The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "In one respect, at least, I'm a creature of habit: every day I'm in town, I head for the waterfront..." (more)
Key Phrases: San Diego, Teddy Garrison, Extreme Leader (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Radical Leap, a cut above most of its shelf mates, is written with verve, humor, and convincing candor" -- American Way magazine, 5/15/04

Awesome! I am an unabashed Farber fan! -- Tom Peters

Every leader needs to hear this message and take it to heart. This is a terrific book. -- Patrick Lencioni; Author, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; President, The Table Group

This is one of the coooolest books I’ve read in recent years on the subject of Leadership. -- Tim Sanders, Author of Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends

Product Description

The business world is ready for an entirely new approach to leadership, and Steve Farber has written the perfect book to energize business leaders and help them make the leap into extreme leadership. In fact, taking a giant "L.E.A.P" forward is exactly what Farber prescribes. What exactly is an extreme leader? One who cultivates love, generates energy, inspires audacity, and provides proof. In his exciting and innovative new business parable, The Radical Leap, Farber explores an entirely new leadership model, one in which leaders aren’t afraid to take risks, make mistakes in front of employees, or actively solicit employee feedback. His book dispenses with the typical, tired notions of what it means to be a leader.

Farber, former Vice President and Official Mouthpiece of the Tom Peters Company, has written a business parable like no other, filled with vivid, fully realized, and eccentric characters, crazy plot twists, honest and believable conversations about leadership, and most importantly, an innovative program for leaders to inspire and engage their companies.

In The Radical Leap, we meet Steve, a leadership consultant who is intrigued and challenged by an enigmatic man named Edg, from whom he learns the concept of L.E.A.P. Steve is then asked to help a friend, Janice, overcome conflicts at the biotech company where she works and bring back the company’s inspiring former CEO. The company is revitalized, having undergone a radical and successful transformation.

Farber’s book reveals the questions leaders must ask themselves in order to truly become extreme leaders, including

· Why do I love my business, my employees, and my customers, and how can I show them how I feel?
· What effect do my actions have on the energy of the people around me? (OR, What are the unnecessary, time-consuming, bureaucratic policies and procedures that suck our energy?)
· How are we going to change the world of our company, our employees, customers, marketplace, and industry?
· What have I done today to show my commitment to my colleagues and customers?

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Business; 1 edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793185688
• ISBN-13: 978-0793185689
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #88,281 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a student's review, April 23, 2005

By	Jamie R. Horvath - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a college student I was not thrilled to be given the assignment of reading a book on the topic of leadership. I therefore turned to a friend and business owner who does a lot of reading on this subject. He recommended Steve Farber's The Radical Leap: a Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership and I loved every page of it! The Radical Leap's parable proved to be interesting and easy to read, a wonderful change from most of my text books. After finishing the book in one day I was excited at the prospect of using Farber's advice when I start my full time job after graduating this semester. Using a parable in which the characters discuss the meaning of leadership and how to become an extreme leader Farber teaches his readers how to become such a leader. He provides excellent examples and raises interesting questions for the reader to ponder. Too often when someone reads an informative book they reach the end and wonder what exactly they should have learned or how it applies to their life. Even if they do understand the concepts, they don't know where or how to start applying them. Such is not the case with Farber's book. If you need help applying Farber's ideas after reading The Radical Leap he gives you the specific questions you need to answer. As a person who was hesitant about reading anything on the topic of leadership I can honestly say that The Radical Leap: a Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership by Steve Farber has given me a new perspective. This book is excellent and I recommend it to anyone who is serious about pursuing a position of leadership or who wants to gain additional insight on the topic leadership. This book gives you a new and positive outlook at the workplace.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trust and love and humility are hardcore business principles, June 6, 2004

By	Peter Alduino (Santa Cruz, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Imagine someone audacious enough to say that "trust and love and humility are hardcore business principles."

All around us, in the boardrooms and business offices of any number of formerly credible companies, many of the players have literally shredded the concept of honesty - the building block of trust; the only love is the love of compensation packages and power; and humility is a foreign concept long ago discarded for megalomania and self-righteousness and celebrity status.

Imagine someone audacious enough to suggest that people who work in business can change the world for the better.

Doing whatever it takes to meet or exceed analysts' short-term earnings projections to raise the value of the stock and increase shareholder value, now that is a readily observable hardcore business principle. Or at a more micro level, as one boss said to me early on in my career, "Your job is to help me make my bonus."

