Fixing Leadership

Fixing Leadership

Advance Praise for Fixing Leadership

In a world where leadership roles are often assumed without any training and new managers are left alone to figure out how to create work cultures, cultivate careers, delegate, and get results from their teams, this book emerges as a beacon of insight and wisdom. Fixing Leadership is a transformative guide that delves into the very essence of modern leadership. Stan’s authentic and compelling writing offers practical advice, solid research, and a comprehensive look at being a great leader, no matter the industry. Whether you're stepping into a leadership role for the first time or a seasoned manager looking to take their leadership to the next level, Fixing Leadership is a must-read.

-          Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times bestselling author of The Earned Life, Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

The most important leadership quality today is vulnerability. To share a connection with others we need to be vulnerable ourselves. Stan's story is one of vulnerability and a passion for developing and leading others. If you are a leader, or want to be one, Stan gives us insight as to how we can fix leadership today.

-          Rod Miller, Past President CPHR Alberta

In his new book, Fixing Leadership, Stan Peake does a masterful job of showing us what's missing in leadership, giving us a new way to think about it, and inspiring us to take action. He also talks about how things have changed and what exactly has changed, so leaders and organizations can be more successful today. Stan's comprehensive research, combined with his rich reservoir of life and leadership experience, positions him as a preeminent teacher. Thank you, Stan, for empowering both seasoned and aspiring leaders to make a lasting impact on the world!

-          Robb Holman, Global Gurus top 30 leadership speaker and author of Lead the Way, All In, Move the Needle, and Lessons from Abdul

In his most recent book, Fixing Leadership, Stan Peake identifies the most common leadership skill gaps from the lens of leaders and executive coaches, then through interviews with successful leaders, he distills their advice on how to address these pervasive leadership gaps. Fixing Leadership offers insightful reflections on what makes a great leader. You will come away with practical and intentional approaches to become a better leader.  Stan Peake adds value again!

-          Patricia van de Sande, CA, CPA, ICD.D, GCB.D, CEO -Bridge Advisory Group

Fixing Leadership is an excellent read. Everyone from the C-Suite, Founders, Direct Reports, HR/HCM, and colleagues should have a copy of Fixing Leadership! Some may be reminders and a lot will have a fresher view in regards to leaving leadership better than you found it"! 

- Michael Palmer, Vice President, Operations, Innosol Health

Fixing Leadership is a shining landmark of wisdom. With an unmistakably genuine and engaging voice, Peake offers a potent blend of actionable advice, real-life research and a profound exploration of what truly defines exceptional leadership. Peake not only sheds light on the leadership gaps that plague many organizations, but also offers profound reflections on the essence of what makes leadership truly impactful. Through meticulous research and insightful interviews with leadership luminaries, he takes readers on a growth path, dissecting key concepts before culminating in a powerful 'call to action'. Each chapter unfolds like a map, illuminating the complex challenges and powerful opportunities that define leadership in today's world.

-          Matteo Borgna, the youngest Harvard Business School Online chapter organizer in history

Any leader who wants to prioritize and focus their development for the most effective impact would be wise to read Fixing Leadership. Although the book highlights leadership is not broken we need to fix how we teach, learn and live leadership. There are many validating data points to help guide any open-minded leader who wants to shift their capability to achieve greater results through a lasting coaching approach.

-          Brian Hughes, named by CEOWeekly as one of the Top 15 Leadership Coaches of 2024

Dedication

A wise man once told me that you are either a ‘producer’ or ‘consumer’ in life. This book is written for all the producers out there who give more than they take. The world needs better leaders, and it starts with those who lead by embracing this simple, yet powerful philosophy: try to leave your corner of the world a little bit better than you found it.

Fixing Leadership

Introduction………………………….………………..11

One: Leadership was the only path…….....………..13

Two: We’ve lost our path…………....……………….17

Three: The numbers don’t lie……………..…………25

Four: Beacons of hope………...………………………41

Five: A structured approach at a solution…………75

Six: The DNA of tomorrow’s leader….……………143

Seven: Call to action……………………….…...……149

Appendix…………….………………………………..151

Acknowledgements………………..……..………..171

Introduction

Leadership is one big paradox.

While you may question the effectiveness of that former boss, would you ever question whether or not leadership itself is important? The overwhelming majority of us would say no. This means we generally accept leadership as an essential part of building any team or organization. Tell you something you didn’t know, right? Here’s the paradox. Leadership is almost universally accepted as essential, yet we have no universally accepted definition for leadership. We know we need it, but we don’t know exactly what it is.

Trying to include all of the requisite traits of great leaders into a singular definition is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. Everyone knows great leadership when they see it, but can anyone define it?

This book, unfortunately, won’t solve that problem. This book is intended to identify, understand, and help solve the much bigger problem that stems from that first problem. The real problem is, if we can’t define leadership, how on Earth would we effectively teach it? And if we don’t know how to teach leadership effectively and consistently, then we don’t know how to build better leaders, or better prepare leaders for the what the job entails.

