Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success [Paperback]

Jim Clemmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

At home or in the workplace, change is an inevitable fact of life. How we choose to respond to it - as leaders or as followers - determines our personal and professional growth. Growing the Distance is about developing the leader within all of us. This helps us to continue "growing at the speed of change." A central theme of the book is that leadership is action, not a position. We all need to be leaders regardless of our formal title or role. This starts with inner self leadership and moves outward to influence, guide, support, and lead others. Leadership ultimately shows itself in what we do "out there," but it starts "in here." This enchanting book entertains, inspires, and moves readers to action. Growing the Distance is a browser's delight. "I hope readers find this book as fun to read as it was to write," Jim says. In 192 pages, he weaves together many humorous quips, light-hearted stories, and charming tales with "growing points" intended to "drive you to thinking." This is done with both original and ageless fables, current situations, pithy quotations, whimsical illustrations, and personal examples. Growing the Distance is not a conventional book with large, dense blocks of text to plow through. Rather, it has a unique and distinctive, three-tiered structure and magazine-style. One level is made up of inspirational, humorous, or thought-provoking quotations. A second level consists of timeless fables, tales, and current stories. The third level is Jim's core text with his observations, personal examples, reflections, illustrations, application ideas, and key learning points. Each section is headed by a short "lead line," introductory sentence, and title or sub-title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

If there is such a thing as a "universal book" then this is it. -- Jack Zenger, author, president of PROVANT, Inc., and founder of Zenger Miller

If you want to read a book and be enthusiastic about your leadership potential, Growing the Distance is a must. -- weLEAD Online Magazine

Jim Clemmer has written a witty and wise book filled with leadership wisdom that is rock solid. -- Lance Secretan, Author of Reclaiming Higher Ground

Jim has given us all much to think about and grow on. Very satisfying! -- Ian Percy, Psychologist and Author of Going Deep

From the Publisher

Change is happening all around us — in the family, the workplace, and society as a whole. Which leaves us with two basic choices. We can be victims of change. Or we can meet the challenges of today’s rapidly changing world by changing ourselves. We can advance from where we are right now to where we want to be tomorrow. We can grow the distance.

As bestselling author Jim Clemmer demonstrates in this highly readable book, personal growth is all about developing the qualities of leadership that each of us has, regardless of our position in society or the workplace. With his unique blend of humorous quips, anecdotes, and insightful commentary, he has taken decades of experience in organizational leadership development and created a remarkably easy-to-read guide to living and growing that will benefit anyone who reads it.

Jim Clemmer has been described as one of North America’s leading transformation and improvement thinkers. He is the author of a number of international bestsellers, including "Firing on All Cylinders," "Pathways to Performance," and "The Leader's Digest." In his presentations, workshops, seminars, and retreats, he has shared his insights with hundreds of leading corporations and organizations, as well as tens of thousands of individuals.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: The CLEMMER Group; First Edition edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0968467504
• ISBN-13: 978-0968467503
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,453,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim first experienced the transformational power of the personal growth and leadership principles that have since shaped his life and career - and form the key themes of his books - in a straight-commission sales job at Culligan Water Conditioning when he was 18. Applying these principles led to a meteoric rise into supervisory, coaching, and training roles.

In 1981 Jim co-founded and led The Achieve Group to become a major training and consulting company. Both were purchased by Times Mirror and merged with California-based Zenger Miller, Learning International, and Kaset, to form AchieveGlobal. In the past few decades, he's delivered over two thousand highly acclaimed keynote presentations, workshops, and retreats, as well as consulted to and coached executive teams in hundreds of major companies, the public sector, universities, family businesses, and healthcare organizations. This has been a rich source of experiences, perspectives, and practical applications for his writing.

Jim's books have sold nearly 400,000 copies in dozens of languages. He holds the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation. This is the highest earned designation in professional speaking awarded by the International Federation for Professional Speakers. Jim is also a Practitioner in Residence for the masters (MASc) and doctoral (PhD) students in the University of Waterloo's Industrial/Organizational Psychology program.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars weLEAD Book Review by the Editor of leadingtoday.org, June 10, 2002

By 

Greg L. Thomas (Litchfield, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success (Paperback)

The first thing that strikes you about "Growing the Distance" is its unique format and layout. Unlike many books written strictly for business, this publication is alive with style, relevant quotations, humorous quips and interesting fonts. Whereas beauty is only skin deep, this book has helpful and attractive information from cover to cover. Author Jim Clemmer is the founder and president of The CLEMMER Group, a strategic consulting firm. Jim is a best selling author, workshop/retreat leader, and keynote speaker on organization improvement, leadership development, and personal effectiveness. Clemmer presents the values and philosophy he models to others in this fine book.

One of the main messages that clearly jumps out at the reader is this powerful theme...leadership and change is a living philosophy that must permeate every aspect of life including family, career, personal responsibility and self-fulfillment. Many business books on leadership put the various life roles of a leader in separate boxes. Business is one box, family life is another box, personal goals and self-actualization in yet another box. It is often assumed that these various roles have little to do with each other and for this reason family life and spirituality are typically ignored. "Growing the Distance" is not afraid to challenge this misconception by boldly discussing a leader's various interconnected roles!

"Growing the Distance" is a book about creating positive change within yourself rather than being the victim of change. Its powerful premise is that we can begin from where we are today, and choose where we want to be tomorrow. By making these choices we can grow the distance. Clemmer believes that each of us can develop the qualities of leadership that reside inside us no matter what our position in life. This publication discusses what leadership is, why change is essential, and the importance of vision, values and purpose. Clemmer encourages personal accountability for our choices and writes how we can learn and grow from disappointments. He encourages us to find commitment and passion in our workplace, as well as in spirit, and meaning within our lives. He proceeds to discuss growth and personal development while reminding us that great leaders are able to energize others to motivate themselves.

If you want to read a book and be enthusiastic about your leadership potential, "Growing the Distance" is a must. It will inspire you and help to mesh together the various roles and activities of your life. This book is truly different and will find a happy home on your bookshelf!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just like eating peanuts., August 31, 2006

By 

C. S. Clarke "C.S. Clarke, Ph.D., Psychologist" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success (Paperback)

If this were a novel, reviewers would be saying things like "fast-paced," "exciting," and "inspirational."

This book connects leadership, personal growth and success in life in a format designed for easy reading and high impact. Although I actually read the books I'm asked to review, not just scan for content, I've found some books can't be read straight through because they aren't designed for it. "Growing The Distance" is one of those. It is in digest format, a collection of short, short articles that follow a common theme, each building on the prior articles to form a coherent book. Each article also is able to stand alone without reference to the others. Thus, you can explore the ideas in the book at random, sampling here and there according to your attraction to a title.

And, it is preferable to read this book by scanning and sampling. Each "article" has so much condensed meaning that you need to stop and think about the ideas, anecdotes and quotations within. Like eating peanuts, you keep going back and nibbling some more.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing view, August 25, 2006

By 

Wayne McKinnon (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success (Paperback)

I've grown tired of business books that have good lessons but don't inspire me.

Jim's book IS NOT one of those.

It is fresh and inspiring. I really like the writing style.