast just released its interviews of me. The interview covered leadership, entrepreneurship, education, and a bunch of my life and growth. Their lead quote from the interview: "No one who is learning to play a musical instrument, no one who wants to learn a musical instrument would ever take a class where they would lecture you for a year on theory for putting it into practice. And in fact if you did want to learn piano theory or music theory, you still learn to play…

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One Way Science and Business Don’t Match

My Inc.com post today, "One Way Science and Business Don't Match" begins One Way Science and Business Don't Match Learning facts about leading doesn't teach you to lead. Practice does. I stopped reading Daniel Pink's bestseller Drive before chapter 1. I bet it's entertaining, but if you read it to improve yourself and your career, it helps less than you think. Not to single-out Drive. I'm only using it to illustrate what a big category of books, TED talks, and others do, that people think help more than they probably do. Read the rest at One Way Science and Business…

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How not to be afraid to be yourself, Italian style

The other day I was interviewed for a podcast (I'll link to it when they edit and post it). The interviewer asked me how I accomplished so much. I told him and his listeners to look up sidchas on my blog. Everyone who aspires to greatness knows the importance of building discipline, integrity, dedication, and other skills. I accomplish things by acting by my values. I practice with small challenges like daily exercise, daily writing, cold showers, and so on. Almost nobody does these things or their equivalent for them, yet they want the benefits. You have to do things…

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Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 4

Here is an interview with a student who took my online leadership course, Chris, a born salesman and entrepreneur. Hear how the leadership course increased his business while calming his life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzm7iL6reFY Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and register here Read testimonials about my courses here I look forward to having you aboard.

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Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 3

Here is an interview with a student who took my online leadership course, Isabeaux, an undergraduate at NYU who hadn't taken an experiential course before, which initially threw her, before she came to find it led to more growth than she'd ever seen, despite going to an elite university. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxo-msa9dGQ Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and…

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Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 2

Here is an interview with a student who is taking my online leadership course, Ellen, who is an entrepreneur who recently sold her latest business. As you'll see, she is also finding that the lessons she's learning apply to other deeply challenging areas in life.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnblmP_VlHg Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and register here Read testimonials…

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Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 1

Here is an interview with a student who took my online leadership course, Bethany, who is an Associate Partner at IBM and has an MBA from Columbia Business School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoL4zWav8Hw Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and register here Read testimonials about my courses here I look forward to having you aboard.

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You’re lying if you say you don’t have time to exercise

"I don't have time to exercise." Everyone has said it at some point. It's a lie. At best, it's ignorant. If you want to lead others, you better know how to lead yourself. Effective exercise can take a few minutes a day. The hard part about effective exercise is that you don't feel motivation to do strenuous things. I'm not saying it's easy. The point is that if you talk about time when the challenge is motivating yourself to overcome demotivation, you're focusing on the wrong issue and you won't solve the problem.

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Learn Feedforward with me in London, Monday March 14!

Want to learn and practice one of the most effective leadership techniques? Then join me for a workshop, Monday, March 14th at 6:30pm. Click here to register! I look forward to seeing you there. From the announcement: Feedforward by Professor Joshua Spodek Interesting Talks is incredibly excited to welcome Joshua Spodek. Joshua is professor at New York University and is visiting London. We are lucky enough to have him speak at our group. This will set out FAST! We are truly honoured to have a speaker of this stature visit our group. Feedforward by Professor Joshua Spodek  What if you could…

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Video: How to Make Meaningful Connections

Here is the video from Sunday's webinar on How to Make Meaningful Connections, which, as I describe in it and you'll find if you practice the exercise in it, is about how to develop compassion. The exercise in this webinar teaches some of the most valuable skills you can learn about relationships. Every leader I've ever heard talk about compassion describes it as critical, up there with empathy and self-awareness. Scratch that. Every successful person, not just leaders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9h3gNZ3rl4 If you want your questions answered, attend the webinars or contact me. By the way, I'm still getting to the questions…

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Webinar: Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Activities, Saturday 1pm EST

After teaching, coaching, studying, and practicing leadership for twenty years, I announced my online leadership course, “Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere.” I’m hosting a series of free webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my third webinar, free, this Saturday, February 27, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. SIDCHAs: Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activities If you read my blog you know about SIDCHAs. Learn…

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Another problem with traditional education: Employers are disappointed by traditionally educated students

I've written "Why I avoid lecturing when I lead and teach", asked "Does lecturing turn schools into prisons?", and discussed "How lecturing is the opposite of how we learn". As if those reasons weren't enough, the most-credentialed students that traditional education produces disappoint employers in areas where jobs. This video of the director and producer of a documentary on project-based learning shows what they learned from people who hire at top Silicon Valley companies don't value credentials of traditional education. https://joshuaspodek.com/mlts_interview Compare these outcomes with the student voices from my last course, “This is one of the greatest classes I…

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Video: Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

I just finished my first webinar, "Three Leadership Secrets You'll Never Learn Reading A Book". Here is the recording of it for those interested but who couldn't make it. If you like what I write about and want more, contact me about what you want and I can tailor webinars to what people are looking for. I prefer to stick with topics I cover here but I'm flexible too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21a9_ih2Z4c From my first announcement the other day: Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

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Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

I've taught, coached, studied, and practiced leadership for twenty years. After announcing my online leadership course on my blog, "Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere," I'm hosting a series of webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my first webinar, free, this Saturday, February 6, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. Three Leadership Secrets You'll Never Learn Reading A Book Click to register! From the…

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Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere

If you read this blog, you know I care about leadership and how to improve yours---in business, personal, family, and every other part of your life. I presume you do too. As much as you've learned from the blog, you can learn more from doing. If you want to improve because you're moving up the corporate ladder, just finished school, starting your own projects, or any other reason that you have to lead people and teams, developing leadership skills from practice will improve you most effectively. Anyone can improve their ability to lead, and the most effective improvement comes from…

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