I’ve been coaching in one form or another since 1992. At the time of publication, that’s 32 years of learning my craft. In that time, I’ve had the privilege of speaking at more conferences that I can remember. It’s been my life’s work to lift others to their potential, and through coaching, speaking, and writing, I’ve been able to do that for hundreds of thousands of leaders. This is the sample size of data through which I’ve come to understand the problem.

The problem is not that leadership is broken. The problem is that we simply have nowhere near the number of capable leaders ready for what challenges lie before them. We have (collectively) done a poor job of preparing would-be leaders for the ever-evolving role that is leadership. We teach the same concepts that (maybe) worked in the past to leaders who face completely new and more complex challenges than ever before.

My goal through this book, and through the years I have left to serve others, is to help solve this problem. We need more, better leaders now than we ever have before. The state of leadership readiness has never been more dire, at a time when great leadership has never been more needed.

Let’s understand this problem better together so that we can build solutions that serve us all.

One: Leadership was the only path

Let’s start things off with a little bit of irony. I am trying to reinvent how we prepare would-be leaders for leadership roles, and I was fired from my first management job. While it may be perfectly logical to call into question my credibility for such an ambitious goal, I believe most of you will come to a different conclusion. My unique journey into leadership has allowed me a vantage point into a flawed system that is failing millions of leaders and organizations worldwide. It is perhaps exactly because I was an outlier that I was able to gain the perspective most leaders and organizations seem to have missed.

We don’t know how to predictably, consistently produce capable leaders, and that’s a huge problem at a time when we’ve never needed more great leaders.

I used to think my path was unconventional; one of the original mavericks. I ‘fell into’ leadership, as opposed to ending up there after attending the best schools and demonstrating the merit and valor we attribute to the great leaders of history. I had maybe three years’ experience as a personal trainer (the average career length of a trainer at the time), and the person before me quit. It was pretty much a case of you’ll do until we find someone better.

I had always assumed before you took a management or leadership job of any kind, you would receive some sort of formal training. Management 101. How to be a great boss. What to do when your employees come to you with big challenges. Nope. Nada. Zilch. By the way, I take full responsibility for being let go from that role. It was one of the best things that could have happened to me, because looking back, I never would have thrived there.

Nearly 25 years, and seven leadership roles later, I’ve seen a similar pattern. Most of the best leaders I’ve worked with or coached ‘fell into’ leadership too. Even entrepreneurs who start their own companies often don’t imagine leading a team. Even if they do, it’s not why they started the company.

I’ve started a few of my own companies, and I’ve worked for some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Some trends I’ve picked up over the last quarter century in terms of what I’ve been taught;

Opening and closing procedures

Above average sales training from just one of the five companies I worked for in a sales capacity

How to answer the phone

How to fill out an expense report

How to greet customers

How to maintain fitness equipment to extend its’ life cycle another two – five years during my time in the fitness industry

This list is not shared to insult or belittle any employer, I was fortunate to work for and with every company that I did. The point is that there was no formal leadership training, even with two global organizations I worked for. I hired at least 100 people before I had a business partner share interview questions and techniques they’d learned from a book. That’s right, I made hiring and firing decisions over 100 times before receiving any formal training besides ‘here’s the sheet with the interview questions we ask’.

This is not to say that great leadership, recruitment, interviewing, onboarding and training programs don’t exist in the corporate world. It’s simply my experience that I had to learn those skills from mentors, other entrepreneurs, or on my own dime through courses, books, and making costly mistakes.

At this point, you might be wondering how, or why, I’ve chosen coaching leaders as a career. Why stick with a profession you were fired from, and then not trained for? Like many of you, I was bit by the passion bug.

Let me take you back a few years. I was bullied as a youngster, and after picking up my dad’s weights, I turned to football. I found acceptance, community, and two other things that would change my life by playing football; passion and mentorship.

I loved playing football, and from the age of 14 to 19 I had a reason to stay out of trouble. I was part of something bigger than myself, so the concept of consequences resonated with me at an age that doesn’t for so many others. Just ask anyone who’s raised teenagers! Instead of hanging out at convenience stores smoking and shoplifting, I was either at practice or lifting weights. I stayed out of trouble at an age when so many young adults can’t possibly understand the long-range consequences of their mistakes.

In the form of mentorship, my high school football coach Joe Stambene saw something in me before I saw it in myself. He pulled me into his office after the first semester of grade 10, and asked me to explain every time I was late, and every absence on my report card. Let’s just say there was much less truancy the next semester!

Stambene’s approach built a powerhouse. We lost just three games in three years, and we won a city championship, but it’s the way he did it that was special. My coach built a winning team through character, not just talent. Not surprisingly, he would go on to win four more city championships and a provincial football title in his career.

Those experiences- finding a passion for something bigger than yourself, and having someone care enough about you to truly invest in you – they change you.