Imagine someone audacious enough to suggest that we need to reclaim our right and power to set an example of what's right in business and everywhere else, and to challenge the examples that are not.

In the past few years in business and in government, we have been confronted daily with evidence of an American culture in which fear drives behavior to conform rather than confront, in which intimidation greets those who would choose to live by personal codes of ethics.

And so it is a radical leap to suggest that trust and love and humility, and a desire to change the world, and the right to stand up for personal values have anything other than a wishful place in business.

Enter Steve, one of the duo of main characters in Steve Farber's The Radical Leap; A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership.

Steve, a 40-something leadership management consultant tutored under the wing and influence of some of the leading thinkers and writers in the field of leadership, is disillusioned by the lack of meaningful change among his clients. Despite his best efforts to preach and teach the art and the practice of exemplary leadership - mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspiration - he finds himself surrendering to a world in which the title leader has been cheapened by so many merely posing as leaders, by so many who simultaneously empower employees and warn them "don't screw up and check with me before you do anything."

The curious irony is that a casual polling of 20-somethings along the boardwalk in his San Diego beach neighborhood reveals that this generation - and by extension our next generation of leaders - look for and aspire to the very qualities in a leader that Steve has been preaching.

Enter Edg, the second of the main characters. Edg, a scruffy 60-something on a skateboard, first overhears our leadership management consultant as he is conducting his informal poll along the boardwalk. He wants to participate in the poll too, and offers his definition of leadership. And so begins the audacious lesson for Steve and for all of us, the lucky observers, as we watch the story played in 7 scenes over 7 days - each scene ripe with its own wisdom.

We watch Steve rekindle and reawaken his love for his work, his clients and his desire to shape the world for the better. We watch Edg coach Steve as he comes to the rescue of a corporate damsel in distress who is about to throw in the towel on her job as COO. We watch Steve help our damsel get reconnected with the love of who she is and what she stands for - love that energizes her to have the audacity to prove it to herself and her boss through her actions. And we learn the secrets and the source of Edg's own tutelage in leadership.

Edg, somehow, speaks from a place of experience and meaning and wisdom about the hardcore business principles of extreme leadership. "Leadership is intensely personal and requires us to live the ideas we espouse - in irrefutable ways - every day of our lives, up to and beyond the point of fear." "We are our own worst con artist, if we use safety and security in the same sentence as leadership." "When necessary, the Extreme Leaders will risk his or her own safety and security in order to grow the business and - just as important - develop as a human being." Edg challenges Steve and all of us, to "take our power back and become each one of us Extreme Leaders in our own right. We have to set an example of what's right in business and everywhere else. We have to be audacious enough to follow the examples we respect and challenge the ones we don't." And that is the foundation of the Radical Leap that Edg challenges us all to take.

The 60-somethings seem to know this. The 20-somethings seem to want this. It is the many of us in the middle, who are cynical or conflicted or searching for more meaning, who could benefit from Edg's challenge. Edg's audacity will remind us and inspire us to love what we fundamentally stand for. It will help us inspire those whom we hope to lead, and it will energize us to have the audacity us to take action to shape the world for the better.

Buy The Radical Leap; A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership; Observe and absorb its lessons; refer often to the Daily Handbook for Extreme Leaders which is offered at the end as a guide for putting extreme leadership into practice; buy lots of copies, give them to your colleagues and employees; set aside some time to talk about the principles and how you might put them into practice so that you can each, in your own way, change the world for the better.

And let us hope that this first week in A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership is followed by many more that will inspire us all to take the risks - the Radical Leap - to develop as human beings and leaders.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Perspective of Leadership, July 21, 2004

By	N R Welton - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first heard of this topic during a talk by Steve Farber at a recent conference. I was so excited about this approach that the book was on order before I left the conference! Someone has said that there is nothing new in this book. In a way, that is correct, as these concepts have been discussed over many years. However, I admire Steve's talent at putting these concepts together in a way that is so simple and direct. Following the genre of a fictional short story to put forth his theories is just a fun way to get these theories across.

I happen to strongly believe in the four major points, particularly the premise that says you have to love, i.e, have a passion for, what you are doing. If you do not have a passion for what you are doing, you are doing a major disservice to your coworkers and your customers, so go do something else! Steve highlights that concept very well, as well as the following precepts of energy, audacity and proof.

For those who are serious about self-examination and taking actions to become more effective leaders, this book will provide tremendous insight towards those goals.