Six Paths to Leadership: Lessons from Successful Executives, Politicians, Entrepreneurs, and More 1st ed. 2021 Edition

I very much enjoyed reading Six Paths to Leadership by Mark Clark and Meredith Persily Lamel. The book is an excellent guide for any individual who is contemplating pursuing a promotion, changing companies for a new position, or simply desiring to become more effective with working with the people around them. There are so many key takeaways from the book but for me there are three: become a better listener, work to complement & build on existing company culture, and work to build buy-in. All of these will ultimately create more trust between you and your teams and improve decision making processes. I highly recommend this book for leaders who desire a concise guide that is supported with data and scores of interviews with current leaders in our communities. Your perspectives and insights on “next generation” leadership will be enhanced for the better.

Although I have been in leadership roles for a dozen years, I had never thought about the different paths to leadership. The authors have researched this topic thoroughly and presented their findings in a very compelling way. I am so glad I read this before starting my new role in the C-Suite. I am an external hire, so I went straight to that chapter when opening the book. But I also got entrenched in the internal hire pathway, as that will help me better understand how to work with my team members who were recently promoted from within. The tools at the end make this a very practical guide. I'll be using the listening tour, onboarding and talent assessment tools as I think about my first 100 days in the new job.

As a coach, I've enjoyed the learning that comes from the book which explores six paths into leadership positions: promoted, outside hire, elected, appointed, founded, and family legacy. The authors' research shows how each path brings different opportunities and challenges that should be intentionally managed during a transition/onboarding. I've found the tools and frameworks useful in supporting how I work with coaching clients stepping into new roles. One of my favorite tools is a chart that compares how the opportunities and challenges differ for an outside hire and promoted leader and how to be intentional about these things in the first months of a new role.

SO impressed by how the authors have captured the essential dilemmas of each of the six leadership paths! They have somehow put their finger right on the pulse, identifying very concrete ways to get things off to an optimal start for the sake of family, staff, and stakeholders around them, with tools and exercises unique to each path. We often forget that our leaders shed the same blood, sweat, and tears we do, and this book gets SPECIFIC on what conversations will best frame a great beginning for everyone involved.

It's just page after page of quotes from the same handful of former CEOs and government officials about their experiences.

Leaders have three fundamental responsibilities: they craft a vision, they build alignment, and they champion execution. Mark and Meredith’s book made me believe in strong leadership again! I have missed great leadership in my life over the past few years, but when I read the pathways the interviewed leaders in this book took, I became inspired to follow in their awesome footsteps! Thank you both for writing this “must keep handy” leadership handbook in a way that let us readers learn valuable lessons!

There are many books on the market these days describing leadership skills, but I thought this one was different. It reflects on the leadership journey and reminded me to think about how I might adjust and adapt based on how I arrived. I loved how the authors weaved in current leader's powerful advice to give readers practical examples.This book is a must read for anyone embarking on a leadership change.

As I dive into this book it has me thinking about how this will be used in the hiring process of future leaders in the organizations I work with. This is a reference book for anyone that is in leadership or responsible for hiring leaders.The authors have done an amazing job of compiling information from those leaders interviewed.